I went to Twin Pines in the morning mainly to give Mamie, Gordon’s sister + the lady in charge of the accounts, my account for hours worked. I charged them $5 an hour, which is what I know others have been paid, tho’ if it comes to a dispute I’ll certainly accept less.. I hadn’t really expected to get any work this morning, but first of all I had to take some new chairs upstairs, then help with setting them all out, + a few other jobs, + then I thought I might as well make a day’s work of it, so I went back to mowing. I got on amazingly well, mainly because I took the grass box off. That had been a large reason it had been stalling so much – now that it could just chuck the grass out the back it wasn’t getting clogged so much. It was also much faster, since I didn’t have to spend time emptying the grass box every few yards. It would have to be raked up of course, but that would have been the case anyway.
After my lunch break, I helped Robert, a young feller who lives in the place + helps out when he can, with various small jobs, + then got back to my mowing. Now that things were going well, I was keen to keep them moving. That took me till 4, + then Gordon nabbed me for half an hour’s work putting up some tents. Oh, big news of the day was that the pub had had its first fight last night. Quite an unpleasant one too, by the sound of things, with 4 or 5 Maori guys looking for trouble, + people getting hurt behind the bar. Bad news. All of a sudden the gilt seemed to have worn off, especially for Gordon + his co-bosses.
Work in the evening was easy, except that I was tired. Marion told me when I finished that she’d hired another barman as well, so we’d be sharing time for a while. It obviously had to come, but it still peeved me a bit. Still, the world isn’t organised for my benefit.
Rather extraordinary that I seem to be able to set my own wages, but wanting to be kept on for as long as possible does mean that I am very much on the cheap side. Otherwise, my main task is to prove that I can do anything… tho’ actually my skill base is pretty low. And there is always the possibility that I will be kicked out in favour of someone cheaper, more local, better at the job… as at the Cascafe, with the new barman.
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