Day 163 - March 3

Started my shift with Josh. He says that saturday mornings are always busy because of the mentally disabled league. He was right. We had a lineup in front of the cafe for about an hour. There were coffee orders and food orders and only 2 of us in the cafe. We needed 3 people: 1 to take orders and payment, 1 to make coffees and 1 in the kitchen to make the food. It was a bit difficult with 2.

Dhiren, from England, came in at 11:00am and that really helped us out. I was also telling him that Josh was freakin out and he said that's just how Josh is haha.
Once it died down a bit, I practiced on my latte art.

I decided that I would ride my bike as much as I can from now on. After my shift at AMF I rode to Outback Jacks instead of taking the bus. Took about 45 minutes. It just sucks that it's so hot and I'm wearing a backpack that my back becomes sweaty.

I started work at Outback Jacks at 6:00pm. By about 7:00pm, there was about 7 of us working. Ashley, the manager, had 2 people come in for trials. I trained 1 of them, Ellie. She didn't need too much training as she's served before. She just needed to practice on which dishes come with extras and stuff. Most of the dishes come with a choice of chips (french fries), mashed or baked potato.

Ash, one of the AMF maintenance guys, and his friend came in. The day before I told him he should come in and visit me at Outback Jacks. He was telling me about AMF and how it's being reshaped by Judith, the current centre manager, and how it's pissing some people off. Ash is one of the few cool people at work. He's nice to everyone and does his job. Something so simple, but yet not everyone is capable of doing that at AMF.

Ash's friend also worked with AMF but at the Rockingham location. I was asking him if it's possible to get a bowling ball. He said for sure. Brand new too. I was joking since there's no way I'd be able to take that on a plane and my own stuff. I'd be way over the limit. Then he said he would send it to my house in Canada. He would also add in a bowling pin. Super awesome!

I had a great bike ride back home. There's something about riding a bike down an empty street with few street lights and bright stars in the sky. Very relaxing and theraputic.

Day 162 - March 2

Had a very good work out in the morning which included a 2.5 km run. This time I didn't feel dizzy at all afterwards. Hooray for not being weak!

Worked at 3:00pm with Alec at AMF. He's 17 years old and seems a bit clumsy at times, but is a good kid and is funny about his own clumsiness. Dhiren came in at 5:00pm. The 3 of us made fun of each other the entire shift. It was awesome. The evening shift was also more fun as the clientele was a younger crowd and was easier to poke fun at. Who knew working at a bowling alley could be so much fun!

Day 161 - March 1

I missed a call at 11:30am from AMF to come in early since they had no one working in the cafe. I actually received the message at 2:00pm when I topped up (recharge) my sim card as my plan expired yesterday. You can go into a monthly contract with the cell phone company or do a pay-as-you-go. I went with Optus as that was the best plan fit for me. I bought a sim card with them then I buy a $30 recharge voucher for my sim card every month as it expires every 30 days or if I run out of minutes, whichever comes first. I never run out of minutes, since not a lot of people call me in Australia, but also because I picked a good plan. I also bought another SIM card with an overseas plan where it charges me $0.05 per minute. So if I call home, I switch to my long distance SIM card (which obviously has a different number as well).

Worked with Josh again. I was putting out some feelers as to see if he also cooks food for himself to eat or if he's a straight arrow and pays for everything (as we are supposed to). He also cooked food and ate it without paying. Sweet!

I made fries and chicken strips for myself for dinner. That would've regularly cost $8 for 3 chicken strips and a small batch of fries, but not for me! Now I can save on lunch/dinner money while I work here mwa haha.

Tiarna bought a nutella pizza from across the street and shared it with all of us. It was actually pretty good. The top and bottom crust was a thin layer of crusty pita bread with nutella in the middle. Good stuff.

Mmmmm... Nutella pizza....

Josh and Tiarna... keepin it real...

This was also my first closing shift, but it was pretty much the same thing as closing any restaurant: Clean dishes, restock food and drinks, mop floor, help yourself to a drink to take home heh heh heh.

Day 160 - February 29

Didn't have work today. Just lazed around at home.

Dave replaced the lightbulb socket while I supervised. I wanted to do it myself, but since he actually works in the trade business, better a professional do it. Also, when I went to buy the socket part at Bunnings (equivalent to Home Depot), I asked for help on if I had the right socket and if it was easy to replace it. The worker asked if I was an electrician. Obviously I am not. Then he replied that he can't tell me how to replace it as it is against the law. He says that only people trained in that profession can be told how to do it.

I guess this means that it is illegal for Western Australians to fix things in their own home unless they are trained to. Guess people aren't allowed to do their own home projects. That's too bad.

My badass $35 Jackaroo ride.

Day 159 - February 28

Worked the morning shift again. This time I was by myself. Then Judith, the manager, told me that they have a student that is on a work experience program and that I was to teach him what we do in the cafe area. His name was Glen. I taught him the basics of the cafe: making coffees, sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, etc. Easy stuff. He's a good kid. He thought I looked 20. Sweet, still got the asian youth. He has family all over the world: Canada, States, India, Australia. I told him that travelling the world will be easy for him because of that.

Sharon had an idea of making gravy yesterday but we didn't have time. I made it today. Then I made a poutine, which no one knows what it is. Not exactly the same as how Canadians do it, but it'll do for now. Made it with curly fries too.

Mmmmm substitute poutine....

It sucks being on as 'casual' staff because management can change our schedule and they don't check if it's okay with you. They changed it and it interfered with my Outback Jacks shifts. AMF changed it and gave me more hours, so I'll have to call Ashley and tell her that I can't come in for 2 days. That sucks. I don't like telling work that I can't come in, especially when I told her in advance that I could work those days. That's life in the hospitality business I guess.

DJ Brett took the bus up to Dianella, where I lived, and we went to watch Underworld: Awakening. The movie wasn't that great. It had some obvious plots in it and a lot of one liners. Afterwards we chilled back at my place where he met Dave. We talked for a bit. Brett's thinking of coming to Canada after he gets married, but before he has kids.

Brett also talked a lot about politics and the economy. He's in the import and export business so I think he has to be up to date with some of that stuff. Not my cup of tea for conversation, but I don't mind listening to some interesting things.

Day 158 - February 27

Just stayed home and relaxed. It was 30 degrees with no clouds outside. I had 3 fans going in the living room. Didn't really help since it was blowing hot air everywhere. My advice, if you decide to live/visit Perth, find a place with air conditioning.

Day 157 - February 26

One of Nick's friends, Dave, moved in. He is only staying for 3 weeks then going back to Christchurch, New Zealand. He moved because he couldn't stand his current house mates. They got a dog and just leave it on the balcony. They don't walk it.  Dave was saying it just runs in circles and barks. Stupid owners. They should have no right to owning a pet if they can't take care of it properly. The house mates also don't pay their bills on time and just keep racking up debt. Not a good sign.

He moved into my old room which has just double mattress and a wardrobe.

Went to work for 6:00pm. Worked with Emily, Angela and Ashley (the manager). By the time it was 8:30pm, it was just Ashley and I, team Canada. Though she is from Montreal, she had a mixed accent of Irish and Australian. Kinda weird. I think she might have picked up the Irish accent because there are A LOT of Irish people in Perth.

There was a drunk guy that came in and ordered a steak. When the food was ready, I think he stumbled out. This counts as a walk out and apparently it comes out of our tips. Plus our tips were split amongst all the workers. This sucks as I got a $10 tip from one person who said I gave them great service. $10 is like huge since they don't tip in Australia. What makes it worse is that the workers are trained to skip the tipping section on the credit card machine. We don't even give the customers the chance to tip if they wanted to. This super sucks! I might not skip that part for the customer next time and see what happens.

We kept the steak in the kitchen under the heat lamp, in case the drunk guy came back. He didn't. At the end of my shift, I split the steak with one of the kitchen people. Even though it was medium done, the steak was still soft. It tasted awesome!

I was done at 10:00pm and started walking to my bus stop by the State Library. While I was walking there, I texted to see what time my bus would be there. It's an awesome idea. Calgary should do that. All you have to do is text the transit number the bus stop number and it will text you back the next 10 buses that would arrive. I got a text back that said 'no buses are available at this time'. Ah crap! With no cash on me and only $8 in the bank, I walked.

Never been this broke before haha

Haven't seen a Baskin Robbins since I was a kid.

I google mapped the time it would take and it said 1.5 hours. No problem.

It actually wasn't that bad of a walk. I had my headphones in and walked the quiet streets of Perth while the weather was around 18 degrees.

Just missing my horse.

Day 156 - February 25

Woke up and drove to the main street for coffee. I didn't get any bites from the mosquitoes, but I can't say the same for Paul. The cafe we went to served a mega coffee - 9 shots of expresso!! That's crazy. For $25. Though the mug looked cool cause it was the size of my head.

We then went to a nearby park to have lunch. This park didn't have tables, only benches. We looked like bums when we busted out the camping stove and started BBQing wieners, it was awesome.

Bananas and sausage? Must be an Irish theme or something. Paul handled it very well.....

Sausage, egg, tomato, bun, plate, air, grass, sunshine, what more could you ask for.

One Ozzie passed by and smiled and said 'good on ya mate'.
 
After lunch, it was time for Jenn and pauls tattoo. Paul bought her a tattoo voucher for Xmas. She got snow flakes on her back with the phrase 'this too shall pass'. It looked pretty good.

Paul got one on the bottom of his wrist that had Celtic meaning to it. Something about bananas and sausages or something. I got the usual dragon fighting a tiger on my back, nothing too fancy. Pretty much all asians have these. But my mom will kill me if she sees it....... she doesn't like tigers.

After we were done tattoos, we set out for the Busselton jetty. This jetty is the second longest wooden one in the world. it's long enough that you have the option of taking the train or walking it to the end. We walked it and made it our bitch.

There were a lot of people fishing on it too. I wished we had time for that. We could've busted out the camping stove again on the jetty. Then Paul would probably add sausage and bananas to it or something.

Is it wrong that I wanted to run behind these people and push them in the water?

My GQ pose.

One of my favorite pictures I took. Would've been perfect if these people weren't in it....

One of my other favorite pictures I took. Would've been perfect if the stupid Jetty wasn't in the way...

 Afterwards we drove back to good ol boring Perth.

Day 155 - February 24

Paul drove Jenn and I to Busselton. It was about 3 hours out of Perth. Once we got there, we looked for a place to stay as our plans were to get up early and make the most of Busselton and to see the Jetty.

We arrived at a backpackers where there was a bunch of drunk people in the court yard that welcomed us. The office only had a room for 2 people. We left to look elsewhere.

While driving around, we got pulled over by cops and Paul had to do a breathalyzer. They saw him swerve a bit on the road, but it was only because we were looking around for hostels. He passed and we were on our way to find another place to stay.

We found a motel that charged $100 for a night stay. It wasn't too bad for a room that had a single and a double bed. Only crappy thing was that there were a lot of moquitoes in the room. Luckily they didn't think my blood was sweet, but they kept going after Paul.

Day 154 - February 23

Worked with Zack from 9am-2pm at AMF. I took peoples order while zack did the cooking in the back.

One elderly woman came up with her order of chicken salad and complained to zack that it's not what she wanted. She wanted fish and chips. We don't sell fish and chips. Zack said that she has complained many times before. She tries to get free stuff by complaining. Man o man.... the things people try and do to get free food.
 
Went bowling with Brett, Jenn and Paul for $3 a game. Fun stuff. First game we bowled I beat everyone with my score of 104. Not too bad since I haven't bowled for almost a year.  Second game I bowled, I did almost the same, but this time everyone else did better than me. I think Jenn and Paul were hustling Brett and I. Paul bowled 4 strikes in a row!

 The Irishman 

The Australian

The Canadian Chick

The Canadian Asian

Went back to my place for cake and ice cream. While everyone was here, I got Paul to help me move my bed into nick's old room, which was bigger.

Day 153 - February 22

Another 3 hour training shift at AMF. I worked with Sharon again. Although she's older, she's fun to work with as she's young at heart for sure.

After working at AMF, I took a bus to work at OBJ, where I worked with Tom (assistant manager), Jennifer (server), Emma (server), Celeste (server) and Emily (food runner). This job is easier since we have a food runner to bring the food to the customers for us. All I have to do is take food orders and make sure their drinks are always topped up. Australians also like to say 'top up' as opposed to 'refill' or 'recharge'.

I also learned more of the OBJ menu. There were a lot of steak selections, some ribs, couple of chicken dishes, burgers and some seafood. Pretty good menu I'd say. Kinda expensive though for a regualr restaurant.

Day 152 - February 21

Worked the morning shift with Pujan and Dhiren. Dhiren was a cool guy from England. Relaxed like me and had a good sense of humour. I got along with him very well. I made a lot of coffee and a couple of ham and cheese toasted sandwiches. They call these sandwiches 'toasties'. It's a sandwich that is put in a grill, like the George Foreman Grill, so that it's pressed flat and becomes crispy. I made a lot of these sandwiches in Melbourne at the Harbour Kitchen Cafe.

Today was also my first working shift at Outback Jacks's. I worked with Ashley (the manager), Emma (server), Celeste (server) and Paige (food runner). All girls, sweet!

Ashley gave me a tour of the place. Celeste already did that last time, but I just went along with Ashley. Then she told me that Celeste would be training me. I didn't feel that I needed more training as I served tables on my own when I came in last time for the trial. I think that it's smart for Australian restaurants to do trials for new people to see if they can actually handle/do the job. In some, if not most, cases, it's better than a resume.

Day 151 - February 20

Worked my 4th of 6th training shifts. Kylie, my 21 year old boss, said that I was the easiest to train and that I'm done everything that a new employee needs to learn, but the company wants to stick with the 6 training shifts at 3 hours each before I can have a full shift.

I practiced on my coffee making skills. Worked with Sharon again. Always fun to work with her. Met Pujan. She's from Nepal. Since Kylie is leaving for vacation next week, Kylie will be putting her in charge while she's gone.

Finally found a coke bottle with my name on it!!

After work I went to try and get my WA license. I had everything they required: visa stamp, overseas drivers license, bank card, bank statement proving my address, work statement proving my address and my student ID card. Apparently the student ID is supposed to be from a school within WA. It didn't specify that on the sheet of requirements. This would be a cool souvenir. She could've just given me the WA license too, but she was being difficult. She said I could buy a proof of age card for $25 and use that card instead of the student ID card. $25 is not worth it just to get the free WA license since I can use my Canadian license to drive anyways. I'll try at another motor agency and see what happens.

Day 150 - February 19

Worked out again this morning. Over did it again. Felt a little dizzy afterwards. This heat is intense in Western Australia during summer time! Can't complain too much since it's snowing and freezing back in Calgary.

Ashley, the manager from Outback Jacks (OBJ), called and scheduled my first 3 shifts. I told her that if she wants me to work there, she has to work around my AMF work schedule. She agreed. Ashley is also Canadian, from Montreal. She came on a working holiday visa and met her current boyfriend and has since been in Australia for a couple of years. Outback Jacks has sponsored her to stay over a year. The conditions of sponsorship are that she must stay with that employer (OBJ) or find another employer that would sponsor her or face deportation within 2 weeks.

Day 149 - February 18

Brett came to Perth for his holidays. He's the Dj that Grace hires for the Harbour Kitchen cafe back in Melbourne.  Pretty cool guy. I decided that we should head to Fremantle, since I've never been there. We got there at about 12:30pm. We walked toward the Roundhouse, a prison, that was used from 1831-1886. It's also the oldest standing building in Western Australia. I read online that a canon is fired everyday at 1:00pm and I wanted to be there for that. The purpose is to give mariners and residents an exact daily time check. It has been an on-going tradition since 1900.

Punishment by order of being too Awesome!!

This could be right out of Looney Tunes.

Brett and I got there about 12:45pm and I was talking to the volunteer that was setting up the cannon. He asked if I wanted to fire the cannon at 1:00pm. "Hellz yeah" I beamed. As I waited for my time to shine, a couple of people asked the volunteer if they could fire the cannon, but he told them I was already picked. That's right people. Get out of my way, it's my cannon for the next 10 mins. I was told to put on ear muffs. The volunteer told a short story about the roundhouse. Then he and the crowd counted down from 10 and I fired the cannon. It was awesome! I even got a certificate that I was an honorary gunner officer. That's going on my resume.

Honorary Gunnery Officer
Be it known that on this day the above Honorary Gunner Officer discharged the Signal Cannon situated on the Gun Deck of the Round House Precinct in the City of Fremantle, Western Australia.
The Officer carried out the duties to the satisfaction of all present.

After that we headed for lunch at Cicerello's for their famous fish and chips (supposed to be the best in all of Western Australia). It was pretty good. I probably should've gotten something different since I've already had fish and chips before.

Shit On You.

We walked by the Little Creatures micro brewery but we were too full to stop for a beer. The Fremantle Markets was our next stop. It was pretty busy. Picked up some mini buttons for my collection.  

We walked about the busy streets and passed by a candy shop. Bought White Reese's Pieces. I usually have to have coffee or something hot when I eat chocolate, so we sat at a cafe and I ordered a mocha and Brett had a milkshake. It was funny to watch Brett eat one as he was so surprised at it. He'd never had a butter cup in his life! He was all like "how do I eat this?", all I could do was laugh. It tasted sweeter than the regular milk chocolate Reeses cup.

We headed back to a scooter car rental place that we passed by and rented it for 30 mins for $40. We took it for a spin around the busy parts of Fremantle. It was a lot of fun. People were watching us as we buzzed down the streets and smiling. It was really loud, like a scooter. Only crappy thing was that we had to wear helmets, but still fun. Everytime I stopped at a red light and there was a car beside us, I would look at the driver and do the nod, then rev the engine. Got a lot of laughs through that. I even told a girl that was beside us and told her I could get this baby up to 40 clicks haha.

Better watch out for this crazy Asian driver!!

After driving the scooters around, it was back to Perth. I texted Paul and Jenn to meet up for drinks with us. They agreed. Brett needed to change so we headed back to his hotel, which was directly behind where Jenn lives! We all met up and walked to the Moon & Sixpence pub. It was a pub that didn't reject me because I was wearing board shorts. Lots of places that have security/bouncers will not let people in that are wearing board shorts. I finished a pint, which is pretty rare for me. It was good times!


Ghosts of Perth.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 148 - February 17

Worked at the bowling centre from 10am-1pm. Kylie, the cafe manager, felt sick and was going home. She said to just help out Sharon, around 38 years old?, with the cafe. Super nice and bubbly. She's been there for 3 years. We had a small rush of people at lunch time. It was a group of bowlers that have mental disabilities. I had a bit of a challenge hearing what they wanted to order, but only more difficult because I'm new and I don't know all the products that we sell. Some patience and some help from Sharon and all went well. I took the orders and served drinks while Sharon cooked all the hot food in the kitchen.
 
I'm getting better at making coffees. I'm glad I'm working at a place where we get free coffee! Plus I can practice on making latte art.

It still sucks that the training shifts are 3 hours maximum. I wanted to work longer.
 
My body still ached a bit from working out 2 days ago. I'm weak sauce.

Made Hokkien noodle stiry-fry with mince beef, red capsicums and cabbage for dinner.

Kinda sucks that I'm always cooking for myself when there's lots of leftovers. I'll probably be cooking for my family and friends more often when I go back home. Now that I've made so many meals, I love cooking!

I was hanging out on my patio and saw a new housemate.

Day 147 - February 16

Hung out at home today. My housemate Nick came home after his last shift of work. He was flying back home to New Zealand the next morning. He said that his work didn't have a gathering or parting gift for him. Having worked there for so many years he was a little disappointed.

Nick went out for drinks with some of his friends. When he came back later that night, I had bought him a farewell chocolate cake. The three of us, including Cait, sat and chatted for a bit while having the yummy dessert. Cait didn't like chocolate cake though, so she had beers instead.

Day 146 - February 15

Woke up with intentions to work out.... And I did! Maybe worked out too hard though. Haven't worked out for a long time and the heat here makes it harder. Started off with a 2 km run around the park, then used the outdoor work out stations. Pretty cool that the city promotes exercise. I think Calgary has a lot to learn from other cities. 

Once I got home from working out, I got a call from Outback Jacks restaurant. The manager, Jason, asked if I was still looking for a job. I told him that I found one with AMF already and that I don't know if I would be able to take on another job. I told him to keep my resume till next week and that I would find out my schedule for the bowling alley when I work on Friday. He insisted that I come down for a trial anyways and that if it worked out, then I could work next week if I had free time. He seemed kinda desperate and I thought that since there's nothing to lose, I said I would do a trial from 7:00pm-9:00pm that night.
 
I met Celeste at Outback Jacks (OBJ). She was to train me as Jason was already off work. Her name was close to the name I would use if I had a daughter, Celes. Super cute, but super young. (This is where my friends would make fun of me about me and dating younger girls). She showed me around and taught me what they do. I was already familiar with everything since I've already done restaurant work.
 
OBJ also had a 30 minute challenge. You had to finish 1 kg of meat, potato wedges, and veggies. If you do, you win a tshirt, a voucher for your next visit, and a photo on the wall of champions. I think they should include a plunger too, for when the person clogs up the toilet the next morning. I think I may have to try this before I go back home.
 
I served 2 tables myself and Celeste said I did great, naturally haha. I even served some Manchester boys where one of them had an aunt from Calgary! I left after I was done my trial. I was unsure of working there when I talked to Jason on the phone, but now I really want to work there. I miss having interactions with customers.

We also get a choice of either wearing a cowboy hat or a regular hat. I'm from Calgary bitch, gimme the cowboy hat!