Days in Emerald

Having 2 busy week and that's why I haven't update for so long. Sorry everyone!

First talk about the hostel.
It's not really a big hostel, but it is crowed.
Here lives more than 50 people but the equipment here are really insufficient. 50 ppl share one kitchen, which contain 4 gas and 4 electronic furnace, 1 oven, 2 microwave, 1 rice cooker, 2 sink and 1 water tap. During peak hour, there will be more than 15 people cooking at the same time, horrible. I usually avoid the busiest time.
And for the toilet, in my case 16 people in one room shared 1 washroom! Yes!! We go to toilet and shower in the same washroom in the same moment, coz we start and stop working at the same time. You can imagine how busy it is.
There are TV room here, but I don't go there often.
For the bedroom, it's not as clean as the hostel in city because everyone come back with sand and mud, but actually we cant compare between them and most importantly I am OK with it.
There are free internet access here every night 7-9, which I didn't know until I arrive, NICE. This is a working hostel so Justin, the manager of this hostel, will find you a job. There are buses bring you to work and bring you back everyday, and also bus to supermarket at every 6pm. There are event on every week, last week is to watch sunset, but I didn't go because I'm in Uncle Thomas home, this week is FOOTBAAAAALLLL!!!! yeah! I miss it! I need to go to uncle Thomas home last night but I went there after the football game!! ho ho!! The charges here is $120 per week plus $6 transport every working day, so it's altogether $150 per week. A bit expensive when compare with other working hostel, but I think it's OK for me. I believe I'll stay till mid-Mar, Grand-Prix!!

Next talk about work.
Last week me and Michael worked at a flower-farm named "Not Just Flower". We've been working from Monday to Wednesday. 95% of time is to weeding, by hand! tough work and it really hurt my back. I woke up at 5am every morning, had my breakfast and get on a van which wait us at 6:15am outside the hostel. We started to work at 7am, a tea break at 10am, a lunch break at 12nn, another tea break at 3pm, then finish work at 4:30pm. Pay is not good, only $11 per hour without tax. But I have no choice because Justin assign one week work on every Sunday. I gotta work for the week and ask Justin to find us another job.
Suddenly on Wednesday, the farm owner said that Thursday and Friday was too hot for working, and told us not to go to work. Not a bad news because I can have a long weekend and my back can have a vacation! The farm owner paid my salary by cash~ wow~ Finally got some income, although it's not much. Michael left that night and go to another farm with his girlfriend. And I'm on my own.
This week I worked in a tree-farm, named J.F.T.. We have a team of 4, all from the hostel, and a supervisor, his name is Blue. Our job was to weeding and trimming, it's better than in "Not Just Flower" because we got tools this time, but it's still a tough work. We'll always need to squat because the plant is just knee high, so it still hurt my back. But the pay here is a lot better, $16.45 per hour before tax. I will have enough money for Grand-Prix and Melbourne local tour after few weeks~ yeah~! $$$$$$$
Moreover I've taken a interview for Store Manager last Saturday in BoxHill. The boss Mr. Wu is a nice guy, but my management skill were not satisfied for the job, so got to back to farm and work. Will keep trying on looking for some other office job.





Next talk about Uncle Thomas
After a short meet with Uncle Thomas on 6 Dec, I went to Uncle Thomas house in Boxhill with my sleeping bag last Thursday, and helped him to clear all the stuff in his house. There were so many many many many many many many many things in his house. A lot of books which could properly form a small library. A lot of drawing and writing which is over 60 years. A lot of Chinese medicinal materials which could make my grandma to laugh for few weeks. A lot of tissue which enough for 5 years use, and far more. I helped them on minor things such as adhesive the carton boxes and putting things in it, break confidential document to pieces, taking out things from drawer and cabinet els. We have lunch and dinner outside, I've also bought some milk for breakfast. It was a busy day.
On Friday, everyone of us are still busy on tidy things up. But I cant stay for another night so I went back to hostel. One of the advantage of this hostel, is that it's not really far from Boxhill, about 1.5 hours away. And it cost only $2.7 for a 2 hour ticket.
I returned on Saturday and helped again, not much to tell actually.
This Friday night I went there again and everything has been cleared already. I arrived at almost 12 at night because I played football and missed a bus. I finally tried BBQ Pork Rice at "Hung To", it was so great! and so expensive +_+ We chat for a while and sleep at 2am. This morning, we went out for breakfast at around 8am, but we found that most shop open at 9! We bought some pancake and soya-bean milk and eat at home. Uncle Leung came at around 9, he drive us to the storage area and put down some stuff. We then return to BoxHill and Uncle Leung was going to drive Uncle Thomas to airport. I was not going and it's the time to say Good Bye. They start leaving and we said Good Bye. Then they were gone. Feel a bit missing Uncle Thomas because he's the only relative in Australia. I tidy up my mind, and life went on.


Next talk about Bicycle.
Tracy was leaving this Sunday with her sister. As she had bought a bicycle for her work, she didn't need it anymore so she gave it to me last Sunday. The damn thing is bicycle was not allowed on bus, and I need to travel to Emerald by Bus. So I left my bike in Belgrave station last Sunday and travel back to hostel without it. Lucky it was still here yesterday night, and I brought it to Boxhill too. Today I planned to travel around with it but the damn rain screwed out my plan. So I locked it in Belgrave again and hope it will still there when I arrive next time.



Sorry for such a long post, and thanks for your patience. Things are going quite good and still as planned. hmm... tried to get a ipod shuffle today for listening music when I am working, $89, but finally didn't get it because I still have my mobile and bluetooth player. It's a time for saving money, not spending. hoho. The football match last night was great~ We played on messy grass court. The international team vs the Germany. It was damn fun! Finally result was something like 7:2, Germany win! The Grand-Prix ticket is a lot expensive then I thought, 4 days 4 different corner with seat cost $429. err.... Need to reconsider to take the one without seat with cost $175, but I guess it's going to be crowned.


Next time I'll tried to talk more about Australia instead of my life, coz my life not going to have a big change.

Good Luck mate!

Photo HERE!


c : Trying hard. 58 kg now, didn't change +_+" The feeling now is great! hoho~! I'm facing the sun! :D

oioi : I've taken the small suit case~ It's very useful! Thank you!!

banana boy : I'll buy you some in Park'n Shop.

mudfew : I am a farmer now, get up so early everyday and work at the farm, haha. Man you got the point, you clearly understand my position, I love you my dear cousin! haha..

winifred : yo sisterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Read it already and I love the caption!! Sorry I can't be with you guys but believe me I'll spent more time on you all when I return. :)