Cromwell week 1

well it was almost the perfect week in many respects.. it's always good to come back to the place where u work, where p much everyone u knew from the last time u worked with is still v much there and not only that they actually remember ya and ya antics from last year, e.g. :

1.The taming of the tapener (smashed one of those tapeners they use to tape the vines to the poles to help them grow in a bit of frustration last year, thought was going to be fired for that despite Leanne's obvious sarcasm),

2.Dogs.. Old man Ian still thinks i eat dogs coz i am Asian.. I still can't get enough of playing tricks with Leanne's dog, Ash - traffic light still works and can even give you her paw- and then there's always Grant's gender-challenged dog, Basil..

3.Bad jokes.. well it's quite well known how bad they can be...

anyway we - me, JC, Reevanator and his other half, Rach - dint actually expect to be coming back to Cromwell this year.. it all came about coz me and JC couldn't really find stuff in Dunners so we thought about going back to a vineyard coz we had experience.. then we thought why not go back to the same employers who we know so well and who appear to like us coz we were p alright to handle and work with.. so yeah that's how me and JC ended up with our employers from last year and coz they know us, Reeves and Rach fit in p well.. in fact, from the way they were talking to Leanne it was like they'd never left the place..

we're not the only guys from the Cutting Edge crew there - Katie Reeves and Emma from Ten Gaybles are with Charlotte and dint really see them once Reevanator and Rach came on Wednesday coz the crew was now p big.. but this year with the likes of Chris, Jacqui, Joe, Mike Willis abandoning us for apparently greener pastures, it is now a predominantly Student Shoul girl crowd - well actually let's say the Gore gals coz i might be wrong on the Student Soul bit - e.g. Nomes, Kristy Hanna, Laura.. they're alright..

bit tired now and so much happened over the last week.. but i can say we've somehow managed to find a "cheap" place to stay.. we started off with the Chalets and then JC dint like the showers so we went to the Cairnmuir Camping Ground next to our main vineyard and stayed for three nights.. CCG was awesome and the ppl there were just great.. but it was $12 per person each night so it was still p expensive in the long run.. thankfully, Laura and the other girl staying in the Muller's old crib were moving to their friend's bach.. so Reeves and Rach managed to get Velda to let us stay there for $15 a week which is p darn good.. the place is a bit rustic - the water's straight from the lake so we have to boil it if we want to use it and we have to use an extension cord to the Mullers house - but still fairly liveable for the time we're gonna be there - we'll be working till Dec 8 - and not too bad even if the appearances aren't quite convincing..

it did take me quite a while to get used to it actually.. maybe it was just having to adjust to so many places.. but yeah i had to do tea last night - tandoori chicken coz Mike wanted to see if i really meant what i said when i said "try my tandoori chicken. it's awesome" in the Bollywood film - and the electric stove in the crib dint work anymore.. so we had to use an electric cooker.. now it was kinda like the first time i'd ever use that particular one and i needed to let the chicken simmer with the sauce for 15 mins.. after 15 mins, the whole concoction dint simmer.. it was still warm so i thought hmmm maybe it doesn't cook that well anymore.. was a v new experience for me coz yeah we were p much down to the bare minimum of resources.. we were cooking on the floor actually and we had to boil the water from the tap each time we wanted to wash stuff so that made cooking actually much harder.. so i was kinda freaking out a little bit but dint show it.. thought yeah this is a new experience and was glad that i was with the right group of ppl to do it with.. in the end, the electric cooker wasn't quite plugged in properly so that's why it dint simmer.. actually it turned into quite a nice meal.. i definitely do deliver on my words..

dint stop me from suffering a bit of constipation though.. think it was prob having to change diet and living situation 3 times in one week.. prob does get to ya and ur stomach.. was also having to worry abt JC and his food poisoning situation.. what actually happened was that JC was still p sick when we drove from Dunners on Sunday.. what made him seem fine on Sunday was the diarrhea pills he was taking.. but when they wore off, he was crook.. he was p much chained to the toilet.. somehow when Rach and Reeves came on Tuesday night it must have sparked him coz he was alright on Wednesday after 2 days in which yeah he was p sick.. Breeze, one of the girls at our workplace, actually could tell from his eyes when we were at the New World that he was not good.. anyway he's much better now - farting as normal as u should know - but he's lost heaps of weight.. he's staying with me this weekend so might try and fill him up when we can.. and then there's Dan's party so that should help him along the way..

anyway back in Dunedin for the weekend coz JC needs to pack up his flat.. and as it turns out, Dan and Lizzie are having their birthday thanksgiving dinner party and have demanded me to come, so yeah i'll def come.. when came home, had a shower AND a bath coz hadn't showered in two days coz don't really want to trouble Velda - water supply there is really limited so can't do too many showers, and swimming by the Bannockburn Bridge always cools ya down and makes ya feel 'clean' so will do that most of the time..