February 2004

Week 44 to 47: Sunday 1st to Sunday 29th February

February was a quiet month by comparison with the previous 10, by now the excitement of Christmas and the New Year was well and truly over, we were well settled into our flat and we had all found jobs. Dan who had worked as a Chef back at home was pleased to get a job working in the kitchen of the Novotel, just a few minutes walk from our flat. His official title was Third Sous Chef and his job involved preparing the food and general kitchen work. At first he found his colleagues quite difficult to work with (the Head Chef makes Gordon Ramsay look like a kind Uncle) and due to the various nationalities working there, the language barrier was often a problem, but as time went by he settled into the work and started to enjoy it. Dan’s hours were varied and he often worked quite late, but more often than not he would join us in the PBH for a couple of beers after work. A week or so after Dan started his job, Adam got a position working as a Porter, also at the Novotel. Looking very smart in his uniform, his job was to carry guests bags to and from their rooms. The basic pay was average but he more than made up for it in tips. As well as the odd bottle of beer or wine, on a good night he could come back with as much as $40. His highlight and claim to fame was the privilege of carrying the luggage of the American athlete Michael Johnson.

The backpacker workforce is huge in Sydney, there are literally thousands of young travellers either in work, or looking for work at anyone time. It is remarkable therefore just how easy it seems to find work, albeit often basic and mind-numbing. Australia seems to have mastered the art of knowing what people want and need and giving it to them, whilst at the same time getting what it wants and keeping the whole system running like clockwork. All that is required is a decent dose of compromise and a willingness to take things in your stride and stay positive. For many, bar and hospitality work is the way forward, whilst for others office admin type jobs take precedent. Out of the cities, fruit-picking and farm-work is still a great way to save some cash. Each option has its pros and cons, but as long as you are not too fussy, there is money to made and saved and life can still be fun while you do it. It would be nice if you could easily find skilled work but chances are slimmed by the strict(ish) rules of the working holiday visa. You can only work for three months for one company, after that period of time if you want to work longer, you must do so with another company. A few years ago, some companies took advantage of a loophole and continued to employ people past the three months through a different temping agency, but it seems that this loophole has now been closed. Some lucky people get three month contracts within industries they have experience in such as Finance or Legal, but this is fairly unusual. Dave (the boyfriend of Sam who Matt worked with) is an architect and got a good, well paid job with a firm in Sydney, and Sam eventually did some supply teaching work, which just goes to show that it is not impossible to find work out of the normal backpacker sphere. When it comes down to it, it also depends on what you want, a standard 9-5 with the usual pressures and responsibility or a relaxed, easy job, surrounded by people like you. It must also be remembered that as members of the Commonwealth we are very privileged to be able to work (legally) in Australia at all. Canada, and many of the Western European nationalities are allowed the Working Holiday Visa, but most of the world are not. Even our great Superpower Saviour is not eligible (ahh, is that the sound of violins I hear?!).

A big part of our time in Sydney spent was socialising, and while it would be lovely to say that we spent our evenings attending shows at the Opera House, the reality is that more often not, we were in the pub watching the footy. The licensing laws in NSW are much more relaxed than in others parts of Australia so it is never a problem finding somewhere to watch the football no matter how late or early it is on. The 3pm Saturday games shown live at midnight or 1am (depending on the time difference) and one of our favourite places to watch the game is at the Sports Bar in Kings Cross. If we didn’t feel like a hectic night, we would watch the games upstairs in the PBH our local and favourite pub. When one of our teams was playing a mid-week game it was not uncommon for us to get up and watch the game at the ridiculously early time of 5 or 6 am and then go to work. The local pub that workers at Customcall tend to frequent is ‘The Grand’ a cosy pub on three levels that was an ideal place to unwind and chat about work stuff. On Friday nights, the place would be packed full of workers and invariably we would then venture down George Street and carry on drinking in town. Particular favourites are the Pavilion, which does $2 dollar drinks on Tuesday nights, but unfortunately has a vomit-like odour, and the Shark Hotel, which is slightly more up-market but still attracts backpackers. Other hangouts include the Three Wise Monkeys which has a live band every night and Scruffy Murphy’s a bit of a dive in reality but it’s open 24 hours and is very popular with the Irish contingeny. Around Darling Harbour in Cockle Bar there are some lovely bars and clubs such as Pier 17, Pontoon and the very smart Cargo Bar which all do good food and where we would occasionally visit to have a dance and mingle with the ‘beautiful people’. Also on the city side of the water there is the Superclub called Home that attracts big name DJ’s but charges an even bigger entry price. Matt, Martin, Bec and Kelly were lucky enough to get some free passes when Darren Emerson (Underworld) and Tim Deluxe were playing one night. The lights and sound system were amazing, the highlight being a wall of light rising from floor to ceiling as ‘Born Slippy’ reached it’s crescendo.

A staple aspect of Australian life is the barbecue, it’s not just a myth dished out by Neighbours and Home and Away, Aussies really do love cooking meat in the sun and who can blame them? In practically every park and on every beachfront, there are electric BBQ’s for public use that are either free or very cheap. There is nothing better than getting a group of friends together on a hot afternoon and sharing a few burgers and beers. The main ingredients for a successful BBQ are a big pack of meat from Woolworths (which is a big supermarket over here, unlike back home where it just sells music, homewares, stationary etc) and a ‘goon’, a four litre box of cheap wine that sells for as little as $9 (about 4 quid). Memorable BBQ’s include an impromptu soiree after work which Matt attended with Connor and Chris. The evening resulted in Matt nearly losing his passport (again) after swinging upside down in a children’s play area, Chris being sick and Connor losing his entire CD collection. A much more civilised affair was held in late February on the BBQ roof of our flat to celebrate Jon’s birthday. As well as the six of us from the flat, we were joined by the charming Akiko and Chiharu, a couple of Japanese girls who lived in our apartment building and with whom we became good friends.

About 10 minutes walk from our flat is a Sports Centre where we would often go to play table-tennis. Much to our annoyance, Jon is actually quite a useful player although Matt and Phil would often give him a run for his money. On Sunday’s we would typically walk to Wentworth Park and have a kick around, if there were other lads down there it would sometimes turn into a fairly competitive match. A few Chinese and Korean lads would come down in full kit and although they may have looked the part, their intricate, skilful approach was never a match for our truly British pass and move style. A group of lads from Customcall including Rich, Matt, Chris Rogers, Dave (Sam’s bf) Mark and Adam and a couple of their housemates put together a team and entered a six a side competition that was played at Rushcutters Bay on Sunday 15th February. We had had a night out in Coogee the night before to celebrate Jo’s (Martin and Bec’s housemate) birthday but Matt and Rich had returned early after only a couple of drinks in preparation for the tournament. It was a hot day and the competition was being played in the middle of the day, but the team got off to a good start with a 3-0 win, Matt scoring all three. Chris Rogers, self-appointed player-manager, was his usual vocal and animated self spending much of the time on the touchline, unable to adjust to the pace of the match. The team went on to win their next two games to top the group and progress to the semi-final. One of the highlights was when a rather large, loud and annoying public-school boy type who had been causing all sorts of trouble by shouting abuse from the touchline, came onto the pitch, made two terrible errors, one of which resulted in a goal for the opposition, before substituting himself in shame! The Customcall team narrowly won their semi-final with a Golden Goal after the opposition team had missed a penalty. In this tournament a penalty is taken from the halfway line with no goal keeper to block the shot – harder than it sounds. They were not so fortunate in the final and lost 3-0 to the better team. Everyone agreed that it was an admirable performance, especially considering it was the teams fist venture into competitive football and a few drinks and laughs were shared at the Sports Bar afterwards.

Phil flew back to Sydney on Sunday 15th February, arriving at 11.50 am. He got a taxi to the old flat, not realising that we had moved. After some confusion and a phone to Adam, Phil eventually found our new abode. When the guys got back from football Phil was sleeping on the couch, worn out after his long journey, but he soon woke up and started recounting his many stories from his adventure. We were all tired and had a relaxing night swapping tales. On Tuesday 17th, Phil checked into the Somerset Hotel in preparation for Kate’s visit and we all went for a night out in The Pavilion for $2 drinks after work and met Martin who was due to leave Sydney in just a few days. Phil was up at 5am the following day to go and meet Kate from the airport. They spent the next couple of days seeing the sites of Sydney such as the Opera House, the Victoria Building, the Harbour Bridge, The Rocks and Manly. We all met up for drinks on the Thursday evening and the next morning Phil and Kate got a taxi to the airport and flew off to Alice.

Towards the end of February, it was all change for Liam and Jon at Synergy. The Heart Kids campaign came to an end and they moved to a new campaign, this time for Volunteering NSW. The staff were told it would be better, i.e. easier to get sales, but in reality it was much harder. The Charity acts as an agency who organise wannabe volunteers and place them in a wide-variety of unpaid jobs. When trying to raise money for the cause, the trick is to place much more emphasis on the work Volunteering NSW do with volunteer Firefighters and Youth Workers rather than the Hairdressers or Accountants! It was a cut-throat environment and if you aren’t getting sales you run the risk of being sent home unless you are female and slightly attractive! Synergy were integrating new system, which was often going wrong. When this happened the guys would get sent home for the rest of the day with only two hours pay. Meanwhile, across George Street at Customcall, the Funeral Cover campaign came to an end and Matt was moved upstairs to join Rich on Future Cover. The job became much more difficult with the introduction of the new Financial Services Legislation which stipulated that Customcall (and all organisations selling Financial Products) had to be much more open and honest about who they were, and how they were payed for their services. Now, the CRM’s had to read a huge disclosure before they could even start trying to sell the product, resulting in an even higher proportion of housewives hanging up in annoyance. The plus side was that Matt now sat next to Lena, a very young looking 40 year old Lebabnese lady who shared her delicious home-made meals with him most days and was a constant source of amusement.


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