(Darling Harbour)
Anyway. Yesterday, Tuesday 19th January. Woke up reasonably early but felt like crap and jetlaggy, so went back to sleep, got up about midday? Showered and the norm, and then headed out in search of a bank account! I signed up with NAB , seem as good as any other bank, and planned to transfer my money over but was told this would take a good few days if not longer, and it would be quicker (albeit cost more) if I drew my money out of an ATM and then just deposit it in the account. Well, easier said than done! None of the bloody atms I tried would accept my card for withdrawals, and all the money changing places would only take cash to change, not from cards! Eventually, and I mean, eventually, I found one – Commonwealth Bank, I need to remember for future usage. By then NAB was closed, so I was wandering around with too much money in my purse. Argghhh.
(not a pic of anything in particular other than the sun - this was at 18:30!)
After this epic mission I felt like chillaxing somewhat, so took a walk down to Darling Harbour. In my search for a cashpoint I walked what felt like miiiles but on my way back from the harbour I discovered my hostel is only like ten minutes away! Either way, I went to the harbour, had a few drinks and a bowl of epicly sized potato wedges (seriously it would have fed three people, took me best part of an hour to eat about half of it then I gave up) and then I headed off for a stroll. It was so nice, still so lovely and warm and this was about 18:30. Took some pretty photos, the sun reflecting on the water was pretty :) Sat down at the bridgetype bit for a while and read my book – ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ – one that Mole recommended :p
(Darling Harbour)
When I came back I didn’t really know what to do with myself. Went into the hostel bar for a bit (Scary Canary) but seeing as I was alone it wasn’t hugely fun.. so in the end I ended up huddled on one of the communal sofas for a good few hours reading my book. I finished it in the end, it was a slow starter but one of those I definitely couldn’t put down once I’d started. Pain in the ass actually, as its part of a trilogy and now I want to read the others, but books are freaking expensive here! This one was meant to be $25 but I got it for $18 with Mariannas discount, but either way, $18 still = about £11? Bah!
Anyway, bedtime for me then. At some point during the day I’d booked my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) course for 9:30am today (Wednesday 20th January). I wasn’t too sure about doing it, but seeing as you need it to work on any bar here in Australia I figured it’d be worth the cost ($85). Either way, I needed to be up early!
(Darling Harbour)
Got up this morning and made good timing, so decided to use my *free* phone card I got from Base to give mum and Lou a quick call :D Was good to chat to them for a little bit, even it was a bit rushed as I had to go find this building for the RSA! To be fair it turned out pretty easy to find, one perk of the block system I suppose?! Class of 30 of us, 9:30am til 15:00 going through a rather long slideshow about how to be responsible as a bar employee and also the laws and what happens if you don’t follow them – it was good to learn it all I guess, wasn’t too bad and it did go relatively quickly. They seem to be a lot more strict about it all here than in the UK. Annoyingly, the RSA is only valid for this state – New South Wales, and if I go to any of the others (like I will be when I go up the East Coast), I have to take a top up course so that I know that states different rules and regulations regarding alcohol. Yawwwwwn. One course I don’t mind, but .. yeah.
(Darling Harbour)
So, that took up most of my day. Other than that, I deposited my money into my account, went to the internet cafe (above Woolworths on George Strt, cheaper than my hostel!) and spent an hour or so looking online and applying for jobs, and my Tax File Number so that I don’t get *completely* screwed over for tax should I ever actually manage to find a job. I then stopped in a camera shop on the off chance they may have the lense I wanted for my slr, and OH YES THEY DID :D Makes me happy, I’ve wanted a zoom lense for my camera since I got it (18 months?!) but never been able to justify the cost – even in HK it was expensive! However here, I managed to get it for $99 - £60 or so?! It was like £150 in Currys, and still about £100 in HK!! Tis a beauty, a Tamron 55-20mm, and although I would have preferred an 18-200mm so I didn’t have to keep swapping, the price will make it allll worth it. Gloriously cheap, made me very happy!
Back to the hostel to drop my stuff off and chill for a bit, and I packed up the majority of my stuff, check out is at 10am tomorrow and I’m not gonna wanna get out of bed early to cram everything back in my rucksack! But.. I need to type up a CV, I don’t have one at the moment and I really do need it. I’m probably gonna head down to Wakeup! Hostel soon and go meet up with Wayne for a while, be nice to have some company, but at some point I really do need to make time to do it! I have a distinct feeling I won’t have any motivation to do it tomorrow, what with checking out of here, making my way to Wakeup! with my BEAST of a rucksack, and then waiting around a few hours to check in (the gap between check outs and check ins really sucks). However, today and yesterday were semi productive days, so I’ll forgive myself if tomorrow I end up lying in Hyde Park and doing f*** all :D
1 comment:
Sounds like you are settling into Sydney, let us know what you think about Wake Up!
Cheers, John @ Wake Up!
Post a Comment