Old Friends and New

July 2013

Now fully settled in Cairns, working for accommodation and cracking on with the job hunt, the weather had improved after a dodgy start to the dry season and I really began to enjoy life back in the Far North. Cairns is surrounded by green mountains which look beautiful in the sun.

I can live with this!

I signed up to a staffing agency similar to the one I worked for in Adelaide. They sent me to work a shift in the Civiv Theatre in the city. There was some ballet on which I was allowed to sneak in to so I could have a bit of a watch and its safe to say that its not my thing at all. I watched for about 5 minutes with them jumping about and stuff and yeah its impressive from a physical side of things but from an artistic side, I just don't get it! The job was good though. I was on the bar just outside the theatre in and it was piece of piss really. I only did one shift and it just so happened to be the only work I did for the agency.

Palm Cove

To the north of the city is where all the beaches are. The furthest away is Palm Cove which I visited when I landed myself a trial shift at a restaurant there. It is a really scenic place squashed between the mountains and the sea and as Megan would say when she got a job at a restaurant up there "its full of newly weds and nearly deads". She was a girl who worked in the hostel on reception before becoming a Palm Cove snob and she asked me for a special mention in this blog so there you go!

I got the trial shift after greatly exaggerating my food service from the pub at home so I was a bit out of my depth when I started working at Vevo in Palm Cove. It's not exactly difficult work and I didn't have to take any food orders or anything so I was basically just a runner. On Day 3 of my trial and after I asked whether or not I would actually be paid for the work he said he'd call me the following week to tell me if I had the job or not and he paid me for the hours I had done. He didn't call me and it became apparent that he had absolutely no intention of hiring me. It was the last week of the school holidays so the restaurant was really busy and he just needed an extra hand for the week. Its possible that had I not asked if I was going to get paid he might have made me work the week and hope that I'd give up and not turn up one day so he wouldn't have to pay me at all, who knows. But, three days work, a bit of extra cash, I wasn't exactly complaining too much.

Sporting highlight of the year!

What a fantastic year for British Sport and especially good being in Australia with us seemingly beating them at everything! I watched the lions matches whilst asking constantly about the rules. I found the State of Origin so much easier to follow. I think I'm definitely more of a Rugby League fan than I am a Rugby Union fan. QUEENSLANDER!!!! The cricket was also entertaining or as mildly entertaining as cricket can be. Especially when we win!

But the sporting victory I was most happy about in July wasn't us beating Australia it was us beating a Serbian. Andy Murray in the final of Wimbledon! Last year I took the afternoon off work so I could watch it and this year was the same, nothing was going to stop me watching it. Luckily there was a TV in the hostel I could watch it on and I asked the person on the bar to turn the music off so I could listen to it as well. There was barely anyone in the bar and it was to shut within the hour anyway so it wasn't like I was taking over, though I would have tried if I had to. I know a lot of people in the UK really couldn't care if Andy Murray won or not but I've watched him since he became a serious contender and Tim Henman before that. I've always watched Wimbledon and would love to see a British winner so as Murray drew up championship point I was beside myself. A small crowd had gathered in front of the TV to watch. I say crowd, there was about 8 people and none of them cared but I was literally on the edge of my seat, legs jiggling up and down and chewing on my jumper! 2 championship points, 3 championship points, 4 championship points and finally he wins and I jump up out my seat trying my hardest not to scream as its now 2am and everyone is asleep whilst the people gathered around the table give me strange looks. I am so happy he won. Anyone that follows tennis will understand the significance. The first British winner in 76 years. Well done Andy!!!

Neon Rave!

I got a bit carried away there didn't I!

The first of many nights out in July was the neon rave at Woolshed. We had drinks at the hostel before neon-ing ourselves up with wet chalk, glow sticks and anything else bright we could get our hands on before heading out. It was a really good night. Fabian wins the prize for the most drunk falling about the place about 5 minutes after we arrived!

Neon chooses you!

The day before my birthday I became an uncle! I swear little Harry Joseph Fletcher was planning to steal my birthday from me the same way Lindsay stole Anneli's but he failed, HA! Can't really moan too much though, you can't get a mad a baby. He becomes my second nephew after Shelly had her baby a few months ago but the first one by blood! Sarah made me a little badge saying 'Uncle Alan' which I stuck to my bed which was still there when I left.

Sign from reception

I didn't really know what to expect from my birthday. It was the same at Christmas. Being away from home it has the potential to be crap. Thankfully, like Christmas, it wasn't.

Someone from reception had already left me a little present on the activities board (or rather they just used my birthday as an excuse by plug the Monday Mission pub crawl but the thoughts there all the same). That was another present, Monday Mission, the events guy let me go on it for free. I got a card signed by most of the staff, a free beer from the bar and a free burger from the chef so I did well considering!

Nice homemade handy work

I wasn't really that keen on going out that night. Not because it was my birthday, just because I couldn't really be bothered. It was good night really. The pub crawl was good. Starting at Calypso we had a free BBQ and then the Serpent where there was a game of musical chairs. If you didn't get a seat then you had to take off a piece of clothing in order to stay in the game, A good idea in theory until a fat hairy man started taking clothes off!

Musical chairs

Then it was on to Gilligans for a lacklustre talent competition and then PJs where some latecomers arrived including Megan who wins the nights most drunk award by a country mile. Fell over about 4 times, knocked a guys drink out of his hand without noticing and then got thrown out. Well done Meg! I was going to take a picture of her whilst she was on the floor but I thought I best not be cruel and help her up instead. Hiro said she was "like a crocodile", "dangerous".

Me with the hostel ladies

There were many birthdays that week. Sarah on reception had hers and then it was Danielle's turn. Stretch made her a cake which I found inedible and they went out for a meal.

Stretch with the cake

Happy

When they were off having their meal I went into town to meet some random called Chelsea and her boyfriend Sam. I don't know who they are or why they keep following me around the country. She says she knows me from the Oak at home, her dad owns the pub or something.

LEEDS (and Japan)

Seriously though, it was great to see them again and get the latest on their travels and farming. Strangely enough in the town they worked which is in the arse end of absolutely nowhere they bumped Laura and Amanda who I worked with at the Den. They didn't it at the time but when two scousers rock up in a small town word spreads and Chelsea and Sam remembered them.

SHOTS

We talked about the Kiwi Experience which they had done what I'm about to embark on. They gave me some advice which I'm hoping will come in handy. Then we went to Woolshed, as standard, and had many shots, again, standard. The prize for most drunk this night unfortunately goes to me. Chunder, oops

Party people

Chelsea wasn't the only familiar face I would see in Cairns. I saw Hanna, the girl I shared a room with in Adelaide. Hollie was on her way too but the first scottish I saw was Angela.

Another reunion

Another nice catch up. I'd clearly been out of the loop when it came to gossip from the Ultimate Oz lot so Angela filled me in. She was staying at Gilligans so we headed downstairs where they were having a gladiator competition.

FIGHT!

July, as you can see, was mostly filled by drinking. From reunions to birthdays there were a lot of reasons to get drunk but the money was getting low so I really needed to be getting a job in August.

Familiar Surroundings

21st June - 1st July 2013

Back in cairns once again. I keep coming back here because its a cool place with beautiful secanary. But more importantly its warm and sunny! It's officially winter and even in Bundaberg it was far too cold for my liking so the obvious choice was to go further north to where its 25-30C and sunny. At least in theory.

Recognise this!?

Hiro and Felix from the farm were also up in Cairns after their brief trip up the east coast so it was awesome to meet up with them again! I met Steve from the Isle of Man who was staying in Felix's room at Gilligans. He was an Australian newbie and had been in the country only 24 hours when I met him. Time to introduce him to goon then! That night we went out to Woolshed which is still just as awesome as it always was. Still good people, still good music and you can still dance on the tables!

It was Mexican Night

Truely disgusting skittle shots!

Second night in Cairns and we were talking into doing the Ultimate Party Bus tour. Not really sure why there needs to be a bus for this as all of the bars are within a 5 minute walking distance. I must have met and talked to at least 40 people that night from so many different places. I ended up in a sex position game with a Canadian! We didn't do very well!

Party Bus

The day came for me to do something I meant to do the last two times I was in Cairns but never got around to it - Diving on the Great Barrier Reef! I was a little nervous of the dive given that I get really bad pain in my ears when flying and being in pain whilst underwater was something I was not looking forward to.

all strapped up and ready to go

There were four of us in our diving group. Me and Steve and two asians who didn't really understand a word of english. We swam around to the side of the boat and one by one we were to go down 1 metre to a metal bar before decending the rest of the way. I was first and it was as I feared. Immediately my ears began to hurt. Holding my nose and blowing is something that has never worked for me when flying but miraculously it was working underwater but only a little bit. Steve floated down next to me no problem and then it was Asian number 1s turn. Down he came, up he went, back down, back up, threw up and then gave up! Asian number 2s turn - same thing! It must have been ten minutes me and Steve were bobbing just under the surface waiting for these two guys who eventually gave up. It was very frustrating!

Reef!

Steve now fully annoyed at the delay and having dived many times before was desperate to get going and go down to the bottom as quickly as possible. This meant I was trying to force myself through the pain that was in my ears and I didn't want to delay us any further. I kept saying I was ok when I blatently wasn't until I couldn't force myself to go down any further and had to stop and signal that I needed to wait and sort my ears out. Eventually we got down and my ears still ringing a bit we set off amongst the reef.

More reefness

I wish desperately that my ears weren't killing me coz it reunined it a little bit. Especially I was trying hard to not freak out about being underwater and in pain but I slowly began to enjoy it.

Then a shark swam by! ARGH

Shark

The reef was really cool though. So much better than the one we snorkelled on in the Whitsundays. The were so many fish and the reef had these big canyon type channels. I found Nemo and had the best ever picture taken!

Nemo's cousins

Winner of Best Picture Ever Award!

After the dive which was about 40 minutes we had a bit of a snorkel and then ate lunch before going off to a different site. As I only really enjoyed the last 5 minutes of the dive I was able to be persuaded to do a second dive knowing that my ears wouldn't be as bad second time around. The second dive site wasn't anywhere near as good as the first one though unfortunately. All in all it was a really good day out and an amazing experience despite the issues and I would love to do it again. It was worth it just for the picture if nothing else!

It was time to settle down a bit in Cairns and look for a job. I had already lined up a job working for accommodation before I'd even got to Cairns which was helpful. I moved into Work and Play Backpackers (or Cairns Beach House as everyone knows it) and started working on the bar.

Entertaining ourselves

It was the most basic bar in the world and there was about 3 customers a day to begin with. The hostel had recently been taken over by Nomads so they were busy improving everything and the bar wasn't very high on the list.

This bar is rocking

Stretch, the chef

The hostel itself was quite nice. Its in Cairns North which is about a 20 minuite walk into the city. It has a pool and obviously a bar. It was a very chilled out so sort of place. Boring at times. Even the hostel cat was found chilling out around the place occasionally...

Berlious the car

The best thing about the hostel was the people. I made friends with so many people there, mostly staff, including the rest of the bar dream team Danielle, Martin, Sarah and Rachael. I managed to get Hiro a job on housekeeping too.

The Dream Team

Felix went home. We had a last night out. Steve and him came to hostel coz I was working and we went out into town and said goodbye at the end. It was all very sad. Steve left to do the East Coast a few days later.

Felix is leaving :(

I did not sign up for this weather!

Staff on a night out!

Working for accommodation sorted, new friends made and CVs printed ready for an epic job hunt I was ready for a couple of months in Cairns where there were many nights out and many MANY stories to be told.

To be continued...

Epic Train Journey North

 23rd -24th June 2013

Ok, so its not the Trans Siberian Express but I've never been on a train for the more than 5 hours before so it seemed quite epic and warrants its on blog! The train from Bundaberg to Cairns would take me 24 hours so with it being overnight I thought it was going to be pretty horrendous as I only bought a seat and not a bed. I was wrong.

A very long train

The train had a restaurant car where you could sit down for a proper meal (1st class only), a diner car for meals for the rest of the passengers plus a lounge area. Even the passenger cars where everyone sat had a shower at the end and seats that lent quite far back so you could get a reasonable nights sleep.

Diner car

Lounge car

I spent most of the journey on the sofas in the lounge area watching TV and playing games on my laptop as there were plug sockets there. No WiFi though which was probably the only thing they didn't have!

Supermoon

I had a good view of the supermoon that night too. It was really bright. I got a decent sleep and felt quite refreshed after my morning shower!

Nearing Cairns

So I left the farm behind and headed for warmer weather in Cairns where I would meet up with old friends and make many new ones for my last stint in Australia (at least on my first year visa!)

Farming in Bundaberg

21st March - 23rd June 2013

It was time to do my farm work in order to get my visa so I could spend another year in Australia once my current visa expired. A quick flight from Melbourne to Brisbane and a long 8 hour bus journey and I arrived in Bundaberg to work on an organic veg farm. When I arrived in Bundaberg it was a town on its knees a little bit. Extensive flooding in January meant that they were still picking up the pieces when I arrived. There were houses on there side and upturned boats along the riverbank but as the dry season approached they were able gradually remove these and repair the buildings that were damaged and make it stop looking like such a war zone.

Day 1: so clean

Farmwork was the most physically demanding and therefore mentally demanding job I've ever had. It didn't help that I hadn't been to the gym in 6 months and had basically sat on my arse in Adelaide for 2 months. The first couple of weeks were agony on the back as almost every job on the farm required you to be bent over and on top of that the heat at the end of summer was torturous at times. There were a few days in that first few weeks where I thought that I wouldn't be able to stick it out, either I'd end up quitting or be fired. I was determined to give it my all though and I really did have to give it everything for the first month until my fitness increased and the heat decreased.

I called him Marvin

There was a variety of jobs so it wasn't always mind numbing. It wasn't just picking the vegetables, it was planting them, weeding them, pruning them, chipping them and tying some of them up. They had pumpkin, capsicum, tomatoes, chilli, endless amounts of potatoes and bastard zuchini. The worst of all these and the serious bane of my life were the eggplant! The leaves have a powder on them that when the leaves are dry they give you the worst hayfever-type reaction ever! I don't suffer from hayfever and I'm so glad I don't because it was horrible. Every time I did it I finished a sneezing, dribbling mess of a human being. Thankfully I only did it about 5 times towards the end but I will happily never do it again in my life.

EVIL EVIL EGGPLANT!

The work itself wasn't all that bad after a while, you got used to it and as long as I was earning some decent cash then it was good. Sometimes I even enjoyed it believe it or not. A hard days graft earning some money with a chilled beer at the end was very good indeed. The problem was that sometimes you weren't always earning that much. Picking potatoes was when you probably earned the least amount of money at $1 a crate. It was a group contract meaning that no matter how fast you went you would have to share the total amount with everyone and inevitably lose money. If you were the slowest then everyone pretty much hated you. One particular Swedish dude springs to mind. Everyone understands that when you are new you will be slow, I was when I started but this guy started the same day as me and never got quicker. I became one of the fastest at picking potatoes and he was always the slowest. Even the new people would be beating him on their first days. To make matters worse he was extremely antisocial and just generally weird AND I had to share a room with him. I had a go at him a couple of times for losing the team money. Our supervisor didn't like him, the owners son and his wife didn't like him so why he never got fired I'll never know. Anyway rant over! (he's the one in the first picture, far left. Hate him, hate his face!). (I also hate that he's made such a feature is blog! ARGH!)

grafting hard!

The weather strangely played a part in how much money you would earn in a day. Obviously if its raining then some jobs aren't do-able but as we moved into winter and the mornings became cold (and I mean bloody cold) then things didn't grow as quickly. The most obvious example would be the zuchini where you would pick 2-3 buckets per row everyday to the point where you would be lucky to fill a bucket every other day.

Ron watering the zuchinis

The owner of the farm was a man called Russel and his wife Mariann. There son Nathan ran the farm along with his wife Andrea who was in charge of the backpackers and then there was our supervisor, Jules, a French backpacker who met his wife-to-be in Bundaberg and stayed with sponsorship 3 years ago. There was also a few other workers that got to drive round in tractors all day while we did all the work. There was a 60 year old woman who would do some of the hard jobs with us and she was pretty quick despite her age so if you were feeling a bit tired you just needed to look at her and you realise you shouldn't be complaining. If she could do it then so could I.

Colin

There were some animals on the farm which were mainly for the families own use. I named a few of them on the odd occasion when I was bored. There were the cows: Marvin (he kept sneaking out and eating the potatoes), Marvin Junior (he looked like Marvin just smaller), Big Dave (the only bull of the group with enormous testicles!) and Betty (she was the only white one). There were pigs one of which I named Nigel and a sheep called Pickles. I'm not mad a swear. There were also two dogs Colin and Jess.

Pigs!

They have neuter the pigs themselves which produces better meat. By neuter I mean they hold it down and chop its balls off! Supposedly humane but the sound of the pig squealing was chilling and I couldn't help but cross my legs! Especially when Russel told me I'm next!

They also killed a couple of cows so they could have steak at a party they were planning and we were invited to watch. Being a big meat eater I felt like it should be something I should witness and went along with them. I thought I would react more when the cow was shot in the head but I suppose its a pretty normal thing to happen. The worst part though was when they were skinning it and they had to chop its head off. They had to cut through everything and then twist it. All the bones in its neck were cracking and its the only time I had to look away coz it was disgusting!

Pickles

So work was hard and the pay could sometimes be a bit hit and miss but I did enjoy it most of the time and that's because of the people. Our group just made the whole experience. There was a sense of 'in it together' and we all got along so well. Well most of us! When I first arrived most of house had either just arrived or were just about to leave and be replaced with some new people so for the majority of the time I spent on the farm it was the same group.

The family!
Becci, Lloyd, Felix, Hiro, Nox, ME!, Simon
Yuki, Nick, Murray, Taka, Kenta

The first day I met Lucas and Jasper who were both from Sweden. Lucas had been there nearly 4 months and was very much looking forward to be leaving the following week with Jasper. Luigi (obviously Italian) was possibly the most negative person I've ever met. There I was about to embark on three months of work and all he could say was "its shit" and "you don't earn any money". Not the thing you want to here when you have been in the house a couple of hours! He left the same day as the sweeds and was actually sacked on his last day because he was so shit which is probably why he didn't earn any money. (far left in the first picture). Also leaving in my first week was a Japanese alcoholic who's parting gift was to piss all over the floor in one of the bedrooms when he was aiming out of the window! There was also a girl who I think was from Finland who started the same day as me but she quit after the first day saying it was too hard even though it was probably one of the easiest days. Of course there was also Axel (Swedish) who arrived the day before me and was a moron from the start. "Hi, I'm Axel" was his welcome before immediately walking off before I could respond. An hour later he returns ordering everyone to do there washing up despite him only being there for 24 hours. Not the best way to make friends.

Chilling after picking potatoes

Once those guys had left the family began to form. Hiroaki was now the longest resident. An absolute legend from Japan who barely spoke any English when I first met him but he would study every night for at least an hour to the point where you could almost have a full conversation with him. His catchphrase "exactuly!". Lloyd (English) had been there nearly 4 weeks and Murray (Scottish) had been there 2 weeks. Both I had some serious banter with. I say banter it was more them winding me up and I would bite every time!

Next doors horse

Then new people started arriving. Becci was a friend of Lloyds from when they was in Byron Bay and she got a job through him and they quickly became a couple despite Becci's constant denial that it would happen. Nick who I met on the plane flying to Australia was on his way to Bundaberg and randomly messaged me asking if there was anything going at our farm. Lets face it I barely knew the guy and had no idea if I would like working with him or not but I thought I'd be nice and ask anyway. He got a job and it turned out to be a good decision. Two Koreans, Hanei and Joe arrived on the same day but didn't know each other previously. Felix from Denmark who spoke extremely good English you could almost mistake him for being English if it wasn't for the accent. He was the one who finally succeeded where many had failed and got me watching Game of Thrones. Then there was Kenta (Japan) who had the best laugh, Taka (Japan), Yuki (Japan (girl)) and Simon (Cananda) who was there for most of the second half of my farming life.

Stocking up!

Other people came and went during the 3 months. Another Scottish guy was there for a week before going off to meet his girlfriend. There was a Canadian who proclaimed that work would be easy and wouldnt be told otherwise despite the whole house telling him its not easy. He started the next day and quit before lunch and had a full on argument with Andrea claiming he'd been lied to. There was also Ben from Taiwan who gave Axel a run for his money as the worst worker. Axel was just slow but Ben kept doing it wrong as well. There was also Enyon from Korea who I felt really sorry for. He really tried hard but was just physically incapable of doing the work. I'm sure there were others but they can't have made much impact on me.

Joe's Birthday

So with the house more or less full with up to 14 people you were never short on someone to talk to. I spent most of my time in the lounge watching TV with everyone and a few of us got really into My Kitchen Rules and then Biggest Loser. Evening entertainment was sometimes limited! Tuesday nights it was semi-tradional to go to the pub for food until one day someone had the awesome idea of going to pizza hut for the 2 for $10 deal. We would get 2 each, one for the night and one for next days lunch! Any other circumstance you would get fat eating 2 pizzas a week but I actually lost 1.5 stone!

BARBEQUE!!!!!

Saturday I would yell out "BAAAARBEEEEEQUUUUUUUUE" in an Italian accent (Luigi's only legacy) as every week would we would all congregate at the table outside and have ourselves a BBQ feast. I cooked for 11 out the 13 weeks (I didn't cook the first week and we didn't have any gas on another). I enjoyed cooking the BBQ, it is my thing afterall. But it meant I could put my music on and I didn't have to clean up.

Following that we would always play drinking games and get horrendous drunk. Work hard, play hard! The only time I was glad Axel was there was on one of these occasions when he started looking at the cards through one eye after drinking 2 bottles of wine. It was hilarious entertainment until he sprayed the bathroom in puke. Kenta was also particularly good and downing the king cup (usually a mixture of 4 different peoples drinks.) There was one time where he was halfway through downing the drink, threw up everywhere and then finished it. LAD!

Mexican Night! (when there was no gas)

Party

Twice we treated ourselves to a night out in Bundaberg city. The options were limited but we had a good night both times. Expecially the second time when Hiro was really drunk and kept bumbling up to random girls and trying to talk to them whist basically falling on them. Was really funny to watch though!

Anyone for a jager train

Compulsory asian photo pose

Sunday was mainly a rest day or more likely the hangover day. Time to do washing, go shopping and chill out before another hard week. We sometimes went down to the pool down by the river until it shut at the end of April. They had a sort of massive inflatable obstacle course thing which believe me is a lot harder than it looks. It must have taken me over an hour to do it the first time around. I soon found that the key is not to put sun cream on!

Pool o'clock

The cycle continued for many weeks, working hard during the week, drinking a lot on the weekend and not a lot else happened. Nick fractured his ankle about a week before he left. He was only supposed to be going home for a few weeks and coming back but his ankle meant he didn't come back which was a shame.

There was another eclipse! I knew all about the total eclipse that happened in November but there was another one. Not a full one but an Annular one which is when the moon is too far away from the earth to completely cover the sun and a ring is formed. On the day I actually forgot this was going to happen and kept looking around the sky thinking there was a big black cloud looming as it seemed darker than usual and then someone reminded me and I looked at the sun. Not advisable but it was a bit hazy and it looked like a very point crescent moon. We were too far south to see it properly and it was obviously not as good as a total eclipse but impressive none the less.

Working hard

One of the highlights of the entire 3 months was when the shopping centre reopened. It had been shut since the floods in January and reopened a few weeks before I left. Its not much but there was genuine excitement in the house! Coles finally!

Hiro and Murray on there last day with Jules

People then began to leave and fun began to dwindle. First Nick and Joe and then Taka. The day that Hiro, Felix and Murray left the house was a particularly sad day. Hiro and Murray were the biggest characters in the house and I got on really well with Felix so once they left the house just seemed rubbish. It didn't help that there replaced were some absolute morons. Another Simon who acted like a giddy immature teenager and an Italian who was just like all the other Italians I've met before - don't give a shit and moan all day long. At least I only had a couple of weeks with them.

A good rainbow

At least I managed to escape the house on 1 night in the last couple of weeks as Ben and Mel, from my first week with UltimateOz and again in Adelaide, came to Bundaberg to do their farmwork. We went for a steak and had a catch up and said goodbye all at the same time as I was leaving on the following Sunday.

Finished!

Its a shame that I didn't particularly enjoy my last 2 weeks on the farm but it did not overshadow the whole experience which despite it being seriously hard work it was generally enjoyable and I made some good friends there. Two of which I would meet again in Cairns which was my next point of call. The last week I was practically jumping about the place thinking 'that's the last time I'm doing that!'. The last BBQ I got particularly wasted whilst passing on the tongs to whoever the next chef would be and on Sunday I got on the train and headed north for warmer weather and good times.