KEITH T. DENNETT | New South | CONTACT
Corey Hastings (29) has mastered the art of apartment living.
A bloke who was born and bred in the cul-de-sac paradise of Betoota Heights, Corey admits moving to Sydney to follow his dreams of becoming a middle manager at an international finance firm hasn’t really paid off.
After waking up in his tiny $700 a week shoebox apartment in Zetland, running on a treadmill in his overpacked gym, paying $4 to pack into a sardine can train, sidestepping and jostling his way into his office where he sits with 1500 other miserable Sydneyites, it’s no wonder Corey is tonight questioning why the hell he’s spending his life hopping from one overpriced and insipid experience to the next.
So feeling a little run down, Corey decided tonight he’d try to recreate a taste of Diamantina life and cook a butcher quality steak for dinner.
Lacking a balcony or any form of fresh air, Corey was boxed into his usual routine of using the hardest working kitchen appliance he owned, his two-slice sandwich toaster, to cook his feed.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m lucky to have a good job that means I can afford a steak like this,” Corey told our reporter via Facetime, as he jammed the top of his sandwich toaster down and sizzled the last dregs of joy out of his T-Bone.
“But sometimes I just wish for that quarter acre block, a garage with a jetski and maybe some space for a man cave with a home brewing set-up.”
Scrolling through his phone as he waited for his ‘pub style fries’ to air-fry, scenes of his friends’ life back home did little to improve his mood.
“My mate Blayke just bought a new mountain bike, he can get into work in six minutes and ride trails on weekends.”
“Where as I have to take a 20 minute train to enter a sweaty, stinky sauna of a spin class where I hop onto a stationery peloton bike that goes nowhere.”
“Who’s really living the dream here?”