Well today started like this...

We found out yesterday we were on the list to work in a sweet potato farm today.Yay, we thought. Finally a job we can go to and make some extra cash. A job we can work in 5 days a week,build some money up and then move on somewhere else.


We get there with some others from our hostel,and were left waiting for an hour without anyone even coming to see us or take our tax payment forms off us. :-S
So we saw a farmer on his tractor and two girls in our group went over to him to ask if there was somewhere else we should go to sign in or if anyone was going to come over.He told them somebody would be with us in about 20 minutes.
So we waited again.

20 minutes later a truck pulls up, a guy driving it, and a girl comes over and says "get in the truck"
We all walked towards it and she went "Come on...IN!!!!"

We went into the Potato fields and the potatoes had already been unearthed so we had to get a bucket and put them in. This mini version of Hitler, sorry,I mean the girl.... started shouting at us all expecting us to know how to do it already. She told us not to put HUGE potatoes in the buckets, and to put the vines left by potatoes behind us. We all had to work side by side, and do one patch at a time.
Then we hear her go "WHO WAS HERE???! WHO LEFT THESE VINES HERE?! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO ALL THE PATCHES!"

We made our way up the field all going as quick as possible because she was barking at us like some general in the Army to "GO FASTER". She then disappeared down the field with the old man on the tractor shouting at him on the way, asking him "WHY DID YOU F***ING LET THAT BOY GO AND GET SOME WATER? IT'S TAKEN THEM HALF AN HOUR TO DO THIS ROW OF POTATOES, WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOU TO BE LETTING PEOPLE GO AND HAVE F***ING WATER!!" (sorry Mum & Dad, but thats what she said!!)
So we're not allowed to have a drink now? What was the point in us bringing 4 litres of water then as told by our hostel? Plus we need it working in the fields as you get dehydrated easily.

She came back over to us all, we were now at the end of the row (these rows were really long,might I add!) and said to one of the French girls "I haven't seen you pick a single spud the whole way up here, you're finished."
The French girl and her friend looked really confused and were asking us "What did she just say? Is it finished for today?"
To which the woman said "You are finished.Fired.Go to the shed! You're lazy and you haven't picked one potato."
The French girl looked really confused and so did the rest of us. She'd filled loads of buckets. The woman had been down the other end of the field aswell so how did she even know??
The woman had disappeared back to the shed, and so the French girls followed her asking her if they could talk to her, also asking her what just happened back there?
Her response was "You're fired.F***K off.I don't want to talk to you."
They kept following her and she kept shouting at them walking away from them, and then we heard a LOT of shouting. The French girls were having a go at her about her attitude, aswell as calling her a few things which shall not be repeated.

So, we spent the next few hours wondering when SATAN herself was going to come back, after the French girls had been taken back to the hostel and two other guys had been dropped off to replace them.
We saw the two French girls down by the road waiting for their lift back, so I went over to get a drink of water (I don't care if she whinged about the last guy having one,I WANTED ONE and i'm pretty sure she couldn't stop me! My mouth was dry and I was thirsty!) and talked to them about what had just happened.I told them it was rubbish because I'd seen her filling the bucket with potatoes!
It turns out because her friend went over with her to ask her if they could talk, the woman actually said to the girls friend "And why are you here too? Do you WANT to work or not? You're fired aswell!"
What a piece of work, putting it in the nicest way possible.

I went back to work, but I think I knew I wasn't going to last the day here if that BINT came back over and said another word.

Anyway, we then had lunch after another few hours, which was half an hour long. There were no toilets there either. Luke asked the farmer if he could go to the toilet and he told him to go behind the shed :-/

We went back to work and it started to rain, which was annoying because the mud sticks to your shoes and you get to the point where they are almost coming off because they are so heavy with mud!

The rain got harder and harder and it had been three hours, not one of the farmers came out in the field at all. We were soaked through and starting to shiver, aswell as aching all over from the bending and stretching. Everyone was losing the will to carry on. I'd been on my hands and knees in the mud, working really hard and so had Luke. Never let it be said we don't pull our weight! ;-)
Can I just point out we were told by our hostel that nobody is to work in the rain, and WHEN it rains they always call people in and finish early.

There was a wind picking up too which made it even harder, and still no sign of anybody.
Luke and I went to get a drink at the side of the field, and who should arrive... *FANFARE* Miss "go to the shed you're fired my real name is Hitler" farmer whatever her name is. Of all of them why did it have to be her!
She came over and yelled at me and Luke to "COME ON GUYS GET BACK OVER HERE, WE NEED TO DO THESE PATCHES!"
Luke walked over and asked how much longer we had to work for in these conditions.
"UNTIL THESE THREE ROWS ARE DONE! YOU CAN'T LEAVE PATCHES!" she shouted back at him with an attitude which sounded like she expected us to know already.
He then said something like "I'm not trying to be funny it's just we can hardly walk in this mud and we've been out here for 3 hours in the wind and rain!"
I added that our hostel told us we don't work in the rain and are supposed to get sent back when it rains because of how hard it is.
She looked at me and said "I gave you a raincoat!" again with complete attitude.
I could feel my temper starting to boil over and answered her back and said "Oh whats a raincoat going to do? I was already wet when you gave it to me!"
She then said "YOU CAN GO TO THE SHED!"
I actually laughed.I said to her "Oh,i'm fired now am I?"
"Well do you WANT to F***ing work or not??" was her response.I can't believe the complete attitude of it, obviously they think backpackers are desperate for money and will do anything including being spoken to like rubbish and treated like slaves!
I'm not going to say what I said back to her.It's unprintable. Sorry Mum & Dad. But it has to be understood she started it and Luke even told her "I don't need the money THAT badly!"
I also added "I didn't come to Australia to be spoken to like crap by a little b**** like you!"
As soon as we started having a go back at her she walked away from us, saying things like F you and the sort, but wouldn't actually face us.
Luke concluded with "The French girls shoulda knocked you out when they had the chance!"
And with that, we walked away and waited to leave in the shed.
Not one person who worked there today wants to go back to that farm. Well one guy really does need the money that badly that he is going to stay.We've been put back on standby in the hostel, at the back of the queue again to work in another farm. But you know what? We're not going to bother with this hostel anymore, they haven't even heard our side of the story and have put us to the back of the queue again when we've been here long enough!
The other guy is only working on Friday in the same farm due to the weather. So with two days work a week ,$190.00 rent, we're actually losing money by staying here. Sod it . We're going to finish our weeks accomodation until next tuesday and then move on somewhere else.

The way we look at it is, there are other places to work, why should we settle for that form of torture when we can just move on and find somewhere else. Which we will.

Even a guy we met who worked on the Whitsundays boat called Mitch told us not to come to Bundaberg, and he is FROM Bundaberg! It seems like here not many people like backpackers, they tar us all with the same brush.. we're here in their country. I would say taking their jobs but that's not true.
We heard from other people that this farm ("Rays" farm, as it's called) is horrible and that they like to use any excuse to sack people because they don't like paying backpackers. Then WHY DO IT? WHY EMPLOY PEOPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE?
AND ANOTHER THING, IF THERE'S NO WORK UNTIL FRIDAY BECAUSE OF THE RAIN THEN WHY DID YOU LEAVE US OUT IN IT FREEZING AND STRUGGLING FOR THREE HOURS?!?!

Australia at the moment has been weird weather-wise. It rains a lot in Bundaberg, and it did in Cairns. They've actually had a cyclone in Cairns that has ripped 60 roofs off buildings :-/
There's been bad flooding in Townsville.
It seems like every place we've gone past have had bad rain! Guess we've taken the lovely British weather with us!

People have said Australia hasn't been like this for three or more years, fantastic eh!

Me and Luke have said we're going to go down the coast and see what we want to see,if we find more work great, but if we don't we'll push our flight forward to New Zealand and go to America and Canada sooner!

So there we go, it may not be the best update news-wise but this is our blog and it was an experience and we don't want to hide anything from you all.;-) I'm not ashamed of what I said to her,she deserved it.
I felt better for it because why should we take that from someone who doesn't even know us, thinks she can throw her weight around and speak to people how she wants!

Oh well.
I'm not going to cry myself to sleep tonight.I'm going to go drink some wine ;-)

Adios! xxx