10/09/12

Wow. What can I say? I arrived to this luxury resort about an hour ago and it's amazing. The weather is overcast, but seeing as I've been to Port Douglas before and it was pretty much like this last time, I'd say it's normal. The map shows how vast the complex is, and as I'm a porter I initially thought "f***, I've got to carry bags to peoples rooms!". Just to give you an idea, it's a resort, not a hotel, so the 'rooms' are actually like cabins and on 3 different 'levels'; Sea view (top of the hill), Canopy level & Forest floor. These aren't small trees either. However, when Nigel went to take me to my room. Oh yeh! They don't have any space in the staff quarters, so I'm in one of the cabins. It's ment to be around $250 per night, and I'm getting it for $150 p/w with food included. This is awesome. The shower was awesome. Everything is just awesome. So anyway, what was I saying? Yeh, long walk and I've got to carry these bags? WRONG! Oh hi porter (golf) buggy. Downside - internet access is only available in the lobby. Bigger downside - "Staff are not permitted to wireless internet in the main lodge area", hmm. There will be a way we can use the wifi surely, just got to meet and chat to the rest of the staff to find out the tips and tricks. Oooo! Because I'll be working on Tuesday (the last day on their pay week) I'll be getting a bit of money into my account on Thursday (their pay day)! The first money going into my account since I was in the UK, fancy that. Speaking of pay, it's slightly better than I thought too; ranging from $21.31 (mon-fri) - $28.13 (sun) p/h. Pretty good for just being a porter, and I think (if I can help it) I'll be working a lot of Sundays! Wait, just done the maths. It's effectively (on a 0.66 exchange rate) a £29.5k salary. Man, back down to earth for a second, this is f***ing lucky. The timing could've been better, a bit earlier maybe? But I'm here, will have money coming in and my trip will not be cut (this) short!

So I've just had the most amazing shower in the world, 'followed by Tina coming to make the bed up for me, she was really nice and kind. At times it was almost as if she was wingmanning me, telling me the single girls as well. What a lad. One thing she did say though, is being a porter is probably the hardest job here.

Dinner was pretty good, apart from I almost missed it, passed out on the bed until 17:15 (dinner stops at 17:30). Fried chicken, rice and salad was pretty decent, considering it's free too! Met some of the staff, found out where and when to use the wifi away from the boss. TV in my room? Weekday? 18:30? Channel 11? Gotta love neighbours.

11/09/12

Can you believe on my first day as a porter I had to sort out a computer problem for someone? Oh and this morning I got asked if I'm any good with snakes, a guest had found a snake in their cupboard. Urm, no. Not happening. Anyway; my general duties involve driving a buggy round picking up the laundry bags for housekeeping, taking guests bags to their rooms and driving their cars to the car park (as expected). Today I've driven some wheird vehicles. (I hope family guy fans will get the gramatical error in that last sentance). Lunch was amazing too. They just laid out pork, rolls and sweet potato chips, I naturally made mine into a sandwich as there was gravy too. Beautiful. That was before dinner, so now for the dinner report. Carbonara, and no, I've never had it before. It tasted exactly how I expected but was nice enough. I'm just not a great fan of pasta, but it did have bacon in, so that obviously made life better. We got our rosta for the next two weeks too! Looks like I'm on an early tomorrow (7am-3pm) the rest of the time I'm doing lates (3pm-11pm) with my days off being Sunday (b*****!) both weeks and an extra one a week on Monday. Also found out that I'm moving rooms tomorrow and then .again when Sunny leaves. That room change to R#19 is the most important room share I will do in my entire time in Australia. I'll be working with these people and spending at least the next 3 months with them. Well, I best go, neighbours is on! That's a thought. If I'm on lates, do they show neighbours at lunchtime like the UK?! Uh oh...

12/09/12

First shift by myself and it was good. Not too stressfull, just a bit warm. Hopefully the evening shifts are cooler. Had to show an Irish newlywed couple to their room and an English couple celebrating their 30th Wedding Anniversary. Easy conversation when you're from that area of the world. Well, as it's only 15:22, I'm going to take myself down to the beach and have a gander. Had a cheeky peek at the occupant list for the room I'm moving to, looks like it's just Sunny, so I may be by myself. Not sure if I'd prefer that, but hey, at least I should be near the other staff if nothing else.

What a way to finish a shift; walk down to the beach, dip my feet, walk a bit and finish up by having a crafty beer in a hammock. It's crafty because, like everything else, staff aren't allowed to use guest facilities. Luckily I'm already aquainted with the barman in the Beach bar. Could've stayed there for a lot longer, but I didn't want to miss dinner, and that's the most important thing.

Dinner consisted of stirfry beef and rice, but it wasn't your standard stirfry, these meals are cooked by the restaurant chefs, so it's all f***ing incredible. Managed to upload the previous blog and the pictures whilst I was there, so that was a releif. Someone reffered to me as 'the weirdest person they've ever met' - it's not quite as bad as you .think, what she meant was that I'm the most interesting, or 'diverse' person she's ever met. That was clarified by my questioning, I'm not just assuming. OH! I Also saw my largest spider so far in Australia. It was huge. I don't even know WHAT it is yet.

13/09/12

Heh, it's my half birthday. That's about as interesting as I can get before work. Seriously though, yesterday I reconsidered my plans for Christmas and NYE. Even before I came out here, I kept saying "It's not where I am, it's who I'm with", So why did I go ahead and book place over people?! Doing Sydney (hopefully). It means I'll lose out on $45 but that's fine... Wait... I just checked my booking, I'm a genius. I never buy in on their cancellation protection, but I did in this case. Guess I'll be getting $45 back (and losing $1 for cancelling). Well that's just fine. Something else I've realised this morning is that I need breakfast. Lunch and Dinner cooked by chefs is fantastic, but I need food in the morning. Luckilly I've got a frige in my room, so Sunday I'll be heading to port douglas to buy some milk and cereal (probably) and some snack food. Maybe I'm just hungry now.

I hope whilst I'm working this blog isn't going to turn into just a report on what I eat. But lunch was fantastic, Chinese ribs and chips. With my first late shift starting in 30minutes, a quick google on my phone has relaxed my nerves about missing neighbours. It's repeated the next morning at 8:30. Yaaay!

14/09/12

I didn't write about last night before bed because I was knackered and I knew I wouldn't forget it. At about 8pm; Me, ;Frankie and Aimee were in the office drinking coffee. Aimee had just finished telling me about how quiet evening shifts are. She wasn't wrong until Matt ran down the stairs telling us to call an Ambulance. A man, 61, was in cardiac arrest in the restaurant. The staff up there, whilst on the phone to the paramedics who were on their way, started CPR. An hour and a half later, he was taken to the hostpital, still unresponsive. An hour after that we received a phonecall saying they had called it. Hardly what I would call a quiet evening shift. In comparisson this is going to seem trivial, but Neighbours wasn't on this morning, or any morning. The only time it's on is at 18:30 which means I will be missing it every day for the next 2 weeks, and probably every day after that as Frankie gets the morning shifts. It's only fair as he's been here for 2 years. I've just got to find a way or reason to prefer evening shifts. Lunch today was Chicken Parmy, and I've never seen or tasted one that good. I don't know how much it would cost in the restaurant, but I can assure you $150 p/w is probably a third what they'd make on the food alone. Plus the accommodation of course, this is ridiculous. Well, 2 hours before my shift and I think I'm going to take my laptop up this aft and upload this blog after work. Just incase you were worried (which I told you not to be), this blog should put your mind at rest. I did get a couple of messages from a couple of you, but I felt this blog is going to be my own record of my trip too, and so far it's had massive ups and massive downs, so it'd be dishonest if I didn't write about it.

Well I didn't get a chance to upload it, but I'll keep trying, I'm heading in to Port Douglas on Sunday, so if tomorrow fails, I'll find a bar with free wifi. In other news: I was taking a champagne bucket with 2 glasses to a room, it fell off the buggy as I took a corner and smashed (just the glasses). But nobody died tonight, so as far as a comparisson goes, I guess it was a better shift all round. The food was a bit of a disppointment with some kind of noodle soup, however, Loren was on the same page as me and when the buffet finished upstairs, we grabbed a plate each. Tomorrow; 25% of our guests checkout at around 9am. With just Frankie on, I offered to work a couple of extra hours, should be nice with Saturday pay n'all. That was my thought before I discovered the massive blisters on my toes, ouch.

Note before bed: I feel sticky.

15/09/12

I guess I should explain that 'sticky' comment... It's weird, I don't think I've ever spent this long in humidity without massive heat before. When I get into bed it feels a bit, I dunno, not 'damp' as such, but certainly not dry. But I'm not too hot, when I have a shower, I still have it hot. Also, in this humid climate; the water dries your skin out a treat. Work that one out! Anyway, just worked the 1.5hrs to help Frankie out, he didn't really need it, but because I was there, we got the departures done in one fluent motion, I got a tip from the Irish honeymooning couple I helped out the other night. Tippers, you are the sunshine of my life at the moment, you make a good, well paid job, awesome. Brought that hour and a half's work up to almost $50. Crazy fact: My luggage last weighed in at 20.8KG and will be with me for over a year is lighter than some guests who stay here for 2 nights. Granted, they may be on a bit of a trip, but that would last maximum of 2 weeks. I took some luggage today which had a 'heavy' sticker on it weighing 26kg. Really people? Really?

2 and a half months ago; I left the UK. I knew that. I'm intending to spend 12 weeks here. Fine, I knew that as well. What I didn't do is compare the 2 and realise that the time I intend to spend here is longer than the time I've spent away. 12 weeks ago today was my leaving do at the Tavern. Thinking back, that seems a ridiculously long time ago! But then again, maybe that's just due to the amount of amazing things I've done since then. 15:00 approaching, off to work!

I feel ill for some reason. Hopefully I'll sleep it off because tomorrow is my day off! Tonight's shift was busy, but it made it go fairly quick. Got ,asked by Rose to help with the star gazing equipment, and got a little tour of the stars too, so 30minutes was spent not really working, but looking at stars through a telescope. That'll do. Curry for tea, that was 'pretty deec' too.

16/09/12

My day off, sat in a bar in Port Douglas doing some internet things that need to be done. Including booking Sydney for Christmas! Not a lot to write about besides Frankie called in sick this morning and I would've appreciated the extra hours with Sunday pay! Maybe it's a good thing; gives my feet a day off to recover.