I am a big fat wimp

I had a job, but I don't anymore. I was hired at a place that does breakfast and lunch in the heart of the main business district, so a lot of people in suits coming in for their lunch, having business talks, etc. I was hired to prepare the food (they sell wraps, salads and baked potatoes with toppings) and also ring it up at the till because the person who makes the order also gets the money from the person who ordered. A lot of my training was just trying to explain to me their trying-to-be-user-friendly, but-not-being-successful computerized till. I hardly learned anything about the actual food prep. But I helped customers a bit and watched my coworkers a lot and then when it got busy just before 1, they had me help out around the cafe, mostly bussing tables and washing dishes (which made me laugh, in a grim sort of way, because I just read a book about a guy who tried to wash dishes in all 50 states). I did a shorter shift because I was training, so they sent me home at 2 and told me to come back at 11:30 the next day (Tuesday). I then found out that the shift they planned to give me if they gave me the job was only for 4 hours, so I left thinking the job wouldn't be enough for me, I'd hardly earn enough to pay my bills, let alone save anything. So I considered once again doing office work. Through the visa agency, they have contacts with an agency that helps get office work for working holiday people, and I hadn't planned to do office work because that's what I normally do and I wanted something different, but I was also thinking that work in a cafe making food wasn't for me. It would especially be exhausting to do full time and I was only doing it half time. I feel like a wimp, but I'd rather have energy for my off time and not be dead all the time.

I called this work agency and made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon. In the meantime I worked at the cafe on Tuesday and they gave me cash in hand for the whole 6 hours I'd worked. Hey, it's some money. I am a bit sad to leave them, even after just two days, because everyone who worked there was so nice. There was Maria, the girl training me (heh); Lila, one of the managers; Nick, the cute and sweet Greek-Australian who made coffees (but he's married and has kids, damn); and Cynthia, the Indonesian girl who was the other dishwasher who I got to chat with a bit as we hid out in the sink corner. The only one I was afraid of was Lila's husband, Tim, they're both Chinese and working for him was like gaining a gruff Chinese dad I never asked for, maybe it was just because his English was not very good, or it's just cultural differences, I know he was only trying to help, but I did feel quite timid around him. Anyway, the plan was that I would fill in dishwashing while Cynthia was gone next week and they'd call me with details later in the week, but I called this morning and said I wouldn't be working there anymore. So I'm unemployed again.

The meeting went pretty well with this agency though, a whole group of us talked to the guy who works with working holiday makers and he took details of when we could work and what we wanted to do. He said he wouldn't be surprised if we were all employed by the end of the week, and I hope that wasn't just a fake promise. I got a call this afternoon, but it was for a call center job which I had said I didn't want to do. But there should be enough admin and general office jobs out there that I should get one fairly quickly. The pay is much better (I should get $20 an hour vs only $15 or so in hospitality work) and this agency does some fiddling with your pay so that you get less taxed and more take-home pay. Anyway, I hope I get a job that works well for me.

Never fear, Northern Europeans, our weather went to crap this week as well. It was fairly rainy and gray and miserable yesterday. Today got sunny eventually and tomorrow should be ok, but rain again after that. Thing is, they have such a drought here, they are happy to see the rain. I still can't be happy about being cold and damp. And a slightly weird Australian thing is that in weather reports, instead of just saying it'll be sunny, they say it'll be "fine". That just seems to take all the fun out of it, like, yeah, it's not bad. It's ok. Can't complain. Maybe it's because they get so much sun, they just get bored of it after awhile.

I shall try to explain something that is uniquely Melburnian, not Australian, and that is the hook turn. It is a strange traffic maneuver that is designed to keep the cars downtown from blocking the tram tracks in the middle of the street when turning to another street. It's a bit hard to explain because they also drive on the left here, so everything is all turned around, but for you people who drive on the right: imagine that to make a left turn, you don't go to the left lane, but to the right lane. You then move forward til you are in front of the cars waiting at the red light, and then, when it's about green for them and clear for you, you make your left turn. If it helps, try reading the entry over at Wikipedia. Even though I knew about it, I was still confused sometimes to see cars sitting in places you don't normally see them. One of the first times I saw a hook turn going on, and actually I didn't really know what was going on til later, a cab was hook turning right in front of a police car and I was wondering why the police were allowing the cab to sit blocking their lane like that. Another thing to get used to with them is that you can be crossing the street and suddenly have this car sidling up alongside you as they wait to make their turn. You have to be careful to not stray too far out of the crosswalk.

I have uploaded some more photos, including ones of the house. It's been a pain uploading them this time, the program I use to edit them was slow so I gave up and uploaded many full size to Flickr, which still took a lot of time. I only meant to be here an hour and it's going to be much longer than that. You can view the new photos starting here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/m-gem/1365469682/