Danger in Me (Finding a Job)

Literally about an hour after I published my last post, Sonia got a phonecall with a job offer in a town an hour and a half outside of Melbourne. Needless to say, I was pissed (she knows this). What happened to the three of us sticking out our 88 days together? We were supposed to be a team! She accepted the job and then told me to apply, so I did. And 8 minutes later, I got a job offer as well! The only strings attached for both of us is that it would be a six-month contract, which is quite a bit longer than 88 days but we’re hoping that it will help us save a ton of money before we go back to our city lives. We told the HR manager about Kirsty (who was at work) and she said she’d keep a job available for the day, as long as she sent in an application by the following day. So it looked like we’d all still be doing our 88 days together anyway! The HR manager sent Sonia a list of contacts for accommodation (as there aren’t any hostels in Warragul), but only one replied with rooms available. She’d be charging $100/week and she was only a five-minute walk away from the farm that we’d be working on. Which was perfect cause otherwise it would be a 20-minute bike ride or 1-hour walk from the town centre. She said she’d send pictures of the rooms later that evening. I was still feeling skeptical cause everything seemed too good to be true, but as the day went on, I got more and more excited. Things were looking up! We finally had work! Anyway, since Sonia didn’t pay for the following week’s worth of rent, she decided that she’d leave the following morning and stay in Melbourne. Since I DID pay for the following week’s worth of rent, I decided to stay in Mildura for the week and travel to Melbourne and Warragul on the weekend. Kirsty FINALLY came home from work (it seemed to take forever!) and we told her about our plans, but she wasn’t sold on the six months of work. Later that evening, Lindsay came knocking on our door and offered both Kirsty and Sonia the 12-hour tractor-driving training. His plan was to take on five people and see how they did, and then offer three people the position. Kirsty wanted to give it a go because it would be awesome money, and she’d have half of her days tied in if she got the job. Therefore, she decided to wait to send in an application to the place in Warragul. I was then asked to talk to Lindsay and he offered me an hourly rate fig-picking job (which is way better than piece rate, but it’s still fig-picking). I was just honest with him and told him I found something else and I didn’t want to waste his time or the farmer’s time. The next morning, Sonia was gone when I woke up, everyone else was at work, so it was only me and the new Canadian girl (Asha). She ended up getting a phonecall from another hostel that she was interested in, who offered her a job to start the next day, so she packed up her stuff and left. So then it was just me! And it was basically like that for the entire week, which allowed me to overthink (as I would) and start freaking out about every possible scenario that could happen. I started questioning whether I should have turned down the fig-picking job, since I finally would have had a job with transportation and accommodation! Not only that, but we never ended up hearing back from the lady who was going to provide accommodation. I tried phoning her and it went straight to voicemail, then Sonia tried phoning her and the same thing happened. Then the lady told Sonia she was really busy at work and she’d send the pictures that evening and we STILL haven’t gotten them. During the entire week, I basically just researched. I looked for places to live, I looked for bikes to buy, and I looked for cars. Places to live in Warragul are slim to none… I found one place that had two unfurnished bedrooms and then when I went to contact him the next morning, they were no longer available! I found some airbnbs and a furnished cottage out in the middle of nowhere, but all of the options I found required us to have some type of transportation. Since both of us have less than $1000 in our bank accounts, I don’t think we’ll be able to afford a car anytime soon. My stress level has been to the max because I get stuck in my thoughts and think of every possible thing that could go wrong. And I’ve been having vivid nightmares every night, and I never remember my dreams OR have nightmares. So that’s been fun.

Anyway, onto something less depressing... “What am I going to be doing for work?” I know you’re all wondering. Well, I can tell you that! I will be working on a tomato farm! I am beyond excited about this! Tomatoes are my favourite fruit in the whole world (and they’re my favourite vegetable for all of you who think that tomatoes are a vegetable, even though they’re not). Many know me to walk into the kitchen, grab a tomato, and start eating it like a normal person would eat an apple. They’re just so good! I’m actually looking forward to farmwork when it comes to tomatoes, whereas with figs, I was never too enthralled (understandable..). So I’ll be starting off by working in the nursery and then moving onto crop care. They sound like the most adorable positions ever! And I’m pretty sure nursing tomatoes would be a lot more enjoyable than nursing a baby. And at least tomatoes don’t cry when they need something. I’m going to be a tomato mom! Anyway, right now I’m on the 8-hour trip back to Melbourne, where I’ll be spending the night. Then tomorrow morning, Sonia and I will be travelling to Warragul and hopefully figuring out 1) where to live and 2) how to get to work. We start on Monday... Wish us luck!! Love always

Danger in Me - Emma Davis