Sydney Royal Easter Show

 I have found myself working at the 6th largest event of any kind in the world, the Sydney Royal Easter Show. It’s just about the same as a state fair back home, minus the country music and demolition derby. There is a arcade of rides, livestock judging, domestic animal judging, a rodeo, daily laser light stadium show, and of course heaps of food and fireworks.

I am working for a stand owned by taste.com.au. We actually have a few stands, which make life difficult for the stockpersons like me. We have to constantly run stock to the stand in the crowded isles of the hall. Inside the stand, we assemble "showbags." A showbag is a bag that included many items such as stir fry sauce, curry paste, cake mix and instant coffees. We sell each bag for $10 each. I recently learned that each item in the bag in within one month of expiring so the manufactures were just going to throw the stock away anyway, so I guess they are making a little money by selling all the stuff in a showbag. When we pack a showbag behind the stand, we are constantly busy trying to keep up with demand. It gets especially busy during the afternoon hours, leaving little time for breaks. I have been working 14 hour days all week. My self and a few other stock persons have been arriving at 7am to unload trucks for cold items, and then we spend the rest of the morning organizing the stand before the show starts. We then have been staying past 9 pm re-stocking the stand with showbag stock to be ready for the next day.  Tomorrow the Royal family of William, Kate, and baby George will be visiting the show, so I'm expecting absolute pandemonium. 

Sitting on the platform, watching the Trams pass all day

Today is the final day of what has been quite possibly the easiest job I have ever had. One of Emily's companies, Quickstrike was looking for extra staff to promote Sydney's light rail line. The light rail is very similar to Melbourne's tram's, however, Sydney only has one line. The line travles between Sydney Central Station and Dulwitch Hill. Half of the tram stops are new, nine new stations opened last Thursday. The New South Wales Government decided that they wanted two people to assist customers at each station, and this task fell to Quickstrike, who did not have enough staff. Last week I was doing landscaping work in western Sydney at a government housing project. I would have to wake up at 4:30 am to make to work by 6:30am. We usually ended work around 4pm, so it took me another 2 hours to get home during peak hour. Saturday two weeks ago I waited for one hour to get a bus to connect to a train to get home, a three hour commute. I was definitely keen for another job. Luckily for me Quickstriek let me on shifts without doing any training. they has a too small t-shirt for me, and a bunch of leaflets to pass out and I was ready to go. My first shift I ended up riding the rails for an hour before I found a shop with only one person, and thankfully my next shifts were properly assigned so I could go directly to the stop.

The job has been extremely easy. Emily and I go to our assigned stop at 7-9am and 4-7pm, but we are paid for six hours. most of the patrons are regular customers and have no questions, just complaints. Most of the time we just stand at the station watching trams pass as customers get on.

Thankfully I will be starting work tomorrow at the Sydney Royal Easter show at the Sydney Olympic park. It appears that I will be working every single day until April 24th.

Working on Boats

The past six weeks I have been working as a boat detailer on Sydney Harbour. I really enjoyed the work, It was outside, on the water, and best of all,  I was actually learning something while I was working! The days went by quickly and I was always very busy. The downside to working on boats is the weather. If there is bad weather, especially rain, there is no point to wash a boat. My job had been going very well until yesterday when my boss gave me his runabout with a list of eight boats that needed to be washed. I was finished with four boats and I had to dash across the harbour to finish the afternoon in a timely manner. I was travelling from the Mossman area to Walsh Bay, which can take up to 30 minutes to drive a boat to. When I was in calm water, I decided to open the throttle and speed across there as fast as I could to save time. After only a few minutes, The engine started to lose speed and started making noises that did not sound welcoming. I slowed down only to have the engine die and a plume of smoke come out of the cowling. I should have known better.

After multiple attempts to re-start the motor, I thought the battery was dead. I was in the middle of the harbour drifting dangerously close to rocks. I had to call marine rescue, and luckily I was found by a police boat just in time. The Police towed my back to the boat ramp we use and I waited for an hour for my boss to  pick me up. Of course he was not pleased, but it was not the end of the world. We finished another boat before heading back to his house to take a look at the motor. After looking for a few minutes, I easily found a hole in the side of the engine block the side of a $1 Australian coin. The motor was worth $4000-$5000 easily but more importantly, it was the business' link to washing boats on the harbour. Without the boat and motor, most of the customer's boats cannot be washed.

Unfortunately I will not be working for my boss anymore. He still wanted me to work for him,but now I just don't feel comfortable anymore. My goal is to still work on boats in the future and I plan on taking a General Purpose Hand course in the coming months. This class is required for anyone who wants to work as a deckhand in Australia. I already have half of the requirements completed with my STCW certificate from the US, so I will only have to take half of the course. I hope to secure new work soon, it had been a stressful time since Christmas when we arrived back in Sydney.

Happy New Year!

Emily and I arrived back in Sydney today. We had to wait an extra week for our visas to process but we made it here nun-the-less. The past month has been surreal. I have spent over three years away from home and Emily has been away from home over two years. We had traveled across the United States in just a few weeks, visiting friends and family in San Francisco, Chicago, Nebraska, and South Carolina.  We saw the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, albeit both were a bit too cold to swim in. We stayed at Emily's brother's house for the majority of our time in South Carolina. I really enjoyed the south. I sampled many foods I have never tried before, such as shrimp and grits, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, she crab soup and my favorite, boiled peanuts. More spectacular than the food was the hospitality. Emily's family was amazing hosts. 

We did an extreme range of activities on our month at home. We started by riding cable cars and enjoying a bread bowl of clam chowder in San Fran. Next, we survived a blizzard in Chicago to see the Nutcracker ballet. Emily's friends in Sumter SC lived right next to a swamp we explored which had Australian swans as year round residents. We explored historic Charleston on a horse drawn carriage ride. Survived a mild bout of the flu and tried every kind of "low country" cuisine we could find in Charleston as well. We ended the trip by driving up the Blue Ridge Mountains and discovered the mountain top chapel where Emily's parents were married. 

Our flight to Sydney was delayed for one week because we had to sort out a few visa issues but we finally made it this morning. It felt sweltering once we got here this morning; the high was 31°C (87.5°F). It’s expected to be hotter this weekend.

Luckily Emily and I took the train home at the right time today. This afternoon there was a train derailment at our local station, causing mass confusion.  Both of us have work in the morning, so we hope it has been cleaned up by then. I have been forcing myself to stay up late to fight the jet-lag, but now starting to fail. We have not worked for over a month, now its time to pay the bills! 

Foodies

After living 38 months abroad I have returned home to find myself having become a snob when it comes to food,  and especially coffee.  Working the long hours at my construction jobs the past two years has made me crave good coffee to help jump start my day.  Luckily living in New Zealand and Australia has introduced me to European quality coffees.  Before my long trip overseas I rarely drank coffee, and when I did I would unload an entire packet of hot coca mix into the cup before pouring java.  I started having flat whites and later cappuccinos in New Zealand with a teaspoon of sugar but now I thankfully have kicked that habit.  The Australian version of a cappuccino is creamy enough to have a fantastic flavor combined with the proper espresso that is not burned.  Austrlians have never heard of a decaf coffee.

I have no real memory of espresso coffee in the states. I always swore to myself that I would never become a coffee drinker and I never was until I was 28.  I was especially spoiled when it came to coffee when I worked at a construction site in Double Bay.  The Double Bay neighborhood was full of small cafes with excellent coffee boasting brands such as Lavazza and Vittoria. I would tell myself every day that I was saving my money by having a cup of instant, but I would usually break down on my morning break and fork over $3.50 to get my fix. When Emily and I landed in San Francisco I was excited to compare all of the American coffee with my new knowledge of Australian coffee. 

Emily is quite a food critic herself. She was raised to appreciate fine dining in some if the South’s finest restaurants in Charleston and Greenville, South Carolina, where she grew up. She has definitely rubbed off on me, we don’t eat out often but when we do we make it a special occasion.  She introduced me to such things as tapas, confit, pâté, antipasti, and of course our best meal out ever, homemade gnocchi at a restaurant down the road from us.

Our Australian acclimated taste buds were hit by American culinary staples full force on our first week in the country.  We stepped into a café in California after we just arrived and were shocked by the prices because they were half of what we were paying in Australia. Additionally, the café was packed but it was extremely quiet because everyone was on Apple laptops or tablets with headphones, everyone!  We ordered a prosciutto pizza which I thought was extremely salty, but eatable. The coffee was strange at this café because you were supposed to fill your cup with drip coffee to your liking and have the barista add the milk. Needless to say it was extremely gross and weak.  Our first proper meal out was fantastic sourdough bread bowls of clam chowder on San Francisco’s Pier 39.  Despite the upscale interior of the restaurant we were shocked at what everyone else was ordering.  The portions delivered to the tables around us were massive enough to make up three main dishes in Oz. I even glanced to the table next to us and saw a respectable looking woman wearing a bib like a rib connoisseur! I ordered a cappuccino after the meal and was shocked when I received a cup of strange bubbly foam. I should have sent it back but I didn’t (I was tired and needed a coffee!).

 On the morning we left San Fran, I scoured the little Italy neighborhood we were staying in for a takeaway coffee only to find very few places open in the morning. One sharp looking hole-in-the-wall looking coffee stand only served drip coffee! The barista had a homemade rack setup where he poured hot water out of a tea kettle over minced coffee beans in a paper filter directly into the cup the customer was holding. I finally found a very busy authentic café but I should have known it was terrible because the bakery cabinet was full of jam donuts and gingerbread men.  I ordered two cappuccinos and was extremely disappointed with the watered down result.  San Francisco did redeem itself when we found an excellent taqueria where we shared a burrito and feasted on $1 chips with homemade salsa and guacamole.

Chicago has been just as interesting with food. Emily’s friends treated us to our first American hot dog in years at Portillos. Em and I were happy with just one apiece, but her friend ordered us two each just to remind us that we were in the land of the large again.  The Wieners were great and I was craving another all evening. We got our deep dish pizza fix at Giordano's. Emily only finished half a slice and I put way two, but I was the most stuffed I had been in years.  I jumped on the chance to order a bottomless!! iced coffee, but of course it was just a very stale glass of drip coffee poured over ice. We had leftover pizza the next morning but I had come to the conclusion that deep dish is just not for me.  The pizza seems to just be full of gunky cheese with a few veggies mixed in. I would much rather have New York style extra crispy crusts. Another Chicago night found us eating in a basement bar munching on a giant pretzel rolls that we were dipping into nacho cheese and sweet mustard. Em hated both and I went after the cheese, the sweet mustard is extremely gross. Every night this week I have wanted to scrape my tongue because it feels like I have salt oozing back into my mouth from all of the processed food we are eating.

Just about when I was about to give up in my quest for good coffee, I tried Duncan Donuts latte coffee and it has sadly been the best I have had so far. The donut I had grossed me out because I am not used to the sweetness. The lady behind the counter (I will not call her a barista) asked me if I wanted cream or sugar with my latte. I am not sure if she was being serious or just very tired. 

So far we have been terrible tippers, and always seem to loose our loose change. We are struggling with the weather and looking foreward to returning to Australia. Later today I will be in Omaha and I’m sure more shocks to the system will be in store for me.  I already have gotten my American sweet fix in so hopefully by the end of the week I can resume my regular diet that does not include so much processed foods, and hopefully some good coffee! 

Two Weeks until the USA!

Emily and I are leaving Australia for a one month break, starting two weeks from last Sunday. We are super excited to get back and see friends and family. We are stopping in San Francisco, Chicago, Omaha, Greenville, South Carolina, and I'm sure many more places in between. We have spent the past several months saving money and planning out next year, and we will be re-applying for Australian visas.  We have spent most of the past year in Sydney and next year we look foreword to finally exploring other parts of the country, including Queensland, South Australia and the outback.

Lost in the Land of Traffic Control

I quit my 60 hour a week job as a traffic controller last week. My last day was on Saturday.  For most of the past year I have worked for the same construction company, Ganellen. I am not really sure what inspired me to stay at this job for so long. I reason it's because I got along with many of the workers at the construction site. I worked at two different sites, a 22 storey condominium project in North Sydney and a new Woolworth's and shopping centre in Double Bay. The Double Bay job site was 10 minutes walk from our apartment.  At Double Bay, I was in charge, managing the entire traffic control situation around the entire site, which was as large as an entire city block. I never intended to work as a traffic controller for almost an entire year when I first came to Australia, but that is just how the cookie crumbled.  When I was first looking for a job in Oz, many other backpackers told me that traffic control is a very easy job to get and is very well remunerated. On their advice, I took a one day course that cost $250 and the next day I started working at a job I found online.  Most days I would stand in the same place from 7 am until 4:30 pm, or sometimes even later, and after that I would have to help clean the site toliets for 45 minutes. I would have two breaks, one 15 minute 'smoko' at 9:30 am and a half hour lunch break at 1:00pm.  Many times I had to wait to take a break because no one was available from the construction site to take my place.  Needless to say I had grown frustrated and weary but tried to keep a smile on my face because this was the highest paying job I have ever had, no joke.

 I could spend an entire day reciting stories of traffic management. One time I was almost run over by an impatient old lady with severe gout, she was running late to her doctor appointment(she completely destroyed my start/slow sign). Then there was the crazy guy that stood in the middle of the road brushing his teeth like he was in is own restroom.   Most days were not as interesting. Because I usually started work at 6:30 or 7 am I, would see many people from the neighbourhoods walk to a train or bus station on their way to work.  And more often than not I would see the same people return from work later in the afternoon,my entire work day overlapping theirs.  I did not mind the long hours but once I had returned from New Zealand last June, I was on a student visa and I am required to attend class for 20 hours a week.  I averaged 60 hours a week at my job, which included Saturdays, so between work and school, I was barley at home.  I would try to sleep in and relax on Sundays, only to freak out when the sun started peaking through the windows of the bedroom because I thought I was late for work, when in fact I had a rare day off.  I asked my self several times if this is why I traveled to Australia in the first place, and the answer is unequivocally no.

After finishing work this past Saturday, I worked at a bartender for one day at the Australian Hotel Craft Beer Festival for Balmain Brewery.  My girlfriend gave me one of her shifts and I enjoyed the work.  This week I have also taken a barista and latte art class, something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I'm not sure I could make a good barista, I have very shaky hands pouring milk, ha ha.

I am very excited for the upcoming summer and cant wait to get back to home for Christmas too. Emily and I are leaving Australia for the good old USA on December 8th and are returning to Sydney on January 7th.  This will be my first trip home in over 3 years.  I am extremely excited to see my family and friends again.  I just home I don't get lost in the land of the free and then home of the brave the way I was lost in the land of traffic control.