Thur 30th April - Granny Smiths are here!!

It’s damn chilly when we’re getting up now and I can officially say we’re in Autumn now. Roll on LA I say! Swine flu or not, I need some warm weather!
We head for the bus, as usual, bang on 7am and we’re stood there like lemons for 15minutes!!!!! Doesn’t sound a long time but when it’s minus degrees and you’re used to the bus being there on time everyday for the past 6 weeks, its damn annoying. Oh and especially when the driver doesn’t even apologise for being late. Rachel has a dig and says ‘did you sleep in?’ but quiet Ginger dude mumbles something incoherent. I’m blimming cold and the hayley rage is building, so play some tunes very loudly on my MP3……oh and to top it all off, when this guy is turning right to go towards the pack house, he goes to the left side of the lane and lets 3 people pass who are driving straight on.……?!?!?!?!? What on earth?! If you’re on a single carriageway and you’re turning right, you sight slightly right of the lane, so any traffic behind you simply carries on straight. Stupid driving man – bring back Marion!
Work is oh so exciting today as we start packing Granny Smiths after morning break – whooooohoooooo!! Everyone is so hyper as there are green apples everywhere – we’re so used to packing different shades of red apple, it’s mental seeing all this green on the conveyor belts! We’ve all got our camera phones out, taking pics of this momentous day! Haha!! Crazy how excited we all are!!

The day flies by due to all the excitement and before we know it, we're back at The Commercial fighting for space in the kitchen. Really driving me bananas......not long now though, so must keep strong!!!

Hayley

Mon 27th - Wed 29th April

27/04/09
Ugh, after a very restless night’s sleep, I manage to get myself to the shower and try and wake myself up. We’re all watching Sky News over breakfast, finding out what’s going on in the world. Apparently, some deadly flu is sweeping the world – Swine Flu – which has killed people in Mexico…….errrr……right, we’re soooo not going there now! I don’t care if Dave wants another stamp in his passport and Aaron wants to ‘try’ some Mexican delights (tequila obviously), we aint going! Something else for the parentals to worry about. Great….
Anyhoo, we trundle outside and get on the bus. We’ve got a new driver from now on - Linden – the new, quiet Ginger bloke from work, that does the trays. Apparently, Marion – old lady Grader – doesn’t work Saturdays so needed a driver to do 1 day a week. However, this new dude didn’t want to just do 1 day a week so he’s taking over. As usual, the morning drive in is non-eventful as we’re all sleepy and listening to our MP3’s.
Work was busy but no craziness. After watching some British cop programme – just to remind us of home – we head to bed and I do the rounds, ringing the family. They all rub it in saying the weather at home has been lovely – its blimming freezing here and getting colder everyday. We get a surprise call from the Vanstone, who cracks me up! Poor girl is walking to work in the rain and some nasty white van man soaks her, driving through a puddle!! She is all excited about meeting us in LA and can’t wait to get away and join us in the sun.

28/04/09:
After yet another restless and rubbish night’s sleep, I am exhausted and can’t get out of bed. Sounds pathetic, I know, but having no sleep for 2 nights in a row has knocked me for six so I decide to take the day off. I would be useless at work and plus, Dave has given me his sore throat – it’s best for all to just stay and rest for the day. I’m not too lazy actually and get up at 9am. I phone Tammy for some hilarious banter and then hit the supermarket to do some baking. Ginger cake today!
I get a stressed txt from Hayley saying she’s lost her passport. Argh!! I try and make her chill out by giving some advice – deep breaths, tidy up and it should just turn up (that does work sometimes!) She sounds pretty upset but is getting her mum to have a look when she’s at work. Bless her! I get cracking with the baking as the TV is on the blimp – typical when I’m off! John is doing his best to sort it out, but it isn’t looking good. The TV is stuck on Sky News so I’m bombarded with all this pesky Swine Flu chat – it’s getting worse by the sound of things and even had 2 cases in Scotland!! It’s all these people coming back from holidays in Mexico and then it spreads from human to human. It’s all a bit too similar to an episode of Spooks for my liking!
I can’t believe the silence of this place when there is no one around. It’s soooooooo good!!! No one in the kitchen making a racket, no loud TV blaring and no high pitched voices. Nice and chilled!
The workers return home just after 5pm and I present Dave with a mean ass chilli. I feed the troops some ginger cake and hear about their busy day – they rib me for staying off but tough! I needed it!

29/04/09:
Today I manage to get out of bed, after a decent night’s sleep! There’s some ribbing banter over breakfast but I choose to ignore it! Sky News is on and still there are growing numbers of Swine flu. The whole world is panicking and there are cases in California – yikes – will they let us in?! grrrrrr! We watch the start of Chelsea v Barcelona and head to get the bus at 7am.
Work is busy all day but we hear from Secret Sue – quality control lady, who knows everything about apples – that we’re going to be packing GRANNY SMITHS tomorrow – Oh my days!! How excited am I?! That’s only my most favourite apple….ever!!! haha! I text the Vanstone at break and luckily, she’s found her passport – yay! Thank god for that!

Hayley

Sun 26th April

Wake up after 9ish but fall back asleep – need it as Dave woke me up at 2am when he staggered in from the Villa Rose – grrr!! End up surfacing at 11.30am – nice long lie in! Probably won’t sleep tonight now – oh well! 10 working days left – yay!! Can’t wait to just chill and not think about the damn apples!
No real gossip from last nite – sounded all very tame. Think Julia and Paolo got in on though!
Dave cooks a mean fry up and we eat outside as it’s a lovely day. It’s nice and warm – so good it being our day off as well! Today was supposed to be a ‘sensible’ day with the 3 of us sitting down and planning what we’re going to do in the North Island – especially as Aaron needs to figure out his budget. Hmmm…however, Albert and Peter from Villa Rose are leaving today so they come over and invite everyone to the pub. I ‘m raging inside as they will, no doubt, come back ‘fairly steaming’ and won’t be interested in planning – raaaaaaa!!!!!! In a very hating boys mood at the minute. RAGE!!!!
Eventually, I get bored and decide to go along to the pub after all. I’m fairly surprised at the boys as they’re taking their time nursing a jug of beer between 6. Well done! We only stay there for about an hour and say our goodbyes to Albert and Peter.
We head back to the Commercial and Kamila is making us homemade pizza – yay! Loving all this baking for each other schizzle – such a homely atmosphere. Shame about the state of the décor and cleanliness of the kitchen though……Pat seriously needs a cleaner in this place. The pizza’s are a success and we are all stuffed to the brim. After watching guff on telly, we head to our beds. As we had a lie-in this morning, had a rubbish night’s sleep – joy!

Hayley

Sat 25th April - ANZAC Day

Today is ANZAC Day – Australia, New Zealand, Army Corporation – basically their version of our Rememberance Sunday. It’s a national holiday, but as those pesky apples don’t stop getting picked for no one, we have to work. However, we’re going to have Monday 4th May off – which is good as it’s a week day and things will actually be open!
We get to work and before we start, one of the old dudes does a reading and then Karen (annoying teacher woman) plays The Last Post on the horn. It’s really moving and some of the old biddies are crying – bless them. It’s all over after 10 minutes and we get to work.
The morning is oh so slow with bugger all apples coming through. Apparently, these Fuji apples aren’t the right colour, so a lot get shipped off to get made into juice as they can’t be sold in shops! How discriminative!
However, after lunch we change to Braeburn apples and all hell breaks loose!!!!! APPLE PANDEMONIUM!! Man alive, Rachel and I have uber crazy lines and end up binning / dropping about 3 yellow crates worth of apples…….it just couldn’t be helped!! The machine eventually gets stopped for us to catch up, but then it happens all over again! Oh and then the stupid tray woman – who looks like Yoko Uno – doesn’t put trays through on mine and Rachel’s lines…..we had a conveyor belt FULL of apples and NO trays – oh the drama!!! If this had happened in my first week, I would’ve left but now I can just laugh at the faff of it all…..fun times you see!!
Poker Night – then everyone went out but pubs shut –haha – so they all went to Villa Rose. I was too knackered and potential for me falling asleep there was immense, and I didn’t want to get covered in marker pen! Aaron didn’t go either – funny that!

Hayley

Sun 19th April - Dont fall asleep at parties.....EVER!

I surface after 10.30am and ring home as I’m sure the mother will still be up….well, that was a funny ol chat!! Ma had obviously been on the ol vino and was a tad distracted by the computer, so kept it very short n sweet – I’ll just ring her at the crack of dawn tomoz!
Dave is hungover to hell and even has to run to the bathroom to throw up! How uncouth! I get up and start being productive – putting a wash on, getting some shopping in to make BROWNIES!! Ooooooh yeah! Bring it on! Rachel, Wiebke and I are all in baking mode and we discuss the antics from last night. Man alive, I missed out again! Aaron made the schoolboy mistake and fell asleep at the party……then the fun began – there was a permanent pen involved…..and the guys got him good. Wiebke showed us the pictures of the massacre of Aaron – yikes! He’s going to be raging when he wakes up! They put PACKER on his forehead, drew various doodles over his head and gave him a Hitler moustache……oh my god, he’s going to freak out…..yikes, I’m getting worried about a raging, hungover Aaron…..
I get on with my baking and the Aaron walks in – yay – the pen has come off his face and head!! Phew – thank god! He’s in an alright mood considering and even admits that it was his own fault for falling asleep! However, he thinks Dave is behind it all and wants to kick his ass (in a jovial manner!) but we show him the pics and he can blatantly see that Louise is the main person to blame! Haha! He’s also hungover to hell and just mongs on the couch…..ALL DAY!
The chocolate n walnut brownies are a great success – whoopwhoop! They are damn delicious and I now feel like Nigella! Helen and wee Jacob come around to say bye to Wiebka. He’s so damn cute and enjoys all the chocolate cakes and brownies! We’re all proper stuffed and enjoy just monging in the living room. Dave eventually surfaces after 2pm and looks slightly more alive than this morning. Everyone is laughing about the various antics and even more so, at the various photos doing the rounds!
Rachel made awesome lasagne for us all for dinner – just what we all needed!

Hayley

Sat 18th April - The weekend has arrived!!

It’s Wiebka’s last day – boo hoo!! She has the honour of driving us all to work today as the normal driver lady is off work. It’s a giggle and we get to work in quick smart time. The day isn’t stressful with no apple dramas – damn! Haha! Wiebka takes some funny pics at work and Aaron can’t handle getting his picture taken with the attractive hairnet on!!
Once back at the hostel, everyone is busy getting ready and sorted for Wiebka’s leaving party. We rendezvous at the Villa Rose at 8pm and the party begins! It’s good craic with lots of boxes of wine being passed around. Michelle even bursts into song, giving us a rendition of ‘Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz’…..she aint that bad actually.
Eventually, we all decide to head to the ‘more lively’ pub and…….the bar man is in the middle of tidying the place up…..it’s blooming 11.30pm!! What on earth!? Apparently, he gave Dave a lecture saying if we had been in the pub from 8pm he would’ve stayed opened longer for us, but cos we all rocked up ‘well oiled’ he reckoned he would get a fine from the police….aye right, cos the one and only copper in Roxburgh is going to turn up tonight. RAAAA!!!! Tom and I even head to the pub up the road but it’s closed! What is with this place?! There’s 40 odd backpackers in this town and no entertainment for us! Tom attempts to leave the pub with his full glass of voddie red bull but gets busted by grumpy bar man – good times!
It’s back to the Villa Rose for more drinking and partying – I last til about 1.30am and start to nod off so Rachel and I head back to the hostel to bed. I leave Dave to carry on and……he staggers in at 4am! Drunken bum!

Hayley

Thur 16th April - we hate Man Utd...

It’s a wee bit of an earlier start than normal as I get ready in double-quick time so I can ring the Vanstone! We natter on for a while and talk about the forthcoming LA / Miami / Barbados adventure!! It’s going to come around sooooooo quick!! Canny wait!!
Head for brekkie and unfortunately watch Ronaldo score for Man Utd with a screamer of a goal………they end up going through after beating Porto 1-0 – raaaaa!!!! Tom is all chuffed and rubbing it in my face – grrrr….
Work was fairly entertaining…….we had crazy Michelle helping us pack – argh – however, she then got put onto grading and hasn’t moved since!! Yay! We also have a new addition to the team – this bitch ass teacher lady – raa!! Apparently, she’s a teacher somewhere local but does packing in the holidays – what?!? Does she not have any friends or any life whatsoever?! Helen – the supervisor – went home early and it all went tits up! The first 6 lines all went crazy and there were apples falling off all over the place! The teacher woman made out like a supervisor and was nippy as hell. She stormed up to go and help Dave, looked at the line with no trays on and millions of apples, but then fecked off. We all laughed our asses off!! Too funny!
The mini-bus ride home was hilarious with everyone slagging off this teacher lady! No one likes her. Think the 3 old biddies on our bus think we’re mental, but they definitely love the mini-bus banter everyday!
Luckily, Dave cooks tonight as I can’t be bothered trying to fight for a hob on the cooker – it’s a nightmare this kitchen!! It needs to be about 3x bigger to cope with the masses! Over dinner, we all start to discuss the forthcoming weekend – unfortunately, it’s Wiebka’s last day on Saturday – nooooooo!!!! The packhouse will be no banter now!! But everyone is coming out tho – so it should be a good night. We head to bed at 9pm – man alive – how geeky am I?

Hayley

Mon 13th April - Another Day off!!

We’re up and about at 9ish and again, blessed with a scorchio day! I spend the day doing washing and researching for the next part of our travels. I’m actually reading all of our guidebooks – for once – and taking notes. How proactive am I!? There’s so much exciting stuff to do in LA, I canny wait!!!
Dave and I head for a wee walk to the egg farm which is 20mins away, to buy some cheap eggs! Yup, it’s all go around here! Off to egg farms and allsorts! Still cant get over how beautiful the scenery is and how like Scotland it is.
Aaron is in the kitchen creating a masterpiece of a roast for ALL of us! Bless him! He does a really great job and we’re all stuffed after it! Bravo Aaron!

Hayley

Sun 12th April - Happy Easter!

Ouch, my head hurts! Evil red wine! Luckily, it’s about 11am so I’ve had a good decent lie in. I gradually get myself up and showered and head for some brekkie. Good ol scrambled eggs should do the job!
Everyone is up and about before me and no signs of hangovers with them! Grrr!!! We all chat about last nite and for once, no dramas after we left the park. It’s another hot sunny day, so its time to get some vitamin D on the go. The boys get all active and want to start creating cider, so there’s a lot of chopping, mashing and creative activity in the kitchen. I’m staying well out of this venture as I can see it all going horribly wrong. Lucky I do, as Dave has a bit of an apple explosion…..he’s squeezing the apple puree through a mesh sheet to get all the juice possible. However, disaster strikes and the mesh splits – we discover this when Dave yells the kitchen down ‘ARGH!!!’ and turns around with his eyes shut and walking around like a blind person. I freak out thinking he’s blinded himself properly or cut off his finger or summat…..however, he starts to pee himself laughing and so do we when we see the state of his face!!!!!!! His face is covered in apple goo……as is the rest of the kitchen! Haha – what a doofus!
We get chatting to John who is rather interested that I grew up in Dumfries…..as lo and behold his great great grandfather was born there!!! How mental is that?! He even brings out this old decrepit book which has his family history in and the details of where/when they were born. It even had members of his family being registered in Sanquar and Ayr. Crazy small world!
No drinking tonight as none of the pubs are open! So, we all sit and chill in front of the TV with a takeaway – yay!

Hayley

Sat 11th April - Oh, to be a teenager again!

Another manic day. Apples everywhere! We even had the owners helping out - Jackie n Old man Con (the owner) were even doing the lines! They look shattered – see how we feel!
However, it’s Saturday night and we end up having everyone around at the hostel – Ponamu (a Maori girl who teaches English in Korea), Kris and Julia (the 2 young lasses from Dresden) and Yami (sweet Japanese girl who’s a nurse over in Japan) - such a funny night. However, this was mainly due to crazy Michelle turning up - let me explain to you about her – she’s this eccentric German girl, who wears these massive round bottle-top glasses and has a mass of crazy frizzy hair. She walks like a man and is uber loud – laughing at anything anyone says – oh and has confessed her undying love for Wiebka……poor Wiebka – unlucky lass!!
Anyhoo, we all head to pub at 10ish as John has a quiet word to us saying ‘time to go out with your mates now’ haha. He also tells us to use the side door as no one will hear us – nudge nudge, wink wink – bless him. He must get a right earful when Pat starts moaning about us ‘kids’.
Bad news……the PUB IS SHUT! What on earth!? It’s Bank holiday weekend!! So we end walking up the road to the old man’s pub! Boo, no juke box in this joint and all 4 of the customers look proper shocked when we all rock up. The bar man has to do some work now – haha.
However, it actually turns out rather well – there’s a separate room at the back with a pool table so we commandeer that room and make as much noise as we want! We play a few rounds of doubles on the pool table and laugh at how wasted Tom is getting. Kids these days!?
Everyone’s on good form, especially wee Yami as Dave decides to teach her rude phrases! Tom is bent over the pool table at the time and so Dave points out his Hairy Arse Crack. Yami finds this hilarious and types it into her wee electronic dictionary thing!
It’s all good banter….but pub shuts at 12 due to Easter weekend – raaaa!!! We pester the barman for a lock in (especially as he put the Liverpool v Blackburn game on and the reds were 1-nil up!) but he’s having none of it – raaaaa!! Everyone is in the mood for a party and wants to continue drinking, but we can’t go back to the Commercial as we’ll get a right rollocking from Pat! So, where else can we go but……the local play park! What a hoot – just like a bunch of under-agers! This is hilarious! We’re all playing on the swings and drinking our boxes of wine – I last for an hour or so and start to freeze my ass off – I mean, I’m in flip flops (they call them Jandals in NZ – interesting huh!?) Then it’s off to the hostel to bed!

Hayley

Mon 6th - Fri 10th April

06/04/09
It’s an Apple crazy day – with apples flying left, right and centre and falling off the conveyor belt…..but don’t worry, we don’t pack the dropped apples! They go on the reject line and get made into apple juice or sold to local markets!? Now you know.
At lunchtime, we finally get through to the tax office and get our IRD numbers – yay, we can get paid on Wednesday now! Whoooohooooo!

07/04/09
Our pay actually went in this afternoon, think it’s to do with having a BNZ account. Great success – we celebrate and have some vino for tea. Our exciting evening continues with a dose of Hell’s Kitchen USA – haha, these people are idiots and one guy gets the tip of his finger cut off!! HAHA – entertainment here you know!

08/04/09:
It’s 6.45am here and the start of the Man Utd v Porto match is on – so bizarre thinking that folks back home are watching this on Tuesday evening and we’re watching it over brekkie, the following Wednesday! Porto score in first 5 mins – Yay! Tom aint happy, haha! We find out at break time that it turns out to be 2-2 – decent result for both but still wished that Porto would’ve won – grrrr….
Apple crazy at end of the day – always happens either before a break or time to go home…..funny that….

09/04/09:
We all watch start of Liverpool v Chelsea match at breakfast. Torres scores in first 5mins –great success! It’s going to be a good day……until I find out at break time that they beat us 1-3 – rage!!! I’m in a foul mood at work and try not to take it out on the apples!!

10/04/09:
Another busy day as always. Anna’s sister (grand-daughter of the main man who owns the packhouse) starts on the packing side and she doesn’t stop talking! Her and Aaron yatter on for hours about anything and everything – that’s fine but as long as she can do two things at once – which she blatantly can’t so I’m left going crazy running around doing loads of different lines. Raaaaaaaa!!!
The day finishes and we all clamber into the wee minibus – poor Kamilla whacks her head on the minibus door – it’s scarily loud – poor thing….but everyone is trying not to laugh and sitting sniggering away – like naughty school kids…..luckily, she sees the funny side later on.
We all meet in the kitchen / living room for dinner and we find out that one of the women on the bus phoned up Pat and told her about Kamila banging her head – bless her being all concerned. However, Pat then decides to lecture Kamila and Rachel about the dangers of banging your head and that ‘there once was a girl that banged her head and ended up dying, as she had a massive clot on her brain’………what on earth is this woman all about!? She just has all these death stories!!!!!! And that soooo isn’t going to help Kamila not worry! This woman is a mentalist!!

Sun 5th April - BBQ fun

No one is really hung-over today, surprisingly! But there are a few major tales from last night after we left – damn, we always miss the dramas! Apparently, the shepherd dude that was speaking to Dave (Greg, I think) went up to May and started chatting her up. She was having none of it and told him to politely go away. He was persistent, so she told him to go away again (use your imagination) and then he pours a PITCHER of beer over her!?!??! OMG!!! That is horrendous!!! I couldn’t believe that when I heard it! Who does that?! So, it almost kicked off then with other men getting involved – but it got diffused and the knobjockey left. Then the crew came back to the hostel and wanted to make toasties – as you do after a night out on the beer - but Pat appeared as if by magic (in dressing gown again) and went mental. Rachel called her a Kitchen NAZI – LMAO! Oh and Aaron pulled May while this was going on – go him! So much we missed!
It’s another gorge day – I love the fact that the sun shines on your one and only day off – thank you! So, it’s another chill out day for me - updating the ol’ novel in the sun and listening to some tunes.
The boys go off to investigate the local BBQ down the road. It’s a coin operated one – bizarre I know! So we all start prepping up for a good ol Barbie.
Well…….what a faff the BBQ turned out to be. Wiebka, Kamila, Tom, Rachel, Dave and I all head to the park to start the BBQ off – chucking in a $1 for half an hour and sit and wait for the hot plate to heat up…….and we wait……..and we wait……and we wait……..the food on the hot plate is drying up NOT heating up!! We’re all starving and can’t wait for this pathetic thing to heat up – we’ll be here all blimming night otherwise! So, we admit defeat and head back to the hostel to have our indoor bbq – boo! Oh well, we tried – shame it didn’t work out.
Grrrrr….work tomoz – time to stretch those muscles in prep………

Hayley

Sat 4th April - Weekend is here!

Yeeha! It’s almost the weekend! Work flies by, mainly as I get chatting to this German girl – Kris – who totally fancies Aaron – haha! They’re flirting so much over the conveyor belts – bless! But she’s only 19 which freaks Aaron out a bit – haha! It’s May’s last day at factory – nooo!!! She’s such a help on the lines so it’s going to be crazy next week when she’s away.

It's Saturday night and we’re all up for letting our hair down, plus it’s May’s leaving party! We have a fair few beers at the hostel and hit the pub next door – this one is a bit more livelier than the old man’s pub up the road. Don’t know how he does it, but Tom is wasted by the time we get there and decides to spill every drink of his over the table – much to the delight of the bar maid – she says to us ‘one more spillage and you’re out!’ what!? It’s a pub, these things happen! Some local shepherd starts spraffing stuff to Dave about sheep and herding – great chat – although I think he found it quite interesting….apparently this guy keeps over 3000 sheep!? Yowzers!
The Germans from Villa Rose (hostel) turn up as well and it’s just like a staff night out from the packhouse! It’s a good laugh, but my eyelids start to droop around midnight, so Dave and I head back.
The Clocks went back tonight – in time for New Zealand’s autumn time – how random! They just went forward at home!!

Hayley

Wed 1st - Fri 3rd April - Apples, apples, apples....

01/04/09
Happy Aprils fools day! Luckily, there’s no major apple disasters. I’m gradually learning not to stress out when it gets crazy on the conveyor belts – and not let those pesky apples get to me! I mean, if the owners are silly enough to let the machines run that fast so we can’t pack them fast enough into the boxes, there’s going to be spillages. So I aint gonna stress about it! End of rant!
02/04/09
Everyone had a pants day at work – but mines was good – nice steady line with no apple disasters! Had a giggle with May – this cute girl from Norway. She’s such a laugh and we had good banter. Unfortunately, the others moan all the way back to the hostel after work after having major dramas on their lines! Shame haha!
03/04/09
Whooohoooo – its Friday! Well, that’s what I would be saying if I was working back at home, but alas, we still have to work today and tomorrow. Ach well, not long til the weekend! At lunch Aaron comes out with that he wants to move hostels, which is a bit pants. Apparently, there’s a right snorer in their dorm (Taiwanese guy called Doodoo – seriously…) and its driving him nuts….oh and so is Godlier than thou Pat…..
Bring on the weekend!

Hayley