Well to go right back to the start... it took 4hour on the train to get here!! Since then that really doesnt feel like all that much, but at the time it felt like a long time! 4hours and still in the same state, just didn't seem right. You could get from one side of the UK to the other in that time and in the grand scheme of New South Wales even, I hadn't travelled very far!
The countryside around here is rolling hills and paddocks (not fields), not altoghether disimilar to home except it seems to stretch forever and it is nowhere near as green. The grass is a kind of burnt yellow and actually it's a lot more rolling than being back in Wales. There's no steep valleeys like at home, maybe Cambridgeshire countryside is more comparable but it's still so much more vast!
The paddocks (hundreds of acres each) are littered with rocks; huge ones, worn smooth; looking like they've been dropped at random.
I guess people out here don't realise how incredible their 'boring' countryside is to someone whose fields are square, muddy and completely grassy green.
Evenings are currently occupied watching cricket and tennis. I have never been interested in cricket at all before but I'm actually quite enjoying it, as long as they don't wear the cricket whites! Think I'll support Australia!
My actual job here aparently consists of odd jobs, nothing very definate at all, just anything that needs doing. In the first two weeks I've; built chairs, cleaned sheds, cleaned vehicles, fixed machinery, built fences... It's very much 'if it needs doing, I'll do it!' But it's varied and not boring!
In just the 2 weeks the gloves I was given for fencing are full of holes; they were freebies with dog food so I can't expect much... and I've seen some wildlife. We spotted a couple of kangaroos out in the paddock... no camera of course! and I've seen one of the most poisonous snakes out here just slithering through the garden!
I've got a general daily routine established: I get up, turn off the water pump and back in for breakfast at 7.30 (guarenteed to be first up). I then feed the horses; an ex-racehorse (Crown) and a pony very similar too Harry but a bit bigger (Buddy). Then the day progresses in the fore mentioned jobs. On completion I feed the 10 dogs and the horses and turn the pump on... simple!
Possibly the scariest bit of my first 2 weeks was being left on my own for the weekend. Not scary in itself but considering the weather was boiling hot, at least 40' and had been for weeks, there was a high risk of bushfires and I'm on my own with what felt like a thunderstorm brewing! If lightning were to hit before the rain... FIRE!!! Don't think I've ever been so glad to see just a few drops of rain... no storm though =(
