With the end of 2012 in sight and surviving the end of the world, as predicted by the Mayans, I write to you full of Christmas turkey after my 3rd Christmas away from friends and family. Sure I love the 40*c heat, BBQ and clay pigeon shooting as per the typical Australian Christmas tradition, but I sure do miss the cold festive homeliness you experience in Guernsey. I do hope to enjoy the next festive season at home with the ones I love and miss every day. Please don't be mislead though, I have had an amazing time here with friends and their family here in Central Queensland, enjoying their amazing albeit different traditions. But as always, with the food neatly stored away for turkey sandwiches and the old wrapping paper thrown in the bin, its time to go back to work, to which my daily routine of 4:30am alarms and hard work starts again tomorrow, sigh.....
Whilst on the subject of work, I now have another new job to go to, so as of the 7th of January I will be in the much larger town of Dalby utilizing my new drivers license, I am now a Road Train driver. Australian Road Trains are the longest trucks in the entire world, with some as long as 85M+ and can weigh over 130 metric tons. With a short visit to Brisbane, I undertook a driving course which brings me up to speed on driving these immense vehicles, and after taking a 2 hour test, I was granted my new license. This new job requires me to deliver clean drinking water to different mining sites around small towns, which if someone like me wasn't able to deliver their water, there wouldn't be any to drink. Unfortunately I was unable to take any photos of my course, so I just pulled this one off the internet, by the truck I will be driving will be very similar to this.
Currently my job is at a feedlot, where my purpose is to prepare the ground and sow seed using various tractors and implements, a task which I have done many times here in Australia, this time though it is on the largest feedlot in Queensland. Feedlots are farms which raise tens of thousands of cattle in smalls paddocks, to which the cattle are grain feed by delivery trucks. There are huge arguments against this practice, but you will find that the majority of meat products you eat come from feedlots such as the one I work on. Infact, Coles (one of Australias largest supermarket chains), buy's over 80% of its beef products from the farm I work on, 80% of Coles meats in the entire of Australia. Don't be fooled though, these cattle are treated extremely well with the utmost respect and dignity. Unlike other farms, you are not allowed to poke/prod/whack a cattle, they are fed the tastiest and cleanest cattle feed, kept in shaded and well maintained pens and supplied with clean food and water continuously through the day, these are the happiest cows you will ever see.
Lucky 13, its nearly 2013 and whether you believe in the lucky or unlucky 13, its a new year for all, with a chance to celebrate what we have achieved and to commiserate what we have lost. But with a new year ahead, who knows where I will end up, and what I will be doing. All I know is that soon, whether for good or for just a short break, I want to return home to see my family and friends, and look forward to my next adventure, what ever and where ever that may be.
Merry Christmas everyone :D
Love Ryan xx
My favorite rifle to go hunting with
New Holland CR970 header, usually used for harvest but have used it a little bit recently
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