Sunday 16th August

I have completely lost track of time since being in Airlie; it's strange because my time in Sydney went by so sloooowly, despite there being a million things to do there and I was so so busy most of the time. In Airlie, where my life consists of working, walking into town to go on the internet, sunbathing and lying in a hammock, the days are slipping by surprisingly fast, but without my having any track of them, so I can't figure out how long I have been here! Surely it can't be a month, already? *I checked, I arrived here on the 23rd, so another week til it's been a month*

My last entry was quite down, and I'm glad to say, things are a bit better now! After being so pissed off with my low hours and not earning enough each week to even pay my rent, I went to my boss at Hoggies, cracked the s***s about how I couldn't pay my rent that week unless she gave me more shifts...and she did! Infact, since then, I have had regular shifts there (still only about 26hours/wk, but a LOT better) and what's more, she has been rota'ing me on to work on the bar, where you generally finish later than waitressing, and it's kindof the 'coveted' job, it's much nicer than waitressing. One of the other girls said to me "you must be doing something right", yet I'm working with the same efficiency as I was all along! Who knows, maybe she liked the fact that I had the balls to come and ask her for more hours and say that I wasn't satisfied with what I was getting, or something.

The past week has been pretty busy, with lots of people around for the 'race week'. Which, other than more customers in the pubs and various brightly coloured sails out to sea (more than usual), I haven't seen much of. Apparently most of the action takes place down at the Marina, and it really is sailing races, so most of THAT is all out at sea! I did wander down to the marina yesterday to take a look, but it didn't seem that different to normal, except maybe the restaurants and bars were busier and there was a beer tent. i have seen a lot of sailing types though, I know absolutely nothing about boats or sailing, but most of the regular customers in hoggies seem to be sailors, and apparently Airlie is one of the sailing capitals of the WORLD!! Mostly men although a few women, typically with straggly sun-bleached hair and nut-brown permatans from being out on deck in the sea for most of their time.

I also have another job (YES!) at Peterpans, which is a backpackers travel agents, in town.. I work there 3days/wk 10-6. My job description is being "a kind of girl-about-town on the shop floor" according to the manager! I basically have to bounce around and be really chatty and jokey and friendly with people that come in, find out what they want, if they need to use the internet or want to book tours or store luggage or whatever, and basically sort everyone out so the actual travel agents don't have to keep stopping mid-consultation with customers to sort out the people that just walked in. It's actually quite fun. And I get paid in travel vouchers, which are taxfree, which is GREAT $10/hr, which is not so great but whatever. Hopefully I will earn enough that I can book a few tours and stuff before I leave Airlie, so I can take care of all my accomodation and stuff for the next few weeks after I leave here, so my money lasts longer! It's good.

Other than that, much is the same. ByTheBay is nice, although I've worked every evening for the last week or so so haven't been able to take advantage of the free film in the evening, but it's still lovely to be there during the day, and sunbedding and hammocking.. and it has been GREAT for my incidental small-object spending.. as it is about a 5min walk out of town, unless I have something I NEED to buy, I don't take cash or card with me when I go in, so although I often have the urge to get an icecream or a smoothie or whatever, I can't! I reckon I have really saved quite a bit of money through this, at least about $20/wk. I am good with cash at the mo, have been spending $60/wk, just on essentials, which is really not very much! I figure if I'm really good for the next week or so then I won't feel so bad about the inevitable splashing-out a bit when Chloe and Andrea are here, I want to be able to go out drinking and go out to eat and stuff.

That's it, really. current plan is to stay here for about another 4weeks, til mid-September, then carry on up and accross and down. Only reason for pushing on is that at the moment, it looks like I will be in Sydney for Xmas and NewYear (I WANT to!.. NewYear fireworks over the Sydney Opera House? Xmas on Bondi Beach? Come on, who WOULDN'T?!) and I feel as if i need to be in Sydney by the start of November in order to guarentee my accomodation over Xmas (rooftop) and to get a job and get a month or so's work in before the Xmas break. Plan!