Another Last Week on the Job

Yup that time had come again, it was time to wrap up my life in my current adopted home and head back to Sydney. My final week at work was busy as the turnover of guests picked up in the run up to Easter and by the Easter weekend we were full once again. This was good news for me as it meant I worked my full shifts and made as much money as possible. As usual my efforts at saving hadn’t gone too well and, as usual, I’m not too sure where it all went. I mean I keep track of it in a spreadsheet but as long as I know that I’ll have a roof over my head and can afford to eat I’m content to let the particulars slide. I did buy a plane ticket back to Cairns. I had planned to claim my tax back then fly in to Perth and use the tax back to travel up the coast to Darwin but the lure of a chance to dive more proved too be too much. I still would like to travel the west coast and especially would love to dive the Nigaloo Reef but for now I am happy knowing that I have altered those plans by buying a ticket from Perth to Cairns in the hopes that I can volunteer on a boat on my return in exchange for diving. There is no guarantee and even though the hostel knows I am coming back they can’t guarantee me work. That’s though ok because I have a few back up plans in place. There could be some agency work, or a desperate restaurant needing and experienced waitress and there is always the credit card to tide me over until I get my tax and Super back. However that is all far in the future and who knows what will happen in the next six weeks.

My last week was also the second last week of one of the managers so we both worked extra hard to make sure the hostel looked as good as possible and that all the small jobs that could be done were done. Unusually for me I packed early as I had a Skype date with my mum to arrange what clothes she would bring me from home down to Glasgow so I needed to know what I had and what I didn’t have. Since the weather back home hasn’t been great and I would be going straight to Wales from Glasgow I reckoned I would need some properly warm clothes. Amongst all the preparations for leaving there was one very important thing I had to do. I had to visit the reef one last time but I decided to put it off until I had finished work so my days off during my last week were very chilled and relaxed.

I finished up on the last day of March which conveniently was a Sunday. I would like to say I had a great last day but it turned out to be long and hard. I had an early start with a busy housekeeping shift as I tried to get everything done on time. I had originally planned to visit the reef on the Tuesday but due to boat maintenance I was offered the Monday or Thursday instead. Since I was flying on Thursday it was Monday or nothing. That meant the cleaning I had planned to do on the Monday had to be done after my morning shift. Having cleaned for four more hours I then managed a quick shower and a short sit down and surf of the net before it was time to go to work again. It was Easter so we were kept busy and Sunday so it was movie night. By 9pm I was ready to go home but both kitchens had dished needing to be done. Though the hostel requests that the quest do their own if the guest don’t comply then it is our job to make sure that they are clean and away so the kitchen is in good condition for the other guest. Whilst I fully support the principle of this I can happily say I shall be glad not to wash up anyone else’s dishes for a while! Due to picking up a guest from the bus stop the film was late on and therefore didn’t finish until 10pm. This was where it was a great advantage to live in the hostel. After doing the dishes and tidying the hostel I managed a quick skype home before returning to put the DVD played and projector away. A number of guests did say it was a really good film and they enjoyed it so that made it worth waiting for. Happily I reminded the guest that 10:30pm marked the start of quiet time and requested they honour this to save me coming down to remind them as I had an early start the next day. Sadly they got a bit carried away so it took multiple trips downstairs and it was almost midnight before I got to bed, when of course I couldn’t sleep!! By this point I was really wondering why I hadn’t just cancelled my trip as a lie in was sounding very tempting. I love the reef and diving but I was concerned that I would be too tired to really enjoy it, which is why I had originally booked it for the Tuesday. I was worried about my ears which have not been quite the same since I first went out though they have always been fine when I went out before. Writing this I am aware that I sound like a spoilt brat but at the time I was tired and definitely grumpy. Thankfully as always sleep put that right and the next day all was right in my world once more.