One Year of Australia: August 2013

Back 2 Perth (AU 8)

Day 61 Mon 06/11/2012

Leaving Kal

“7:15AM train back to Perth. Milan told me this morning over breakfast after he saw my note on the fridge that I did more in one month in Kalgoorlie than most in a lifetime & he thinks I have figured out how to live life. J This made me super happy to hear.

Claire walked me to the train station where Fran & Roel were waiting (they had just gotten off of work). Tonight is Roel’s last night of work. Poor Frank! Stay tough friend. I am really going to miss all of them. I hope to see them again. I would never in a million years think I could love the people I just met over such a short period of time as much as I love them. Damn good people. Amazing friends. DUTCH HARDCORE!

Leah is waiting at the East Perth train station. After a snack at her house I immediately fell asleep. Then fell asleep after dinner.”

Day 62 Tue 06/12/2012

Notes Fall Off

“It rained like hell all night. Leah had to work all night.

I think all I did was go to Wooly’s for milk. As I begin writing this again take note that the date is 06/29/2012. I have gotten behind in my book here and with my emails. I am sorry for this.”

Day 63 Wed 06/13/2012

More help from NZ

“Into the city. I saw on FaceBook where Britt from Dive Ski & Surf was short on players for the volleyball league they play in. I am game of course! Leah dropped me off in Scarborough Beach at the Indoor Beach volleyball arena. 6vs6. Nets everywhere. Kylie was one of the girls and Britt of course.

We lost, badly. Then had beers at Indi Bar. Asked the two random chix at the table next to us if it would be more appealing to them if I were an AMERICAN or a Canadian. Couldn’t get a definite answer but usually people love Canadians and have mixed emotions regarding Americans. Met Adam here at Indi as well. He is from Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Then back to Kylie’s house across the street where she cooked chicken parmas for Britt, herself, and I. YUM! Kylie gave us some money to go to the bottle-o and get some Southern Comfort.

We went to Ocean 1 Bar later. Free drinks from all of the guys there since I had all the girls with me. Some of the guys were making fun of my headband, but they continued to buy me drinks along with the girls. Well these two Kiwi’s were ready to kick the hell out of them for making fun of me. Rowdy! Crashed on Kylie’s couch after watching Bad Boys, the movie. I fast forwarded to the part where they go in and blow the hell out of Cuba.”

Nothing against Cuba, but that is just a badass part of the movie. My volleyball team was all girls and myself. We got smashed. I will talk about Adam another day, for now I will tell you all about the misunderstanding at Ocean 1 Bar. I had the volleyball team with me as we walked in. There were four or five English guys at the bar and they began chatting it up with Britt and the girls. They quickly offered to buy the girls drinks. Well I was gifted a beer as well since I was with the group, but I was not welcomed. These guys were trying to pick up and I was the goof ball of a friend that would probably block any moves they tried to pull.

The English blokes start giving me crap about me wearing a headband. I won’t lie I looked pretty stupid in it, but my hair was starting to get out of control so I had worn if for our game. I laughed off their jokes. If any of my friends had been there I would guarantee I would catch hell for it, so what was the difference? They were buying me beers. They could call me whatever they wanted for now.

Well these two muscled up and tattooed Kiwi’s come over and ask me if those guys are giving me crap. “Yea, but it’s all good. They are just messin,” I tell them. This was not good enough. These guys wanted to fight. They were looking for a reason. One of them pushes an Englishman.

“You making fun of his headband, mate?”

“No no no,” I say. “Trust me it’s all good.” Before it is all said and done the two New Zealanders have hauled the English guys outside and thrown them out. It happened so fast I am just standing there with my beer and the girls ask, “What the hell was that about?” I explained it to them the best I could.

The unofficial bouncers came back in and bought me another beer and said “We hate it when Cs like that make fun of people. Eff em mate!” Cheers as we klink more beers together.

Thanks for letting me play ladies. Hell of an after party too. Thanks for dinner Kylie!

Day 64 Thur 06/14/2012

Night Photo Shoot

“I woke up early to catch a ride with Britt as she went to work. The ride lasted 20 feet because I realized she was going to opposite direction and was not going out of her way to take me to Leah’s. Walking in the rain. Brekkie at a nice little joint. Leonard Cohan playing inside. “Left my woman from TN,” as the name of the song. I told the owner I was from TN, and he loved it. I ate an amazing croissant (ham, cheese, and sprouts) and a fresh OJ to drink.

I walked past an IKEA on the way to the bus station, where I met jes on the bus. She was a rockin chick from Adelaide and was moving to Darwin. We almost missed our stop chatting, & in the rush to get off of the bus somehow my camera fell out of my bag and onto the floor. I left it on the bus unknowingly. After a few phone calls and am awesome bus driver I picked up the camera at the bus station. Wow, lucky I know!

One of Leah's favorites during
our Night Photography Class

I was very lucky to have gotten my camera back. Somehow it had fallen under my seat while talking to Jes and I hadn’t noticed. As we jumped from our seat to not miss the Dianella stop I didn’t realize that I had lost it. Once back at Leah’s I realized what had happened. I had it slung over my shoulder and while sitting on the bus I sat it next to me because I was leaning back on it. How could I have not seen it? I always look back at my seat or wherever I had just gotten settled to ensure a wallet or cell phone hasn’t slipped out. It had to have fallen under the seat.

Leah helps me find the correct number and we get in touch with the bus company. They radio the driver and at his next stop he stops to go take a look for it. They call me back telling me the driver found it and I can pick it up after his shift later in the afternoon. Unreal! I think I hugged the lady who brought me my camera and it was very awkward. She did not want any hugs.

Getting the camera back was crucial because tonight Leah had booked us for a Night Photo Shoot in the city. This was a photography class where we would go to great night time photo op areas and be shown how to take pictures at night. The class was fun, but very basic. I had actually already been to a few of the places where we took the pictures. While wandering through the city one sunny day I had found the alleys where they had let artists come in and paint up a storm.

For some reason I remember the photo being scarier than this...

The best part for me was taking stupid long exposure pictures later after the class with Leah. There is one where she is standing in front of a park bench and I stood in the frame for half the exposure and make a ghostly face and seem to be ready to grab her. Leah really liked some of the paintings in the alley of the zombie looking children and family. Zombie might not be the correct description. Adams Familyish? Thanks for the photo shoot Leah.

Day 65 Fri 06/15/2012

Dinner at Sharareh’s

“I headed into the city of Perth again this morning. I was way too early for AU Jobs but I was able to talk to Dad while he was driving back to Texas after the trip with Mom, Daniel, & Chelsea. Aussie Jobs to say HEY & check in. Jobshop. Found sweet travel sized guitar at Noise Pollution (local music center) in Northbridge near the Jobshop. I didn’t buy it.

Tonight we went to Sharareh’s house to eat with her family. Her mom, Shiva, is hilarious. Food was excellent as well. Leah, Sharare, Shiva, Ilnaz, and her Grandma. Her brother popped in shortly. Electro therapy with her Grandma was funny. Haha her English is so bad. “Yessss, yessss, thank you,” is about all she knows.

Next Laurence & I met Adam at the Indi Bar. Made friends with the band playing. Got kicked out of some hotel rooms. We really were not making any noise in the second room. We ended up in the street in front of Indi Bar. Foo Fighters with Ben aka Jesus. Then more good times jamming at Belle and Laurence’s place.”

The hospitality of Sharareh’s family is outstanding. The amount of food cooked for just a few of us is unreal. There is no way we could have eaten everything Shiva had prepared. They are so funny. Shiva is a riot talking about how she has “relocated” some things from the hospital. Thanks for all the delicious food.

I met Laza down at the Indi Hotel to catch the live music and there we ran into Adam again. The three of us were heading home when we ran into the band outside after the show and ended up back in the hotel upstairs at Adam’s room until security came and told us to leave. It was funny because Adam and I were upstairs with the band when Laza came into the lobby. Security was meeting up in the lobby to come up and follow up on a noise complaint from the bands room which was the room we were all in. After leaving this room we went back to Adam’s room for just a minute before security came there to tell us to leave. We took it to the streets.

Day 66 Sat 06/16/2012

Daniel leaves for FBI

“Had a relaxed day. Went to Indi again for dinner with Belle & Laurence and then went back to their place for the rest of the evening. Talked with many friends and family back home. Daniel is leaving for FBI Training later today. So proud and pumped for him. Met a girl named Meagan from CAN at Indi as well.”

Laurence & Belle's place after the Indi Bar

Day 67 Sun 06/17/2012

Gardening

“Leah came to pick me up early from Laurence’s. I took a nap, then woke up to help Chris and Jes in the garden. Then I watched Star Wars.”

Day 68 Mon 06/18/2012

House Inspection

“More cleaning today before house inspection here at Leah’s house. Rainy day.”

House inspections are pretty serious here in Australia. There is a high demand for nice rental homes so the land lords are super strict about these inspections. If they find spider webs up in the corner of the ceilings outside the house points are deducted according to Leah. So the place had to be spotless. Leah keeps a pretty clean house anyways but for the inspections it had to be sparkling. As far as I could tell we passed easily.

Day 69 Tue 06/19/2012

Jobs in Darwin

“Job hunting at Uni today. Calling Exmouth and Darwin for jobs. Evidentaly there are jobs in Darwin. I almost bought a ticket. I am looking for a ride up there. Frank & Roel left Kal heading north just a few days ago, Monday I think. Catch a ride?”

According to the farm Leah spoke with they had work for backpackers now. They will not give you much information over the phone though. You need to be there in person to get job placement. I didn’t like the sound of this, but it was my best option at the moment.

Day 70 Wed 06/20/2012

Geoff in Perth

Geoff catching hid bus from Dianella Plaza back into Perth

“This was a crazy day. I took my bike to the bike shop to get a new rear cassette put on and have them box it up for me to fly. I went to Uni & bought a $400 plane ticket to Darwin. I am flying out tomorrow morning. I went into the city to meet Geoff from Kalgoorlie Backpackers. Got a haircut. Beers at the Moon Bar with Geoff. Then the Brass monkey. Geoff is one of the many awesome people I met in Kal. I hope to see him many more times. We took the bus to Leah’s. From there Leah drove us to the bike shop. My bike once again will not fit in Leah’s car in a box. It is raining and I don’t know what to do. A super nice lady in her Toyota Landcruiser loaded up my bike and followed us home. Thank you so much!

Leah cooked a wicked dinner for Robyn, Geoff, & I. Huge chicken parma’s and tiramisu. It was very good. Robyn even loved it and she hates tiramisu. Drank some wine and hung out with Geoff after Robyn left. I walked him to the proper bus stop. Last minute packing all alone after Leah left for work. Lonely and scared, but also excited. I still have a ton of baggage. Oh man back to it and missing everyone so much you have no idea.”

So much was crammed into one day here. I met Geoff who was in town visiting his family. As we were walking to find a place to eat lunch I spotted a barber shop where I went in for a cut. The Irish kid in here really did a number on me. I had told him I was growing my hair out long so just trim it up a little bit. By the time he was done I had very little hair left. Oh well. I had to tell him I like what he had done. He was trying his best.

Geoff & I ate at Moon Something there in the city. Somehow I decided I was heading to Darwin with hopes of work there. When I had met Jes on the bus a few days ago she had told me stories of the pearl diving boats there and had even given me a few phone numbers of her old bosses. I was hopeful something would work out.

(Next - Heading to Darwin, NT)

Kalgoorlie, WA (AU 7) Last Week in Kal

Day 54 Mon 06/04/2012

Last Shift at Monty’s

“Roel & I had those brekkie Guiness to drink. I showed Milan some guitar riffs. Roel & I rode ‘borrowed’ bikes to the bottle shop. Today is a public holiday so most places are closed. Tom & I URBAN WAKEBOARDING! Tom, Frank, Craig & I walked to Domino’s for pizza. Slept a few hours before my last shift at Monty’s. Sweet! Good shift with Karen (Irish super hottie).

Karen has some good tunes on her phone, so we rocked out to those all night. Called the cops on an Aboriginal lady for fighting, throwing chairs, and pool ball in the pants.

There were some fun guys requesting GnR & Poison all night. I had the music on lockdown for them. They were loving it. Boulder Taxi drama’s. Some dumbass broke our last pool stick! Got some last pics with Karen and the restaurant. I played U2 for the last 3 hours of my last shift, and cooked a badass brekkie burrito. Two steak sandwiches toasties. I also finally came through for Geoff with his T-shirt toastie!”

Day 55 Tue 06/05/2012

Taco Night

“Had a brekkie beer with Tom back at the hostel after work. Bed. Woke up and wrote all of this in here for the past 5 days. Going to the store for TACO NIGHT stuff at the hostel. Thanks again Craig for your wireless internet (even if it is slow) & thanks steve for iTunes on your laptop. I really appreciate it guys.

Taco night was delicious. Cooked them for Frank & Sam. Was able to dish one out for Jacob as well. He had never eaten a taco like this.

Today Craig came up with this game where each player had to eat a weet bix cereal bar without using his or her hands and with nothing to drink. Claire had ran her mouth about how easy this would be so Craig immediately grabbed the cereal box while I grabbed the video camera.

The race began with both of them standing by the breakfast table with arms behind their backs. They would have to bend down and grab the block of fiber from a standing position by just bending at the waste. “Ready, GO!” They are off. Craig bends down, grabs the cereal bar with no issues, and is chomping away sending dried flakes into the air with every exhale and laugh. Claire decides getting on her knees and eating the cereal from the edge of the table is the best idea. She knocks the bar onto the floor within seconds of the start. She wants a new piece because eating dried cereal off of the floor is just not proper. Hahahaha!

After nibbling some on the second piece Craig has finished his goal and there is nothing left of his Wheet Bix. Congratulations to Craig. I really didn’t think it was possible to eat one of these without any milk or water to be completely honest. I figured this was setup by Craig to make Claire look silly, which in the end it kinda did. However she was a good sport and only slugged Craig once after the race.

Day 56 Wed 06/06/2012

Hammond Park & Kal Vegas

Craig, Claire & I going into Hammond Park

“Once again back to unemployment. I am pretty sire this is the day I woke up early with Craig & we cracked open a couple of ciders. At noon we walked over to Claire’s & went to Hammond Park. It was a blast. Craig is goofy as anything, & Claire is not far behind. Han Solo stormed a castle. We saw kangaroos & Emus for the second and first time. A ‘macca’ cussed us out as well. Then we walked through a tree park or something. On the way back to Claire’s we stumbled onto a wicked BMX dirt track, Kal Vegas. They had just opened the track 2 weeks ago. Dang I wish I could have been there for the races. Craig & Claire had foot races though. Claire was really jealous of having to work the night prior while we had taco night, so we went back to Wooly’s and bought more. So good!”

Han Solo storms the castle

There was one night this week we learned a card game from one of the older Irish guys here at the hostel. The details are a little fuzzy because we only played this one time after seeing how out of hand it can get fast. Right Frank?

Pink Cockatoos in Kal

The game is called GUTS. You play with only coins, but the coins soon turn into $20 to $100. We all played tonight and had no idea what we were doing. Two minutes from the start Frank was in the hole with me $20. None of us had the money to be gambling, but the way this guy had conned us all in it looked like an innocent game. “All you need is change,” he says. Bull! Then why does Frank owe me $40 now? I would say Frank remembers the rules better than I, btu I felt like we were lucky this guy didn’t run away with all of our money, even though there was one of him and many of us. I guess if the cards had gone in his favor and he took all of our money we might have a say in it.

Day 57 Thur 06/07/2012

Gold Bar XXXX

“Karaoke Party! A ton of us went to Gold Bar XXXX. I was considering booking the train back to Perth today for tomorrow morning at 7:15. Leah gave me some great advice even though $200 and poor liver. I decided to book for Monday morning, which meant I had all weekend to do jack. Today a bunch of us just jammed at the hostel. After getting one hell of a pregame on we went to the Gold Bar. I had never been here before. Sang Beach Boys with Sam. Craig, Roel, & Claire sang… something. Maybe it was Bon Jovi. The DJ was a goob. He sang every fourth song even though there was a huge wait in order to sing. He was trying to be discovered. Toolbag. I sang Jackson with a girl named Beck I think. Ton of chix out tonight. Saw the nice London skimpy gal from the rowdy morning with Joe. She was super nice to me, which made Claire mad. We then went to Monty’s where poor Frank was having to work. Back at the hostel we played cards. Roel blew smoke rings at the table while somehow all 3 of us (Craig, Roel,& I) wound up with matching grey tank tops on. Tonight was also some Scottish gals birthday.”

Lucas after jumping his cardboard frog

Shahin's jumping frog

Luke & Roel sharing some KS4

Day 58 Fri 06/08/2012

Pub Crawl

“Slept late. Woke up straight to beers with Craig. We pulled another group together to rally for karaoke at the Criterion, where I still have free drink vouchers. Kyle (Aussie), Craig & I scored free Irish car bombs as long as I sang the owner anything Elvis. Two more freebies after singing Cash. Sam & some guy named Daniel claiming to be an MLS player from England sang Drops of Jupiter. Scott & Kyle also took a turn singing.

We saw Ben working at the Gold Bar! Ben is my Maori friend who took part in tossing out the bottle thrower that Friday night at Monty’s. I gave them free food a couple of times for that & I was very excited when he stopped what he was doing to come say HEY & he knew my name.

I tried to get the DJ to play some Bob Sinclair – Tennessee, but he didn’t have it. Grey & Black shirt party. Must be in style. Went to Monty’s to see Joe, Frank, & Roel. Free drinks from the older guy, Hugh, who remembered me from cooking his Surf N Turf ‘the best he’d ever had’. Sylvesters (this is the crazy dance club that when it finally closes all the rowdies come to Monty’s). I had to count change to get in this place. Somehow made more friends.

Well I am no longer working and everyone that couldn’t go to karaoke last time has been dying to go. The owner came out and was handing out drinks when she saw me. She asked me what I wanted, and Kyle said “Car bombs.” She went and got three car bombs for Craig, Kyle & I. Kyle wanted to buy them and when he tried to pay the owner told us they were free as long as I sang her more Elvis. Since we had just gotten here and I hadn’t sang yet the group thought they must be in for a treat if the owner came out from the back with free drinks for us and was already putting in requests. I felt like somebody for a moment.

After everybody took a few turns belting out some songs we left for Gold Bar. I was excited to see Ben working crowd control inside. I figured he would remember me but for him to stop what he was doing and come over to call me out by name really felt great.

Frank and Roel played me a song a few weeks back called Tennessee. It was slowly becoming the group’s theme song, and everybody was coming to see TN. I had to ask the DJ if he had it. He did not have it, or he had it and didn’t want to play it.

I have noticed by now that Craig and I both have on black shirts with horizontal grey stripes. I see another girl here with a similar shirt. Minutes later there is a fourth matching shirt spotted. I had to get a picture. Craig was game, but I felt like the other two people thought I was crazy. Maybe, but this was funny. We looked like a rugby team! It’s the small things, right? This was funny to me and still is now as I type this completely sober.

Next we jumped over to Monty’s to see Country Joe, Frank, and Roel. I had to order a Red Cruizer and go stand by the wall by the hole left from my near miss. The drink was nasty, but the photo op was good. Hugh was there and he had to buy us all some more beers again. He still was talking about that Surf n Turf I cooked for him. Thanks goodness I got one order right. I can think of more horror stories from here that I haven’t even mentioned yet. “Running out of chicken” being one of them. Catching pizzas on fire is another.

Lastly we head to Sylvester’s. I guess this would be considered the rowdiest place in Kal. It is a dance club with blistering loud music and your typical rave scene. I had enough beers in me to put up with this environment for a little while. I remember having to count change to get into the place though. We danced around like fools and headed back to the hostel.

Day 59 Sat 06/09/2012

Nederlands vs Denmark

“Slept almost all day. Worthless! Frank & Roel were going hard today because they were both off work tonight & Holland was playing Denmark in the Euro Cup Tournament tonight at midnight. Denmark beat Holland 1-0 & the guys were not happy. Craig & I took Frank to Monty’s to see Claire, Joe, & Joanne to take his mind off of the loss. Two Heineken’s helped. Also hearing that Joanne is stripping at the Gold Bar Skimpy next Saturday helped. She lost a bet when Ireland’s rugby team lost a big match. We stayed up most of the night watching Frank.”

Day 60 Sun 06/10/2012

Last Night in Kal

“Paid $220 rent to Geoff. Was completely worthless other than packing up all my stuff. We did watch a good X-Men movie & cook the rest of my sausages.”

Franz & Roel! My shirt from the unclaimed bin

I made sure I was fully paid up with the backpacker. Everone was in recovery mode from the weekend festivities. I have written about my Kalgoorlie times from memory and these notes in my journal. I am 100% sure if I looked through the photos taken during this time I could write three times more about all of the fun we had and the amazing people I met. On this final day I had a very hard time saying goodbye to everyone here in the hostel. This was my first hostel experience and it was a great one. I had only been here just over a month, but I felt like I had known this crowd for ages. Leah had informed me working hostels were much different from other hostels. In a working hostel you have a family. People are at the hostel because they need a place to stay and rest while working towards the next goal. Lots of the backpackers I met at this hostel had been here before or had been here for months. Lizzy is the mama duck of the place. She looked after us. If she saw people going overboard with drinking or blowing all of their hard earned money she moved in and helped out. She even held a few backpackers pay checks for them and rationed out his or her funds to help them not blow everything.

Here is the letter I wrote and left on the fridge before I went to sleep.

“To All of the Kal Backpackers,

Thanks for such a good time over the past month. From the ROWDY Dutch hardcore parties, table tennis (Ping Pong)m matches, bottle-o bike runs, sun sessions, urban wake boarding, Monty’s Get Wrekt events, karaoke nights, skimpy bars, Guts$$, Wizards, Damn Dutch Scrabble, 7 movie weekends, Super Pit Trip, BMX racing on foot, museum sights, camping in the park, & many more epic times I can’t recall right now because I am sleep deprived & my lived is shut down for the time being.

You guys & gals have made Kal a time to remember for the rest of my life. I will miss you ALL & cannot wait to see yall again.

Love Michael McNair from Tennessee J”

Link to the 345 photos on FaceBook from Kalgoorlie CLICK HERE

Kalgoorlie, WA (AU 6)

Day 47 Sun 05/28/2012

Who Stole the Keys?

“Slept until 2:30PM. Woke up to do laundry and found the keys to the storage room at work in my pocket. Whoops! Ran all the way to work. Claire & I went to a couple of Op Shops. I did find a $20 beanie at the one Fox or Hurley “style” store. Might go back and buy it to replace the one I gave Claire. Washed clothes, ate some chicken. Got on Craig’s pc and made credit card payment. Debt FREE! Hewl Ya! Played a game of Wizards with Frank, Craig & Scott. Claire attempted. Frank is a dickhead! LOL! He is watching over my shoulder as I write this. Tomorrow we will go camping.”

I felt bad for having the keys. If they can’t get into storage there will be hell to pay. I am already on my last life there. I sprinted the whole way to work. They were glad to see I cared enough to bring the keys back, but they had found a spare.

I wish I could remember the game of Wizards that the guys taught us. However, I cannot. Tomorrow we go camping.

Day 48 Tue 05/29/2012

Camping

“Camping in Centennial Park. We are not sure what the rules are on this, but Roland & Frank both have full camping gear. Cold as! Missing my good sleeping bag about NOW.”

Claire had never been camping so of course we had to take her. The guys had tents and camping gear, but we had no idea where there were any official camp grounds. Claire and I had walked through the Centennial Park the other day and we figured surely there was a spot in there we could go.

The trip was super sketchy. I am pretty sure if any of us were caught we would be in trouble, so we hid our tents in a low spot and behind trees and bush. It was hot during the day out here in Kal, but in the middle of the night it gets alot colder than we though. This was not camping in the Outback, but it was good enough for now.

Day 49 Wed 05/30/2012

Working Nights One by One

“Got a call today from a man named Jan about a job working as a water quality technician. Wen to the store with Claire. Cooked some gross sausages. The sausages here in Australia are not the same as our sausage back home. Grabbed email from Craig. Back on damn night shift tonight. Every night I go in is my last. Hate it. Called Dad this night too.”

Some head hunter is trying to get me into work back in Perth as a water quality technician. Sounds like I would be a perfect fit for this and the job would pay great. I could do this job for 3-6 months then split and have money to travel the rest of the year and then some. Later when they see my work Visa I am immediately looked past.

Claire and I went to the store and bought sausages. I complain about the sausages here because when I think of sausage I think of breakfast sausage. Like sausage patties. Here they are just really nice hot dogs.

Stunt planes putting on an air show with Kalgoorlie sunset

I had a good talk with Dad tonight. He helped me power through the whole working situation. I couldn’t quit until I had something else lined up, but I couldn’t find work while being stuck in Kalgoorlie working nights. Tough situation. Lots of the guys at the hostel had come in and gotten their tickets for the mines. They were doing well for themselves. I am still not sure why I refused to do this. I hated to put a few thousand into tickets that were worthless to me in 10 months when I left. Besides, I hated to be stuck in Kal working the mines even for another 3 months. What to do?

Day 50 Thur 05/31/2012

Turd of a Smoke Machine

“Country Joe bought an Mp3 player from Dick Smith’s, an electronic store chain in AU, and want all of my country music before I split town. I am on night shift again tonight .I talked with Joe (Joanne from Ireland) about quitting. She is not going to add me to the new roster next week. Heck yea! Monday night will be my last night to work at Monty’s.

Had more incidents at work. The smoke machine only takes $1 and $2 coins. Cigs are $22.00 per pack. So any time some drunk wants smokes at 5AM we are the only place open where you can get them. I make money off of this…”

I make money because so many people drop these $1 and $2 coins all through the night and they fall under and around the smoke machine. When I clean the floors out there I will look for money. I moved the machine for the first time and I swear I found $40. These mining blokes make stupid amounts of money. They don’t care about dropping coins. Aboriginals live off of the Dole, Welfare in AU, and get paid even MORE money than they can spend. I have heard of Aboriginals buying a new yute (truck) driving it until the tires fell apart or it died due to needing an oil change, and leaving it where it sits. They pay cash up front for the truck.

So the drama tonight was I had a guy come in and fail at the smoke machine. It takes $22 of coins to buy one pack and it only takes $1 and $2 coins. Pretty simple, right? Wrong! The machine is a pain in the ass big time. If it rejects your coin you can NOT try it again. If it doesn’t like the coin in most cases trying it repeatedly does not work. So just because you have $22 of coins doesn’t mean you can have cigs. People get pissed.

If I am not busy cooking I will gladly help people get cigs. This one miner was drunk and trying to get smokes so I went over and told him to give me $22 and I will get the ones he wants. He was appreciative, even though he couldn’t really say many words due to intox. The coins the bastard of a machine spit out I replaced with my own coins. He got his smokes.

Within the hour I see another guy over at the smoke machine trying to get smokes. “Ya smook machine is broke mate,” this Aboriginal man said. He was also wasted and wearing his sunnies (sunglasses) and it is dark outside. I have no more coins, so I open the register and grab a hand full of $2 tokens. I figure IF he has $22 in coins I can just take his money, see what works in the machine, and take the change to put back into the cash register. It made perfect sense to me.

“Give me your money and tell me what smokes you want. I’ll get them for you,” I tell the guy. He hands me $22. I start throwing money into the machine one after another. It takes maybe every other coin. By the time I have $22 on the display screen there is probably $40 in the spent change drawer. I select his cigs and they fall out. “Here ya go,” as I hand him the cigarettes.

“Whattabout my change mate! That’s my change!”

I tell him he gave me $22 and this was my change. Actually it’s the restaurant’s change. He thinks I am pulling one on him. He argues again and I say something like “Fuk it, take the change.” I am beyond defeat. He takes it all. He was drunk, and stupid, but he knew what he was doing. I was done trying to help people. He was going to fight me over the change. I went back out of sight and lost it. I was done. I was super upset that I could get beat up for trying to help someone buy cigarettes.

Day 51 Fri 06/01/2012

Karaoke Night

“There was a scheduling mess up & I am off tonight for the first weekend night so far. Slept all AM. Woke up and went to go get beers. Drank at the hostel with Tom, Aussie skateboarder staying at hostel, and friends. Craig, Tom, Emma & I all went to the Criterion (Gold Bar) around 11:30PM for karaoke. Travis Tritt – T-R-O-U-B-L-E & Elvis – Blue Suede Shoes brought the house down. ‘McNair from TN’ was given free drink vouchers after each song I sang. Tom sang Guns N Roses – Paradise City. It was awesome. Everyone in there could see we were having a blast.

Oh today I finally received the package from Perth (from KJ) with my new iPhone (her old dinosaur iPhone). Awesome wrap job on it, Leah. Steel Panther wrapping paper? Hahaha wicked.”

Tom from Taz wearing his Nashville TN Hot Rod Shirt

Rowdiness at the hostel on the weekends. We got the bicycle out and pulled Tom up and down the street on his skateboard. Then Geoff wants to pull him behind his yute. We took some great pictures and videos. I was very glad to get Kristen’s old iPhone. I have no idea how to use it though. I also loved the wrapping paper Leah used to get the phone from Perth to here. Steel Panther! I took the wrapping and salvaged it for some room décor. I posted the Steel Panther article on the outside of our room.

Day 52 Sat 06/02/2012

Wat-ah

“I think today is the day we watched a bunch of movies. Your Highness with Danny McBride & Natalie Portman was one of the funniest movies I’d seen in a while. Busy night at work. Frank & Roland were both off all day so they partied. Frank and Claire came into Monty’s that night. The rush came at 5AM Sunday morning when the skimpy bar closed. It sucked. We thought we were in the clear. Karen, one of the other hot girls we worked with, was pretty toasted and kept saying she wanted “Wat-ah”.

Day 53 Sun 06/03/2012

Caught on Camera

“This is my last night working with Roel. We had a couple of beers before heading to work. Dom, the new night manager/security, kept a close eye on us. The last time the two of us worked together Roel hadn’t done any/most of his prep work or cleaning. So Jay, the owner, went back and watched the security tapes to see what the hell we were doing. Well I did all of my work and stayed busy. We did drink free beers most of the time too though. I got some Guiness for after work for brekkie beers.”

So Dom was watching us like a hawk. Prep jobs and cleaning had been left unfinished and not started the last time Roel and I were working night shift. I was in the restaurant working the morning when everyone came in and complained about the toilets front not being cleaned at all. There were other odd jobs the front staff are responsible for that were not done as well, like silverware I think. I remember Jay asking “who was on last night?” She was pissed. I knew it was Roel and myself. We were busted. There is no telling how many times one of us had opened the fridge, grabbed a beer, and poured the beer into a coffee take away cup. This is how we would drink a beer at work.

Well I thought about the night before and I remember being busy doing prep work the entire time I had down time. I was sipping on beers, but I was staying busy. Roel might have been sitting down, legs crossed, chatting it up and playing tunes. I think this must have been the scene Jay slowed down for when she saw all the prep work done and none of the front work finished. LOL. I warned Roel when I got back to the hostel that Jay was going to be on him when he got in. “No worries,” Roel said as he smiled. He figured it was worth every second. He was right.