www.flickr.com

nothing because it has to be connected to my computer to work, grrr


prawn cocktail crisps

pilchards on toast (you can get pilchards there but they just don't taste the same)

decent tv

jaffa cakes

Greggs pasties

proper beer (as in Black Sheep, or Timothy Taylor's Landlord, or Cwrw Haf, the list goes on...)

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Yawwwwnnn

Still no day off :( I'm starting to make mistakes because I can't concentrate any more. This is not good though my boss told me not to take it to heart that he told me off for the monumental error that occured earlier (note to self - I need to mark destinations on the pallets BEFORE loading them on the truck, d'oh).

I was going to write about quite a few things (although I must admit some of them would have been tomato related) but, you know, I really do not have the energy. So I won't.

'Night all
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Monday, August 28, 2006

All is well again

The grin is back :D

The Toy Boy's bad mood is gone and we're all good again. This weekend just gone was really lovely and all is well with the world.

On the other hand this is my 13th day of work in a row and counting...sanity may disappear for a while shortly.
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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Huh?

The grin has gone.

God only knows what I've done wrong because I bloody well don't.

He's in a mood. Technically with everything and everyone but seen as he's being cheery and talkative with everyone but me (I'm pretty much being ignored) I'm guessing that he might have lied about that.

I'm stressed, I'm tired, I would like a hug. Somehow I don't think that that's going to happen anytime soon.
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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Indecent exposure

My shed is hot. Really hot. The packers have fans above them, as do the lads stacking the boxes and the graders have a good breeze through the door. I, on the other hand, am running round like a blue arsed fly* and just overheat constantly and I can't always run into the air conditioned office for long. So, I've taken to wearing my shorts and a strappy top. It's cooler, it's fairly practical and as long as I don't bend over too much it's not too revealing.

Or so I thought.

My manager told me today that the boss of the farm has said I'd better wear more clothes or the shed won't run at all as all the boys will have to keep running to the toilet every few minutes.

He's going to love me tomorrow because my shorts finally gave up the ghost today (ah faithful shorts have seen me through many days in the shed) and the only other ones I have are what are called 'stubbies' here in good old Oz. Yup, they're short shorts. Tomorrow is going to be interesting to say the least.

*just for you, Chris
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Monday, August 21, 2006

Happiness

I think it's possible that I'm being irritatingly* happy. I've spent the last 2 days (yup, 2 whole DAYS) wondering round with a grin on my face. And it's showing no sign of moving. Life is good.

Things are good with my Toy Boy (although I'm trying not to think about when he's got to leave in a few weeks time as that would definitely lead to the grin disappearing which I don't want to happen) and from only getting together when we go out and had a couple of drinks we've graduated to wandering round the supermarket together holding hands and having people go 'aww you two make a lovely couple' which has been happening rather frequently.

I think I'm going to go and grin at somemore people now. You should be able to hear people throwing up from the sheer soppiness from many miles away :D

*maybe even nauseatingly
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Friday, August 18, 2006

A rose by any other name

I got promoted* today! I got moved from one shed at my farm yesterday to the new one they've just opened and this morning just as I was about to start work the shed manager came up to me and told me that I was in charge while she wasn't there - which is most of the time. Excellent! Power! Fame! Money! It was all in my grasp and all I had to do was wonder round the shed looking important and telling people how to do their job and making sure that everything was ok. Easy as!

Unfortunately, the enthusiasm diminished suddenly with the arrival of a black folder shoved into my arms along with the comments 'this is the paperwork' and 'we don't have anyone else able to do this' (a comment which conveniently skirts around the alarming issue that I don't know how to do this either).

Undeterred I set to my new job with life and passion.

No, honestly.

For the first hour or so anyway. 9am, I'm seriously wishing I was in shorts not jeans, I'm sweating my arse off and am running round like a blue arsed fly trying to:

  • keep all the boxes behind the packers stacked up, and getting new pallets of boxes for them when they run out
  • keep the seconds (the tomatoes not quite good enough to go in the good boxes but too good to throw out) boxes emptied with alarming regularity and the rubbish bins as well
  • see that the seconds and rubbish bins are all labelled properly so they don't get mixed up
  • fix the fact that the people who set the shed up had done it wrong so everything was backwards to the way they do it at the main shed
  • help the stackers put lids on because they were running around like headless chickens
  • make sure the bins behind the machines collecting the unripe tomatoes weren't overflowing then collaring the forklift driver to shift them
  • AND do all the paperwork.

We finished at lunchtime due to a lack of fruit. I for one could honestly say I did not mind in the slightest bit. Mind you, I figure that if I keep on running round the I did today, I'll be a nice size 8 in no time!

Roll on tomorrow.

*For 'promoted' please read 'had a pile of shit heaped on me for no extra money and less days off'
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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Indecisive seasons

As I sit here in the internet cafe mercifully out of the way of the sunlight streaming in the window and heating up the table beside me I realise that yet again I have misjudged the weather here and really should be wearing less clothes.

Technically it's winter. The other morning whilst waiting to start work and freezing my arse off because I was wearing shorts I thought to myself that I shouldn't be so surprised given the season but you can't really take that for granted round here.
On my day off on Sunday I went to the beach with my new toy boy and another friend and had to retreat to the shade at one point because it was so warm (the sea on the other hand was freezing, whatever possessed me to actually listen to the boy already in the sea that it was ok and the best thing to do was to jump straight in I'll never know). Then, swiftly - and, most importantly, freezingly - the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and we were soon hurrying back to the safety of the hostel to warm up. Once there, I changed out of my skirt and skimpy top into jeans and a hoody and started out to the IGA. It's only a 5 minute walk but I was nearly expiring when I got there as the clouds, and the spattering of rain, had passed and it was yet again tropical heat, the bouganvillias waving gently in the dying breeze as I warily watched the coconuts in the palm trees above me.

As I prepare to do battle with the heat outside all I can think is that one day, maybe, I'll actually get it right when I get dressed. Somehow, though, I doubt it.
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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Famous at last

We made the paper because of this so I'm famous here in Bowen. So much for keeping my nose clean and out of the limelight!
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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Uninspired

I do feel that I have to apologise for the rather small number of posts recently.

I am, completely and utterly, without inspiration at the moment.

My job is 7 days a week (apart from Sunday, when I had a day off, and tomorrow when the shed is shut because it's too cold for the fruit to grow and...) and generally the hostel office is shut or just about to shut when I get home so no internet and if I do get on I don't have time to really write much. Hey ho.

I could have written about my room-mates endless snoring. But since so many people have generally complained and changed rooms since she's been here the hostel owners finally got fed up and bought her some nose plugs so no more sleepless nights. Well, from the snoring anyway ;)

I could write about all the time I've been spending with a rather lovely Irish bloke the last week or so and how much of a cradle snatcher I am (he's 20, I'm feeling very old) but I don't think I will just yet. I could also write about the utter inconvenience of dorm rooms but seen as my mother reads this I really don't think I'll go there either.

I may even tell you all about how I ran into the CTG's sister-in-law in the pub. Nearly gave me a heart attack but she's promised not to mention that I'm here and confirmed for definate that he's not here so that's all good.

So, I have no idea how to put in a suitably witty and readable way all that's been happening to me here in Bowen which leaves me where I started, with an apology for the lack of anything interesting here, and the promise that normal services will resume shortly. I think.
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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Early one morning

I lay in bed this morning dozing listening to the sounds of the pre-dawn rain and the kookaburras laughing in the trees outside my window and my dorm-mates trying quietly to get up and as I lay there I thought...

...

Shut up you gits! I don't have to get up for another hour!
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