Work has been good this week. Had more hours and the weather has been nice and hot.. although energy sapping at times. Had a bit more variety in the jobs I was given too. Aswell as the usual pepper picking, I was given the role of 'bucket boy'.. carrying the buckets of peppers that everyone had been picking back to the truck. Again, not exciting, but nice to have a change and a rest from bending over all day.

We were asked to weed the pepper paddocks on Friday morning.. sounds crap I know but you'd be surprised how grateful you are for a change from picking peppers every day for 3 weeks. We finished the day early and then the boss gave us the great news that we could have the rest of the weekend off! Happy days :)

One particular incident at work worth mentioning occurred on Wednesday afternoon. I was going about my usual relentless task of picking peppers when a few of the guys started running toward me screaming, "get out of the way!!" I stood up and moved back sharply with no idea what was going on when a black snake quickly slithered by 5 yards infront of my path. Everyone stopped working immediately, some ran away.. whilst one of the supervisors (Memmet) chased after it. He managed to trap the snake in a bucket and then stand on it's head whilst it was trying to wriggle free. I thought he was trying to kill it but after a short while he let it go into the long grass away from the paddock which alot of people wern't happy about as we were all on edge and looking over our shoulder thereafter. Scarey but exciting at the same time!!
I was informed the snake was a black red belly.. it can grow up to 1.5 metres in length and its bite is extremely dangerous to humans.
I'd been waiting for something like this to happen whilst in Oz and thought it would happen more frequently with working out in the hot fields. I've started stepping alot more carefully into the long grass when I've needed to go for a pee now!!

With finishing early on Friday morning I decided to treat myself to a lunch time pie and a triple chocolate mud muffin from the local bakery.. soooo good!! (Check out the blog picture)

It was 'happy hour' at the Central pub between 5.30 and 6.30pm so we headed down there after our tea for a few cheap ones. It was one of the guys birthday from the hostel so we went down to the creek for more drinks and a BBQ for the remainder of the evening.

Weather forecast for the weekend is rain, rain and more rain so it's going to be a very chilled one. I will try dodge the rain and go for a few runs though as my days off are the only chance I get to exercise at the moment.

I've come to a decision of what I'm going to do after the Grand Prix next weekend..
I've decided to fly back to Brisbane and get on the bus back to Stanthorpe and continue working instead of travelling up the east coast. I want to complete the work which will enable me to gain my second year visa in the least time possible.
To qualify for the second year visa you have to complete 88 days farm work but I found out that if I work 13 weeks for the same farm this will also qualify me. This influenced my decision because it works out that I'd only have to do about 65 days instead of the 88 and I don't want to work any more time on a farm than I have to.

Now for the BIG BIG NEWS...
I've booked flights to come back home on Sunday 24th July via Bali for 3 nights!! I plan on staying for 4-6 weeks to make the most of the English summertime.

My sister, Sarah, and her husband Pete are expecting twins at the end of July so I'd like to be back around the time of their birth. I've missed all my family and friends so it will be a great chance to catch up with them again, and a trip to Ibiza with the lads is on the cards too.. and I don't want to miss that!! :))))))

xx