4:30 am - alarm sounds
4:31 am - spend next 15 minutes rummaging around in the dark to find the flashlight/car keys/sanity etc. etc.
5:15 - arrive at work to be greeted by 15 other tomato-picking comrades (NB: to pick cherry tomatoes you must be one of two things 1. backpacker 2. Over 40 Australian male with a beer belly, mustache/goatee, and say sentences composed primarily of expletives)
5:30 - pick red/orange/yellow and a few green tomatoes off of vines and put them into a 4 gallon pail ensuring the top layer is primarily red
6:00 - decide it is getting hot
7:00 - decide your back aches
8:00 - wonder why the Australians aren't covered head to toe in red dirt but you are?
9:30 - finish early - AGAIN!
9:35 - wonder what you are going to do for the rest of the day??!
10:30 - showered and (somewhat) clean, watch morning Australian television (almost as bad as Canadian broadcasting)
11:30 - desperately try to find somewhere in the shade to lie down where you won't get eaten alive by bugs or pooped on by a bird
12:30 - hone your table tennis skills
1:30 - another shade break
2:30 - more table tennis
3:30 - talk to the germans for a while
3:35 - decide you have nothing to talk a bout with the germans and play more table tennis
4:00 - go into Childers to use the (free!) internet at the library
5:00- head to the supermarket to buy your 4th loaf of bread this week
6:00 - eat dinner
7:00 - watch Simpsons
8:00 - lights out
As you can see our day is very complex as it takes a very creative mind to fill a 12 hour day on an Australian campsite in teh middle of nowhere when your tent is in the 35 degree sun all day! Luckily we have a table tennis thingy and some friendly European companians!
The tomato picking itself is quite alright however the crop is not quite ripe enough to work full days so we usually find ourselves finished before 10 am. This wouldn't be so bad but our wages depend on how much we pick... and we could use a couple of extra hours to put a few more "0's" on the end of our paycheques . Nonetheless we are having a great time and the germans aren't really so bad at all :) We are weighing our options as to what to tackle next and are hoping to have a new job next week with more regular hours and the opportunity to make a few more bucks. We haven't ruled out working on a ranch and are going to contact some people this afternoon and will let you know how everything pans out! Lots of love, don't hesitate to call, Ash and Dan
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