Hostel- Definition: common residence for the disturbed and/or mentally ill

So I got a fucking job!!! Cannot believe it.

I´m now livin´ the dream , as they say, working tuesday to friday at cool little café and lunch/breakfast restaurant in North Sydney. Was slaving in a warehouse with a (legal) job Work and Travel provided for me when the manager called and asked if I could come on thursday. So have now worked there two days. I get fourteen bucks an hour under the table, payed out in cash every wednesday according to my timesheet. Apparently it´s really common in smallish cafe´s and restaurants where they hire foreigners on a short-time basis, and it suits me fine especially because the Oz government will tax your foreign ass off if you give them the chance. Even with the tax file number they deduct 30 percent if you come from overseas and if you don´t have one, well, they´ll claim half. Feel no guilt whatsoever since I´m contributing more than my fair share to the national economy by buying shoes for work and arch supports for my poor aching feet.
Feel so much better as am actually starting to see a light in the tunnel that used to be my personal economy. ;) Will now be able to afford to go to a koala park and snuggle with cute furry creatures without having to sacrifice food for a week.

Yes, and about the title of this entry: this place is a mental home, and I am not kidding for a second. Firstly there are all these old guys here who are just generally creepy, a homeless man, a bunch of loud italians and an African dude who likes to sing choir music in a falsetto voice at any time of the day or night, has taken a "liking" to me and has been known to ask girls if he can "penetrate in between them".
In my twelve-bed dorm the craziness is limited, with only a slightly crazy-but-still-friendly korean and a few welsh girls who are generally nice but tend to get very drunk and have huge shouting matches in the room in the middle of the night or (like last night) come home with no key and bang on the door till everyone wakes up and, when the door was finally opened, scream at everyone (sleeping) inside that "you have to deal with this shit when you´re in a fucking hostel" and so on. She felt pretty bad in the morning.

So what else can I tell you? The coffee here is a little weak but still good, Gloria Jean´s is a good place to get it and very cozy with red walls and Toulouse LeTrec prints on the walls. Hyde Park is great to have a stroll through or to just lie in the grass and have a read and a sandwich. There is a fair amount of homeless people and it is sad and sometimes a bit uncomfortable, probably better than New York though.
The Ferry over to Manly is worth every cent of the seven dollars you pay for it and the beaches there are quite incredible. The water is still freezing but the weather´s turning nice and warm.
There are great shopping malls, alot of the good restaurants are in China Town and the Free Shuttle Bus rocks.

Might head over to Newtown tomorrow, you never know. Or just shop at Paddy´s Market.


"I´m sorry, I cannot understand you. You sound like Chewbacca."