I live in a share house in Panorama, so it’s really close for me to walk to work in the morning. That’s good because I have some mobility issues from when I suffered a brain injury at eight years of age.
My start time in the cafe is 8:30am and when I arrive, I’ll usually call out to Beni or one of the workers “Hello, how are you going?” and then I might be asked to jump on biscuit-making duties, or help stock the fridges.
We currently have some new trainees and high school interns, and I’m really enjoying teaching them how everything works.
What I love about the job, in a word, is people. Having people around me and having a conversation and, also, I have silly jokes like “Am I all right?’ ‘No, I’m a little bit left’. I could go on, but I won’t.
I like to lift people’s spirits with my lame jokes but sometimes I get a bit carried away and someone might say “Oh better get back to work, Jake.”
I do love cooking though and trying out new recipes. I think it’s because I was born on Anzac Day and my gran always made the best Anzac biscuits for me. My gran has been a great supporter and helped me in my life a lot.
I’ve been at Bedford for one year and three months now and if I didn’t find this job I honestly don’t know what I would’ve been doing, probably just moping around at my mum’s house. I absolutely love working at Bedford.
My next challenge is to go travelling one day. I’ve been to Bali and, fun fact, I was there when the volcano erupted, and the travel insurance company let us stay on for an extra week for free.