Day 312! Well, today was yet another day that my schedule didn’t reflect what my hours worked actually were… but this isn’t a problem because, well, I’m here to work!! Today was a lot of fun. I had a blast working and the live band during the night shift was a hit too! Overall another great day!

I’ve gotten very used to waking up at 8:30am now. It’s become a good routine to wake up on the earlier side to take time for a good breakfast and spend time relaxing before work.

Today I started work at noon, so I had plenty of time to check off some boxes this morning.

I made myself breakfast and then plopped back into bed to work on my first task of the morning.

The bar has gaming machines (slot machines) and horse betting/kino betting. All of which, I cannot help with because I don’t have my RCG (Responsible Conduct of Gambling). My manager asked me to get this so I can be helpful when it comes to dealing with these different gambling situations and it will help me maintain my busy work schedule. So this morning I spent time searching for an online training and told my boss what day I chose.

I found one, on the cheaper side, for this upcoming Tuesday and it’s a 7 hour virtual classroom… it’s going to be a long class!

After this. I cooked up some chicken I’ve had defrosting for the last couple of days. I wanted to make sure I cooked it before it went bad!

I then read my book for an hour and when 11am rolled around, I flipped open my laptop, set my book down, and turned on some KU basketball!

I was super excited to finally be able to catch a game. And better yet, they were playing UNC, which is my dad’s Alma mater! The first half was insanely good for such an early season game and KU looked HOT!

I didn’t get to watch the entire game since I had to head into work. But the end score was super close and KU pulled out the win! Rock Chalk Jayhawk! … sorry dad!

I headed into work just before noon and started my 3 hour shift. This was the first of two shifts today. This shift was another busy and good one. There wasn’t anything too crazy special about this shift. But it was busy all the way until a little bit before I clocked off at 3pm. My friends Holly and Rachel were there this morning with some of their friends too! It was nice to see them again and I think they’ll be here every weekend.

I had a 2 hour break, but I didn’t feel like going to the beach today. I wanted to just relax… it’s been a long week! I made myself some very tasty tuna, humus, mayo, cheese, tomato wraps and had a couple mandarin oranges too. It was a delicious lunch and then I played guitar for a bit and worked more on the songs I’ve been writing!

After that, I spent a bit more time reading in bed… but then it was already time to head back into work!

I started work back up at a little before 5pm and was slated to knock off at 8pm… but I had a feeling I’d be staying much later.

The night shift starts super slow, but we had a number of staff on… so I wasn’t too sure how long my night was going to be. But as the night progressed, the bar got busier and busier. So much so we started running out of things… but we kept pushing through. And before I knew it, it was midnight and we were closing up!

For my break, I decided to treat myself (as a good job for crushing the job and working a ton of hours) and I got a steak… but it was only $20 because of the 50% odd during work. It is annoying that I have food at home to eat, but I gotta eat during my break to make it through the shift.

The band was super good tonight and was rocking out to a bunch of sing along songs. My friends Will and Angus were at the bar tonight and so were a couple of their friends I met the other day! It’s really fun being able to say hello to people by name and have them just as enthusiastic about seeing me at work.

I didn’t realize this, but I found this out after the night ended. There’s a way to see how much in sales you did on a specific till (we have 4 of them) and on two of them I had the most sales. On one specific till I had around 400 drinks minimum! Which is wild!

We cleaned up the bar and restaurant and closed everything up. Once we finished it was about 1am and then we hung out at the pool table, having some beers and enjoying each other’s company. I’m really clicking with my coworkers and it’s becoming more and more of a blast working with them as we get to know each other better.

Tomorrow… I have work starting at 10am. Soooo I need as much sleep as I can get. Next week I’m working every day as well! It’s going to be a very busy week but hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in some surfing soon!! It’s the main reason I’m in Yamba and in Australia!!

– Elie