Welcome to “Another Important Piece of Writing” a weekly newsletter/life update/writing exercise/rant/potenially the next most important piece of literature from the 21st century but probably not.
I have finally moved, unpacked and seemingly settled into my new place! I had to wait two days to get all the little things like plates and cutlery because I had to work the day after, so for two days I had the pleasure of eating all my meals from tupperware and using a cake beater to stir my morning laxatives.
I managed to get all the small things I needed for my kitchen and bathroom for about $100 between Kmart and Daiso. I do wish I had maybe splurged a little more on my cutlery. I bought a cutlery set at Kmart for $4.50 which is actually too cheap. I am a bargain hunter by design but admittedly that is actually too cheap and I have realised, sometimes you just have to spend a little bit more.
I don’t really know how to explain this cutlery set except to say they feel sad. They basically just cut the shape of a fork and knife out of a sheet and stainless steel and thought, “Yep, good enough!” It’s not. It’s really, really not and dare I say, I deserve better. I’m eventually gonna go back and buy nicer cutlery, but now I don’t really know what to do with this old set. I HATE waste, and they do work, I just don’t want to subject anybody to having to feel the sharp, coarse edges of these pathetic excuses for dinnerware.
I got into a fight with a man on Airtasker. There, I said it!
I’ve moved before using an Airtasker and it was great. It was, as is the spirit of Airtasker, a dude with a ute looking for a bit of extra cash. I hadn’t used an Airtasker since 2018 but I assumed it would be the same. As soon as I posted my task I was inundated with professional movers hocking their services and asking for 2-3x my asking price. I was STUNNED. If I wanted (let’s be real – if I could afford) a real mover I would have booked one. I know where to find them. These guys were all boasting about their state of the art vehicles, equipment, blankets and multiple men to complete the job, even though my ad essentially stated: “I just need a vehicle, and another person to pick up the other end of this thing”.
I ended up caving and messaged the man with the cheapest offer even though it was double my original. This is basically how our interaction went:
Him: Stairs? Another person to help loading?
Me: They’re is two sets of stairs (1 full, and another half set) and I will help with the loading.
Him: How many stairs are there?
Me: 2 sets – One full set, approximately 16-18 steps? And the second is about 5-6 steps from memory?
Him: That’s an extra $20.
Him: No, wait, $25.
Me: What? Why?
Him: Stairs.
Me: But I’m doing half the work?
Him: You need to realise it’s not about length of time it’s about what has to be completed.
Me: Sorry, but this isn’t going to work for me.
Him: So can you do 2-3pm?
Me: No!
Him: (proceeds to send me a new offer with updated price)
Me: Dude, what don’t you understand here????
I don’t know if I came off as a prick here, but it truuuulllyyy made no sense to charge me more when I was doing half the work. I think what really set me off was the arbitrary pulling of numbers from his ass. As if he had read the amount of steps wrong the first time and went “Well if it was a 15 step staircase it would be $20, but 16+ that’s gonna be an extra $5”.
All in all I’m mad about the loss of what the spirit of Airtasker used to be. What happened to the nice, softly spoken middle aged Dad’s trying to make an extra buck by helping a sweet young gal move her shit 650m up the road? Where are they? Are they ok!?
I ended up getting my wonderful friend Ryan to help me. I really didn’t want to ask any friends originally because moving sucks ass and I didn’t want to pull anybody else into it. I also couldn’t stop comparing my move to when I helped my friends (a couple) move last year over 3 full days. It was made more excruciating because we knew they were going to break up. To their credit, they lasted longer than we thought they would, but it still felt insane to see them set up a house they were going to have to pull apart again months later.
It was honestly pretty simple besides the fact I had to hire a ute just to put my bed base in as it was maybe 2 centimetres too big for the van, and then a third car later that night to pick up a fridge. I still didn’t spend anywhere near what those assholes on Airtasker were charging, and for that, they can suck me off.
I will however, never forgive myself for having to hear my friend struggle to pick up a box I stuffed with way too much of my crap and secured only with masking tape. Sure he can say it’s because he’s 36 and has bad knees, but all I hear is “The choices you have made have been incorrect and stupid thereby resulting in my injury, you dumb little bitch”. (Yeah, yeah I’ll unpack this with my psych the next time I see him).
I tried, out of the goodness of my heart, to give away my wardrobe that I was given for free. I was trying to pay it forward as it had been paid to me, but it soon became even more excruciating than anything else I think I’ve had to do in my entire life, ever.
I don’t know what it is about Facebook Marketplace that makes the people you’re talking to seem like their brains have recently melted and are currently pouring out of their ears. Trying to give this god damn wardrobe away became the bane of my existence! I had so many weird conversations with people (Why do you need my phone number when we’re currently on a messaging platform? Why? WHY!?) or them just not showing up that I ended up just disassembling the thing and putting it in the street. How somebody will put it back together without instructions is beyond me but I TRIED to do the good person thing, I really did. There’s only so many times you can post on a pay it forward page that it just becomes SAD.
If you need a wardrobe there’s one behind Cafe Rima in Marrickville just FYI.
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I am once again trying to get out of hospitality. Nothing in the world was more painful than getting out of and starting to slowly build a career in a different field, then having to fall back into something you put behind you because nobody will hire you after an itty, bitty, teeny, weeny little pandemic.
I don’t know if you know this but people are very demanding, especially when they want something and are gracing you with their own precious money to obtain it. I’ve worked in so many places since I started working at 14 and each taught me a way to be more and more customer focused and ass-licker-y than the last. I’ve thought about sex work many times in my life because at least in that line of work, it’s obvious how far the customers dick has to slide down your throat.
I rarely ask customers how they are anymore. I don’t care, I never have. I had to talk about this extensively with my old psychologist because my attempts at asking people how they were were often ignored or rejected. When this happens over and over and over again 3, 4, 5 days a week you honestly start to lose a piece of yourself. She explained it as an energy exchange, and that if you’re putting out a certain amount of energy and not receiving the same amount of energy back, you can become drained and dejected.
Now I very methodically greet people with a “Hi there! What can I get for you?” It’s polite, welcoming and more importantly it’s straight to the point. More often than not I get a “Good, thanks!” in response which shouldn’t, but infuriates me to no end. It’s this weird expectation now in the service industry that the person serving you needs to be invested in and care how you are. People don’t even listen to the words coming out of your mouth, they just expect it. I need you to know that I don’t care about you. I’m doing a job which is to fill you with enough caffeine so you can do yours – that’s it. I will be polite and cordial, but I couldn’t give a fuck about how your day is.
I say all this with the full venom and fervour of somebody who has worked in hospitality for 10 years and it DONE, but regulars are ok. I like the sweet bohemian guy who comes in with his keep cup who told me about a cute yoga studio I’ve yet to check out in Glebe. I like the French dude who LOVES a chat but has an accent so thick I only pick up every fourth word. I like that we warn everybody to not get a dirty chai because we make it with chai tea and it’s disgusting, but there’s still one girl that gets one everyday because she likes it. I like the hot guy who lives upstairs who’s absolutely ripped, but always buys treats when I work because he’s in love with me, and any day now he’s going to whisk me away from this world so he can spoil me and treat me like the queen I am.
Any day now.
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