On Moving to Australia

On Moving to Australia

Tuesday, 18 September 2018

Before heading to our new home in the Gold Coast, Jonny and I spent a couple days in Sydney with his brother, dad and two of his uncles. Exploring the city was loads of fun and averaging 18,000 steps per day meant I didn’t feel so guilty about all the junk we ate. Boys; we flew to another country and all they wanted was KFC. Having heard about Australia’s brunch culture however, I was on the hunt from the minute we arrived, and did manage to find an incredible smoothie bowl one afternoon when I went for a wander whilst they were at the pub. 

Our stay in Sydney was short but sweet and soon enough it was time to catch our flight to the Gold Coast. Jonnys best friends, Leon & Seamus (they're twins) have just bought an apartment at a holiday resort and we've moved in with them. Fully furnished (double bed, dining table - it even came with champange chutes so I have some to drink my prosecco out of), en suite, swimming pool and the beach down the road; it's perfect!

They're the first people my age I know that have managed to save up and buy a house for themselves and I think its pretty amazing; such an investment for their future. They even showed us this handy calculator from SunLife that shows how much house prices have risen in recent years, something they're excited about. 

Still, all their talk of mortgages goes right over my head, along with how to use the washing machine so even though I've been thinking about it, I still think I've got a little way to go.

I love waking up to, what I only know as holiday weather every morning and that there is always music playing when they're home. I love eating breakfast on the balcony overlooking the pool. I love that we finally have a real kitchen since we lived without one in Auckland and I love that one of the bathrooms has a huge corner bathtub.

We're within walking distance of a Ben and Jerry’s, Baskin Robin’s, Movenpick, Gelatissimo, Mcdonalds and my new favourite - Royal Copenhagen so thats where most of our money goes nowadays. Seriously, our cash got stolen over the first few days here and we decided to spend the last of it on ice cream. 

Having trialled all of the gyms in the area, I was going more or less 7 days a week for almost a month. I signed up for my first ever membership and promotly stopped going altogether as my Uber Eats application got accepted the next day. I now spend all my spare time cycling.

Talking of which, Jonny bought me the most beautiful mint green bicycle for my birthday! He also took me out for breakfast, ice cream and to a carabaret show where we both got very drunk and then had to cycle along the gold coast highway home.

We had our 6 month anniversary which we celebrated at the arcade. I might have lost at Guitar Hero but I did hit a 1000 ticket jackpot so who won really Bae?  

All three of the boys work the supermarket night shift and one of my two jobs is usually a10pm start so we spend most of our spare time messing around when we all get home at 4am. On top of that, theres uber which we all do very competatively; I worked 68 hours last week. So as you can see, it’s been all go since we got here sixe weeks ago. Sure it's been hard work but I'm loving it so far and am very excited to see what the rest of our time here brings! 

*Collaborative post

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Being an Uber eats bicycle delivery driver

Being an Uber eats bicycle delivery driver

Sunday, 9 September 2018

When I landed, alone in Kuala Lumpur with no idea what I was doing, an Uber driver got me safely to my hostel. When I wanted to see the sky tower in Ho Chi Minh City but didn't have much time an Uber motorbike zipped us through the traffic and when I was hungry on a cold, stormy night in Auckland, an Uber eats driver delivered steamy udon soup through a window, straight to my bed. I never used Uber much when I was at home but since I've been travelling, it's become one of my most important apps.

Whilst my little mint green bike (big up K-Mart) and I aren't quite like the large item courier you see rolling around Vietnam, (honestly, I've seen fridges, TV's and whole families on the back of a bike there,) I've spent the last two weeks delivering brown paper bags of happieness to people all around the Gold Coast. Becoming an Uber delivery driver has completely taken over my life. I cycled for hours in the rain by choice on Tuesday and last night, the four of us turned off the app and cycled home at 4.30am. Me, Jonny and both of our housemates are totally obsessed. 

Making $$ and getting healthy whilst you do it. Here's how I've found the whole thing:

Signing Up

Signing up is a pretty simple process. There are the usual questions; plus they want copies of important documents and such. The only issue I had was how long it took. For me, it took almost 2 weeks just to get approved because the criminal check just took forever; although uber were really good with keeping me updated on progress via text and email. Also, the help centers here in Oz were some of the most efficient and helpful call center staff I've ever come across, they actually fixed my problem every time I called.

The Bag 

If you see someone with this huge bag of their back, you know they are a fellow Uber driver. Theygs cost $35 which automatically comes out of your first payout and Uber are also happy to swap them for free when they get tired. We take ours everywhere with us now and switch the app on an any opportunity; obsessed like I said.

The bag has been mostly good except for when it comes to pizzas; they just don't fit. On a busy Wednesday night, as I opened my bag to get a pizza out, it became apparent that the whole thing had slid out of the side of the box and was sitting on the bottom of my bag, prawns and all.

Using the app 

Probably now my most used app and really simple to use. You can start and stop whenever you like. Just go online and wait for the magical notification noise, it's addictive. When you get a delivery, your phone buzzes and gives you a few seconds to accept; too slow and it goes to someone else. The app then give you an order number and directs you to the resturant. Swipe 'start delivery' and the map routes you straight to the customer. Once the delivery is over, it tells you how much you made on it and adds it to the days total at the top of the screen.

Getting Paid 

Any money you've earn't from the last week goes straight into your account on Monday night and thats that. Simple.

Cancelled Orders

A cancelled order sounds like it could potentially be a bad thing, but trust me it's not. In 6 days of Ubering, I had 2 cancelled deliveries meaning I've finished up with over $60 worth of food to do what I want with and gotten paid for deliveries that I didn't have to make.

I picked up a Mcdonalds order and by the time I got back to my bike, Uber had already called me to let me know that my order was cancelled. They told me I'd still get paid for the delivery and to dispose of the food however I wanted.  Did I eat it? I wanted to but honestly I was so busy that day that I didn't have time. As soon as I hung up another order came through. 

Having not ridden a bike for years, on my first day out, I spent almost 5 hours cycling and since then, it's all I want to do. I don't have time to go food shopping, Jonny and I take our bags out on date nights and my gym membership has gone straight down the drain.

Yes, it can be pretty exhausting but what other job allows your to add an extra $400 to your income by spending a few hours cycling along the beach. Throw in a bag of snacks, a portable charger (very important) and an awesome Spotify playlist and I'm can go for hours.

Thank you Uber, you've changed my life.

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