Steve The Builder
Without Prejudice
I was living on the Gold Coast in 1992 with Yvette and Kyle, 3, firstly in Liam Court, Labrador and then Main Beach.We had a ball for a few years up there. Alena and Mara returning to Melbourne, Alena to Dean, Mara To Russell. So that just left Yvette and I and it is one of my best memories, those two years.
Work is so seasonal on The Gold Coast and every office job I applied for, I didn't get. One Man at A Racing Place enlightened me,
"You're not local, I might employ you and you get homesick and go back to Mexico"
So I applied to Hospitality as their intake was for June and they employed anyone, a lot of backpackers and finally, me!
My first job at the Royal Pines Golfing 5 Star Hotel
And then at The Sheridan Mirage at Main Beach, loads of stories re celebs and scandal, but I will leave those stories for later.
I was never so fit and shed loads of Melbourne weight in the Sun, walking everywhere and swimming and gym with LIsa. Lisa was an older woman who was my first Trainer at The Sheridan, she twinkled, Lisa. Tall strong, rail thin, black pageboy hair, she was funny and down to earth and had originated from A big Squatters property out west, so was a farm girl but of the extemely wealthy variety, horses, thousands of acres, servants. She stepped up to Mini Bar then but we still socialised.
And how we socialised, the Housekeeping Staff were a diverse lot, a lot of them young and big drinkers, backpackers from other Countries, lots of Phillipino women ( lazy as all let out, and whinge and back stab, OMG,) but we ignored them and partied and worked and that was all we did. I worked 11 days in a row so I could have a plush holiday, once, as we received Staff Discount of 45% wherever we stayed, any hotel. The money was ok and you could boost it up with doing split shifts and working weekends and we got lots of tips.
One night we went in to Billys Beach House and then to a Mexican restaurant as it was the lady I worked with, Cheryl and we had many Margheritas, too many, didn't get to bed until 4am and we were expected on the floors at 8.30, sharp. How Cheryl and I made it through the day, next day I have no idea. We were wrecked and it had to be a big day, 26 rooms with the 2 of us. We lay down on the double bed in the first room and didn't want to move. It was my job to do the bathroom and every room had a spa bath, which you climbed in. And there was always black hair stuck in the plug and around the sides. That day every time I cleaned it up I retched and Cheryl rang down to the houseman and ordered fresh towels and a bucket of Berocca.
So one night, Mandy who was from Royal Pines asked us to a party in the "Hills" in the Hinterland down near Burleigh, Lisa and I finding it hard to find, the driveway not much more than a bush track and the house, was a trailer and annexe with a pump toilet, utter mess, but we partied anyway out of kindness to Mandy who was a sweet girl with an American Hubby. She had 2 kids as well and they were sweet, just like their mother. Lisa soon became tired of the family bonhomie and wanted to go clubbing, she seemed desperate for something, always pushing to meet men and then have nothing to do with them.
So we went and at another party she did the same, wanted to go, Lisa was madly, totally obsessed with a young Porter 20 years her Junior, she was agog for him, it was all she talked of and I'm sure she was "Crazy in Love" with him but it was a slow process. On his side, anyway.So I gave her a bit of a wide berth for a while, till she flamed out a little and one night Mandy rang again and asked us both to dinner at her "New House!", Lisa grizzled all the way there and made me promise to not stay any more than 2 hours. Mandy was delighted to see us and her house was great, a Double Story with a big verandah out the back, with a beautiful view of the Helensvale hinterland and it couldn't be built out.
We had dinner and Mandy's American husband insisted we drink bourbon and coke with Black Sambucca chasers. the night was liquid velvet, black with a carpet of stars and I was tilted back in my chair enjoying the warmth, now cooling from the day and a Man walked around the corner and greeted everyone. Steve. A friend of Bruce and Tammy's. I felt Lisa at my left vibrate, a man, and he was a big man, young and built like a tank. And handsome, i just slunk back in the deck chair, warm and fuzzy. I was dressed in shorts and halter, no makeup, hair scaped back in a pony tail. I was dressed for a family dinner and Lisa I swear was dressed to kill, Killer heels,not that she needed them, fitted dress, hair shining, lips glistening.
She primped, she sighed, she fidgeted waiting patiently for the Big Croatian to acknowledge her, I just observed, watching the spider weave her web, it was fascinating to me. And we all started talking and telling jokes and laughing and Bruce was topping eveyone's stories with stories of Canada and the Us and we were in fits, Steve had not long returned from Croatia but he was Australian born. And he had loved it, the forests, the villages, and it was all sooooo fascinating to me. The music was on and we danced with the kids, all the while Bruce topping up our glasses with the Sweet Sticky Sambucca and the bourbon and cokes and Lisa didn't seem to be joining in.
She signalled with her head she was going, and she went and we just kept partying and just before I slid under the table (I am not a good drinker), I said and I quote Verbatim,
"I will drink all you guys under the table"
Wouldn't you think as a Mother of 4, i could behave with some decorum??, just once !
So slowly and easily I slid under the table, landing with a thunk on the floor and then I thought.
"Now, I am going to be sick" (always, as I drink so little then once a year or something I have my "drinking Boots" on and get slaughtered ) and raced for the Bathroom and I never want to have a Black Sambucca again, not even smell one.
I estimate I had ten and brought up twenty, I vomited for Australia and cried and snot was running out my nose, such fun ! And I called out for Mandy and they couldn't hear me and my Angel that night, Steve knocked on the door and came in. he held my hair back as I convulsed and patted my back. he grabbed Mandy and she came running in and gave me some trackies and a top, and I had a shower and re dressed feeling like a complete idiot and a bad guest. I brushed my teeth and all of my tongue and nearly retched again.
I was trying to fix my hair at the mirror and back came Steve and he helped me brush it and I sat on the floor as the floor was a bit uneven all of a sudden and he sat with me brushing and soothing me, as I was so angry with myself,
"Where's Lisa?"
"Oh, the tall lady, she left"
"She fancied you, you know, you could have gone out with her"
"I didn't want her ", he said.
"No. Why?
"I wanted you " and he kissed my mouth really softly.
I was shocked as all hell, he what, ???
And he was fabulous, all 17 stone of him, built, hard muscled, firm. He was so tall I had to stand on tippy toe to put my arms around his neck and he just swung me up to him. Such hidden strength, he was a builder and concretor running his own business, we talked for ages, sipping black coffee in the kitchen, everyone else in bed, the house silent, the humming of the fridge the only noise. He was 28, not married, wanted to make money till he was 40 and then see, he wanted to travel more, andI just sat there as his soothing voice, almost made me nod off.
To be Continued
I was living on the Gold Coast in 1992 with Yvette and Kyle, 3, firstly in Liam Court, Labrador and then Main Beach.We had a ball for a few years up there. Alena and Mara returning to Melbourne, Alena to Dean, Mara To Russell. So that just left Yvette and I and it is one of my best memories, those two years.
Work is so seasonal on The Gold Coast and every office job I applied for, I didn't get. One Man at A Racing Place enlightened me,
"You're not local, I might employ you and you get homesick and go back to Mexico"
So I applied to Hospitality as their intake was for June and they employed anyone, a lot of backpackers and finally, me!
My first job at the Royal Pines Golfing 5 Star Hotel
And then at The Sheridan Mirage at Main Beach, loads of stories re celebs and scandal, but I will leave those stories for later.
I was never so fit and shed loads of Melbourne weight in the Sun, walking everywhere and swimming and gym with LIsa. Lisa was an older woman who was my first Trainer at The Sheridan, she twinkled, Lisa. Tall strong, rail thin, black pageboy hair, she was funny and down to earth and had originated from A big Squatters property out west, so was a farm girl but of the extemely wealthy variety, horses, thousands of acres, servants. She stepped up to Mini Bar then but we still socialised.
And how we socialised, the Housekeeping Staff were a diverse lot, a lot of them young and big drinkers, backpackers from other Countries, lots of Phillipino women ( lazy as all let out, and whinge and back stab, OMG,) but we ignored them and partied and worked and that was all we did. I worked 11 days in a row so I could have a plush holiday, once, as we received Staff Discount of 45% wherever we stayed, any hotel. The money was ok and you could boost it up with doing split shifts and working weekends and we got lots of tips.
One night we went in to Billys Beach House and then to a Mexican restaurant as it was the lady I worked with, Cheryl and we had many Margheritas, too many, didn't get to bed until 4am and we were expected on the floors at 8.30, sharp. How Cheryl and I made it through the day, next day I have no idea. We were wrecked and it had to be a big day, 26 rooms with the 2 of us. We lay down on the double bed in the first room and didn't want to move. It was my job to do the bathroom and every room had a spa bath, which you climbed in. And there was always black hair stuck in the plug and around the sides. That day every time I cleaned it up I retched and Cheryl rang down to the houseman and ordered fresh towels and a bucket of Berocca.
So one night, Mandy who was from Royal Pines asked us to a party in the "Hills" in the Hinterland down near Burleigh, Lisa and I finding it hard to find, the driveway not much more than a bush track and the house, was a trailer and annexe with a pump toilet, utter mess, but we partied anyway out of kindness to Mandy who was a sweet girl with an American Hubby. She had 2 kids as well and they were sweet, just like their mother. Lisa soon became tired of the family bonhomie and wanted to go clubbing, she seemed desperate for something, always pushing to meet men and then have nothing to do with them.
So we went and at another party she did the same, wanted to go, Lisa was madly, totally obsessed with a young Porter 20 years her Junior, she was agog for him, it was all she talked of and I'm sure she was "Crazy in Love" with him but it was a slow process. On his side, anyway.So I gave her a bit of a wide berth for a while, till she flamed out a little and one night Mandy rang again and asked us both to dinner at her "New House!", Lisa grizzled all the way there and made me promise to not stay any more than 2 hours. Mandy was delighted to see us and her house was great, a Double Story with a big verandah out the back, with a beautiful view of the Helensvale hinterland and it couldn't be built out.
We had dinner and Mandy's American husband insisted we drink bourbon and coke with Black Sambucca chasers. the night was liquid velvet, black with a carpet of stars and I was tilted back in my chair enjoying the warmth, now cooling from the day and a Man walked around the corner and greeted everyone. Steve. A friend of Bruce and Tammy's. I felt Lisa at my left vibrate, a man, and he was a big man, young and built like a tank. And handsome, i just slunk back in the deck chair, warm and fuzzy. I was dressed in shorts and halter, no makeup, hair scaped back in a pony tail. I was dressed for a family dinner and Lisa I swear was dressed to kill, Killer heels,not that she needed them, fitted dress, hair shining, lips glistening.
She primped, she sighed, she fidgeted waiting patiently for the Big Croatian to acknowledge her, I just observed, watching the spider weave her web, it was fascinating to me. And we all started talking and telling jokes and laughing and Bruce was topping eveyone's stories with stories of Canada and the Us and we were in fits, Steve had not long returned from Croatia but he was Australian born. And he had loved it, the forests, the villages, and it was all sooooo fascinating to me. The music was on and we danced with the kids, all the while Bruce topping up our glasses with the Sweet Sticky Sambucca and the bourbon and cokes and Lisa didn't seem to be joining in.
She signalled with her head she was going, and she went and we just kept partying and just before I slid under the table (I am not a good drinker), I said and I quote Verbatim,
"I will drink all you guys under the table"
Wouldn't you think as a Mother of 4, i could behave with some decorum??, just once !
So slowly and easily I slid under the table, landing with a thunk on the floor and then I thought.
"Now, I am going to be sick" (always, as I drink so little then once a year or something I have my "drinking Boots" on and get slaughtered ) and raced for the Bathroom and I never want to have a Black Sambucca again, not even smell one.
I estimate I had ten and brought up twenty, I vomited for Australia and cried and snot was running out my nose, such fun ! And I called out for Mandy and they couldn't hear me and my Angel that night, Steve knocked on the door and came in. he held my hair back as I convulsed and patted my back. he grabbed Mandy and she came running in and gave me some trackies and a top, and I had a shower and re dressed feeling like a complete idiot and a bad guest. I brushed my teeth and all of my tongue and nearly retched again.
I was trying to fix my hair at the mirror and back came Steve and he helped me brush it and I sat on the floor as the floor was a bit uneven all of a sudden and he sat with me brushing and soothing me, as I was so angry with myself,
"Where's Lisa?"
"Oh, the tall lady, she left"
"She fancied you, you know, you could have gone out with her"
"I didn't want her ", he said.
"No. Why?
"I wanted you " and he kissed my mouth really softly.
I was shocked as all hell, he what, ???
And he was fabulous, all 17 stone of him, built, hard muscled, firm. He was so tall I had to stand on tippy toe to put my arms around his neck and he just swung me up to him. Such hidden strength, he was a builder and concretor running his own business, we talked for ages, sipping black coffee in the kitchen, everyone else in bed, the house silent, the humming of the fridge the only noise. He was 28, not married, wanted to make money till he was 40 and then see, he wanted to travel more, andI just sat there as his soothing voice, almost made me nod off.
To be Continued
