Week 9 – 15th Jan – 21st Jan

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Getting really bored of Loxton! There’s not too much to report really. I worked Monday to Thursday then it rained! It was the first decent rain since the beginning of December - before that they hadn’t had any since July! It’s a bitch because they need the rain for the plants to grow, but if they get too much all the fruit splits. Oranges are especially smaller apparently though because there’s not enough water to fatten them up - so people have to work harder to pick enough kilos, then they can’t get the people, so the fruit doesn’t get picked, so the farmers don’s get paid etc.. I love having days off just as much as the next person, but the prospect of having Friday, Saturday and Sunday off in Loxton really didn’t appeal. For starters, we’re here to earn money, and secondly there’s bugger all to do, like I already said! It was, however, a superb opportunity to indulge in some drinking games! On Saturday night we played ‘Centurion’, which involves 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. There were 10 of us in total and 4 of us finished - myself, Jay the Brummie and Phil, an English lad who moved out here with his parents about 3 years ago and Dong Hun, one of the Koreans. The Germans were cheating by drinking half shots of wine mixed with lemonade, Tom and Luke had had a bit to drink earlier, Kailah was a lightweight Canadian! There were lots of embarrassing stories to tell, most of which would be highly unsuitable for this audience, so I shall leave it there!

We got a new ‘inmate’ this week in the form of Gary. He turned up, escorted by a couple of social workers - yup, he’s a complete mentalist!! Another fan of crystal meth and speed, he spends most of his time being generally odd and avoiding sleep at all costs! He’s harmless but it’s quite funny when he gets all paranoid and stands in the corner looking all scared! He spent one evening informing a couple of the Koreans how hard he is and how easily he could beat them - he using a streetfighter’s style, you see! Uh-huh. One of the guys he was talking to is a level 2 Tae Kwon Do instructor, while the other recently left the Korean Marines and is built like a brick shit house! I’ve been doing some weights with him - he’s brought about 80kg of weights with a barbell, dumbbell and press-up bars, so we’ve got our own personal gym here now! Needless to say he’s hard as nuts, but it’s fun training with him.

I’ve got really into table tennis as well. I played in a knockout competition in the hostel in Adelaide but I was awful - most disappointing! Then as soon as I started playing the Koreans, I raised my game and rediscovered my form - Jae Min and Dong Hun are bloody good and have beaten me plenty, but I’ve had a few games out of them, which is pleasing! It’s fun to play after week and I’m getting pretty awesome to tell the truth! I play a lot with Jay as well and we’re pretty even. I asked Dong Hun if he’d teach me a bit of Tae Kwon Do as well, so I’m starting to feel quite comfortable her now! I’ve started to think about staying until the end of February as the boss said there’s more than likely going to be work up until then. If I do that, I’ll have done 2 months of seasonal work. You need to do 3 months to qualify for a second working holiday visa, which is what I’m planning to do, then I can come back for another year if I fancy it. The weeks fly by when you’re working, and seeing as there’s a good bunch of people here, I think it makes sense to take the work while it’s there. As well as the bowling, table tennis, Tae Kwon Do and workouts with me old mate ‘Bruce Lee’, I’m going to learn a few Korean dishes while I’m here, hopefully. The Koreans really like my cooking, and I’ve been sampling some of their stuff, and it’s bloody tasty. I was telling them about the Korean restaurants I went to in Beijing with Philippe, and what we ate there - they’re going to recreate some of it for me! Sweet!

Sunday was a very relaxed day - we had more rain and we incredibly bored! Tom cooked up a tasty bit of beef with roast potatoes - in the absence of suitable cutlery (lost somewhere in the room!) I ended up eating mine with my flick knife and one chop sick - definitely a first! In the evening, a few of us thought we’d go bowling in nearby Berri. Jay drove me, Lou, one of the English girls, Canadian Kailah, and Monique and Sarah from Germany and we had a good laugh. Jay and I were pissing about by trying to spin the balls on some turns and at the end of our third game the manager, Steve, came and told us that we had really good actions and that he’d like to give us some free games! How could we refuse?! Jay and I had a lane each and we went head-to-head. Steve gave us 3 special bowling balls that spin loads and I got strike after strike without even trying - it was awesome. The top score in the club is 206, so I’m planning to demolish that by the time I leave the area! After that, Steve told us about his hush-hush invitation-only after-hours bowling. They pick one evening each week (it changes day, so that outsiders don’t get wind of what’s going on), lock the doors and everyone pays a $20 entry fee: that pays for all the beer and food that you can consume (lots, in our case!). Each person then takes a lane, pays $10 per game and whoever gets the highest score wins the kitty. As there are only 12 lanes, there’s potentially a jackpot of $120 every 10 minutes! You can dip out whenever you want as there’s no obligation to stay for the whole night. But if you win a couple of the games, that should easily pay for the night. So I reckon we’ll be up for a bit of that. At least our weekend finished on a bit of a high!

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Comments

[J Cragg]

Hail to a fellow foreign pom!
Or as they call us here in saudi, those limey bastards ;) Well it sounds like you're getting all the joy and me all the woe but I'll try and catch up on my off rotation at least I dont have to watch the pennies!