So, the blogging side of things has been low priority for however long, I started my new job at the Strawberry farm and its tiring! We work more or less everyday unless it rains, starting at 6am and finishing 2/3pm depending on how many orders the farm has. The job itself is dead easy, but its out on the field all day in the (normally) mental hot sun and it just tires you out, added to the 5am wake ups and we've basically been coming home and vegging out, eating dinner and going to bed! Other than the several nights drinking of course.. just thought I'd mention those.
So the job itself is on a farm called 'Red Jewel', its a strawberry plant farm rather than an actual strawberry farm - they grow the plants and then sell them to other farms all over Australia, funnily enough its not exactly strawberry season in Stanthorpe at the moment, being winter and all. Though its still bloody hot for winter! Anyway, being as we're in Australia and everything is ridiculously un-politically-correct, they've hired koreans and vietnamese and a few japanese to pick the actual plants - theres about 200 of them. Then there is about 16 girls all from Blue Topaz Caravan Park who are the 'checkers' - we get assigned about 10 people at a time and we basically just walk up and down, grab a bundle and then sit down and check it for all sorts of various things like root length and how many leaves there are and stuff, if its good then its ok and if its bad the pickers get a cross on our sheet. I try not to give too many if I can help it because if they get too many they lose money, they're paid by the bundle and if they get over 3 crosses I think they lose like 20 cents a bundle which sucks when they're only paid about $1 for each one anyway! And then there are the guys, also from Blue Topaz who basically have the easiest job of all, sit on a tractor driving around all day and pick up the bundles from the pickers. So so so easy. Damn them.
The job itself is ridiculously easy, the only hard part is sitting in the sun when it gets to insane temperatures but for all intensive purposes I am being paid to sit in a field, count to 20 a million times a day and get a tan. And for $750 a week AFTER tax, I can handle that. Although that does involve 50+ hours as well, but hey - theres nothing else to do here anyway!
So, what else? Me and Nicola are getting along pretty damn well, its awesome to find someone who wants to do all the same stuff as me and we're looking into travelling together. We think after the strawberry work finishes we're going to buy a car / campervan together and then take a bit of an epic road trip which will take us all the way from sunny Stanthorpe, Queensland through Port Maquarie and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and then along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne, Victoria. Can't wait, its been so long since I've been anywhere but Stanthorpe and I've yet to really do any proper travelling, so it'll be damn exciting to see new places and actually have a bit of fun! Just a shame that I can't drive as it means Nicola will have to do it all, she says she doesn't mind but it does limit us in how much we can drive per day. But that does mean stopping in more places, seeing more things, so theres a positive side to it all!
Currently its raining and it looks like we'll probably have the day off tomorrow which will be quite nice. Tempted to drink, lately I have been persuaded to drink goon as its much cheaper than vodka - its basically just boxed wine, but wine has never been a favourite or even a like of mine! However its not so bad mixed with lemonade and its only about $12 for 4 litres, whereas vodka is like $24 for 375ml - such a massive difference! We've had several drunken nights in the last week as people are starting to leave the caravan park as the season is over, so of course we had to say goodbye in the best way! Me and Nicola have learnt loads of drinking games and we need to write them all down before we forget the rules, hehe.
I'd also like to mention that my feet and about five inches of my lower legs are no longer WHITE, but merely light brown. The colour fades more and more the higher up my legs you go, but its a start. My feet are actually pretty brown to be fair, but nothing compared to my arms, which are mentally brown. My back is also quite a nice colour, or so I keep being told! We are going through mental amounts of sun cream too, bloody Australia and its insane UV rays!
So all in all, Stanthorpe is good though leaving in three weeks will be better, need to buy a car, need to plan our road trip and am looking forward to it all immensely :D I've nearly been gone from home for three months now, entirely mental and it feels like less but also longer in different ways, so strange. Missing everyone bundles but have made tonnes of new friends too :D
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