Then in come the bills....Electricity,mobile,phone and the water one,and of cause don't get me started on the cars rego n' Insurance....... they just keep coming in. Unless you stay at home with your oldies but by the time you find all that out they have already got you out the front door and changed the flamin' locks (or was that just me?).
But sooner or latter everyone has to do it and for yours truly it was when I turned 20 and got a friggin' good job working at A.I.R Refractories (which in time would become BHP Refractories). My first place was a unit at the corner of Tigh n' High Street in Waratah, Newcastle. It was a cockroach invested old house split into four units but I loved it, my very own Bachelor Patch. My work was about twenty minutes walk away but the best thing was it was two streets away from the WARATAH INN. No joke my most loved Pub in Newcastle it was a real ridge didge
fairdinkum workers Pub with the clientele to match. Many a night I would finish work and walk to the Pub for a few schooners of New and then back home for a kip. And friday arvos after work were legendary at the Pub most times we would have at least nine to ten workmates pop back after work and sink a few over a match on the pool table. And yes I will be truthful I reckon most friday nights after closing time at 12 I would be a stretcher case. If I did walk out the Pub without help then it was a quick dart into the Chinese restaurant for some sweet n' sour chicken and fried rice takeaway, Fairdinkum life was hard mate. I lived there for well over a year and 
loved it, but all good things come to an end as they say when one day a good mate Shagger said he wanted to move into Newcastle. Was I interested in getting a flash unit together. Well the thought of two paying the rent, being in a nicer place then Waratah and I'd have a better chance of pulling a root in Newcastle then living in Cockroach Kingdom made me say yeah righto.So I moved from old Waratah to the flash new Mereweather Beach, fairdinkum talk about moving up in the world. It was like jumping into a Holden Monaro from a Datson 180B. The unit was in Rancauld Street just behind the well reknown BEACHES HOTEL surprise,surpr
ise! The Pub is one of the best in Newcastle and after a huge session if you don't make it back to the unit you get to watch the sun come up over the ocean.....from your past out position on the beach! cool. The Pub also has the best dance girls on stage and some of the best sheilahs pulling the beers on the coast. And just to top it off on sunday nights it has to close early at ten o'clock, so they always have a double decker bus which they fill for free and send all us drunks off to the Brewery in Newcastle on the wharf. You know that was the best drinking nights you will ever find anywhere on the planet, fairdinkum people who drink on sunday nights just before work in the morning don't give a shit about anything, hay. Oh yeah the unit was beaut too!
But after a year in paradise Shagger decided he was spending all his money and wanted to go back to his oldies place, bummer. I knew I couldn't pay the rent by myself so I packed my bag and moved down market to a one bedroom place in Adamstown Heights. It was a beaut little unit and was in a nice area but I didn't like the flamin' twenty minute walk up hill from me new Pub the NAGS HEAD. Even with a skin full it was hard to make it up that flamin' hill but life wasn't meant to
be easy hay.I lived there for about two years and loved it, but just as I was settling in I found a nice two room unit down at the bottom of the hill for $10 less a week then I was paying at my place. So the thought of paying less in rent and no flamin' hill to walk up after a drink or two, talked me into my next move to Adamstown. Now this unit wasn't the greatest but I loved it and I now had my very own balc
ony cool. And the best thing about the place was it was only a four minute walk to the Nags and across the road was a nice little Chinese restaurant.... you little beauty! The Nags Head Hotel is a real beaut Pub and has a ripper restaurant out the back and a little drinking area for ya to place the odd bet on. So if you didn't see me placing my money onto a dishlicker at the bar, then you might of seen me out the back sinking a schooner while knocking back the odd counter lunch. Bloody oath mate I love a good feed and my most loved feed was the old chicken schnitzel and two veg mate. But I did find some time to pop into that Chinese restaurant too from now and again, you know what they say you have to balance your diet ya know. I lived their for over three years and loved it but just as I was about to call the Nags head home we were told at work that BHP was closing down and I would be out of work for the first time in my life, bugger.So I packed my bag and shoved all me stuff into an old shed in the oldies backyard and started the Commodore and went walkabout around Australia, Now that's another story mate.