(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.