Just thought I would post on my last day in Darwin, being as I have had an eventful couple of weeks since I last posted.

I finally managed to get work - all 5 days of it - in the month I have spent here. In typical Sod's Law style, I wasn't given any employment until I had given up on ever managing to get a job here and booked a flight to Brisbane, which obviously made me instantly employable.
So, I have spent one day unloading Arnott's biscuits from a lorry into a warehouse (got free biscuits at the end of that one!), one day cleaning about 12 toilets/showers in my hostel, and 3 days cleaning various parts of the local Army Barracks, which wasn't a bad job, as I got to look at hot men in army gear a fair bit. Although, unfortunately, there is about an 80% ratio of fat middle aged army men to the few young ones.

My streak of bad luck continued to worsen in the past few weeks, as I had to make a trip to A&E thanks to a blister on my foot getting infected and turning black. I initially dragged my plague infested foot gimp-style to a pharmacist, thinking he could fix it. Unfortunately he took one look at my foot, mentioned something about "losing a toe if the infection got into a bone", and made me hot-foot (pardon the pun) my gangrenous self to Casualty. Which meant I lost several days to feeling feverishly sick, guzzling antibiotics and sitting around with a black foot.

But on a lighter note, a friend of ours at the hostel had free tickets to the Darwin Cup, which is a bit like Ascot, but where the women dress up and the men wander round in shorts drinking beer. I made a couple of bets on horses (after asking locals how you bet) , although I was a pauper, so I only bet a grand total of $3, which is just over a pound. I also got to bet $5 of some drunk guys money on a horse, although annoyingly I didn't win there either.
All in all that was one of the best days I've had in Darwin, I've never seen races before and I've never gambled, so it was a good experience, plus our friends won some money so we got free food and drink all day :)

Now I have checked out my hostel and am waiting for a flight to Brisbane, which leaves at the lovely time of 1.10 in the morning. Ness is flying in a couple of days after me, as I couldn't hold on anymore, I have to leave Darwin now before I turn into a mentalist.

Speaking of which, I am hoping the locals in Brisbane might be a bit more normal than the yokels here. They are mainly men who seem to have not bothered learning manners, or a sense of personal boundaries. I am getting sick of lewd comments such as "Nice tits, love!" and getting checked out whilst walking down the street. One guy they other day actually took off his sunnies and stared down my top whilst walking along with his wife.

It will be nice to get to Brisbane, and back to the normality of the Western world. Fingers crossed I get a job there!

Just spent my first week in Darwin, and I have to say, it's been a fairly unlucky week so far.

Upon arriving in Darwin at 11pm at night, we immediately found ourselves homeless, as the stupid morons who took our hostel booking a week previously had cleverly forgotten to write our booking down. The reception was closed when we arrived, so we were forced to spend the night in the mosquito infested tv room of the hostel.

After spending a week in the same hostel, we were informed that paying a night in advance was simply not enough 'to meet the demand of excessive bookings', and so we were chucked out. Darwin is fully booked at this time, as it is peak holiday season, so we then faced the prospective of being homeless yet again, thanks to Australian moronity. Luckily (or stupidly, if you think about the hostel), no one had actually booked into our rooms on the day we moved out, so 2 hours after we had packed up and handed in our keys, we were allowed back in our room again. I now pay two nights in advance, so hopefully they have no reason to chuck me out again.

I also found out that my Grandma died last week, which adds to my wonderful run of bad luck, which I have attributed to the fact that a bat shat on me on the day I found out.
Apparently birds are good luck, but bats aren't. Which explains why I haven't been able to find a job for over a week, even though I have canvassed everywhere I can think of, and joined 9 recruitment agencies. And why the one job I got offered today I am not taking, because I got covered in sticky red mud on the way there to fill in an application form, and slipped over in the stupid red shit on the way back, cutting my toe open. And this is on the way to a restaurant, of all places.

So no jobs for me so far, although, with my wonderful run of luck again, Ness has gotten a job from a recruitment agency but I haven't. Apparently I am unemployable in Darwin.

If I don't manage to get a job in the next couple of days I will have to harass my parents into giving me money for a flight elsewhere, as I have some very depleted funds, seeing as I am forking money out for accommodation, and getting nothing in return, and I have now cut into my 'flight home' fund, so I need to be able to earn some money before I can come home.

Fingers crossed the next time I blog I will not be unemployed Dole Scum :)