At the end of last week, there was an influx of new workers in the mango paddock. A guy who called himself Robbie claimed he had experience, but had recently been working on oil rigs overseas. I think he might have been on the run, given some of the comments he made, and that he stopped work after a couple of days. After that, you have to hand in a form for tax details, you see.
Also starting work was Jay the 30 year old father, Nolan the large 50-something man, Darren-just-back-from-schoolies (wants to do Engineering in Townsville) and a couple of other randoms who didn’t last long. Some people only work a day or two, get paid a couple of hundred dollars, quit and go down to the pub to drink it.
Most intriguing of the new workers was Julien, the 25 year old nurse from France who’s travelling the world, currently in need of money. I adopted the unofficial role of on-paddock interpreter for him, having to rephrase instructions from Michael given in the North Queensland Bogan dialect to a more conventional form of English. Julien’s dad is from Africa (Algeria), so he’s got olive skin that doesn’t get sunburnt.
Michael’s been in a generally good mood for the past three days, and hasn’t been a problem for me since the new guys started. He has the occasional whinge, but his mood stays good. Memorable paddock conversations this week have included a lively debate on Evolution and the statistical observance that 10% of men are gay, so of the dozen-or-so of us in the paddock, it’s likely that one is checking out everyone else. Micahel and Nolan engaged in conversation about self-sufficent energy (wind/solar). It would be nice to not depend on the electricity grid, I think. Jay efficiently and elegantly contradicted himself when he proclaimed “I’m so fucking polite” (in good taste, not grumpiness). By the way, here’s a contradiction of my own: “It’s wrong to generalise”. For efficiency, a smart alecs would say “P and not P”, but really – who says stuff like that anyway? Michael came up with a theory that the recent economic crisis is going to stunt China’s growth just as a similar crisis retarded Japan’s growth post-war. A stroke of genius from George Bush unrecognised by the public? A conspiracy? Michael. Mango paddock. Perspective. Michael likes to hear himself talk.
I’ve got four days off because we’ve picked all there is to pick (including two hours of limes), and we’re waiting for the rest of the fruit to ripen. Here’s what happens in our back yard after the rain:
Clouds gently caressing the mountain tops
Did anybody see this in the sky the other night? I saw a resemblence to the household puppy.
Spot the difference
Last night I put a mattress and blankets on the back of Dad’s truck and slept out under the stars. The moonlight illuminated the low clouds as they hovered over the mountains. The air was cool and scented with eucalyptus and dew on the grass, and I heard the frogs, crickets, nocturnal birds and other sounds of old as I stared out into the universe as it lay bare before me. We always talk about space and to me such talk makes me feel like space is so far away from us on earth. But on a nice clear night, it’s right there.
This is the best shot I could get
Check out these PhD Science students dancing their thesis: Dancing Scientists Invade YouTube
Hey Erin, just a quick reminder that reading someone’s publicly accessible blog does not constitute spying. Dear readers, tensions have escalated since I pre-emptively blocked Erin from viewing my facebook profile and she gets frustrated when she doesn’t know how to block me in return, and can’t even research things on google herself. Oh no.
Now to today’s news, I took Julien to Mossman Gorge for a swim. I met him in Mt Molloy where his van broke down, and we drove down to Mossman together. We did the usual – swim in the cool clear water, sit on the rocks in the sun, watch people. He seemed quite adept at jumping around on rocks, I think it would be really handy to have a nurse come rock hopping with us one time. I mean, it’s as safe as you can be should something go wrong, short of bringing an entourage of emergency trauma specialists, a complete mobile operating tent and a caravan full of supplies.
Let’s get hypothetical. For the price of a return ticket to a place like, (let’s pick one at random) New York, I may as well buy a round-the-world ticket and go to Japan, California, the West Indies, England and Switzerland at the same time. Sequentially, I mean. Julien explains that while his friends expressed their envy at his pre-departure travel plans, it’s not like it’s all that hard for somebody who wants to do it. Save some money, pack your life into a suitcase, go where you like and work when you need the money. You’re on your own, often in a country with a different language to your prefered one, but really, it’s easy. I’m getting my degree done first, but everyone else has no excuse. Quit your jobs and travel the world you bunch of slackers!
Julien tells me he worked in a clinic that did boob jobs. “Did you see that woman back there? She had fake books. They’re the wrong size for somebody her age.” He knows what to look for. I was too busy explaining to said woman that she could continue to walk the 2km walking circuit all day if she so desired, and that because of the circular nature of the loop, either direction could be regarded as ‘forwards’ and that’s why we were going one way and her the other and we were both still walking the loop in an acceptable fashion. I asked Julien if he became a nurse just to watch breast augmentation in action (not the case), and proceeded to explain the word ‘sleazy’. We agreed that breast implants are fine for people who loose one to cancer or in an accident, so that they don’t end up lop-sided and walk around in circles for the rest of their lives. But surgery for aesthetics – like any kind of cosmetic surgery on a fully abled person – we don’t yet appreciate or understand.
