29th Sep 2011 - 15th Oct 2011
What a busy few weeks we have had, moved out the hostel and moved into lovely apartment and started work..... The eight bed dorm in a converted train facing the real railway station was fine as dorms go, the other people in room chatted to us and was fine, but we started counting down the days til we moved into our new apartment, as the communal areas were being a pain in the ass. With too many different nationalities and accents trying to out shout each other the place looked like, well like a hostel..
'' WORK '' Whilst travelling down to Sydney I applied for a few jobs on www.seek.au I got a phone call and I went for an interview at BLUE Sydney a boutique hotel in the centre of Woolloomooloo. The interview went well and they even asked about Shannon too and asked to email his resume. The next morning I got a call saying I got the job, my role is 'Welcome Ambassador'. They also asked Shannon to attend an interview and he too got the job!!
So we started together, met all the staff who seem friendly. We observed and learned about the role of 'Welcome Ambassador', it incorporates several roles- attending to guests checking in/out of the hotel, taking guests to their rooms and explaining room/hotel features and also valeting the cars. We have been told to expect some really posh/expensive cars. So far we have driven cool cars like, Mercedes, Range Rover Sport, Audi, BMW, Lexus, Jaguar etc.
We are still in training but are doing everything ourselves, we haven't many shifts together which is annoying as we are working on opposites and don't see much of each other but we have mentioned it to our duty manager so hopefully it will change. The uniform is a nice striped shirt with Paisley print cuffs. I look a bit like a butch lesbian security guard though as we have a headset/radio and a jumper as it's not yet too hot. Also the job is primarily a guys job but they don't like to discriminate, I am in fact the first female to do this job though, so I'm there lifting heaving cases and jumping in cars, hair pulled back acting all manly, hence I feel like a (stereotypical) lesbian.
The pay is good at $17.81 per hour but we are working 5 days a week so will take home about $550 each a week which is good. We are also getting really good tips, between $10 and $40 a day each. Now a little bit about the hotel and Woolloomooloo... The finger Wharf on Woolloomooloo Bay was built I915 and used as a wool and wheat warehouse, then the war came and it was used for immigration housing, then it was claimed a heritage building and was turned into a hotel, apartment complex and restaurants, there has been very little change to the building and the old conveyor belts which transported the wool to the ships are still in place. The wharf is only 1km west from the city centre and very close to circular quay.
The hotel is boutique with 100 rooms either facing the navel base or the botanical gardens and city and the harbour. Blue was named Top hotel in Oceania in 2010 by Conde Nast, and the Waterbar was named best bar of 2011 in all of NSW.
Famous Faces at the Wharf....Russell Crowe owns a penthouse apartment, Nicole Kidman used to live here, Brian McFadden lives here and we have seen him so many times now, he eats at a restaurant across the road, Natalie Basingthwaite (voo doo dolls singer and x factor australia judge) also lives here and I seen her one night after a music event at the wharf and she was so funnily drunk, two guys walked past and were like 'your off the telly' so she started jumping around doing the x factor pose with her arms. Marcia Hines (singer) lives here too, spoke to her. And also at the music event I seen the host of Australia's deal or no deal. We had Vanessa Amorosi (absolutely everybody singer) stay in the hotel and Shan took her to her room. She was filming x factor that night, and I saw her later and spoke to her. Phew thinks that's all the celeb spotting so far. '' SLEEP '' So we also moved into our new apartment at *55/7 Broome Street, Waterloo, Sydney 2017*.
We managed to move and start work all within days of each other so settled in pretty quickly. Everyone we speak to says we done very well sorting everything out within two weeks of moving to Sydney. Our apartment is in a good location, and extremely handy for Coles supermarket, which is opposite us, the apartment is on split levels, and the Korean couple who kinda own the place live on the bottom floor and we have upstairs so it feels private. We have a big room with balcony and built in wardrobes, decent enough sized kitchen with coffee maker etc, dining and big living room with balcony which overlooks the communal gardens. Included in the reasonable (Sydney anyway) price of $330 a week, all bills including Internet, and use of huge gym, 4 swimming pools, saunas and jacuzzis.
'' PLAY '' In the little free time we have (due to us working opposite shifts) we have taken the time to go exploring the city. We went to an art gallery and took a guided tour of the aboriginal artefacts which was interesting but after an hour we were ready to leave. We went to a festival which is held every october I believe, at Darling Harbour which is a Latin American themed fiesta. We watched a Brazilian street parade and soaked up the atmosphere.
We have been to the cinema to watch 'crazy stupid love' which had lots of famous actors which made it good, and we also watched 'The Lion King' in 3D which was just as good as we remembered from our childhoods, except this time we found it funny and picked up on jokes kids wouldn't understand. We also went to the aquarium and had a fun day out seeing fishes including nemo, turtles, and sharks! Thats the only sharks I want to see in Australia!! And had more pub dinners and Nando's. We have been catching up with x factor UK too on you tube, rooting for Sami! We also got amazing views when we walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
'' RANT '' This should have a WARNING label on this........ So as I said before lots of different nationalities around Sydney. And we like to play a game whilst walking down the street- it was however very un politically correct (so I apologise)- but we counted the whites versus Asians (Japanese/Chinese/Korean). And we were beat 1 to 4. Shan said his numbers only went up (he was counting whites) because we walked past a Irish bar. We did however read the real statistics which were the same, many many Asians out number the natives (wherever the natives descend from is a different matter). Oo sorry that all sounds a bit rude of me, but believe me it feels like we are walking down chinatown- constantly. At work, like everywhere else I go since leaving Scotland, people just can't seem to understand me. I try and try to talk better and clearer but people are just so ignorant. I have guests daily ask me if I'm Irish!! They don't even say 'ah so where you from? ' they just come out with 'ah so where in Ireland you from?' or 'thats an Irish accent I see' or 'how did an Irish girl end up in sydney' or 'sorry I didn't understand you are you Irish?'.... I have came to the conclusion they are un-educated. Who ever speaks to me wherever I am be it Australian, Nepalese, English, Polish etc I understand them all, I might not pick up on every word but I am educated enough to get what they are saying, I'm never rude enough to say, 'sorry I don't understand you with that accent'. And I am meaning everyday at least twice someone asks me either am I Irish or that they didn't understand me, and believe me I am trying to talk more clearer just to please these idiots and Shan gets annoyed when i say I try talk clearer cause he can understand everything I say and says I shouldn't change for anyone but they make me MAAAAD!!