Glengarry Glen Ross

I've been exceptionally busy over the last couple of days and now I have:
a job!! (don't get too excited...)
a house
a "Responsible Serving of Alcohol" certificate.

The house - I'm really excited about. I move in on friday, can't wait...it'll be so nice to settle in somewhere, leave my stuff in the bathroom, etc...it's through a company that organises houses for working backpackers, so it's kind of like uni halls in a way...they own a whole block of houses. There's 6 to a house and you share your room with one other (admittedly, a year ago I would have been like "God! I could never share a room with someone!", but now that seems like luxury compared to dorms). Hopefully my roomie will be nice. I haven't met her yet - all I know is she's called Claire. The house is in an area called Marrickville, which is right by Newtown where I am right now. I will be sending an email out with my new address in the hope of receiving some christmas post!

(OK, I admit, it was the first and only house I looked round. But hey, I needed a base, I was confused, and the woman who showed me round was all nice and motherly. And the kitchen in my hostel is disgusting, and the shower drips CONSTANTLY - I have to get out of there).

Then: the job! I'd just signed my life (well, only 4 weeks of it) away on the house and I did some halfhearted calling round of the agencies, which somehow resulted in me signing up for an assessment centre that afternoon with good old Kelly Services. I knew I didn't want the job: I told them that straight out, then just...allowed myself to be talked round. Oops. I turned up to the assessment centre and it was a total nightmare - role plays, all about selling stuff - you see, the job is, uh, selling insurance in an outgoing call centre. Yep, it's the nightmare...
well, the interview felt really hard, and I hate selling so I wasn't at all sure I was going to get the job. When they called me about an hour later and offered for me to start on monday, I just couldn't say no. It pays ok, the dress code is casual so I won't have to buy shoes and stuff, the hours are...weird (11:45am - 8pm, hmm) and it's a call centre full of other travellers so hopefully it'll be sociable. We'll see. It'll certainly do til something better comes along - and I mean, perhaps something better will come along, like, this week, before monday!

That was all yesterday...then today I headed to the city for my RSA course. The Australian government is incredibly tough on underage drinking and antisocial behaviour - or wants to be - and so anyone who works in a bar or restaurant has to do this responsible service of alcohol course. It's just one day and was actually kind of interesting - probably because I'm not Australian, and some of the laws are different over here. For instance, they're incredibly tough on giving alcohol to minors - it's illegal to give your own kids a glass of wine in your home, if they're under 18. And any venue that sells alcohol to be consumed on the premises HAS to provide food, as well - so all clubs and bars have to have a food menu. And it's illegal to service alcohol to "an intoxicated person" or even to have an intoxicated person in your pub!! So kind of ridiculous...you serve people so long as it doesn't visibly affect them!! It's like pretending that the purpose of going to a pub or club is NOT to get drunk. Hmm...

The course was full of travellers and some 18 year olds who've just finished school. We had a written test at the end of the day which you'll be pleased to know I passed...so hooray, I can apply for bar jobs now. Now if I can just find one that pays better than the call-centre-sales-job-from-hell...