Working Life: Back to Reality (ish!)

So, I had 2 days before I was to re-enter the world of work. My plan was to be very productive and do all those little things you mean to do but never quite get round to (or maybe that’s just me!) like get this little blog up to date, chores at home, get my finances in order – you know all the usual little things! Needless to say that didn’t happen.

Monday I did get a few things done, headed to the embassy to get my work visa stamp and made it to the recruitment agency to sign my contract and meet the other 5 members of the team I’d be working with. So it wasn’t totally wasted. Where it all went pear-shaped however was agreeing to meet my friend Nikki –who I’d worked with at the Beachcomber in Melbourne – for a few drinks. Chosen venue was the CBH so I headed down along with Louise and caught up with Nikki and Luke came down to join us later too. Having bumped into a few other faces from my days in Melbourne the evening turned into a late one… with lots of pool playing and silliness, once again including free champers from Gramps! I think I finally got to bed about 4am – something was telling me Tuesday wasn’t going to be as productive and I’d hoped!!!

I was, thankfully, feeling far more human come Wednesday morning – my first day at eBay! It was strange to be getting up for a normal working day just like at home (and yes, I did make it on time this time!!) but I was excited about it. The job is not something I’d done before but that was kind of what I was looking forward to, doing something I wouldn’t normally be doing – I guess that’s what this trips all about after all!

There was 6 of us in the team working on the project that I’d been contracted for. I’m not allowed to give too much detail as the project hasn’t launched yet or been announced to the press so I have to be quiet about it. It’s a global eBay project though and it was cool to think I’d be working on it. The other members of ‘Team Mage’ as we’d been named, included 4 guys and one other girl: Alex, Nik, Cosy, Star and Martin – the latter 2 being the 2 I’d become good friends with.To start with we were all set up in one of the conference rooms – a glass walled room which we named ‘the fish bowl’ – we felt a bit like we were in Big Brother as everyone in the office could see us but we felt a tad segregated! It wasn’t an ideal set up in terms of integrating with the rest of the staff but everyone seemed really friendly and I was excited to be there.

I have to say, the location of the office was great, Number 1 York Street, right by the harbour bridge (as you can see in the pic), being on the 19th Floor meant the views we had were wicked! The thing I was loving about eBay too though, was all the little added touches that came with the office… a fridge stocked full of juice, all sorts of supplies in the cupboards, a toasted sandwich maker, a fully stocked fruit bowl and my own personal favourite perk… a proper coffee making machine ‘Starbucks’ style. Now, I know I don’t drink coffee but I could froth milk to my hearts content and as that has become a bit of a fave beverage of mine in the mornings, I was a happy girl! Small things eh!?!

The eve of my first day at work was Louise’s last night before heading off on her travels round Oz so saw us heading to Five O’s again for a ‘last supper’. Lou had become a bit of a fixture, not only on our very childish ‘Kiss-a-ton’ chart in the kitchen (daft antics you guys don’t need to be bored with!) but in the flat and as part of the Beach Street gang – we were going to miss her. She was coming back to Sydney again though so we were happy enough for her to leave us various clothes and boots to cheekily borrow whilst she was away! Cheers Lou – those boots were great! xx