Working on the West Coast

Hey Everybody!! Sorry for the long delay since the last post... we havent had too many adventures to report since the grape picking... its hard to measure up you know? We've just been working and drinking mostly. I have a job unloading PVC pipe from a ship container, its hard work, which is a nice change from typing away on computers all day like I am used to. I am actually using my muscles!! When I was in Sydney I lost 15lbs!! I think I got it back now just from these 2 weeks The job is pretty slack too! The only time we get in trouble is when we are working too fast!! Our boss had to come and tell us to slow down otherwise we'll finish the job too quick and work our way out of some money!! haha not too shabby for $18/hr!!

I do have one story/adventure for everyone though! Last week I was going around in the truck delivering this pipe to all the stores around perth, and at the end of the day I had asked the driver if it would be cool just to drop me off near the hostel since we were going by anyway. He seemed a bit reluctant (lazy) and as we were driving down the highway we went passed a train station and he pulls over and tells me "just to walk back to the train station and catch it into town..." So I had to get out and walk back 2kms to the train station, climb an 8ft concrete barrier to get onto the walkway, catch the train into town and then walk another 2kms to my hostel... all because this driver guy was too lazy to take 5mins and drive me right to the hostel... The next day I told my boss (Dave) about this and he flipped out!! When the driver showed up Dave tore a strip off of him!! It was pretty funny to see actually... and after we loaded up the truck the driver went back to the depot and they changed drivers... I guess he went home to cry or something... hahaha. I have lots more stories about my boss Dave (the coolest Aussie I have met so far) but I dont think that they are appropriate for, well, everyone haha. So they will have to wait till I get back to Saskatoon and I will tell people over some beers...

Erynn is working for a company called HPA. They are basically a mail service provider for larger companies. Her job is a mindless one where she basically just hits the 'enter' key a million times a day. There are forms from schools that are scanned into the computer system in which the computer is programmed to interpret what the writing says. So every word that it doesn't have 'confidence' on it prompts her to see if it has the correct word or not. So if the word it thinks the form says is correct she just hits 'enter'. If it's not correct then she just replaces the wrong word with the new word. Haha - how easy is that. Making good money though so who's complaining!! She just started this job last week but it's lasting for at least a month so she's happy about that. Even better is that it's only a 10 minute walk from our hostel!! How the hell does she get so lucky with these close jobs?? Just like in Lane Cove when she worked at Double Day. Not fair that I have to travel so far and she can just leave 10 minutes before her shift!!

So other than working, all we seem to be doing is going out drinking with friends. Wednesday is BBQ night - $5 for 2 sausages, a steak, potato salad, salad, a roll, and a cold pint of beer!! Hard to turn that down! Then usually on the weekends we go out with grape picking people, or people we met in Alice Springs... hard life hey?
Thats about it for now, we are hoping to go and do something over the easter weekend - maybe a road trip down south, snorkelling or I might try my hand at surfing finally!!
I hope everyone is well! talk to you next time.

Nate & Erynn

P.S - Erynn here - Whats with that nonsense on Nathans face?!?!? nice stash!!