(Straw)Berries season

One realisation that I came to is that we don't end when we are tired, we end when we are done. I seems such an Army thing, but it isn't. In the context of strawberry picking, this means we have packed and processed all the strawberries we have picked. Here's the schedule for a typical work day.

6.00am: wake up, shower

6.15am: light stretching for legs and back (massively important!)

6.30am: breakfast and prep lunch for the day

7.00am: leave house

7.25am: arrive at work, put on work attire/ gear

7.30am: start picking/ pulling curtains

11.00am: lunch under the blueberry tree

11.30am: resume picking/ pulling curtains

2.00pm: stop picking (by then, by my estimates, we would have picked about 2000 - 4000kg of strawberries depending on the number of pickers that day, weather conditions)

We usually throw out 5-15% of the strawberries we pick because a part of it has rotted. Due to the erratic weather and the high winds recently which destroyed many of the curtains and pickets, we had to throw out a lot more strawberries last week.

Strawberries that are thrown out at the end of the day

We will then all change out of our picking gear (remove knee pads, rain pants, rain coat, change gloves etc)

2.10pm: go into the packing shed and start processing the strawberries picked and packing them into 250g boxes

3.00pm: work stops - we take a 15min rest break

3.15pm: work continues

4.30pm onwards: we work until we are done with all the strawberries

Yesterday was the busiest day thus far. It wasn't even the longest day (given that we are paid by the hour, most days, it seems that the longest days are the busiest days). The shift started at 7.30am as usual, by the time we were done, it was 6.30pm. For the record, the longest shift so far had been 7.30am to 8pm. The first sign of the long day was when I arrived at work. There were 12 pickers. Usually we have a motley crew of 6-8 pickers + me, the resident curtain puller. We have new pickers once in a while, a lot of them don't stay (last?) long. Usually 1 week max. Since our picking times are fixed (only the processing and packing time varies), with more pickers, it also means more lanes/ strawberries will be picked. When it comes time to come back into the packing shed, some of the pickers will be 'dismissed' to go home as there are not enough processing stations for everyone. Generally the same 5-6 pickers will stay back and continue into the packing shed to process the picked strawberries. My job (as the only 'young' man is to arrange the 250g boxes of strawberries into a carton and stack these cartons one on top of the other on wooden padlets - 15 cartons high. Each carton will weigh about 5-7kg. I'll usually move them at 2-4 cartons per time depending on how my back is taking it. Anyway, yesterday we packed 5+ padlets worth of strawberries. When I woke up today, I couldn't sit up in bed. When I sneezed, I felt my back nearly breaking. The only reason why I am not at work today is because I decided to take all weekends off. I don't think my city body is capable of doing literally back-breaking work 6-7 days a week. Strawberries are well and truly coming into season here in Perth. 

Sometimes while packing, I wonder to myself why I made this decision to take a pay-cut, come over here and kill myself physically. It becomes much clearer when I'm back home after work. When I'm home, while tired, I really do not have to think about work at all. I can have my dinner, watch my Netflix, play my game, read my book, whatever I want to do, in peace. I don't take any work home. I don't take any stress home. I don't take any pressure home. I don't take any emotions home. While tiring physically, this is truly a mental break - what I'd hoped for. 

Recently, the news announced a 5-10% pay-rise for MOE teachers, and one of the most prevalent and agreed-upon commentary out there amongst my peers is that while the increase is welcomed, it doesn't deal with the real issue - the massive workload teachers in Singapore carry, the poor work-life balance. I fully agree with it. But that is another thought for another time. At this point, I just hope that this adventure helps drag me away from burnout territory, so that I go back refreshed, with better clarity of mind, new ideas, more white space. And so while it has been physically really challenging, I look forward to the rest of my journey.