Journey to the country and beer!

I haven't been in contact with much people because I have been living out in the country, where the dust is harsh and the sun is blistering, where your hands are always dirty and you wear the same clothes for 3 days minimal, where the cows moo and the wind blows freely.

I have been in Melbourne for a while, but I am not going to talk about that much, I will only say I was discovering some cool things like Lentil As Anything, a restaurant where you pay as much as you feel like to a box, and I volunteered there, and if you do for at least one day a week, you can eat for free the whole week. I have much more to say about that place, but I will leave it for now, for the country holds interesting events.

So I started my first job at a farm in Kyabram, north of Victoria, picking apricots. It wasn't too bad, but we had a shit boss that wouldn't tell us that we didn't have 4 days of work until a day before. May the spirit be with him, but I decided to go back to Melbourne. I was low on money by then, $150 I think, partied new years there with heaps of African people, and Jeremy and Allay, cool people, you might know Jeremy, some of you. Then I got another job on Monday (two days after new years), in Shepparton, the main north town (close to Kyabram, or Kyabram is close to it). This girl finds jobs for backpackers, we pay her $40 for a job (if it's at least 2 weeks). It was easy, I thought...

I arrived at night, I got picked up and dropped off at a Caravan Park (I thought I was staying in the farm), didn't complain, got a tent, but it was too dark to put it up, so I slept with my sleeping bag under the stars, very romantic if I didn't have the wind blowing really hard and the mosquitoes biting harder, plus I had a big headache, only slept for 4 hours I think, maybe less.
Woke up in the morning, my mom called me, talked to her for a while (she found it funny that I was working in farms now) Then my ride to the farm came while I was on the phone, so I had to run to get my stuff ready (I thought it was coming in an hour), and I had a big load of vegies from Melbourne in my tent (no refrigeration), so I just took what I could eat raw, celery, banana, and ... ciggis where my lunch.
Yes I am smoking more now.

That's when I met Justin, my companion, he was confused about the ride too, and he came in last. He sat near me and said "Hello Boy!" in a country French accent (later I discovered) I worked with him that day, and everyday since. He is a funny big guy, doesn't talk much English, so I had to talk to him in simple broken English, I started talking to everyone like that after a while. He owns a farm in France that plants one of the most famous flowers sold in Paris, he slaughter cows and sells their meat, he (used) to smoke lots of ganja, and had 18 plants outside his farm on the public road (so if the cops come and see them, he can claim it's not his, because it's on public property), and he has a spa!

Anyway, we both moved to the farm (to live in) the second day we arrived, he was as poor as me, and we ate food together. The place where we were living had an outside kitchen, with no water (in the kitchen) no hot water in the toilet, and not much to cook with, but enough, and we were happily satisfied because it was cheap.

We picked for 4 days on this farm, the apricots farm. Here how picking fruit works, you pick lots of them and fill up a "half-bin", which takes us (two people) around 1.5 hours to fill, depending on our motivation and energy, and you get paid depending on the fruit, in the case of apricots, its $30 (before tax). Not much pay, but then again, you don't spend much time, and it makes you work harder. Me and Justin were doing 7 bins a day, motivating ourselves by having a ciggi after each bin finished.

During our stay in the farm, there was Thaw (not sure if that was his name, sometimes we called him Boy, or Justin did, and I followed) he was a NZ old man that had a bottle of VB beer every time we saw him (even sometimes when he was picking). He was an old timer picker, many years of picking. At some point he offered us to borrow his van, me and Justin take it for a ride around the country to find jobs, just me and Justin. We were very excited, Justin thought Thaw was coming with us half the time, and he was as excited as me, imagine how excited he was when it was just me and him.
We got really excited... we talked about the places we will go, Mildura, Adelaide, about what we are going to do, discover winerys, pick oranges! it was beautiful.

Not until the day we were leaving. Becky (the girl that got us jobs) came and said we can work for a day in another farm after we finish (now it's Thursday), and she also offered me a permanent job at the farm for 3 months, it sounded nice, but travelling with the van sounded nicer. So we decided we will go with the van to the other farm, work one day, and then head off.

Thaw that day decided he want to join us, after having 4 big bottles of beers, he wanted to make sure we are ok. An irish guy, Mathew, was working with us, and he asked him to come so he can drive him back (since he was too drunk + has no licenses, that's why he was ok with lending us his van, Thaw that is). We packed up everything, I forgot my towel, and Thaw drove, claiming he was going to show Justin how to drive it. He drove half of the way, and half of the time we were silent, the other half we were constantly asking him to stop and let Justin drive... No use. At last, he stopped, Justin drove, we couldn't find the farm, so we went back to Shepparton, we (me and Justin) asked to be dropped at a "MarketPlace" (where Woolies is at) then we called Becky and begged her to drop us at the farm.

By then we forgot about the van idea, and plotted to both get the permanent position in the farm, everything was changing so fast around me, my head was spinning, I was feeling bad for dragging Justin with me, but he said "is ok, no worries". It was comforting, I found it really easy to trust him.

So we got to the farm, there was a place to live, we were going to stay in our tents, it was around 9pm now, where the sun was setting down, two old pickers, Ben and Boch, were drinking beer and smoking joints, appeared, and me and Justin gave a big smile to each other, "this place is going to be good" i said, and he nodded his head happily with a grin. So normally, we joined them and drank beer and smoked joints, it was a great first night, and we heard many stories from them. It was hard for Justin to understand, but he was happy to sit and watch, and he would tell everyone "i no speak english, you are my teacher!".

This continued until last night (today is Friday), the drinking of beer/wine and smoking joints every night, and we have been working during the day doing weeding and maintaining the trees, sometimes stopping because of the heavy rain.

Anyway, i have to leave now, library closing, but i hope everyone is well down in Brisbane, and everyone is well in their journeys. I miss Brisbane a lot, and I hope to come down as soon as my journey is finished.
The sky is blue now, we will work hard the coming days.