So it’s been a while since I’ve spoken to everyone so I thought I would touch base and let everyone know what’s going on!
I finished my farm work which was no mean feat and I put my feet on the train and headed to the big city (Sydney), where I began spending all my money. Day after day the city became more and more expensive even though you earn more in Sydney, everything is more expensive; rent, food, social and even water! The weather has dimmed and I have to resort to buying a jumper and an actual coat which was a huge culture shock after being in the outback for the summer rocking 50-degree heat!
Farm work best bits:
- I had a tan for maybe like a week!
- Found a huge brown snake (maybe) skin in the roof of my bosses house!
- Helped create and party at the biggest garden party I’ve ever been to!
- Met some of the best people ever! (even the bogans)
- Had a pet gecko!
- Georgia!
- Sunsets
- Roos, The fuckin’ Roos.
The job market in Sydney is thick, but the wave of applicants is difficult to fight through, I don’t think I have ever been told that I’m over qualified for a position more than in Sydney, I ended up having to remove experience from my CV so that I could get a simple data entry job. It took a while for that to happen, which depleted my farm savings to a point I don’t want to admit (beer is expensive ok), the time it took to find a job wasn’t just my experience… I put my phone number on my CV incorrectly… check your cv’s kids. It helps. Also, Vivid was pretty sick… go to it next year, its a must.
While I was looking for jobs I spent my free time wisely, socialising, soaking in the city life and living in a hostel with a whole bunch of other travellers as well as my mates Fraser and James who had finished their farm work at a similar time too! It was at this hostel (mad monkey backpackers) something amazing happened, I noticed a little sign-up sheet for a secret party on the reception one day… “secret party?” I thought… what could it hurt?…bring me the Panadol, because it hurt.
When you sign up for a hidden party in the middle of Sydney, there are few things that come to mind, but what I was expecting was not even close to what was delivered. It was the middle of the week, the rain was pouring down and the hostel (Mad monkey Backpackers) were bundled across kings cross from awning to awning to get to the “secret pick up location”.
At this location (a bus stop) awaited a blacked out party bus half full of people with a drag queen at the helm, dishing out beers and pumping tunes and I immediately thought . . . “this is the kind of secret party I want to be a part of”. The bus itself was old school and struggled to get up some of the many hills in Sydney with the quantity of people on board but it made it in time to the secret location which was down a back alley in the centre of the suburb Camperdown. They had taken us to a little local brewery called Wayward Brewing co and as the poster made us aware we were permitted a free beer. “A” free beer was where we were mistaken, we were directed to a bar with a wealth of local craft beers and ciders to which we had unlimited. . . yes, unlimited supply. I must have tried every beer and cider they had on tap that night – my head in the morning leads me to believe I enjoyed them – my favourite of all the crafts was called Shark bait (the ooh ah ah is optional) which is a nice 4 ish percent which went down very nicely.
Not only was the bar open, and fruitful but around the corner was a buffet too! This buffet was full of Australian delights, Kangaroo, Crocodile and even Camel! Which was an amazing surprise but it was at this moment it twigged, there was a theme to this whole party. I noticed over the brim of my glass people were wearing hats, and ears and drinking out of shoes… and there were drag queens dancing and taking photos.. and it hit me, this isn’t just some random party! Everything here is to do with the Northern territory!! A part of Australia I haven’t been yet which I will definitely be going to as soon as I can. I have been in Australia from the UK for 10 months so far, I have attended bush doofs, mid-city parties, house parties and I have even played the Australian tradition – goon of fortune – and this party has to top it all, they planned it perfectly, they executed it fantastically and I know that me and my friends had one the best nights and worst hangovers of our trip. I can can assure you that the NT (This is what us cool kids call the Northern Territory) can throw one hell of a party and I will be heading up there as soon as I can. My plan is to find a croc in the wild and wrestle it, I think I would be good at that.
When we got on the bus, we were asked to sign an iPad with our info, and I can assure you 80% of those people put fake addresses. We were on some random bus with a company we didn’t know, going somewhere we didn’t know… nobody wants an inbox full of spam. They will have regretted it, because those emails came with something none of us expected.. Free flights to Darwin or Alice Springs. Yeah that’s right, Free booze, free food, Drag Queens, Free flights and that Australian Youtube famous Guy “Frenchy” (Pic below). Jealous yet?
Turns out, the whole thing was organised by the Australian government trying to muster up tourism for the Northern Territory, they’re calling it ‘Do the NT’ – I have attached a link to them here. It would seem up north doesn’t have as many people going there as you think, I was surprised at this because vis Facebook groups I see a lot of people planning to go up there but I know it’s expensive etc. so maybe that’s what puts people off, it’s definitely somewhere I want to go though, Tony (The best Nissan X-trail in the world) will take us there soon I’m sure.
Before I head up to the NT I have a few things I need to sort out, there’s a certain event I need to attend to back in the UK which is should really start to organise… so if you’re in the UK… late august, Hit. Me. Up. Seriously though because I might not have anywhere to live.
Just a quick brief update about what’s happening right now, if you want to know more head to my Facebook page… check out my Instagram or whatever – I don’t write this for money, do what you want.
Blonde Bloke Abroad 
Great read again mate. 🙌
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