(Day 51) Mexican Night and the Bandit

Saturday 21^st April (Day 51)

The Sombreros

Sometime this week I was walking back home through the alleyway behind my house when I came upon a large bag of sombreros.  A lot of stuff gets dumped in this alleyway including odd bits of furniture and small electrical devices, some of it we salvage and use in the house.

However a large bag of bright red sombreros!  This was by far the best thing I have seen in our alleyway.  I grabbed the bag immediately and took them to our house.  I counted how many sombreros were in the bag and there were 40!

I am not sure what we were going to do with 40 bright red sombreros but we will find a use for them.

Looking back I am not sure if they had actually just been dumped in the alleyway.  They were next to a minibus with the doors open but oh well.  They are mine now!

Score!

The Fiesta

Since getting the hats we have had some fun with them.  One activity we enjoyed doing with the hats is throwing them through the windows of the place across the road.

However we all felt these hats deserved more so Saturday night we had a Mexican themed party.  Amy went out and came back with a huge amount of Mexican food.

It wasn’t long until our back garden was full of people wearing the bright red sombreros and getting drunk.  It was a great night and it was what the sombreros would have wanted (if they could talk).

We had good people round, good food, a nice selection of drinks including tequila and a strong punch and we were all wearing bright red sombreros!  This was a great house party.  What could possible go wrong?

The Lone Bandit

Well, of course something had to go wrong.  I got a text earlier that night from my landlord saying we needed to talk urgently about my late rent payments.  Since I have paid my rent on time every fortnight and since I had no credit on my phone I ignored his text.  However he decided to drop by this evening and he was in a foul mood.

The first thing he did was immediately kick everyone out who didn’t live in the house.  He then pointed at JC and me and said that he would be back in an hour and if anyone was left here who didn’t live in the house JC and I would be kicked out of the house straight away.

I wanted to shove a cactus up his arse

He was on a power trip and I have never hated someone so much so quickly.  He showed up in his fancy BMW complete with token Asian bride and the urge to just grab something remotely sharp and scratch the paintwork off his car was dangerously strong.

We live in a house that is totally uncared for and a few years away from probably being uninhabitable and he comes around in his expensive BMW with his expensive wife giving us shit.

After he stormed off a few people came back to the back garden.  I tried to ask them to leave explaining that my tenancy in the house was on the line but they didn’t really seem interested.  Some guys in the house who have lived here for a while and know the landlord quite well assured me that he was just full of hot air and that he would not come back tonight.  I sure hope they are right.  I don’t want to be kicked out of this house, not after only a few weeks here.

I think next time he comes round through the back door into our garden I am just going to run straight through the front door.  If I am not there he can’t kick me out!  That is my theory anyway because he doesn’t know us on a personal level; just some random people paying him good money to live in one of his many slums.

So tonight was a night of two halves.  But at least the party had begun to wind down anyway when the landlord showed up, so it wasn’t a total write off.  But I think we will keep social gatherings more low key in future.

Ben (Spanish house mate) and some smacked up Canadian guy

More people were wearing hats later on

(Day 50) Another door opens

Friday 20^th April Day 50

So my job as a street fundraiser ended yesterday and I was walking down Eddy Avenue heading towards the shops.  Eddy Avenue is a busy street in Sydney and is a hot spot for fundraisers.  I have been stopped here by fundraisers before which is how I got into this whole fundraising thing and today was no different.

Come for an interview

First person to stop me was some blonde girl; I could tell it was her first or second day.  We had a brief conversation when a guy called Alex came up to us.  I have spoken to Alex before, he is a recruiter for the fundraising company and told me that they were interviewing on Monday. 

Their office was literally just around the corner from my house but I never really liked the look of this company.  For a fundraising company they seem a bit cold and soulless.  I wasn’t massively interested but I still felt like I had learned a lot about fundraising but had not been given the opportunity to put my new skills to the test.

I will make you good

I left these guys with fundraising on the mind again.  I would like one last go at it, but I wanted to work for the company I had just left.  Those guys were awesome!

It was then when I was stopped by a guy I recognised from the fundraising company I had just left.  He was a very friendly and energetic guy and he greeted me like a good friend.  I explained what had happened between me and the company but I also added that I felt like I had learnt a lot.  He suggested I come back and work for him.  I didn’t think this was possible but he explained that he leads his own department so I would work under him and that would be allowed.

He said, “Come work for me, I will make you good”.  He will make me good eh?  Okay, if he insists.  I liked the look of this guy; he had so much energy.

He invited me to a training day on Monday, I didn’t even have to go to an interview, just straight to the training day.

Charmed

I guess this is just what I wanted; another chance to work for this wacky and amazing fundraising company.  I wanted to have one last crack at fundraising but only with this company.  And now I can...

Sometimes I think I live a charmed life J

(Day 48) One door closes

Wednesday 18^th April (Day 48)

The team

So, today is the day where I sink or swim.  I had to do well today and get some signups or I was going to be fundraising no more.  I was hoping for a good team to work with today and I got one.  I was working with Eric and Will; the 2 fundraisers who I have learnt the most from.  Surely the Gods have conspired to make this happen.  I couldn’t have picked a better team for me to work with.

The setting

However we were working in a place called Rockdale.  I didn’t really like the sound of this place.  I got images of some shady little town with sand and tumbleweeds.  I really wanted to work in the city instead.

I got the train to Rockdale that morning.  It was pretty far out of the city and it wasn’t too different from how I imagined it.  The driving rain that made my day yesterday so miserable was back again.  So the team was great but the setting for my sink or swim day was bad and I didn’t get off to a good start either.  The pressure of knowing this was probably going to be my final day was really sapping my energy. 

That morning

The morning passed fairly quickly and I was doing alright.  Despite the problems I wasn’t going to let this job go without a fight.  I stopped one guy who said he was going to and from a tattoo shop just down the road whilst getting a large tattoo done on his leg.  I suggested that he should join our charity today because whenever he looks at his tattoo it will remind him that he is helping save children’s lives.

Some old guy I tried to stop turned around and said by saving children’s lives we were adding to the problems in Africa with reference to over population.  This is bollocks because over population is caused by poverty, not the other way round.  

The reasons being:

• Health care and family planning facilities unavailable to most families
•  Families need lots of children to work to scrap enough money together for the family to live off
• The fact that most of your children are going to die, so naturally you are going to have more to increase the chances of some making it to adulthood
• And the fact that as a parent you will probably at this point be critically ill and need children to look after you      

And the charity I was representing is focused not just on saving people’s lives but to break the poverty cycle.  I tried to stop this guy to have a discussion with him about how he was wrong but he didn’t want to.  He just wanted to have his say and to walk away, what an ignorant twit.  Anyway, rant over.

The evening

After lunch I was still trying hard, approaching most of the people who were walking towards me but it was just no good.  The thing is you have to stay positive in this job, if you are not emitting positive energy nobody stops to talk to you.  I just felt like I was staring down the barrel of the gun of being fired.  It was coming and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

At some points in the afternoon I just felt like “oh, what’s the point”.  Well the point was I really liked this job, I really liked the charity I was representing, I really liked the company and I really liked the people I worked with.  I really wanted to hang on and stay with this job but I just couldn’t make that illusive signup.

By 6 o’clock it was getting dark and it was all over.  I think Will made one signup that morning but that was it.  Wonder boy Eric hadn’t made a signup in the 2 days I have worked with him.  It seemed a bit unfair that he was now going to fire me for not getting any signups whilst he was on zero as well.  But I suppose he has already proved himself.

I was pretty gutted handing in my tee-shirt and folder.  I wanted to stay in this job but I couldn’t, not without any signups.  It’s over, damn.

(Day 47) Unsettled, (Fundraising II)

Tuesday 17^th April 

Tuesday Games II (stuck in the mud in Martin Place)

Tuesday is a mad day at the fundraising office as I have mentioned before.  My last interview was on a Tuesday and we ended up playing pictorary for a good part of the morning.  Today’s game was stuck in the mud (or tiggy scare crow as I remember it).  We all went outside and played this in Martin Place.  I went to Martin Place on the first day I arrived here, it is a large avenue made up of granite and slate where all the major banks have their main branches.  In short Martin Place is the financial core of Sydney.

Interesting fact: part of The Matrix was filmed in Martin Place, amongst other films.

Remember this 2 minute section from The Matrix?  Yes, filmed in Martin Place
Image from huffington post, no copy write infringement intended.

The good thing about running around Martin Place was the pavement was made from slate and it had been raining since this morning which made the ground very slippery.  I fell flat on my face a few times just like everyone else.  The game quickly resorted to fast walking rather than running.

It was pretty fun though, running around like an idiot with a big group of other idiots.  All these business men wearing their black and grey suits were walking past us giving us funny looks.  I bet they haven’t had this much fun in years.

After 3 rounds of stuck in the mud we headed back to the office where we were put into our teams.  Today I was paired up with team leader Eric and 2 new guys.  Eric was actually from the Canadian fundraising office and had been sent here for a month to fundraise with the Sydney office.  He must be pretty good if he has been sent all the way from Canada.

Washout in North Sydney

I also found out that we were working in North Sydney today which I was excited about.  North Sydney is just across the Harbour Bridge and is a wealthy part of town full of expensive looking office buildings filled with expensive looking people.  I have always wanted to cross the Harbour Bridge and visit North Sydney.

So I would have loved North Sydney, but the weather was terrible.  I had mentioned it had been raining before but it only really started after we began fundraising.  It was a mixture of constant driving rain with the occasional 2 or 3 minute torrential shower.  I never knew so much water could fall from the sky in such a short amount of time.  It wasn’t just the rain as well but the wind was joining in as well.  I thought I would be alright because I had an umbrella with me but no, that broke after about 5 minutes.

This was a disaster, I was on a roll yesterday and I just needed a good day today to continue where I left off.  But today was anything but what I needed.  I was getting soaked and nobody would even consider stopping for me.

Eric, the charismatic Canadian

The only good thing about today was working with Eric.  This guy was a complete nutter.  I loved his opening lines and the way he fundraised.  He would just wave at someone and say “Hi!  Will you talk to me?”  I liked how simple and genuine this opening line was.  At one point he balanced his folder on his head and then started to try and stop people by saying “hi, there is something on my mind that I would like to share with you”.  It made a lot of people laugh, although unfortunately they didn’t stop.

My last chance

Despite Eric’s best attempts none of us got any signups today.  To be honest for 4 people to go out and get nothing was a disaster.  I think the weather was a factor in this but we should have done better.  I learnt a lot from Eric today but I only had one more day to put what I have learnt to good use.  Today was supposed to be my last day but Eric gave me one more day.  So tomorrow I had better bring my A-game.

(Day 46) The Breakthrough, (Fundraising II)

Monday 16^th April (Day 46)

The Breakthrough

I was feeling shaky and my confidence was low after lunch.  Nobody had stopped for me in a while and I was in that vicious fundraiser circle of rejection*.  But by late afternoon that had all changed.  By 4 o’clock I was on a massive high.  Throughout the day I had been getting feedback and little tips from my team on how to improve and they were all working well.  What really helped me was watching Will work and borrowing ideas from him.

I think my issue before with fundraising is that I have only work with girls and I’m not complaining but, this was the first time I have fundraised with another guy and it helped me immensely.  There was nothing wrong with the girls I had worked with but I can’t really learn from them.  Girls fundraise differently from guys; they have a different approach and different assets to use. I needed a role model and Will was perfect.  It was his quirky, upbeat approach.

I decided to try it his way and use his opening lines and to borrow some of his quirky attitude and soon I was flying.  I was having so much fun greeting people in this light hearted way.  Before I was greeting people hoping they would stop, but now I was greeting people expecting them to stop.

The afternoon flew past and by 6 o’clock when we finish I still wanted to keep going.  So looking back to this morning I have progressed so much, from this shy shaky guy trying to stop a few people to this confident happy guy bouncing from one person to the next.  I could talk to anyone now, that choking feeling of awkwardness that made the job so hard had all but gone.

And those negative comments from those people this morning?  If having nice people try and stop them on the street for charity is a major inconvenience then they clearly have issues.

And to be honest, they can fuck off.

Anyway, I think I have cracked it, this fundraising job.  The secret is to have fun with the job.  The only issue is that I still haven’t managed to sign anyone up.  I have to sign someone up tomorrow or I will probably get fired.  This would be a shame because I am so close now to nailing this job.  I just hope tonight I sleep well and tomorrow I continue exactly where I left off.

(Day 46) Chipping away, (Fundraising II)

Monday 9^th April (Day 46)

My first real day

Today was my first proper day of working as a fundraiser for the new mad company.  Last week I was ill for 4 days and when I did go in I was sent home for not knowing the script.

Yeah, I had done fundraising before for the last company but I don’t really count that time.  I never really got my feet on the ground with that job.  I count my experience with the last company as an “introduction to fundraising” and this time was my first proper experience in fundraising.  So I have written off last week, and today is the start of a new week. 

I was working in a suburb called Burwood.  The best way of getting to these suburbs is by train since I live just across the road from the main train station.  I always plan my journeys online the night before so I get there on time.  However the internet was not working so I didn’t know how long it would take to get to Burwood, so I just played it safe and jumped onto an early train at around 8:30 giving me around 90 minutes to get to Burwood.

This was great because Burwood turned out to be less than 20 minutes away!  I had over an hour to kill at the train station.  This gave me time to go through my script again but it just wasn’t going in.  I just don’t feel like I can cram anymore into my head.  If I memorise one section of the script I just push another section out of my head.

When the time started approaching 10 o’clock I headed to the ticket barrier to meet up with my team.  This is one of the interesting parts of this job because the only information you are given about your team members are their names, and today I was working with Joy and Will with Joy being the team leader.

It is really interesting waiting in a public place looking at everyone and thinking “is that joy?”

The time was now almost 10 and a train had arrived at the station.  I knew that a crowd of people were just about to come round the corner and I assumed Joy would be among them.  I started playing a game where I would think to myself “the next person who comes round the corner is Joy” ...then some old man comes round the corner, I don’t think that is Joy.

Again, I think “the next person is going to be Joy!” and then some fat old woman comes round the corner...  “No, that is probably not Joy either, I hope not anyway...” 

“Alright, the next person is Joy”, then some little Indonesian looking girl comes round the corner.  “No, that is not her... wait, why is she walking towards me waving?”  It was Joy.

Will was the other member of our team and he quickly appeared out from the crowd.  After brief introductions we headed to our spot to start working. 

Chipping away

We arrived at the place where we were going to fundraise and shooed off a group of fundraiser who were already in our spot.  We managed to shoo off the other fundraisers by playing the ultimate trump card, we had a permit to work in this area and they didn’t.

After they packed up and cleared off we started to get ready and to be honest I was not feeling confident at all.  I had to go through my script with Joy and I really didn’t do that well.  I knew I was on the border line of being sent home again for not knowing my script, probably for the last time but she let me stay and practice.  After 20 minutes of frantically going through the script she threw me a t-shirt and told me to start working.  It was hard, I was keen but nervous.

After a difficult morning we headed to lunch, my confidence was a bit low but I was doing alright.  I had 2 very negative comments this morning.  I was waving at one guy and he said “you can put your hand down mate because I don’t give a flying fuck”.  A middle aged woman I tried to stop turned around and said “I wish you guys would stop harassing people!” in a rather angry voice.  Although they didn’t really bother me at the time I couldn’t get there comments out of my head. 

Was what they said true?  Was I just a nuisance on the streets?  Had I ruined these peoples day?  I don't want to be that guy... I'm a nice guy, I don't want to ruin people's day.  How am I going to get through the afternoon?