HAPPY 88th FARMDAY TO ME!!

Super stoked right now! Im so excited to inform that my hard time in Merbein is done and I have completed my 88 days at farms to be eligible to get my 2nd year visa to Australia! Woohoo! 8) The morning got a real kick start as my boss gave me a shot of moonshine to celebrate the day and said "Welcome to manhood" :D What a man!
Ok, my hard time isn't actually over coz I have a good job and I have to save some currency. Im planning to stay few more weeks until I head back north to Cairns for the downhill world cup event! Sweeeet!! So looking forward to it!

But lets take a quick look what's been going on.

After my holiday with my parents I came back to Merbein to earn some money and celebrate my 30th birthday! Ya man! People won’t believe that I turned 30. And I never believed that I would celebrate that day while travelling. I think I have never said this before so now its the time. Its never too late to travel and im glad I made my decision. This has been the most amazing thing I’ve done in my life. 

I think most of you really don't know how this stuff works here. Lets take a closer look what's happening. What is it like to do your hard time and earn your 88 days of rural work for the 2nd year visa? Not the simplest of questions but this is my point of view from where I have worked.

Between 3:30-7:30 depending of your job the alarm goes off and it's time to face another day in paradise. Now don't laugh when I say this but winter is coming and the temperature can be at +10C in the morning and that is FREEZING. I have never slept with clothes on but here I started wearing shorts and t-shirt so I wont wake up in the middle of the night shaking. Just one month back the situation was totally different. Temperature didn't go below +30C even during nights.

After quick brekkie and making my lunch (2 sandwiches with 1)tuna or 2)eggs) I jump to a van and driver drops us to work.

Then depending of your job, put your headphones on if doing pruning or picking some fruits or like me, jump to ATV/tractor and start messing around. Unlike in Finland there is no legal break after 2h of work and so on. Fuck those laws and rules. No one cares about those things here. Only thing you have to worry about is your work. My basic day is from 10-12h and usually I have one 10 to 20min break. Sometimes I eat my lunch while driving. Longest day I've done was 17h and after 3h of sleep another 12h shift. And forget about having weekends off. When the season is on, we work! During past 4 weeks I've had 3 days off and normal weekly hours are around from 75 to 80. Obviously at first that was like hell. It's +40C outside and the sun is trying to melt me. Normal water consumption has been around 5-7l per day. Pretty crazy aye?

Taking empty crates to grape pickers

My Malaysian fans. They are always super stoked when I speak some malay with them! I even got invitation to Borneo to climb the highest mountain Kota Kinabalu.

Anyway it is so weird how human can adapt to situations like this. Well not everyone, I have seen that. Some people cross their limits and just cracks and not always is that nice to see. I've been thinking how hard it was sometimes to survive the days back in Finland with coffee breaks and proper lunch break but here the times just flies and boom I notice that I have worked 5h without break. Also the 2 day weekend felt always waaaayyy too short to gain your energy back and feel ready for the next week at work. At the moment we have a situation and not all the grapes are ready to be picked so im having my second day off in a row now. Exceptional! And guess what? Feels like I haven't worked in ages. I've been able to do stuff or just do nothing. Actually yesterday I asked if I could help somewhere else because I didn't want to have second day off. Totally weird state of existence. This is also probably why im writing this new post at the moment hehe :D

Downsides of this lifestyle is some sort of lack in personal life. I don't have the energy to socialise every evening drinking beer and playing goon pong but lately it has been better as we start working few hours later. And I have set my mind to work hard and earn money so that hasn't bothered me too much. Some people have even declined to take certain job offers because of the long days and not being able to party after that. Also I haven't been eating the most healthy food coz sometimes I just haven't had the energy to cook. Easier to drop by Maccas or KFC after work and go to bed. But I think those times are gone now as season is going to end soon.

Playing beer pong with my Swedish bro Simon. We were on fire and won like at least 13,8 games!

Ok, now we have survived a day at farm and we can cross yet another day off from the calendar. But what happens after work? People gather around to garden, front porch or living room to watching tv/movies and enjoying the free time. Life in Merbein is really simple. There is one market with bottle shop, one pub, ATM and 2 takeaway "restaurants". We have a river which is the border between Victoria (where Merbein is) and New South Wales. I think everyone knows this river thing already :D Within 15min drive we got the rural city of Mildura. Funny thing, although it's so close to us we rarely go there. Well, at least I don't spend too much money to nonsense here :D

Sometime in the evening usually between 7 and 9 the job board for next day comes up and there you can see what time your pick up leaves and where you work. For me it's only the wake up time that interests me coz im one of the lucky guys (meaning working hard and not fucking things up) that work only for one farmer. Trusted dude I am!

That's pretty much it. Doing your required farm days is doing like hard time in jail but more fun! :D Anyway im so excited and looking forward to go somewhere else and start travelling again. After all as I said this place is quite dead. I'll tell you guys more when it's time to move. Cheers all!