Settling in Mildura

So I realized today that I haven't posted anything since the first day of work. Quite a bit has gone on so this is mainly a recap of the past week or so... We started work last week and haven't done any picking yet because the money is garbage! Instead we are covering and uncovering the grapes. Basically what you do is put a pin in every meter or so as a tractor lays the tarp.. Sounds easy and it is as long as nothing goes wrong.. aka tarps rip, machine breaks, spiders blocking your path... haha these are all things that happen frequently. The pay is ok... not great and the work is very unorganized for the most part. We still are waiting on our pay from the jobs... but have kept a log of all our rows and how much we should be earning.

However, today we went to a new farm where we though we would make a killing. They were going to pay us $10 each per row... at the previous farm it was about 2-4 dollar per row. So we arrived and the farm was very nice, and very organized. However, the rows were very long, and we have to put a pin every 80cm... and pull the tarp tight and also put the pins in differently then we had been taught before. So unfortunately we only did about 4 rows each. We are going back tomorrow and hopefully will make more money. On a lighter note, this work really tones up your arms... I actually noticed a muscle in my arm the other day I never had seen before.. haha It's because all day I have my arms in the air pushing vines out of the way of the wire to pin... Living the dream! haha

A note on the hostel now....

Things at the hostel are becoming strangely familiar and almost homelike. A typical day consists of waking up at about 6:15am (gasp) get to work around 7am. Do a day of work that is usually till 1-2 pm (after that it is usually waaaaay to hot). Then we get home, call dibs on the shower... I'm usually mid range, once I got first shower... it was glorious. Then we have a few games of ping pong, watch gogo stop (kids show) and Deal of No Deal at 5:30... both classics! Then make dinner. And lately we have been having poker nights in the hostel. We each bring an item of food, like noodles, or something small and play. Instead of chips we use nails to bet with haha I have some pics I will post soon of the games. They are fun, and I actually am not that bad, I won the other night! :) Then we usually go home watch an episode or 2 of Dexter and sleep.

We have met some pretty cool people in the hostel too. There are some guys from England, and a girl from Ireland called Claire who we play poker with. So all in all we are settling in nicely. I thought today that I may even be a little sad to leave this place in about a month... I didn't think I would be the first day we arrived but it's really not that bad once you get over the shock of the filth you have to live in haha jk. Anyways, I gotta get going but i will try and be more frequent with posts! :)

1st Day Fruit picking!

So today was day #1 on the vineyard... We started out the day by driving to the wrong spot of where to meet our lead hand I guess. Tony told us to go to the 'Big Lizzy' we figured we could figure out what this meant... but didn't. Turns out that the 'Big Lizzy' is some sort of huge car on a railway track... (dad you probably knew that) haha. Anyways, we made it there and the grapes weren't ripe so we had to instead tarp them. It was actually not bad, quite hot but better then I thought it was going to be... hopefully when pay day rolls around we make as much money as we should. What we did was nail the tarps onto these wires... At the end of the day I was getting pretty good at nailing in the tarp. I didn't have gloves today so when I got back I bought a pair for $2.50, found a Giant Tiger type store (Vikki and Homero... you would love it). And mom the Body Shop kit you got me is coming into so much use! I'm so glad I have it. And you will be happy to know I'm eating better, I made a chili yesterday, and it was pretty good! Anyways, I should get going. Gotta get rested up for tomorrow. Talk to you later! :)

Mildura... ' The hottest place on earth'

Hey all, Sitting here in Maccers' using up the free internet. I haven't put up posts b/c the internet is intermittent here so this next paragraph should have been up a day or so ago;

So we arrived in Mildura and the town is really nice. We are waiting to find some good picking jobs. Apparently they are kicking off the season soon most likely this week, so hopefully we get one. Mixed reviews around this place about about work, some love it some say it’s awful, we shall see… haha I figure as long as I get paid I’ll do it, can’t be much worse then landscaping in the summer in Canada. Last night we met some more people at the hostel, it was a good night. Got some goon, which is VERY cheap wine and what most ppl in hostels drink. It tastes pretty bad, and even has fish product in it… don’t ask me why. But these British guys we met showed us that if you add a little bit of juice the goon takes on the taste of the juice and is quite good! It cost $10 for 4.4 liters of the stuff, so I’m set for a while! Hahaha it comes in a box… Mmmmm goon! : ) Anyways, better get going to the store, gotta get a hat for picking.

And now a further update...

Got me a hat! It's pretty funny very Australian! I will for sure take pictures. So we have got a job tomorrow! We get to drive there in this beat up van... Starts at 6:30am so it should be cool in the morning then heat up during the day. We get paid $1.70 per box... we are not sure how large a box is... but have been told by people to just shove the grapes in the box and get going to make decent money. We each are bringing 4 liters of h2O to stay hydrated. Today the weather was soooooooooooooooo Hot!! I'm saying take the hottest summer day in Canada, times it by 4, and then add 10000 and you've got today. It is crazy! But very nice skies just blue blue blue! And our room has air con so last night I woke up shivering b/c we crank it so no worries on that front.

Now a paragraph on Tony.

Tony is the owner of our hostel, originally we just got his number from SWAP and called him up to reserve the beds. He was always VERY brief and vague and his voice sounds like a woman, think Julia Child... So I was under the impression it was a fat old lady who would be great at cooking. Anyways, we got here excited to meet this 'Tony'. When he arrived to pick us up we soon discovered he was a HE! Not sure what happened to his voice nobody asks, but Dylan can do a great impression so when there is nothing else to do we just start talking like Tony haha, I wish I could upload a sound clip. Turn out he is a super nice guy, and I like him. Quite the character though.

Anyways, I should get going. Gotta go to bed early to get ready for picking tomorrow... I will post more on the picking and how it is once I've done it... Pictures will show up soon! Chow!

BUS RIDE!

Hey all, Just sitting in the IEP office, got my tax file number so I now can get paid for my work. hopefully the fruit picking works out so I can save some money for fun trips around Oz. I can't believe the amount of places I want to go here... basicly every spot has about 10 things I want to do... The traveling around really isn't that expensive as well which is cool. Our 18hr bus ride only cost 141 dollars... not bad, and the bus is pretty nice looking, air con and everything. 

The money here is ridiculous the more the coin is worth more the smaller it gets. So the 50-cent piece is larger then any coin we have in Canada. So my wallet is really heavy and I feel like I have tons of money and it turns out I only have like 3 dollars haha. I will take some pictures to show you all... The 10-cent piece is the size of a quarter, and the 2 dollar coin is the size of our 10-cent piece but a bit thicker. So funny. Anyways gotta run, gunna go out for lunch and then hit the road. Talk to you soon!!!

Aquarium & Zoo!

So today we went to the Sydney Aquarium. It was pretty cool, I took lots of pictures, but my camera didn’t work so well through the glass. We have met a British guy called Ryan, who was traveling alone and wanted to join us on our venture. We are also starting to think about work and decided fruit picking seems like a cool thing to try before we get settled in a city. We are going to the IEP office Monday to get more information on good places to fruit pick. This will be done more inland so we are excited to see some of Australia outside of the city. Tomorrow heading to Manly Beach to get some sun!! Anyways, the pictures are up now on facebook for you to take a look at! Wooo sorry for the delay I will try and make it a weekly thing. Hope you enjoy!

(That post should have been days ago, and here is more of an update)

We have a job at a picking place in Mildura, seems like that's the place to go for picking jobs, pay is usually in the 18 - 20 dollar/ hr range so should get some good coin for more traveling. It is an 18hr bus ride though, gunna charge up the Ipod for that! urg! Anywho that's pretty much the big news here. Oh actually today went to Toronga Zoo today and saw some cool animals! Yay zoo's!