A Grand Daylesford Out

Today I wore my Star Wars T-Shirt and went with Simon and Atty to Daylesford, which is famous for having springs and spas and such...

...See

See, it's a market.

We first went to the market, which was a market. You know what markets are so I'll skip most of the details, but it did take place near an old railway station that was still (sort of) operational.

It has a tourist train that runs on Sundays, that means it is operational.

There was an odd moment when a woman behind a stall asked 'The question is, 'have you seen Starship Troopers?'' to which I replied 'Yes?', to which she responded, 'It's a great film' to which I agreed, 'I know'.

Although I would say it's a little far fetched, I mean, Denise Richards being an actress? That's absurd!

Cool name.

After walking around in the hot sun, Simon bought stuff and I bought none. Atty got some dirt cheap books and we went off to grab some lunch before heading to the lake to eat it. (I had trout and chips, good stuff)

Of course eating fish and chips by a lake does come with problems, namely,

these three.

And this guy looks like he lost a fight with a red candle.

Nothing a little 'move your foot towards them to keep them at bay' couldn't handle. 

Afterwards Simon wanted to look in a bookshop and I decided to have a gander around the lake.

Gander... see, because of all the geese!

A ginger beer from the region

After a ginger beer from the region we went back to Poverty Peak and I updated my blog and that's about it really. I'll look for a job tomorrow, probably.

No Income Blues

So there is no foreseeable light illuminating a possible fruit picking job here in Victoria. Shame really, because I could really do with some money before moving on... Hang on? What if I move onto Tasmania, do some WWOOFing and then worry... no, that's dumb, there's even less work in Tasmania than here... OK, I'll stick it out here for one more week, something has to be available by then! Of course I would have already got a job if I had a car, but cars are so expensive over here (like everything else) and if I don't have a job by next week I'll... um... wait another week!

Just to prove I'm not kidding about the dire fruit picking situation, look at this...

Click for bigger

You may have noticed the second and third 'jobs' are actually warnings to people thinking of applying to work on certain farms and the rest of the 'ads' are a mix of people looking for work, a very dubious agency ad (that upon inspection requires me to pay them to find me a job they claim to have already found) and a job that's already full (I asked) plus a permanent job milking cows. I wonder if any of the people advertising themselves got any replies...? Might be worth trying if those liars at the Harvest Guide keep up their 'we'll have plenty of jobs soon, just call back tomorrow' line they've been throwing out for the past three weeks.

Update:
I decided to post an ad on Gumtree...

Better than the desperate sounding ads that are usually posted. If this doesn't get any response then I may resort to 'desperate sounding ads' with phrases such as 'I am a hard worker and will work long hours and will not get annoyed if payment is late and promise to do whatever you say, just give me a job please please please please please please please please please please please please please!'

Job Hunting and the French Girl

Another WWOOFer has arrived at Simon's place, a French girl by the name of Atty (spelling probably incorrect). She's only here for about a week and if this guy calls back tomorrow morning like he said he will then I may be out of here on the weekend and on my way (8 hours away) to Mildura. But that's still very much a maybe and the Harvest Guide is about as useful as a chocolate teapot as I need a car to get to the places that have jobs.

And I can't even afford this!

So there are 4 WWOOFers here at the moment, but NotJohn is leaving tomorrow so we will soon be 3. Plus it's Australia Day tomorrow, so, yeah... Go Australia, I guess?

Something to do with the First fleet, or something?

Yabbies and the Frenchman

A new WWOOFer has arrived at Poverty Peak, Chris, a Frenchman from Strasbourg. Nice guy, he actually did some WWOOFing with NotJohn before now which is kind of interesting.

I should have previously mentioned that for the past three nights we here near Gordon have been fishing for Yabbies. Yabbies are basically Crayfish that live in fresh water, like the fresh water at the dam near the windmills! Sadly the net produced nothing at all for the first two nights but on the third (tonight) the net managed to capture five of the little pinchers! One was a female with a clutch of eggs and another was a tiny little thing so they were dropped back into the dam. The other three were dropped into a pot of boiling water and shared between us WWOOFers. They’re nice, not much in the way of flavour, but still nice for a free treat.

They look something like this, before you boil and eat them.

Ballarat

Written 23/01/12

Me and Not John have been making pretty good progress on the fence and now it's Sunday, which means a day of rest! Simon was off to Ballarat to pick up some stuff so Not John and I joined him and got dropped off in the centre of the once thriving gold rush town.

That's quite the town hall you've got there.

It’s not really thriving now but it has retained some very interesting architecture and the large scale of the place is testament to the gold rush past it was once host to.

I walked around for a couple of hours, right up towards the gardens but time was a factor so I only got as far as Lake Wendouree near the City Oval. The lake is huge, larger than the main city centre of Ballarat and a few rowers were out on the placid waters.

Also fluffy cygnets, not little tiny ones, more like teenage ones.

Being a Sunday the town was quiet. Many of the shops were closed but a small row of cafes along Sturt Street were pretty full but the shops that had bothered to open were empty, clearly the customers had better things to do in the 30 something degree heat.

Imagine living here? I.... I don't think I can....

Churches, churches everywhere!

Another historical building for sale

Such a fancy train station

Want to know what is written on those boarded doors?

Sadness, that's what is written there.

The route back to Poverty Lane took us past Eureka, a place that was host to a bit of a revolution by a bunch of gold miners against the government because of leases or something. Nowadays the ‘Eureka spirit’ is used by politicians to try and adhere to humans that aren't politicians. I’m sorry, that last line suggested that politicians are human.

So that was Ballarat, nice place.

Introducing John (Not His Real Name)

Written 19/01/12

Today I shifted some more logs and did a bit of weeding and collected some sawdust yadda yadda yadda. I also met John, who was picked up at the train station by Simon this evening. He’s Korean (as I previously mentioned, he's from the Korea where everybody isn't starving and pretending to mourn the death of a rubbish leader) and seems like a nice guy. He’s a fair bit older than me, about 20 years older, but that just makes WWOOFing seem like an even greater idea as I would never have met somebody like Not John if I hadn't done this WWOOFing thing.

Tomorrow we will probably be able to get on and build up that fence as it had always been a high priority job, but with Simon at work and me on my own it has been left as a mere pile of materials waiting to be transformed into a useful structure. Fortunately the wood shifting is done, leaving enough clearance to get the insurance guys to get some other guys to repair/replace the fence that the felled tree did such a brilliant job of destroying. So no more pictures of me in overly masculine poses. Sorry girls (and Rob).

Shifting Logs In The Hot Sun...

Written 18/01/12

Wednesday is the name of the day and moving wood is the name of the game. Of course the summer is in full swing so short spells of work was the smart option as logs can be pretty heavy and by the time the temperature drops to ‘workable’ levels it’s about 7pm and the sun sets around 9 leaving nowhere near enough light to look good.

Or maybe it’s just the right amount of light to look awesome?

‘I’m just keeping those home fires burning, as only a hunka hunka burning love can!’ –Ryan, 26.

That was about it for today, so, yeah. Bye. And no, this was not an attempt to impress the ladies (or Dodd), they were impressed ages ago, they just didn't realise it. Peace out y’all!

On A Rainy Night Near Gordon

Written 17/01/12

Well, turns out that Karen girl has made other plans and didn’t bother telling Simon so she didn’t bother turning up yesterday evening. Oh well, more curry for me (curry is something that is plentiful in this house) and John (not his real name) from Korea (he’s another WWOOFer) will be here on Thursday, although he has been iffy about coming here for about a month so his arrival is still a maybe.

The weather has been great, which is a bit of a problem when you’re digging, brush cutting and fence building, plus I’m feeding plenty of mosquitoes if the itchy patches on my arms are anything to go by.

Of course there is a bit of rain tonight, hence the title, but not enough to take away the feeling that summer is finally here! Seriously, it feels like forever since I’ve smelled cut grass and the grass seeds have made me sneeze this often.

A wild Kookaburra appears! 

Also, butt plums.

Lazy Sunday, Easy Monday

Written 16/01/12

To wake up on a lazy Sunday close to nowhere is a feeling that many seldom feel nowadays. That point before money and other such worries seep into consciousness is one of life’s pleasures that is often overlooked.

As the gloomy clouds of yesterday have since wandered lonely to new skies, I’m left to wander golden fields bathed in summer’s sun.

'THE BEES NOT THE BEES AAAAAAAAAH THEY'RE IN MY EYES' - Nicholas Cage

I just realised who he reminds me of...

...uncanny

Pretty cool right? Well in the evening I helped Simon begin building a fence as the second WWOOFer had a bit of trouble getting here, but she should be here tomorrow.

It’s now Monday. Today I moved some gravel from a pile to a driveway and crushed some bracken to make mulch for blueberry bushes, apparently they like acidic soil and bracken helps with that. A straight forward day, I’ll be building more of the fence tomorrow as Karen (the second WWOOFer) will be here tonight and that job really needs two people.

Welcome To Gordon

Written 14/01/12

Feeling as rough as a pile of gravel

So here I am, one hour north west-ish of Melbourne on a hobby farm near the village of Gordon on a road called 'Poverty Peak'. Simon is the host of this WWOOFing experience and he’s a nice guy, we had a beer and discussed how crazy the world is and how Australia just loves digging shit out of the ground and selling it to China. But of course, me being me, I went out last night and didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep as I helped Sheldon celebrate his birthday in St.Kilda. I have suffered throughout the day (damn these first world problems) but thanks to my unbreakable spirit I made it with nothing more than a mild headache and tired eyes.

I meant Shaun, why did I write Sheldon?

Last night I was out on the town with a few hostellers including the Essex girl (Hayley, whom I met on my first night in St.Kilda) from Maldon (who now lives in Basildon, small world and all that) and as is the way with the backpacking thing we all got trashed on $5 beers and I chowed down on the nicest kebab ever (not a sex joke)! Seriously, if you’re out in St. Kilda go to Sunshine Kebabs!

Me (UK), Michael (AU), Sheldon (UK)

Naturally, at the time of writing this, I'm hungover, but at least I’m over the worst of it (those couple of beers helped). Thankfully I didn't need to get the train today until about 4PM so I had plenty of time to consume enough soup and bread to keep my motor neurones functioning long enough to get to Ballan station. But as I was leaving, leaving, on that late afternoon train to Ballan, I couldn't help but get those feelings of sentiment towards those I’d met at the Pint on Punt. The Irish, English, Swedish, Kiwi, German, Little Penguins, Dutch, Aussie acquaintances that helped make the past week or so that bit more special. But a man who wishes to see the world cannot do so if he never leaves and travelling is what I'm here to do!

Melbourne is a lovely city and St. Kilda a great suburb that exceeded my expectations as I was told St.Kilda is like Melbourne’s Kings Cross. It isn’t, because Kings Cross is a dive and doesn’t have a beach and there are no strip clubs in St. Kilda (that I noticed). Melbourne’s artistic flair extends throughout the city to the point that the Southern Cross station is itself a work of art, kind of, it’s no St. Pancras, but it still interesting enough when you have to wait about an hour for your train.

Yep, it's a train station.

My view for much of the one hour train journey

Simon picked me up at the train station in Ballan and my ‘WWOOFing Part 2: The WWOOFening’ could officially begin.

The building is rustic and interesting but with a few more luxuries than my previous WWOOFing host’s place as this place is on the electricity grid (no phone line though) and it has a microwave! The surrounding area is also different from last time. Large open fields have replaced the valleys and the green that I was engulfed in at Wollombi is now a sandy beige colour. No dogs or three year olds this time, but I will soon be joined by two more WWOOFers in the coming days as some of the work that needs doing might be a bit heavy, but meeting people and rising to challenges are what make life worth living, so bring it on!

I’ve taken a few pics, so have a butchers and talk amongst yourselves as I start uploading the next blog post.

The windmill actually pumps water from the dam below

I saw 'dam', it's more of a pond.

He doesn't talk much, he's a little horse! HAHAHA