Day 57-63: Sydney (Week 4)
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2004
1
15
57
Trip End
Jan 05, 2006
Sydney,
Australia
Sunday, November 14, 2004
Monday kicked off with a loooong lay in and then a trip to the gym; usual job there, bit more cardio, 45 min combat class, and a jog back. Of course I should be a stick by now but my bloody metabolism....I'm sure it's still a problem - can't be anything to do with the odd fat bitch cake I have surely! Was drizzling today so not too lovely, but dried up later in the afternoon so wandered around my area dropping off CVs in bars and cafes, still haven't heard anything from all the other places that I've dumped them off at - looks like I'm gonna have to turn to IT now and hope I have more luck with that.
After wandering around I went to a net cafe nearish to me and noticed they were looking for an assistant to work in the shop. Asked them about it and turns out they're only paying $10 (£4) per hour - bloody McDonalds would probably pay more than that.
Monday evening was just a net thing, catching up on the diary, uploading pics to webshots, etc, etc.
Tuesday:
Bright and early start....well 9.30 is early really. Decided I was going to start doing some touristy stuff as I haven't found a job and job hunting every day is boring! So today I went to the Sydney Aquarium to see the fishies and things. Bigger and better than the Cape Town aquarium there are loads of exhibits and some are very cool, especially the Oceanarium which is one of these underwater tunnel things with the fishes swimming above and around you. Loads of sharks, giant turtles, massive stingrays, etc, etc....I have pics for evidence you'll be overjoyed to hear. Also, took a few piccies of Darling Harbour whilst I was there.
In the evening I did nothing...sat and watched telly - it was great!
Wednesday:
Jobs day in the paper so went to the park to read and circle the jobs that looked potentially interesting. As well as the bar stuff I looked in the casual column and there were a few ads looking for people for actor/model/extra agencies so gave a couple a call and got an interview for tomorrow at 12 with one of them. No idea what the agency is looking for but got bugger all else to do so might as well go along, could be the start of my acting career - told you I'd end up on neighbours. Also phoned a few of the bar ads....left details, numbers, even dropped a CV off at one - doubt I'll hear anything tho, don't think I've made up enough experience, perhaps I should embellish a bit further!
After the depressing job shite I went to the Museum of Sydney, in particular to see an photography exhibition called Rex & Max Dupain's Sydney - fantastic black and white pics from the 1930s to the present day. Inspired me to get off my arse and get the decent camera out and go take some pics, will definately do that in the next few days.
Gym this evening, the usual so won't go over the routine, just scroll up a bit. Got home and had some food and then done the net thing again - oh my exciting whirlwind Sydney lifestyle! Applied for a few IT jobs online, a couple of helpdesk type roles, one looks really good, in the city, 3 month contract, looks perfect so will also give them a call in the morning to make sure they got the details and beg them for an interview - and if I get one I guess I gotta go buy a shirt, tie and trousers...oh it's all money money money!
Oh and got a text from Jay earlier this evening! Informing me that he owes me $20 for a bet I had with him....basically he said that the 'Take me to the clouds above' song was from 'I wanna dance with somebody' - I of course knew this was wrong but couldn't remember what the actual song was, would appear he'd done a bit of research and it's 'How will I know' so that answers that.....but it was all a bit random and out of the blue. I replied pointing out that he didn't even say bye last time and that is was bloody rude. Says he was just pissed off and stressed with the Quantas doc pissing him around, I said I don't wanna be his Sydney dial-a-date and he said that I was definately not that and that he really didn't want me to feel it was like that. So I told him he can use the $20 to buy me dinner when he's back in town....we'll see if that happens....
Thursday:
Got a bit of a cold at the mo so having crap nights sleep at the mo...didn't get up until about half ten, then slowly got myself ready for the appointment at the casting agency at 12. The agency is called Rosey's and when I got there there were a couple of other people waiting. Think it's quite a small operation and I had a chat with the woman the agency is named after. Very bubbly woman, very complimentary of course, telling me how good looking I am, etc, etc. I'm mean she's hardly gonna call me a dog and that she doesn't want me on her books is she - especially as I have to pay $150 for the privilege. Anyway, as I haven't had much luck with bar or IT I thought I'd give this a go and paid up the money. For the money I get a short photo shoot and a CD of the pics taken. They then stick me on their database and use the best pics to send to potential clients. Basically I'm being considered for extra and acting work and just have to sit around waiting for a call.
Decided to have the photos done that afternoon so went home for a little while. Came back and after seeing a guy go in for a shoot with a smart set and casual set of clothes I kinda realised that I didn't really have anything smart enough to do the shoot with, which means I gotta go and spend some money just for a bloody photo shoot - god I hope I get some actual work soon to pay for all this stuff, I seem to be spending more money trying to get a job than I'm ever gonna make back! Booked the shoot for Friday at 3.
Thursday night is SGLC rehearsals, interesting trying to sing to the sound of thunder and very loud rain...you see it's not all blue skys and sunshine you know. The weather has been bizarre really, quite a lot of rain apparently compared to usual - which is just great! :OS Anyway the rehearsal went well, getting to know a guy called Chris who's very funny and I'm sitting next to at the mo, he's a tenor too, so it makes it even more fun. Still working on the same few songs tho we'll start doing Christmas carols soon....should be hilarious. It's very strange thinking of christmas coming, to me I should be cold and wearing jackets, jumpers, etc, not shorts and sunglasses - Christmas is gonna feel v strange.
Still got the bloody cold, think it's getting a bit worse actually so had an earlyish night.
Friday:
Bloody appalling nights sleep, for some reason I kept waking up with the songs we'd been singing earlier running through my head, plus I've got the cough too so it was a bit shite. Got up earlyish...for me anyway (8.30) to get the bus to Bondi Junction, you can probably guess it's kinda near Bondi but a little bit further inland. It's got a couple of big shopping centres so it's a good place to go find smart clothes for the photo shoot. Now of course I'm a poor traveller so I didn't really wanna spend a lot of money on the outfit....so first stop was K-Mart! Load of rubbish but I guess that's to be expected coz it's cheap as chips.
Wandered around and ended up in MYER which is one of Australia's big department stores - actually had quite a lot of nice stuff, but more than I wanted to spend - however got a bargain pair of shoes as they were in the clearance plus another 25% off...woohoo! Love a bargain. Wandered around for hours and hours looking for a shirt and trousers that I liked but which didn't cost a billion pounds, all the stuff I liked was way to much to spend for a photo shoot - I mean it is possible that I'll use it for an IT job should I ever get one so the outfit won't be entirely wasted, but even so I still don't wanna pay too much. Couldn't decide so next stop was Target.
It's kinda inbetween K-Mart and the department stores but the mens clothes selection was equally shite...so it was another traipse back to MYER and spent about another hour wandering around, trying stuff on, finding the right size - bloody Australians have gone metric, had no idea what shirt and waist size I needed! - in the end I walked out with a pink shirt, slightly darker shade of pink tie and black pin stripe trousers...so that was it, outfit done and dusted.
Although I left the house just after 9 I didn't get back after the nightmare shopping trip until 2pm, which meant I had an hour to sort out the clothes, shower and shave and walk into town for the shoot....made it tho. Ended up waiting half an hour to have them done anyway but at least I was on time. Some of them have turned out real good, it's not a full on professional shoot, I mean they don't do your hair for you, do make up, etc...it's basically you turning up with your own clothes and standing in front of the camera. I had a set done with the smart stuff and then a casual set, prefer the casual stuff better.
I then got to go through all the pics that had been taken and delete the ones I really didn't like...and there were plenty! Then they pic a few from what's left and make me look even more beautiful in photoshop ;O) Plus I get a CD of all the pics which were taken (less what I deleted), so when I get that I'll stick a few on the net so you can all have a good laugh at my first semi-pro shoot.
In the evening I felt a bit shite with the cold and had a bit of a headache, Carlos had asked if I wanted to meet him and friends for a drink so said I'd have a nap and see how I felt. Went to bed just before 9 and woke up about 11.30, couldn't be arsed to go out so just fell back to sleep and didn't wake up sat morning until 9.30, really needed that sleep, felt much better.
Saturday:
Bit of a rushed start to the day, thought the BodyPump class was at 10.30 but at ten to ten I checked the timetable and it actually started at 10, so chucked on my gym gear and ran to the gym to try and catch the class, but by the time I got there it was full so ended up just doing cardio and weights for an hour or so. Was knackered but the long sleep last night made me feel much better. Just pottered around the house over lunch and in the afternoon went to a place called Paddy's Markets. It's a market (obviously) which is held in the chinatown area of sydney every thurs-sun, it's under a shopping centre called Market City. There's loads of tourist tat and clothes and other bits and pieces, but it's also got a big fresh food market too so I actually bought fruit and veg!! Kinda thought that maybe I should eat a bit more fruit and veg to help stave off colds and stuff.
In the evening I went to Newtown and met Carlos and some of his friends. He had a greek friend from Melbourne staying with him, and he had brought a couple of his friends with him. A couple of them were nice blokes but the Costas guy was a bit strange, I think he wanted to be more than friends with Carlos to be honest, but it seems Carlos manages to pick strange friends, they always seem to argue amongst each other. Plus a lot of his friends are foreign so half the time I've no idea what they're on about, we all went for a quick bite to eat and most of the time they were speaking spanish or greek - apparently one of Carlos' friends said to him that I looked bored, I pointed out that it's a bit difficult to join in a conversation when you can't understand it.
After the meal we drove to Oxford St and had a couple in Stonewall and a couple in Shift...nothing particularly eventful happened and I was in bed by 1.30.
Sunday:
Nice lay in until about 10.30 - Nicky rolled in not long after I got up, not in much of a state to chat so she went straight to bed. After a shower and brekkie I went to Starbucks on OXford St for a cup of tea and a read of the sunday paper. Bumped into Simon whilst I was there so we had a quick chat. After that I made my way to Newtown on the bus as it was the Newtown festival. Usual type of festival things; stalls, food, a few music stages and a big park to do it all in. Weather was fantastic today tho, blue skies, sunny, about 25C and not too humid so it was perfect for it.
Carlos joined me later in the afternoon, despite living in Newtown he didn't even know it was on so he had a wander round with me, as usual he bumped into people he knew as he wandered round, kinda reminds me that I've been here a month and still hardly know anyone other than him, yeah I've met a few people but nothing much has turned into friendship. That's another reason why I want a job coz I'm hoping that'll help me meet more people, not really one for just going to bars and talking to people trying to make friends, find that too difficult. Anyways....we popped into the Newtown Hotel on the way back to his for a quick one, sunday afternoon clientele seemed much better than the monday night ones I encountered the last time I was there. After drinks we went back to his place, Carlos' apartment is in a complex and it has a pool so we went for a brief swim, christ it was freezing!! When does the water get warm in this country???
Caught the bus back to town about 6pm and nipped into the net cafe to update the diary, no plans for the evening other than sitting in front of the telly with a few vodkas, should something incredibly exciting happen I'm sure I'll tell you next week!
