Heartbreak Kid

Yesterday me and Boaz drove down the something something peninsula to a beach in Frankston. He picked me up after eleven and we got there around one PM. It wasn't very warm so we ate at Subway, drove up to Portsea and returned to the beach. It was empty. Windy and deserted. The views were nice -- You could actually see the silhouette of the city on the opposite shore. An hour later we decided to go back home.

Now, what follows may shock some readers but the shock will pass before my arse is back in Finland so I don't care. I've been honest so far and there's no reason to stop now.

On our way home, Louise called me from Rochford and asked me what I was doing. My alarms didn't go off immediately since I was surprised to be getting a call from someone not named Sascha, Ana or Helmut (or Boaz). Then she asked me if we could hang out later and I said "sure, I'll call you back". The truth was I'd rather do something fun with Boaz or nothing at all. But we decided that some dinner and a movie at Boaz' house would be good. So we headed there and texted Lou to come there too.

I was exhausted when we got to Boaz' place at around 4:30. When Lou came she practically sat on me to get close to me. I was starting to get scared. Then we watched the movie (National Treasure 2!) and that's when things started to get ugly. She kept playfully poking me and if my hand was anywhere near hers she tried to grab it. I had to place my left hand in places she couldn't reach not to be annoyed by her advances.

If it was me I'd try to find out if the other person is attracted to me before making a physical move like that. I dunno if she's madly in love with me or just really, really bad at reading other people's emotions, probably the latter and I felt harassed by her.

After the movie I had to get a lift home from her. When we arrived at Summit Road she told me that she liked me and I... said nothing. I didn't want to say "I like you too, but"... The fact that I goof around at work and she laughs at my jokes doesn't make her attractive. Nice and likable maybe. But throwing herself at me without any interest in my intentions? Desperate and pathetic.

I got out of the car and went inside feeling tired and, honestly, angry. I felt I had one friend less while I had done nothing wrong. Is it a surprise that I'm not attracted to her? The only mistake I did was say yes when she asked if we'd like to hang out later. But I didn't realize how she felt until after the phone call. And it was too late after that.

I have to add that Ana told me a rumor about Louise and her past as a man-eater, but I don't think it really factored here. I don't believe she likes me "that way" and I actually hope that she doesn't because that would mean I didn't break her heart. Although I would be offended that she thought I'd be that easy. The other option -- that she really likes me -- is just filled with awkwardness, but she might not be working at Rochford that much anyway.

Today at work was nothing spectacular. The whole ordeal had actually made me feel a little homesick overnight and I thought about a lot of people and days back home while doing the wires on Helmut's rows of vines. It was a sunny day and I turned my thoughts from home to planning/daydreaming about my future travels in Australis. Once I got home from work I took my daydreaming to the computer to calculate gas expenses and check rental car, flight and hotel expenses. Here are some of my plans:

1. My mom might come for a one night visit to Melbourne the third weekend from now.

2. This morning (last night for him) my brotherman let me know that he'd made hotel reservations for us in Sydney. I'll be down there from the 22nd until the 30th of November.

3. I'll stay at Rochford through the concert season and might be leaving a week after the the last one (INXS on Feb 6th) on the 15th of February. The rest of February and March would be spent in Tasmania and Sydney. I'd like to go to TAS by sea, drive around and fly to SYD from Hobart. I might work in a bar in Sydney to inflate my budget and maybe even stay with my mom if she comes to work there. *fingers crossed* Plus, I'd have to see Canberra too.

4. April (maybe late March too) would be dedicated to road tripping, Into The Wild style. I'm thinking of getting a Jucy campervan and driving it around the continent to Adelaide, Perth, Broome, possibly Uluru, Darwin and eventually Cairns.

5. In New Zealand I'd rent another Jucy (it's even cheaper there) and drive around the north island. Tonga and Samoa are yet to be planned, but if I run out of Australian money, I'll gladly get by with my Finnish Visa if it comes to that.



...Now, I just have to take it day by day. Tomorrow I work outside. Saturday will be a function. Next Tuesday is Melbourne Cup day -- Melbourne Cup is some kind of horserace -- so I don't know which days I will have off. I have to secure plain tickets for my trip to Sydney and be patient about that. Meanwhile I'll keep on working, watching DVDs, reading and making new friends.

Now go listen to Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker or "George Steinbrenner's" version from the last seasons of Seinfeld.

Hahn Solo

Blog news:

My very important poll for the blogs new language got an incredible 10 votes in three weeks (one was mine). I thought about going into Finnish, but I want to practice my English a little bit more. On the other hand whenever I write in Finnish it's starting to feel like I can't do it anymore. I might do a 180 when I'm halfway through this trip around New Years. Back to the blog...

A weekend at work turned into three days at work quicker than you can say "Haha, very funny Sascha." I wanted to update the blog on Sunday to attract the most readers possible, but it was not to be.

Saturday was pretty awesome. I had a lot of fun working in the bar with Louise again. It did get very busy at one time, but John Farnham fans behaved better than Simply Red fans so the customers were quite nice and almost no one ordered anything special. Something about Lou's joyfulness brought out the crazy in me and I started talking to her in a Russian accent and calling myself Boris (I don't think Australians remember or have seen Borat). "I go make toilet, now" and "I will crush you" were my favorite phrases. We did get a great flood at the bar, but we also got time off during Farnham's set and free pizza to munch on during it. All the waitresses were nice and in a good mood too (except for Ana) and we all had a good time. Although nobody ordered a "Hahn Solo" it felt really good.

Sunday was supposed to be more of the same, but a shorter day. We started by restocking the bar and by taking all the enticingly available wine bottles next to the kitchen to the back. All of a sudden Helmut comes in and tells me to go outside (Yes, I just switched to present tense). I really don't want to go outside, I have my new good looking trousers on and I'm starting to get good at this job plus I really want to work with these people as much as I can. Helmut talks to Sascha and sends me outside.

I was furious. And lost. I went outside and tried to find something to do. But I didn't know, what I was supposed to be doing. Graham didn't know what I was supposed to do. I went back in and came back out. Finally I heard that I was outside, because we didn't have enough people over 18 to sell alcohol at the marquees outside. After a little juggling I got to sell some booze to people, some of whom were pretty intoxicated to begin with.

After my break they closed a couple of stations and I never got back to selling. Instead I had to restock the iceboxes behind the salesmen and collect trash from the numerous port-a-potties. I felt out of place with my black trousers and rubber gloves.

The rest of Sunday was pretty stupid, but time went pretty quickly and I got to work with Tim and Darcy, who are just about the most lovable, smart and funny boys/guys I know. I worked very hard and got a huge splash of water thrown on my pants to show for it. Afterwards I still had to wait for Sascha, so I could go home. Eva, a new German waitress, waited with me too because Sascha had invited her to our place for dinner.

On our way home Sascha told me that I'd have to go back to work on Monday. I thought this was just his stupid jokes, that he could see it from my face that that would be the last thing I'd want to hear. I didn't even acknowledge his comment and just watched out the window. But I had to ask him if he was being serious. Boaz had asked him (hours earlier) if he could get some help for Monday.

Eva stayed for dinner and I had to keep the conversation going in English so that the others wouldn't talk German all the time. She was a very nice, warm person and very German looking. Her English was a lot better than Sascha's or Ana's and I learned that she's from Aachen near Cologne (Koln).

Monday morning I woke early to Boaz's text message but he didn't come pick me up. Instead, over two hours later Sascha took me to work. Boaz gave me a Red Bull and an assignment outside. I set up the whole cafe (Boaz did help me a lot) before going on a break. After the break I helped David, Meg and Boaz inside. Before long though, Helmut called me and told me to go work outside with Richard.

When I found Richard he had enough help so I dragged a couple of empty recycling and trash bins back to the winery and went back inside for a while. One of the three wine tour busses had cancelled though and it was quiet. Richard came in and gave me something to do. So I spent the rest of the day working with Rami's Indian friends who weren't as lazy as Friday's bunch. We changed the concert signs from the past weekend with INXS and a new Blondie/Pretenders sign, we drove all the random pellets lying around an either took them back to the winery or threw them in a pile to burn and we drove around the vineyard looking for and ripping out all the red and white plastic tape we could find. And that was the day.

Boaz gave me a lift home and asked me if I wanted to hang out with him the next day. I agreed and he told me he'd pick me up after work. Right away I headed to Coles to buy some food and on the way I took a detour to VideoEzy where I bought 48 Hrs. on DVD. I also ate some McDonald's because I was hungry and tired. I fell asleep in my room before Sascha and Ana even started to eat dinner.

Yesterday was one of the best days in Australia so far. Sascha slept all morning and I ate some breakfast, read my book outside, washed my linen and black trousers and wathced DVDs in my room. I went to McDonald's again for lunch. Sascha went to pick up Ana and while he was gone, Boaz gave to pick me up. He dropped Rami off at Coles and we went inside to buy some dinner ingredients. Then we drove to Boaz's place.

Once there, I met Boaz's roommate/landlord Made from Indonesia or Bali to be more exact. He was customizing one of his four motorcycles at the moment and he worked as a chef in a restaurant nearby. Inside Boaz gave me the tour and I could sense the comforting feng shui of the apartment. Right next to the front door they had a Dojo where Made meditated and where they both did some martial arts. I don't remember which one... They also had a very nice terrace outside, with lots of room.

We sat down in the living room with Boaz and he asked me about my life in Finland. We talked about basketball (he's a big fan and half-jokingly called footie a "gay sport"), Rochford and the people there. Boaz told me that I'm a humble person and used quite a nice analogy; People are like cans of soda. Some make a lot of noise because they are not full, aka. they don't know stuff but they have to talk to hide the fact. Others are like myself, we don't make a lot of noise, cause we are full; We know what's going on but we don't have to talk shit. We talked about the importance of speaking English as understandably as possible and Boaz told me that my English was exceptional for a foreigner not from an English speaking country. It's safe to say that I like him a lot. He even wants to go play basketball with me.

Then we watched The National Treasure, which was surprisingly good, especially since the premise was a little stupid and ate some dinner with Made. He was a very interesting person and we talked about poverty in South East Asia compared to the Socialist Democratic system in Finland. He was glad that him and Boaz had gotten out of the nothingness of their home countries to a place where they could get paid real money for the same jobs. The conversation also turned to alphabets. He told us that the Bali alphabet actually has a meaning when you put it in order and form words with letters next to each other. It forms a sentence which roughly translates into "There are two warriors. They are both strong and they fight each other. But no one ever wins." Sounds a lot better than "A, B, C..." to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. He also told me that the Bali New Years Day is actually a day of silence. No working, no traveling, no fucking, no loud talking, no eating, no drinking. All they do for one day is read, meditate and think. I want a day like that sometime next summer. No TV, no music, no computers, only sitting and being. I have to practice my meditating skills first :)

We started to watch Gridiron Gang starring The Rock, but were a little too tired so Boaz gave me a lift home. Sascha and Ana were already in their bedroom, but in our living room I found a new resident. A 32 inch TV and a Blu-Ray player.

Today me and Boaz are going to the beach somewhere a 50 minute drive away from here. He's going to pick me up in a couple of minutes and then we're off.

Red Right Hand

It's been over a week since my last update and the time has passed pretty quickly. I'll do a short recap.

On Friday at work me ad Richard painted all the outside tables under the marquee in the rain. It was cold. Boas gave me a ride home and said we should hang out sometime. I have him my number.

On Saturday and Sunday I worked the bar with David, who told me I did a good job. I can't wait to work in the concert on this Saturday. After work on Sunday me and Sascha went to Helmut's house.

On Monday morning I took a shower. I was drying my hair after the shower when my neck stung like a mf'er and I could barely move my head. I stayed home in bed all day.

On Tuesday my neck was a little better and Sascha gave me a lift to the Eastland mall in Ringwood where I spent a lot of hours and some money too. I went to the movies there.

At work on Wednesday me and Richard worked on Helmut's vines all day. The sun was out, I didn't have sunscreen and now I am a Rock Lobster. We had drinks at Helmut's later and he gave a cupboard for me to take back to our place.

Yesterday was more of the same at work, but I had my tomato picking clothes on and didn't get burned anymore. After work we went to Eastland again. Sascha and Ana wanted to buy a TV and I bought the cheapest portable DVD player. 2 DVDs and a sweatshirt.

Some details. Working with Richard has been a lot of fun. He's a fun, interesting guy and he tells some dirty jokes. It's awesome whether it's raining or the sun is burning hot.

After work on Sunday I was very tired thanks to not sleeping well all week and didn't feel like going to Helmut's. If Sascha bad asked me how I was one more time I would've screamed. But when I saw the hospitable host who offered me a wink and a coke I felt so much better.

We sat outside and took in the incredible views (and our drinks) of Yarra Valley before Helmut's wife, Nicky, and youngest child five month old Isabella aka Littlefoot arrived. We moved inside and continued talking. We talked about the restaurant, Sascha told about his past in the restaurant business and then they grilled me on the subject of Australian women trying to find me one. Honestly, I'd love to find some good friends but I an not looking for anything more in Australian relationship.

Monday was one of the worst days of 2010. I haven't been in that pain since dislocating my collarbone when falling of a skateboard in 2002. I could barely turn my head and couldn't bend it backwards at all. I mostly just laid there either watching DVDs on my side or sleeping on my back. Usually I don't sleep on my back because... Well, have YOU ever woken up to the sound of your own snoring? So, the DVDs aside, Monday was a crappy day.

I felt better on Tuesday. At the mall I bought straight black pants to wear behind the bar as well as some socks, S4 of How I Met Your Mother (which didn't work in Sascha's European DVD player) and food. I took the train back and Sascha was already at the Lillydale station waiting for Ana.

Wendesday was back to work. We worked on Helmut's vines all-day long and I didn't have any sunscreen because I was stupid. It was nice to get the cupboard and after a trip to Coles with Sascha I arranged most of my stuff into it. My room looked good.

After Thursday's shopping it looked even better and now I should be properly entertained on rainy off-days and evenings after work. I've also decided not to get a laptop, because I don't need one here. I'll get a proper one with ä, ö, å, < and > when I get back to Finland. That $600 dollars now goes to traveling expenses and shopping at the end of my trip.

Today we set up the fences for the concert tomorrow. It was another warm day and we have to wear these bloody glow-in-the-dark vests so it's really warm. It's going to be a loong summer I reckon.

See yous guys later. Bye!

9 To 5

How are you going?

I'm going pretty good. On Tuesday, our second day off, me and Sascha finally got our asses out of the apartment on time and went shopping in the city. We parked underneath the exhibition center and walked from there. It was a lot warmer than two weeks ago.

We didn't have a map and I was surprised when we arrives at the big JB Hifi from the opposite direction and sooner than I had anticipated. I bought seasons 3 and 4 of The Wire, while Sascha looked for a boom box with an iPod dock. Unfortunately the only box with enough boom bass cost $500.

Then we headed for lunch. There are a lot of small alleys near Flinders St. Station and there are a lot of nice restaurants on those alleys. The atmosphere was New Yorkian and we settled on a Italianish place. I had a pizza with chorizzo and Sascha ate a Turkey risotto, which he praised.

Before going to pick up Ana I also bought a couple of magazines in case I have to kill more time at work waiting for Sascha. Lastly we stopped by a JayJay's where I bought my first two t-shirts of the trip and some Sesame Street underwear as well.

We had a goo time with Sascha, I got almost everything I wanted -- I still need some jeans but $80 nor skin tight are not the way to go -- and that, my friends, was Tuesday. A pizza (Dr. Oetker!) and an episode of episode of The Wire later I was in bed.

I woke up the next night at 4 AM for seemingly no reason and couldn't sleep for two hours. I was pretty tired when I got to work but it was okay after I got going. We were going to lay a new slab of concrete with Richard but it started raining before we even finished the frame so it was off to other stuff. I got to re-paint several used blackboards, which kept me busy for most of the day, and I also got to use a pressure washer -- I think Richard called it a gurney or something. Then I waited for Sascha reading one of my magazines before heading home.

At dinner we got to talking and we had a good time even though the guys tried to get me to drink some Fortified Cabernet. A 20% red wine? No way can I drink that! Instead I chugged down some newly bought lemon and lime Solo which actually tastes almost exactly like the green lime Jaffa in Finland.

I woke again in the middle of the night but I wasn't awake for too long. Today we finally got the concrete done. Richard had finished the frame and while he called the concrete people I topped of the frame by laying some discarded wire fence to keep the fortified concrete together.

When the stuff arrived we used shovels, pieces of timber and flat surfaced tools to level the stuff into the frame. Richard finished the edges with a special tool. At lunch he asked me if I'd ever done that before and he said that I'd done it very well. It was my first time and it was actually a lot of fun. It felt rewarding and it'll feel better tomorrow when it's actually hard.

After lunch we put up a sign for the INXS concert on the side of the Maroondah Highway. I also got to drive for the first time -- it was a pick-up or a "yute"? with manual transmission but changing gears with the left hand isn't that difficult. Then I helped John rearrange the drink stocks to get the new shipment in the back and the old stuff to the front and our last order of business was poisoning some snails on the wines. Sascha had to work a function which ends at nine so Richard gave me a lift. I stopped by at McDonald's for my dinner and watched one more episode of The Wire before updating my blog.

Then I pressed send.

Simply (just) Red - My First 'Day on The Green'

With a concert looming, a lot of people were working very hard, myself included. On Friday Ana joined me and Sascha and came to work at Rochford after working four days at her own job. I didn't get to see either very much that day as I was busy working with Richard and a couple of others, putting up fences on the green in front of the stage and all around the winery as well as other manly stuff. It wasn't a long day but I continued working outside on Saturday morning so the days are a little muddled in my head.

I got off work at around 5:30 PM, but ended up waiting for Sascha to do some paperwork until at least sundown (somewhere closer to 8 o'clock). We had McDonald's for our late dinner.

On Saturday the three of us were on the move very early and I was feeling very tired, mostly because of the physical nature of the work I had been doing. We set up some takeaway food and wine marquees (large tents) before getting to eat a staff breakfast. Even though it was a concert day with the gates opening at around 2 PM there were a lot of wine tour customers around noon which employed the wine tasting people as well as the waiters, the chefs and the bartenders.

After tying some bricks to protect the marquees from flying away and putting up some signs I was able to escape the outside work and get behind the bar. I was working with Louise and we were in charge of the bar. The bar fridges had been emptied of our normal stock and re-filled with our concert stock. I ended up pouring soft drinks, cold beers, many, many glasses of wine and to mix some drinks. We started around 1:30 and almost just like that the sun had gone down and Simply Red was on stage. We closed the alcohol service and I moved to my speciality, polishing glasses.

Serving drinks was a lot of fun and we worked really well together with Lou. I did most of the walking stuff while she had to do all of the coffees and handle the money orders (ie. the spirits since all wines, beers and soft drinks were included in the ticket prices). Sometimes I was alone at the bar and did quite well even getting a $20 tip from a very nice young lawyer. There were, of course, some mistakes but things were so well prepared and the selection of drinks was so narrow that I was able to handle most of it. I had fun.

The night lasted until midnight before we got to leave, which everybody was actually surprised by. I talked to Helmut as we were fetching all the rubbish bins and he seemed satisfied with how things had gone and how hard people had worked. He also said that me, Sascha and Ana were invited to his house after work next Sunday.

Sunday morning I got to sleep a little later and even had time to take a shower. Again I was working at the bar, this time with Bree or Brianna. Before the tour busses arrived we were doing really well, but then we started running out of clean glasses and getting buried in coffee orders. I handled most of the alcohol and soft drink orders (I'm glad that I got that RSA) but the extended selection had me searching for wines at times when I could've been washing the glasses and helping Bree out. In the end we survived but the last hour and more was a joint effort of polishing glasses. While polishing, I talked to couple of the waitresses, Sasha and Taylor, and both were really nice and asked a lot of questions, a deed I still need to learn to return. But the conversations were still nice and went into surprising directions as good conversations always do.

When we finally got rid of the last group after five and after Tim, Taylor and I cleaned the bar I still had to wait for Sascha. I surfed the Internet until my battery died, made some coffees and just sat there. I couldn't wait to get home for my days off and to finish watching the second season of The Wire that I had been watching an episode a day on average. We stopped by the store and ate delicious pasta bolognese at around midnight. Sascha is a great cook and we also arrived on a solution on how to spit the food expenses. I finished the magnificent DVD set and got some valuable shut eye.

Today I have washed my linen, read some of my Hitchiker's book and just sat in the 21 degree afternoon sun. I burned my arms a little but I applied Aloe Vera while watching Ridley Scott's Robin Hood on Sascha's portable DVD player. In between I also had a really good chat with Sascha with him doing most of the talking about my life. A very nice day. Tomorrow we're going to the city and I want to buy some new magazines (in case my battery fails me at work again), season three of The Wire, new pants and maybe some shirts and socks so I don't have to do laundry too often.

After tomorrow it's back to work on the vineyard and I can't wait till the next 'Days on The Green' two weeks from now. John Farnham even has a very good song on my iPhone (You're The Voice, check it out) so the music can't be too bad.

Until next time, no worries.

Earned It Through the Grapevine

It's all very new and I'm still settling in at Rochford Wines and at home. On the weekends I work in the restaurant, Mondays and Tuesdays are off-days and Wednesday to Friday I'm doing all kinds of stuff around the vineyard. What kind of stuff? Well, since the concert season is just starting I've been some stuff to prepare for that. Also the vines are starting have leaves on them and soon the grapes will grow.

For the concerts they're building a big stage and a mixing stand. There's a backstage area that consists of containers -- the kind you find on construction sites. There are fences going around the backstage area and the whole venue. The building, moving and setting up of these things has been outsourced so I don't get to do that. But the backstage area had to be furnished. That's where I and Alex come in. We have been moving sofas, chairs, coffee tables, lamps, clothes racks and rugs from various places to the backstage containers. We had to get all this stuff from different places -- Alex's house, the "conference room", Helmut's place and the restaurant -- and drive it to the backstage area.

Besides that I've lent my helping hand to the bar taking out the trash when I have the time and to at the warehouse where I cleared all the empty cardboard and moved around pellets of drinks. John runs the Cellar Door aka. the wine tasting area and gave me this assignment. And finally I've been working with Richard. He's some kind of handyman. He does everything. We have been repairing fences, clearing out burnt, dead trees, filling up potholes and that sort of stuff. Nothing too hard and I've even had to chance to use some powerful machinery. Richard is an Aussie from Albury, NSW and he is pretty cool. He smokes a pipe during breaks and he has an aura of calmness about him.

So, that's what I do and I will do a lot of other stuff. ANYWAY, I got a contract today. I have to sign it and bring it back to work. It's a full-time contract for six months, with one week's termination notice on both side. I have a "base" salary by the year and every fortnight (that's two weeks, Einstein) I get paid one 26th of that. I'm obliged to work the concert days and public holidays. Overtime is included in my pay. But I might get bonuses! Doubt it though... Oh, and my title: Wait Staff and Vineyard assistant. What it doesn't say is that every week I get to take home one bottle of wine -- I've tasted three different wines and I've liked one, a late pick 2010 Chardonnay.

Ok, if you didn't get that all you have to know is that every two weeks of work my bank account fattens by about $900 after expenses. Approximately. And it also means that I'm going to get to have a week of and meet my brother in Sydney at the end of November. My plan is to stay at Rochford somewhere into February even though I have the option of working until the end of March.

In closing I want to tell about some wasted time at work. Yesterday, I was supposed to help Alex move the furniture. I ended up watching a black and white Gladiator movie for 60 minutes. Today, while repairing some wire fences Richard's car's transmission got stuck in P while we got stuck in S (rhymes with nitwit). Watching movies? I don't get paid. Acting like tilting your head and looking at car parts is helping? Get paid.

Simply Red on Saturday so don't fret if I don't blog until next week. I'll try to make Twitter or Facebook updates if I get the chance, but it's going to be pretty busy.

Episode IV: A New Home

So...

I have to admit that I have had some emotional issues regarding home-sickness, my latest relationship and money. I can't promise that it's all behind me. There will be some shitty days. But I have no reason to complain and nothing to regret. Why? Well follow me and I'll recapture how I've settled into a new life and home on my two days off from work.

Yesterday morning I woke up at Alex's very tired. I took a shower, ate some breakfast, got my bags ready and went outside to play with the dogs. Sascha, my new German roommate, was coming to pick me up after eleven. So I waited. I must have thrown the drool covered ball more than a hundred times before I got bored of watching Hazel jumping for it. So I waited. And I waited. It was already over 1 PM so I decided to exploit one of the rules of the universe. You know if you are waiting something to happen, it rarely does. And when you least expect it, the universe gives you what you wanted. So I watched an episode of The Wire (I bought Season 2 on DVD from Melbourne, a gamble that paid off, twice). With less than 10 minutes left, Sascha came. He did have some business to attend to at the company but after that we took one of Alex's extra beds -- Sascha called it a "prison bed" -- and a mattress and loaded them into Sascha Pajero with my backpacks. Then we drove to Lillydale and left the stuff there, in my home to be. Right away we took off, cause we had to get Ana from the train station and head to IKEA to get some new furniture. Going to IKEA was not only for my sake even though my room was empty if not for the bed parts and the mattress. No, Ana and Sascha also needed furniture caused they moved in only 10 days before I came. So they fought over which couch they should buy for a long time as marveled at the weird sense that IKEA is really close to home. I have a lot of the same stuff in storage that they sold here. Globalization...

I wasn't part of the selection process but Sascha and Ana got themselves a new couch and some little stuff and I got new dark blue linen for my bed, a pillow and a cover. Very nice. We filled the car up and got the stuff home.

After loading up the car and setting up the bed I started settling in. Then I was welcomed into their lives with a glass of white wine -- Shiraz, I think. We ate some dinner and I retreated to my room where I got more payoff for my DVD gamble with my hosts portable DVD player. Now I don't have to buy a laptop or a portable DVD player until I leave here.

For our second day off we went to a shopping mall in the city. It was the South Bank shopping mall in a new unreasonably expensive part of the city. In the end I just followed Sasha around as he bought some nice new clothes that I'd never dream of buying. It was a higher end shopping mall, but there were the exact shops I like -- JayJay's and JB HIFI -- so I will be going back there when I get money. After that we picked up Ana from her job -- she's a dental hygienist, besides sometimes waiting tables at Rochford -- where she's been having a moral dilemma because her co-workers have been lazy and not doing their job properly. But she might be getting another job closer to home. A long drive later we got back home.

How good do I have it? I get payed every fortnight (that's two weeks) and my rent and expenses will be deducted on pay day so I don't have to worry about money. I will have three paydays before my brother comes to Sydney and I have to actually spend some money. Sascha and I go to and back from work together. The only minus might be that he has longer days so I might have to hang out in the staff room after work.

But who are these people, my new family? I got to talk a lot to Sascha these two days and I learned that he used to be a chef and then he moved into the hotel business. He did apprenticeships all around Asia -- Bangkok, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur. Then he traveled around the world on a boat enjoying it. Back in Hamburg he was in charge of one of the best hotel restaurants in the world. Then he started his own business, a restaurant consulting company. He still has it but he came to Australia on a working holiday with Ana. Rochford Wines came along and they stayed. But they're not staying here forever. Ana is getting work experience while Sascha is the restaurant manager to keep himself busy. He has his company to go back to when they leave.

I don't know that much about Ana. She's born in Poland but her family moved to Germany, where he and Sascha met. But I can say that they've welcomed me to their life. They are very, very nice people and they've given me valuable advice on backpacking in Australia. I'm very fortunate and even though I feel a little guilty of how good I have it compared to someone in, say, Proserpine, I am going to take advantage of the situation.

So, 2010 will be a nice year and I'm going to make some money this month with 4 special weekend events starting with a Simply Red concert this Saturday. I'm going to save money for 3 - 4 months and then do some traveling without too much hassles looking for jobs. But nothing's set in stone. All I know is now I'm here and in no hurry to go anywhere. Summer's coming. I'm happy.

High note.

Feeling Good

A lot has happened in three days. On Friday morning I took all of my stuff, checked out of the hostel at 6:00 am and met Andrew from Rochford Wines. The drive was nice and we talked about football (Aussie) and Melbourne among other things. Andrew is in charge of pruning the grapes and I haven't seen him since he dropped me off - he probably only worked on Friday anyway and the grapes are not growing quite just yet.

At the vineyard I took my stuff into Helmut's, my boss and contact, office and met Alex. Alex and his wife Elizabeth - both Romanian originally - live on the farm and they're in charge of cleaning the restaurant among other things. They also accommodate a lot of new workers and I'm one of the lucky ones for this weekend.

Then I met Helmut and while I was under the assumption that we were going to talk about my job, he instructed me to grab myself a pair of rubber boots and tools and go to work. So I did. During the first day I compressed some dirt under a pipe, leveled out the ground where the open pipe had been, dug a hole in the road to find a burst in that same pipe and helped level a new access road to a forthcoming mixer's stand. I also felt a little lost in between since I didn't really know who I should be taking my orders from. I also met Sacha from Germany and he told me that I would be moving in with him and his girlfriend Ana as soon as they could prepare a room for me. It's as if they WANTED me to live them before they even met me. It's safe to say that Sacha is probably my favorite person here.

The vineyard is pretty big. It consists of some actually vineyards, most of them with white grapes assume. There's the main building which has the "cellar door" aka. the tasting restaurant at the front, after that is the restaurant with gourmet food and fine wine, naturally and next to the restaurant behind the bar and partly outside is the café. Next to that are some offices like Helmut's. From the café you can see the large field which already has a huge stage on it for concert season. Next Saturday's performer will be Simply Red.

After my first day Helmut told me that I would working under Sacha, who manages the restaurant, for the weekend and that I would work the same days as him from now since I'm going to be living with him. So my days off are Monday and Tuesday and the others I work. After work I took my stuff into Alex's car and got a lift to his house in the middle of the vineyard almost a "stone's throw" away from the main buildings. There I was welcomed by Elizabeth and her cooking which smelled almost as good as my grandma Pirkko-Mummi's, and two lovely dogs. Hazel is the young, active female who loves chasing and catching her tennis ball in mid air. She can jump the height of a car when she does this. The other dog is an older male and he likes to try to steal Hazel's ball since he can't catch it with speed.

So while Alex and Elizabeth went to work, I ate some food, watched some telly and fell asleep early.

On Saturday, after some breakfast of champions (pictured), I reported to work at 10 AM and Sacha pointed me to the bar where David in charge of the bar gave me a crash course in all the things around there.  I mostly washed the dishes and polished the glasses at first. I also filled some water bottles and recycled a whole bunch of empty bottles. The term juoksupoika comes to mind. Errand boy?

So the day went along and I got some new stuff to do either selling fudge, - not packing fudge, selling! - getting more ice for the restaurant and so on. I had no idea how long I was going to be working and I felt a little tired most of the way. After the restaurant closed at five we kept on working cause the vineyard was reserved for a function. We washed and polished every dirty glass, fork, knife and spoon. We rearranged all the tables in the restaurant and set them all up really nicely. I took control of getting all the chairs in place since there weren't enough restaurant chairs for everyone. When it was all set somewhere around 6 PM we got a break and I finally got to eat something. 15 minutes later I was outside telling cars to drive to the main entrance for the red carpet instead of stopping at the back door at the café and the concert field while the sun set. I got to breathe a little while when the cars stopped flowing in and after an hour I headed back in.

8 PM. 9 PM. 10 PM. The day just went on and on. The function was going to continue until midnight. A lot of polished cutlery and glasses later and after setting the tables again for breakfast, we got off work. After 16 hours of work.

The end of the evening was actually quite fun. Ar around 11 there were a lot of us polishing the glasses at the Cellar Door and we had some fun just talking. One of the girl waitresses is a special ed teacher, another one, Kelly, turned 26 at midnight and Tim and Darcy, two younger fellas were quite a funny pair. Tim actually does a spot on German accented Sacha, sometimes to his face and incredible good. "Yes sacha, I vill do anysing for you!"

In the dark I walked back to Alex's who spent the whole night cleaning the restaurant. Today I woke up, had some French toast (not nearly as good as grandma's) and went back to work. I even delivered some drinks today! And wouldn't you know it, six hours went by in a breeze. I sold a lot of fudge today and many customers asked me where I was from, because of my accent. 

Today I had to admit to myself that I really do have an accent. If I was to make a speech in English, I'd probably be able to do a good job but talking quickly I pronounce a lot of stuff badly and forget words when talking quickly. It also seems that I don't talk quite loud enough and I mumble the beginnings of my sentences. I should probably start saying "You know" or something like that when I start talking. Then again a lot of foreigners here use a much more broken version of English so I guess it's not too bad. I've also gotten a lot of compliments on my skills from foreigners but I gotta work on my Strine.

Speaking of broken English, I also met my other new flatmate, Ana, today. She was very nice and she gave me a lot of tips and nuances of the fudge selling and presentating business. We also talked about house rules (no insects, or the neighbor's cats inside the house) and working holiday backpacking.

After work I was greeted by some enthusiastic dogs and a meaty dinner. Alex and I took a drive to see Helmut's new farm -- check out the view -- where he was still working, driving a tractor between the rows with his glasses hanging at the edge of his nose for dear life.

Tomorrow morning Sacha will come get me and we might go to IKEA together and I will be moving to a spare room on their new home. I have no idea where it is or how much I have to pay rent. All I know is that they don't have a TV but they do have a portable DVD player. I'm excited. I'm...

Feeling Good.