Perth - my home away from home. Over the fantastic summer months that span from my arrival in early December through to March, long hot days consistently in the high 30s, teamed with gorgeous beaches, a relaxed city vibe, and wonderful people, I was loving my life on the West Coast and wanted nothing more than for it to continue for ever. I began, once again, to consider an application for the second year visa, which unfortunately, was not as straight forward in obtaining as the first one. If only I could just go online, fill out another form, hand over another 120 quid and voila. No can do. It seems that the huge backpacker population in Australia has convinced the authorities to issue 2nd year working holiday visas only on the basis that the visa applicant has completed 88 days work on a farm, a mine, or some similar kind of concentration camp. i.e. jobs that Australians are too lazy to do.
Hmm. Working on a farm....stay a whole extra year....or go back home to reality...or stay in Australia and avoid my "real life" in the UK (career wise)...hmm, Australia vs England...what to do, what to do? After much deliberation in February and a few turn of events, I booked myself a flight to Adelaide on 1st March. An emotional goodbye in Perth with all my amazing friends at the Coolibah and at work, and later in the day I am crashing along the windy roads of the Adelaide Hills in a vehicle very similar to the 4x4 I drove on Fraser Island (minus the Germans in the back). I'd been picked up by my new manager Donagh (Irish), and we were on our way through the extensive South Australian vineyards to my new home for the next 88 days. It was here that I would be reunited with Juli and Melanie, two friends I'd met in Perth, and who had been working on the farm to make up the requirements needed for their visa applications. Absolutely lovely to see them again. Absolutely a shock to the system to get up at 5am the following day however. Now don't get me wrong, I may be a bit clueless on occasion, but I was fully aware what I was letting myself in for. Juli and Melanie did not hold back on the truth about this job. I knew and expected that it was going to be low paid, long hours and hard work, but it gets you the visa, and well, it's like a rite of passage that all backpackers should try the fruit picking thing! It also crossed my mind that when leaving the farm after 3 months, I could potentially be 3 stone lighter, and that was a rather encouraging thought to keep me going during the days in the vineyards...hello boys.
Various alarm tones, sleepy groans, cockerill calls and lights on at 5am, we were dressed, fed and on the road by 5.45am. Still dark, and kitted out head to toe in several layers, boots and wax jackets, pulling off netting in the vineyards. Australia in 2011, size 10 bikini, three months wages, Australia in 2011, three months wages, size 10 bikini...was the mantra going round and round my head.
7pm, end of the day, back to the house. Shower, food, exhausted, bed by 9pm. Cockerill call at 5am. Repeat.
Australia in 2011, money, size 10, Australia in 2011, money, size 10, Australia.....
"Excuse me, are you married?"
Interrupted from my affirmation, I look across to the little Indian guy next to me, clipping grape bunches.
"huh?"
"Lady, are you married?"
"er, yeah, I mean NO, why? Do you know an Australian?" I joked...but actually the thought of a spouse visa was quite appealing thinking about it...
"So you're not married. Do you have a boyfriend then?" He asked.
"No. Someone once told me that all men are complete ..."
"My name's Deep." He cut across. "Like the deep blue ocean, the deep blue sky. What's your name?"
"Elizabeth" I mumbled, avoiding eye contact and making an effort to speed up in my grape picking and edge away.
"Ah! Like the Queen! You're English, like Queen Elizabeth!"
"er yeah,"
"You're beautiful, Elizabeth"
At that point my bucket of grapes was full and I was able to make a getaway from Deep Indian Admirer to deposit my bucket in the tractor trailer. I took up position on a new row in the vineyard, next to a lovely Cambodian lady and started to chat to her a little about my time in Cambodia.
"Hello lady" says the guy next to me, from Nepal.
"Hi" I smile back.
"Are you married?"
"No, don't be silly, I'm only 23."
"You're 23 and you not married? You are old woman!"
I look to Melanie for support, but it turns out she was also having the same conversations.
"Lady, are you married?" they ask her.
"No, I'm not married."
"Then are you single?"
"No."
"Then lady, how can you not be married, if you are not single?"
"Because I have a boyfriend" Melanie replies.
"Then why are you not married?"
Finding a suitable distraction was a good way to end these sorts of conversations, walking away from the calls of "Lady, why you have your nose pierced? You not Indian!" behind me.
Once you got past the initial maritial status interrogation and dinner invites, I quite liked the team of fruit pickers. The simple conversations were nice, and the women liked any opportunity to practise their English. Melanie, Juli and I were still stared at like aliens every morning for being white, an awkward feeling at first but something that you get used to.
By the end of the first week, I'd clocked up well over 50 hours in just five days, and was really questioning every decision I had been making up until then regarding my stay in Australia. That same day, we had been stood in the vineyards, in the rain for several hours, trying to finish our rows to meet the farmer's quota for the day. I counted the 6 months that I'd been in Australia, and thought how long that had felt, thinking about everything I'd done in that time. Then I imagined the remaining 6 months on my current visa, and realised that, actually, that was a good amount of time left. Why was I so intent on the extra year? It was largely to give me the time to work enough to buy the flight home (as the first one had an expiry date of one year) but I had never intended to stay as long as August 2011, as that had always felt very intimidating to imagine. So I made the decision to stop the farm work. If I had decided against the 2nd year visa, there was no point wasting my time doing a badly paid job and not being happy whilst working, and not having much of a life after shifts.
By the following evening, I was on a bus out of the beautiful Adelaide Hills, and checking into a hostel in the city centre.
The following day, I woke up on my 24th birthday, a year older, happier and unmarried it appears. It was a public holiday in Adelaide for some reason, but as I wandered the city by myself, I managed to find a nice bookshop and bought an arty magazine and sat with a coffee for a few hours in there. In the evening I met up with an old friend from Port Douglas called Anna, who I'd met on her holidays back in October. She is an English teacher in Adelaide, but is from London. We went to a nice bar and I enjoyed fish n chips and a beer as me birthday tea, keeping it British of course. Anna invited me to stay at her flat in Glenelg, an offer which I gratefully accepted as I was totally not keen on the hostel I had picked in the city. She picked me up after work the following day and I spent five lovely days, chilling out at her place and spending time at the beach while she was out.
I also had time to book myself onto a tour of The Grampians National Park and The Great Ocean Road, which would take me over to Melbourne, where I intended to find some work. The tour over the weekend was brilliant, and well worth the money. Stunning views and sunsets, and a good group of people to meet. Melbourne was equally as exciting a place to end up in. A buzzing, creative and clean city, bursting full of tiny side streets and hidden lanes of coffee shops, impressive street graffitti, tiny galleries, vintage shops, with an endless variety of markets at the weekends and plenty of festivals running throughout the year. Don't think I've ever drunk so much coffee in all my life, or been so inspired by all the sites around me. I arrived in the middle of L'Oreal Fashion Week, and the Food & Wine festival, sampling some nice food and watching some free fashion shows in the street. I was also feeling rather lucky at that stage in my travels, to arrive in a new place by myself and have a list of friends that I could look up. After a few nights at another hostel, I went to stay with my friend Angela at her flat in Northcote, an arty suburb of Melbourne, whilst I sorted myself out and applied for jobs.
I loved staying with Ange. As well as being a lively, bubbly soul, she is also a senior fashion designer, and an amazing cook! After a scrummy dinner of stuffed peppers (or capsicums as they call them here) she had some fantastic portfolios to show me, and lots of interesting artefacts around her apartment from various travel destinations. As well as her current freelance job which keeps her busy full time, she also manages to fit in an alterations business and has several customers for that, as well as doing some volunteer work at the weekends for local creatives. An inspirational lifestyle, talk about self-motivation! Ange was also kind enough to give me a crash course in Adobe Illustrator, something that will be very valuable to me, once I get my head around it!
I ended up staying two weeks with Ange, and even managed to find myself a job in Northcote, just about. A restaurant requiring waiting staff got back to me and invited me to do a two week trial shift. I was disappointed to arrive and be told that it would be just $14 per hour (usual rate is $19-$20) and that they could only offer me one shift a week. By this point, I was exhausted with job hunting and having to start from square one all over again, for what felt like the millionth time since being away. Ten months of travelling and constant on the go, and so I wanted to go somewhere where I would be happiest. Perth. My old job at All Seasons Catering was kindly left open for me, so it didn't take much to persuade me to head back. I spent the remainder of the time in Melbourne having a great Easter weekend with Ange, driving out to the countryside and having lots of devonshire tea, evenings spent in Melbourne having cheese and wine, or coffee, or chilling out watching dvds and chit chat. Melbourne has definately been a hotspot for me.
So here I am, back in Perth and all things familiar. A lot of my friends are still here, and I'm thankful to be working for my old boss and earning some dollar again. They say that things never quite go to plan, but that it all works out in the end, and I suppose this update has been a great example of that. So unless I meet a nice Aussie and run off for a quick marriage, you'll be seeing me very soon...
