26/06/2016
Rush hour today to get a shower. Everybody was awake at the same hour and wanted to have a shower at the same hour…. Laying on top of a bunk bed, I managed to be the one always just too late to get in the bathroom. Eventually the last one, check!

After a nice and refreshing shower, we went to eat breakfast at Smith Street. Some bacon and eggs, njum njum!

It still surprises me how nice people are over here. An older man started to talk to us, asking where we were from, what we think about Darwin,... Just a normal chat, the chance something like that will happen in Europe is like zero. We said to him that we were still trying to find a job over here, but it was not as easy as expected when we first arrived in town. His family members were about to leave, so he joined them and said ‘thank you for the chat’. Amazing right?

While we almost finished our breakfast, one of the waiters heard the conversation and recommended me to go apply at Rorkes. He didn’t know of course that I already had been there, but I thanked him for the information and left the place. Back to the hostel, I decided to give my diary some attention, as it was really urgent. I am like more than two months behind of writing it on the internet (Traveldiariesapp). During my writing, Babs looked for some information to book her next trip, Alice Springs.

In the evening we watched the first episodes of season 1 from Jane the Virgin. We figured out that we both love the series so much. We badly want to see season 2 as soon as possible, but Netflix only puts it only in October. That is way too long waiting for us! We desperately want to see it now! Maybe a good night sleep will help us find a solution for that:).

27/06/2016
Another Miss Asia and a Miss Germany I think, two friends, agreed to wake up very early in the morning and wake everybody up with their nose. The only thing you could hear were the girls grabbing plastic bags all the time, as if they were packing their bags. That could be a good thing, more space in our room, but unfortunately they were going on a day trip and would be back by the evening.

This weekend we figured out that our wage of the V8’s was transferred to the wrong account. Bank accounts are very complicated over here. We have a Smart Access and a Super Essential account. Difference: Smart Access is comparable to a ‘zichtrekening in Belgium’ and the Super Essential is an account where employers can transfer a surplus above your wage on, ‘pensioen-spaarplan’. You better not have a lot of money on that account as backpacker, because you only can use this money if you are retired (citizen) or if you leave the country (backpacker).

So guess what happened…. We accidentally gave Top End Consulting, our employer, the details of the Essential Super Account. Above that, if your wage is transferred to your Essential, the bank takes money from it, they call it “administration costs”. I will give you an example: I earned 406 AUD that weekend, I looked at my Essential account, and what did it say… 350 AUD. I was completely in shock when I saw that. They just took 60 AUD as it is normal?! That is the same as working 3 hours for nothing?! No way I would agree to this.

Consequently, we went to Commonwealth this morning. They gave our details to contact Essential Super. Before contacting them, we wanted to get some information at Top End Consulting concerning the wrong bank account details. They told us to contact Essential, and let them know what they have to do to transfer the money to the right account.

Being in the neighbourhood of Rorkes, I tried to apply again. Was not the wisest decision of my life. I was a completely fool over there. They asked me to name 5 red wines and I could not even mention one of them… How bad is that. I guess you can figure out yourselves that I never heard from them again. I still can’t believe that happened to me.
In the afternoon, Babs and I went to Casuarina to buy new black shoes. No way I was ever going to put those other shoes on ever again. No more suffering for Charlotte! We took the smelly bus back. Two aboriginals, I guess husband and wife, were so drunk and started yelling to each other. I know it’s bad to say, but the only thing coming out their mouths is ‘motherf*cker’ and I really don’t know why. I couldn’t wait to get out of that bus as soon as possible. It looked like they were going to get into a fight. DIdn’t want to witness that, I hate fights.

I convinced myself to go jobhunting again and went to the Esplenade, visited every hotel and asked them if they were in search of new staff. They all said the same. Apply on the internet, we can’t help you here.
Later that day, Jason picked us up at the hostel and we prepared some food. Jason took care of the chicken schnitzels, freshly made, and Babs and I took care of the salad and mashed potatoes, delightful!
28/06/2016
This morning we woke up very early as we knew it was the start of the school holidays. We arrived at the Wave Lagoon around 10 am and by 10.15 am every seat was already taken in. We continued our jobhunting on internet. I registered myself to some sites of hotels to see if they have jobs as well. In the evening there was free sausage again. Later on, we packed our luggage as it was our last night in the hostel…

29/06/2016
We checked out at 10 am and Jason picked us up to get some coffee at the Botanic Gardens. Last week I made a bet with Athos during Criminal Minds and I won that one. He owed me one ice cream from Trampoline. He was home as well, so we went during lunch to the ice cream bar and he bought me one. It was so delicious. Around 1 pm Athos took off to the airport, as he was leaving with his mother to China for two weeks. Because they were fixing the shower in their apartment, they could spend 3 nights in another aparthotel, called ‘Alatai’. Jason let us stay there for one night, as there were enough spare beds and that was a good way for us to save some money. We went to the Post Office too, I had some presents I needed to send to Belgium. The lady told me it would take about 6 weeks to arrive. You could do another option, by plane, then it only would take about one week, but that was too expensive for me. It costed me already 48 AUD to send my package by boat. From what I remember, I think it was about 150 AUD to do it by plane. While Jason was working, I started to update my diary again. It had been way too long again with the stupid internet in the hostel. We still had leftovers of the schnitzel and mashed potatoes, so we ate that in the evening and watched the movie ‘He’s just not that into you’.

30/06/2016
We had to wake up very early, as Jason needed to go to work at 6 am. We had to check out from Alatai as well, so we all woke up that early and moved to their old apartment. Babs and I slept for about 3 hours and went for a walk to the city. As it was almost the last days of Babs in Darwin, she wanted to book a trip to Alice Springs. We went to a travel agency and she booked the trip, starting on July 6th. Afterwards we went to do some shopping in Coles. We were going to the deckchair cinema, so we needed to have some food and drinks to bring along. They were playing Jungle Book, so I needed to see that movie. It was the first time for Jason to go there and he was excited about it too. We made some popcorn ourselves, with lots of butter and sugar, and brought it to the cinema. There was a lot of people over there. After the movie, we went to the apartment and I send my father birthday wishes.