Grape Work

It actually wasn't that bad. I mean, it is 8 hours of sitting on a bucket cutting vines up into appropriately sized pieces, (with two smoko breaks- morning and afternoon- and a lunch break- at lunchtime), but the nice thing is that just when you start getting bored you cut yourself with the secateurs! Which makes everything all exciting again.

The woman who sits next to me has been working in the vineyard for 28 years (!!!) and is called Lois. Every time I talk to her I feel like I'm making a Family Guy reference. It is a struggle not to ask things like "Lois, where are the secateurs?" in a Stewie-esque voice. I quite like Lois. Several times today I cut a particularly perfect piece of rootstock (ideal length, neat little buds (sounds like a bad porno, doesn't it? sorry)), and I thought to myself "Ooh! This is exciting!" So I said to Lois, "Ooh, Lois, look at this one!" And Lois agreed that it was indeed as close as one could realistically expect to get to rootstock trimming perfection.

Then Suzanne sat down. "Are you bored," she asked, "we used to play Who Am I." "Yes," I replied, "it's a good game for the grapes." "Wait 'til you get to the grafting shed," she replied, "sometimes in there we play I'm Thinking of a Famous Building!"

Then the weather got cold. "Gosh, it's getting nasty," said Steve. Ten minutes later the wind set in. "Ooh," said Lois, "that's a south-wester." "A bit of a chill on it," countered Steve. Five minutes later it started to spit. "Well," said Steve in a resigned tone, "it's really packed it in now."

Tomorrow I am going back to do another 8 hours! The nice thing is, though, that after 8 hours of feeling your brain slowly atrophy you have to go home and do productive, creative things...just to remind yourself that you are a grown-up with enormous life potential, and that it is only the circumstances that you find yourself in that mean you get excited over bits of greenery in your vine. (Did I mention that I got a bit of greenery in my vine? It was the highlight of the day. I am not kidding. I showed everyone. The closest anyone had to it was when Jeb, the American, sat down too fast and fell off his bucket. This, while also amusing, wasn't the same as my bit of greenery.)

Nothing exciting has happened today. I played the Force of Destiny again; Ryan is cranky; Riadan is unresponsive; I have no money; I am tired. Same as yesterday.