Last Day at Searock

Sunday was my last day at the bar and luckily for me, it was a warm and sunny day and I only was rostered on until 5pm, just in time to avoid working happy hour! We had some live music from a girl called Reagan who was doing some amazing covers with a DJ, they have a kinda 80s vibe going on and very voice is insane, and the vibe in the bar was really lively. I clocked off, grabbed a drink and went and joined Amie, who'd also just finished work, and we chilled on the lounges in the sun outside. 

Slowly, every half an hour someone else would finish work and would come and join us, and in the end we had a bit of a spontaneous party. Free drinks from the bosses and free pizza from the Italian restaurant next door drew even more people over, and we all stayed out watching the sun go down over the harbour until late. 

Everyone was far too nice to me - going to miss you guys! We've had a lot of fun together at Searock but I am very ready to get out and do some travelling now, but I promise to come back for a drink or too soon. 

B

Grace's Massage

By chance, as well as Oli, Grace also bought me a massage for my birthday - can't complain! We hadn't found time to go together yet, but eventually we were both free on Tuesday and met at Circular Quay and caught the ferry across the harbour to Neutral Bay. Seeing as we live in the Eastern Suburbs below in Sydney, we hardly spend any time in the Northern Beaches, so it was nice to go on a little adventure.

We went to this lovely little place called Thai Waya and had the most relaxing full body thai massage. It was very different to the one I had on my spa day, as at Park Hyatt they used a lot more oil etc. and this massage was more about working out the knots and all our stress from exams (well, Grace's stress.... I'm not feeling particularly stressed at the moment!). They properly climbed all over us and even used their knees to massage us! Kinda bizarre but actually amazing. I'm going to have to be careful not to get too used to weekly massages...!

Afterwards we stopped by a bar right next door called Cactus Blue and decided we would just have 'one drink' before we caught the ferry back. Several drinks and a free birthday-shot of absinthe on the house (!? and also bleugh) from the barman later, we finally left. We should have seen that coming.... look at the size of our wine glasses buckets.....!

The ferry ride home back into Circular Quay was amazing. Its nice to get out on the water sometimes and properly take in the Opera House and the bridge from a different perspective. The city is always so impressive at night.

Thank you Gracie for a lovely girly evening! Loving the fact that I've somehow managed to drag my birthday out for a good three weeks....

B

Sydney Running Festival

The city was in chaos today as it was the Sydney Running Festival and there were people running EVERYWHERE. There's an organized 10km run, half marathon and marathon and they all end at Sydney Opera House. My bar is in prime location as all the runners run past on their home straight! Getting to work was a right pain though because all the buses stopped on Elizabeth Street and I had to talk down to Circular Quay, darting across the running routes and dodging speedy runners.

Coming down into the harbour

Home straight!

400m to go

Looking out from my bar towards the last leg of the race along the Quay

When I got to Searock it was dead as everyone was being very conservative as it was 10 o'clock in the morning, however things soon picked up a bit as everyone wanted to celebrate and have a drink. Endless runners came in with their medals, looking very pleased with themselves. I happened to notice that most of them were only the 10km runners though... perhaps the half and full marathon runners take their sport more seriously! Anyhow, it was fun to join in with the celebrations and the atmosphere down in the harbour was amazing.

Tally also dropped by for some drinks and I managed to wangle her some oysters for a quarter of the price they usually are! She's celebrating her last week in Sydney as she leaves on Saturday and so she's benefiting from the perks of having a friend who works in a bar...! 

Going to be so sad to see her go but I'm not jealous of her returning to the British winter...

B

First Shift

I've just got home from my first shift at Searock Bar. Compared to what I'm used to on festival bars, the work is pretty easy, it's just a case of learning the ins and outs of the bar and the system they use there. None of the staff ran off with a till float with £2000 in it, no one passed in the stock lorry after snorting too much Ketamine, none of the customers jumped over the bar and stole four bottles of Jägermeister (this things have all happened on my bars at festivals...) so it was pleasantly calm! The tills are easy to use once you know your way around them and everything else is pretty easy. Certain beers go in certain glasses, different glasses for soft drinks and spirits, y'know, the usual. The most annoying thing is remembering all the different names of all the wines and the switch of the house wines at happy hour, but I'll be fine after I've done a few more shifts. 

The thing I love most of all is the location of my bar! This is my view walking to work, from when I hop off the bus at Circular Quay, to just as I arrive....

This is the outside area, you can see how amazing the view is, it's literally right on the water looking straight out to the harbour bridge!

The people I work with are nice too. Today, there was Emma, who was the girl I did my trial shift with,  Sean, who's been working there for several months, and Marcus, who's a German boy working out here on a holiday visa. The bar did get busy but it was nothing compared to the mayhem I'm used to and apparently that's about as busy as it gets, so that means it'll never be horrendous. We have to clock in and out with a proper little time card which you put into a machine and it stamps the time onto it, which is so bizarre for me! I'm used to just signing a bit of paper. I think it's good for me to work in a smart bar and do things a bit differently, as running a festival bar is more about the man-management, whereas here its about the service.

I worked from 4pm-11.30pm and so at $20 I've made $150! In one shift! We do get taxed 25% though (we can claim it back) but it's still a hefty bit of money for one evening. I've got to fill in a load of paperwork tonight regarding my visa, my tax file number blah blah and hand it in tomorrow so that I'll be paid for this weekend. What I like about Searock is that it's run pretty efficiently because it's an upmarket bar, and so no hours get left out and no one will ever be under paid. 

I closed the bar with Sean and Marcus, and Sean taught me how everything was done and explained to me what the standard our manager Anton was expecting for everything. Apparently his pet hate is splash marks on the edges of the bar, so that's one to remember! Once I get the hang of things I'll be cocktail trained so that I can do everything. It seems that everyone's expected to do a bit of everything, whether thats bar-backing, cocktails, general service etc. so today was a bit nuts as they were having to teach me everything all at once.

Here's a few candid shots I got of the inside of the bar as we were closing down...

It's not particularly glamorous, but it is smart and the bar's main attraction is the location and the view - it's a bit of a tourist hotspot so it draws a lot of people who're just stopping in for a nice drink whilst they're in the harbour. It's not a place we'd all go out to, but I'm happy because it just works for me because it's a fun place to work and has got good pay, and it never really closes later than 11pm so I won't be working stupid hours which is nice. Plus, two of my friends, Grace and Kellie, work in our sister restaurant next door (where we only pay $7 for any food when usually everything is at least triple that! Score!) so I can see them and go to and from work with them on the bus if our shifts coincide.

All in all, it seems like this job is going to work nicely for me to help get some pennies in so that I can travel in the Christmas holiday!

I'm working from 1pm tomorrow and need to be up much earlier in the morning to get stuff done so best be off to sleep now.

B

Got The Job!

The other day I roamed around the city and went down to Circular Quay to hand in my CV (or 'resumé' as they call it out here) at the sister bar to the restaurant where my friend Kellie works. The bar is called Searock Bar and is on the eastern side of Circular Quay, just before the Opera Bar. Its right in the heart of the city so it's very multicultural as many visiting tourists come there to the harbour to see the bridge and the Opera House.

When I handed in my CV, I spoke to the Manager, Anton, who chatted to me briefly about my experience, and he seemed pretty positive after I said I was a Manager of festival and events bars in the UK, and told me to come in for a trial shift at 12pm on Friday. I also was doubly qualified as I have my Personal Licence (a requirement for all of the Peppermint Core Team now), and my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol), which is basically the Australian equivalent of the Personal Licence, which I did online the other day, which is a big bonus out here! 

The trial shift went well (it was so quiet, I only served about four people) and Anton gave me the job and said he'd email me the next day with my hours. So... I'm employed! The pay is amazing too, I get $20/h for week days, and then $22 for Saturday, and $26 on a Sunday! Oh yeahhhhhhh.

Harry, who is a good friend from home, arrived this morning from the UK as he is crashing at my place for a few days before he heads out to the Hunter Valley for work. He's working with race horses and just completed a training course at Newmarket and has now moved out here to work at Coolmore for several months with his own stallion. Pretty impressive stuff! He's here until Sunday morning and so we're going to go and explore Bondi tomorrow as the weather is supposed to be nice.

He arrived at 8.30am this morning and met me at the burrito place downstairs. He knew he was going to have no phone or internet when he arrived here, so I drew him a map of where he had to get to and what time he should meet me and emailed it to him. When I came downstairs to wait for him, I was expecting to have to wait a while as I thought he'd probably get lost (definitely judging others by my own standards there... whoops...) but he was already there! All in one piece with all his luggage.... but with a broken phone. Everything had gone so well and the journey had been so easy up until he got off the bus and dropped it face down. Silly boy.

I helped him with his luggage upstairs and as I had a lecture from 9 - 10am, he just chilled and showered at mine and relaxed a bit after his mammoth journey. We decided that the best way to beat jet lag was just to adjust to the time of the country you were in, and so rather than going to sleep he came with me down to Circular Quay to see the harbour and where I was hoping to work etc., and then he went off and shopped for some essentials whilst I was at the bar. After my success we strolled through the city and went to Darling Harbour to go and have a celebratory drink at Cargo Bar. We then headed back into town to go and try to get his phone fixed (which we managed!) and then came back home.  On our roam around the shops we found a flip flop vending machine!

Only in Australia....! It's even got a size chart on the floor so you can check your size. Magic.

Tonight Harry's too tired to do anything so we're just going to stay here, but tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice so I think we're going to head to Bondi for a day on the beach.

B