A job that changed me: On midnight shifts as a Subway ‘sandwich artist’, I served clubbers, cops and sailors

In Perth’s nightlife precinct in the 1990s, I made a lot of sandwiches – but the sandwiches also made me in the a job that changed me series Delivering pizzas, with all due respect, was a cruisy gig that fit in with my uni commitments. It was 1998, for Pizza Hut at Como, a well-established suburb 15 minutes from Perth ’s city centre.

I blasted hip-hop through my car stereo and brought home cash tips and – if I was rostered until close – any pizzas that were unclaimed or undelivered that night. Between deliveries, drivers sat in the alley behind the shop and shot the breeze while folding pizza boxes. The job’s biggest downside was that it didn’t pay much, especially once you factored in the costs of fuel…