Caravan Man

So I have been in my new job now for over a week and a half, and it started off great!  My job is basically to drive my truck around farms following guidance from my GPS to spread chemical fertilizer evenly.  Its good fun, I am a lot more engaged in my work than when I was driving harvesters as my truck has 12 gears which I need to flick between a lot, and I have to concentrate quite hard in the direction I am going.  The job is also a lot more fast paced than harvesting, where in my header I was doing a max of 15kph, I am now racing around paddocks at speeds over 40kph.  Robbie, my new boss, is quite a decent bloke and his number one rule is to work as hard and as fast as possible, so speed is good, until something breaks.  I started on Thursday (20th) and worked through to Monday, but near the end of Monday I went over a large mound which was hidden which made me and my fully laden truck (18+ tonnes) bounce pretty dam hard, nearly taking off, which when I landed broke one of the leaf springs in my truck.  So I have spent the rest of the week waiting for it to be fixed, not fun.  Robbie has since realised he needs to spend a bit more than 1 hour teaching me how to drive the truck and how to gauge terrain.

This week has been very very boring.  I came to Esperance with only $100, and all that money has gone towards food.  Unfortunately for me the only two things to do in this town which is going to the pub or the cinema, I havn't been able to do.  Although they do have a Blockbuster, and I managed to rent 10 dvds for $10.  Dvds, cleaning cars n trucks, sitting on the beach and swimming, sleeping and re-reading magazines is what I have been doing for the past 6 days.  Thankfully I get paid on Tuesday, for the 4ish days of work I have done.

My lastest video blog, I show you around my caravan and a couple pics of the beaches.

So I am all settled in now and i'm going to be here for the next few months until the start of May.  Esperance is similar to Guernsey in a couple of good ways, one of my favourites is that everything felt familiar when I came back here, I know where everything is and how to get there.  Also being near the coast all the time is quite nice too.

Australia day was fun, the town had a fete with stalls and a classic car show, felt very very Guernsey, except with all the aussie flags.  Was fun to walk around and check out all the things they had on, not a lot, but was worth checking out.  The traditional thing to do on Aussie day is to get really drunk, but with not having any money, the best I could do was buy a $4 bottle of wine and enjoy a steak dinner back in my caravan, how depressing lol.

Anyway, I am starting truck lessons and start work again on Monday (yay!), so my next blog wont be for a week or two.

PS, I hope your enjoying the cold, the other day it reached 42*C, so I spent the day on the beach and went for a swim :D IN JANUARY!!

Ladies choir, singing some Aussie stuffs

An old bore pump

Doesnt this just remind you of Sausmarez Manor, but look how happy the driver is!!

Surfing fails & Liver damage

I spent the majority of the past week and a half out drinking and partying in Perth, I'll blame that on Karel, it all started when he got here.  Its been fun hanging out with Karel, pretty sound guy and we get on real well. He's came to Perth for a week before his Dad came over to take him home, so we spent the week out in the evening and hiding from sunlight during the day.  There was one awesome little pub near the hostel we always started in, has a really great deck and good cocktails, see picture below.  Anyway, Karel has gone back now, and I am writing this blog on the bus back to Esperance where I am starting my new job.

SURFING ROCKS!!!  I am so glad that I went and did the surfing course as it was so much fun, even though i'm not all that good.  Figuring that being in Australia, it would be a crime to not learn how to surf, so I went on a 2 day surfing course at Lancelin Beach.  It was well organised, they picked me up at a bus station near my hostel and took care of everything.  Started Saturday, and had to get the bus at 6:30 in the morning, which as my phone decided to play up and not make any noise when the alarm went off, I had to run!  Met everyone who did the course with me, there was about 10 of us and the instructor.  Once we got to Lancelin YHA hostel and dropped our bags off, it was straight to the beach, don't I just look great in a wet suit....................

They started off showing how to get up on the board, and made us do it over and over again to make sure that it stuck, which for me it didn't.  Basically it goes, jump and lay on board, climb to your knees, then up to your feet, it took me and thankfully everyone else the majority of the first day to be able to balance on our knees.  Unfortunately, I chose to wear a shortie wet suit, which is basically like wearing shorts and a t-shirt, doesn't cover most of your arms and legs.  Although I applied sun cream 3 times on the first day, I still got a real bad sunburn on my legs.  That night, we all went and made a huge bowl of punch, which was very very tasty, then we went out for drinks at the local tavern.  Everyone went to bed about 10pm as everyone caught the sun and were so tired.  On the second day of surfing, I did a lot better, I can even ride an entire wave standing up, what an awesome feeling.  Although I do still fall off, a lot :D

A lot of Perth's buildings are illuminated by coloured lights and looks awesome!

Me helping Simo (the instructor) with the BBQ, surfs up dood!

Pineapple Sue

 Off to Perth I go :D So glad to be out of Esperance!  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a great time here, it’s just once you’ve been to the cinema, drank in the 2 pubs here and walked along the beach, there really is NOTHING else to do…..

So Amberland was fun, well, the first few days were.  Spending the entire day standing around in the hot sun spraying kids with hoses, it was OK.  The inflateable slides are awesome fun though, they are massive and people of all ages can go on them.  Remember me telling you about me spending a lot of Christmas working on it and setting it up, half the time on my own? Well, one fine day a women starts working at Amberland named Sue, a mid 50’s aussie women who has as much personality as a pineapple.  Without introduction, she comes over to me and demands I put down the hose stop spraying the kids and move one of the slides, to which I offered to stick said hose into one of her orifices.  I was a little hot that day, and a bit hungover.  After calling Kevin, I found out she was meant to be the general manager, so I decided to try and be nice and work with her.  It lasted about 45 mins, then I just quit, I’m here on holiday, I don’t need to put up with 50yr old pineapple.

New years was ok, one of the pubs in Esperance called 'The Pier' also has a mini club attached to it, really impressed for a town of 1,500 population!  Although it had absolutely nothing on the sound and lighting of MMX, damthat was a fun day.  Anyway, so I pitched an idea that I thought was amazing but Kevin n Simone didnt take to it.  Stick a bar and some speakers in Amberland and open it up over new years eve, that would have been amazing!!!  Anyway, I had a pretty good new years, including a couple of drunken phone calls to Claire, lol! I love you, you put up with my crap :p Lets just say I started 2011 with a pretty decent hangover.

Anyway, so after quitting, I spent the past few days not doing a lot and being very bored.  So I’ve decided that I’m going to Perth for the remainder of my break before I start my next job.  So currently I am writing this blog entry on the 10hr bus ride to Perth, it’s all good though, had a little nap as I have 2 seats to myself.

Update on the new job, so I cant remember if I told you what I am doing yet, but I start work on the 20^th.  My new home for the next 4 months while I am working for Robbie (my new boss) will be in my own caravan, in Esperance, boy do I love Esperance.  He has requested that I get my truck license while in Perth, apparently it only takes 4-5 days to get it.  This truck license means I should be able to drive a truck and trailer up to 15t, good news is I will be able to transfer it to Guernsey when I get back, might be useful.

Not only will I be getting my truck license, on the 15^th I am going to a surf camp for 4 days to learn to surf.  Excited, really want to surf, looks so much fun.  Its quite cheap too, and includes accommodation, food, equipment rental, buses and 20hours of instruction in a 5 person group.  Going to be great, hopefully will get some awesome pictures, probably of me falling off, a lot!

I forgot to add things I learnt in my last few posts, silly me:

• Aboriginals in Australia have different laws and different courts to white people
• Drink enough Water and it cures tiredness, hunger and thirst.  Its magical!
• Even Australians hate Oprah
• Goon bags are useful drinks, you can use them as pillows too 

Unfortunately I don't really have any photos to upload, sorry.  But I'll make sure I have some to upload next time.

Ryan x