Farm Experience: Tuesday, 7th December, 2004
"I met Tony's wife, Joan, today. She has come up from Perth to stay at the farm for the week along with her nephew Tom. Anyway, the shearing day has been made all the more bearable because of her. She invited me to go up to their house for lunch, which, previously I was having in the shed with the other shearers and rouseabouts. Lunch at their house is pure bliss. There was air conditioning! haha... nevertheless she was a fantastic host. I was quite taken aback by her preparing a towel especially for me to wipe my face in that bathroom. Was my face that dirty? I had brought my prepared lunch up to join them for a meal, but ended up eating what they were having instead. Joan prepared an amazing pasta salad and iced coffee with ice-cream and chocolate mud cake. Even though I had been politely declining Len and Gail's offers of sweets after dinner, I simply couldn't refuse Joan's hospitality. For some strange reason, I felt really comfortable having a meal with them even though I haven't really met them before this, and I assumed it was because they were city people, just like me. Tom, the cute-looking nephew ;P , came to work at the farm for the week for the first time due to requests from his aunt and uncle, and from our short conversations I could tell that he was having difficulties adapting to the sudden change.
Anyway, time passes ever so slowly. The only relief I get is from thinking about returning to Perth on Friday. Activities in the shed has become to routine-like that my brain has stopped functioning altogether and my body moves automatically to where I'm needed. No amount of insect repellent seems to repel the flies, which irritatingly attack the sensitive areas on your face - the mouth, the ears, the nostrils, and the eyes. For me, the major piss-off point is really along the eyelids. I could never figure out why the fly would want to walk along the eyelids. Do they seek a hideout among the eyelashes? that seems pretty dumb to me. I feel like a horse sometimes, using my ponytail to deflect flies when I shake my head. If the flies were invisible, I would look like a complete idiot. And I get really worried when flies fly dangerously close to the nostril. It makes me wonder if any would be stupid to fly up and get stuck in there. A couple flew into some people's mouths, and that's when you hear occasional spitting noises from people around you. Fortunately that hasn't happened to me yet.
We took the 4-wheel motorbikes for a spin this evening, as promised earlier. Gail said that as long as I could drive, it shouldn't be a problem for me. Frankly I think that even a non-driver would be able to handle it. It was thrilling enough if you went fast on the motorbike, and although there's not really much of a view other than dried up grass on the hills, sheep and more sheep, the sunset at that time provided quite a nice setting to the experience. Len brought 2 of his dogs along, which kept trying to jump onto the bike... I think they were just too excited about being let free after a week of being cooped out in their pen. We spent a good 30 minutes at least on the bikes moving a mob of sheep from a drying-up dam to another paddock with a better supply of water, and by the end of it, I was thoroughly satisfied. "
Anyway, time passes ever so slowly. The only relief I get is from thinking about returning to Perth on Friday. Activities in the shed has become to routine-like that my brain has stopped functioning altogether and my body moves automatically to where I'm needed. No amount of insect repellent seems to repel the flies, which irritatingly attack the sensitive areas on your face - the mouth, the ears, the nostrils, and the eyes. For me, the major piss-off point is really along the eyelids. I could never figure out why the fly would want to walk along the eyelids. Do they seek a hideout among the eyelashes? that seems pretty dumb to me. I feel like a horse sometimes, using my ponytail to deflect flies when I shake my head. If the flies were invisible, I would look like a complete idiot. And I get really worried when flies fly dangerously close to the nostril. It makes me wonder if any would be stupid to fly up and get stuck in there. A couple flew into some people's mouths, and that's when you hear occasional spitting noises from people around you. Fortunately that hasn't happened to me yet.
We took the 4-wheel motorbikes for a spin this evening, as promised earlier. Gail said that as long as I could drive, it shouldn't be a problem for me. Frankly I think that even a non-driver would be able to handle it. It was thrilling enough if you went fast on the motorbike, and although there's not really much of a view other than dried up grass on the hills, sheep and more sheep, the sunset at that time provided quite a nice setting to the experience. Len brought 2 of his dogs along, which kept trying to jump onto the bike... I think they were just too excited about being let free after a week of being cooped out in their pen. We spent a good 30 minutes at least on the bikes moving a mob of sheep from a drying-up dam to another paddock with a better supply of water, and by the end of it, I was thoroughly satisfied. "
posted by Min @ 5:31 PM
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