Musings of a wanderer

For the first time in many many years, I am spending both Xmas and New Year overseas. The main reason why this was not possible the past 8 years was due to my job as a teacher, since school usually starts on 2 Jan right after New Year Day and protected time for most schools actually ends about a week before Xmas. So I was quite stoked to be spending both Xmas and New Year overseas.  Work had picked right up as we enter mid-end season and I was working almost everyday. The good news was that they have assured us that we will not be working no Xmas and Boxing day as well as New Year Day. On Xmas eve, I had decided not to go in to work since they were only gonna clock in about 4h that day. It didn't make sense time-wise and financially. We decided to drive 3.5h up north to a place called Cactus Country. To be clear, this is not high up on my list of places to see when in Melbourne our reasoning was that we should probably do more/ go to more places that ordinary tourists don't go ...

 It's been a busy couple of weeks at work since returning from SG. Being efficient at what I do and being able to speak English well brought about opportunities in other areas at work. For the past week, I have been tasked to manage the operations aspect of where the cherries we pack were headed - and managing the operations aspect also meant that I sort of have to manage the people tasked to my area.  Would I call it a promotion? Not quite, because while the scope of my work has increased, my pay has not commensurately increased as well. I'll update down the line if I am given a pay raise with the changed jobscope but I doubt it. What exactly is the 'operations' aspect that I am part of? Basically, after the cherries are packed, they are deployed to various supermarkets, markets, sold in-house, exported to other countries etc. I am involved in the deployment of the cherries that are meant to be sold at supermarkets/ markets in it's loose form (i.e. not in fixed pre...

Its been a while since the last update and since then, I've gone back home to Singapore for 1.5 weeks to attend a dear friend's wedding and now I'm back in Melbourne. The trip back home gave me an opportunity to reconnect with friends, ex-colleagues and very importantly, food back home. One of the main issues I have here is the general lack of social life compared to back home in Singapore. It's difficult to maintain any sort of friendship when you are only at a place for a few months at a time. And even with our plan to be based here in Melbourne for a longer term, it is only for 6 months. Perhaps if I was here alone, it might probably have been easier since I would generally have more time on my hands I would probably be living in a shared house with more space and time for social interactions. Travelling alone would also mean there is less of a need to answer to anyone for the way you spend your time. Of course travelling with a companion has its own perks as well an...

It's been a while since I last posted, mainly because I was recovering from COVID and getting used to the new job. So slightly before getting COVID, I had been on the lookout for farm jobs here in Melbourne. The difference between Melbourne and Perth is that while both are major Australian cities, Perth is a lot smaller than Melbourne. Farms (near cities) are generally located at the outer suburbs. Since Melbourne is a lot larger than Perth, the outer suburbs of Melbourne thus tend to be more... outer, further away - which meant that travelling time from near the city centre is quite significant. So while I did eventually find a farm job that did not require me to relocate, it was near Yarra Valley which is about a 1h15min/ 50km drive away from where I am based (St Kilda). While looking for a job, I was quite adamant that I would not want to go back to strawberry picking, unless I really did not get a farm job in a month. Strawberry picking had been brutal to my back and knees. And...

I thought about the title of this post for a bit after writing out the entire post and whether it is appropriate given that till now, I haven't actually seen a doctor. Decided to go on with it since that had been my intention but just haven't been able to manifest the seeing part. I tested positive for COVID a few days ago. It's no big deal now but I think I am quite possibly one of the minority now. It seems that there have been more people who have caught it than not caught it at this point. I didn't figure I would catch it in Australia given how wide and open it is. Incidentally, I was having this conversation with Renee a few months ago in Perth about how even without all the masks mandates and everything, it is far easier to catch COVID in Singapore than over here and the conclusion we came to was because its more open, even in the big cities. Anyway, on hindsight, now is proabaly as 'good' (I use good liberally here. There really isn't any good time to...

I recently completed my RSA certification (Responsible Service of Alcohol) with EOT . In Australia, it is mandatory for anyone who works in the hospitality industry that serves alcohol (which is essentially almost everywhere) to be RSA certified. While my main object of this adventure is of course to complete and learn more about farming and the work involved in our food, I thought I should complete this certification to give myself more options in case the farming thing doesn't work out. The thing about RSA certification is that while it is generally universal for all states in Australia, to be RSA certified in VIC and NSW would require you to jump through a few more hoops. And since I am currently in VIC, the generic RSA certification will not do and I had to pay slightly more to get certified for VIC. As you can see, if I were to get a RSA certification for WA, it would have been applicable in all states in Australia except for VIC and NSW. Which means that had I gotten my RSA t...