It begins, stops and begins again

I'm talking about the cherry picking. We did start picking cherries on Fri last week - lasted 4 hours and then the cherries ran out as we were colour picking. This is really difficult. So we got Fri afternoon off and we used it wisely as it was the best day I've seen since I first arrived in Roxburgh. (Sun spilt the skies from morning to night and we saw fewer than 10 clouds in the day) We spent the afternoon at the side of the River playing frisbee, sunning and playing at the side of the water as it is too fast to swim in. We did manage a few water fights as well so my wonderful colourful knickers were on show through my shorts, again!!! :-) oh dear!!! I also got a gash on the side of my ankle and a big bruise is still developing 4 days later when I kicked water at a good friend and bashed it off a rock. The next day we started again in another block of cherries and it was a better day we worked form 8 in the morn till 5.30 in the afternoon. I picked 11 5kg buckets in that time. That may not seem a lot but as the top picker got 17 and I matched some of the boys an dbetter than most girls so I don't feel too bad. Plus we pick at $1.50 a kilo. On Sunday we started earlier as the heat on the day before had got oppresively bad. We started at 7.30 am and worked till 4pm not a bad day and I managed 12 buckets. Today (monday) the rain that was predicted was correct and it bucketed down. So at 6am when I got up, I had some breakfast, watched a movie, answered the phone to some orchard owners phoning to say work would be dalyed and went back to bed. When I woke at 10am the sun was splitting the skies and really warm (very bad weather for cherries), and we got told to start work at 12.30. We did and lasted 20-30 mins before the heavens opened and we got told to stop, Thank God! It was freezing! When we got back to the hostel we were joined later by everyone else who was working and we watched a movie. Since then (about 2pm) the sun has not stopped shining and we are all annoyed at this dratted weather. Tomorrow we start again at 7.30am - weather dependent!

The bit that I missed is that we got told how to wear the bucket harnesses properl;y so guess what it doesn't hurt so much until your bag is almost full. The worst thing that our manager, Mark, pointed out was that when wearing the harness you walk around and possibly look like a pregnant woman so I'm definitely off that idea as it is the worst weight in the world to lug around so ruddy awkward especially when climbing and your back hurts enormously when at full term!!! :-)