January 28th + 29th

So yesterday during training for my job with face2face fundraising I got a call from Katie, someone who I'd rung the night before enquiring about farm work up near the New South Wales / Queensland border. She hadn't answered so I'd left my number on the answering machine, and when she rung we had a little chat - the night before I'd said I could start work asap, little did I expect her to ask me to come the next day! Was a bit apprehensive for a while and not really sure what to do - I haven't seen everything I want in Sydney and I had this job which seemed ok lines up. But then this farm work not only counts towards my second visa but also had the added benefits of free food and accomodation, as well as a small cash payment each week. I stayed for the rest of the day of training, but on the way home I decided to bite the bulet and go for it - you only live once, right? So when I got to Sydney Central station I booked my one way ticket to Walcha Road, 7 hours from Sydney! The rest of the evening was spent packing up the contents of my rucksack, most of which were scattered under my bed or piled on top of eachother in the locker, basically all over the place and just not very fun. I also amended my booking at Wakeup! - just that morning I'd booked myself in until the Monday morning and paid for it all too, thinking that was probably the soonest I'd go! They don't give refunds, so now I basically have three nights at Wakeup! on credit, preliminarily booked for the first week of March, though I'm increasingly unsure if I'll be back by then to use them. I have to use them by the end of April or I lose them so hey we'll see what happens.


(Subiaco Farm)

So Friday morning dawns, and after running a few errangs like popping to the second hand book shop and the bank (which was pretty useless anyway as it didn't open til half 10! Half 10?! WTF!) I headed back to the hostel to check out of my nice 10 bed dorm (not 8 as previously thought) and headed over to the station for my train. I threw a few bits away whilst packing like socks and a spare of jeans as well as loads of bits of paper, and I think it did make a big difference as it was so much easier to carry than last time! (Although as I'm typing this out on 30th Jan after my first day on the farm, the jeans would have been handy as would the socks, AND I realised I lost my InMe hoodie. Gutted) Either way I ditched it on the train and settled down for a long old journey. Which was boring btw. My only mild entertainment was being asked to grab a pc base unit off of Katies brother at one of the many stations we stopped at And there were some storms and stuff on the way. Pretty views at some points too. We (me and the other guy on the train, he's german and his name is Jurgen, that may not be spelt right) were picked up when we got there by an English couple called Matt and Ro. This is where one of the features of my fantastically borrowed rucksack came in well handy - the waterproof cover! It was still raining and the rucksack had to go in the open back of the truck (or yute as they're called here) so I was very glad of the cover! Thanks dad :p


(Subiaco Farm)

It took about half an hour to drive from the station to the farm, minus a quick pit stop at a supermarket where I grabbed chocolate and shower gel, living on the edge I am! We got here, met Katie and Phil (farm owners) and settled down to chill out in our little cottage. There's 6 of us here at the moment, with two more arriving on Sunday I think. So at the moment we have me, Jurgen (german), Katya (french), Neil (scottish) Matt, and Ro (both english) - its quite a nice little group. Jurgen and Katya both speak really good english too. Neil and Katya had made us dinner so we ate that, so nice to eat a home cooked style meal again! After we all sat in our little living area for a bit of a chat about random shit, man does Jurgen like to talk! We all had several conversations about such delightful things as spiders, snakes, backpacker murderers... yeah it was great. Lots of snakes here apparently. Whoop whoop, though to be fair what did I really expect?!


(Subiaco Farm)

Of them all at the moment I think I'll probably get on the best with Neil as he seems most like me - here so he can extend his vida, not too keen on the actual farm work itself. Saying that, everyone is pretty cool so all is good. Matt and Ro are a couple who came specifically to Australia to do farm work - they were on a farm before this one and they're very into outdoorsy ness and organic produce etc. Jurgen is on a gap year and working to get some money, although he is very into plants and nature and things which is why he's here. Katya doesn't talk an awful lot so I'm not quite sure what her reasoning it. Neil is here only so he can get his 2nd year visa, and me - I need the money + the visa!


(Subiaco Farm)

Tomorrow we're working a half day so me and Jurgen can get to grips with stuff, half six until about one with about two hours break so seems alright. Only time will tell! There is no internet here, and no phone signal so for the moment I'm completely out of touch aka incommunicado! (yeah I just wanted to use that word). Apparently we can use the computer in the main house occasionally, so that'll be nice, but it'll also be interesting to see how I manage without my phone and internet, especially if I stay for three weeks. Eep!


(Subiaco Farm)

Anywho I may go to bed now, got to be up and ready by about quarter past six so should really get a good nights sleep. Whether I'll be able to sleep with the thoughts of snakes and spiders crawling through my mind is another matter entirely.. *shudder!*