Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work we go… Val as cleaner extraordinaire, me as general maintenance man, who is just at the moment scared stiff that he will be laid off at any moment. It’s not that there’s not a lot to do – there is a great deal, but not all of it is very pressing, + since I’m not on the regular staff, + was the last of the casuals to be hired, + don’t possess any particularly wondrous maintenance skills, I am in imminent danger. I was clipping + weeding today, with a spot of raking thrown in. I was thoroughly bored by the whole process of course, + knocked off at 3.45. Val had prepared a curry out of the other chops, so I had some of that before heading back to my other job.
A quiet night there, with just one waitress on, + a couple of tables of casual guests. And no Mike the chef, which made things far more relaxed in the kitchen. Julia was the cook for the evening, + at the end of things she cooked me up a huge meal, with 2 enormous chops, roast potatoes, carrots, + cauliflower cheese. It was delicious, but would come along on an evening when I’ve already eaten one meal. Still, I managed it. It more than compensated for a dull evening – I hadn’t even taken in a book to read.
When I returned Val had already hit the sack for an early night, + was fast asleep. Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday, by the way, that Wayne had passed on some bad news. First that the accountant, who seems to act as his boss while his actual boss, an Englishman, isn’t around, had said that we would have to move out of the garage. Secondly, that they wouldn’t be able to give either of us any work on a regular basis since they would be rewarded financially for hiring a student. Neither of these was as bad as they might have been. For the first case, they still both seemed quite keen that we should stay on, rent free, in exchange for an occasional piece of work. And as for not working there, that suits us just fine at the moment since we have easily enough on our plates keeping just 2 jobs going. Assuming, of course, both jobs do keep going.
It does appear that ,despite my complaints, I am very much my own boss at Twin Pines, determining my own wage, and now deciding at what time I could finish for the day. And it more than compensates for the reduced commitment at River Park. But anxiety about work, whether it would continue, whether we could balance our various commitments, whatever, seems to be a recurring theme throughout our stay in Haruru Falls.
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