The days of firsts

The first days have gone by with a steady, but quick pace. Tuesday starter with a 6AM wake up and 7AM arrival to the farm. And it was late start. As I heard during the day, some folks start harvesting potatoes already at 2AM! Why? Because you need to have some trucks already loaded and ready for washing and packing at the shed when the shed crew comes along between 5-6AM. So I had a fairly late start J

The first day was really about getting to know a bit about the equipment they are using here and having a drive with them. All tractors are John Deere production and only a year or two old. I had a go with 3 different ones, did some deliveries of fertilizers to a couple of fields, seeding a bit

of wheat on a small plot just to keep the wind from blowing away the soil (read: sand) and making a sandstormevery now and then and also managed to do some ploughing. First time for everything or what! All machines are big, with fully automatic gearboxes but still very different in their build. While with some you just play with a number of buttons to set the speed and revs, then with others you still need to use pedals. Oh my, manual work J. It was interesting, especially considering that my only experience with a tractor is an old red (and/or blue) Belarus. Yet as the guys around here said – when you could drive a Belarus, you can drive anything. Apparently it’s true, because those machines are indeed easy to drive. And so it went, first day of firsts with 8,5 hours of worktime.

Wednesday was a whole different day, initially I was supposed dissassemble a seeder unit and replace most of it’s pipes and hoses but as someone had lost a much needed bolt to attach the seeder to the tractor, there were other things lined up. Oh yeah, firstly, talking about me I am usuallytalking about me and Pete as he is stuck with me basically the whole time to teach and show everything. And secondly it seems a great deal of things either get lost or broker around here (which is ok) but noone really tells about it as it happens. It’s always some time later some other guy finding it out. So in the morning all workers were given a strong warning and apparently if you mess up, you will step out of the door.

So the day went by pretty much doing two things – installing a video camera in one part of the seeder (where the grain will be held) with making a stand for the screen in the tractor and watching a truck full of seeds getting stuck in soft ground while unloading the seeds into a temporary storage. A grand total of 9h 15 minutes of work J. Well I actually did work in the full sense of it, I just don’t know how to describe everything I do here. And quite frankly, it is tiring. By the way, filling the tank of a tractor with diesel can be quite expensive if yu did it in a regular gas station – 320L of diesel with a price of around 1,5AUD / L is not what you’d call cheap. Our station in the farm premices offers you a wonderful deal however – just 0,20AUD / L J.

Getting sorted, sort of

Sunday was the good time just to get a bit organized here. As I just cannot stand utter dirt and uncomfort, I did some cleaning up. Firstly vacuumcleaned the room, both floor and ceiling which was full of spider nets, small harmless spiders went in aswell and just plain dust. Lateron during the evening cleaned some dishes and kitchen faces just to be able to cook. Suprise-suprise – the things I did clean up remained clean even after everyone had their breakky.

As Pete and Andy, the guy been here the longest decided to head to Murray Bridge to do some shopping, I thought of going along. For 2 reasons actually. First, I wanted to change my mobile operator from Vodafone to Telstra because Vodafone hardly has any network signal here at all and secondly to get some other essentials for living. As it is still a bank holiday today (and tomorrow), I couldn’t sort out the first plan, but did manage to get foodstuff that I cannot get from our small local „Friendly Grocer“ shop. And as it still is a day of holiday, the guys thought of going to KFC, where I don’t think I’ve eaten before. J A Ultimate Burger Meal was quite handy for 10AUD, packed with some fries, 3 chicken wings and a burger accompanied by a drink. That should keep me feeling fine till the morning.breakky! J So they do like it nice and tidy, they just do not know where to start or how to start. I’d say just start by doing, but that’s just me.

Today, Monday I went along with Pete, the oldest guy in this place we are living, for a quick drive around the premices to get an idea of what I will be dealing with here and what is this place about. To say the least – it’s huge! The farm consists of about 46 fields, most of which are round! They are round because every field has a watering system on them and that is located in very centre of it. The system itself is still above ground but the pipework below ground leads to the centre. Every year there are about 12-14 fields in use, others are idle. Each field is about 800m of diameter,

about 15ha of coverage. On each field in use there is an on ground watering system which is pivoting and covers the whole field in about 12-13 hours. That whole system is fully automatic, can be started and stopped both on the field and in the office nearby. Not bad for farming J

Murray Bridge is a bigger place to go shopping or going to movies, what Pete and Andy did yesterday, but apparently they do take a ride from time to time also to Adelaide. Murray Bridge is also the place I’ll probably be looking for a car, because as it seems, you cannot really make it here without one. Everything is just too far away to go by foot, public transport – well what is that in outback! So in a months time I guess I’ll be starting to look for a cheap car, as far as I’ve heard you can get some more or less decent car for round about 1000-2000AUD. Let’s see how it goes,

but as Pete and Andy are going to be moving to a different place with this week probably and Dermot & Alan, the Irish guys, both 19, are heading back to Sydney after 7 weeks, I need to find myself something to move around with. And what better way to go for a roadtrip later, than with your own car J

Tomorrow I’ll be starting my carreer as a farmer, well apparently a tractor driver and supposedly I will be firstly doing spraying. I guess some chemicals and fertilizers on the fields. And as soon as that is done and no rain comes, we might actually be moving to a different farm, owned by the same guys who own this farm, to do the same. But if it rains, which everybody kind of hopes it does, we’ll be up for serious seeding. What exactly shall be put down, I don’t know yet.

Pictures of the living here and the fields and the tractor driver, that is me, will follow hopefully soon. J

Have a good one! Cheers!

New beginning (still via Toowoomba)

To begin with a brief conclusion of the last week – emotionally stressful! On Monday morning I set my way to Brisbane coach station to get a bus to Toowoomba, about 125km from Brisbane. I went there with the knowledge that I have a workplace lined up and in one day I’ll be heading that way. Upon arrival to Toowoomba at AG Workforce office it turned out a bit different. Yes, I cannot blame them because that is the nature of their business – arranging people to different farms, first-in-first-out system. So I guess one of the places had already been filled last week and as they had managed to find me a new place – well there was this big uncertainty. As it turned out that certain farm in Walgett, NSW did not have a spare place exactly at that day I arrived. Unfortunately they did not also know when will they have a place for me because as there were two guys leaving the farm, they had not yet mentioned the exact date. And as you need to inform you employer, that is AG Workforce and the manager at the farm at least one week in advance then without that notice noone could give me any details. So there I was, in Towoomba, a town with about 100’000 people, no work, no certainty, short in money. I could say it was one of the hardest week in a very long while, especially emotionally. As I had the RSA and RSG done, I went through the most of the pubs and restaurants in the centre, but without any luck. Thinking that due to big Easter celebrations and also the following ANZAC day there might be a helping hand needed in the pubs I might at least get something for the long weekend, did not work. J

Nevertheless, as both offers and people come and go, so did another offer. Finally on Thursday morning I received a phonecall mentioning an option in South Australia, nearby Adelaide. Upon heading back to the office (where I had been every day) I was offered some work with unlimited duration here, Greenways Landing, SA 5354. So the option was – either to wait and see if and when the cotton harvesting option becomes available in Walgett or to take this and go with it. So I took it apparently and left Toowoomba the same evening, being very glad to get back to Brisbane! Spent the evening with other Estonians, namely Liis, Mari, Jorma, Sirle, Margus & Triin, had some rum-colas, had loads of fun and laughter, it was the best relaxation therapy for the week.

Arriving to Adelaide this morning, Saturday began with a shock – it’s 9AM and outside temperature is 14 degrees! 14 DEGREES!! Coming from Brisbane with some 23C-27C during the day usually and having 14C all of a sudden feels like freezing! Luckily the sun came up and the situation improved. J Having about 3 hours before the departure of the bus it was enough time to have a quick walk in central Adelaide. Considering it was Saturday following the Easter Friday, pretty much everything seemed to be closed. And it was – because I found myself firstly in the business district which apparently is closed on weekends. A kind lady showed me a correct direction and eventually I located the main street – Rundel Mall with shops and caffees. I read that while being in Adelaide, yu should definately visit the Haighs chocolaterie – local chocolate producer. It wasn’t a hard place to find and provided it was Easter, bought an Easter egg, an assortment of various filled chocolates and some truffles. In general Adelaide is a fully planned city so the the actual city centre is just blocks of different... blocks. As much as I managed to see it, it looks nice, blocks of modern buildins and some old nice houses inbetween. It seems quite welcoming, except the business district which left me with a cold emotion. Not sure why though. At some point I guess I’ll spend a couple of days there to get a better look at the city and drive away from the centre.

About the farm... I’ll leave that for next post!

Take care of yourselves and your closest ones J

Off to farming via Toowoomba

Well, it takes some time before I get to farming. I arrived to Toowoomba at noon, headed straight to the recruitment company, which, as it turns out, is a labour hire company, so I am going to be working in a farm, but going to be paid by this company – AG Workforce.

However, not everything runs as smooth as I thought because I have to stay here in Toowoomba for 2 nights, costing me around 75AUD (Bed & Breakfast). And it's a typical hostel you can see in almost any Hollywood movie, e.g. Psycho :)) So first on Wednesday I am going to be moving somewhere.

The bright side is that about half an hour after my arrival came 2 other guys who, suprise-suprise are Estonians. Moreover, I will probably be heading whereever I am going together with them, so at least it will be a trip with some companionship. As far as I heard, they’ll just pass by where I am going to. And as they have a car, I’ll probably save some money on busride. Although I only had a few words with them, I will hopefully get reacquainted tomorrow.

As far as I heard, I might be directed to a farm where an Estonian couple is already present. Priit, the guy I got the AG Workforce contacts from, went to a cotton picking farm a week ago together with his girlfriend. The manager of AG pointed out, that he might be able to send me there aswell. So it sounds at least fair enough, let’s see what tomorrow brings and hopefully I will be able to get moving from here sooner than expected. Otherwise it would actually be alright to stay here, but as the weather is quite cold compared to what I’ve got used to, just some 19 degrees today and a bit rainy, I’d rather move on than stay put and just spend money.

Cheers and keep your fingers crossed for me getting to my destination "anywhere" soon :)

TERVITUSED KOJU!

Siis kui muru oli rohelisem ja taevas sinisem - Kodulaul (Nukitsamees) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJJIPWEJ5O8

changing lanes

just as i thought - no reply from the recruitment agencies, no feedback from the companies i contacted directly, but daily calls from the farming work recruitment company who promised to find me some options and so they did! the outcome - i am going to do some farm work! where? i don't know! what work? i don't know! with whom? i don't know! all i know is i am currently packing my things and will head off to toowoomba, where the company is located, tomorrow morning. it's a 1,5hour bus trip, and from there on it's all a mystery!

due to this reason the current week has been more or less an easy

time, on tuesday i teamed up with liis and as scott & jade had

planned to head up to mount coot-tha to get some nice photos of the city during sunset and sundown. unfortunately, yes we got there but due to gps having some ideas of its own and not finding the direct way there, just after sunset. nevertheless, it's great place with superb views! to be actually able to share the emotion on a photo, i will have to get myself a decent camera, but you still get the image.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Coot-tha,_Queensland

http://www.brisbanelookout.com/

as the weekdays were superb in terms of the weather, i decided to go check out the south bank swimming area. although it was still closed a couple of weeks because the place got heavily damaged by the floods in january, they have managed to open up one of the pools with the

second one following within the coming week probably. it's a swimming area basically in the city centre, encircled by the brisbane river on one hand and south bank bars and caffees on the other. as jobhunting can become demoralizing and boring, liis agreed to take a break and give me some company.

it's still good to have somebody around in the same situation as myself, although what is also interesting is that the way she thinks and acts in regards of the job hunting, it's just a copy-paste of me during the first weeks. firstly aiming the level we were used to,

then some small adjustments and aiming lower and so on :) yet to be honest, i think i am even a bit happy that i didn't get any job in logistics because now i will probably experience a lot more of the real aussie life and that is what this year is all about - experiences!

now i am not sure how it's going to work out with getting internet access in the outback. yes, i bought myself a mobile internet from telstra, a service provider most likely to have any network signal in the outback, if any! so let's see what happens, my aim is to spend there at least 1 month, but i guess it seems reasonable to stay there untill end of may, beginning of june and then have

some time off during my birthday. what happens thereafter, i have no idea :)

meanwhile, stay healthy and enjoy yourselves, because i am going to do it, this time in the aussie outback! :)

maybe it's not dark enough?!

they say it's always the darkest before dawn. i do not know what to make of it in the context of my situation, but i hope things will change really soon.

what i've been up to during the past week. well on tuesday i had a meeting with a workforce rental company and it seemed quite promising, they had some options they thought i could be a match to but so far i am still just "on the list", so leaving you with a positive emotion is just part of the procedure really :) in the afternoon i met 2 estonian girls, one of them, liis, is/was a colleague of doris and the other one is her sister, mari. they just arrived to brisbane from a rough 48 hour trip from thailand where they were stranded for a week due to heavy monsoon rains. finally they just managed to get away from there with a military helicopter, arrange by the local government as no boats really moved between the islands and mainland. it was a nice emotion seeing someone you know, and as they are planning to stay in australia for a couple of months, we'll definately do things here together.

on wednesday i eventually made up my mind and made 2 certificates - rsa & rsg (responsible

service of alcohol & responsible service of gambling). without those it's quite hard to get work in bars, restaurants, in catering and similar. i applied for some positions throughout the week, but as this is a business of face-to-face contact, i thought of going to the city on friday afternoon and have a go throught the pubs, caffees, bars. however, i didn't. why? because i did not really consider the fact that it's FRIDAY evening - no-one will ever have a real chance and interest in

having a serious talk as customers are pouring in to all the places

and i would probably just be wasting my time there. at least that's what the local experts had to say here :) so instead they dragged me along to a nearby restaurant/bar - hotel hq and insisted on buying me a couple of rounds. well eventually i'll get back to them :) nontheless, we had a nice time there and lateron back at the house, a nice relaxing friday.

on saturday jade and scott decided to hit the beach on gold coast, this time further south - miami :)

it was quite a couldy morning here in underwood where we live, yet weather forecast told it's all good 100km south, so the decision was made and i went along. this time around the waves were bigger, wind was stronger. sounds like fun! well, as long as i do not learn how to surf, i

probably will not have that much fun but it was still quite an interesting experience. the waves are just soooo intense, you feel like you are nothing there. and think about tsunamis now...

you have to respect the forces of nature. photos are available - https://picasaweb.google.com/saksmargus/GoldCoast#

and on sunday we decided to go and enjoy the fresh air up in the mountains. the tambourine

mountain is about 70km south from brisbane, a 28km2 plateau with the highest peak of 525m. the views from there nice, especially on the southside where you have a multimillion dollar view over gold coast. read more - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamborine_Mountain

it's a place where people go to spend their weekend hiking, here called bushwalking, just going for a picnic and having a barbeque, here called barbie, but also hanggliding. we noticed a whole bunch of people flying in the air and some more just about to take off.

this week has stared off in the certain plan to get any kind of work during this week. i heard about a friend of liis who just on monday morning went off to a cotton farm. so i managed to get in contact with him, find out the company he was dealing with here, posted myapplication and gave them a call. it sounds quite possible because at the moment the cotton harvesting season is starting and it will last up to end may, so i think if i manage to get a position somewhere, i might be occupied in cutton harvesting for a month or so. fingers crossed. today i will still go downtown and see what options i will find in regards of bar/restaurant work, but somehow i am quite looking forward to the farming thing :) and those of you who still keep fingers crossed and hope i will find logistics work - well it's kind of a lost cause here quite frankly. they just don't take you as a serious option, even for a temp job (i just got confirmation on that this morning).

can you beat that?!

The best bit from today's MX Newpaper. Try to beat that!! ;)

Quote

"Honeymoon from hell"

Honeymoons aren't always easy, but experiencing six natural disasters saw Stefan and Erika Scanstrom's marriage get off to a particularly rocky start. The Stockholm couple got more than they bargained for when they set out on their four-month honeymoon with their baby girl on December 6. They were immediately stranded in Munich, Germany, by one of Europe's worst snowstorms. But that was just the start.

After that, they experienced the devastation of the Brisbane floods and Cyclone Yasi in Cairns and only narrowly escaped the bushfires in Perth. "We escaped by the skin of our teeth," Stefan said, recalling how they were evacuated in Cairns and had to spend 24 hours on a cement floor in a shopping centre with 2500 others. "Trees were being knocked over and big branches were scattered across the streer," he said.

They arrived in New Zealand just after the 6.3-magnitude earthquake devastated Christchurch, and in Tokyo they felt Japan's largest earthquake since records began, he said. "The trembling was horrible and we saw roof tiles fly off the buildings. It was like the buildings were swaying back and forth," said Stefan, who also survived a devastating tsunami in South-East Asia in 2004. China, their final destination before returning home on March 29, was much calmer.

"I know marriages have to endure some trials, but I think we have been through most of them," Stefan told Stockholm's Expressen newspaper, where their story was first reported. "We've certainly experienced more than our fair share of catastrophes in a marriage, but the most important thing is that we're still going strong," he said.

Unquote

Well I have to admit there is a strong violation of sexual equality here - the lady was never given a chance to speak!

a lot has happened, but actually not much

A week has gone by with not too much progress, regarding work ofcourse! On Sunday I went to an event "Reinvent your career" which is aimed for people who wish to make a change in their professional career. I had a talk with a lady from Queensland Government who suggested to take a look at their own job portal and also to contact a recruitment company who is specialized in finding people for QLD Government, both temporary and permanent workers. So far I have no offers from them however as they will only contact me in case they have something available which matches my qualifications. So it's kind of a stupid situation because as it has turned out, I cannot really apply for a job matching my qualifications because the employers seek for people with local experience, moreover with permanent work perspectives. I also had a meeting with one recruitment agency who is dealing with logistics companies. They were honestly not too enthusiastic regarding a serious position. It would be probably easier to get a warehouse casual worker position, but they again do not deal with those positions. So throughout the week I have searched and applied for both - logistics positions as well as simple casual positions. Yet again, even to get an answer takes time! Or am I doing something wrong?!

To get my mind off from job hunting I went out on Friday night with the british couple who lives in the same house here - Scott and Jade. We took a look at West End, the region of bars and restaurants. It was fun to have a nice chat and enjoy a couple of drinks. However the drinks are quite expensive here, compared to Estonia. It does not really make any sense to compare the prices, but for your information - a bottle of beer, usually 0,33/0,35L is about 5-9AUD. A longneck bottle, 0,75L is from 12-15AUD. A rum-cock coctail is about 8AUD, small 200ml glass. But you can also find BYO restaurants - that is Bring Your Own bottle. In that case you just pay a charge of 5AUD. But if you visit a small kebab or pizza place for a quick bite with BYO option, you just enjoy yur drink for free :)

Yesterday we agreed to have a quick trip to Gold Coast. Well, actually Scott and Jade went to check out a car they were interested in buying and as they planned to go to the beach also, they invited me along. Gold Coast is one of the most popular holiday and surfing places in Australia. To read more - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Coast,_Queensland

It's a place where I would, if possible, like to live for a while. Somehow the beach was far more inviting there as it was in Sunshine Coast, I am not sure why though.

Later on Saturday I had a meeting with the local Estonians, to get to know them and also to find out a bit more about the local life, about the options here, what are they doing here and maybe to get some ideas regarding work. It was a nice evening, we had some drinks, went out to a bar on South Bank. As it turns out, most of them, at least who I met are either doing construction work (men) or hospitality work - bars, restaurants, caffees (women). So basically only a few people are doing what they have learned / done before, which is not construction or hospitality work or they are doing that work because they have done it before.

You might say Australia is a very take-it-easy and no-worries country, but if you get to know the fact of life, it's quite strict here. For example, regarding alcohol consumption. In order to work in a bar or caffee you need to have a RSA (Reasonable Service of Alcohol) licence. This certifies that you are aware of the laws and conditions here. Which are STRICT!! For example - one is not allowed to sell alcohol to a person who is obviously drunk or in your oppinion should not drink anymore. If you still do it and if you get caught doing it, everybody involved gets fined. That is, your employer gets a fine up to 32000AUD, you as a seller up to 18000AUD and the buyer up to 6000AUD! That is A LOT of money! So you better think twice before doing anything stupid ;)

Added some photos - https://picasaweb.google.com/saksmargus

All the best from here! And keep your fingers crossed for me to get a job quickly ;)