Let the Truth Offend You: Australia Adventure: Good Ol' Brizzy!!

Over the two and a half months I spent in Brisbane, the city came to mean many things to me. But at the immediate time of my arrival, it meant a pause in my adventures.

I had been traveling non-stop for exactly three months now and I was tired of being on the road. It didn’t help that my bank account was also diminished. So I decided that Brizzy would be where I settle down for some time and make some cash.

Brizzy Baby!!

But we had just arrived after travelling the Queensland Coast! Guillaume and Jean-Michel would be sticking around for a week so we decided to keep on partying!

Bunk Backpackers (the hostel we were at) had an attached bar named Birdies, which is where we usually ended up after a quick round of predrinks. Brisbane had a varied nightlife and we had a taste of it while the Quebecois were here.

And during the day we explored the city! Brisbane had a river that separated the city from the beautiful South Bank. It was the arts and entertainment sector of the city which also featured a man-made lagoon where we spent countless hours lying in the sand soaking in the rays.

Southbank!

It also featured an arts and history museum which were free to check out so we made sure to go there. And just like most large cities, Brisbane featured a botanic garden complete with a pond filled with fish and lizards!

The three of us spent our last weekend together playing some frisbee and taking part in a dumpling eating competition! I couldn’t eat more than four, but Jean-Michel made it to the full ten!

We spent the remainder of the weekend with some new friends we had made there, including Lisa from England and Anouchka from France. Lisa immediately referred to me as Canada, and as she was from the Jersey Islands in the UK, I decided to call her Jersey!! This would be the case for our entire time together!

Story Bridge!

And then the day came that we had to say our goodbyes. I walked with the Quebecois to the Greyhound bus terminal where they would be traveling down to Sydney. It had been an amazing three weeks and we resolved to meet up again in Canada.

Just as they were loading up their bags, another bus pulls up and who steps out but Fenna, Sarah and Jasmine from the Whitsundays! They will be staying in Brisbane for a few days before going down the coast.

We all bid farewell to Guillaume and Jean-Michel, and then separate as the girls are staying at a different hostel. We arrange to meet up the next day.

Arriving back at Bunk, I decided to begin my job search. I pulled up my resume and began retooling it for all kinds of jobs. Café jobs, bar jobs, any job! But before I could begin a proper job search, Gemma from Mission Beach arrived in Brisbane!

So naturally we partied.

I spent the next week chilling and partying with new friends and old, and made very little progress on my job search. There was actually an icecream shop called Nitrogenie that I became partial to working at, and I made a lot of effort trying to get employment there. I guess that may sound strange to some readers but it actually made a lot of sense in my head.

This was no average icecream shop. They used liquid nitrogen to freeze the icecream and the vibe of the store was pretty cool. Neon lights and electro music constantly pulsed from the inside. It was also located in Southbank and right next to the lagoon, so I was pulling pretty hard for a chance to work here.

But alas it was not to be.

It was now two weeks since I arrived in Brisbane and I was no closer to finding a job than when I had arrived there. I began to panic. I realized that the time I legally had left in Australia was ticking down. Every day that lapsed was another day that I was losing money. This culminated in a panic attack one night.

I’ve experienced a few in my life, and this one left me sleepless. I was unsure if I was going to be able to find work here. Would I be left to watch my bank account drain while I drowned in a sea of uncertainty and anxiety?

The next morning I met my roommate in the bed above me. We began talking and I mentioned that I was looking for work. It turned out his employer was hiring! His name was Justin and he worked for a company called BioSolar as a door knocker. He gave me a number to call.

I was persistent with calling and was rewarded when I got a call back late in the afternoon. It turned out that they were doing a group interview the next day and invited me to come along.

The next morning I got everything together and figured out a bus route to take. But the bus was late and I realised that I would be late for the interview so I hailed a taxi and made my way to the office in the suburb of Woolloongabba.

There was a group of about twenty of us waiting in the lobby and we were soon led to a larger area to get started. This was my first group interview and I was unsure how it would proceed. They started by breaking us into groups and having us sell an item to them. My group had a yellow hula hoop so we decided to pitch it as a portable solar sun.

The next task was to describe ourselves in thirty seconds. And then it was over. I left the interview unsure of how I did. They said they would let us know today so I waited for the call.

The phone rang a few hours later. I had got the job!! I would be starting two days from now.

I was ecstatic!! I no longer had to worry about draining funds or uncertainty. I was here to work.

Thursday morning I was ready to go in for training. But before I left, I had to say goodbye to Jersey. She was off to go work on a farm for a month! Jersey and I spent a lot more time together during the past few weeks than I have written about, usually over drinks at night and the lagoon during the day! So I bid goodbye to her, knowing that we would meet back up after her month away.

I felt great as I walked through the door at Biosolar. I was now going to work for the first time in three and a half months! We spent the day being trained by Chris, a Canadian who had made the move to Australia. I would be working as a door knocker for the company. Basically, my day would consist of being dropped off a suburb close to Brisbane and walking assigned neighbourhoods, knocking on doors and convincing people to sign up for a free consultation for solar panels. I was happy doing this as I didn’t have to sell anything and it was a product that I felt comfortable talking up.

It was at training that I met Tracey and Cliona, two Irish girls who I would spend a lot of time with during my stay in Brisbane.

The next day we were separated into our teams. Biosolar was employing quite a few backpackers and my assigned team had a fair few as well as a couple of Australians, Sebastian and Mark. My team leader was Jack, an Australian, who knocked with me my first day as I learned the ropes.

The next day I knocked by myself and signed up three customers! We had a small work party that night and I went back to the hostel to drink with some other friends Lucy and Dean before going back out with my work crew. But I passed out from the day and never made it out!

Quentin and Mark!

Over the next few weeks I continued with the job. We traveled to neighbourhoods all over North Brisbane and I was doing moderately well. Enough to keep my job anyway! I was being paid an hourly wage with the possibility of commission if I hit it, and our days were from Tuesday to Saturday. I also took up a bit of exercise, running along the river bank and getting a gym membership.

One week a friend from Perth arrived in Brisbane. Her name was Andrea and she was a fellow Canadian. We spent a few nights together checking out the Brisbane festival along with the crew that I now hung out with; Anouchka, Cliona, Tracey, Lucy and Dean. We also learned that Anja from Perth was working at the festival so we spent some time with her also.

And then Jersey came back! She had enjoyed her time on the farm but decided to come back to Brisbane. Along came the partying.

Brsibane Festival Light Show!

And then came another Canadian friend from Perth! Ruth, along with her sister, came to visit and we checked out a cool acrobatic show at the festival.

Work was still going ok, but I started to see my number slide. I was worried that I may get fired soon, but Jack took me aside and gave me some critical advice on my sales pitch. He told me to include an impulse factor to make people feel like they needed to set that appointment. So I ran with it and saw a great increase in my sign ups!

I was now the end of September in Brisbane and my visa was soon to expire on the twenty fourth of October. I still had the rest of the East coast of Australia to see and the only way to do that now was to get a visitor visa, but I needed to apply for that outside of the country.

So I decided to plan a trip to New Zealand!!

The land of the hobbits was somewhere I had wanted to check out for a while now, so I made the necessary arrangements and booked my flights!

Full Moon Party!!

I had one more month left in Brisbane and I decided to use it to my full advantage. I partied with my friends on the weekend, always enjoying a night out with Cliona, Tracey, Jersey and Anouchka. We hit up a Full Moon party at Birdies one weekend, enjoying the glow paint and music of the night.

I worked all the way up till the nineteenth of October, and spent my last few night with the crew, including some new English guys who were my roommates. We had a BBQ the day before at Lucy and Dean’s apartment and I enjoyed chilling with people I had come to call friends.

I ditched the suitcase I had bought in Adelaide and bought a seventy-five litre backpack from Kathmandu. It would be far easier to travel New Zealand with a backpack rather than a suitcase.

And then the morning of October twenty-first came and I left for the airport. My two and a half months in Brisbane were fantastic and it is impossible for me to do justice to this experience in my writings here. It would take a novel to compile the highs and lows, the wins and losses, the excitement, the fear, the heartbreak and the relationships built over my time in Brizzy. And for these experiences I am incredibly thankful to the people whom I shared them with.

But it was now time to wave goodbye to it all. I was on my way to New Zealand!