Guests

Victor: "When you have time, I need -" *holds out empty bowl of handwash soap*
Victor: "Tell me. How many are we?"
Victor: "Tell me. When he leaving?"
Victor: "Tell me. What is your rule on bed light. He always complain when I put it on, even though I have cover over it!"
Victor: "Tell me. Why we don't have camera in the room?"
Victor: *requires rubber band*
Victor: *requires plastic coin bag*
Victor: *requires torch batteries*

Victor: **long, bitter tale of woe about arguments over the bed light**
Me: (because I am trying to distance myself from V's many problems, rather than reinforce the idea that I am the one he can 'vent' to) "Well, that sounds annoying. But, that's for you two to work out. Part of living in a dorm room I guess."
Victor: "But mine is very dim! He wants me to use always my flashlight, eh? And when he wants to get up, he turns the big light on! Disturb everyone! Tell me, what is he allowed to do?"
Me: "I can't really make him do anything, especially not in the middle of the night. Sure that sucks. But, that's for you two to work out. Part of living in a dorm room I guess."

Victor: **long, bitter complaint about how we don't have adequate staff at nighttime**
Me: Well, we do have staff in the building. For emergencies. I guess it's up to them what they consider an emergency.
Victor: We used to have 24 hour reception! Under the old system! **long, bitter tale of woe about arguments over the bed light**
Me: If the night staff don't consider that an emergency, there's not really much we can do.

This goes on for a while.
Victor: So you're saying there's nothing you can do.
Me: *sad nod*

Rade: "PEN"
Me: *hands over pen*
Rade: "NO YOU WRITE"
Me: "What do you want me to write?"
Rade: "HUGGGHHERRRMARR" (something unintelligible starting with 'H', with an 'R' in it somewhere.)
Me: "How do you spell that?"
Rade: "I DON'T KNOW! DAT'S WHY YOU WRITE!"

Notes on the system:
Plz don't extend Rade. We kicked him out of Shakespeare.
Rade is up to his old tricks - sleeping on couch, hiding remote. Guests are sick of watching old movies all day!
PLZ DON'T EXTEND RADE. Guests have accused him of stealing their food.
Rade will pay on Thurs for 4 more nights. ref Wayne.

Nice guy: Rade's acting a bit weird.
Amit: Rade's fucking nuts.
NG: He keeps opening and closing the fridge. I think he's looking for something to eat. Maybe you should remind him that he can have some free rice.

This, I do. Rade is still in the kitchen, staring into the fridge. He has watery blue eyes, and has the demeanor of someone who has just fallen out of a spaceship into a foreign land and is both bewildered and unimpressed at what he sees here.
Me (kindly): Are you looking for something?
Rade: MY MEAL.
I remind him about the rice. The bewildered, unimpressed expression intensifies.
One of the Korean girls pipes up. "He looking for something," she tells me. "Someone take his food."
It transpires that he is looking for a yellow carton of milk, which looks identical to one already in the fridge, but is not that one. He has no intention to stop looking, and open and closes the fridge door a few more times.

Sometime later, I am sitting at the desk and Rade comes up to the counter. "I find my milk," he tells me, glaring. "One moment, it was not there, then I go away and it APPEAR again."
He stares at me for a moment. "Strange, ah?"
I say something about how he should just enjoy the fact that he has it now. "VERY STRANGE. Someone take it. Nothing safe here."

A few minutes after that, Brian comes to the desk and say that people have noticed Rade taking stuff that isn't his. "Some salt here, some bread here."
I roll my eyes and wonder if, when Rade "found" his "milk", he really means he "stole" somebody else's "meal".

When Rade's stay is finally up, I get him to check out with minimal hassle - just one short outburst.
"Can I stay one more night, and pay tomorrow?"
I tell him no, we are 'filling up'.
"FILLING UP AH? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU TALKING ABOUT'
Smile and shrug!

Eventually he leaves, dressed in his best with a suit jacket and hat. He says, "Thankyou for the hospitality. You, but nobody else!"

Next time I am on shift, there is a note on the system:
Rade will stay 5 more days referring to Wayne. Then checking out for good.

Sigh. We'll see. Until then, more amusement!

A 2-minute "spot clean"

Points of note:

- Went to Kangaroo Island a few weeks ago on a free tour through work. Hot weather. Fun with Brian. Many Europeans. I was the only Aussie, and the palest-skinned of the group. Highlights: Sandboarding down Little Sahara on our 'Mr-Sheen-ed' boards, lying on the beach sharing Adelaide stories with the tour leader, hiking conversation with Brian, braving the waves at Snelling Beach. Downside: Actually, there's nothing I can complain about, not even considering it was a free tour. Although, it would have been nice if the air conditioning on the bus hadn't been broken... and if we hadn't become bogged in the sand on our night-drive. (Although, while the girls shivered and waited, I think the boys had the time of their lives ribbing the driver and getting together to dig holes around the tyres and push.)

- The following weekend, DW and I took our belated Christmas present to each other, 2 nights at a B&B at Largs Bay. Highlights: not for public display. Let's just say DW is becoming quite proficient in certain skills. But, the beach walks and Harbour Town shopping and snuggles in bed weren't bad either ;). Downside: the wind! Bad bad beach weather. The water was warm, but we couldn't relax or sit down without being whipped mercilessly by sand. Also, it was kind of expensive. But never mind.

- I've been going to the gym a fair bit recently, and so far keeping my goal of running 3x week. Yesterday DW and I went for a run together at Linear Park which was good. Having him there motivates me to keep going, I think. He reckons he looks more approachable running with a girl, which I tend to agree with. We passed another couple riding bikes who both smiled at us and after they passed we were like, 'foursome!'

- New thought: I think I'd like to combine work in the UK and travel. I'd still have to save a fair bit of course, but maybe not quite as much as if I just left from Australia. Plus I could maybe travel longer.

Ok, so new daydream-plan:

Mid July - September: Travel from Prague down to Turkey.
October - Jan: Work in England - maybe a live-in pub job?
Mid Jan - mid April: Work for PGL, an outdoor-activity company in England (I don't think I'd be able to save much here, but by all accounts it looks like fun)
May- July - More travel: Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Northern Europe?

Other thoughts: we just got an email at work from a company that offers 3 month live-in carer contracts in England, that recruits mainly travellers. The email was asking for a reference for a girl used to work at the hostel. I looked up a bit about them, and currently have a question mark over whether that sounds like something I'd want to do. I reckon it'd really depend on the person you were with - if the person were easygoing, involved in life (and perhaps young?) it sounds like it'd be a really good opportunity to settle in one place for a while and earn pretty decent money, but if you didn't like the person you were caring for it could be awful. You know, I kind of like the idea of doing something like that - it seems like it would be good experience. But I can't be away forever...

Although, I could be away probably 15 months while only missing 1 year of uni. Potential issue (with all of this)... DW.

The problem, or solution, is that I love DW... a lot. I am incredibly lucky to have him and I don't want to throw that away. On the other hand, I don't want to be in a position when I look back and regret not having done more with life, when I wanted to, and I could have.

Aaaanyway. Time for banana cake and more daydreams.

--khere is a mini vacuum cleaner used only for very special hand jobs.

The New Year's Edition

New Year's Resolutions:

- Run (3x week)
- Speak German at work

= So far so good! I ran three times this week, and spoke at least some German every day I was working at the hostel. With the German, it's crazy how simple it was once I begun. I can't believe I had the same resolution last year and was somehow too shy to ever put it into action. We get so many Germans, this time of the year, that I'm hoping I can keep practising pretty constantly. Not all of them want to speak German - many are here to practise their English, after all - but if they do want to then I'll give it my best shot. It's awesome when I actually get compliments on it - some Swiss guy was like, "I wish I could speak English as good as your German." !! No way !! And I loved it when I was in mid-conversation with a Canadian guy (in English, obviously) and some German came up told me that "Die Karte funktioniert nicht," and I just switched to talking to him about it in German. What I said was very simple, but the Canadian was impressed and all like, "How many languages do you speak?" With, you know, the implication that I spoke at least two. Made me feel ridiculously proud!

And the running - two of the three runs this week were over 30 minutes, so I'm pretty chuffed with that too. Usually I prefer to run outdoors, but I did my first longer run on the treadmill today and realised that the treadmill is a real option. After all, it's getting too hot to run outside a lot of the time, and since I've got a gym membership I might as well utilise it.

Note, though, that my resolution was to run 3 times a week, not go to the gym 3 times a week - if the gym can help me with the resolution, that's great, but I don't want classes or weights to replace runs. The classes are good for me too though, if in more of a 'step out of the comfort zone' way, and if I was inclined to make more resolutions then I might include them in there. But this year I'm going to be specific. Running, and German.

Two things that don't always feel natural or relaxing, but make me a happier person. Two things that, when done regularly, become easier, but which never reach a point of completion. Two things that give me the sensation that I'm grabbing onto my life and living it deliberately.