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November 3, 2005
Life as a bucket boy..
...is tough. Wakeup is at 3:30am to get ready to start work just after 4:30am. We're working 7 days a week, no days off (yet, at least). I can tell that some people are reading this and laughing, wondering how the hell I'm getting up that early when I have trouble getting up at 11am most days.... Let's just say that money has a certain way of convincing people to do things...
Like convincing my lazy ass to work in the hot, blistering sun of Queensland, spending every day of the week passing out buckets into tomato rows and lifting, catching and throwing 30+ tonnes of tomatoes (~3000 buckets @ 12-14kg/ bucket). Luckily, I'm working on a contract system. There's 10-12 of us bucket boys - I prefer the term bucketeer, and we get a commission for every bucket that we collect and eventually load onto trucks. Doesn't sound great but it's the best money around. We loaded 10 trucks today, worked about 9h and made $200 (after tax!). I started last friday and worked 5 days so far for a 1st paycheck of $867.
Bonus in Aus, you usually get paid weekly.
It looks like my posts are gonna be far and few between for a while. Work is pretty tiring and the partying is low-key cause the workday starts so early. Current plans are to work tomatoes til the end of the season which should be around Xmas time. The season is just starting to ramp up so the month of Nov should cover my M/C bill and Dec will be gravy money for more travelling and the transition to being a tourist again.
I'll see what I can do for drumming up some interesting stories in the future. It'll most likely end up being one of the $4 jugs nights...not a bad deal, even though they are only 40 oz...
Cheers mates!
Posted by Dr.Unk at November 3, 2005 3:38 AM
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