Carnival Cruelty

ROLL UP, ROLL UP... COME ENJOY THE FUN OF THE FAIR!
(Or in my case, come withstand the sheer slave labour working conditions)

You may have seen that I recently worked the weekend at a fair that was travelling through Mildura. Yes, the photos might have looked like I was having the time of my life, working in the sunshine, pulling a few slushies but photos can paint a very deceiving image. I can honestly say that it was a once in a lifetime experience that I'll never be repeating.

Don't get me wrong, the first two days were probably the easiest money I've ever made. I had to wear fluoro, don a Hawaiian lei and cowboy stetson (that threatened to strange me every time the wind blew it off my head and the string wrapped round my throat..) and push sugar filled slushies in decorative bottles to kids. I could put up with the instant glares shot at me by their parents and teachers as they begged for money for an icy treat. Even the absolutely ridiculous tan lines I've gained from working in direct sunshine all day didn't dampen my mood.

But then came Saturday. I was 'promoted' from the slushie stand to the food van. I use the word promoted here very, very loosely. I spent the day dipping disgusting deep fried saviloys, apparently known as Dagwood dogs,  into a massive tub of ketchup and serving them to the rapidly increasing crowd. Alongside these awful sausages, I was also dishing out tubs of hot chips, doughnuts, chiko rolls (yep, I have no idea what these are either), chicken kebab sticks and buckets of fairyfloss, more commonly known to us British folk as candy floss.
Now this might not seem so bad but working a 14 hour day with only a 30 minute break was a killer. There's definitely a few working laws being broken here.. I even had to ask to nip out for literally 2 minutes to go to the loo. Needless to say, when I was finally allowed to leave just after midnight, I was exhausted and probably reeked of chip fat.

On the walk home, I've never been happier to return to a state of unemployment. But on the plus side, thanks to half the hostel bagging jobs at the fair, we did get to go on one of the rides for a totally discounted price, every cloud and all that, eh?

Here me and my fellow burger van girls are pretending we are having the time of our lives so we don't get sacked..

Packing Shed Life

So, after moving hostels (#OldHostel), I was placed in an asparagus packing shed and my god, I genuinely was not prepared for the vast amount of asparagus sticks I'd see everyday. Literally thousands upon thousands of the lanky green vegetable. Worst of all, I don't even like the stuff (in my opinion, it smells and tastes like grass).
But it did pay very well. I felt like withdrawing my first wage in $5 notes and throwing it around my room just like they do in the movies... Until I remembered I live in a hostel and I'd probably lose the majority behind the bunk beds.

I spent my days sorting, packing and then moving the ugly asparagus around the shed. Though it may not sound particularly enthralling, I met some of the best people and they're what get you through the day. I spent so much of my time at work with a grin plastered on my face because of them.

You might notice I'm typing in the past tense.. This is because, annoyingly, Mildura has become unseasonably hot and therefore the asparagus doesn't grow properly and therefore can't be sold, meaning there's nothing for me to sort and pack.
Alas, I'm unemployed once again. I've spent over 2 weeks moping round the hostel as there's only so much sunbathing you can do and only so many times you can traipse around Coles in a week. Thankfully, I'm not the only one in this situation and there's a whole bunch of us spending our evenings drinking out of boredom and our days hungover in the sunshine.

And the plus side of so many people not working? We won a competition at one of the local bars after having the most people from a single hostel in there 2 weeks on the trot and won a $1000 bar tab! Which we promptly drank dry within aprox half an hour.. All with no worries about having to get up the next day!

A few days ago, the fair rolled into town and the majority of the hostel have bagged jobs on rides, ticket booths and food stands so starting tomorrow, carnival life begins for 3 days...

(Here a bunch of us are pre-free mass jagerbomb downing)

New Beginnings

Okay, it's been a while since I've actually updated this but I've had good reason!
After returning home from a two week break in England, I arrived back to the hostel to find it was a hot bed of contempt towards our bosses as nothing had changed whilst I'd been away, we were still earning next to nothing yet still expected to pay rent.

So we did what any rational group of backpackers would do... We staged a mass walk out after finding a new hostel to move to, obviously.
Over the space of 5 days, nearly 20 people abruptly left the hostel. What we didn't realise was that said mass walk out would cause the place to completely close down and the building to be locked up, which probably prompted a sigh of relief from the surrounding neighbours who all hated us and the local police force who were fed up with issuing us with noise complaints.

Not long after moving out, we discovered what we already knew deep down, but dared not think about. We'd been getting mugged off to an even bigger extent than we'd originally suspected. Our bosses were shaving money off the top of everything we earned and sliding it into their wallets before we even knew we'd earned it. Dicks.
Looking back, it was no wonder they were always turning up to the house with crates of VB (vom) and cider for us. It seemed like a treat but it was probably paid for with the cash we never even knew belonged to us.

After moving to the new hostel, our bosses followed us, waiting outside the grounds to try and confront us, even telling staff they were from immigration as a way to get to us. Though turning up drunk, in high-vis tops and mullet hair-dos, god knows who'd believe they were from immigration. Thankfully, the staff knew exactly who they were and under no circumstances were they allowed to get anywhere near us.

On a plus note, life has gotten a lot better since we all moved! I've actually made money and gained a new set of friends who just LOVE hearing tales about the 'oooooold hostel'...
The only downside is we don't have wifi, hence the lack of communication post-England, soz.
I'm currently off work as it's unseasonably hot and the asparagus can't grow (more about that later) so I'm off to laze in the 38 degree sunshine, enjoy your drab Tuesday back home!

(Just for old times sake, here's a photo of the old hostel bunch)