Batman and Italians

Palm Sunday:

I went to Italian Mass for Palm Sunday. During the “Peace” I happened to meet an Italo-Aussie who resembles a high school friend of mine. Did the usual Sunday routine of go to Maccas and then played a bit of Cutthroat Billiards. I don’t remember being so bad at it, either that or Matthew and Adam have gotten WAY better.

In the arvo (afternoon), after a bit of a drive through the country, I helped Paul and Adam with Adam’s school project. Year 6 students do an electricity project, and so a few weeks when Adam came home and told us the due date, and we brainstormed on what Adam’s project would be. I of course, suggested the Batsign. After a few days of work on Adam and Paul’s part, the day has come for final assembly to turn it in. Now, it was not my project, and I am no electrician like Paul, but, I do have a thing about having creative ideas, also since Adam does not have a blog of his own, I thought I’d brag for him, look at what the lil’ guy did:











Even made a lil Batman to stand next to the Batsign



And what the light looks like:





Today:

Stayed up later than I should have last night because a friend of the boys wanted (needed) help with an essay that she and the twins had to write for English. It was at this point I realized I can totally be an English lit teacher. Then I remembered all the stuff my favorite ex is going through becoming one, and I regained my senses on the matter.

So it rained last night/this morning, which worked out since I was still sleepy. I realized, if I go out to Ray’s, I am totally going to get bogged down in mud and not be at all efficient. So I thought I would wait till the afternoon to go. In the mean time, sleep for a bit. I get a text from my handler (of course, the day that ALL I want to do is catch up on sleep, he texts me, not while I’m at work and already alert) that says, “Hi, do you need work?”

Well, I have been working with Ray of course, but, I am an opportunist, so, if I could make more money somewhere else in my last month, of course I would take it, but if it was the same as working at Ray’s, I would pass it up, because I really like working for Ray. So we text back and forth for a couple hours when I’m just trying to sleep to find out, that it would be washing dishes at a bakery and would be the same hourly rate that I get from Ray. The difference is it would be consistent, because I get paid by Ray depending on what I am doing, if it is general farm hand work, it is hourly, if it is picking, it is at the rate of whatever I happen to be picking. So I figure it would be worth looking into. I ask my handler Michael for the details and he says,

“Mick’s Bakehouse after 3pm today, ask for Maria -- --------- she is a nice lady, don’t listen to Ray! Tell her about your baking skills! Start at 9am tomorrow! You will be surrounded by hot x buns! Temptin!!”


So I get up and I get ready to go, right as I am about to leave Jan pulls up and I chat for a bit before taking to the streets. I get to the bakehouse and get the details. I will be there 9a-2p Mon-Friday which still leaves me enough time to work for Ray. Now, when Michael told me I’d be surrounded by “hot x buns” I was pretty sure he was talking about the English pastry treat “hot cross buns”, then I discovered that the majority of the people who work there are young lady’s about my age. Not quite sure which buns he was referring to, but with my weight loss and dislike of English food I know which ones will be “Temptin”.

I decided to have Ray be the first to know of the new job. I ended up waking him up from his siesta. He seemed ok with it, especially when I told him I could work all day Saturday to prepare for the market on Sunday.

Went to Michael’s place for a bit of a chat and say thanks for the new job. This is where a bit of my curiosity is satisfied. Michael has a three legged dog who I call “tripod” who always runs up to me when I’m there, and of course, like always, Tripod came running up to me. Which reminded me!

As it turns out, Ray did in fact lose his arm in a farming accident to some equipment when he was a teenager.


I came home, ate and chatted with the family for a bit before going back to Ray’s for an hour or so of work. While I was there we worked together planting broccoli and then picking some beans. We were putting crap on each other like Skippys do (the slur word for Aussie) but there was something a bit different about it tonight. I asked if he was alright with me getting a second job and was like, “of course! Your just another backpacker, I’ll get by, been doing this for years one handed before you got here… plus ya still comin da arvos right?”

Something I might have mentioned before is that Ray has a bicycle that I usually ride from one part of the farm to the other when I don’t need the ute (truck). When I first started working there, I learned the hard way that the left side handle bar break or gears where not connected. After all, a guy with only one arm, why have the left break and gear shifters connected right?

Something I did not mention was, a few days ago when I told Ray that if he really has enough work for me, I’ll stay in Leeton until May, and if he’ll have me, I’ll be his regular employee, well, a day or so later, I was riding the bike, and I was going to play around like I had been doing since I first found out about the left side of the handle bars, and practice squeezing the left break as though it where the clutch on a motorcycle to get the feel for it.

I found myself stopped.

Ray had reconnected the left part of the handle bars. There is no reason for him to for himself. He did it for a two armed rider who would be using the bike a lot. It did not really dawn on me until this evening that he changed his bike cause he likes having me around. I don’t know if he nags other backpackers why they don’t want to go to market with him, and I don’t know if he has his girlfriend cook lunch for other backpackers also. I do know that come May, I have one more person that it will be sad to say goodbye to in Leeton.