30/08/2012

Brisbane. I'm currently in a park on the waterfront in Newstead, 2 minute walk from my job interview at 15:00. It's 12:30. Well, it gives me 2.5hrs to write up about the first night in Brisbane then, doesn't it? I arrived yesterday at about 4pm, a casual 3hour bus ride which didn't phase me at all, I don't even think about how far that would be in the UK any more. Within 15minutes of my arrival, Thomas Ross was at the hostel door. This was nuts. A fellow Yeovillian in a foreign land. We went for a casual pint and I'll say this; I'm glad it was 4pm and not 8pm. We had 2 at a bar in Fortitude Valley, back to the hostel, realised there was free food, ate that, had 2 more, met a German, went out, free pool, more beer, karaoke, more beer and back at midnight. That is the reason I'm glad it was early and not late, I still managed to grab enough sleep so I wasn't feeling too rough this morning. The free food was steak & chips and, as expected, it was a minute portion. But if we're talking quality, it was phenomnial. So this morning, after a steak roll for breakfast, I packed my stuff to change for my interview and set off to explore the city. Just in case anyone is curious, it was 23.C at 10:35, just saying. So I went for a walk through the main CBD and on to 'Upper Roma Street' where there are about 4 hostels within a stonethrow of eachother. Checked them all out, prices, kitchens, perks etc. I'll be moving to Brisbane City Backpackers tomorrow when I check out. I think the free internet sold it for me. It was a toss up though, between this one and 'Chill Backpackers' both have accessible rooftop balconies with beautiful views of the waterfront, Chill allows you to bring and drink your own booze though, so it was close. But free internet is probably better for my health and my wallet! So anyway, Brisbane's nice so far, pretty similar to Sydney in the CBD but it seems more chilled out. This is a good thing if I'm going to be staying here for a while. I know I've said that before about a lot of places, but really, I will be staying here for a while.

So that was before my job interview with Infinity Marketing, I got told I'll be informed whether I'm short listed or not this afternoon. I got a call *from the receptionist, and in true Simon Cowell style: "It's good news". I didn't really know what job I was going for, I thought it was a telesales role, but turns out they're a marketing company who's staff represent other companies at expoditions and stuff. Pretty cool! So, I went from not really caring about the job to actually wanting it. With my 2nd Interview tomorrow at 08:30, I'm pretty nervous now. I've been told it will be done by lunch time, giving me enough time to get to my telesales job interview at 15:00, which now I really don't want. But, the luck I've had today has been odd, and let it continue! First of all, I found 20c on the grass next to me when I was writing this blog in the park earlier. Not that lucky, it's only *20c. But wait; the girl at the sandwich shop was extra nice to *me, the girl at the espresso bar gave me a free coffee because I didn't have any change, I got shortlisted for the job even though I was hungover and to top it all off: On the way to the cinema with Tom, I found $10 on the floor in the mall.

That was today. Tomorrow is an important day, but for now, I skype, then sleep happens.

31/08/12

Quick midday blog updatem the second 'Interview' wasn't an interview or even to see how good we are at sales, it was all about character, honesty and personal qualities. A free coffee with one of the team leaders and an informal discussion about pay (it's 100% commission) and I'm tossing between whether I should take it if I get it. Just see what happens with this one at 15:00, if the pay is base rate and not too shabby, I'll probably take it. But regardless, this evening/tonight's plans are solid, wander through the city at night, take photos and relax. I'm looking forward to it.

I GOT THE JOBBY FREDDY! Yeh, got the telesales job. But from what I gether, it's like USwitch; checking out the energy prices and if there's a supplier who does it cheaper, we switch them. So I'm doing a good thing, I will sleep at night. I'm still waiting to hear back from Infinity, I think I'd prefer to work for them, the work ethic seems to be major for them and the group seem fun. Well anyway, time to go for my wander around the city, probably for a good 4 hours or so. Brisbane's been good to me so far, let's see if she'll pose for some nice pictures.

The conclusion? Brisbane is too expansive for my little legs to see in just 4 hours. I remembered both what I love and what I hate about cities too. I love the atmosphere and how you can really appreciate how relaxed you are with everybody rushing around with work and their own errands. What I hate is how cars and pedestrians cannot co-exist with everybody happy. They should make all the paths 1 storey higher. It would make things so much smoother. Anyway, my photo trip was semi-successful, the night shots across from the river failed and I couldn't figure out why until I'd moved and lost the shot. (I'd had the ISO set very high for the star pictures on Fraser Island) So I have to go out and get them again at some point. Well, I'm gunna sleep. Got to check out tomorrow, before moving hostel and seeing what Brisbane really has to offer on a Saturday night!

03/09/12

What have I done over the last 3 days? God, I've really slacked here... I moved hostel, went out, was hungover and went to Australia Zoo! If that'll do ya, skip to tomorrow. If you want to know details keep reading. The hostel is pretty decent, especially with the free internet. The guys in my room are pretty cool, friendly guys and as you may have seen on my status; one is from Montacute! What are the chances?! So me and Tom hit the town on Saturday night. That night was crazy. You know the kind of night where you look back at everything and think "Did that really happen?". I have to say, before I carry on, anybody who's naive enough to think that I'm innocence, I advise you skip a few lines... We started out at a topless waitress bar for food ($8 meals?!), the pizza was good and the waitress had just accidently poured 3 beers, so when I ordered 1, she just gave me 2 for free! The girls also did free table dances! Free beer + free boobs + free table dances. This place is a winner. So after that we returned to the hostel, had a few cheekies in the room, hostel bar and hit the town. We went to an Irish bar which was terrible, moved on to the Valley and to 'Cloudland' a massive establishment with tons of bar dotted about but isn't a club. It was really quite something, but turned out to be somewhere the locals with lots of money go. I wasn't wearing a suit so I felt underdressed. We went to the top floor and somehow unknowingly got into the VIP area. Dancing like a pair of white boys amongst the strangely high concentration of 'Persians', turns out we'd crashed a 'Persian only' party. We found this out when the bouncer kicked us out of the VIP area. Next bar was 'Beat', the $12 entry was steap, I mean, you can get an awesome pizza and 3 beers with that! I did ask Tom if we should go in or not due to the price. He confirmed we should. After getting a drink and chatting to a couple of girls it became apparent. We were in a gay bar. We moved across the road and made sure the next bar was straight, the bouncer had a laugh at our expense and after that the night was fuzzy... I know we tried to get onto the rooftop pool though. Luckily it was locked.

Yesterday was pretty much a write off I think that's all I need to say. Today though, we went to Australia Zoo! What a day. I saw elephants and tigers and giraffes and a rhino and zebra and red pandas and koalas and kangaroos and crocodiles and other reptiles. Okay, really though, it was awesome. We went to two of the shows they do with the animals; the 'Animal Warriors' which was pretty good, but pretty lame considering they've got a whole stadium dedicated to it. The tiger show though, that was brilliant. They used the tiger toys to make them jump, swim and leap towards the glass. Back to real life though, I haven't heard anything back from Infinity. So tomorrow, even though I've got the telemarketing job, I will do my RSA for the right to serve alcohol and then job hunt in every bar, café, kitchen and software company going.

04/09/12

What an exhausting day. Sat in the botanical gardens on my laptop using their free wifi in the sun doesn't sound exhausting I know, but the amount of job adverts I replied to there was steam coming off my fingers. RSA was done in the morning within an hour, that was easy. I don't really have much to say about this apart from I got a reply from a cherry picking farm near by. The only thing was that they were asking for money up front for the accommodation, googled certain things from the reply and turns out it was a scam. Close call considering how desperate I am for work. The evening consisted of an uplifting conversation with my mum and watching comedy to cheer me up.

05/09/12

Sat in a park in Fortitude valley the walk here was bloody hot wearing shirt and trousers, think I may have to walk in different clothes tomorrow. It's only 10:05 too! I'm an hour early for my 'training'. I know I haven't done any call centre work before, but seriously, it can't be a days worth of training... I remembered something too, despite receiving information about it being 100% commission based, when I made the initial call I did ask if it was commission based and he said there was a base rate but most people go for commission because that's how they get most money. I'm definitely going to ask about this today. When I went for the interview the people that were hanging around outside smoking gave me the impression that this isn't going to be a place where I make a lot of friends. Not because they smoke, obviously I'm not that judgemental, but because they were chavs. I've spent the whole time over here without bumping into chavs, now I start work and I'm going to be working with them. Please can this be a select minority and there are other backpackers in there. Please... Please... Please.

2 hours later I'm sat in the same park again. Really? You must think? Another job you turned down? Yes. I turned it down. Apparently Infinity have been trying to contact me. I didnt think about the zoo not having signal. But this job offer was not without it's own drama. On the first break; I returned their miscall and when I got offered the job, I 'respectfully declined' I mean, I was in training for one job, why bother taking the other? Then it hit me, well, I text Tom saying I declined, he confirmed I was crazy, so I called them back and thankfully it wasn't too late. Screw taking the easy option! Let's go for the big bucks! Training starts tomorrow at 10am. Don't forget though, if a more secure job comes up with an hourly rate, remember... I will be quitting this one and taking that. But for now, I just hope I'm a good persuader. Let's get people to sign up to charaties! For now, One man with one job.