so i left queenstown, i was there for two weeks.
i might as well write about it. I was there for over two weeks; it's a small town in the mountains. Used to be a large area for mining, but not so much anymore. It's a nice area, rolling green hills, semi-tropical trees, and the drive from hobart was amazing- beautiful hills. So many different types of landscapes.
The reason I was in queenstown was because i saw an ad on a board in hobart, at the backpackers there, about a job at a pizza shop and bakery looking for a shop assistant and a construction worker, and i said i could do both. The boss, Harold, gave me the job after talking to him for 10 minutes on the phone, and he seemed like a nice guy. I showed up as agreed, after driving around for a couple days with these two girls from the south of england- they were nice, and they said 'brilliant' alot.
When i show up, the boss isn't around- he went to the mainland for a few days, and i ended up working for a week and a half before ever meeting him in person. The building i was staying in was a big two story thing on a corner of the main street; it used to be a hotel, but it was more of a construction site- it's going to open as a backpackers/ hotel in the future. The pizza shop bakery was on the ground floor. It was a sweet job at first, the days flew by. I spent a few hours in the morning being trained by a dutch girl named susan- she was nice and showed me how to back some things, as well as what to do during the morning shift in the bakery.
The big seller was pies- we had many types of pies, full of different types of meats, about 15 styles. Plain mince, chunky steak, beef and stout, beef and mushroom, beef and tomato, chicken and cheese, curry chicken, thai curry chikcen, egg and bacon, beef bacon and cheese, and other ones too, and sausage rolls and 'savory' rolls, and a 'cornish' pastry called a 'pasty', and i made coffees, and put bread in the oven and took it out and sold it, i woked the cash regester, i snacked on things, i made and snacked on baked goods,,,, and then in the evening i helped out Steve, the canadian, with the pizza shift. Steve is a cool guy, he showed me alot about how to work in a pizza place. I ended up making some good pizzas, i was eating a small pizza every day, it was delish. can't go wrong with a simple pizza. I was also eating alot of the pies we didn't sell, and that was good- normally i try to be a vegetarian, but i ended up gaining alot of weight from pies and stuff,,, not that i can ever be FAT fat, but it was interesting to feel my arms and bodycore get a little bit thicker. In the end i worked 13 days straight. I worked a 14th day, but i ended up leaving without getting paid for it- i just up and left becase it wasn't working out.
Before i met the boss i had heard alot about him. He's dating a girl who's 25 years or so younger than him, so that's kindof scandalous in a small town. He also stabbed a guy not long before- there are lots of different stories about it, some saying harold acted in self defence after someone broke a window of his shop, some saying he stabbed first Then broke the window himself, who knows. There was also alot of writing on the walls everywhere- i guess because its a construction site it's ok to write any messages anywhere, but the types of messages: IF THIS DOOR IS OPEN AND THE HEAT IS ON, PLEASE SHUT IT (YOU BASTARDS!), PLEASE GOT HELP ME KEEP THIS DOOR SHUT, plus various other things i can't remember, and jokes on the washroom walls, and stolen(?) roadsigns everywhere. I also found out that the pay was 10$ an hour, which is kindof a low amount considering most jobs will pay 15 an hour, and while this includes the room, it is still not a good deal if im working alot of hours, which i was.
When i first met the boss, he seemed nice. On that day , there was a large group of 19 students plus a few teachers, who were part of a bus tour and needed lunches because someone forgot to pack them. It was crazy having that many people come in! I had just made cookies and muffins, and the pie oven was stocked- i ended up selling out of everything, and i had to re-stock the pie oven. At this time i was told that i needed to slice up salami, or, kabana to be precise. So i threw the pies in the oven, but i relized that i forgot to make the egg spread- it's a bowl of whipped eggs that i paint onto the tops of the pies with a brush to give them a golden color and some extra flavor. Anyways, this time i forgot to put it on, opened up the oven door to paint it on then closed it again. I went back to work without setting the oven timer, which is a small computer thing that navigates through all the different things i can bake. Without the oven timer, i didn't notice how i burnt about 15 pies; eventually steve came down to fetch a pie for the boss, and he was upset that i had burnt them. I ended up hearing from his girlfriend bonnie, who called me up and told me i'd have to pay for the pies, and she also wanted a list of the pies that were ruined, which was annoying. Anyways, he was upset with me and didn't say much to me about it, but i heard about it later. I worked a 9.5 hour day for him which was fine, did some tiling of a bathroom with him. He was alright , but the more i got to know him, the more he just seemed like a really negative guy, who drank too much and would yell at me for silly reasons, and for the pay i felt he was underpaying me, and when i did give him my hours he seemed really upset that i had worked as much as i had- in fact steve had been the one in charge of telling me when to work, but i was later told that i was only supposed to work 3 hours a day and why the fuck was i working six? I was told i had to take it up with steve, and i had about 10 hours he said he wasn't paying me for. steve ended up giving me 50$ to make up for it, but he's 10,000 in debt and i felt bad having him pay me when the boss should be- and more than 10$ an hour at that. I mean, usually accomodation is 120 a week or 150 max. if i was getting paid 15 an hour, i would have rent paid and then some, becuase i was working Every day, over 40 hours a week. over 50 !
Anyways, it's the slow season, and the bakery wasn't making that much money, not many customers, and i felt that the boss was feeling stressed about it. But he seemed to really hate the town too. I asked him how long he'd been there for and he told me 'too fuckin long'. He told me his theories about how all the towns people were similar to cavemen when they go to the pub. I did laugh at one thing, he was talking about a sexy young 15 year old girl, who apparently is very attractive for her age but gets with alot of guys, and he said she had hillbilly parents, and he said 'her mother looks like a fuckin COUCH! and her father looks like a BROOM! i dunno, had to be there, but it was hilarious the way he said it. But yeah, kindof a negative guy, said the word cunt alot. He was made me just up and leave- after he paid me about 700$, i figgured i should get back to civilization. It's good to be back!
I'm now in launceston, i havn't checked my email in a long time, and when i finally did i got a bunch of worried emails from my mom- i guess i should reply to her emails or call her!
i should get going, im late!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
ah yes, it's an update. much has happened.
since i last wrote, i left off writing about how i was w.w.o.o.f. ing for a lady who temporarily lost her memory. I ened up staying with her for another night and was told that the doctor said it is quite common for people aged 50 and up to temporarily loose their memory for anywhere up to 8 hours. Weird eh? I also recently read that the famous author Agutha Cristie went on a bender where she didn't remember anything for a period of weeks and she was lost (actually staying in some country in, but it's said that she was in hiding because her latest novel wasn't good or something...)
Anyways, i last wrote from the beautiful mount roland. Since then i';ve done and seen much. what? i'll tell you!
When i left the mountain, I went to Launceston, where I hung out with the various people i knew in the area, played some music at on the backpackers piano and also at the 'Reggae Lounge'. The lounge is under construction, and getting better every time i stop by. Lots of music and joints were played and smoked. I stopped looking for grass a while ago, so i rarely find it, but it's nice when it finds me. It was cool to play with the dudes i met a few months ago when i first showed up in town, and another friend I met in Devenport, justin, came along and impresed everone with his guitar improv- he;s excellent and plays well with the other guys. I am ok with coming up with stuff on the spot, musically, but im sure i could be alot better- it's nice to be classically trained and everything, but that's different from being able to jam well with others.
Another thing i did was some good old protesting. A huge company wants to build a billion dollar pulp mill up in this place called Beauty Point, and alot of people don't want it to be built, for alot of reasons- One thing, it will ruin the beauty of beauty point, pollute the river, result in many trees cut down, and put the smaller pulp mills out of business. Fuck that bullshit. So about 5,000 people came together in the park, and then marched around waving signs and yelling. Good times.
So i was there for two nights, in launy, then drove with a french girl to Hobart, capital of Tasmania. we checked into the Central city backpackers, and I got my own room for 120$ a week, not bad. My reason for traveling was to start treeplanting a few days later. I soon learned that the start time was 5.30am, and i needed to be in New Norfolk, a small down about 20 minutes away. So after a few days of hanging out in the hobart, I get up really early and try and get to the Bush Inn for 5.30 am one morning. I was told it was on the main street, so after a long time of driving on the main street I ask some guy where i can find the place, and he tells me where to go and i go there, only to find noone there- they didn't wait for me. I got there 8 or 10 minutes late and they're gone. I've worked for these guys before, and lost my job for being late- so i didn't even bother trying after that first miss because i knew I botched it. And who wants to get up at 4:30 in the morning anyway?? Not I sir, I am lazy. Anyways, shortly after, I saw an add on the message board about a job in queenstown- so i called the guy and got the job after talking to him for 10 minutes. He seemed nice.
After that, i spent a week in hobart, hanging out. Here are the highlights. There was a guy that said I could call him for casual work, so i called him several times a day for a week because i really wanted to work for him but he never answered. There were some cool people at the backpackers, and usually when they were going out they would ask if i wanted to come, and because I wasn't spending any money on drinks for myself, they would buy some drinks for me- how nice of them. Props to Jean, Tom, and the german guy. There was also a large TV, so i was introduced to a few amusing DVDs. One day I went for a drive and found my way onto an amazing side road through hills it was beautiful. An annoying thing about hobart is the parking tickets and speeding violations i collected; 2x25 and 35$ for parking in the wrong place (but it's where the people who ran the backpackers told me to park!!), 80$ for parking and letting my car roll a bit forward,where it stopped against the curb (without hitting anything thank the lord) but it crossed a yellow line, and later I got an email from Joan (she gets my mail) telling me i had a 110$ speeding ticket for driving 87 km per hour over the hobart bridge, which is 70 kmph. So yeah i have about, what, 250$ of fines now, which i am working to pay off.
Usually I'f im bored at night i'll go hang out in the mall- which is a street full of stores for pedestrian use only, with benches and funky architecture. If it's a weekend, all i need to do is sit down for a while, usually while working on a perspective drawing, and someone will come up to me and talk to me and maybe take me with them to whatever fun they're going to. Most major cities in tasmania have these streets, and i've met some cool people this way. One night I was hanging out there, and there was a drunk guy and his girlfriend yelling at each other in very very very loud voices, so i looked over to see what was going on and the guy asks 'what the fuck're you lookin at?' and gives me a punch in my face that hurt for days- that was really annoying because 1. who does that? 2. I don't carry a knife or brass knuckles because guys like that need to get hurt; not that i would hurt anyone, but for a long time after the incident i was still really mad at what happened and wished i could have fought back.
Another time i met this friendly dude with dread locks. He was a happy guy who took me to a few bars and introcuded me to his friends, who were also cool and bought me drinks, a big group of people who I later learned were all on some type of speed/MDMA. They were friendly enough, and there were pretty girls talking to me. At one point we take a cab back to their appartment, a very cool house, for the purpose of inhaling nitrus oxide. I did not participate in the N20 or whatever the chemical number is, but they did give me speed which I took a small amount of. It was crazy being on it, I was talking pretty fast even though I took a small bit... I thought the nitrus was interesting- they had this device which brings it down to zero degrees kelvin, which is actually -270 degrees- the whole point is to have zero movement of the atoms. Anyways, we went to a club which was fun, talked to some people, almost got puked on, then later went back to the appartment where the dudes did more and more nitrus oxide. It was crazy how much they did- it comes in packages of 8 little metal containers, in boxes with little pictures of ballons on them, because i guess they're bought from a party supply store. I passed and im glad I did. At some point i look over, and one dude is shaking his friend asking him if he's ok, and the guy looks passed out and twitching, then stopped moving and i thought he died, but he came out of it after a minute. But yeah it was an alright place, and like i said, it's nice when grass finds me, even though i'm not one to seek it out. They were definitly drug dealers- I was kindof impressed by being told, by the guy who i first met in the mall, that he was deling weed when he was 18, making more money than his mom who worked a full time job, all because you buy a pound of grass at 200 an ounce and you sell them for 280, and you make your 80$ just buy going over to a friends house, dealing the drugs or whatever, smoking a spliff with them, and making a cool 80$. Do that 2 or three times a day, and it's easy money. But yeah, im glad i don't have access to the pot anymore, for alot of reasons. Maybe i'll stop by my friends place next time im in hobart- they were nice guys.
I'm now in Queenstown- i've got much to write about still but i'm out of time in the library, so i'll continue again later,
PEACE OUT, LOVE PUAL
since i last wrote, i left off writing about how i was w.w.o.o.f. ing for a lady who temporarily lost her memory. I ened up staying with her for another night and was told that the doctor said it is quite common for people aged 50 and up to temporarily loose their memory for anywhere up to 8 hours. Weird eh? I also recently read that the famous author Agutha Cristie went on a bender where she didn't remember anything for a period of weeks and she was lost (actually staying in some country in, but it's said that she was in hiding because her latest novel wasn't good or something...)
Anyways, i last wrote from the beautiful mount roland. Since then i';ve done and seen much. what? i'll tell you!
When i left the mountain, I went to Launceston, where I hung out with the various people i knew in the area, played some music at on the backpackers piano and also at the 'Reggae Lounge'. The lounge is under construction, and getting better every time i stop by. Lots of music and joints were played and smoked. I stopped looking for grass a while ago, so i rarely find it, but it's nice when it finds me. It was cool to play with the dudes i met a few months ago when i first showed up in town, and another friend I met in Devenport, justin, came along and impresed everone with his guitar improv- he;s excellent and plays well with the other guys. I am ok with coming up with stuff on the spot, musically, but im sure i could be alot better- it's nice to be classically trained and everything, but that's different from being able to jam well with others.
Another thing i did was some good old protesting. A huge company wants to build a billion dollar pulp mill up in this place called Beauty Point, and alot of people don't want it to be built, for alot of reasons- One thing, it will ruin the beauty of beauty point, pollute the river, result in many trees cut down, and put the smaller pulp mills out of business. Fuck that bullshit. So about 5,000 people came together in the park, and then marched around waving signs and yelling. Good times.
So i was there for two nights, in launy, then drove with a french girl to Hobart, capital of Tasmania. we checked into the Central city backpackers, and I got my own room for 120$ a week, not bad. My reason for traveling was to start treeplanting a few days later. I soon learned that the start time was 5.30am, and i needed to be in New Norfolk, a small down about 20 minutes away. So after a few days of hanging out in the hobart, I get up really early and try and get to the Bush Inn for 5.30 am one morning. I was told it was on the main street, so after a long time of driving on the main street I ask some guy where i can find the place, and he tells me where to go and i go there, only to find noone there- they didn't wait for me. I got there 8 or 10 minutes late and they're gone. I've worked for these guys before, and lost my job for being late- so i didn't even bother trying after that first miss because i knew I botched it. And who wants to get up at 4:30 in the morning anyway?? Not I sir, I am lazy. Anyways, shortly after, I saw an add on the message board about a job in queenstown- so i called the guy and got the job after talking to him for 10 minutes. He seemed nice.
After that, i spent a week in hobart, hanging out. Here are the highlights. There was a guy that said I could call him for casual work, so i called him several times a day for a week because i really wanted to work for him but he never answered. There were some cool people at the backpackers, and usually when they were going out they would ask if i wanted to come, and because I wasn't spending any money on drinks for myself, they would buy some drinks for me- how nice of them. Props to Jean, Tom, and the german guy. There was also a large TV, so i was introduced to a few amusing DVDs. One day I went for a drive and found my way onto an amazing side road through hills it was beautiful. An annoying thing about hobart is the parking tickets and speeding violations i collected; 2x25 and 35$ for parking in the wrong place (but it's where the people who ran the backpackers told me to park!!), 80$ for parking and letting my car roll a bit forward,where it stopped against the curb (without hitting anything thank the lord) but it crossed a yellow line, and later I got an email from Joan (she gets my mail) telling me i had a 110$ speeding ticket for driving 87 km per hour over the hobart bridge, which is 70 kmph. So yeah i have about, what, 250$ of fines now, which i am working to pay off.
Usually I'f im bored at night i'll go hang out in the mall- which is a street full of stores for pedestrian use only, with benches and funky architecture. If it's a weekend, all i need to do is sit down for a while, usually while working on a perspective drawing, and someone will come up to me and talk to me and maybe take me with them to whatever fun they're going to. Most major cities in tasmania have these streets, and i've met some cool people this way. One night I was hanging out there, and there was a drunk guy and his girlfriend yelling at each other in very very very loud voices, so i looked over to see what was going on and the guy asks 'what the fuck're you lookin at?' and gives me a punch in my face that hurt for days- that was really annoying because 1. who does that? 2. I don't carry a knife or brass knuckles because guys like that need to get hurt; not that i would hurt anyone, but for a long time after the incident i was still really mad at what happened and wished i could have fought back.
Another time i met this friendly dude with dread locks. He was a happy guy who took me to a few bars and introcuded me to his friends, who were also cool and bought me drinks, a big group of people who I later learned were all on some type of speed/MDMA. They were friendly enough, and there were pretty girls talking to me. At one point we take a cab back to their appartment, a very cool house, for the purpose of inhaling nitrus oxide. I did not participate in the N20 or whatever the chemical number is, but they did give me speed which I took a small amount of. It was crazy being on it, I was talking pretty fast even though I took a small bit... I thought the nitrus was interesting- they had this device which brings it down to zero degrees kelvin, which is actually -270 degrees- the whole point is to have zero movement of the atoms. Anyways, we went to a club which was fun, talked to some people, almost got puked on, then later went back to the appartment where the dudes did more and more nitrus oxide. It was crazy how much they did- it comes in packages of 8 little metal containers, in boxes with little pictures of ballons on them, because i guess they're bought from a party supply store. I passed and im glad I did. At some point i look over, and one dude is shaking his friend asking him if he's ok, and the guy looks passed out and twitching, then stopped moving and i thought he died, but he came out of it after a minute. But yeah it was an alright place, and like i said, it's nice when grass finds me, even though i'm not one to seek it out. They were definitly drug dealers- I was kindof impressed by being told, by the guy who i first met in the mall, that he was deling weed when he was 18, making more money than his mom who worked a full time job, all because you buy a pound of grass at 200 an ounce and you sell them for 280, and you make your 80$ just buy going over to a friends house, dealing the drugs or whatever, smoking a spliff with them, and making a cool 80$. Do that 2 or three times a day, and it's easy money. But yeah, im glad i don't have access to the pot anymore, for alot of reasons. Maybe i'll stop by my friends place next time im in hobart- they were nice guys.
I'm now in Queenstown- i've got much to write about still but i'm out of time in the library, so i'll continue again later,
PEACE OUT, LOVE PUAL
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
when i last wrote i was staying in the backpackers in Devenport. It was a sweet deal because i was getting free accomodation in exchange for cleaning the rooms and kitchen everyday. It was great, but i wasn't actually making any money; so when i was told that there was several months of work available near launceston, i went for it.
This job was in a small town called Perth, close to launy, and not to be confused with the much larter Perth- capitol of Western Australia. I moved into the farm of friends Evan and Jen, and everything seemed great... except that after my 1st day of work, they told me; thanks for coming in today but we don't need you to come in tomorrow... actually we're not sure when there will be more work because this job depends on how many orders there are and unfortunetly there aren't any orders right now sorry, we'll call you if we hear of anything. HOW MUCH DOES THAT SUCK? so much. i left the place with free rent because they told me i could work for several months, and then after the first day they told me that's all there is. Now that i'm thinking about it, i wish i had told the lady what i was really thinking- i would have told her she's a jerk for doing that. GRR...
anyways, so i stay at the farm for a week, hanging out, reading alot, but i realize i should move on because im not making any money and i couldn't afford the rent. I had the oppourtunity to do some W.W.O.O.F.ing, which stands for Willing Worker On Organic Farm.
I was staying with a lady named bronwyn at her house (it wasn't actually an organic farm) at the base of mount roland, a beautiful place. I stayed there for over a week. I helped out with a number of things she was working on, and with various other chores including putting together a package for the Sheffield councilors in regards to some social work she wants to do, computer help, and carrying firewood. I also helped her return 2 televison sets to K-mart.
At one point i climbed the mountain. I was told there was a path to the top, but it wasn't advertised in the tourist information agencies becuase it was rough and 'scaley', which i guess means the path is crumbling and steep. I leave at 2.30 in the afternoon, and climb the mountain, climbing all day, racing to the top to see the sunset- i was taking alot of photos, so i really ran for the top, but i just missed the sunset, and as i finally made it to the summit, it was beginning to get dark. Oh well, thought paul, I guess i'll have to climb down the mountian in the dark, no big deal, it's a full moon anyways. It actually was a big deal, I couldn't see much at all. I waited around for a while untill the moon was above me, and then slowly made my way down the path.
The path was easy to follow during the day because of these pieces of orange tape that were attached to trees along the way. Unfortunetly for me, i couldn't see them at night and i stumbled off the path almost immediatly. It was quite dangerous, and at one point i was climbing down a large rock, and i guess i didn't realize that it was really steep untill i was sliding down it way too fast- i saw that when the rock came to an end there was a cliff and a dropoff with darkness and more rocks below. I pretty much knew that if i fell of the cliff i was dead, so i grabbed the sides of the rock i was sliding down to save myself, and i did save myself, which is great, but i ended up breaking my thumbnail in the process. I didn't notice it for a minute because i was so pumped up from nearly dying, then i saw all the blood and felt the fingernail flopping around. it was really awkward because it was too painful to rip off the huge hangnail, so i ended up climbing down the rest of the way, it was intense and scary, took me hours. I remember one moment, walking through the dark, i was confused about where i was standing and realized i was in a big rotten tree. There were lots of huge felled trees, and large rocks, and other dangers, but finally i found a stream of water flowing down, which i followed, and eventually found my way to a type of road that had perhaps been cleared by a bulldozer or something, and i stumbled my way down for a while untill i heard a voice calling my name; it was bronwyn- somehow she knew where i would end up and was waiting for me! it was amazing. I probly met up with her at 11pm, exhausted after my adventure, and very glad she was there waiting. It was quite an awsome adventure, or, spirit quest as i like to call it.
Bronwyn was putting together a type of resume, which summarized her lifes work and stated her objectives involving a tourist center, kindof a pioneer village type thing, and also another thing that would help youth who are having problems in school. This involved putting together a large package full of awards she's won, letters of reccomendation (there were lots of these, including one from the prime minester), and various other information she wanted to include. This took a long time because she needed 6 copies of it, and i put them all in books with clear plastic pages- it was quite alot of work. There was also lots of oppourtunity for me to use my technical support skills- i spent hours trying to fix a problem with the printer, and i finally got it going by turning it off and on again.
It was great because Bronwyn had a camera, so i was able to take a few shots of the area. The landscape is really beautiful around mt. Roland, and i ended up taking 450 pictures while i was there. Lots of boring scenery, especially from high up while climbing, and i also took alot of shots of these cute little animals called Paddymelons, which are small shy marsupials and i would feed them small apple cubes. I went out alot to take photos- sometimes climbing the mountains or just driving around. There are lots of mountains in the area, and i climbed a few different places.
One thing happened that was weird: I came home after a long day of climbing around. It was steep at times, and i had been walking for hours, so i was pretty tired when I got back to the house. I go into the kitchen and i see bronwyn- she hadn't been feeling well for at the time, and had spent the past two days in bed. Bronwyn comes into the kitchen and starts picking things up, asking -" what's this doing here? Who put this here? What's going on here? Something's not right... something's not right..." I noticed something was strange, she was confused why there were flowers and some parsley in water on the windowsill. I started asking her questions: Don't you remember going shopping? You bought the parsley when we went into town on monday, remember? do you remember going to Devenport and returning two television sets? .... she didn't remember any of it, she was asking me what day it was, and she was asking me what happened to her television sets. It was so weird, because the Bronwyn i know is really smart, and now she didn't even remember what happend 2 days before. In fact, she was quite suspicious of me for a little while; I could almost tell by her face that she didn't belive me that we had gone into town to return to the television sets, and that perhaps she suspected me of stealing them. It was kindof scary, because i knew she had lost her memory. I asked her lots of questions, she wasn't too sure of much. She was asking me alot of questions too, but really she was just repeating the same 3 questions, which i would answer and then she would ask me again almost immediatly after: why am i still in my pajamas? What time did you leave this afternoon? What happened to the TVs? Why am i still in my pajamas?.... I realized that i had to call someone, so i looked in her cell phone and called about 10 numbers but noone was answering, or helpful. I knew i could call her son Ross, but she didn't have the number written down anywhere and she couldn't remember it- i guess it's a number she always remembers... she didn't even remember my name, or my mothers name and my mom's a good friend of hers. Finally i called the directory assistance number, and once she was talking to her son she seemed to slowly get better, which was a relif. I ended up hearing about 10 different expressions for 'going crazy', some of which i've never heard before. she said: I must be losing my marbles! I've gone round the bend! I'm off me rocker! (she said that one alot), and i can't remember all the other ones. But yeah, i was so glad she found her way back to reality... maybe it was caused by her fever, or sickness or whatever it was. im not sure... but later that night she made me dinner, and she asked me alot of questions about what happened. The next day we talked still more about what went on while she was in her state of forgetfullness; she didn't remember anything of what happened, it was so weird. She said nothing like that had ever happened to her before.
I guess alot of things have happened since then but i'll write about that stuff later. i can only type so much....
This job was in a small town called Perth, close to launy, and not to be confused with the much larter Perth- capitol of Western Australia. I moved into the farm of friends Evan and Jen, and everything seemed great... except that after my 1st day of work, they told me; thanks for coming in today but we don't need you to come in tomorrow... actually we're not sure when there will be more work because this job depends on how many orders there are and unfortunetly there aren't any orders right now sorry, we'll call you if we hear of anything. HOW MUCH DOES THAT SUCK? so much. i left the place with free rent because they told me i could work for several months, and then after the first day they told me that's all there is. Now that i'm thinking about it, i wish i had told the lady what i was really thinking- i would have told her she's a jerk for doing that. GRR...
anyways, so i stay at the farm for a week, hanging out, reading alot, but i realize i should move on because im not making any money and i couldn't afford the rent. I had the oppourtunity to do some W.W.O.O.F.ing, which stands for Willing Worker On Organic Farm.
I was staying with a lady named bronwyn at her house (it wasn't actually an organic farm) at the base of mount roland, a beautiful place. I stayed there for over a week. I helped out with a number of things she was working on, and with various other chores including putting together a package for the Sheffield councilors in regards to some social work she wants to do, computer help, and carrying firewood. I also helped her return 2 televison sets to K-mart.
At one point i climbed the mountain. I was told there was a path to the top, but it wasn't advertised in the tourist information agencies becuase it was rough and 'scaley', which i guess means the path is crumbling and steep. I leave at 2.30 in the afternoon, and climb the mountain, climbing all day, racing to the top to see the sunset- i was taking alot of photos, so i really ran for the top, but i just missed the sunset, and as i finally made it to the summit, it was beginning to get dark. Oh well, thought paul, I guess i'll have to climb down the mountian in the dark, no big deal, it's a full moon anyways. It actually was a big deal, I couldn't see much at all. I waited around for a while untill the moon was above me, and then slowly made my way down the path.
The path was easy to follow during the day because of these pieces of orange tape that were attached to trees along the way. Unfortunetly for me, i couldn't see them at night and i stumbled off the path almost immediatly. It was quite dangerous, and at one point i was climbing down a large rock, and i guess i didn't realize that it was really steep untill i was sliding down it way too fast- i saw that when the rock came to an end there was a cliff and a dropoff with darkness and more rocks below. I pretty much knew that if i fell of the cliff i was dead, so i grabbed the sides of the rock i was sliding down to save myself, and i did save myself, which is great, but i ended up breaking my thumbnail in the process. I didn't notice it for a minute because i was so pumped up from nearly dying, then i saw all the blood and felt the fingernail flopping around. it was really awkward because it was too painful to rip off the huge hangnail, so i ended up climbing down the rest of the way, it was intense and scary, took me hours. I remember one moment, walking through the dark, i was confused about where i was standing and realized i was in a big rotten tree. There were lots of huge felled trees, and large rocks, and other dangers, but finally i found a stream of water flowing down, which i followed, and eventually found my way to a type of road that had perhaps been cleared by a bulldozer or something, and i stumbled my way down for a while untill i heard a voice calling my name; it was bronwyn- somehow she knew where i would end up and was waiting for me! it was amazing. I probly met up with her at 11pm, exhausted after my adventure, and very glad she was there waiting. It was quite an awsome adventure, or, spirit quest as i like to call it.
Bronwyn was putting together a type of resume, which summarized her lifes work and stated her objectives involving a tourist center, kindof a pioneer village type thing, and also another thing that would help youth who are having problems in school. This involved putting together a large package full of awards she's won, letters of reccomendation (there were lots of these, including one from the prime minester), and various other information she wanted to include. This took a long time because she needed 6 copies of it, and i put them all in books with clear plastic pages- it was quite alot of work. There was also lots of oppourtunity for me to use my technical support skills- i spent hours trying to fix a problem with the printer, and i finally got it going by turning it off and on again.
It was great because Bronwyn had a camera, so i was able to take a few shots of the area. The landscape is really beautiful around mt. Roland, and i ended up taking 450 pictures while i was there. Lots of boring scenery, especially from high up while climbing, and i also took alot of shots of these cute little animals called Paddymelons, which are small shy marsupials and i would feed them small apple cubes. I went out alot to take photos- sometimes climbing the mountains or just driving around. There are lots of mountains in the area, and i climbed a few different places.
One thing happened that was weird: I came home after a long day of climbing around. It was steep at times, and i had been walking for hours, so i was pretty tired when I got back to the house. I go into the kitchen and i see bronwyn- she hadn't been feeling well for at the time, and had spent the past two days in bed. Bronwyn comes into the kitchen and starts picking things up, asking -" what's this doing here? Who put this here? What's going on here? Something's not right... something's not right..." I noticed something was strange, she was confused why there were flowers and some parsley in water on the windowsill. I started asking her questions: Don't you remember going shopping? You bought the parsley when we went into town on monday, remember? do you remember going to Devenport and returning two television sets? .... she didn't remember any of it, she was asking me what day it was, and she was asking me what happened to her television sets. It was so weird, because the Bronwyn i know is really smart, and now she didn't even remember what happend 2 days before. In fact, she was quite suspicious of me for a little while; I could almost tell by her face that she didn't belive me that we had gone into town to return to the television sets, and that perhaps she suspected me of stealing them. It was kindof scary, because i knew she had lost her memory. I asked her lots of questions, she wasn't too sure of much. She was asking me alot of questions too, but really she was just repeating the same 3 questions, which i would answer and then she would ask me again almost immediatly after: why am i still in my pajamas? What time did you leave this afternoon? What happened to the TVs? Why am i still in my pajamas?.... I realized that i had to call someone, so i looked in her cell phone and called about 10 numbers but noone was answering, or helpful. I knew i could call her son Ross, but she didn't have the number written down anywhere and she couldn't remember it- i guess it's a number she always remembers... she didn't even remember my name, or my mothers name and my mom's a good friend of hers. Finally i called the directory assistance number, and once she was talking to her son she seemed to slowly get better, which was a relif. I ended up hearing about 10 different expressions for 'going crazy', some of which i've never heard before. she said: I must be losing my marbles! I've gone round the bend! I'm off me rocker! (she said that one alot), and i can't remember all the other ones. But yeah, i was so glad she found her way back to reality... maybe it was caused by her fever, or sickness or whatever it was. im not sure... but later that night she made me dinner, and she asked me alot of questions about what happened. The next day we talked still more about what went on while she was in her state of forgetfullness; she didn't remember anything of what happened, it was so weird. She said nothing like that had ever happened to her before.
I guess alot of things have happened since then but i'll write about that stuff later. i can only type so much....
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