Auckland Hotels
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Wise Up
Entry 36 of 84 | show all | print this entry |
"You don't have to be happy all the time. If you were you'd probably be really boring."
OK, I have moved in to my new pad which is grand. I'm sharing with 4 other people who are all pretty nice, it's really close to town and I'm liking having my own room.
One of my mates moved next door, and he often pops round for a cup of tea, usually with a sandwich in his hand....it's all very Mill-like.
The only drawback is the bathroom and kitchen are pretty skanky and so unbelievably small that you couldn't swing a rat. I'm keeping my eyes out for somewhere a bit better, but I'm in no rush.
Auckland is great. I'm really flavouring it at the moment. It's odd, but their is a surreal sense of Dublin at Christmas here. Mainly, it's the weather. There's also Christmas decorations up in my house and on this computer for some reason, and some of the streets are very Dublin-esque. Once you get off the main street there are some really nice places around. And the people are cool. I'm liking the idea of settling here for a few months.
This city has all the good points of Dublin, in the same way that Sydney had the bad points. I had said in Sydney that I would never live in Dublin again, but Auckland has made me think that maybe I could.
I've even done a bit of sightseeing now.
Michelle (yet another ex-Equanter) was passing through Auckland and we went to the bar Minus5, where the chairs, tables, bar and even the glasses are all made out of ice. I took one of the ice glasses home as a souvenir but I couldn't find it the next morning.
Alex, who I know from my 10 day Bush trip in Australia, slept on my floor for a few days. We ventured up the Sky Tower, which is allegedly the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, although it doesn't look it.
As for work: I'm back temping in offices. And although it may seem like I've gone back with my tail between my legs, let me explain...
For a start, the toy store was crap. There were some amazing toys, but my boss was a bitch. Management wanted me to harrass customers in to buying obscenely expensive toys they didn't want. They sucked all the fun out of toys.
"Ohmygod! This Yoda says thousands and thousands of phrases!"
"There's not much profit margin on it."
It was like being back at school in English class when you study an outstanding book: You love it, but then you analyse every detail for months until you hate it.
It was like the board game Mousetrap, all that time putting everything in place, and when I finally turned the wheel it was a total disappointment.
So for almost a week I became totally depressed. I didn't know what to do. I didn't understand why I have been left totally unsatisfied with every job I've ever done. I didn't understand why we live in a world where so many people spend most of their lives in meaningless jobs to earn money to spend on things that make them happy temporarily. I didn't understand why I couldn't do something I really love and get paid for it. I didn't understand why they made a car for the Spiderman action figure.
So I fell back in to my hostel bar and wallowed and spoke to other backpackers, and listened to their thoughts on life and the world. And I figured it out. I'm an idiot to work in a low paying job when I can easily get work in an office which will pay me a lot of money to do very little. Why was I being so negative about work? I hate people who moan about their jobs. IF I don't like a job, I can change. But I'm a fool to not work in the highest paying work I can get. The quicker I save money the quicker I can leave and carry on traveling.
In the words of Gwen Stefani, I realised this sht is bananas (B.A.N.A.N.A.S.). How absurd it is that I'm complaining. I'm doing everything I've ever wanted to, I'm constantly falling on my feet these past 16 months, and everything is pretty much perfect...sha la la la.
Sure enough, I was welcomed back in to office life. I'm at the end of a temp assignment working for some company which appears to make a load of money for doing something so ridiculous and pointless. One of those companies which can only exist because other companies have so much money that they feel they need to spend it on useless services. One of those companies which would make God roll his eyes and say, "Jesus, how did these people get it so wrong?" to which Jesus would reply, "God only knows." And Buddha would feel a Shiva Allah way down his spine.
But working here has been great. They took me out for lunch a few times. They have a quiz every few days. They declared it 'Wine O'Clock' the other afternoon and we all got drunk. They made me do a shot of Croatian Whiskey because I was new. All the while, I'm getting paid loads of money. They've even kept me on a couple of extra days, even though there's no work, just so I can go to a company night out!
I was right to go back to temping. The tea flows like wine, the bisuits flow like tea, and the wine flows like...erm...biscuits.
Thats's one of the many things I love about backpacking. The majority of backpackers realise we're all in this together. Everybody loves you when you're down and out. There's some really great people who can be so helpful and generous and really shed some light on a situation.
I was wondering something about malaria, and the next day a guy checked in who did his thesis on malaria. You have a question about life, and more often then not some scruffy backpacker has the answer. You can have a deep and meaningful in your dorm room with some random you've just met.
You feel pissed off...you lay your burden down, and they'll pack it up with their 20 cent noodles and their iPod, and they'll take it off somewhere you've never even heard of.
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