Day 359! 6 more days till a full year of traveling and 8 more days until I get the all clear on my fractured foot! Exciting times!

Today, I experienced my first Australian Boxing Day! It was a VERY busy day at the pub and it felt like all of Yamba was out celebrating the day. (Unfortunately I have no pictures from the day)

I woke up this morning at 9:30am, I felt refreshed and ready for a big day. My morning however, was a pretty slow start.

I got ready for my day and made myself breakfast. I heard we were getting a new roommate today, so I was going to be able to meet him at some point during the day!

He wasn’t around yet, so I went back to my room and relaxed for the entire morning. I watched some My Hero Academia, the newest episodes of Bleach, and read more of Oathbringer (the book I’m currently reading). I have about 150 pages left, so I’ll probably finish it pretty soon!

Lunch time rolled around and I made myself a couple tuna sandwiches. And while doing so, my new roommate came out of his room! The guys name is Rex and he’s from Rhode Island, a fellow American! Not only that, he’s only a year or two older than me, so I now have someone my age around the house too.

We chatted for a bit and it turns out he’ll only be around for a month. But I’m looking forward to having him around and hanging out, he seems like a nice guy!

I went back to my room for a little more relaxing before work. I strummed on the guitar for a bit and then my friends Sam and Paddy came by to pick me up!

We rolled up to work at 3:55pm and it was BUSY at the hotel. This was easily the busiest day I’ve seen at the pub yet. When we got inside, we immediately got to work and pretty much didn’t leave that spot for the entire night! I sold thousands of drinks within the 6 hours I was working… we even had to close the pub down early so we didn’t over serve people.

But, it was a blast! There were a lot of familiar faces, tourists, and lots of fun banter with both! Mainly though, it was just order after order after order. Funnily enough, this was what it felt like at bars back home… so I couldn’t imagine doing that every night I worked. But, it’d be 10x more fun than slow nights.

I’m not going to say the figure, but the bar actually sold the most amount of drinks and food tonight than it ever has. So that was fun to be a part of.

We closed the bar at 9pm and then ended up cleaning for about an hour afterwards. Then it was time to have a beer and play some pool! I’m so glad I still have access to a pool table. The days of playing pool in Koh Tao were such a blast and every time I play it reminds me of those memories.

Speaking of Koh Tao, I was chatting with my friend Kit recently. He’s now a dive instructor and has been taking out students! He said he’s loving it even more than being a divemaster. Hopefully I’ll get to go see him in Koh Tao within the next year!

Tomorrow I’m right back at it! I’ll be working the night shift again. It’ll be interesting to see if people want to come out again or if today was too much for them… I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

– Elie

(Sorry for the lack of pictures… not much to show for today. Hope you enjoy the festive Boxing Day photo I found on Google)