i’ve become a giant onion!?!

it’s been a week since running from the witch of oceania and getting here in hastings. day off today. i didn’t really plan to have rest day until sunday but yesterday after work, delta (contractor) told us there will be no work today, and we have to wait for sussie’s call for the next work. i’m not sure if i’m going to be happy as my body definitely needed some rest, or anxious as of course it means no pay.

the day before yesterday was a change as we worked in an onion farm (white onions). it’s an hourly job, which is nice and more lucrative than contract in my case, however, the smell is terrible. in the morning, it was quite alright as the morning dew makes the atmosphere a bit pleasant, smells like fresh onion in the kitchen, but as the sun goes high, it was horrible. the field is hectares in size and we’re a total of just 4 people to clear everything up. basically the work is removing the weeds and wild grasses growing along the onion rows. sounds easy enough, but believe me, doing that in the vastness of annoyingly nasal flavor is a challenging task. in comparison to vineyard, it is more relaxed and less stress as we don’t have to push ourselves to limit as we get paid hourly. in the vineyard, we do everything as fast as we can (even our lunch!) just so we get more pay. in the onion farm, we even had a short break in the morning and afternoon apart from the 30-minute lunch. after working 10.5 hours with the onions, you could just imagine my stench. i am indeed a giant onion. i managed to sneak in 2 onion bulbs in my camera bag! haha. ’should have got more than that!

as soon as i get back to the hostel, took a shower and scrubbed my skin as hard as i can but it hurts a bit now. probably because of the sun, ‘will really really have to put on more sunscreen as the ozone hole is directly above in this part of the globe. skin cancer is the most common cancer in this country, as so in australia. also, i would like to report that i am so dark now! this is the darkest skin i’ve ever had.

yesterday work, i was reunited with the grapes. it’s still leaf plucking work (tandem with helen), and after doing 6 rows (that many because the leaves are not much) in contract, we we worked hourly (for 2 hours) for grapes thinning. the work is removing excessive fruits in a single stem so that grapes will not overcrowd and there will be enough space for them as they mature. the work itself is not very hard as there’s no bending or much crooking (as in the onions), but judging which bunch of fruit to remove is not so easy. the fruits are really multitude often they seem to fight for space and tangle with each other. during leaf plucking job, i feel bad for the fruits i accidentally plucked, but now, i realize they most of them will be removed anyway. we get as much as 50% unripe fruits, no wonder why grapes are expensive.

just when the work is a bit relaxing (we even had time to play around with the grapes, making some grapes bomb and throwing to other lanes), delta said we don’t need to come in today. so last night, i did not prepare my lunch box and i was so tired that i was in bed as early as 9 or 10pm (it was just starting to get dark at that time here). this morning, around half past 6, i was awaked by my phone and i’m very certain i did not turn my alarm on last night. it was a call from sussie (contractor) and says she’s gonna pick us up in 30 minutes for work! whatta! i went to helen’s room and told her about it, but we agreed to have this day off as we’re not in shape nor prepared our food.

so i went back to bed, and continued my disturbed repose, waking up at around 10 in the morning, so making a 12-hour sleep. not bad. threw in 2 circles of hokey pokey cookies in my mouth (they are lovely!) and gulped some choco milk straight from the bottle container in the fridge. there’s not much people in the hostel as everyone is at work. yoko (from japan, ‘worked with her in the onion and vineyard) is already in the kitchen when i passed by, and helen had her breakfast. we watched a dvd (chuck and larry) in the tv room and because i’m too lazy to cook proper meals for lunch, i just had a maggi instant noodles, some toasted bread with garlic butter, and orange-apple juice.

earlier before the dvd, i set my laundry and because i have a couple of white and colored-clothes. i have to do 2 rounds. washing machine here is coin-operated as well as the pc for this internet. $2 for 30 minutes. $2 as well for a round of laundry. $2 too for the dryer but i just hanged them in the clothesline outside the lawn. you see, a lot of people think that this country is so old-fashioned that they even doubt if there’s computer here! but i find that this country’s case of being incredibly ancient so incredibly advanced. coin-operated internet use, laundry, and dryer?! i haven’t seen these around the corners of the very advanced hong kong! i won’t be surprised if they have coin-operated tread mill here.