Friday 24 May 2013

Coming home.

I'm coming home, I'm coming home tell the world that I'm coming home.
Flights booked and I got 3 days left. One of which I'm working and the other travelling to Brisbane. So I've got 1 day and I'm in a town called Chinchilla which is the same as any other inland Aussie town. Seen one you seen them all.


Just finished my last rodeo and I'm gonna miss it what an experience this has been.
I've learned to stop being a pathetic female and do a mans job. Running leads and hoses and proper physical work. Aside from that working on a funfair is pretty damn fun! I loved sneaking away from the canteen to go on the rides, eating candyfloss all day but not the blue stiff cause it dyes your teeth so the boss knows you were eating it. Watching the rodeos which is pretty cool and a sport I never thought I'd be exposed too. Seeing cowboys and listening to country music is the norm to me now. We'd stand in the canteen all day slagging the small town country people. Playing is it a boy or is it a girl? Omg look at that! The funny thing about Oz is of you go to the coast the people are thin and beautiful. As soon as you go inland they get fat and not as desirable.
I've loved the people I've met working on the show. A completely different mix of characters, but been great fun all the same, we've had some great laughs and beer pong nights together I'm really gonna miss them all.
Once a showie always a showie.

Monday 20 May 2013

Chinchilla

Today wasn't such a good day. There's one guy called Will who works with us. Him and his girlfriend started the same time as me, their 21 and 19. I got on well with them at first and I still do but Will is really starting to grate my nerves. He's a know it all, patronising bastard. Enya his girlfriend is on another planet half the time. I blew up at Will the other day as he keeps barking orders at me when he has no right too and wouldn't listen to me when I was trying to tell him the freezer hadn't been on all day. He always snaps since he thinks he's always right and it really got to me the other day I went mental and in front of everyone!
Today when we were working for some reason he questioned what I was doing to Brock who is Mick and Jackies son. I was cleaning the control box for one of the rides with Courtney and for some reason he didn't like it. I don't know why Brock reacted the way he did but he went mental at Courtney and sent me to do some shitty job on my own. I was fuming! Doesn't he realise we need to stick together and not fuck each other over?!
So now I don't know if I can stand to stay with the show for much longer. It's bringing me down being around him. The other thing that's starting to piss me off is the men! There's barely any women on the showground never mind young single ones so who do you think is in high demand?! There's one guy in particular who won't give up. He's called Rumbo and that's all I hear about from everyone even my boss Mick. Pisses me off cause I'm not interested and I don't hear the end of it. Yeah right am interested he's an alcoholic! As if I wanna go there.
No one can accept that I'm single by choice and that's what I wanna stay. Who knows when ill and if ill ever wanna be in a relationship again. I've felt the ultimate pain from it and I don't wanna feel it ever again.

Anyway I'm in Chinchilla which was a 500km drive from Charleville, so all day Sunday was just spent travelling. Got a small one day show in miles which is 50km tomorrow but we're camped in Chinchilla so it's just the canteen to pack up tomorrow night thank god! Think I may spend the next few weeks with them till we get to cairns as then it's just an easy flight down to Sydney to meet Von and Chris.

Friday 17 May 2013

Charleville

Just been stopped by the police for the second time in Charleville. This time it was for walking across the showgrounds with a beer in my hand after the show was finished and the gates were closed. No drinking in public areas apparently and it's a $110 fine. They made me walk back to camp and get my ID to prove I was old enough to drink then let me off with a warning. Two days ago we got pulled over in the car cause we went to town me, Kristy and Voitor and they have no back seat so Kristy lay on the mattress in the back seat. I managed to talk us outta fine saying it was a moment of madness and we were only nipping to town. Our punishment was me and Kristy were made to walk back to the showgrounds. Hopefully not gonna make it a 3rd time but still got a full day here so there's still time!
Charleville is the proper outback. Red dirt and hilly Billy's. The bugs out here are unreal, The moths are like the size of your hand more like bats. The wildlife is crazy I've seen enough of it to last a lifetime but I still love it. I love being on the road, travelling to new towns. We've been doing 2 shows a week in the past few weeks so its been full on travelling and working. The thing about these places though is a lot of the towns are very similar with the same shops and no sorta history or interesting sights. As Australia is such a new country there's no background. The culture is a shock to me. The small town cowboy lifestyle is a drastic difference to my lifestyle. I love the fact I'm experiencing real Australia not just the beach side of it.

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Showie

So I'm back in Roma. Back where I started on the showgrounds now I'm a showie and I love it! On the road from St George too here the Australian wildlife was rife and it was so cool. I seen so many emus, wallabies and kangaroos. The kangaroos just hop onto the road all the time their more pests. I was travelling with Duncan and it was his first time driving in Oz never mind the outback and we hit one! Lucky we had a roo bar on the front of the ute or it could of killed us their that big. When we drive to each destination it's always so cool cause its always a big road train with all the trucks and cars towing all the rides and canteens. I want a shot in the Kenworth cause that truck is king of the road!

Had a great night tonight having a beer pong tournament and I was on fire, I won a lot more games than I lost. It's a really great group of people on the showgrounds. Showie and proud!

Monday 6 May 2013

St George

The problems of living on the road. We got up at 7 this morning to pack up camp and head to Roma but the road transport police have been at the entrances of the town all day booking all the showies leaving town for being overweight, vehicles too long etc. Anything they can be fined for. So we've sat about all day waiting for them to leave but their still there so we've set up camp and are leaving St George at 3am as they'll hopefully be gone by then. Another sleepless night on the road.
This job is fun and I'm glad I'm getting to see the real Australia but most of these towns are all the same. Australia has no history or culture so even though I've been to 7 different towns now they all have the same kinda set up or layout with the high street and same chain stores. Driving through Australia is so boring. There's nothing to look at the scenery just stays the same and it's so flat.

Been missing home abit this week. The problem with travelling on your own is when you miss home you miss everyone. I have no one that knows my life in Scotland so I have no one to really talk about it. I kinda feel this week like I wanna come home soon but I also don't.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Showies

Exhaustion ain't the word. I've worked solidly this weekend. Two days in Goondiwindi I was working in the roast beef van which I enjoyed more than the canteen. Mainly cause their trusting us a lot more now and just left me and Will too it in the van as we know what we're doing now. Today wasn't good as we were all so tired. I was up for 24hrs yesterday and got 3 hours sleep before I had to work again today. We were all abit grouchy and crabbit with each other. Courtney kept me going with our usual slating of the small town weirdos!
On the drive from Goondiwindi to St George this morning I seen my first wild kangaroo! Hopping across the road looking all cute. Steph the girl who was driving screamed 'oh fuck' as she almost hit it and I got all excited and wanted her to turn around so we could go catch it. When they hit your car a lot of the time it'll write your car off their that big.

My boss was quite upset today as their was a programme on the tv about showies and it was really nasty saying their dirty, lazy and just wanna rob you. A stereotype that's so wrong. My bosses and their family are so kind and hard working. They work 7 days a week, up at 6am everyday and work till at least 11pm on showdays. The canteens are cleaner than some of the 5 star hotels I've worked in. The rides are checked and rechecked at least 5 times before every show to make sure their safe. Most shows you get a health and safety inspector checking before they can open and food safety inspectors also come to most shows. It's their livelihoods why would they compromise on safety?
As its coming into winter now it is cold at night and Jackie bought me an electric blanket so I wouldn't be cold. She's bent over backwards to make our camp as comfortable and fully equipped as possible.
It's another judgement I myself have made in the past and I've been proven wrong. I used to think the same about backpackers!

Thursday 2 May 2013

Home, work and bugs.

I seen a picture of Edinburgh in the paper today and it gave me a longing for home. I miss home desperately but not to the point that I wanna come home. I really wish Australia wasn't so far from home and so expensive to fly. I think I'd really consider living here if it was closer, but for now that's a deal breaker. I don't think I could live so far away and only seen my family and friends every couple of years.
Early night tonight as this weekend is gonna be a killer. The Goondiwindi show starts tomorrow at 9am and finishes at 2am and the same time on Saturday. Then when the show finishes we pack down the rides and the canteen, our camp and drive 200km to St George for a show on Sunday, pack down then drive to Roma on Monday morning. Roma is where I joined the show so it'll be nice to go back there when I actually know what I'm doing!
We got the afternoon off today and we all went to the campsite across the road to the pool and spa which was amazing as I've not had a proper day relaxing like that for about 6 weeks. This jobs great but it's constant.
Seen my first big Aussie spider this week. It was a huntsman and it scared the life outta me. I was checking the cables on the power box and I looked to the side and there it was on the side just chilling! I've been here for 6 months and that's me seen my first one. People exaggerate when they say they seen them all the time
and their everywhere. You do see a lot of cockroaches and other bugs. When you see some of them it's like what even of that?! For instance I have a preying mantis on my door right now that I had no clue yesterday what one was! My dad would be proud of me the way I handle bugs now!