Day 306! Well originally I had planned to have a very relaxing day after a late (and long) workday. But the bar had another idea. But, I can’t complain! I was very happy to be called into work.

I hadn’t planned on going to bed at 2am, but probably something I’ll need to get used to as the summer rolls closer. But because of this, I tried sleeping in as long as possible.

Of course didn’t work super well because of the sun blasting through my windows. But I did lie in bed for a while just resting.

I watched some episodes of Bleach and read some of my new book. Eventually, I got up and had breakfast.

After I ate; I promptly lied back down into bed where I was planning on staying for a while before eventually heading to the beach.

But a few minutes after 12:30pm, I received a text from my manager asking me if I wanted to work now! I of course said yes and had an inkling that they were swamped and understaffed. I wasn’t going to pass up on the opportunity to make more money, practice my bartending skills, and show my manager I’m here to work!

I quickly threw on my work clothes, walked up the hill, and got right to work.

I was very correct in my expectation of the bar being swamped. There was a mountain of glasses needing to be dealt with and a bunch of people wanting drinks on top of that. It honestly felt like last night because of the few amount of bartenders (2 others and myself added on).

It was a lot of fun and the older crowd was in having lunch and brunch. I had a lot of friendly banter with people about where I was from, peoples travels, and actually chatted with a couple from Wyoming! I ended up working all the way till 4pm and it took till about 3pm for things to die down enough for us to be able to fully restock and clean up the bar.

My manager thanked me a number of times for hopping up to the hotel so fast. He’s pretty lucky that I live so close and hadn’t gone to the beach yet! I chatted with him a bit about when I might see the cleaning pop up on my schedule and he said it’ll probably start closer to the end of the week, but he hasn’t had a chance to work on that yet.

But not only did my managers thanks end verbally. When I got back home, I got a notification that my shifts for next week updated. And I got an additional two shifts for Thursday and Sunday! So it looks like my efforts paid off (literally).

While I started my walk home, I decided I was going to treat myself to a meal out on the town. Mainly because I knew my chicken wasn’t defrosted yet, but I also just made money I wasn’t expecting to make! I first attempted going to the Wobbly Chook to see if they were still serving food and see if the people I met were working.

One of them was, but she told me they finished serving food already. So I went on to a restaurant I knew was good, Wishbine Eatery.

I came here in my first week of being in Yamba. But this time, I met a worker named Angel who is friends with a number of my coworkers at the hotel (she recognized my polo work shirt).

We chatted a bit while I waited for my food, which was nice. Good to know that everyone knows everyone and hopefully I can get, at least close, to that point too.

I devoured this delicious sandwich of spicy southern fried chicken and then headed home for a much needed shower and more rest.

I played some guitar, but I mainly went back to reading and watching the TV show.

I was fairly tired, but I didn’t want to mess up my sleep schedule too much by going to bed super early. So I forced myself to stay up and by the time I decided to go to bed, I was ready to crash!

As much as I would’ve enjoyed a beach day, I’m very glad I could hop into work! I know I’m probably the closest one to the hotel, but it’s good to know my manager thinks he can count on me in times like that! Hopefully it continues to be that way and it maybe means I’ll get more shifts sooner.

But, as always, we’ll see!

– Elie