Gareth's Slave Labor

06/28/2003

hi everyone,

This is not going to be one of those group e mails where I say how nice the weather is here and make you all jealous, in fact quite the opposite. Unfortunately I have stopped in a small country town in Queensland to spend two weeks fruit picking. So, while I hear about people on my course at uni graduating and getting real jobs back home, I sit in a big field picking peas...earning a laughable amount of money.

It has all come to this after not being able to find any work in Brisbane after my surf trip up the coast from Sydney. I had to find a way to stop the money draining away and this seemed to be the only way. The most depressing thing about all this is that I am now too far north to be able to surf. (The surf is blocked by that big Great Barrier Reef thingamyjiggy). It'll be a couple of months now, until South and west oz, before i see the surf again.

Oh but by the way, it is really hot and sunny every day and I can start on my tan again. Once this week of hell is over I'm off to Fraser Island for some 4WD madness. Then its a 6 hour drive up the coast in the car to the Whitsunday islands for 3 days sailing on a yacht. Half the people on the boat will be from the house I stayed in back in Sydney, so it'll be big reunion. This can only be bad news for the people who own the boat!

I hear that you are getting some sun back at home, being the summer and everything. Any of you who are going to the festivals this summer, I'm jealous!

Gareth..