Week 11 – 29th Jan – 4th Feb

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Not a great deal to report this week - besides I’m writing this about 5 weeks late, so any incidental stuff has been forgotten. It’s basically another week in sleepy Loxton! The week started with Luke, our supervisor, oversleeping! He didn’t seem too apologetic or concerned that all of us lost out on a few hours’ work thanks to him. Having said that, he’s been on time and reliable for the 2 months that he’s been there, so it’s no big deal. One of the Korean girls, Hae Jin, had a bit of a go at him saying that he ‘smoked too much’ - that went down like a fart in a space ship and put him in a bit of a mood. We ended up starting work at 0630, so it wasn’t all bad - just half an hour late. The boss and his family had gone away for the week so at least there would be no questions. Once we got there it was business as usual - everything was just pushed back by half an hour.

However, when it got to 1430, the Koreans, led one of the girls, Hae Jin, complained that we weren’t finishing at the usual time. Luke had omitted to communicate to everyone that we would be finishing at 1500 and an argument ensued. Luke called Hae Jin lazy etc etc and was still pissed off at her for her earlier comment. An argument ensued and she stormed off in teenage huff (despite the fact that she’s actually 26!) and decided to walk home with no water - it’s about a 40 minute walk. All fun and games - that, she decided would be her last day at the vineyard! Tuesday was just another day and on Wednesday we got new hours due to the fact that the sun was rising just that little bit later so there was no point in being there while it was still dark - an extra hour in bed was very welcome! The temperature rose through the week and we knew we were going to be in for a scorcher of a weekend. Friday saw the heat reaching the high 40s and it was bloody hard work, but we struggled through! The best thing about the day was the fact that we each received a nice healthy pay cheque, which was nice. We had the opportunity of a bit overtime on Saturday morning, which most of us accepted. It turned out to be about 2-and-a-half hours and the short job that we were tasked with was pointless - but, hey, at least we got paid! After work I went for a run with Luke - nothing strenuous, just a few laps of the local running track punctuated with some press-ups and sit-ups. It felt quite good to do something physical and helped me to pre-emptively justify an evening of copious beer!

A traditional Weaver family Saturday afternoon kip went on until around 6pm then the always-satisfying fizz of a cold beer being opened started the evening’s proceedings. During the week a French couple had arrived - Fred and Fabi from Paris. They’re really cool and Fred turned out to be a pretty mean table-tennis player. Anyway, Fred put forward the idea of a poker night as he had a couple of set of chips. And so it started - Fred, Fabi, Jay, Gary the nutter, and myself, a the novice amongst the group, with a healthy stack of chips in front of us. I had never really played before and needed guidance on most stuff. I knew what all the hands were but other than that I wasn’t terribly clued up. The first round came down to Fabi and I head-to-head - much to everyone’s annoyance I won with a full house! Sweet! It went on for hours and when I went to get up for a toilet break I discovered that my leg had gone rather numb from sitting cross-legged for a little too long. I did the classic almost-falling-over when trying to stand and had to walk down the corridor with one hand on the wall to support me. It got a bit better and I didn’t think too much of it. a few shots of Jack Daniels and 15 beers later I hit the sack around 0430. Upon awaking in the morning I discovered that me leg wasn’t much better, but figured it would sort itself out.

This weekend would be Phil’s last one in Loxton before he returned to Adelaide where he lives with his parents. For the last few weeks he had been living about 30 minutes away with someone with whom he works on his university work placement with the tourist board. He told us about a lake in nearby Barmera which is good for swimming so once the worst of the afternoon heat had left us I went down there with Jay and Phil. We spent a couple of hours down there just pissing about then went back to the hostel. We had discussed earlier the possibility of going to the drive-in cinema to see Casino Royale, so when we got back we rallied the troops and six of us went down there. It cost $15 per vehicle, which is a bit of a bargain when you take a campervan! It was the first time I had been to such a cinema, so it was quite cool to go and be able to take a few beers down and not have to be really quite so as not to piss people off! I suppose the only slightly annoying thing was the number of lorries driving past, but that didn’t really matter. We got home around midnight and went straight to bed, ending another weekend and the prospect of another week on the oh-so-fun vineyard!

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