Seems like the end of the honeymoon period in Melbourne – first day of work today. A training day so the easy stuff. I also found a flat last night. Fingers crossed it all goes well – otherwise I’ve got about another week of savings left and I’d really rather not have to go crawling home early. The flat is a two-bedroom place with one other guy in his early thirties. It’s a furnished room in a clean house with a well-stocked bookshelf, and right around the corner from a railway station so several good points. It could get a bit isolating though – I’d ideally like to live with three or four other people and get a bit more social contact. On the other hand it’s OK for me to stay short-term so if something better comes up I can move on.
The job turns out to be a bit more sales-oriented than it first appeared last week – classic case of luring people in. No wonder it was so easy to get. It’s potentially quite well paid ($25 commission per signing), but the question is can I hack it? Of all the jobs out there sales is one I’ve always shied away from. This job starts off for the first six weeks door-knocking existing Origin Energy customers and getting them to sign up for ‘Green Power’, ie wind/solar/hydro electricity as opposed to coal (Australia has huge coal reserves and is also the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitter per capita – and has not signed the Kyoto Protocol - hmm). Green power costs an extra dollar per week, but shouldn’t be too difficult a sell. Then after the six weeks we have to sign up new customers, which sounds like more of a challenge. At least it’s something worthy that I can get behind (I’d happily pay the extra dollar myself), and is at least tangentially connected to my environmental/conservation interests.
It’s probably good for me to get out of my comfort zone like that. I do need to brush up on my social skills and meet people, especially in a new city. The Aussies have been pretty friendly so far – and they seem to look up to Helen Clark. One guy was going on about how great the NZ soldiers in the ANZACs were.
Sunday night Mike and I went to see the NZ band Sola Rosa at the Evelyn (seems to be one of the main local live venues) – I thought they were really good. Half the people there were kiwi. It was interesting how some cultural references, like the vocalist’s ‘Tino Rangitiratanga’ t-shirt, take on added meanings in another context. Apparently reggae’s not very big here. I heard some good Australian hip-hop the other day though – strong local accent, not trying to sound American at all and quite different from the Maori/Polynesian-influenced NZ stuff.
I could also go on about the large number of beautiful women here and how I haven’t connected with any of them – I seemed to discover an area of mental blockage, some kind of sexual complex in my head the other night. Something to do with the futility of going to a gay bar the night before? I could see people turning away from me. Mild paranoia from the (really good garden-grown) pot and alcohol (the beer’s mostly different which is good). But just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean it’s not real. I have to be careful not to fry my brain too much.
On the other hand there were total strangers who I went up and talked to quite happily. I was probably dancing a bit spastically, had my eyes closed & didn’t care what I looked like. I’d been wearing my tramping boots all day (good for the long walks to get anywhere here) so took them off and danced barefoot. Conforming to the kiwi cultural stereotype maybe? I don’t mind since it’s a good one – if you go barefoot you can feel the earth.
A job should help keep me stable, hold the black dog of depression at bay. I want to give this one a good shot…