Blast from the past.
Late October 1980, time to sign off from the Military at Watsonia Barracks.
Normally, using internal sources, it takes around 3 days to activate.
I decided to 'walk' my discharge papers through, obtaining clearances from the Squadron, the Regt, library, medical facility, School of Signals, etc.
Took me 3 and a half hours, and I drove out the gate at around 11.30 am on a Friday morning. Bought a paper from the newsagent a couple hundred yards down the road and headed for my home at West Heidelberg.
I rang a floor heating service based at Thomastown regarding an ad in the paper, and they asked when I could start work. I said I was free to start that day, and after a visit to the workshop I was on my way to a local job site at 2 pm.
Several worksites over the next month, and then they asked if I could do a job at Churchill University in Gippsland. I accepted.
Uni had closed for the Christmas holidays, and I had the place to myself. There had been a factory recall on all the thermostats that controlled the heating, and the job was to replace all room thermostats at the Uni. I had a company charge card to take care of fuel, motel accomodation and meals, but decided to just grab takeaways locally and sleep in my work van onsite instead of travelling 50 km back and forth to Moe Motel each day. Spent 3x8 hour workdays at the Uni before driving back to Melbourne.
Several days later, I was summoned to the office, because there had been nothing charged on the card. When I explained that I stayed onsite, they were very grateful, and a second pay envelope was passed to me 'under the counter'
It seems that two other employees had been doing the thermostat changeovers at other Unis, but they had charged the company daily for travelling allowance each way each day... 4 hours of travel, and 4 hours of work each day, which was why they had been replaced by me.
That 'second' pay envelope was equal to my 'regular' pay envelope, so I was virtually on double pay at only half the tax, because I was prepared to stay away from home and 'rough it' by sleeping in the cab of my work vehicle, which saved the company a considerable amount in accommodation and meal fees.
I worked for that company on various worksites all over Victoria for more than 7 months before I relocated to Ashmore on the Gold Coast.
The company gave me an open invitation for re-employment with them, if I ever returned to Victoria.
