Day 40 Mon 05/21/2012
Centennial Park
“Slept late again to recover from night shift. Walked to the chemist & bank to deposit money. Met Claire & after Wooly’s went to Centennial Park to hang out & watch the workout crowd. Then cooked chicken & rice at the hostel. We played WIZARDS with David, Jacob, Scott, & Frank until 3:30AM. Fun card game.”
Claire and I spend most of the day together. Our walk down to Centennial Park was good. We took lots of fun photos. We watched a group of Zumba looking people working out. There was this one guy in the crowd that was super into the workout. I really hoped he was there for the good looking workout girls, but he was really focused on getting the workout.
It started to get cold and Claire took all my extra clothes to layer up including my new found fuzzy grey hat. It had a bill on it but was a toboggan. It was a freebie from somewhere, and I told her she could have it IF she would wear it. I wondered if it would ever see the light of day again. It didn’t matter because this was as cold as it would ever get for me the rest of my time in Oz. It looked super cute on her anyways.
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| Swinging in the park with Claire |
Jacob has been speaking to me about his friend who is coming back to the hostel soon. Every time we play table tennis (all the guys give me hell when I call it ping pong) Jacob tells me how good his friend is, Milan. I am beating everyone in the hostel. The only person that can beat me is Franz, German roommate who works all the time as a truck driver for the mines. Franz can beat me because he has the craziest form. He is very good.
I don’t have details of when Milan arrived. He had spent time here at this hostel before. He is always smiling and Jacob was right he kicks my butt at table tennis. I think out of all the matches we had I may have won twice. So I was either smoking the others or getting smoked my Milan.
Day 41 Tue 05/22/2012
USA vs. Europe
“Laundry day. Went to the store with Scott & bought beers. Table tennis & beers. Sam, a Tasmanian mate at the hostel, cooked nachos for us. Had a USA vs Europe table tennis match. Steve (Jersey) & I vs Roland(NLD) & Franz(GER). The series was tied 2 – 2 when we lost Franz. He had work.”
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| Claire (ENG) & Sam Tasmania) |
Sam is a Tasmanian who is always singing when he talks. He is a pretty damn good singer too. We had talked about getting the hostel out for karaoke one night soon, but it was almost impossible with everyone’s different work schedule. With me and the Dutch guys working nights on weekends a lot and the rest working all day shift during the week we had not been out to bars together yet. This was a good thing though because going out was too expensive. Other than taking Claire out that one night I hadn’t done anything else like that since being here in Kal. Sam had cooked up a bunch of nachos and was handing out plates to anyone near the kitchen. Thanks Sam! Delicious!
Jersey was surprisingly good at ping pong. He had lost work since I had been in Kal and he was preparing to go back home, so he stayed quiet and in his room mostly. When the Americans were challenged to a game no one was banking on Steve being any good. The game was fierce. We were just good enough to keep Franz from smashing us. We had all the other hostel players watching our game, and everyone was disappointed when Franz had to finally leave for work with the series tied at 2.
Day 42 Wed 05/23/2012
DT10 – it’s Cheap Wine!
“I go back on night shift tonight. We sat outside today and I shared my cheese platter with the guys. Apricot jam with cheese on cracker was very tasty. DT10! LOLOL! Watched Full Metal jacket. Worked with Big Joe (Country Joe) all night.”
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| from left Scott, David, Roel, & Luca at Kalgoorlie Backpackers |
Day 43 Thur 05/24/2012
“Apple” at the Skimpy Bar
“ After our shift we went for a beer. I forget the name of the joint but it was one of the skimpy bars. The bar keep was wearing her underwear. Her ‘name’ was Apple, ad she was from London. Joe a& I hit up the jukebox & got pretty rowdy. One of Joe’s mates joined us. Carlton Draught beers, Swan on tap, some Jack Daniel’s on the house (Thanks Apple!), pool table, GoPro pictures. I left after beating Joe’s friend in a game of pool around NOON.
I went back to the hostel & chilled with the guys for a bit while I ate the toastie that was supposed to be brekky (breakfast). Tonight I have night shift with Joe (Joanne).
Every night shift I work with Country Joe he asks me to come join him for a beer and sped some of that hard earned money. Until this morning I have managed to steer clear of going to the bars at 7AM with him. This morning I gave in and agreed to go for a FEW beers. I am pretty sure he had offered to get the first few because I had told him beer was too expensive in pubs. Heck it was too expensive at the stores. Off we went.
Of course his favorite bar is the skimpy bar. I would not get the true skimpy bar experience, however, because at 8AM the girls really don’t have a whole lot of rowdy customers tipping them to get them topless. Apple was behind the bar and after hearing her stories of working here at the bar I wished I had boobs too. She had it figured out. When she gets $100 of tips in the tip jar she goes topless. Well she waits until 30 minutes or less is left in her shift before walking around with the jar. She ALWAYS got the money and would take her top off for the last 10-15 minutes of her shift. Too easy! She made more money in 15 minutes than I did all night. PLUS she was getting paid a base wage that was most definitely similar to what I made cooking. Every girl I talked to working skimpy bars was making a few thousand a week and travelling all over Australia working at these kind of places.
Apple hooked us up with whiskey shots and beer after beer. Finally I had to fold and head back to the hostel. I needed rest to go for another night shift tonight.
I am confused again about what day’s notes go where. I worked with Joe (Joanne) and Claire tonight. Claire was on until 4AM after our rush so we got to hang out most of the night and morning together. She helped me cutting mushrooms and capsicums (peppers) to pass the time.
Day 44 Fri 05/25/2012
Trouble at Monty’s
“Night shift again tonight. Worked with Roel & Big Joe. This was the rowdy night I got the bottle thrown at me. Such BS. Might quit this job NOW! I thought Roel was going to get punched. We don’t get paid enough for this shit.
I’ll skip right to the good stuff. We had this fool in the restaurant tonight/this morning who was super drunk. Everyone in Kalgoorlie is a regular when there is only one all night diner, so he was someone Big Joe knew from him coming into Monty’s for ages. The guy was yelling and being pretty aggressive. This is all after our crazy rush has ended and we are just serving drinks. The initial kitchen flood has ended. The guy was hammered when he came in, but serving him was no problem during the initial rush because you are so slammed you just can’t catch every person who needs refusal of service. Now Roel sees he is done.
Roel tells the guys he is sorry, but he can’t serve him more alcohol. The guy is not happy with the news. I am back behind Roel cutting more steaks up for steak burgers, so I am hearing this whole ordeal. The guy will not back down and I remember thinking “this guy is going to jump Roel.” Joe is not helping out at all. I tell Joe to get this guy out of here or I am calling the cops. Joe does not want to call the police. I have a huge steak knife and I swear if this guy comes over the counter… I am not getting beat up in Kalgoorlie by this asshole.
This is a good time to mention the four or five Maori guys playing pool in the back of the restaurant. The Maori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. They are known as a warrior culture. If you have ever seen the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team before a match they perform the Haka, the war dance, before every match.
These mates playing pool are the bouncers and security at Gold Bar and some of the other joints here in town. They come in all the time after their shifts and play pool, and they are huge. They are normally so quiet we forget they are back there. They seldom drink more than a beer or two even over the course of five hours playing pool.
I don’t really know what I said to the guy after the attempts of telling him to “get the hell out!” He wasn’t going anywhere. He still had a bottle of Red Cruizer in his hand. I tell him to go “screw” himself, we’ve had enough. I see the anger in his face and think, “Oh shit, this guy is gonna come at me.” He just rears back and chucks the bottle in his hand right at my face. I am far enough away from him that as he releases the glass I just take a squat and cover my head. It was a perfect throw for where my face had just been. Glassing is pretty common in Australia and this guy was a pro. The drink hit the wall right beyond me and I got a red sticky drink shower. The bottle even left a hole in the wall.
The Maori boys all lay down their pool sticks and walk around to the front. They ask me if this guy needs to go. “Oh yea,” I tell them. They drag this guy out the front door and make sure he leaves the area. Thank you! I don’t remember ever seeing the guy again, but I remember him looking at me and telling me he won’t forget my face no matter how drunk he was before being thrown out.
My new favorite customers got free food every time they came in if I was working alone and could get away with it. When they came in a just filled up all the deep fryers with chicken wings, chips, wedges, dimsims, or anything else they wanted. They were great friends to have.
Day 45 Sat 05/26/2012
The Tales of Monty’s
“We went home and drank wine all morning. Called Daniel for his birthday. He had just gotten back from the beach with Katie. Sounded like a good time. They leave one week from today (Fri) to go on the out west trip with Dad, Mom, & Chelsea. I really hate I am going to miss this. I didn’t go to work tonight in rebellion for the mess that happened late last night/this AM. Had a good sleep.”
Truth is we drank wine and I was done with Monty’s. This was not the first time we had worried for our safety behind the bar when dealing with super drunk mining blokes all night. I was furious that Joe hadn’t thrown the guy out sooner or even helped us by calling the police.
We drank all morning and played some card games. I was trashed. Wine drunk! What was I going to do? Just the other night we had a guy come in who pitched a fit at one of the girls for his order being screwed up. His order was fine, and he was the one screwed up. I do not remember the details but I remember enjoying myself when he finished his burger. Gotcha bitch. Call me a dumb American.
Another guy got thrown out by one of the Irish gals. I helped out by just trying to show a male presence behind the bar as they told him to leave. “What are you gonna do mate!” the guy yelled. Honestly I wasn’t going to do anything other than try and look tough. I did have the huge knife in my hand again. Was I going to cut this fool if he tried something? Dang, we just wanted the guy to leave. He was drunk and hitting on the girls. He was scaring off other people at one point. Go home bro!
This guy came in the next day. I grabbed the knife again. This is it. He remembers getting thrown out last night, and now he is sober enough to fight about it. He asked for the cook from last night to come up front. Unless he was just going to jump me all of a sudden he actually seemed very calm and almost embarrassed to be here. To my surprise he apologized the moment he saw me for last night. He was very sincere. He was in his early to mid 20’s, and most likely making thousands of dollars per week in the mines. He had come in for the weekend to go on the piss with more or less unlimited funds. He was sorry.
Awesome! “I have been there too,” I told him. “No worries.”
“You’re a good cunt!” he said very firmly. What? What the hell. So we smooth things out and he up and calls me this? I let it slide. “Mate, you’re a GOOD C,” he says it again. I swear he is getting more aggressive every time he calls me this awful name.
Finally I have to say something. “Man, where I come from if you call someone a C those are fightin’ words. So what the F?”
He laughs and quickly replies, “Noooooooooo mate! That’s a good word! Like ‘This here is my mate, he’s a good effing C’.” The guy is dead serious. Sorry for all the bad words but completely nesecary to tell the story like it happened. In England that word is super foul, and no different in the US. Here in Oz, he just called me his buddy, and I am an Ok dude. I shook his hand and gladly called him an effing good C back.
There are other horroe stories I need to elaborate on from Monty’s. Frank tells me a story from earlier in the month before I started working with them. There is an Aboriginal man name Paulie (I think his name was Paulie) who comes into the restaurant fairly often. I have met him and he is a nice man, but him and his wife fight. In Australia it is very common to see Aboriginal women beating the hell out of her husband or boyfriend. They are usually bigger and stronger. I am talking about beating each other in the head. They are very hard headed.
Paulie tells Frank “Me and the Mrs are at it again. She is crazy mate. She is looking for me. Don’t let her mess with my yute.” He points out his vehicle in the parking lot right in front of the restaurant. Frank assures Paulie he will keep an eye on it. To hear Frank tell the story is much funnier. So Frank when and if you read this feel free to have me change the details or words used.
Frank says he is super busy on his shift cooking and he is running over to take a look at Paulie’s ride every chance he gets. While performing another routine visual check on the truck Frank cannot believe his eyes. It is in flames! No way! Paulie’s wide has come by and thrown a flaming cocktail or something into the backseat. Frank eventually puts the fire out with a hose I think.
Another time I had an Aboriginal family all playing pool and having a few drinks. Well the Grandma comes in after one of the men and is raising hell. I try and calm her down but she is out of control. She will not let these guys play pool. They even have some pretty young kids and teenagers with them. Grandma is pretty drunk from what I can tell, or she has drank so much goon (box wine) that she has no brain left. She grabs the pool ball and will not let them play. Thank god no one else in the group had any intention of being violent. It was all I could do to get this old gal away. She was pushing and shoving everyone. I just knew it was a matter of time before she hit someone. I managed to get her to give the cue ball back to the table and I put my arm around her like a half hug and tried to walk her to the door. She smelled very bad, and after me touching her I am pretty sure we both needed showers now. I smelled like deep fryer and she smelled like goon and cigarettes.
She took only a few steps with me before realizing I was heading towards the door. She runs over and punches one of the guys in the face. He does not retaliate. The group is begging me to call the cops and get her out. I agree. I had already faked calling the police a few times hoping this was enough to scare her out. I made the call. I see her take note that I really did call the police this time. She walks over, grabs the cue ball, sticks it in her pants, and says “Let’s see ya play pool now mate!”
I laugh! This shit is priceless. Where the hell am I? She is wearing a dress and the cue is staying hidden. I am scared, now as a reader you are scared too. Hahaha, unreal.
The cops finally get there. I explain to them the situation and how the guys showed extreme patience with her. She was the only problem. She had snuck out the door before the cops got there. According to the police they were pretty sure they knew the lady and she had multiple warrants out for her arrest with similar assault crimes and drunken behavior. The guys playing pool asked for another cue ball, and this triggered me telling the coppers about the previous cue ball. “They laughed, “No way, mate. Where is it now?”
“Still there, man. Still there.”
Day 46 Sun 05/27/2012
Bad Attitude
“I went in at noon today to help out since I refused to work Saturday night. (I was told to come in and help or be fired. Poor Frank had to work my shift Sat night.) I worked until 4PM, hung out at hostel, then Roland & I worked 10:30PM to 6:30AM again. Craig, a new friend at the hostel, & Claire came in and played pool for a bit. Roland & I had a few beers somewhere in our shift.
Yea, I have a bad attitude at this point. I extremely dislike the owner, like most people did, and I was sick of dealing with drunks all through the night. I have had too many close calls and I am going to end up in jail fighting some drunk, or getting bottle/glassed. We are not getting night time pay either. I hadn’t even heard of such a thing, but according to everyone else there is a $2/hour bonus for 3rd shift. Didn’t matter because I was spent. The good times didn’t outweigh the bad times. It was either work, drink, or sleep. Work sucked, even though we were making it as fun as possible, and the drinking was expensive.
I was told to come help with the Sunday lunch crowd. Frank was cooking. Jay, the owner, chewed my ass. I deserved it, and I told her it wouldn’t happen again. I had to thank Frank for saving my butt.
That night Roel and I were on night shift again. It was nice because Sundays were almost dead usually. Claire came by to see me and brought our newest addition from the hostel, Craig. He is from Adelaide, South Australia, and looking to get into the mines due to a shortage of work back east. They played pool for a bit and I did my best to keep their bellies full.
Roel was like me. We were fed up. Roel was talking of quitting. I was there already. In my head I could maybe do better in the city dealing with people with some respect for society. These miners and the Aboriginals were getting to me. The Aboriginals made me sad and the miners made me angry. We drank beers during our shift with the Office Space attitude. Our care factor was ZERO. Here we are in Australia and we are getting bottles thrown at us and threatened, and they won’t even give us night pay? Come on.
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