Michael and Debbie threw us a 'end of harvest dinner' that week as well, to celebrate that we finished the grapeseason. Evryone gathered together around the table sharing story's and holding speeches. Such a great end of a great grape harvest and a grapeful time. And delicious food!
Picking & packing
That weekend we finally got to go back to work, to pick more oranges! I couldn't be more exited. When I say that I love picking oranges, I'm not including the 'carrying the ladder' part. The ladders are not necessarily heavy, it's just that they're hard to balance while carrying them. I wasn't very lucky with the ladder this first day and as it was too muddy as well, it didn't stick to the ground properly. 2 times I fell off while climbing down the ladder with a too heavy orange filled bag on my back. 2 times I fell into the tree, which actually isn't too bad as it makes you realize that you're able to reach a lot more. 2 times the ladder fell on me while carrying it and ended up facing the ground, stuck under the ladder and surrounded by oranges and while screaming for help.
The whole next week I went to the farm of Stina's old boss to pack oranges. Probably one of the best jobs you'll get, so i was more than thankful. We had the weekend off again, cause of the rain and had a highly tearful godbye party to Alina, who was leaving for Sydney and New Zealand the next morning. And for Jouline and Lana who was leaving as well. And I made my final decision to leave by the next weekend.
I wasn't at all looking foward to leave that last week. Specially not since Kat turned up, back at the fruitshack on early Tuesday. She finished her travels up east cost and went back to South australia to sell her car before ending up at where it all started, Fruitshack, to save up some money. It was great to se her again, even only for a couple of days! I was working that last week packing oranges again, or picking them for the same farmer with Kelly, Ben and Anthony. My last day picking turned out to be quite eventful as I got into a huge fight with the ladder again. I genuinely haven't hated something so much as I hated the ladder by that point that day. The trees we're picking stood on a little hill which made it so much harder to stretch to the sides without the ladder falling over, or carrying it without ending up on the floor. As it started to rain we finished early, and I walked in to town with Annalisa for a coffe at good old La fresco (the cafe where Stina use to work, and where Annalisa's now working)
My last night was a sad night. It felt so much emotionally harder to leave this time compare to last time I was leaving the shack. Probably cause I left with my friends last time while I had to leave everyone behind this day. And after 2 months living together we all become quite close to eachother, and there was a part of me who really didn't want to get down to Melbourne at all. If it wasn't for my friends Cornelia and Fiona (who was about to come to Melbourne only for a couple of days) I'd probably end up staying at the shack a lot longer.
