This week I worked in the glasshouses all week and had my last day on Friday. It was a great week and the people there were really nice. I did all sorts of different things, planting, weeding and winding cucumbers up their wires. The staff were so nice that one of them, C., even lent me her pruning gear and gumboots for me to use doing grape pruning for the next month or two. The only shit thing that happened was someone went into the staff area while we were all busy working and stole everyone’s tobacco. All of my things were in my little backpack which was hidden away behind a corner and nothing was taken, including my wallet which was also in there.
On Friday I went to another break-up party with E. It was in Flaxmere, not the best part of Hawkes Bay, and therefore it was a bit colourful. At the end of the night when we went to leave there was a fight breaking out between two guys at the front gate – the only entrance and exit to the entire house. It got pretty violent and there were even some bottles thrown around. The gate got closed between them to separate them which stopped people from being able to come or go from the party. After waiting around for ten minutes with the people picking us up out on the street we decided to jump the fence and sneak out through the neighbours‘ property.
I was worried about leaving the car at the party though, and it was parked up not too far from the gate in an empty section in front of the house we had been at. There were two people picking us up so one of them was able to drive it back home, but of course in the last ten minutes someone had parked behind it. One of the people picking us up joked that maybe they had left it unlocked and we could push it out of the way. That was all the suggestion I needed and I quickly ducked back across the road towards the cars while everyone stayed behind thinking I was crazy. The car was unlocked and I managed to get the handbrake off and start rolling it quietly away from our car… rolling it away down the slight slope and towards the cars parked on the side of the road. Just as I figured out I couldn’t get the handbrake back on and turned to yell out for help, E. braced behind the car and held it in place. Luckily he had seen what might happen and started running across the road to get there before the car was going too fast for him to stop. C., who was picking us up, got there a few seconds afterwards, muttered some colourful words, and put the handbrake on for me before taking the keys to E.’s car and driving it out of the park for us. I was a little shaky for the ride home but somehow managed to get myself in another ridiculous position and come out unharmed. I don’t want to go back to Flaxmere ever again.
As it happened I probably have to because my new pruning job is far away in the mountains and I’m going to get a ride with a family from Flaxmere which will cost me $20 a week insead of $100 for driving myself. I’m not really thrilled about driving there every day and leaving my car at their house of course, but I drove past their property today and it was in a much nicer part of the neighbourhood (next to a church) and so I decided that I would have to live with a few more visits.
My weekend was a little bit more normal than the crazy events of the week. I went out and visited C. to help me sharpen the pruning gear I had borrowed and check that she thought it was good enough to use. While I was there her and her friend were trying to fix a problem with the pipes in her bus that were leaking but she still found time for a coffee and a bit of a girl’s gossip. On Sunday I went down to visit P. and H. and enjoyed a lovely mediterranean style meal, along with great company, and of course I stocked up on more fresh herbs from H.’s garden before I left.