New job at Opal Creek

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Had the best time in Bondi, made lots of friends at the hostel. Ended up there until Tuesday morning, spent Monday night on the beach with friends from the hostel (plus Tom's guitar for some musical entertainment!)...perfect last night.

Fiona and I finally got jobs, as apple pickers, so we headed in to Sydney on the 31st of March to get a Greyhound bus. The women at the check-in was a twat though and gave us the wrong instructions so we missed our bus to Wallangarra. Checked-in to a hostel. Camilla flew back in to Sydney that day so met up with her and her boyfriend James for dinner. She decided to come with us to be an apple picker as well, so met up again the next day for the 12 hour bus journey to the middle of nowhere! Fun times! Got to Wallangarra at 3am, no-one there to pick us up, so we were stranded in a petrol station/roadstop unti 4.30am. Finally someone came to get us and took us to the "hostel" (which used to be an abbertoir!) The girls were all up (you had to get a bus at either 4am or 5am) to go to the orchard but because it was raining they were all told to go back to bed, so we slept til 2pm. Got up, showered, went for a walk and found a pub. Realising that the "job" was a nightmare - incredibly early starts, lots of sitting around in the dark, not guaranteed work, living in a hellhole, making hardly any money...you get the idea - we decided (admittedly after a few drinks) to do a runner. Started walking back to the "hostel" to get out bags, only to be stopped by a guy in a car who had been sent by the pub landlady, who then gave us a lift and made a great get-away driver. Stiffling out giggles the whole time, we packed up the few things we had taken out of our bags and ran back to the car.
Back at the pub, the landlady asked a trucker at the bar where he was heading to the next morning - turned out he was going to Brisbane. Sounded good to us, so managed to blag ourselves a lift in his truck, leaving at 6am the next morning. Geoff, the trucker, was a legend. He even took us right to our hostel (via a building site which we were at for about 2 hours...got some very funny looks from the workmen!)

So anyway, we were back in Brisbane, jobless once again, and seriously low on money, STILL!!! Got an email with a few jobs on it so on the Saturday Fiona called up one of the numbers and the lady agreed to take all 3 of us...bonus! Ended up partying that night in Irish Murphys with, shockingly, a bunch of Irish guys who were staying at the same hostel as us. Tore up the dancefloor, much fun had by all.

On the Monday (6th April) we jumped on a bus to the city of Toowoomba, about an hour and a half west of Brisbane. There we were picked up by our new boss, Will, who drove us to his property which was another hour and a half west of Toowoomba. Met his wife, Jamie, and their three children - Amber (8), Tyler (4) and Jake (2). They are all lovely and made us feel so welcome straight away.

So that's where we are still. The property is called Opal Creek and is a cattle and sheep feed lot. We have our own flat which is awesome (so nice to be able to unpack our backpacks for a while!). One of us usually stays in the main house to help Jamie with the kids and the housework while the other two work up at the feed lot. We have been able to do quite a bit of cattle drafting which has been awesome, and I even got to try eartagging. Two weeks ago Fiona and I went to Albie house (he also works at Opal Creek) and he took us clay pigeon shooting. I managed to hit my first disc...winner!!! Last week I started doing Amber's home tutoring (she is home schooled at the moment) so that was really interesting. Yesterday, Camilla, Fiona and I drove to Murgon to see a small rodeo (about 3 hours away). We're hopefully going to the races in Dalby next weekend which should be lots of fun. Also got plans for a night out in Brissie to celebrate Fiona's birthday next month and we're all going to go to Wet n Wild just before Camilla leaves us at the end of next month to head to Thailand.

Having the best time, love the family we're staying with, and the job! x

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Comments

[Audrey I Walker]

Mum Here
Hey - still blog 19!! What's going on? get writing! Love you heaps. Mum XXXXXX

[Audrey I Walker]

Mum here!
Okay - we are still on Blog 19 - what is going on!! Good job I am getting pleanty of news via other channels! Get writing! Love you heaps MUM XXXXX