This is long---sorry bout that. I tried to split it into sections so you can pick and choose=]
21/3/14
Oh my gosh. Sometimes God outdoes himself. I have been somewhat freaking out the past week or so about where to go/what to do next. I'm such a planner and not having at least a BIT of a plan is destroying me! Anyways. so i've been praying about that the past two days--for finances and where to go. Well, what do ya know a french kid gets a job at the cafe and ends up telling me all about this place he's been working. His gf is making around $20k in 7 months and the place is bigger than here with more free wifi, cheap housing and lots of backpackers to meet and hang out with. So all those problems? Where to go. What to do. How to meet some new people. Money. SOLVED. Something else could always come up of course, but generally I am planning on heading out of here around the beginning of May and working in this new place for a few months and seeing how things go. BUT, God is so good. I feel so much better about life, knowing that there's this place i can go where it's really really easy to get a job and i can make good money. Oh and the funniest thing about how this prayer got answered? This guy literally only worked here 5 days. Like came, decided he wanted to go back and left. hahhah In that time though he was able to tell me about this place, give me his info and tell me to let him know when i got there. hahah oh man. I love it. AND the adventure continues. God has been so so good since i've been here in a multitude of ways. But way numero dos was bringing a good girlfriend to Barcy in the form of the lovely Meg. We're planning a roadtrip at the end of May heading up to Darwin and then left towards the west coast. We're not quite sure on timing yet and everything, but so pumped to do even a short adventure. Now the biggest thing is trying to find a car before then. So Mick and the two of us have been on car search duty for a while hoping to find something cheap that can be fixed up a bit easily.
Other than those two major additions to my life....things are fairly normal. I have such a routine here that many of the things I can talk about are things that really aren't all that exciting, but rather just fun thigns i've done since being here. Nonetheless i'll list some off so you can get an idea of how things go=]
1. FOOD
Meg and I have gone muffin and Sangria crazy a few times and made a bunch of different types of each at the shop when things have been slow. Delicious and wonderful. Plus experimenting with the two....so so good.
2. BIRTHDAYS
Will (Frenchie)'s birthday was early April so Meg and I went all out to make a hilarious card and present for him. Then we all got to have some pavlova that Sharon got, and a gajillion other desserts along with an awesome dinner courtesy of Mick. Some friends came by as well so it was all in all a solidly fun night.
3. RUGBY
I went to a rugby match about a week or so ago to see a friend play and OH MAN am I glad I went. I don't remember all the rules to rugby anymore, but the game got stopped mid-way through cause a guy broke his arm, and then about 2 minutes later all the sprinklers went off. hahah it was hilarious. And we still won the game! YAY!
4. HORSES
I got the chance to head down to the large paddock where they keep the rest of their horses a while back and bring back 5 more horses to the house. One of them was for their son to ride, one to break, one to sell, and 2 to shoe and muster (when you go round up cattle/sheep). It was so wonderful to see horses running basically free out there in their herds and just so much fun to see Mick and Sharon in their element. Also, we got to see a little pup who is half dingo, and then we may or may not have kissed a decaying pig-snout. Since being back we've gotten to watch Mick break a pretty little horse that Meg named Tia, as well as geld a little palomino colt named Gabe. Gelding Gabe was hilarious (albrit I was not there for it) because Miia, the new girl passed out before they cut off the second ball hahah. ahh well.
Let's see....oh! And then Mick preg-tested Henri's horse Ginger. And SHE'S IN FOAL! To be fair a ton of the horses in the field were also in foal, but Ginger's a sweetheart so it was exciting. Plus it was funny to see Mick with his hand halfway up her bum feeling for a foal while Sharon and I tried to keep her calm.
5. WORK
Tourist season has finally hit Barcy which has been awesome. The shop make s abunch more money, we get to see and meet way more interesting people and it's just generally more exciting due to busy-ness. One day Will and I were working and we were running around like crazy due to a bit of a rush and in an attempt to get something out of the fridge i pulled an entire shelf out and spilled this giant box of jalapenos. And it was one of those days you just couldn't stop to clean for even a moment, so for like an hour there were just jalapenos sitting on the floor we had to jump over to grab hamburgers and bacon and whatever else. hahhaha ughh. But as annoying as that stuff is, you just have to learn to laugh at it and move on. We both were cracking up making our burgers everytime we wentt on that side ofo the kitchen cause it just looked ridiculous. OH! and on top of that Will ended up spilling a ton of chicken oil all over the counter out frontt because he wasn't watching it. So....it was an adventurous day. But, in general work is pretty good. Can get a little hectic somedays if lots of tourists come in. Will and Meg were working a few days back and when we came in tto switch shifts there were LITERALLY dishes all over the floor beneath thhe sink because they had run out of space in and on the sink to put them. Will was like on his knees cleaning trach off and trying to get them into organized piles just to clean. It was absurd. Then last week, two of the guys came in drunk to help Meg and I out for the late night shift (we get all the drunks post-pub) and ended up getting in a fight with one of the customers while the other one was getting hit on by old ladies outside. it was hilarious. And terrible.
6. DRIVING
The other day Mitch took me out to a nearby motocross track to help teach me to drive stick! Success! Honestly, it wasn't too bad, I just can't reverse to save my life. Prior to this happening I should mention he tried to run down 4 emus that were chilling together and then we finshed our lesson with him taking me out to this place where guys go post-pub to do idiotic things with their cars and proceeded to give me a demonstration of a burn out and hard-core donuts. I wish I had a video. I was laughing and screaming the entire time. But, overall a successful afternoon.
7. DAY TO DAY
I don't know that i've given ya'll a day to day of what happens here so i'll go ahead and do that. Basically you work either a morning or evening shift at work (8:30-3/4 or 3/4 to 8:30) during the week. I usually work mornings. So you day basically goes, work, come home, throw your stuff down, feed and water the horses, chooks and dogs. Let the dogs run, and clean out their cages. Water flowers if morning shift didn't already, and then hangout on the veranda. For a week ro so we went to the pool a lot but thhe pool recently closed so that was that. But, usually friends come over to hangout and have a few beers on the veranda or out by the horses for a bit until we have dinner around 8:30pm or so. Mick and Sharon are awesome cooks so we always have delicious meals courtesy of them, and often are eating meat that they've killed or caught themselves which is awesome. Every once in a while Sharon will take Meg and I out for a ride (in fact, one day we went out and ended up having to rescue thehse two other horses that had gotten out of their paddock haha). But, that's been awesome and It's so nice to just be able to be around horses again for a bit.=]
Random Aussie phrases i'm slowly and unintentionally adding to my vocab.
I'm chockers mate. -- I'm full.
Too easy! -- No Problem.
Crook -- sick
Feed the chooks, will ya! -- Go feed the chickens.
Ya reckon that will work? -- Ya think that'll work
So that's kinda my life right now. It's fun. It's so different from anything i'd be doing at home. There are a ton of great people here to hang out with, look at stars with (the stars are EPIC here), make sangria and laugh about stupid would you rather questions. It's funny cause there are days i can't stand it here, but overall i know that when i leave it's going to be like leaving home again. In some ways it will be worse, because i know that while I might see Meg and Will again, the chances of me seeing the Cann family again after this are slim to none. Tears will be shed. But, until then. Good times, great friends, grand adventures.=]
