oh ma saire back!!!!

---

Yay we're in sunny Sunraysia, Mildura to be precise also known as the sultana city. Got here last week and hung about at the hostel for 3 days doing not a lot. Mildura is a very strange place, it's extremely spread out so the centre is deserted except for a few shops and mcds. Our first night we went for a wee walk (and pint) and couldn't find a pub!!! To add to the eeriness, there a few streetlights and strange music was playing everywhere along the streets. Eventually we found a working mans club. No not YMCA but a lovely establishment where we got the long awaited pint and a sandwich.
Our hostel is supposed to be a working hostel, so the owner has some farm contacts and on Friday night we were offered work for the next day, yay!! oh how I laugh now. Our first day or three days was pulling nails out of covers that were over the grape vines then pulling the covers off. Me and Alex, a french dude were flying down the rows, so we were hopeful of lots of money. But no, average of 4 bloody hours work a day. This job also causes injury, I broke a nail the first morning and had generally sore fingers the rest of the time. Ross and Stef must have very soft hands, their's are a lot worse than mine. Our next job was pruning the vines at 50 cents a tree. Again, sore hands 😞 . This time we also had to buy cutters to hack the branches off and so after 2 days I think we earned 20 bucks!!! Eventually we gave up, went on strike. Our French friends and us stood back to watch 4 crazy Koreans light a fire to keep warm. In a vineyard....Bushfire anyone??? We also played watermelon football and Ross invented a game called "whip nicola with the vines." Eventually we were picked up by our Turkish driver Ray and back to the hostel. We lasted 2 days at that job and then were told it was finished, on to the next one....
So for the past 3 days we've been rolling, which means trimming the vines and then wrapping them around wires to support them. If the last two jobs were rubbish, this is soul-destroying! A huge long row of trees and we only get paid for finishing the row. Don't finish a row, don't get paid. This job is a pure nightmare, its quite tricky especially avoiding the vines that snap back aiming for your face. We do have some very cool eyeware to ensure we aren't blinded. So with the sore fingers, stiff back and general cold, it ain't the best way to spend a day. Ever the optimist, at least we're out of trouble and earning money, slowly.
Our contractor Ray, has a great system for deciding which days we work. If we get up and its raining, we don't work. If he fancies a day off, we don't work. If he wants to pick us up early he phones ahead so the hostel wake us up with 10 minutes notice and if he's late, he doesnt tell us. Pure dead brilliant.
On our days off we hang around the hostel or make a trip to the supermarket. There are some characters here...... the strange German who doesn't like football and I suspect of being a Nazi eats only garlic bread and never sleeps, the 4 Korean girls who giggle at anything and always always get the showers first after work, they literally run for them! Then there were the Frenchies, nice people but never seemed to eat. And then there is Chris (so called cos we don't know his name and are too scared to ask after knowing him for 2 weeks!) who shares our room. He's a really nice Ozzie guy who knows far too much about Scottish football but doesn't sleep too well. Every night a a certain time he talks / shouts in his sleep then jumps out of his bed like a madman. Ross reckons he's dreaming about Ozzie rules football and bedbugs. It was quite startling the first few nights, but we're getting used to it!
So apart from being treated like slave labour we're having a ball! Australian Masterchef is the highlight of our day, straight after Neighbours and we only have 4 weeks before we're on the road again.First to Melbourne to catch up with Dr Kennedy then an AFL match on my birthday, then Canberra to visit a Scottish Club and see the Brisbane Broncos in action, thats rugby league, then Sydney to catch up with friends and meet mum before jetting of to the Kiwi Island, happy days :D
x
I'll get some photos of our tough working conditions tomorrow and put them up ASAP.

---

Comments

[scotty boy]

Safties!!!!
Cutting my grass will be a doddle when you get back home then!!!!!!