Our first Halloween in Sydney. I say "first", coz I'm starting to entertain the possibility of staying longer than the initial 1 year visa. This will involve 3 months working in the outback pickign fruit or working on a farm, so its not nice work, but its compulsory so....
Anyway, it was halloween last night. Australians love dressing up so everyone around town was up for it and dressed up in all sorts of cool and funky costumes. AnneMarie was dressed up as a bumble bee, and I was dressed up as a musketeer. AnneMarie bought her costume in a costume shop in Newtown, but I just got random bits around Woolworths and K-Mart and when I put them together, I closely resembled a musketerr, so I figured "Hey, I may as well go with it!".
Everyone in the terraces was dressed up. We started off at a house party in one of the houses and went out into Sydney City afterwards. I met up with an old friend of mine from school and his little brother. It was good fun. The rest of the Terraces ended up in there too so there was a lot of us there.
Ater,we went home and had a few beers in the house. Waing up this morning was a killer. I dunno what it is about Austalia, but the hangovers are a LOT worse than Ireland!!! :D
Friday, October 31, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
The Sydney Terraces
So, we've been living in Sydney about a month. The Terraces are great craic.
We've gotten to know the lads from number 17. When we moved here first, there was 2 girls who were moving home. They were absolutely mad! Drinking all the time. It was some laugh. They used to come down to our house and offer me drink to ply guitar up at their house party, which I duly obliged! :D
But unfortunately, they left after about 2 weeks. We've still been going up to number 17 anyway to the boys. They're some drinkers! The whole area is full of alcos, but 17 is the main party house on the street. There doesn't seem to be any rules! Walls do be kicked in, ceilings do be punched through, doors knocked off their hinges. It's a great laugh!
We're getting to know the area well enough now and have started venturing up to Newtown to a couple of the bars. The place is full of lesbians and brothels! What more can you want!
We've gotten to know the lads from number 17. When we moved here first, there was 2 girls who were moving home. They were absolutely mad! Drinking all the time. It was some laugh. They used to come down to our house and offer me drink to ply guitar up at their house party, which I duly obliged! :D
But unfortunately, they left after about 2 weeks. We've still been going up to number 17 anyway to the boys. They're some drinkers! The whole area is full of alcos, but 17 is the main party house on the street. There doesn't seem to be any rules! Walls do be kicked in, ceilings do be punched through, doors knocked off their hinges. It's a great laugh!
We're getting to know the area well enough now and have started venturing up to Newtown to a couple of the bars. The place is full of lesbians and brothels! What more can you want!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Rabobank
So, I started my new job today. I am working for Rabobank in Daring Park Tower, beside Darling Harbour.
The job is an IT helpdesk job. This means I sit at my desk taking calls all day from people having problems with their computers. The majority of the calls come from rural areas, but we also get a lot of calls from people in the building. This can break the monotomy of sitting down all day as you can walk down and fix the problem in person. I've done helpdesk jobs before and the main thing I hated about it was tht you sat down all day on your ass. At least this job I can walk around a bit.
The building is nice. It's part of Darling Park Tower, with Price Waterhouse Cooper, and IBM. I think Google has an office in there somewhere too. I'm on the 17th floor so I can see everywhere in the city. I'm also overlooking the Maritime museum in Cockle Bay Wharf, so I can see a warship and a submarine semi-submerged in the bay from out my window. The kitchen also has a big plasma telly with all the Foxtel channels, which is nice for watching premiership highlights. I've still yet to see a full 90 minutes of soccer since I left Ireland! I doubt I'll get to see any in work, but at least I might get to see more highlights.
The people are nice too. My boss is Irish, from Kilkenny and there's a few other Irish people floating around the office. Should be good for the free office beers after work every Friday! :D
The job is an IT helpdesk job. This means I sit at my desk taking calls all day from people having problems with their computers. The majority of the calls come from rural areas, but we also get a lot of calls from people in the building. This can break the monotomy of sitting down all day as you can walk down and fix the problem in person. I've done helpdesk jobs before and the main thing I hated about it was tht you sat down all day on your ass. At least this job I can walk around a bit.
The building is nice. It's part of Darling Park Tower, with Price Waterhouse Cooper, and IBM. I think Google has an office in there somewhere too. I'm on the 17th floor so I can see everywhere in the city. I'm also overlooking the Maritime museum in Cockle Bay Wharf, so I can see a warship and a submarine semi-submerged in the bay from out my window. The kitchen also has a big plasma telly with all the Foxtel channels, which is nice for watching premiership highlights. I've still yet to see a full 90 minutes of soccer since I left Ireland! I doubt I'll get to see any in work, but at least I might get to see more highlights.
The people are nice too. My boss is Irish, from Kilkenny and there's a few other Irish people floating around the office. Should be good for the free office beers after work every Friday! :D
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Luna Park
Today we went to Luna Park Amusement Park just on Darling Harbour.
It was good fun. They had all the usual stuff you'd expect from a small carnival. teacups, dodge ems, whirly-go-rounds and what not. We played a few of the side attractions, and won some teddy bears. I won a huge gorilla teddy and AnneMarie won a small teddy (which is how it happened, regardless if she says it was the other way around ;))
There also seemed to be some ball on, as there was a lot of people dressed in evening wear going into one of the bars/restaurants in the park itself. It was either an early christmas party of someone won the lotto or something!
There was also a cool performing act we saw there. There was an old guy, about 71, up on a huge pole, about 70 feet in the air balancing on his hands, and sswaying the pole from side to side. I had seen him on the news a few days earlier. Hes the oldest performer in Australia, I think it said. He was very good.
Anyway, after that we had our fill of the park and headed home back across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and home. The park isnt bad for a small park. Good for a day out.
It was good fun. They had all the usual stuff you'd expect from a small carnival. teacups, dodge ems, whirly-go-rounds and what not. We played a few of the side attractions, and won some teddy bears. I won a huge gorilla teddy and AnneMarie won a small teddy (which is how it happened, regardless if she says it was the other way around ;))
There also seemed to be some ball on, as there was a lot of people dressed in evening wear going into one of the bars/restaurants in the park itself. It was either an early christmas party of someone won the lotto or something!
There was also a cool performing act we saw there. There was an old guy, about 71, up on a huge pole, about 70 feet in the air balancing on his hands, and sswaying the pole from side to side. I had seen him on the news a few days earlier. Hes the oldest performer in Australia, I think it said. He was very good.
Anyway, after that we had our fill of the park and headed home back across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and home. The park isnt bad for a small park. Good for a day out.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
I got a job!
I finally got a job!
I went for an interview with Transfield for the HelpDesk role, but didn't think it went that well, so the girl from the agency arranged to meet with me face to face and work on my interview skills after my other interview for Rabobank. So after the Rabo interview, I came down the lift, walked out of the building, walked up the street towards the agency and 2 minutes later I got a call offering me the Rabobank job that I had just interviewed for!
Apparently, straight after the interview my new boss phoned the other agency and said straight away that I have the job. They tried calling me back to tell me but couldn't get through to me. I later figured out this was because there was no phone coverage in the lift! So then he phoned me back 2 minutes later when I was outside informing me of my new job! Brilliant!
I start next Wednesday (15th) :D
I went for an interview with Transfield for the HelpDesk role, but didn't think it went that well, so the girl from the agency arranged to meet with me face to face and work on my interview skills after my other interview for Rabobank. So after the Rabo interview, I came down the lift, walked out of the building, walked up the street towards the agency and 2 minutes later I got a call offering me the Rabobank job that I had just interviewed for!
Apparently, straight after the interview my new boss phoned the other agency and said straight away that I have the job. They tried calling me back to tell me but couldn't get through to me. I later figured out this was because there was no phone coverage in the lift! So then he phoned me back 2 minutes later when I was outside informing me of my new job! Brilliant!
I start next Wednesday (15th) :D
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...not!
So, I still haven't got a job yet.
I've had a few rejections and some people saying they won't hire me because I'm a backpacker and only on a holiday visa, and they're looking for someone more long term. Pain in the ass.
I have a couple of more interviews coming up this week so hopefully something comes up.
The first one is with Transfield in Sydney for a HelpDesk role, and the 2nd is for RaboBank in Darling Park for a desktop role. I'm hoping for that one. Its more money, and basically a better job. I've done enough of sitting on my ass answering phones so at least in that job I wont be confined to my chair.
Lets see how things go...
I've had a few rejections and some people saying they won't hire me because I'm a backpacker and only on a holiday visa, and they're looking for someone more long term. Pain in the ass.
I have a couple of more interviews coming up this week so hopefully something comes up.
The first one is with Transfield in Sydney for a HelpDesk role, and the 2nd is for RaboBank in Darling Park for a desktop role. I'm hoping for that one. Its more money, and basically a better job. I've done enough of sitting on my ass answering phones so at least in that job I wont be confined to my chair.
Lets see how things go...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
