Day 309! After a long night out, I definitely needed a lie in today… but work had other plans! Now of course I’m more than happy to hop on extra shifts. This is a WORK and holiday visa after all. But I gotta say, the morning shift started out a little rough.

I honestly slept terribly last night. Not only was it due to a long day of drinking… but it was super humid! I probably need to invest in a fan soon, that will definitely help with my sleep.

But when I woke up, I saw that I had a notification from my work app. I had two shifts today! And one was starting at 12pm… so my ideal day of rotting in bed turned into a full blown work day. I was happy to have more work, but I knew it’d be a tough day.

I got myself out of bed, showered, and made myself a big breakfast.

Kiwi has been such a nice touch to my breakfast. Especially since the jam I use is strawberry, it’s like I’m eating a strawberry kiwi drink. I scarfed down my breakfast and had about 20 minutes to sit in bed and read before having to head to work.

My first shift was nice and easy. It was a short two hour morning shift that was full of glass cleaning, restocking the fridges, and pouring beers.

I have this vague feeling I was thrown on to work to chat with people about the election. Almost everyone asked me about it!

The two hours flew by and before I knew it, I was walking back down the hill to my home for lunch.

I whipped up a quick, but tasty tuna sandwich. I put hummus, cheese, pesto, and tomato’s on it which made it insanely scrumptious.

I had about an hour after I finished to just hang out and relax. I played guitar for about half the time. And then I switched over to reading more of my book. I have a lot of the book to get through before it needs to be returned or renewed at the library.

My second work shift started at 4pm and was supposed to go to 7pm. But, that wasn’t the case in the end.

The start of my shift was a bit slow, but once the dinner rush came in it was a blast. Plenty of drinks to serve, lots of glasses to clean, and a fun group of coworkers to work alongside. At one point early in the night, I heard a kid yelling about seeing a whale.

I didn’t necessarily believe him, but sure enough, I took a look outside for a little and I saw the spout of water coming out of a whales blowhole! I didn’t see the whale itself, but that was really cool to see. I believe Yamba is a spot for whale migration!

8pm rolled around and I realized I was in for the rest of the night. So I ordered a cheap meal and got myself a big chicken schnitzel, which so far is my favorite meal at the restaurant.

I finished up and then helped slowly close down the bar.

I was clearing some dishes at one point and when I was in the back of the restaurant, the chocolatier was restocking. When I saw one of the boxes of chocolate I gave a “ooo,” letting him know they looked really good (we have a local chocolate company selling some of their chocolates here. He ended up popping one to me, for free, that was a “Christmas pudding” truffle. It was decadent and exactly what I needed to finish out my shift.

The shift ended just about 11pm! It ended up being such a long day, but a good one! I’m really enjoying this work, but it’s definitely exhausting. One of my days off coming up might end up being a sleeping day… maybe on the beach!

Tomorrow I have another all day shift, but this one I knew about 😉

– Elie

Just an aside, I’m very disappointed in how the election turned out back home for many reasons. For selfish reasons, I don’t know what it’ll mean for work and holidays in the future. Hopefully the US relations with other countries will be okay, but only time will tell. We will see what happens over the next four years, but everyone should remember that home doesn’t have to be a place, it’s the people you surround yourself with. If we continue to spread love and positivity, it’ll give the people around us a family no matter the circumstances or where you’re at in the world ❤️