It's Chriiiiistmas!!

Christmas in the sun has been fantastic. There was plenty of barbequeing, swimming in the sea, lying on the beach, drinking sangria and so on!! It was so different, which I think helped me resist feeling homesick: I'd really expected to, but in the event the only brief moment of missing home I had was when I tried to call my family on the day and realised I had a wrong number (not for my own house obviously; I do know my own phone number off by heart. I was trying to call my Aunt's house where they all were). After trying for ages to get through, I ended up talking to this very confused old man, which was bad enough, but then I phoned back and got straight back through, this time to his wife!! I stammered out "Happy christmas!" and slammed the phone back down. There was nothing to be done after that, so I gave up on being a good daughter and concentrated on celebrating.

I had planned a quiet night on christmas eve, recovering from the day before and baking a cake. At about 8pm I was sitting in the living room, all the christmas lights on, with excellent baking smells emanating from the oven and some crappy christmas movie on TV, writing...it was the perfect peaceful Christmas scene. Then my housemates came home with a crate of beer and a karaoke DVD of Christmas music, and the classiness of the night deteriorated somewhat. I'm ashamed to say that there were aLOT of karaoke renditions of "Last Christmas" and Bandaid, etc. Think we're very popular with the neighbours now.

Christmas day itself was really beautifully sunny and we descended on Coogie beach along with the rest of Sydney (it was one of the only beaches in the centre that didn't have an alcohol ban enforced). I was with housemates and ex-housemates and also bumped into 3 different groups of people that I knew from work. There was a great atmosphere, barely dampened by a VERY visible police presence in the wake of all the riots - there was a police helicopter hovering around overhead and everything. People were swimming in bikinis and santa hats, etc...all the cliches you imagine about Christmas in Australia.

Then I spent Boxing Day at the house of some friends of my dad, who live out in the suburbs here. We had a really nice day - I finally got to eat turkey, and they looked after me wonderfully the whole time. Getting to slump in front of the Simpsons whilst they cooked me dinner really made me feel like I was back at home!

I'm planning to enjoy the rest of the week as holiday before I start seriously job-hunting in the New Year. Yesterday I nearly went to see Russell Crowe performing at this place in Newtown: the chef who works at the venue had told me that it was THE real Russell Crowe, as in Gladiator, and we felt the need to verify this. We turned up to find that admission was $22, which I feel proves that it must be him, but we didn't really feel we could afford to pay that much, so ended up going to the cinema instead. Saw "Broken Flowers" with Bill Murray - it's fantastic, really cool, quiet, slow film. I highly recommend it.

Feel like I might have a bit of a sore throat coming on today, so I think it's back to bed for a quiet day.

Christmas Eve!!!

It's a crazy day - ridiculously hot with this really dry, warm wind - makes a change from all those christmases back home. I'm incredibly happy to have finished with CustomCall forever...last night was a evening of celebrations. (And as a result, my hands are trembling so much this morning (sorry, afternoon) that I can barely type). Our last day on the phones - "last day of term" as we kept referring to it - was genuinely fun, though only because of the other guys: the management were SO MEAN, having cancelled our christmas party AND forcing us to work the full day without even giving us an hour for lunch, or ANY christmas treats!! The bastards. Just because we can't sell insurance (and really, WHO wants to buy accidental death insurance the day before christmas eve??! Though come to think of it, we sold quite alot yesterday, and even I made one sale. It was to a Spanish woman, I'm not entirely sure she understood what she was signing up for...oops!)

Anyway, my team at work are really great so we survived the final day, messing about, singing along to James Blunt on the radio, etc. When we were eventually allowed to leave - 15 minutes early, what a treat! - there was a mass trip to the pub...then to another pub...then to another...then to Kings Cross...much exuberance. I think I can honestly say that I've got over my attitude problem with Irish pubs, you'll be pleased to hear, Vic. My housemate and I ended up at a karaoke night in Newtown with some idiot attempting to sing "Stan". Then we stumbled home at about 4am so I'm not sure I impressed my new roommate overly much (she'd just moved in that day). She seems very cool, but none of us are sure whether her name is Laura or Lorna, so we're avoiding addressing her directly. Oh dear.

Planning a quiet day today (I might do some baking...domestic goddess, hello) and looking forward to the hugely lavish barbeque tomorrow.

pre-christmas update

So, today is my 2nd-to-last day working in telesales EVER...that's the positive way of looking at it!! Yes, I'm still there - for those that I haven't yet moaned about it to, the new job I was MEANT to be starting this week fell through, so I've been at Customcall for 4 weeks now. I'm quitting tomorrow...which will be a great christmas present. Not before time either, as I fear that this job is making me extremely bitter (all the stupid people! All the selling! Always Be Closing! Yesterday this woman said to me "Oh yes, it's easy to blame it on the computer, isn't it?" and I nearly a)swore at her over the phone/b)had a rage-induced heart attack. Gotta calm down and be more zen about it all) and also quite xenophobic towards Australians. Which, judging by the news at the moment (continuing riots/factionalism) should mean that I fit right in.

Yesterday Customcall dropped the bombshell: we haven't sold enough insurance (actually we missed the target by 1000s...unrealistic targets anyone?!) so they've cancelled the Christmas party!! Man, you just have to laugh. They've been promising us free alcohol as a motivator for weeks...still, I think we'll all be doing SOMETHING on friday anyway, as an alternative. There's a couple of people who live in the World Tower who can normally be relied upon to throw a party.

Anyway, aside from the horror of work, things are going very well. I've finally got my new bankcards etc and been paid so my cashflow crisis is over. The weather continues to be fantastic...last weekend I went to a party in Bondi, which involved lounging around in the garden of these boys' flat whilst they cooked for us on the barbie, so that was a pleasant way to spend a saturday night. There's been a substantial amount of time sitting outside pubs - our local has a lovely courtyard area with palm trees - so I feel like I'm living the Sydney dream.

It's all-change in my house - we've got one new housemate, a German guy called Matt who seems cool, and I'm happy that I'm living with at least one non-Brit! - and Claire, my roommate, moves out tomorrow. This means that I'll get the double bed in our room, which I'm very happy about, but she's been fantastic so I will miss her. She's moving to a really nice flat in Coogie. Oh yes, the Christmas day plan is finally made - Colin and I will be going round to Claire's for a traditional Australian seafood barbeque, then maybe a trip to the beach. (Apparently there will be public transport running, although all the Australians I ask about this seem a bit hazy on the subject. Better check that out, come to think of it).

Sydney's gone crazy!

Um, I'm ok, not caught up in any riots so don't worry!! It's all kicking off but not in the city centre, it's a few km out on the southern beaches. Sounds awful, though - it's weird when stuff like this starts happening when you weren't aware that it was brewing at all, but clearly, the original Cronulla riot was a flash-point for a situation that was developing over some time...as difficult race-relations have been globally, I suppose.

Awful to hear about the oil refinery in London, guys - my parents saying they could see it burning in the distance makes me think of when I was in Brisbane, and there was a bush-fire burning in the distance and we were saying "oh, that's not a sight you see back home." Don't speak too soon, right...?!

The good news (on a more personal scale) is that I have a new job lined up to start on monday! It's temping for 3 months in the office of the New South Wales Attorney General's office, in the asset management department. Hmm, not sure what any of that means, but it pays better than my current job and it's still in the city centre and, best of all, it will not be telesales. Thank god!!

Sydney update

It's monday morning and yet again I am heading off to the call centre...arrrghhh!!! It's especially awful as I really thought I would have a new job by the end of the weekend and as a result, told everyone I work with (not my boss, obviously; but my colleagues/friends) that I would not be coming back. Well, I had to because I had to explain why I needed everyone's phone numbers, right? So I left on friday, taking my mug with me, and now I have to crawl back, hiding my face in shame...the horror!!

I had a trial shift at a pub on saturday night, but sadly they haven't yet called to offer me a job...hence having to slink back to telesales. To be honest I feel like they won't call. It was tougher than I thought...they put me on the bar taking food orders, in the restaurant area (Sydney pubs are huge, and this one, which is really nice, has an outdoor courtyard, a main bar, a bistro, and about 3 other bars upstairs) and the till was pretty complicated...well, actually, I guess it was incredibly straightforward, but you know, being unfamiliar I managed to find it stressful and to make a few errors that the other bar staff had to sort out for me. Oops. So, hmm, not sure if I impressed anyone very much...serving in a pub turns out to be alot different from working for AYS at weddings!


However, despite all this, I had a cool weekend and feel more settled than ever...on friday night I went out with work (the only good thing about this job is the people) and ended up at a party on the 47th floor of the World Tower - right in central Sydney. It was a fantastic flat, and most of us spent much time marvelling that people we worked with could live in somewhere like that. Mind you, they do have 7 travellers crammed into a 2 bedroom flat, and they did have to pay $1000 deposit EACH...but still. It was fabulous.

Then yesterday my housemates and I decided to decorate the house for christmas. None of us have any money, so we went to the shopping centre and returned with a 4 foot artificial tree ($5) and 2 strings of fairy lights ($2:99 each). The house is, uh, transformed. Actually it looks pretty cute and Colin says once he's been paid he's going to splash out and improve on our efforts. We then enjoyed a roast dinner, cooked by my roommate, Claire, which we ate whilst sitting outside and enjoying the gorgeous 25 degree weather. Very Australian.

Selling out

I'm having a crisis of conscience after yesterday, when I sold a $250,000 accidental death insurance policy to a guy on the dole.

Why did he buy it??! He can't afford the premiums!!! I swear, if I'd known he was unemployed BEFORE I did the whole sales pitch, I would have just hung up the phone. As it was, he told me after I'd put the sale through, so I hung up the phone with a leaden lump of guilt in my stomach.

Telesales continues to suck, but yesterday I somehow managed to sell 3 insurance policies - this despite the fact that I've adopted a life's-too-short policy, so if people say they're not interested, I don't argue, I just hang up the phone. (eventually, this will probably get me sacked, but I don't plan to hang around long enough for that to happen). It's the motivational stuff that's the worst: every time someone makes a sale, we all have to clap, cheer and generally go crazy. We're supposed to be competing with all the other sales teams to see who can sell the most, cheer the most, work hard, play hard, bla bla bla...yesterday, they told us about the christmas party. People who've acheived the highest sales will get to *gasp* leave up to 2 hours early from work that day, and what's more, they'll get special drinks!! People who haven't sold so much will just be drinking...standard wine and beer. That's right. Imagine the shame.

I've GOT to be out of there before the christmas party...

It's looking promising, as yesterday I joined another temping agency who did the whole flattering me thing ("What are you DOING in telesales?!") and said they might be able to get me work at...the Department of Health, Sydney. Woohoo.

In other news, it's got amazingly hot here. I spent the weekend recovering from my cold, but also went to a barbeque at one of my housemate's new house (he's moved out to be nearer the beach...which is what most of my housemates seem to be doing. I might follow suit eventually) which was very cool. We played charades. Sunday was spent in the pub playing pool, despite the beautiful day outside, and then in an overly airconditioned cinema watching Harry Potter - which was fantastic, actually, they adapted the book really well. The last few days have been spent trying to survive the day at work, then swiftly drowning my sorrows after work.