No More Spud Packing

Today was my last day packing spuds at Gregory’s, although I only spent half the day packing spuds, the other half was spent shovelling wet mud and rotten potatoes from the floor around the old washer to make way for the new washer. The smell was strong and the mud was in great quantity so after 4 hours of that I was more than ready to say goodbye and get back to Poverty Peak for the last ride on my bike.

Not to be confused with the wrestling move, which doesn’t feature a bike. 

It wasn’t a bad job, packing spuds. Yes it got kind of boring sometimes but work is work and wages are wages and now I have a small buffer to keep me going when I get back to Melbourne after Tassie and possibly look for a job or look into moving west. But I’m not one to look too far into the future as doing so means one will always miss the present, which all too soon will become the past. My trip to Tassie is something I fully intend on relishing. All the campsites are booked, the camper van and Spirit of Tasmania were booked weeks ago and on Monday evening I shall be floating across the Bass Straight to Tasmania, which I am looking forward to immensely now I know there is an arcade on board,

Something that the Titanic was lacking, hence why all the young men were drawing naked pictures of Kate Winslet.

BUT THAT'S THE ONLY PART WORTH MAKING 3D!

That’s all the ‘news’ for today. Thursday I had the day off which meant a chance to spend the whole day in Ballarat, which I did. Here’s a bunch of photos of the various things I saw around Lake Wendouree as I whiled away the hours by the water side. I also had an ice cream.

I told you I had ice cream.

All very nice and I’m kind of pleased I’ve been to the town that effectively brought democracy to Victoria, but I won’t write all that here so here’s a link about the Eureka Stockade if you are interested in the tale of a bunch of miners sticking it to ‘the man’.

PS. I learned an AFL rule. If the ball hits the post it only counts as a ‘behind’ (1 point) even if it ricochets in for a goal (which would be 6 points, but it doesn’t count because it hit the post), I think?

PPS. Melbourne Demons are a crap team, at least judging by the game against Richmond that is on at the moment. Final score, Richmond 133 – 74 Melbourne... Ouch.

PPPS. Last night I watched an entire episode of Snog Marry Avoid, a show I would usually mark as ‘trash’ but when 10,000 miles away from the country it is set in I can’t help but feel a little nostalgia towards the regional accents.

And regional boobs

Goodnight everybody!

I Feel Like It’s Raining All Over The World

Yes, it was a rainy night in Gordon last night. After the last few days lingering above 35 degrees of pure heat, the resulting rainy spell was a full on thunder storm, as it always seems to be in this country.

It started a few miles away as the flashes were far beyond the hills. But it wasn’t long before the flashes and claps synced up as the storm drifted upon us and the heavens’ opening lashed the roof and continually managed to keep me awake by interrupting itself with a few thousand decibels of power belting out from a few thousand miles above my head.

While I’m glad the rain will have quenched the bush fire risk somewhat, I’m far from glad that it chose to sweep across with such audible violence on a night when I had to leave for work before half six in the morning.

I made it into work on time despite the cloud and drizzle and after thirty minutes in the shed the rain fell again. But at least the storm broke the humidity... until about 12 O’clock when humidity began to creep up again, which is great when you have to ride a bike home.

Artist's impression.

And as soon as I got back to ye olde Poverty Peak, that delicate sound of thunder grumbled nearby and the rain started again.

Of course the news has made a big deal about the weather, ‘some areas got a month’s worth of rain over night, yadda yadda blah blah’, hardly news worthy, I mean, why report on a family of four’s house getting struck by lightning and burning the whole top floor (no one was hurt). But it does all mean the end of the world is nigh! Oh no, it's raining and a few streets are flooded? wasn't there a 9 year drought recently? Best stop whining and start storing all this water!

Oh, and Kevin Rudd (the former PM over here) has been trying to get back to top spot for a while after being booted off by Gillard (the current PM) who looks like a young caricature of Thatcher. 

This shit has been going on since before 2011? 

They had a ballot amongst the party and Gillard is still PM, so even that’s not news worthy as nothing has changed and I’m sorry I bothered telling you. Also an Australian won an Oscar for best editor.

Actually, now I’m on the subject of Aussie TV, there has been an advert that I thought might be of interest to those back in Blighty...

Yep, it’s a great year to be in Great Britain, or at least it would be if I wasn’t 10,000 miles away! And when the name Dev Patel popped up I thought they meant Dev from Corination Street, which would have been better than having 'one of the kids from when Skins was good'.

Hold on....

Just firing up the old Photoshop...

Saving... Uploading... and....
BAM!

Hi, I'm Ryan, the marketing genius!

I also realised that the picture of ‘your mum’ posted on the previous post may have been a bit offensive to some viewers.

So here’s a picture of your sister.

New Route Plus An Awesome Road Name

Turns out my blog is creating some publicity for Wallace, Gordon and other towns named after famous Batman commissioners.

This guy was called Wallace, wasn't he?

So much publicity has been caused that I have had to change my route from work, it's totally because of the crowds of people and nothing to do with the bastard hill that always kills my legs on the way back to Poverty Peak. To stop myself getting worked up over that bloody stupid hill, here's a couple of soothing pictures of the sun rising over the region on my way to work...

So to avoid the crowds I headed a different and slightly flatter way and found a street dedicated to me,

"This road has the greatest name ever" - Everybody named Ryan

I won't mention that the area has a strong Irish history because that might make people think the road is not in fact named after me. So that's it. No news, no dramas, no worries. Until next time Ryanites!

New Bike, Same Worries

A minor apology is in order for Big W after my rant in my previous blog post. Yesterday I got my bike replaced for a slightly better one with no hassle or stupid questions, so thanks to the guy at customer service who sorted that out. Repco are still bastards though for trying to break my elbow and China still have low quality metals and slave labour and crap food. Now I have a new bike and in the words of Mr. Tyler, 'I'm BAAACK,

In the saddle again. I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

So I rode out this morning in high spirits but with a few concerns swimming in my mind.
One, the box looks exactly the same as the other bike's box.
Two, the pedals look remarkably similar to the other bike's pedals
and Three, it's a 'mountain bike' with this sticker attached to the frame...

So I guess the 'mountain' part refers to those mountains made of tarmac?

I got to work and no major issues occurred, one of the rear brake pads shook itself loose but that isn't a major thing. At lunch I double checked everything by sticking an allen key/spanner to every bolt/nut and tightening it by whacking a great adjustable spanner against them all. If anything decides to come loose and injure me again that spanner and the bike will be going through Big W's window!

Feeling Un-Fit

Not feeling too fit today, not as in ‘good looking’ fit (You know I'm hot like a McDonalds’ apple pie),

Baked in the fires of Hell!

I’m in the ‘can’t ride a bike to work without nearly having his heart explode’ category of not fit. I was back in Wallace today, no not that Wallace,

Although he is a looker

the place 'Wallace'. But today I did the most excellent thing of getting myself to work, through the medium of the second cheapest bike at Big W! And I wish more than ever that I could afford a car. Why did they build roads that go up hill when flattening them would save me a lot of sweat? Those bastards. Fortunately I have the luxury of having the option to stop off at the pub on the way home, which I did today, so I can meet locals and talk about stuff instead of riding a bike, which I did today. I was only going to stop in to take away a few bottles to veg out in front of the telly with when my legs gave out as soon as I got back to Poverty Peak, but I got talking to a couple of Gordon residents when I waited for the barman and the rugby league match between Manly and Leeds was on the box (congrats Leeds).

So two and a half pints later I left quite happy and then rode for about two minutes before realising I was riding a bike and took to walking up and just rolling down hills with a bottle from my take away Carltons in my hand (What? It was the cheapest beer there).

I don’t know why those Tour de Frogs bother peddling all the way, my way is much more relaxing and you can take in more of the scenery.

You can’t see much of anything when you’re riding a bike, it’s all blurry. 

Naturally, that one bottle of on the road beer for me was like spinach is to Popeye and I had enough strength / Dutch courage to ride the rest of the way back. I never expected to be setting record times straight away, but I am confident that I will one day be able to ride easily up those hills and drink beer at the same time...

Pictured: The dream 

Spud Packer

Finally, I have a job (But you knew that already). So for the past 3 days I've been going to work near Wallace,

Wallace? WALLACE? WHERE THE...

Steady on, kids might be reading this.

Turns out it is quite heavy work packing spuds, even though most of the work is done by machines which undoubtedly make the job less tiring.

That's right, Mr. Anderson, machines are useful!

The hours are 7- around 3, Simon took me to work the past three days with Alan (the boss) bringing me back to Poverty Peak at the end of the day. Well, Alan didn’t bring me back yesterday as I had to go baaaaack to Ballarat

Oh wait, I’ve done that ‘joke’ before.

Why Ballarat? Well, I had to get a bike as having Simon take me into work every morning isn’t great when he sometimes doesn’t get in until 10pm. So I shall cycle to and from work each morning, which will be a shock to the system as I haven’t ridden a bike any distance since I was a temp at the Woolwich in Basildon (Which was when I lived in Basildon, which was a few hundred years ago).

Well before the council went completely insane.

According to Google Maps my route is a good 8KM with plenty of hills, looks like I’d better give myself 2 hours tomorrow. Oh yeah, I’m working tomorrow (Saturday) for a few hours because I need those dollar dollar bills y’all!

I have an expensive diet.

That’s all the news for now, the chickens are still alive, Atti is still here WWOOFing and I’m pretty tired after a day at work so I’m going to do nothing for a bit and then sleep.