so i left queenstown, i was there for two weeks.
i might as well write about it. I was there for over two weeks; it's a small town in the mountains. Used to be a large area for mining, but not so much anymore. It's a nice area, rolling green hills, semi-tropical trees, and the drive from hobart was amazing- beautiful hills. So many different types of landscapes.
The reason I was in queenstown was because i saw an ad on a board in hobart, at the backpackers there, about a job at a pizza shop and bakery looking for a shop assistant and a construction worker, and i said i could do both. The boss, Harold, gave me the job after talking to him for 10 minutes on the phone, and he seemed like a nice guy. I showed up as agreed, after driving around for a couple days with these two girls from the south of england- they were nice, and they said 'brilliant' alot.
When i show up, the boss isn't around- he went to the mainland for a few days, and i ended up working for a week and a half before ever meeting him in person. The building i was staying in was a big two story thing on a corner of the main street; it used to be a hotel, but it was more of a construction site- it's going to open as a backpackers/ hotel in the future. The pizza shop bakery was on the ground floor. It was a sweet job at first, the days flew by. I spent a few hours in the morning being trained by a dutch girl named susan- she was nice and showed me how to back some things, as well as what to do during the morning shift in the bakery.
The big seller was pies- we had many types of pies, full of different types of meats, about 15 styles. Plain mince, chunky steak, beef and stout, beef and mushroom, beef and tomato, chicken and cheese, curry chicken, thai curry chikcen, egg and bacon, beef bacon and cheese, and other ones too, and sausage rolls and 'savory' rolls, and a 'cornish' pastry called a 'pasty', and i made coffees, and put bread in the oven and took it out and sold it, i woked the cash regester, i snacked on things, i made and snacked on baked goods,,,, and then in the evening i helped out Steve, the canadian, with the pizza shift. Steve is a cool guy, he showed me alot about how to work in a pizza place. I ended up making some good pizzas, i was eating a small pizza every day, it was delish. can't go wrong with a simple pizza. I was also eating alot of the pies we didn't sell, and that was good- normally i try to be a vegetarian, but i ended up gaining alot of weight from pies and stuff,,, not that i can ever be FAT fat, but it was interesting to feel my arms and bodycore get a little bit thicker. In the end i worked 13 days straight. I worked a 14th day, but i ended up leaving without getting paid for it- i just up and left becase it wasn't working out.
Before i met the boss i had heard alot about him. He's dating a girl who's 25 years or so younger than him, so that's kindof scandalous in a small town. He also stabbed a guy not long before- there are lots of different stories about it, some saying harold acted in self defence after someone broke a window of his shop, some saying he stabbed first Then broke the window himself, who knows. There was also alot of writing on the walls everywhere- i guess because its a construction site it's ok to write any messages anywhere, but the types of messages: IF THIS DOOR IS OPEN AND THE HEAT IS ON, PLEASE SHUT IT (YOU BASTARDS!), PLEASE GOT HELP ME KEEP THIS DOOR SHUT, plus various other things i can't remember, and jokes on the washroom walls, and stolen(?) roadsigns everywhere. I also found out that the pay was 10$ an hour, which is kindof a low amount considering most jobs will pay 15 an hour, and while this includes the room, it is still not a good deal if im working alot of hours, which i was.
When i first met the boss, he seemed nice. On that day , there was a large group of 19 students plus a few teachers, who were part of a bus tour and needed lunches because someone forgot to pack them. It was crazy having that many people come in! I had just made cookies and muffins, and the pie oven was stocked- i ended up selling out of everything, and i had to re-stock the pie oven. At this time i was told that i needed to slice up salami, or, kabana to be precise. So i threw the pies in the oven, but i relized that i forgot to make the egg spread- it's a bowl of whipped eggs that i paint onto the tops of the pies with a brush to give them a golden color and some extra flavor. Anyways, this time i forgot to put it on, opened up the oven door to paint it on then closed it again. I went back to work without setting the oven timer, which is a small computer thing that navigates through all the different things i can bake. Without the oven timer, i didn't notice how i burnt about 15 pies; eventually steve came down to fetch a pie for the boss, and he was upset that i had burnt them. I ended up hearing from his girlfriend bonnie, who called me up and told me i'd have to pay for the pies, and she also wanted a list of the pies that were ruined, which was annoying. Anyways, he was upset with me and didn't say much to me about it, but i heard about it later. I worked a 9.5 hour day for him which was fine, did some tiling of a bathroom with him. He was alright , but the more i got to know him, the more he just seemed like a really negative guy, who drank too much and would yell at me for silly reasons, and for the pay i felt he was underpaying me, and when i did give him my hours he seemed really upset that i had worked as much as i had- in fact steve had been the one in charge of telling me when to work, but i was later told that i was only supposed to work 3 hours a day and why the fuck was i working six? I was told i had to take it up with steve, and i had about 10 hours he said he wasn't paying me for. steve ended up giving me 50$ to make up for it, but he's 10,000 in debt and i felt bad having him pay me when the boss should be- and more than 10$ an hour at that. I mean, usually accomodation is 120 a week or 150 max. if i was getting paid 15 an hour, i would have rent paid and then some, becuase i was working Every day, over 40 hours a week. over 50 !
Anyways, it's the slow season, and the bakery wasn't making that much money, not many customers, and i felt that the boss was feeling stressed about it. But he seemed to really hate the town too. I asked him how long he'd been there for and he told me 'too fuckin long'. He told me his theories about how all the towns people were similar to cavemen when they go to the pub. I did laugh at one thing, he was talking about a sexy young 15 year old girl, who apparently is very attractive for her age but gets with alot of guys, and he said she had hillbilly parents, and he said 'her mother looks like a fuckin COUCH! and her father looks like a BROOM! i dunno, had to be there, but it was hilarious the way he said it. But yeah, kindof a negative guy, said the word cunt alot. He was made me just up and leave- after he paid me about 700$, i figgured i should get back to civilization. It's good to be back!
I'm now in launceston, i havn't checked my email in a long time, and when i finally did i got a bunch of worried emails from my mom- i guess i should reply to her emails or call her!
i should get going, im late!