After two years of leaving: Working Holiday in Australia (20)

wash roof

Because Xiaonei's first-year Australian working holiday visa will be over by the beginning of May, she has to go back to Taiwan to apply for the second-year working holiday visa before she can come back. In order to save her some money, I took her "stole" in April. "Lucky" to my room and let her save a month's rent. Anyway, my room is bigger than the average double room, and the family on No. 54 welcomes her to live in. Of course, no one will let the charterer know about this. , When the renter came to collect the rent, I told Xiaonei to hide in my room and not come out. Thus began our cohabitation life.

Since the end of March, I have been assigned to work as a crop worker, and I have been transferred to another position every two weeks. Because the shed in Area B is relatively small, it can be cleaned quickly. In mid-April, I was assigned by Dicko to wash the roof with a young Ukrainian leader. Except for the Ukrainian leader, there were 10 people in total. Among them, I met Franky, my Taiwanese friend who was staying in the hotel. The two of them are backpackers, and the others are black workers from Nepal and Malaysia. Yes, legal farms in Australia will also hire black workers, because every year, the farm needs a lot of extra manpower to clear the shed. At this time, the farm will probably hire two Thirty Nepalese and Malaysian black workers, and this group of black workers was brought by a foreman. The farm mainly pays wages through the foreman, not directly to the black workers. I believe that the farm is just like the gray of the law. Take it to save a little money.

On the first day of washing the roof, there was no concept at all. The little leader put on a fluorescent waterproof coat for us, and then divided into two groups of 5 people, and climbed up the two sides of the vaulted roof about 4 meters high with ladders. Then each group has a high-pressure water gun that sprays soapy water. The "water gunner" in the middle is responsible for spraying the water gun to the ceiling. The two people in front of and behind the water gunner each hold a "mopping handle" of an extra-long mop. Move forward and use the super long mop to brush the roof hard, the front mop handle brushes the highest point of the roof to the middle position, then the stains will flow down, and the rear mop handle brushes the middle of the roof to the bottom position to remove all the stains . The remaining two people are responsible for pulling the hose of the water gun to let the water gunner go forward. We are divided into two teams, left and right, walking on both sides of the roof, each team washes half of the roof, since the width of a vaulted roof is about 7 meters, so the central position of the roof is about 3.5 meters away from us, although The extra-long mop was more than two meters long, but we still had to stretch our hands a long way to get to the center of the roof. The posts are all done by everyone in turn. I am most afraid of being the mop handle, because if I were the first mop handle, I would have to stretch the mop to the farthest, my hands would be very sore, and I wouldn’t brush fast enough. And the mop handle will always be pushed up, and if the brush is not clean enough, you will be scolded by the little boss; if you are the mop handle in the back, you are afraid that the water gunner and the mop handle in front will wash too fast, and you won't have time to brush the remaining stains. The best thing is to be the water gunner in the middle , I just press the water gun to spray like crazy, anyway, the stains are brushed by the front and rear two mop handles, which is easy.

Washing the roof of the shed is a hard job. The first difference from working in the greenhouse is that it is a whole day of outdoor work. On a good day, it is exposed to the sun. However, if you don’t wear waterproof clothes, you will be wetted by the sewage from the water gun. After working every day, your whole body will be soaked with sweat.

It was pouring rain for a few days, and it was wet and cold, and my body was so cold that I couldn't stop shaking, and it was very uncomfortable. The passage on the roof is only half a foot wide, which is very difficult to walk. My feet sometimes get stuck in the hose of the water gun, and the water will flow down from the roof, making my shoes and pants wet. Although the farm provides water shoes, water will run into the water shoes from above, which is equivalent to soaking my feet in water all day, which makes me feel more uncomfortable, so I would rather not wear water shoes.

Another time when we were washing the roof, the roof suddenly began to open slowly, and the black workers were so frightened that they screamed. It turned out that the supervisor inside the shed did not know that we were washing the roof, so he opened the roof to cool down the greenhouse. The little boss told us to lean against the roof on the other side and don't move, he went to ask the supervisor to close the roof. At that time, only half of my feet were on the side of the half-foot-wide roof, and the bottom was 4 meters above the ground. It was too dangerous. Fortunately, I did not have a fear of heights. After waiting for about 5 minutes, the roof was finally closed. Foreigners are really so-so when they do things...

The car is scrapped

Eric and I have been working separately since we cleared the shed, because everyone leaves work at different times. If I leave work later, he will take my roommates home first, and then Whatsapp when I get off work, and he will ask him to pick me up; After get off work, I would find other colleagues to take me home by myself. One day, when I got off work, I asked Eric to take me as usual, and he told me that the car was scrapped, what! ? It turns out that when he was taking his roommate home today, he encountered a police car. The police found that our car did not have the right of way (rego) , and then the police asked Eric to park the car and can't drive any more, and also removed the car's license plate. come down! My old swan, our car has only been driven for three months. Although it only cost 1,500 Australian dollars to buy it back, we will not have a car for commuting to get off work in the next two months, and it will cost another two or three thousand Australian dollars to apply for rego. Repairing a car is really not cost-effective. It may be more expensive than buying a second-hand car... For the rest of the day, we can only find other colleagues to take it to and from get off work.

After a while, Eric went to apply for a two-week temporary permit, which allowed us to drive the car for repairs within two weeks. One day off, we drove the car to a garage run by a Chinese, and paid a little money to inspect the car to see how much it would cost to fix it. Twenty minutes later, the boss told us that it would cost 1,600 yuan to repair the car to meet government specifications. I discussed it with Eric and finally decided not to repair it, so I drove the car home and put it outside the back door of the house, and I will look at it later. See how to handle it.

First time to Australia's Sunday market, cinema and KTV

In just over a month, Xiaonei will be leaving Australia and returning to Taiwan for two months. Therefore, every weekend in April, we will go out for a walk and try to spend more time together. In mid-April, Xiao Nei took me to a Sunday market in Camberwell . This market is only open on weekends and is very famous, but I didn't even know it... I can only say that I really want to play. There is no small insider.

This morning, we took the metro to Camberwell, and we came to the Sunday Market after a short walk. Xiao Nei took me to a hot dog stand next to the market, and bought an onion hot dog for breakfast. The hot dog was big and good. eat, and she buys a sandwich. After entering the market, I found that there are many people digging for treasures here, and there are many interesting things for sale here, such as a lot of antiques, strange decorations, old clothes and accessories, even handmade soaps and plants, as long as you are willing to spend some time and Mind, you will find a lot of surprises, and there are many musicians performing instruments here, which is very lively.

Originally, Xiao Nai was going to take me to a very famous restaurant nearby called Sofia , but there was no seat when we went there, because we were too hungry, so we went to eat something else, so we had to eat again next time .

The next weekend, Xiao Nei and I, as well as my friends Xiaobai and A Liang from the farm, went to the city's money box KTV together. The point is very interesting, that is, before entering this KTV, there will be two tall black guards at the reception, checking your bags to make sure you have not brought foreign food and drinks, and showing your passport, I heard before Some people are not allowed to enter because they do not have a passport, which is very strict. I thought that there would not be many KTV Cantonese songs in Australia, but the songs here are all very new, not very different from Hong Kong at all. In terms of price, I remember that it seems to be more than 20 Australian dollars per person. You can sing for two hours and include two drinks. The price is not cheap.

On the last Sunday in April, Kary and Rusty invited Xiaone and I to a movie in the town theatre. This was my first time in a theatre in Australia. Warragul is a small theater. I didn't expect it to show 3D movies. We watched "Iron Man 3 - 3D Edition" , and it also comes with stereo glasses. We watched the morning show, and the fare was $19, which is an hour's wages on our farm.

After watching the results, Xiao Uchi and Kary said that the movie was too three-dimensional, and I felt a little dizzy and uncomfortable, and I don't want to watch 3D movies in the future. And I think the story of the movie is good, a bit romantic, but it can’t keep up without Chinese subtitles, but I don’t regret buying tickets to watch it. In fact, I will buy tickets for most Marvel movies and support them in theaters. I can be regarded as A Marvel fan.

(Irregularly serialized, to be continued...)