h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello everybody 

It’s the end of another week, so it must be time to witter to you all. No stray bugs or lurgies have come my way and I didn’t pass anything nasty on to J or G thank goodness.

Despite missing being able to watch Wimbledon and wishing that I was in Orkney, it’s been a cracker of a week.

My wizzbang old/new car passed its Road Worthy Inspection last weekend and I’ll be collecting it tomorrow morning. Then it’s straight to the auto store to buy a few essentials like a fire extinguisher and some foot mats. Rest assured that you’ll hear all about it in the near future. I don’t think I’ve ever been in the slightest bit excited about a car before. What’s happening to me?

There was 48 hours’ continuous rain at the start of the week, so I’ve had a couple of really long, luxurious showers with no guilt And there’s more forecast for Sunday (rain and long showers for Fb). The avocado picking boys can’t work in the rain (is the fruit to slippery?) so we had nothing to pack on Tuesday and had the day off. I didn’t mind.

I took the opportunity to shift all my belongings into the caravan and I now have my ‘Nest’ over there.

I arrived here with a backpack (stuffed to overflowing), a duffle bag (ditto) and a handbag (ditto). In just three months I have enough clobber to fill an additional two large plastic boxes, a bedding bag and two buckets. Now how did that happen? It’s just as well I’m getting a car to put it all into.

The Nest is 100m from the house and faces north over the goat paddock, to the wooded slope that makes up about half of the property. Although it’s under a shed roof, which keeps the dew off, it’s still pretty cold in the mornings. I’m going to buy a small heater tomorrow, which will save me a lot of dawn goose-bumps.

It’s down to a few degrees Centigrade at wake-up time now. My doona is looking like the buy of the year to date (although I’m kind of hoping that the car will take on that title after tomorrow) and J has also lent me her arctic sleeping bag, which I needed for a couple of hours early this morning. I’m toasty warm under that lot, but it’s awful having to unwrap myself at 5:30am to go to work.

People have been asking me (well, person has asked me) what I wear at work. I think this is the first time that I dress ‘down’ to go to work. Until the last week or so I’ve been in shorts, t-shirt, sweatshirt, my walking boots and gloves. Now I’m in trousers, t-shirt, sweatshirt, fleece gilet, boots and gloves. Almost all of the above were from the charity shop in Childers and none cost me more than $2-50

Gloves are essential, because 8000 avocadoes can really hurt your fingers; they are quite rough-skinned (and I’m not). So I wear a pair of thin cotton gloves, of the kind that you see people wearing to touch ancient scripts in museums, and a pair of latex ones over the top of them. The cotton soaks up the sweat from my hands and the latex prevents the gunk and moisture from the just-cleaned avocadoes from getting to my skin. I know when it’s time for a break because I have a burst-out right thumb most days.

When I’m packing my mind goes into a kind of stasis. I have to tick over to make sure that the right avocado goes into the right box, but now that I have mastered the knack, the concentration required is minimal, although I can’t think about anything in depth and conversations are guaranteed to end up in avocado avalanches. Mostly my mind mirrors the repetitive nature of the work. Short song phrases hummed over and over, or single words and names roll around my mind endlessly. Thus my brain becomes numbed to the oh-so-slow passage of time.

The busier I am, the faster time passes. It is fatal to look at my watch, but the temptation to clock-check is overwhelming when my back and shoulders are crying out for a break. If I succumb, it is never late enough. It is never just five minutes until smoko or lunch. More often than not my brain clock is at least 30 minutes ahead of my wristwatch and that half hour becomes the longest, most drawn-out and most achey of the entire day.

No, it is much better to put my brain back into automaton mode and push the thought of sitting down to the back of my mind.

Stretch, straighten, pack, fill, lift, bend, straighten,
Stretch, straighten, pack, fill, lift, bend, straighten ……

Hey presto…! The shout through the shed of “SMOKO!” comes as a welcome surprise and I think to myself “Goodness, that session went by quickly” as I sink into a chair for the fastest 20 minutes of the day.

I’m in it for the money. There is no other reason on this earth that anybody would do this job. Another day; another $100. I sleep pretty well and it doesn’t seem to be doing my brain any lasting harm…


Well, I think that’s most of the news. The baby goats are doing just fine. They gambol and jump about like kids should. Knife is developing rather fetching white bits on his brown ears, thus making him more distinguishable than Fork, Billy and Kid. They all look alike, with white bodies and brown heads. Oats, of course, is very easy to spot being a snowy-goat.


Six Fb

I'll be home after 10am tomorrow, looking forward to seeing you and the new car

nice to know I'm not the only one that has song phrases or bits in their head usually the same line over.. and over..... and over.....

finally got some work today, and looks like all next week too, managed to put my back to the clock today, best possy ever, much coveted

Great that you're getting a vehicle, which will help you to be mobile. Distances in Oz probably mean that going by bike is less possible (although I know a couple to went through Oz on their bikes, carrying tent and everything in side panniers. Mind you, they were *very* disciplined about stripping down to essentials.

I'm not up to cycling round Oz, ZSF. It'll take me over a day driving to get to Sydney from here How long would it take pedalling?

Just so long as this old car keeps on going, I'll be happy