I start to settle in to hostel life, I realise that I will be here for a few months and based on my first nights antics I can see it’s going to be fun.
It takes me about 10 days to get work, I guess John is not to fond of me. John is the work manager and owner of the hostel, a very brutal man who takes no shit. You stick to the rules, work hard and reward yourself with a few beers and there will be no trouble. I had been warned about John prior to coming to Bundaberg but I needed my visa and I am a hard worker so I figured I should be ok.
I meet John in his office, a solidly built man of about 6ft in height, he wears a basball cap and grey shorts with a polo shrit with the Cellblock logo on. He looks well weathered but you can tell he used to be in shape and you can tell he would have been handy back in the day, that’s not to say I doubt he wouldn’t be handy now. He sat at his computer cigarette in hand and blanked me, It was as if I never existed.
I introduced myself and gave a sold handshake, I figured I needed to be polite but also show I am here to work. I handed in my work forms and he said he hoped to have something soon. Vague but I was not going to say anything, a quick thanks and its back to the bar.
The next few days I just read my books and chilled out by the bar, Sam and Stu continued to include me in the drinking which I was glad for even though I was still dying from the first few days of drinking – these boys were seasoned pros, I was the newbie.
John called me over a few days later and told me I would be working on Akers farm, I would be planting sweet potatoes. I later found out that Akers is where John sends people he is not to fond of, the work is hard and not many people last.
I turned up for work and met a couple of Irish lads, James and Anto. James instantly made me laugh as he stood in front of the field, took a deep breath and said “Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes, living the dream!” – an Irish man planting potatoes, he was in heaven.
End of the day and it was hard work, I felt I did well and was even kept back to help with a smaller team the next few days (this means I wasn’t sacked, so of the 30 or so that started there were 6).
I then moved on to picking Ginger for Antony Reibhine, a different farm located about 20k down the road. I was working with a different hostel, but it was good hours and the money was helping.
Ginger is a hard one, you roll a ball of unbroken ginger over (about the size of 3 footballs) and then break it in to smaller sections, place these in the buckets and then when we have enough we cut them on the conveyer belt. They then re-seed these and double the crop. Mind you the jumping spiders took some getting used to, killing the odd Cain Toad made for good fun though.
I continued to work at the ginger farm for a week and then we started on the next field picking new potatoes, by this time and only 2 weeks in I had enough of farm work.
That night I was drinking with Kenny, he advised that he was due to leave in less than two weeks and that John was struggling to find a replacement. He suggested I ask for the reception job – so I did.
John didn’t seem to keen but I knew that the two lads he did offer the job two were not staying very long, I had just arrived and even said if I get the job I will stay an extra month.
The next morning Kenny came in and woke me up – “get dressed, your working with me – im going to train you up” – sweet!
I trained with Kenny over the next week, we covered all areas, the bar, the pool, reception, rent, locking up and of course John. Now when Kenny trained me up he did advise that I would be known around the hostel as “John’s Bitch”, he wasn’t wrong.
The time came for Kenny to leave with his cousin Paul, Paul is a hero but that’s another story. They both left with Mitch, Nicola, Sarah and Mac.
It was now time for me to step up.
Almost instantly John started to show his authority over me, I knew this would happen and new that he still didn’t know me and that this would be a testing phase to see how I cope. That same weekend we had a load of trouble with people drinking in their room and a mental Canadian girl who swore at John’s daughter and tried to bite John – not a good move.
It was down to me and Jimmy (the huge security dude) to kick people out, I was the voice of reasoning and Jimmy was the muscle.
We ended up calling the Police as things were getting out of hand. After the commotion had settled John called me over and asked me to put my hands out, so I did. He said “why are they shaking C**t?”, “I guess I am just full of adrenaline” – I replied. He turned to me and said “have a drink then”, I walked behind the bar and pulled a drink, “neck it” John said, so I did, this was then repeated three more times. I placed my hands out and they had stopped shaking. John looks at me and says “well done for this evening, now f**k off!” – In that moment I had worked John out and realised he wasn’t all that bad but he needed to keep face, this was his domain.
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