Day 320! We’re officially a month and a half away from an entire year of traveling! It’s pretty incredible what I’ve gotten to do over this year and there’s still so much more to come! Today I finally had a full Sunday shift (that I was scheduled for) and then I received a late night message asking me if I wanted to jam…

My stomach was still quite full when I woke up this morning. I guess two late night pies would do it. So after getting up at 8am, to make it to work in time for my 10am shift, I made myself a light breakfast.

I had purchased an avocado the other day when I stopped by my local grocer. I’m sure most of you are aware by now, but I love avocado toast!

I didn’t have a ton of time after I ate, but for the few minutes I did have remaining, I cracked open my book and read. And, as always, I had to pry myself away to head up the hill for work.

The 10am start consists of a lot of restocking from the night prior… doing late night into early morning is definitely tough too, but with a simple start it’s not too bad. But today picked up a lot quicker than the other Sundays.

We had a really large group come in for someone’s 20th wedding anniversary, another group for a persons 70th birthday celebration, and a lot of locals and other patrons. It was nice to ease into the day with restocking and then get the adrenaline and moving around kicking in to make the day fly by.

Before I knew it, it was 2pm and the kitchen was closing in 30 minutes. Now, most Sundays (so far), my manager would’ve sent me home and said, “I’ll probably need you for dinner, but we’ll see.” And then he’d either text me or not. But today, he told me he wanted me to hang around. So I hopped over to the bistro and ordered my lunch.

Now it came a lot sooner than I was going to eat it. Thankfully we have a little heater for times like this, so my food wasn’t going to go bad or cold.

But we kept working and working till around 3pm, which is when I finally got to take my break.

My shift was scheduled till 6pm, a 7.5 hour shift (8 hours including my lunch break)! But as we got closer and closer to 6pm, the bar was still very busy.

There was a triathlon in town today, so I think a lot of people were around for that. Probably adding to the busyness, and my manager told me that after this rush, I should head home. That lasted till about 6:30pm when it was finally time for me to clock off.

Even with a late night and a long, busy work shift, I wasn’t feeling too tired! So after my walk back home, I made myself dinner, did my laundry, and started reading more.

I thought my night was going to be coming to an early close… I was pretty tired by this point and was wanting to catch up on my lack of sleep. But, my night had different plans.

I got a text from my friend Paddy, my managers son (Sam’s younger brother), and he asked me if I wanted to come jam! How could I say no to that?!

A half hour later, he came to pick me up. Then we picked up his girlfriend, my manager, and another coworker of mine from the hotel. We all piled into the truck and made our way across town to a storage shed that had a perfect set up for a jam sesh.

There was a drum kit, guitar, bass, amps, and even a piano (verryyyy out of tune). I had never played an electric guitar before but it was actually way easier than an acoustic! Paddy and I switched off on the guitar and when I was playing, he played the drums and when he was playing, I actually hopped onto the bass guitar.

I’ve wanted to try out the bass for a long time and I’m glad I finally got to! It was a blast! It’s a pretty simple instrument at its roots, so I was able to pick it up quickly, but it’s an instrument that’s easy to learn hard to master for sure.

We probably jammed for 4 hours and the time flew by… we played countless songs, ranging from country to rock, and we also just jammed out and made up some songs as we went.

This is something I hope we do plenty plenty more of and when Sam is around, he’ll be joining us as well!

Before we knew it, it was 2 freaking am… another night staying up way too late. BUT, what an amazing way to spend it! I really made the right choice coming to this town.

Earlier in the day, my manager said something very kind to me. He said to me, “you’re crushing it, really, you have an incredible work ethic and a lot of people could learn from you.” This was a really nice compliment to get, it always feels good when hard work is appreciated. BUT, it’s easy for me to be in a position to work and work hard… I don’t have much else to do!

Also, I think it’s important to do every job as good as you can. It’s how I was raised, it’s how to make a good impression, and it’s what leads to new friends, future jobs, and any numerous amounts of connections. I got my engineering job by working hard as a mascot, I got my video editing job by working hard as an engineer, and I got my dream lifestyle by being willing to do jobs some people wouldn’t want to do (maybe excluding scuba diving).

Anyways, I think it’s apparent I’m enjoying my time in Australia. We’re just a couple days away from a full month in Yamba, time is flying by. Before I know it it’ll be January and I’ll be seeing my parents in Sydney!! And then… it’ll quickly be time for rural work, and then time for a vacation within the vacation within the vacation to the US!

– Elie