This, too ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because I really don't have anything better to do, and it keeps me from the bar Where am I up to? I dunno. Went into Mildura, yesterday, for the first time. Sort of nice to get out of Red Cliffs, even if Mildura is far from exciting in itself. I did think that it'd be good to have a day without seeing all the same faces... then, at a cafe, I ran into two guys from the backpackers, and, later, found them on the same bus as me. Oh, well. I'm trying to make some decisions, at the moment, but it's not working. I am not sure whether to go home for a couple of months, probably covering Christmas and all that, and then come back, or whether to just stick in Aus for two years. Either way I'm going to have to pay to move my return flight. Possibly twice, though. Gah. I think that I'm about to get proof that I've done all July working in the required fashion, so I've two months to go before this seasonal gubbins is all over and I can go back to Melbourne, be it for a few days or another year. I was thinking to go home for a bit, but now I seem to be leaning the other way. It's just a bit... erk to not know what'll be happening in Melbourne when I'm done here. Not sure where I'll even be living. Bah, while we're on the subject of shit I know nothing about... am I working tomorrow? What am I doing? Something shite? Nothing? Hm. And where's that sod with my pay cheque? I think that the Taiwanese girls are leaving. Now who's going to get all excited every time they see me, and call me a cartoon character? This place is becoming unsettlingly quiet. Soon there'll only be me and Geordies left. Why *is* everyone here from Newcastle? I talked to the associated-with-this-place contractor bloke, and he seemed as puzzled as I am about the end of my orange-picking. I'm feeling at least a little vindicated, and am pretty sure that I didn't do a damned thing wrong. Still, the day after I was dismissed from oranges I got an hourly paid job planting trees, anyway. Unfortunately it was just a short-term thing, and I'm already done. Now, while picking oranges I was paid by volume... in other words, paid more for doing more work. But the contractor behaved like an ass, and many of the local workers were intollerably stupid and confrontational, and I found that I eventually almost stopped trying to earn money, and was just turning up for the sake of my visa. Well, that's half true. I was still getting up on Sundays though nobody else bothered, and still picking away. But the really good pickers will run with a bag of oranges back to the bin, then run to the next tree, and get more done. Planting walnut trees this week I was paid hourly, but I was working for a guy on his own... farm, or whatever you'd call it, around his home, and he didn't call anyone a prick, and even made me a cup of tea after a few hours working. Even though last time I'd be paid more for working faster, and this time more for working slower, I found myself running to keep up with the tractor (drilling holes and carrying the trees still to be planted), and on the second day I'd planted everything he had. A couple of days later he had bought more trees, and I went in during the morning and found that I'd planted all of them by early afternoon. I'm not sure if that makes me or the respective employers the more stupid. 3:27 p.m. - 2007-08-05 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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