Troy Archie – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Well after god knows how long I finally have some pictures to put up and show everyone where I live work and play. Oh and I’m not an idiot, I have no idea why there’s that huge ass empty space above the text.

There’s more here

My apartment building

My bed and area where I store all my crap. My roommate Lionel just moved out so now I get the room souly to myself. Unfortunately he took his laptop with him which he let me use when he wasn’t around, which was pretty much all the time. I probably saw he guy like 6 times in the last 3 weeks and 4 of them was in the middle of the night when I woke up to go to the bathroom and saw him laying in bed sleeping.


I see there’s no underwear hanging in any of those pics, that’s good…

Now you’re probably asking what the hell all that money is doing on my bed; I sleep in it. Nothing more comfortable then sleeping in a big pile of cash. Actually I has this big ass can that I taped shut, put a hole in the top of and procedded to shove all my tip money that I made as it came in. I started doing this on July 31 and opened it the other day to find a nice $443.41 waiting for me but on my way to the bank to deposit it I walked past the Lindt chocolate cafe/chocolateria and blew it all.

Kitchen Area

Communal area. The cubical thing on the left is another bedroom that is occupied by Ed from England.

View from the patio

Good old Pitt St.

Off to work now; work is on Darling Harbour which is a pretty popular tourist spot and for good reason.

Work; it’s a little dank looking…well actually it’s a dump and I’ll be glad to leave. The place is clown shoes, absolutely no professionalism, which I guys is a good thing and a bad thing. It was fun while it lasted but I’ll be glad to leave. I look back at the place now think, “I can do better”.

The little blond dude there is Nikky from Scotland, he’s good shit, I have no idea who the girl is as she just started and that was her first or second day and the Korean guy way in the back is Neil the owner who can be a pain in the ass sometimes but overall pretty genuine.

Now here’s the reason why anyone would come to our restaurant and Darling Harbour in general. The flag there is at half mast because it was Steve Irwin’s funeral that day.




I spent many a night starring at that view but after a while it started to become a painting…the first sign it’s time to move on.

Well that’s the gist of it, like I was saying there’s much more here of Darling Harbour, my flat, work and whatever else. I was hoping Alena would have emailed me a couple pics of me her and Andrew but I haven’t got them yet so you’ll have to wait. I was going to rant more but I’m lazy and will have to save it for another post. Yes I know Thailand had a coup and I do still plan to go there. From the sounds of it, things are pretty much business as usual and by the time I’m ready to go all should be 100%, that said if it isn’t then I was thinking about going to Malaysia and Indonesia first, which I’m thinking I might just do anyway…I am young after all and sleep in a bed covered in money.

Over and out
Troy

It appears that my blog host server crashed and I lost this post but fortunately I still have it on a back-up disc.

Coming to an end
Well the end is almost here, I’ve been in Sydney for almost 3 months now, which is the longest I’ve been in one place for my entire time in OZ. Time has flown by here but I’ve a great time in the city, my knee is repaired and back in tip top shape and working out with Andrew has been the tune up, make that a complete overhaul actually, that I needed from months of being gym less. It’ll be hard to go back to not having a gym again but the amount of things that I’ve learnt and different perspective I’ve gotten from training with Andrew has been and will be invaluable when I’m back on the road. Sydney has been great to me; a new lifestyle, job, experience and life skills to notch onto the old belt.

The end of my days in Sydney also mark the near ending of my time in Australia; can’t believe it’s been a year already, it’s flown by but at the same time when I look back at all the things that I’ve done, experienced, seen, felt, people I’ve met and things that I’ve realized and found out about myself, it feels more like 12 years not 12 months.

So I know look back at my experiences of Australia and question what I liked and didn’t like about my time here. For starters I’ll say that I’ve hated traveling Australia but I’ve loved living here. I hated traveling by bus from town to town, jumping from hostel to hostel to go see some rock or something that you have to pay an arm and leg for. I’ve hated how expensive food is here and how you end up carrying around a bunch of food from hostel to hostel as you make your way across the country. I hate how if there’s a way to market something someone will find a way to do it and try to make a buck on it; i.e. going to see the sunset on camel in Broome or ATV in Coral Bay… Perhaps the main reason that I have hated traveling Oz is that I’m a cheap bastard that said it is an expensive country and even while hardcore cutting corners I still spent a fare bit of money and in the end I feel like I got little in return for it in regards to food, accommodation and general experience.

In saying all that though, there are more things that I love about the country then I hate, like I said I loved living here. I loved going to farms, working, living and meeting other people and seeing a lifestyle that I had never seen or known before. The people that have touched my life on this journey have been amazing and the experiences I’ve had evoke emotions that words give no justice to. I can honestly say I feel like a changed person from my time here and although I hate to use the term that I have “found myself” as I see it being rather pretentious and self-righteous but I have found out a lot about myself and really can’t find many other words to describe it.

Now for the big questions; Do I have any regrets or done things any differently? None. Would I it all over again exactly the same way? Without a doubt, YES. There is one thing that that I wish I could have done but have simple run out of time and that pertains to my complaints of traveling Australia. I would have really liked to have bought a car or met up with some like minded people with a car and travel the country on my own pace, seeing what I want to see and how I want to see it. In retrospect I think that this is the best and only way to see the country and even Canada for that matter. My friend Jesse regaled me with stories of his travels in OZ and how he saw the majority of the country in the back of a van camping along the way, it was these stories that influenced me to come down here and try it for myself. In the end I ended up having a completely different experience than him, one that I wouldn’t trade for the world and I honestly think is more interesting has been more fun (no offense Jess, just seeing it through my eyes only).

Making it Work
So I was looking thru my records and counted the numbers and have realized that as of writing this I was spent 312 days in Oz, of those 312 I have spent 220 days working in some form or another; so much for a vacation huh? I don’t really know what to think about that, maybe I just like working, or maybe like I’ve alluded to earlier, I’m a cheap bastard and hate spending any money. Whatever the reasons are, the work that I have done down here has been the best of my experiences and have made me a richer person and I don’t mean rich money-wise. When I left home I got together with a couple old friends, Sean Hoyle and Kevin Burns the second I had not seen in like 4 years up until a party I was at Sean’s place. We got together for drinks and Kevin brought with him a whole bunch of photos of his travels in Europe and Turkey. I asked him for any advice he could give me, looking for some info on how to pack my bag and what to bring. Instead he told me one thing; go live and work in another country. Do a job that you’ve never done before and be a part of that city or country and really see what life is like there. At the time I brushed off the advice not thinking much about it and actually thought it was a little bit of bullshit. Why would I travel half way around the world and do some shit job that I could just do at home? If I were to work down here it would probably be drafting, I thought. Oh my how the times have changed; now I have no intention on ever going back to drafting and all those little “shit jobs” have been my best experiences. Don’t know if you’ll ever read this Kev but thank you, that bit of advice has ended up being the best advice I could ever have gotten. Ha I also remember my buddy at Mastco, Fletcher saying that maybe I’ll go and wait tables somewhere or do something like that and me brushing him off thinking I don’t think so…

So after the counting the numbers and realizing that I like to work and am a cheap bastard, I am about to head off on a “real” vacation for a while with my mom, Brad and Tiff for the remainder of my Visa here, from there it’s off to Thailand, southeast Asia and beyond. This pretty spells an end to working or at least I think it will be. Who knows though, I could end up teaching English in China or working at a resort in Thailand, you never know and right now I’m pretty much open up to anything. A lot of people have asked me, as a lot of travelers do it, why I’m not heading off to New Zealand after Oz? I hear it’s amazing there but I think the main reason I’m not going, at least right now is because I’m questioning what I could get out of it experience-wise that I couldn’t get in any other western-culture nation? If I were to travel another western country right now it would be my own, Canada. Start off in like Halifax mid-May, buy a car and some camping gear and just start driving. Maybe get a wwoof Canada book and stop off at a couple farms along the way to see how other Canadians in other parts of the country live. Again, I think that’s how you’ve got to see the country and as of right now I intend to do that someday but for right now it’ll be something completely different, Asia.

When I got to Adelaide at the beginning of January I was not having fun, in fact I was ready to leave Oz. Up to that point had I mainly been just traveling my way via bus through the country hoping from town to town and hostel to hostel. Asia looked so much more promising, interesting, fun and cheaper. 8 months later and I’m still here about to head there and as of right now I’m a bit nervous about my travels there. I’ve almost built up my potential experiences there so much that I’m a bit afraid it’ll be over-hyped and a little bit of a let down. I’m so used to working that I don’t know if I’ll be able to just sit back, relax and take it easy for a change. Well there is one thing that I have learnt thus far in my journeys; take it as it comes. People ask me what I want to do there, see and where I plan to go and to be honest I really have no plans or any idea, I just plan to land there and take it as it comes. I do have some things that I do hope to experience and that is good food, cheapness and friendly people; the last one can be found anywhere as far as I’m concerned.

Birthday
It’s my birthday in a couple days and I’m a bit excited I must say. I can’t believe it’s already been a year, it feels like just yesterday that my cousins came over for a BBQ and my cousin Ryan bought me a vacuum cleaner for my birthday (HA!). Afterwards Mike and Erin came over and we went up to the Sidetrack Café and saw the Uncas play, it was a great birthday. This year I have no plans, will probably do absolutely nothing and there’s a good chance that I’ll end up spending it alone, all of which I kind of look forward to. Might sound depressing but I look forward to using the day to look back at the last year of my life, life in general, where I am, where I’m going and who I am and have become. A little introspection will be good and I like the fact that it is my birthday to do so as I have a marker and event exactly one year before to look back at it all on. I would like to go perhaps go out for a nice dinner but as I mentioned before I am cheap and am not getting lots of hours at work so perhaps I’ll just cook up one of my favorites like eggplant lasagna or pumpkin shepard’s pie both made with kangaroo. Yep, still enjoying cooking. I’ve received a couple things in the mail, one a package from my mom, which I think is a present, the other is a letter from my sister Paula that although isn’t a b-day present and I got it a couple weeks ago, I’ve decided to make it into a present and open it on my day.

Hockey
Well it’s about that time of year again, summer is just about over, training camp is starting up and the pre-season is right around the corner. It only seemed like yesterday that I was just about to board my plane from Adelaide to Sydney when I got a text message from home saying that the Oilers had lost. I wasn’t terribly upset, to be honest I kind of didn’t care, the whole thing seemed like a million miles away at the time. I was like, “dam, that sucks,” but that was about it. I’m sure if I was at home for the entire run and seen it all I would have cried like a little girl though. Anyways, training camp is right around the corner and a new season is on the horizon and I have a strange feeling that I am about to lose more interest and attachment to the game than I already have. I think that while the current CBA saved a number of NHL teams, made it much more exciting and balanced of a game it has also created a league where we’re going to see players changing teams thru trades and free agency at a break neck pace that it will pretty much eliminate what little team loyalty the players have left pretty much making them hired guns but here I am ranting away at a game that I say I don’t have much attachment left to…

I am getting very itchy to go at times and other times rather disappointed about leaving. The time that I’m disappointed is when I’m at the gym and after my workouts, definitely going to miss that. Other then that I’m pretty much set to go as work has been a bit of a pain lately.

Bitch Bitch Bitch
Note: This is the bitching section of my blog where I rant about work and other people enjoy.

The weather here the last week and a half has been really really shitty, which has kept people from wanting to go out and eat at an outdoor café/restaurant. To top off the lack of business, and bad weather my boss in her infinite wisdom seems to be highering more people than she needs and taking back on people who had previously worked there so in turn, hours and shifts are few and far between for myself. Now for my entire time working here I seem to be on my boss Jenny’s bad side, or so it seems. There are days she the greatest but others that everything I do she has to give me shit for even though everyone else is doing it and seems to go out of her way to give me flak. At first I thought it was just my view but my workmate Nicky confirmed that there’s days she seems to be out to get me and as Nicky puts it, “she’s a funny bird and I don’t mean that in a Mike Myers funny”. Now I’ve made mistakes in the past, screwed up a couple orders, spilled the odd drink but you know what, so has everyone else. I’m only human and is everyone else. So this week when the new roster comes out I see that Joe, a former workmate is back on the list and has 4 shifts, other people have 6 and most have about 4-5, I have 2 but after much pissing and moaning to Jenny I finally manage to get 3. Joe was up in Byron Bay for a about 6 weeks basically getting drunk everyday. He said he was going to be back about November but sure enough blew all his cash and is back. I like Joe he’s a good guy but he’s the bosses favorite, Number 1 and the saying around here goes and a much undeserved title at that. Again he’s a great guy, funny and good natured but shit to work with showing up hung-over 5 out of 7 days and drunk as shit for at least 2 of them. If he’s slotted in anytime before 12 you’re pretty much guaranteed he’ll no-show, is constantly late, shows up looking like he got hit by a bus and days that he’s just useless to work with, all of which Jenny thinks is hilarious and is “Number 1″. Meanwhile I on the other hand am always hearing shit and getting flak about some stupid pointless thing regardless of the fact that I’ve come in time and time again and that’s after being called in at 7 in the morning even though I had just worked the night before until 12, am never late and always show up sober, clean shaven and presentable.

Blah blah blah, bitch bitch bitch, cry me a freaking river. Well that’s done. I do have the wonderful consolation that in less than two weeks my sister Tiff will be here and in less than four mom, Brad and Paula will be here and I get to hit the road again saying good bye to my little stresses and see a different part of the world with different people and different cultures. I also get to see people that I haven’t seen in just about a year, which I’m very excited about. Again, it seems like it was only yesterday that it was my birthday and my cousins were over and I remember thinking I have no idea where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing in two months time. The idea of that really turned my crank and excited me and again here I am, birthday in a couple days and I’m thinking the same thing, very cool.

So yeah Happy Birthday to me and… Safe Travels.

Troy