Ok, it was mine. After 2 grueling weeks working at the hostel café, the manager of our hostel pulled me aside one morning and said, “You don’t like working at the café very much, do you?” Hm, well I wonder what gave it away? Definitely not the ever present scowl on my face. I replied, that no, I indeed did not enjoy the café work (truthfully, I couldn’t have handled much more of it, it was really that bad). So he pulled some strings for me and got me working behind the bar the very next night. I have to say, it's a lovely change of pace. You fill the fridges at the start of the shift, then chat with people for the rest of it (and try to avoid drinking the obscene number of Jager Bombs the manager keeps placing in front of you). Now that’s what I call working for accommodation.
As far as the job situation goes, it’s not looking too good. The surf photography job didn’t work out because they needed someone to start the very next day and I simply could not learn to drive the old stick-shift van in time. The guy who owns it is not an insured driver, so it’s understandable that he might not want me making a mess of his only mode of transportation. Needless to say I was very disappointed, as it would have been basically the best job ever. So now I’m still unemployed and have been going around EVERY DAY to every bar and restaurant in town pestering the managers about available positions. I’ve even gone so far as to post ads around town offering my graphic design services, but hardly anyone here even has a computer, so I doubt I’ll get any leads there. With nothing biting, and my friends in sadly similar positions, we started getting creative, Byron Bay style.
We sold 2 whole books that day and made a grand total of... wait for it... 5 dollars. Let the good times roll!
So aside from my general frustration at not being to be able to find any sort of work, I think Byron is really a pretty cool place to be. The weather has been very strange, with cold thundershowers moving through the area every day at intermittent intervals, making beach going extremely annoying. I have, however, been surfing every day at sunset and I can’t describe how breathtaking it is when these storms sweep through and send walls of water past the partially obscured sun, creating rainbows over the lighthouse. It makes for some deeply moving and spiritual moments when you’re sitting on your board in the warm ocean in the middle of a torrent of rain. These storms also make for some really beautiful sunsets on certain nights.
I think the plan as of now is to stay in Byron for another 2 weeks or so, then move on. I had no idea it would be this difficult to find work, but the effort is really starting to wear on me and I’m about to give up (of course something will come through just as I’m leaving). I’ve made some really fantastic friends here and I want to hang around until they take off, but when they go, I’ll go too. I’ll be making my way up the coast to some really beautiful spots (including the great barrier reef), so I promise this blog will get more exciting soon!
As an aside, we had "staff movie night" (where we all pile on a mattress in our room and stuff our faces with unimaginable amounts of chocolate) and cried our eyes out over Into the Wild. It made me miss home so much!
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