ah badsta gday mate how you going. still alive and well. chicken work finished yesterday!! just smacked out 2 hardcore weeks work, 9 hours a day, 5am wake ups, not great fun but it had to be done. actually the work was ok, had such a great group of people working with me and had a lot of laughs! after work we'd always have some drinks, played some rounders and footy, lots of poker and card games, introduced the joy of chase the ace, rummy, president, s*hithead and ring of fire games which are now backpacker legendary games. we watch a lot of wheel of fortune, have a great 5dollar backpacker meal everynight, had lots of karaoke. did a solo, i expect a record deal soonish, and played some more football. gingin basically has about 5 or 6 roads and not that many people living here, but it has a great sports center randomly, pristine field hockey pitch, aussie rules football team, and a quality outdoor pool. went to see the local aussie rules game on sunday, was rubbish, weird sport but a luagh to watch as they just seem to run around like headless chickens (and trust me i know wat headless chickens run like) and then take each other out and go off injured. few other guys here are also obsessed with soccer and we ended up just havin a kickabout after the 2nd 3rd quarter timeout half time thingy. theres 2 trains a week that come here, and they are belters of a train, they are old school lob in the coal into the fire type trains. over the road from our hotel is the traintracks and the old house nearly falls down coz of vibrations. had a mass exit of 5 guys and a few gals leave yesterday, but loads of new english girls came yesterday. this pleased me. my last night tonight, and im bussing it back to perth tomorrow to stay there for a few days, getting a bit nippy here now, it is winter though... but hasnt got over 22 for a few days and the nights are bitter cold. so not gona hang around in perth too long, gona prob go check out the beaches and try and get a last aussie surf in, then head out to bali sometime late this week i reckon. see how it goes. then will be back after maybe 10days sunbathing in bali! weather is gorgeous there at the mo so cant wait. heard it hasnt been to bad back home either!! sound. everyone is at work today, it rained yesterday so all the cabbage, lemon and orange pickers were off, but today im on my own til about 4, so just having a chillout day, walking around the beautiful Gingin shire village. the area is really really gorgeous. i have some great photos, but will put them on when i return to perth as its well slow dial up internet here. its a nice hilly region in gingin, but 10 minutes outside it just turns completely flat for thousands of miles all the way to ayers rock and the nullimbah plain desert. the single straight road going to work is great, all the roads off it are red outback dusty tracks, and the barely green fields surrounding us and jam packed full of kangeroos!!!! literally hundreds everywhere you look! each morning we would wake up before sunrise, and about half way there the sky full of a surreal amount of stars, would just turn completely red as the sun pops out. we drive there mostly in silence, some sleeping, most just watching the sky show and the silouhettes of 'roo's and wallabies. getting to work, we'd get outa the minibus, back into the cold, get told where to go and then shower and put about 5 layers on.. but as soon as it got to about 10 am its back to tshirt weather. except if you are me, mitsuru the japanese joker and the french, we would cover up and get stuck into the cleaning the sheds. i was the best job really though, coz fruit picking is hard hard work, and spiders the size of your face, fall on your face.. and the construction workers must be bored silly screwing in nuts and bolts all day making cages for the chucks. aussies call chickens chucks. duno why. it wasnt all cleaning sheds though, few days we'd be on chickens and few afternoons (arvo) few of us lads would be on loading the the lorries with heavy metal and stuff ready for a new shed to be built. the whole farm is gorgeous too tho, as the land is completely sandy, all the little tracks and sand tracks, and in between each shed is a complete desert landscape, and some times when we are walking back to the house for break (smoko) or lunch (lunch) youd forget where u are and think youre on the beach or something. i rrrrrrreally miss the beach, i havnt seen the beach since bondi 3 weeks ago, which is a long time for me! only a few days though and ill be in tropical 30C sunny Bali... more importantly then all of the above.. TEN DAYS TIL WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) photos to come!