...meanwhile in Victoria...

Central Train Station

The Shrine

CBD far back, MCG
(Melbourne Cricket Grounds) on right

At Shrine with Iris

CBD at night

St. Kilda, looking at CBD

Melbourne was nice... and rainy to start with on Saturday. Which in fact is not a big suprise as one can easily experience 3-4 seasons within a day in Melbourne – sunny, rainy, windy, during winter even some slush. And quite frankly the same goes for the whole southern part of Victoria, based on my „extensive“ experience here. J In Melbourne I managed to spend just a couple of days unfortunately, but I’ve already taken off some days at work in January to stay there a bit longer. The first thing I liked were the trams. Moreover the city circle trams are free of charge, so that makes life a bit easier. I also quite liked the architecture of the new buildings in the Docklands area, a bit of a reminder of Hafen Hamburg, but not as bold in design.

Melbourne was founded in 1835 (47 years after the European settlement of Australia). Melbourne was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847. In 1851, it became the capital city of the newly created colony of Victoria. To read more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne.

Sunday was luckily a totally different story in regards of the weather, which gave me a perfect moment to go wondering. First up was the Central Market. The good thing about the big markets down under is that you can literally buy almost everything and anything you need from there. After that a quick look around the CBD area, the Shrine of Rememberance (built in 1934) – initially meant as a war memorial for the men and women who served in the WWI, but later (now) the memorial for all Australians who have served in war since (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrine_of_Remembrance). And what better way to spend a Sunday evening than enjoy live irish music in a pub with some imperial pints of beer (so far Victoria is the only place they serve real pint, not the joke-pint of 0,375ml).

On Monday I headed towards the other side of Port Phillip Bay, to Queenscliff where Sirli and Andrew were expecting me along with his grandfather – Andrew or commonly known as Pop. I felt good to arrive as living in hostels and not having a chance of unpacking my belongings is eventually tiring. The first days I just more or less relaxed, did almost nothing except went out and about with Sirli, went swimming and had a good chat with Pop. It blew my mind to hear he is 93 years old! And still fully alive, enjoying his beers and wine during every dinner. And he is a huge fan of Vana Tallinn as I was told. Well, a remarkable man he is!

AdventurePark is the place I found work at as an RA – Ride Attendant. So far the workhours have not been too great, but that’s just probably because I am comparing the farmwork and earning a lot more and working a lot longer. On the other hand as I am almost the oldest casual worker and have the great foreign accent I have still got a fair amount of hours. More will start to come after Christmas and in January when holidays really kick off! Last Friday we had a good night out in Geelong when Daniel invited me to come along as some of the casual staff headed out for a beer. It turned out to be a good and long evening as we unexpectedly met up with the whole management team. A good way to get to know everybody a lot more, including the owners.

 

 

The good thing I discovered here about golf is that you do not need a Green Card as you do in Estonia. So it really doesn’t matter how good or bad you are at playing golf, just rent a set of clubs, pay the fee and off you go. A couple of weeks ago I had a good time at Queenscliff Golf Course, located on isolated Swan Island. Otherwise it’s closed for public because of some military area being on it aswell, but if you are going for a game of golf, you are more than welcome to come in. And you can do it while some kangaroos won't let themselves be disturbed just there on the course. :) Golfing is probably something I will continue doing when back at home. Good fun this game! Also there’s a good beach for surfing in Ocean Grove, not too far from Queenscliff, but so far haven’t had time to go out there.

Now, probably the most interesting topic for everybody reading – Christmas celebrations in Australia. Fortunately enough I will have to experience how an Aussie family celebrates it as I will join Andrew’s family for that. Last weekend however we had a warm-up event when Bridie, Andrew’s sister had her birthday combined with housewarming party, again combined with pre-Christmas lunch. A big gathering, nice people, many dogs, heaps of food, more to drink, and one present from each. Stealing Santa has been their family tradition for many years. The idea is that everyone bought a present for up to 30aud and something that would be suitable of a grown-up. All presents were put in the centre of the room and the order of the people choosing the gifts was done. Then the first person picks a gift. The second person now has a chance of either to pick a new one from the pile or steal the previous present. The third one again has the same choice, either to pick a new one or steal a desirable one from those already picked and opened. The game is also known as White Elephant Gift Exchange or Thieving Secret Santa – read more on Wikipedia.

What concerns the actual Christmas, then so far I know here only the Christmas day is relatively important, 24th the Christmas Eve does not really get that much attention and then 26th is the Boxing Day which on one hand is a day where more or less everything is closed, but as I read it also tends to be a huge day for shopping. What is more correct – we’ll see! J Details about Xmas will follow in due time.

What concerns the New Year’s Eve then so far I do not exactly know. But as alwasy here, there’s a good chance something will come up J

Again it would be interesting to know how many people actually read all this I write here, so if you would give me some feedback, I’d be thankful!

Enjoy your Christmas everybody and take a chance of really taking the time off! J

Adelaide to Melbourne via Great Ocean Road

Day 1: Adelaide – Seppeltsfield – Robe

Day 2: Robe – Mt.Gambier – Coonawarra – Naracoorte – Halls Gap

Day 3: Halls Gap – Port Fairy

Day 4: Port Fairy

Day 5: Port Fairy – Great Ocean Road – Cape Otway – Apollo Bay

Day 6: Apollo Bay – Great Ocean Road via Lorne, Torquay – Melbourne

Total: about 1500km

Day 1

To start off the trip from Adelaide to Melbourne I picked up Johann and Stefania and headed 100km the opposite direction. It was not the GPS error, although it did freeze a couple of times, but I wanted to spend some money and try out the 100-year-old tawny portwine at Seppeltsfield. Long story short – it was well worth the 30aud I spent on it! And despite the offer consists of 2 tastings – one as a benchmark, a 10yo tawny and then 100yo, we were fortunate enough to get 4 tastings – additionally 21yo and 25yo. If you get a chance – go and try it!!

Next stop – some unexpected pink coloured saltlakes enroute in the middle of nowhere.

Robe was a nice small coastal town with a nice manorhouse serving as YHA hostel. Robe also offered a beautiful sunset on it’s rocky waterfront and a great chat with an aussie who just packed up his bus on day in Brisbane and took 6 months off to visit all the wine regions in Australia, meanwhile just surfing. Good man! J The beautiful coastline, sometimes rocky, is formed on limestone ground. Hence the name Limestone Coast, streching from Murray River mouth at Coorong to South Australia – Victoria boarder.

Day 2

Mt.Gambier was a town just as any other, except it had 3 lakes within, of volcanic nature. One of them acts as a water reservoir for the neighbourhood, yet is picturesque because of its turquoise blue colour. As it turns out, it only turns blue some time in November and stays this bright up to March, the rest of the year you’ll see it just greyish. So far they have not yet discovered why...

In addition to beautiful coastline, Limestone Coast plains have a good soil for agriculture (well, due to water draining as otherwise it would just be a huge swamp). Coonawarra, Limestome Coast wine region is a rare and dryer area within swamplands, a wellknown region for its terra rossa soil and Cabernet Savignon wines. It covers  a small area of 15x2km, perfect for growing vines. On our way throught Coonawarra we popped into Katnook Estate – aboriginal for „fat land“, refering to the rich red soil. Among others, tasted their Limited Release Shiraz and Cab-Sav – got to love a good red wine my friends! J

Naracoorte caves were the next planned stop which honestly was a big dissapointment to me. I was hoping to see something as natural as the caves in Czech Republic (well that was a loooong time ago since I was there), but instead it was a very touristy place, had to pay usless amount of money for an interactive show of extinct animals and one cave. Other caves were not accessable as they were tourguided only but each one of them only had 1-2 tours a day.

Halls Gap, located on the edge of the Grampians National Park on the other hand is a place worth visiting and if possible, staying for a couple of days. The Grampians (also Gariwerd) is a national park featuring a striking series of sandstone mountain ranges. It covers about 1672km2 and is a mountainrange just in the middle of plains. Our way there was a bit enduring as we encountered a few detours due the landslides earlier this year. According to locals they encountered severe rain which had not been seen for years already. And as everything takes time down under, well it sure will take some time to rebuild some roads. J Upon arrival we were hit by the first great sight – about 20-25 kangaroos just eating grass or boxing at the back of the hostel, not really caring much about crazy tourists flashing their cameras 1-2m away.

Day 3-4

Off to the Pinnacle, about a 5h walk, at least  according to the hostel reception, in total about 6km. The hike offered great views, a good workout, impressive emotions about how this place was formed thousands of years ago. As we decided to take a longer trail we did not exactly finish where we intended to, so at the end of the day covered almost 14km in 4h 20min with 1230m ascent! It sure was an effort but well worth it! The Pinnacle itself was about 730m above sealevel.

Next stop Port Fairy (named Belfast from 1854-1887) with a very pleasant homely and cosy hostel, again YHA. A good place to stick around and take a day off for a quick look around and just enjoying the sun and the beach. Port Fairy hosts a small national park on nearby Griffiths Island and it holds a breeding colony of the Short-tailed Shearwater or Australian Muttonbird with plenty of other wildlife. I happened to spot a wallaby - small kangaroo. They are a lot smaller than I anticipated!

Day 5

The Great Ocean Road (GOR) is a 243km stretch of road along the southern coast of Victoria between Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and is the world's largest war memorial dedicated to casualties of World War I. What makes the GOR so great is the natural beauty throughout the coastline. It’s really impressive what water has done to the cliffs and where the road itself has been built along the coast. As it later turned out, the best time to go visit al lthe sights along GOR is before 1-2pm, before the buses packed with tourists arrive from Melbourne. We were fairly lucky, just at the 12 Apostels we encountered hundreds of people desperate to get a nice shot of the singlestanding rocks. But let the photos speak for themselves.

Cape Otway is the southern point on the GOR, much of which is enclosed in the Otway National Park. On 1846 a lighthouse was built on Cape Otway, being the second lighthouse completed on mainland Australia and still remains the oldest surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia. The road to the lighthouse went through a thick gumtree forest, but with no koalas at sight. Then all of a sudden some people were standing on the road all looking at branches of a gumtree – 3 koalas just waking up from their beautysleep and about to carry on doing the second most favourite thing – eating eucalyptus leaves. Despite the lightshouse being already closed for visitors, the detour towards Cape Otway was well worth it, seeing those drowsy animals in wild is just how you should see them. Later that evening I found out that from about 2000 different gumtree varieties, koalas only eat the leaves from 12, being very picky about what they put into their mouth. The reason is that eucalyptus leaves are very toxic and and those 12 are just less toxic than others. No wonder parts of the forest enroute were full of green gumtrees while elsewhere only blank trunks were left behind by koalas. After a mighty meal they seemingly fall asleep, partly because the leaves are toxic and intoxicating, partly because they are very hard to digest. This is also why only koalas eat those leaves.

Day 6

Apollo Bay during a rainy day is pretty bloody boring! Just as most of the other coastal towns where the majority of businesses deal with either accomodation, catering or surfing and other watersports along with respective retails. Despite the eagerness of going to surf the rainy and cold weather worked against it. So the best thing to do in Apollo Bay was to visit a cellar door of Bay of Apostles – actually a Coonawarra region winery, but part of their business originating from Apollo Bay region. J

A  bottle of 2008 Shiraz is what made my visit worth while and off we drove towards... somewhere. Initial ideas was to spend another night either in Lorne, Torquay, both popular surftowns or Queenscliff, but unfortunately we could not foresee all the hostel would be fully booked. Too bad for those who were looking for a nice sunny weekend on the beach, you just got rain! Melbourne, here we come!

Additional photos available on Picasa.

WWW vol.2

Monday was just a stiff day off really. Stiff just because of the tense physical day that just had passed. However met up with a German girl Iris who had a plan of going to Barossa Valley for a wine tour. As I had not yet been there myself, we decided to book the day trip for next day, it’s always better to have some company than no company. And as also nobody from my hostel, at least who I had been talking to was very keen about this idea then I just grabbed a chance of someone to go together with. The good thing about these organized trips is that you do not have to worry about getting there, not tasting too many good wines because you’re driving nor choosing out the wineries – everything has been done for you. So Tuesday morning at 8am I was picked up by the tourbus and after picking up the rest of the happy wineenthusiasts we were good to go. Almost. As it turned out the busdriver had some kind of a health issue which resulted in waiting for another driver to arrive. 

At Jacob's Creek

First up was well-known Jacob’s Creek winery, owned by Pernod Ricard Group. From there I bought myself a 2008 Limited Release Sangiovese which is not being sold in retail, just at cellar door. Good stuff!! Next up – Kies, a small family estate. From there I got a 2010 Sparkling Moscato. After that we paid a visit to Richmond Grove, another winery owned by Pernod Ricard. They ofcourse had some lovely wines there, but nothing of too much interest at that point because tummies (read: stomach) were already empty and a nice meal in a pub in Tanunda town was waiting.

Seppeltsfield 100yo

After lunch the highlight of the day – Seppeltsfield! This place is amazing! As you make your way towards the cellar door you drive along a few kilometers of road bordered by long palmtrees, over 2000 of them alltogether. The story behind those palmtrees is that when Australia was suffering from the Great Depression back in 1930’s the owner of the winery did not sack the employees but kept them occupied by planting the trees. As the economy got stronger, Seppeltsfield did not need to worry about finding and training necessary employees, instead they were quickly back on tracks. According to themselves, Seppeltsfield is the only winery in the world to have a barrel of fortified wine of every vintage since 1900. They actually sell them even dating back to as far as 1880! For tasting they offer exactly 100 year old wine, costing 30aud.

On the way back we did not make it without any problems either – the bus broke down and it resulted is all of us waiting for about 1 hour for a replacement. Made it back in one piece though, so all in all it was a good day out in the Barossa Valley!

On Wednesday I decided to head out from the city and booked another YHA hostel for 2 nights in Port Elliot, about an hours drive south. En-route I went through another popular wine region McLaren Vale and obviously could not resist stopping there. Went to Wirra Wirra and Leaconfield / Richard Hamilton Wines. Both again exceptionally good producers, at the first one I was very close to getting my hands on one of their awarded and noted The Absconder Grenache from 2010, but the pricetag of 65aud just set me back a little. Next stop Leconfield and I left the cellardoor with 2 Rieslings – 2011 Noble Riesling and 2011 Leconfield Old Wines Riesling. They were good and fairly different to those Rieslings you might usually get in Australia. Sweeter, yet still crisp and full of citrus characters. Got to love a good wine! J Next stop was Victor Harbor, which is here known for quite a few attractions – 

Fairy Penguins

Granite Island

Granite Island with the worlds’ smallest penguins; Horse Drawn Tram connecting Victor Harbor and Granite Island, it’s one of the few still left in the world for public service and a Cockle Train – a steam locomotive connecting Victor Harbor and Goolwa, including the oldest rail route in Australia, between Port Elliot and Goolwa. Also between June and September it is a popular place for whale spotting as they come to these waters to calve and mate. The town itself was nothing too special, just another nice costal town, the Granite Island without the Fairy Penguins (that’s what they are called) would have been just the same. However the penguins can usually be spotted during late hours as they return from sea, but the island also has a small research facility where penguins that have been hurt and cannot be release back into the wild are being taken care of. About 14 of them were out and about when it was due time to get a nice meal of fresh fish. The penguin is about 30cm tall and weighs 1,5kg, but some with less that 500g have also been spotted (and saved).

Just on the cliff there is a good hostel

Port Elliot YHA hostel is located on a B-E-A-utiful spot looking just over the Horseshoe Bay. It was a good escape from busy city life. Booked myself surf lesson for next day and enjoyed the evening with some tasty beers I bought along from Seppeltsfield (yeah, they also brew their own beer). Surfing however is good fun! Luckily our group that day consisted just of 3 people + the trainer, the weather was nice and sunny but not too warm and waves big enough for beginners. Another activity in the ist of „got to find time and equipment to improve my skills“. J And honestly, it is a good effort to spend 2 hours in the water trying to get the wave, stand up on the board and stay on there. That evening was quite a short one, just tired, but great emotions! As I drove back to Adelaide on Friday I caught myself thinking that this country has just too much to offer, too many great and extraordinary places, people, things to see and do.

On Friday I also got confirmation about me not going to travel to Melbourne on my own as I got a call from Stefania and Johann, a couple from Iceland who were interested in coming along and did not have a tight schedule. We met up in Port Dock Brewery in Port Adelaide to go through some details and agreed to head out Monday morning. Good stuff! J

WWW (Wine-Wine-Wine)

Friday 4th November was the last day at Oakville Potatoes and it was almost looking like the history would repeat itself as I was almost going to be pulling down some sand on the pivots again. Well, wasn’t quite that bad, I was just ploughing untill 2pm and then decided it was a good time to call it a day, pack my belongings into the car and head off to Adelaide. This time I decided to take a different route and avoid driving the highway. Instead I went a shorter yet slower route through the scenic Adelaide Hills, a bit futher north to where I had already been. Too bad I just don’t have a hot-hatchback car which would take me through the tight, winding road with a lot more fun. Still, it was a good fun and indeed a scenic drive!

Richie (manager) & me

Me & Andy

Before all that happened, there was the last week. I thought I’d try to get as many workhours as possible but all in all, it didn’t matter that much anyhow. Tuesday, the first Tuesday in November is the famous day of Melbourne Cup – the race that stops the nation they say. And it’s true! Melbourne Cup is a horserace and has a long history background here, therefore also very important. We finished work at 11am, had a shower and headed off to Nildottie Hall to see it all unfold. Didn’t think much, put on a t-shirt and shorts and drove up. Bad idea! As soon as I saw people arriving all dressed up – suits, shining shoes, women with long evening dresses and hats looking as they are heading to a royal wedding, I turned around to get changed again! And it was over 30 degrees that day. So back I was, wearing my best I have along, went in and was handed a complimentary greeting drink with sparkling wine and orange juice, glad it wasn’t vodka! After that it was ofcourse time to have beer, many of them. That’s the tradition and how could I not participate.

There were 6 races before the main event but no-one seemed to draw much attention to those – all that mattered was the final race. To make a long story short – I don’t get it! But I also do not know much of the history of that event either. Let’s just say there was another reason to get pissed again (read: get drunk).

On my last evening, Thursday, we, all the young generation employees met up at the pub for a nice last pubnight at Swan Reach. Apparently I had been a fairly good employee because Richie, our manager covered my food expences that night. What more to do than to finally try out a kangaroo steak. And being honest I quite liked it – nice and tenderly cooked, has a distinctive taste but all in all I suggest to have as I did – medium raw. Otherwise it’ll just be too dry and stiff.

Ooh, last weekend Andy and Pete got their sponsorships confirmed, so they are allowed to stay in Australia for at least 4 more year, and among other benefits they can also get finanzing, say for new cars. That's what they did, bought a new (used) car. Andy got himself a V8 Ford Falcon ute. Too bad I did not get to drive it myself, but luckily I got to sit on the passengerseat for a quick show-off! What an engine is a V8!! What and engine!

In Adelaide I had booked a place in a room of 6 in YHA hostel, the one I stayed in on my last visit 2 weeks before. It was nice a clean and quiet so why not. Thought to have an early night but remembered the Estonian House had the bar open so I decided to have look and get another Saku Kuld for a good night sleep. It turned out to be a good night as I met some other young fellow Estonians – Maret and Kristo. Had a good chat with them and Toomas, the barman was obviously enjoying a good night aswell because Vana Tallinn with milk was on the house that night. Good times! J Finished off the night early though because Saturday morning was the one I had long been waiting for – wine course at National Wine Centre!

9.20am and it was already very close to 30degrees as I was making my way to towards the venue. A quick chicken wrap with a coffee on the go and then I understood why it’s a good thing they also sell iced coffee here – my forehead was running with moisture at the first sip! Nontheless, 10min before the course start I had successfully survived the city jungle and the heat without too much sweating.

- Do you know why many of the premium wineries plant roses to either end of the winetree lines?

- Or why do vines not like wet feet?

- Or how long should you let a red wine „breathe“ before pouring it into a glass?

During the first day we went through whites and reds, how they are made, which methods in the make bring out which characteristics etc. Obviously too much information for anyone who starts the day off knowing there are 20 different wines to be tasted. And what wines – from large, wellknown producers to very small familiy owned ones, from 5aud to 60aud a bottle ones. But it is soo interesting and sooo good the get some knowledge about it! The group is 25 people of different age and background, a good and funny bunch. J

The day finished back in the hostel with hacing a great talk with two guys called Matt – one a Kiwi (read: New Zealand) backpacker aged 29 and a Queensland 24 year-old ex-soldier who had done 2 missions to Afgan and 2 other to East Timor. It was just overwhelming to hear what he had gone through and experienced and seen during that time!

Sunday morning began with a 7am wake up to get myself ready for a sporty, outdoorsy day. Liis and Jackson had invited me to come along to one of their friends’ cottage Tailem Bend by Murray River. As I had noticed before the river is among other things also a well-used recreational place for fishing and watersports – waterskiing, wakeboarding etc. When leaving the city the weather did not seem too promising but as it usually is here – city can be completely different to what happens behind the hills and by the river. Same story again. Arriving to Tailem Bend and the sun was shining, temperature had picked up, just the wind was a bit too strong yet that didn’t really bother anyone anyhow. A short while later and the boat was in the water, all necessary gear loaded into it and with everyone onboard the show began. Jackson’s friends were obviously experienced while as my last and first waterskiing experience dates back some 8 years I guess, also with two skies instead on single ski. So obviously that didn’t work for me. Nor did the wakeboard. Then again, I tried to get up from the water for about 5 times while as another guy who tried the same the day before could still not get up on the board after 20-25 times. But no worries, the water was suprisingly warm and I had my fun trying. Eventually I still managed to get afloat, but with an airfilled tube „biscuit“ towed behind the boat. And that was loads of fun!! They said that even the most grumpy man will be grinning after having a go with that. All in all – it was a really good day with new people, fun activities and Australian national drink – beer. J

Other stories in vol.2.

Good times!

A great weekend, just under 10 more days of farmwork left, expectation of the small roadtrip on Great Ocean Road towards Melbourne, uncertainty of what is yet to come. COOL!

Last Friday the Adelaide Estonian House hosted another pub night, this time around OctoberEST. It was a great night actually, especially because I met Liis and Jackson, a nice couple of similar age as me. She’s Estonian, he’s native Aussie (who is actually a native Aussie?). We had a good laugh and good talk, plenty of Saku Kuld beers accompanied by shots of Vana Tallinn and Viru Valge. J And Matt, another fellow at the bar that night could not really believe himself speaking German with me. Thrat required another shot of Vana Tallinn. I knew I was going to have a weary Saturday with a solid hangover, and it was all worth it! Even considering the morning after. Slept pretty much untill 2pm before I decided to go out and enjoy a sunny day at downtown Adelaide. Later that night I met up with Liis and Jackson again for a dinner at a chinese restaurant. I was a good fun, partly because they had their friends Adam and Dani along. As it turned out, Adam was on exchange in Sweden in 04/05 with YFU, so he was officially the first person here who I’ve met with a relation to YFU.

Sunday was a busy day heading back to Nildottie with the hope of getting my new car stereo and speakers installed. Decided to buy the whole package because what I previously had in there, we’ll let’s just say there was a box which produced some sounds. Nevertheless, it all started off nice before I understood I needed some washers to fasten the speakers. Despite my accurate measuring I had made a small mistake. Happens. The quick trip to work ended up having a good 6pack of beers, first at work as some colleagues had just finished off a hard days work and had a good beer and lateron at Ben’s house, our big manager who just invited the whole bunch over for a good arvo (read: afternoon) beer. Eventually I finished off my small DIY (Do It Yourself) project on Monday evening, successfully! Everything works and it’s good to have your own music coming from the speakers (thanks to a USB connection the stereo has). It all summed up to 268aud, which is far less than I was almost ready to spend.

Today is Tuesday, which means I have only 9 more days here before I head back to Adelaide. This time I really do plan not to come back here again. J Instead I’ll have the wine course on 5.Nov and 12.Nov and after that it’s a good road trip towards Victoria, Melbourne!

it's been a while...

... 3 weeks to be precise. The reason is I’ve been busy and lazy and not too much has happened within one week to write about. So it took me 3 to write again. J

This much has changed – I’ve got a housemate, Stephen, 25 from Ireland. To be honest he arrived just a couple of hours after I posted my last story. He’s alright, we get along well and most importantly it’s the fact of having some company.

A week after his arrival came a new change. We got a notice we need to move the house. Frankly that story about moving to a new place was around already long before I got to Nildottie in the first place, but as I’ve said, things to take (a lot of) time around here. The new place is about halfway from work, just some 500m away from Nildottie centre (read: store and hall) and 5min drive to work, instead of previous 10min drive. Outside it looked like another house which has not been used for a long while, but apparently it’s the way things actually do look here. The bright side is that it was all cleaned up and there is not too much to complain about. Except we still do not have a decent tv reception and the watertaps (except shower) are separate for hot and cold (which is precisely what you get – HOT and COLD).

truckdriver

At work I’ve had fairly busy days, last week we started planting potatoes again, which means 5am starts and about 12-14 hour days. The same will go on for a while so nice hours and good money is on it’s way. Meanwhile I have also registered myself on a winecourse in Adelaide taking place on Nov.5 and Nov.12. Therefore the last day of work here stays also firm – Nov.4 which means just 4 more weeks to go. After that, as I already said last time, it’s quite probable I will head towards Melbourne, have a look at the Great Ocean Road (http://www.visitvictoria.com/Regions/Great-Ocean-Road.aspx & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ocean_Road) and probably spend about a week doing that. Whatever happens thereafter, well, we’ll see.

Also I will probably go to Adelaide in 2 weeks and attend another Esto Pub Night in Adelaide Estonian House. This time’s theme is OctoberEST.

Added some photos to picasa, so feel free to have a look. J

Never say never

As I left Nildottie some 1,5 months ago I stopped at a sign and made a photo of it – Farewell to Nildottie. Meanwhile thinking I was glad to put that part of my life behind me, yet not saying I will never come back. True that, because here I am once again. :)

Last time I mentioned about an interview I had lined up for Monday. It went well, but as everything here takes time, they also could not tell me if and when could they actually employ me. And as it was a public sector employer, well things might take even longer. So to keep myself busy I, among others, also called the recruitment agency who found me the farm work last time, and asked them if they had knowledge of any possible emploment opportunity near Adelaide or Melbourne area. Well they did – back here in Nildottie. To be honest I am not entirely happy about it but on the other hand, work is work and as long as it pays, I cannot complain. Moreover as the work itself is already familiar then now I am actually getting paid a bit more – farm hand level 2. It’s not much of a difference, but still something.

Other than that, nothing too much to say about, except... Within the first 2 days at work I already had 3 small issues – on Friday I somehow lost the dieseltank cork on the tractor I was working with, on Saturday I hit my head and got a small bleeding (nothing to worry about!) and later I managed to get a flat tyre. But as trouble always come in threes, then it should be enough for me. :)

What I have decided however, is that if anything else does not come along, I will be working here max up untill 4.Nov. After that I will take a wine course in Adelaide and spend another week there just enjoying the beach and hopefully surfing and thereafter I will try to move on towards Melbourne. But, as everything changes here with a short notice, then I will not promise anything either. :)

As it we are steadilyheading towards summer here then the temperatures have also changed a fair bit. Friday morning as I headed to work it was already nice and warm at 6.45AM. During the day we actually had 26 degrees. Satruday was even better - 33 degrees but a heavy wind made it just impossible to enjoy. Nevertheless, as I have been told, temperatures over 40 degrees are not incommon either. So let's wait and see what this place has to offer.

Catch you later and all the best!