An apple a day...Apr 23, 2005
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Yum!!!!
Work on the squirrel.
A bin of apples.
| ... keeps the doctor away, or so they say. I can now tell that several hundred of them a day are quite likely to break your back and will buy you an appointment quite soon. I'm in Donnybrook and have been picking apples for one and a half weeks now. It's not the most brain-challenging job I've ever done, but once you're used to it it's not the worst work (and a little good music helps a lot...) I've been lucky enough to get myself one of the better jobs, meaning that I usually don't have to do groundwork, where people have to carry 20 kg bags of apples around all the time, but I'm on a so-called "squirrel", basically a movable platform on three wheels which is navigated with the feet as you obviously need your hands for picking. Tha Squirrel takes me right up into the treetops where the apples can't be reached by the groundworkers. It makes work a lot easier and also a lot more fun. I think, there's a little boy inside me, going: "Yeah, I can play with big Yellow machines all day, that is so cool" My daily schedule goes like this: 5:50 the alarm rings, go to the bathroom and splash LOTS of cold water in the face to wake up. Quick Breakfast. 6:30 Jump in the car, 30 mins drive to the farm. Lots of grazing cattle and kangaroos on the way, the sun rises. Usually there's more or less smoke, as the firemen are burning the bush down foe some reason. Makes the whole scenery quite surealistic... 7:00 Start work, it's usually bloody cold and wet until the sun hits us. More like picking ice-cubes than apples. 3 hours of work, picking loads of apples, eating a few. 10:00 15 mins break 1:00 30 mins lunch break 2:47 "I think I'll have one more apple" - about the fifth that day, two bites and it goes on the ground... 3:30 Knock off, finally After that driving home, hot shower, be bored, dinner, be bored, talk for a while, be bored, there's absolutely nothing to do in Donnybrook (and no, it's not right at the beach, as the map suggests). Probably not the worst thing, as it keeps me from spending all my money on alcohol immediately. Most evenings we end up making something out of the apples people have taken home from work. Don't think I've ever had so much apple pie before... I think I'll stay here for 2 more weeks to make a bit of money for going up the west coast. |
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