A Week Of Work

It is now the 30th of October - one more day and it's Halloween! I was mistaken about Australians, they do celebrate this most ghoulish of holidays. So, today I will find a costume : )
I've been working nearly every night since the 24th. The 25th and 26th were spent saying goodbye to Joseph and Dylan from Tennessee and saying hello to my good friends Rich and Martyn. We spent a lot of time basking in the gorgeous sun of Cairns, soaking up a tan and cooling off in the lagoon. I will take pictures soon so you can see what everything looks like. I am truly looking forward to spending the next month and a half here; it's beautiful, full of interesting travellers, never dull, and almost always sunny- this is why I came to Australia.
I visited a casino for the first time while Joseph and Dylan were here. Didn't spend any money, but it was fun to walk around and watch people playing blackjack and poker, slots (called pokies here), and other games. Perhaps I'll test my beginners luck with $10 one of these days, but for now I'm low on money and happy to just watch.
Cairns is a great place to be if you're low on cash. My hostel offers free breakfast of toast and coffee in the morning, the grocery shopping is affordable for lunchtime, and dinner is always free at the Woolshed. Now that I've began working, it's difficult to catch the free dinner so I'll have to start brown bagging. Cans of tuna are a lifesaver. I also chug orange juice like none other.
On the 27th, I woke up with cold symptoms - sneezing, stuffy nose, and stuffy head. That was my trial day at the Rattle & Hum, a very busy restaurant/bar just a few stores down from my hostel. They were offering $18/hour and 35 hours/week, far more than the $15/hour and 4 shifts/week at Bellevista. With high spirits and low health, I walked into the Rattle at 4:50pm and started my first shift bartending. I thought it would be frightening to be faced with multitudes of faces shouting drink orders, but it was surprisingly easy to take orders one at a time and pour the drinks I was already familiar with after being in Australia for a month. I even made a few cocktails that night!
After eight hours of non-stop drink-pouring, we closed the bar and went home at 1:00am. Silly as I am, I showered, prettied up, and went out to find some friends at the nightclubs. After finding them, I decided I was too tired to stick around and wound up heading straight back to the hostel. There were snorers in my room. Bad sleep #1.
On the 28th, I woke up quite late after not sleeping much that night. Feeling even more sick, I rolled out of bed, ate a quick breakfast, visited Martyn at the lagoon, then went straight back to bed to sleep from 12:00 to 5:30. Then I showered, got back into my uniform and walked to work. My shift was from 6:30-11:00 on the floor. This job consisted of taking drink orders from the tables, bringing them to the bar, then carrying the drinks back to the tables. I was not quite as comfortable doing this job. Carrying heavy trays full of precariously full drinks is not the job of a naturally clumsy person. Luckily I did not spill a single drink. I did break three glasses, which took quite a bit out of my self-confidence as all three happened in front of customers. In fact, two of them broke onto a table and into the drinks I had just served, which made it necessary to re-serve. Luckily, that table of young guys was quite nice about it and refrained from teasing me too much.
Happy not to close that night, I rolled out at 11:00 and spent some time with Martyn, the new night manager of our hostel - exchanging work for free accommodation. We talked until around midnight, then I went to my room to get ready for bed. Just as I was about to head into the room, a guy and girl walked in and closed the door. Not cool. I knocked before walking in and telling them not to keep me up because I was tired and sick. Well, when sharing a bunkbed with a busy couple, it is impossible to sleep. This was my first experience of hostel humps and I was not keen on the timing. Instead of kicking them out, which was well within my rights at 1:00 in the morning, I wrapped my sheet around me and huffed out to the commonroom, where Martyn was still writing in his journal. Exhausted and grumpy, I plopped down on the couch and tried to sleep there. For the next hour and a half, I drifted in and out of sleep as people came in from the night and decided to cap their evening by chatting on the couches surrounding mine. Finally, at 2:20, I got the courage to return to my room. Trying to make as much noise and bed-squeeking as possible, I settled down and finally tried to sleep a proper bed sleep. The night had something else in store for me though. Snorers #2. This time, there were two guys in the bunk across from mine in this four-share room, both of them snoring in chorus. I spent the next three hours vascillating between madly deciding what I could throw at them and resignedly squeezing my pillow over my ears. It was not at all fun. At 5am, I finally drifted off into a desperate, fevered sleep.
29th. Surprisingly, I woke up quite early, ready to start the day. I grabbed a coffee at Maccas, then went to the internet cafe to Skype with Benji. It had been a few days since we had spoken and we were both quite eager to catch up. After two hours of chatting, I signed off, visited Martyn at the lagoon, found a place to stay over Christmas in Sydney, had lunch, hung out with the hostel people, took a three hour nap, then once again got ready for work. My shift was another 6:30-1:00 at the bar. It went smoothly and swiftly, with no broken glasses or missed drink orders.
I really enjoy the company of my co-workers (even my manager) and am looking forward to keeping this job going! It's nice to look forward to going to work. I've earned a few tips (technically, we should put them in the tip jar that goes towards the staff party, but anything over a fiver is kept under the table), met some of the regulars, and shared my first post-work drink with the other bartenders.
That sums up my last week in Cairns! I hope my cold goes away soon - it seems to be fading, which is good. The weather is still fabulous, but I believe it's supposed to turn for a few days soon. Hopefully it's not Sunday and Monday, my first two days off! I start work as a part-time receptionist at my hostel in return for accommodation on Monday. That will certainly save me a lot of money, which will go towards having an amazing Christmas with Benji in Sydney!! Maybe we can go skydiving together : )
Hello to everyone in Victoria! Hope you have an awesome, crazy, safe Halloween! Don't forget to keep in touch with me : )
xoxo - Katrina