Mackay, pizza and BMX

We made it to Mackay on the 23rd of December 2 days before Christmas to spend it with Dad, Colleen and my sister. Both of my brother made the trip too which was really cool not often the 3 of us are in the same place. It was only a low-key event but we all had a great time catching up. Shortly after Christmas Elke and I decided too try and find work in Mackay, this way we could live at dads for a small fee and make the most of aircon in the north Queensland’s hottest months. Dad insisted we not pay him but it felt wrong to do so, so we payed any way. A new restaurant had just opened up along the Bucasia beach just down the road so we decided to go see if they needed employees first because they were walking distance from home. The restaurant was massively understaffed and were interested in Elke working as the second chef and after a chat with the owner, I got offered a trial as a pizza chef. This was massive for me id only been a kitchen hand and never done anything like this, but I was eager to try something new. After a few weeks of training I was running the pizza section basically by myself even on the weekends. Elke on the other hand quickly rose to the top and was basically running the kitchen after a month. It quickly became apparent to us why we were so under staffed as the owner (an unqualified Italian man) wanted everything done his way even if it was wrong. On top of that he was a terrible micro manager, Elke and I both had times we had had enough and were about to walk out. We stopped ourselves though knowing we only had to last another month or so and the money was good. As the business got a lot quieter I found myself only working 20 hour weeks and seeked out another job. I managed to get a job at the northern beaches bowls club as a kitchen hand and pick up another 12-20 hours a week. I really enjoyed working at the bowls club, it was just a great atmosphere. A far more chilled out work environment even tho we were doing 200 meals plus a night. During March we had to make a quick trip home for a wedding (elkes sister and partner) which was a nice break. When we arrived back to work we were not prepared for the chaos that followed. Whilst we were away the head chef had a falling out with the owner and left. And the owners partner/wife left along with a handful of other employees. For the last month we had left Elke was the only real chef and I was doing pizzas most nights, even helping on the breakfast shift. We went from not having enough hours to having twice the hours we wanted. It was shit but knew it was only for a month and buckled down and made a lot of money. We were glad to get out of that toxic over working environment. While this was happening I was getting more and more hours at the northern beaches bowls club. we finished up at the Italian restaurant on the 5th of May and shortly after I finished up at the bowls club, planning and preparing for the next leg of our trip became our priority.

this was one of the only spots I actually shot in Mackay. just down the road from dad it always produces.

So while work was obviously taking up alot of time and after working through sunset until late I was not often feeling like getting up early to shoot sunrise much. I really did not take photography very seriously during our stay in Mackay. But Mackay just had a massiveness skatepark built and I spent a lot of time rekindling my passion for BMX. I think the biggest thing that made me stop taking BMX seriously was the lack of people to ride with, but because of mackays new park there were a lot of people riding again. We had a full crew going on and would have uptown 10 BMX riders at the park at any one time. Needless to say we all started spending every possible hour down the skatepark, it was like I was 16 again. And I think all the other riders would agree, its been along time since I have seen such a healthy BMX scene. It was RAD.

nothing like flying around a bowl and hitting a ramp that scares you way too fast, always gets the blood pumping.