Wwoofing gets all Alfred Hitchcock on my ass!

Hello people!
My brain is knackered! Done 17 days without one off and I am really not feeling sprightly because of it! Fair enough 2 days out of every 7 are only 3 hour days so it's not a physical tiredness but mentally I am gonna need a break soon before I go crazy!
I spoke to our boss about it and hopefully it's all going to change from Monday and we will start having at least 1 day off a week and will still be able to get a full week signed off for the visa. It better happen or I may have to kill something.............maybe one of the chickens......I have one in my sights since the little bugger when all Alfred Hitchcock on my arse and started pecking at my legs and ankles. Horrible little shit........Sage and Onion Stuffing will be heading his way!

Me being nice to the chicken and what do I get in return????

Being pecked at and scared for my life!

As well as working I have been fairly productive this week. I bought some art materials and have started painting to fill in the spare time which has been pretty cool to do. 

Me and Wal on our verandah at 'Art Club'!

 I have also decided I need to keep fit as Herman our chef (a Dutch Aussie who likes to 'scat' a lot and occasionally even does his own scat version of 'Postman Pat') likes to use a hell of a lot of sugar, butter and cream in his cooking!
So started getting my act together and went for a run yesterday followed by working on my guns. My god I ache like crazy today and to be honest I didn't really even try hard! So unfit! 

Inspiration to get ready for the Gun Show

So highlights of the week.......

 I've been surrounded by animals of all shapes and sizes and out of all the poisonous snakes, spiders and whatever else can kill you out here I have been mostly freaked out by the horses! They are huge! Don't reckon I would make a good farmers wife. 

Feeding time.......FOR ME!!!

One of the massive snakes!!!

Scared.......very very scared.

I finally got to see the Elvis Room here at Bungunyah, very strange but I quite liked it. There is Elvis clocks, pictures, hats, them water shaking thingamajigs even a sofa cover! Bizzare........

Ah Mr Presley how we are forced love you at Bungunyah

We have the 'Faulty Towers' diner and show tonight where people come for a 5 course meal and are entertained by Basil, Manuel and Sybil. 

Basil, Sybil and Manuel live at Bungunyah!

It's all a bit strangely old school here (we recently discovered the 1994 film 'Leon' was classed as e 'new release'??) but the locals seem to like it! Plus the food is always good on these events and like any any good slaves we get to eat the scraps the day after!

Please sir can I have some more?

It's even quieter here now (if that's possible) as John left on Wednesday morning. Wals gone into mourning and I'm trying to pick up the pieces for him. ;-) Hopefully we'll get to catch up with John again at some point. It's a bit weird when your travelling and you meet really cool people who you get on really well with and then they are just gone! Don't really like it!

It's been a bit of a strange time as well with all the disasters that are going on in Japan. We are all here getting on with things and enjoying traveling so it kind of doesn't feel like anything bad is happening. Ayumi the Japanese girl who lives here has family in Japan and luckily they are all ok but her Grandma's house is no more. Very Sad.

On a lighter note we now have the honor of Prince Bill over in Queensland....wooowoo!!!!!

That's a sporting cord jacket sir.....I assume you will have some fetching chino's to match?

 The Aussies and Kiwi's are all very excited about his visit. Maybe he'll come to Bungunyah and he can stay in 'The King's' room. Geddit.....The King......Williams a Prince.......Elvis......oh never mind. I'm off to eat meat. Come here chicky chickys............................

Chooks, spiders and dead Bandacoot's.........all in a days work!

So a bit of a change this week for little me. I'm no longer on the boys team which means no more skiving! Boo. They do skive quite often and have self proclaimed themselves as 'SWWOOFERS' - "SEMI" Willing Workers on Organic Farms'
So instead I'm working with the girls which has the bonus of a lie in as we don't start until 10am but downside is I don't get to finish at 3. It does have the additional bonus of that I don't get asked to shovel horse crap anymore which is nice and I get to run round the gardens chasing the 'chooks' back into the pen.

One of the chooks......I think he looks like Ringo from the Beatles

There are quite a few scary spiders out here though and I've no idea which are poisoness and which ones aren't so unfortunately they have all been getting squished! Beefy buggers some of them. I'm also getting bitten to hell by the ants and mozzies. Greedy little buggers that they are........I need my blood!

Pure Evil

So apart from working on the resort there is not a whole lot to do in an evening around here apart from watch a hell of a lot of Prison Break! There are lots of waterfalls and scenic things to do but it's rained for the last week so not been able to venture out really, hopefully it will get better before we get water-logged!

Amusing ourselves with childish behavior seems to be the main focus of filling in the time, I dyed John's eyebrows so now he looks a bit like Herman Munster (sorry John).

John during eyebrow dying

John after eyebrow dying

The guys also thought it would be funny to leave us a little present in the form or a dead bandacoot on the sauna door! Damn those pesky boys!

Our new door-handle

Gonna be even quiteter from Wednesday though as Sarah finished her last days of woofing today and John finishes on Wednesday. I think Wally will be crying for a few weeks after John leaves as their 'Bromance' has been developing into something quite special! Bless.............

True Love

As a bit of a farewell celebration we headed out to the local Indian for a meal on Friday night. I was drunk after 2 glasses of wine which is no surprise!

Not as good as the curry houses in Leeds I've gotta say (teeny tiny poppadoms and nanns!) but 'twas still good!

Us 'swoofers' having a reet good curry!

So thats about it for life on the mountain at the moment..........guess I'll go for my daily sauna and work on my guns!

Erm......I'm so much harder!

the crazy days of being a 'wwoofer'!!!

So after a shuttle, a plane, a train and a minibus we finally arrived at Bungunyah Manor on Tamborine mountain where we will start our wwoofing days! (For those of you that do not know anything about wwoof, it stands for "willing workers on organic farms" and basically you work between 4-6 hours a day in return for accomodation and food and it counts towards getting your year 2 working visa.)



Bungunyah Manor

What we did get told though is that you actually have to work the full 88 days which means because of my old age it may mean working 88 days consistantly to get the visa in time! Ouch! Gonna have to check that one out properly with immigration. Anyway............

So far it's been pretty good really. It's quite a traditional resort, big high rooms, winding staircases, four poster beds! The surrounding area is beautiful, lots of countryside , mountain and sea veiws and waterfalls that you can go swimming in! Oh and plenty of free wine and cheese tasting places! Awesome!

The resort has a community garden at the back where fruit and veg is grown and there's some very cocky chickens that look damn tasty!

A shop is also been built that's going to sell organic fruit, veg and flowers so we will be helping get all that ready over the next couple of months.

Kerrie our host has been very welcoming and then there is Herman who is kind of a chef, handyman, gardener plus some other 'wwoofers' who all all really cool. John, Sarah and Ginni are all from the UK and then there is Ayumi (I -U-ME) from Japan and new-be wwoofer Marc from 'Gay Pari' who arrived yesterday.

Our room is really nice, (not shared and has air -con!! Yes!) en suite, Queen size bed, Sofa, TV, balcony.......very nice and a welcome change from the Kings Cross Dorm!

We also have Tennis Courts, a pool and a sauna which I am making very good use of!

A few things are a bit strange here though, first thing is that there the Christmas decorations are still up .....and there is a hell of a lot! I've found out that it's because they want to promote 'Christmas Spirit' all year round but I'm thinking it would maybe take all year to take them down so it's just easier!

Next is there is an Elvis room here! I've not been lucky enough to see it yet but it's like a shrone I'm told! Kerrie our host is obsessed with him. I also noticed that the cd collection consists of mainly Christmas songs or Elvis......or Chrsitmas songs sung by Elvis!

There are 2 ghosts apparently above mine and Wals room....maybe it's Elvis and Santa!

The Ghost of Bungunyah!

Also, as it's a resort here I expected guests but there arn't any )apart from a few at the weekend)! Kerrie said they have had a tough time lately with bookings due to all the floods/cyclones etc... so its really really quiet!

So days have been varied so far. After 'brekky' it's been an 8am start and we have been doing things like seperating stones from mud, (This meant shouvelling a plie of rubble onto a metal grill raking it about a bit), cleaning ovens, picking beans (all 14 of them!), weeding, and best of all 'shovelling shit!'. Ahhh living the dream! It's not been too bad though, quite like working outdoors!



Me and a lot of Horse crap!

Wal slacking off

3pm and ours day is done, lets get to the pool and Sauna.......then to the local pub for some local brew. Detox has gone a bit wrong...... but I damn well erned it shovelling shit!

Wal, Me, John, Sarah and Ayumi sweating it out in the sauna! 

Need a Detox!

Almost packed and ready to leave tomorrow morning! Weirdly I seem to have a lot less stuff than Wally, his suitcase and bags are bursting! He's such a diva. Ha!

Have had a relaxing last day in Sydney with Wal wandering round the shops in the city, chilling in Hyde Park and made one last trip to China Town for a mini feast of steamed dumplings and noodles. Lovely.

Wal the diva chilling in the park

Me in China Town

The 78 year old Korean man who just hula hoops all day long.
He wasn't there today but thought he deserved a shout out!

The food was well needed as I was feeling a little sore from being out with my friend Blyth last night. Many wines, tequila's and even a cheeky Absinthe was consumed in The Goldfish. It was a very funny evening. Love you Blythy! ;-)

Me and Blyth post Absinthe!

Prior to the vino's (and tequila, and absinthe.............) I lined my stomach well by going out for a $10 steak at The Sugarmill with Dunc and Saran which was grand. Saran was having some little excited wee's as he spotted Michael Bisping (UFC Fighter) in there. He got too scared to ask for a photo with him. haha.
 Wal had gone on his little lonesome to watch 'Primus' and 'The Melvins' in Newtown, he said it was amazing and best day he'd had so far! Ahhhhh..........

 So the last week has contained way too much bad food and alcohol so I'm gonna try my bloody hardest to eat well and cut the beer for a while! I am even restraining from drinking the half a bottle of wine I have left over from the weekend! Very proud. No idea what the food is gonna be like on the resort on Mount Tamborine but hopefully it will be good (and healthy!)

So "Detox Time" starts right after I finish this Pizza! Well it was Domino's $5.90 Tuesdays, it would have been rude not to really.....................................