"Oim a Builder!!" - Dustin

Mates, Ive good news. Ive just returned from my first day of work in my new job! Aye thats right, Ive got a job! And not some crummy office job, Im a working man, a man of the common folk, a blue-collar revolutionary...a... a BUILDER! Pay is good (about $120 per day), plus I get the same benefits as someone in a high-class job: free tan salon (well, I AM working out in the sunshine after all!) and gym membership (nothing like lifting bricks all day to tear the old muscle fibres).

The story goes like this... After an unsuccessful week applying for an IT job (seems 100s of people are going for them, and Ozzie applicants are preferred over backpackers obviously) I decided to ring around a few builders yesterday with whom Anna knows. No answer there. Then I remembered that there was a building site about 2 minutes walk from the house just down the road that I pass every day walking to the bus stop to town. I thought "what the hell" and moseyed on down to enquire there too. Well as luck would have it they were looking for a labourer that very day! Apparently an Irish guy had just left so I was going to take his place. The supervisor, a Lebanese guy by the name of George, found it amusing that there were TWO Irish people in Sydney... seriously mate take a trip down to Bondi beach and see why they call it the "33rd County".

Well today was my first day, a 7am - 4pm schedule with 2 1/2 hours for tea and lunch consecutively. The 3 guys I work with: George, Habib and Mustafa are (as you can guess by their names) all arab descent, Habib being Palestinian.. not sure about Mustafa. So it made for some interesting conversation when Saudi was brought up, plus theyre a nice bunch of lads to work with. Today I was on the Jackhammer, basically like a hand drill that "punches" through rock when pressure is applied on it. Pretty heavy and considering I was drilling through rock the entire day my arms are aching!

Thankfully George wont be needing me tommorrow, but Im back on Friday. Its an ideal situation primarily because its literally 2 minutes from where I live so Ill never be late going there or having to face traffic on the way home. Wahay!!