Please Excuse The RPG Analogies

Today I was baaaaaack, baaaaack, back in Ballarat, but this time I was on a quest that I had been given last week after via email.

You may remember I posted an ad on Gumtree to promote myself in an eloquent way. If you don’t remember then go back and read it again! You should start paying attention or you’ll fail your end of year exam!

And stop chewing gum!

Well that piece of genius advertising returned one result in the form of an Irish lady called Noreen. Noreen runs a cafe in Ballarat and she emailed me with a handy tip, her neighbour knows somebody who is looking for workers at his potato packing place.

Brilliant! Quest accepted: Talk to Noreen in person

I would meet Noreen today at her cafe and then, in the usual RPG style, I would have to talk to her neighbour after talking to her. Noreen’s neighbour was a mysterious gentleman by the name of Bryth , he had a Jack Russell dog and as I knocked on the door he bellowed ‘COME IN, LAD!’

After some dialogue he would eventually give me a cryptic message that would ultimately lead me to the potato packing shed in a town called Wallace

OOOOOH YEEEAH

But how did Noreen find my ad? Well, Bryth is friends with the owners of various farms including a Christmas tree plantation and Ray Gregory’s potato packing shed. Alan Gregory (son of Ray) asked Bryth if he knew of anybody who might need a job, Bryth then asked next door if they knew anybody who would need a job as they had relatives etc. . Noreen (from next door) happened to be looking on Gumtree one day when she stumbled upon my ad (labelled as ‘Ballarat’ in the location box) and got in touch.

Bryth would tell Alan that I would be there later in the day to talk jobs as Simon was at work and Bryth didn’t have a phone number for me to call. I gave him my number to pass onto the Gregorys and that was that.

Objective complete: Talk to Bryth

New Objective: Return to Noreen

Noreen had asked me to come back to the cafe once I had spoken to Bryne, so I did. I received a free coffee for turning in the quest which gave me a small stat boost (Energy +5). Then I received an optional quest line, Noreen asked me if I ‘had any cafe experience?’ to which I replied ‘No, but I have worked in a pub for a while’, which was true as I had completed the ‘work in a pub’ achievement ages ago which gave me +9 to my Customer Service stat, but it wasn’t enough so I failed that speech option. Noreen said ‘OK, are you any good with a shovel?’ I chose the option <Exaggerate> ‘Yes, I haven’t done a lot else since getting to Gordon’. Noreen then gave me the optional quest ‘Ask a nearby site office if they need any labourers’ and marked the location on my map (showed me the site at the end of the street)

Objective Complete: Return to Noreen

New Objective: Talk to Gregory at Wallace

If I did choose to pursue the optional quest, Noreen mentioned she could rent a room above the cafe.

So I had exhausted that quest hub for now and had to wait for Simon to finish work as he was my fast travel option, plus the packing shed was on the road back towards Gordon.

With a fair few hours to kill I got my hair cut (+20 Charisma) and had some lunch for an extra 150hp, then I walked up to Lake Wendouree, sat under a tree by the lake and wrote all of the above from the title to this upcoming full stop

After gaining some writing exp I decided to walk the full 6KM route around the lake (with a detour to look at the botanical garden) before walking back through Ballarat to look at things I cannot afford.

I then completed another quest, ‘Grab some shopping from Coles’ and Simon then enabled the fast travel option so we went to Wallace to find the potato packing shed.

After following the directions given, which were surprisingly accurate once we deciphered them, we found the objective and I walked up to talk to Alan Gregory. Alan seemed alright, a normal bloke that runs a packing shed. I introduced myself and it seemed Bryth had kept his word as Alan knew who I was. We talked terms and he offered a trial, two days at $14 cash per hour, then we’ll see how it goes with the promise of a wage increase if the job and I suit each other. I agreed as those two days, whatever the outcome, would give me a bit of instant income.

Objective complete: Talk to a Gregory at Wallace

New Objective: Pass the two day trial that begins on Wednesday at 7AM
(Optional: Repair a bike to go to work on)

I took the fast travel option back to Simon’s and Atti, who had been WWOOFing at the house today, had almost finished making dinner. What an interesting day. Now I’m off to save my progress by transferring it from short term to long term memory. G’night everybody!

Still WWOOFing

Wow, I’m really slacking on the blog post frequency. Never mind, there isn’t much to report any way. The ponies are still next door and the beers still have slightly odd names,

One for me...

...One for my bronies.

And today the chickens were released into one of the areas that have been taking shape over the past few weeks as I and other WWOOFers have banged in fence posts, cut wires, attached fencing and eaten plums so the chooks have somewhere to roam without too much risk of being nabbed by an eagle or fox.

NOTE: I apologise in advance for the picture below. If your boss is looking over your shoulder right now click this link to make it look like you’re doing some work! (Quick, before he asks ‘what are you doing looking at a blurry picture of a big black cock’!) 

NOTE: I will not apologise for the rubbish picture quality.

BE FREE! (To walk around the designated fenced area)

And that’s about it for ‘news’. I have been experimenting with some cooking and have a handy recipe if ever you have the right ingredients and nothing else and you must use all said ingredients in one go to save the lives of a litter of puppies...

Like Ready Steady Cook only with genuine peril, not that false peril Harriet brings to the table.  

I’ve Got Plums, But I’m Not A Plumber

It's 'Greek Style', that means it's bankrupt.

So I’ve done some fruit picking, lots of plums, not on a farm but here at Poverty Peak. That name is starting to become a distinct reminder of my fiscal situation here and there are still little to no jobs, unless I lie and say I'm an experienced cow milker, which they'd believe if they saw my ex-girlfriend, zing!

So WWOOFing is still enjoyable but the nagging of my inner financial advisor is a constant reminder that I need to get some money soon or I’m going to have to turn to a life of crime, not real crime, more the kind that has a romantic edge like setting up a job agency that has job seekers pay to get the details of an employer that has posted an ad on my website only to find the position has been filled. Oh wait, there’s nothing romantic about taking people’s money and then making them search for the work...

Maybe I should just not bother with fruit picking.

The rest of the past week has seen Atti go to Melbourne to do a two day massage course (or something, she comes back today), me build more fences, pulling out rusted pipes from the dam with a chain and build a temporary house for Simon's new chooks! Actually the only reason I've been putting up fences for so long is because of these chickens so I have to thank them a bit for sorting me out with the job. We'll have to build a proper chook house soon so that's another job after the fencing is finished.

I did say 'temporary'

Meanwhile I'll be looking for fruit picking work and then I'll probably make plans to go somewhere else because fruit picking jobs have too much competition so any job that does become available is taken by people with cars. I would like to go to Tasmania but with my fiscal problem I'm not spending that much on a ferry/flight to get there!

So it's all pretty much the same as last week, but with a slightly smaller bank balance. At least I have one more awesome photo that Rob will probably print off and stick to his wall.

Can't blame him

I have also taken to messing around with a few old photos for no good reason.

And here's a picture of a Lorikeet

 And a lizard (I think it's a Skink?) hiding under a leaf

Will I get a job before my money goes completely? Probably not, but tune in next time to find out!

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.