Wednesday 30th April 2008

[Freehills, 11:00 – 16:00]

Sandwiches, Magnum ice cream, pizza squares. I have my fill.
Take home a bunch more sandwiches for dinner. I can eat for free!

Bought a “white business shirt” required for a Counter Hand position at the oval this Friday. It is actually a casual shirt not formal, but I’m sure it’ll be ok for serving chips and burgers to drunken footie fans.

Walking back from Beatty Park I glance through a window. An Asian girl is in the kitchen. Her friends talk around the table. A meal being prepared?
The normality of it is striking. Appealing…
A house. A dining room. Friends. Seclusion. Reclusion. Safe from interaction with the world.
No I’m much happier where I am ow. Here. In the ‘wild’.

Tuesday 29th April 2008

[Freehills, 11:00 - 16:00]

‘Work’, library, dinner.
The beginnings of a new routine.

Cocktails at “My Place” with Shannon before she starts the night shift.

Juggling practice attracts a new Australian guy. Though a professional juggler with clubs he’s unable to do it with balls?!
We fail at a two-man juggling act.
But pretty good at the old ‘annoy people trying to sleep’ act!

It’s film night but it’s the same film Adam rented out last night: American Gangster.
Sticky Date cake as usual.

Monday 28th April 2008

Freehills law firm – “QV1” building on St Georges Terrace.
Being on level 36(!!!) there’s a pretty decent view over Perth. [Picture to come...]

I used to sit outside this building using a free WiFi hotspot. I never thought I would get to go inside. It turns out anyone can just stroll in off the street and get in the lift.

Start of a one month placement.
Cruisey!
There’s a laid back, slow tempo in the kitchen. Friendly people but mostly English; Jonathon the head chef and almost all of the service staff are English.

The kitchen is immaculately clean and well equipped. They have the budget for fine dining and excellent food, and enough time to give attention to each dish.
Corporate catering: sandwiches, green salads, pasta salads, potato salads, chickpea salads, home-baked rolls and biscuits, fresh salmon and meat fillets.
This is no company canteen, this is wining and dining for conferences, corporate partners, clients and people with big bucks.
Two large walk-in cupboards filled with wine I’m sure help lubricate the wheels of deals.

Jonathon promises to get me involved with the food. Bread making, biscuit baking, sandwiches.

Sunday 27th April 2008

Irwin Barracks – 7am-2pm

One for breakfast, three for lunch.
I don’t know how many come for diner but it wont be many.

Go for a walk with Shannon before she starts work at the hostel tonight.
Get back to find there has been a falling out. Matt-2 tells me Adam is not happy about something.
I go to the room. It looks different?…
His things are gone!
Adam has been in this hostel for 6 months or so and the labour of having to tolerate people he doesn’t like has finally worn him down. He’s going up north for a couple of weeks. If he finds a job I doubt I’ll see him again.
We’ve become good friends so it’ll be a shame if I don’t see him before I leave myself. Especially since I have no contact details for him.

Saturday 26th April 2008

Irwin Barracks again – 7am-7pm
I’ve not seen this time of day for a long time. It’s cold and dark at 06:00. Good morning!
McDonald’s breakfast. Sadly it’s the only place open.

Just four people for breakfast and no more than 10 for lunch. There is only me and Mark in the kitchen but he could easily cope without me.
First shift ends at 14:00. He doesn’t need me back at 16:00 for the second shift.

He gets two people in the evening. TWO!
I feel sorry for him. He is wasted here.

Another remembrance day; this time a bit closer to home.
A couple of texts and calls allow me to be part of it.
Until we meet again buddy…!

Friday 25th April 2008

ANZAC Day! (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps)
A day of remembrance.
I take a walk down to the Esplanade where there’s live TV coverage but it’s all over by the time I get there.

Work tonight – Subiaco Oval. Good pay (Public holiday): $30 p/h! . 16:30 – 23:00

My kitchen hand partner is a beautiful, purple-eyed Chinese girl.
Purple!…Just one!
It’s a quick 6.5 hours.

There is a shameful waste of food here. Largely just burgers and chips but a fair amount of real food too.

Thursday 24th April 2008

Pseudo-Sunday, a day of rest. (Especially for Adam! His last memory: “buying a load of vodka shots”).

Library, of course.

Quick swim in the evening and a bit of practice with my balls.

Shannon has been having stomach problems. Today’s ultrasound revealed nothing.
Perhaps her nightly ritual of ice cream & cinnamon with chewing gum desert maybe playing a part in this. She has NEVER cooked in the hostel and no-one has ever seen her eat (besides ice cream).

Wednesday 23rd April 2008

I’ve got TWO pockets again!
Some vigorous, random needlework returns my long lost right pocket.
Yes, I’m bored!

Library, emailing, photo ‘processing’.

This is my Saturday – I’m back at the barracks this weekend for two 12 hour shifts making today a kind of pseudo-Saturday.

Carnegie’s for half-price cocktails (read “normal price”).

What evening would be complete without a trip to Mustangs, topped off with a bit of Black Betty’s.

New guy Ewan teaches me about anti-drug lights. They make it impossible to see your veins.
The crazy blue lights in the library toilet begin to make sense.

Tuesday 22nd April 2008

Irwin Barracks, Karrakatta.
I’m almost an hour late after a lengthy search along the fence for the entrance but it goes unnoticed. Mark the head chef is thankful.

“Wear black pants and shoes and a black polo shirt” the agency’s text message tells me.
I rushed to buy a black polo shirt (also contributing to my lateness) but I end up wearing my chef’s tunic anyway – longs sleeves only in the kitchen.

It’s a large, spacious and well equipped kitchen. A welcome improvement over yesterday.
Plating up cakes and running the dishwasher; mundane but I’m loving this work.

My visitor pass reads “to be escorted”.
I’m not, and dressed in my khakis and an army style shirt I could probably get anywhere in this place.

19:00 – escorting myself out, it’s exactly how they look in American army films: regimented groups of marchers and joggers trooping along the roads to the instruction of their drill sergeant.

Perk of kitchen work: free food. Tonights dinner of meatballs is taken on the platform straight out of the plastic container. I’ll save the apple crumble for the comfort of the hostel.
No wait it’s film night – free cake!
The cake isn’t at its best this week. I opt for my crumble.
…AND cake!

Monday 21st April 2008

The smell of this ‘food’ does an amazing job of staving off the instinct of hunger normally expected from eating only a banana all day (until treating myself to a Domino’s dinner at 8pm).

Hired as a lowly ‘kitchen hand’ (dishwasher) I am slightly surprised to find myself doing the tea and coffee rounds with a German girl from the same agency. My real surprise is at the way these former people are left to ‘exist’. Nothing to do but wait. Forgetting and Forgotten.

Back at the hostel I can still imagine the smell of meat, mush, gravy and tea.