Australia

So I'm here!
I've just arrived at Brisbane airport and going to be staying her for a while, until my sister arrives from Melbourne. It's a bit of a nightmare travelling on different flights but it was only for the second half of the journey, so not that bad.
My body is going through what I imagine jet lag feels like. For me it's 11 pm, but it's 8 am here... Don't know whether to have dinner or breakfast. I'm not too tired at the moment though which is good. Although I do feel like having a shower.
I loved the plane journey, especially the goodie bag containing a bottle of water, a packet of Polos, a Mars bar and a cookie. The time flew by, excuse the pun, and I only had time to watch one movie. Elena slept through the whole thing.
So, wow. It feels very strange to think I'm so far away from home. Although for the moment, the universal appearance of airports, Singapore included, gives me the impression that I haven't actually moved that far.
I will update again soon!

Last days in Spain

Not that much time left before I leave for the UK. I've been trying to make the most of the weather, it has vastly improved since Sunday. It felt so good to lay on the sand and listen to the sound of the sea. Seeing my family has also been great and the thought of leaving them again makes me sad. But. I have felt more lonely (lonelier?) here at home these couple of days than when I was out and about on my own in France. I guess it's a combination of inactivity, not having a close group of friends here and everyone around me being busy with their own plans. I find it hard to slip back into my old routine.
It's a weird feeling.
Up in the air, disorientated, neither here or there... whatever you want to call it.
Hopefully things in Australia will work out as well as they did in France.

Travels to follow

So I think, because I'll be setting off soon, again, I'm gonna keep this space. And maybe write some random thoughts till the day of my departure comes. The plan is to spend a couple of days in London catching up with friends and then flying to Brisbane on the 29th. I keep thinking they're not going to accept my boarding pass, and the visa was surprisingly easy to get...
So I'm going with my sis, and we were originally going to work at a B&B just outside Brisbane, but after a recent terrible review from another helper, we've decided against it, and we're now going to be working in a Yoga retreat. No drinking, no smoking, no eggs, no shorts, no internet. Oh joy.

Say "cheese"

The friendliest goats I have ever met.

Home sweet home

Yes, I am back home. Got back yesterday and it's the weirdest feeling. It's like I've had nearly 3 months of crazy adventures, learning and moving around and come back home to find things unchanged. My sister's still busy with school work, my parents are working on the house, my friends are doing the same jobs and going out in the same places, my gran is still in bed. I'm not saying this in a negative way, I don't expect people to change as much as I try to. It's weird, I find comfort in routine, and I don't mind staying in the same place for a long time, but at the same time, there is always this urge in me to set off, to see, to move, to escape? I really hope that it is my desire to roam the world and not a futile sense of escapism that provokes this feelings in me. I guess I don't really know what to do with myself now. The weather's crap so I can't be outside, and there's barely any time before I take off again, so I feel I can't start anything of any weight.
I'm going to do some cooking, and make the most of the kitchen, now that I can use it as I wish, without worrying about using up expensive ingredients, or using the oven.
The last couple of days at Melissa's weren't that bad. Jenny and I tried to be civilised and ignore Melissa's mood swings and constant vigilation. But Jenny was getting ill and that made the work less bearable, especially when Melissa would shout at us for not herding the goats correctly. They just went everywhere and started eating random bushes, I found it pretty funny. Melissa didn't. Then there was another moment when I dropped a cheese in the cheese room and attempted to pretend like nothing had happened and to top it all up, I didn't check one of the milk buckets and did not realise it was overflowing with milk after having poured a new batch in it. Melissa didn't like this at all. But her words made me laugh, especially since I knew that was my last day there. She said "Do you think this is a game? If you're not more attentive and don't check on things constantly, then things can turn into a catastrophe!". Yes Melissa.
My parents turned up, attempted to make polite conversation, to no avail. Looked at my room, suffered for me, and were happy to take me away from there as soon as possible. We went to Minerve for dinner, and took Jenny with us, promising Melissa we would [reluctantly] return her.
We went back to the Bed and Breakfast near Carcassonne in which I'd worked at, and stayed there for 2 nights. Oh how good was that breakfast. Pain au chocolat, cereal, croissants, juice, yogurts, waffles, melon, cereal bread, home made jam, fresh coffee. Mmmm, no cheese in sight.

10 litres out the window

Today was a weird day. Melissa was away all morning, selling her produce at a local market. She left us a re-used envelope with a couple of scribbled words, directions on how to make a cheese from scratch and the chores for the day. So, we fed the chickens, emptied the compost, turned over the cheese in the cheese room etc. Then we put the natural bacteria found in whey in the milk to commence the cheese-making process. Meanwhile I asked Jenny is she could cut my hair. While she's doing this I hear the dog slurping for quite a long time, and I say to Jenny, 'God, that dog's thirsty'. Then it hits me, and I quickly run into the kitchen to find the dig with its head in one of the 10 litre buckets of fresh milk. It's quite comical to think about it now, but this morning we were horrified, and worried sick Melissa would go crazy at us. She was fine, just said 'Oh no" and brushed it off, because it's typical to have wild animals slurping and licking in the kitchen. At another point in the day I found the cat perching on the kitchen surface digging into some butter, there is just no stopping them. I was very mad at kitty.
We've come to appreciate, or not appreciate, that Melissa hasn't got very good social skills and doesn't seem to like us. She doesn't communicate at all and makes us feel inadequate and awckward. She has no managing skills and gives us no indication as to what she wants us to gets done, or her expectations of us, so we're continually worried about what we should be doing, and can't ask her many questions because she gets annoyed. She says she can't be bothered with repeating the same things to every new helper but we don't even know where the light switches are, or the sugar. She doesn't like cooking so most of the time she'll just lay out cheese and bread for lunch and dinner, and with shit weather and outdoor physical work, you look forward to a hot meal. But then, she's doesn't want us to use her ingredients or her oven, as it's too wasteful. Today Jenny talked to her and said we need to eat, and we're happy to cook for everyone. So we made butternut squash and sweet potato soup with garlic bread, and Michel cooked some sausages he bought in the supermarket yesterday. It's not really fair that we should be buying the food but anyway, I'm leaving on Friday so..
Playing UNO and drinking wine got us through the day though. And the goats made us happy too, though I electrocuted my leg on the electric fence.
I'll leave you with a couple of funny sentences I've found on HelpX. This is a French guy attempting to write a review in English.

"After we went to see the caravan, a real garbage, the maximum fall in May, the door can be locked from the inside of the curtain of his newspapers, a foam mattress is common ..... The bathroom is an outdoor shower or shower staff very dirty. Nothing in the fridge just for milk and bread for the rest it's customers!

I asked the owner if she has another place for us to sleep, she answers, you want to go?

We understand it is their business, and we need help in exchange for a place to sleep and eat. But we're not even a dog because my dog, I will not sleep in this place."

Brilliant.

Quarter of a bucket

I was successful, to a certain degree, in milking a couple of goats this morning. I woke up at 6 to help Melissa, and it was fine. I haven't been sleeping well at all since I've been here, so I was happy to get up. Elly and Jenny told me later in the day that it might be because my mattress is not a mattress, but a wooden support for a mattress, the lower part of a bed. That would explain the back aches.
The farm is very rustic indeed, and calling it rustic is being nice. I just thought I should mention some interesting things that I've just taking as normal by now, but which were quite difficult to adapt to. This is not me bitching about the place, as I'm happy to be living on the rough side for a bit, but I just thought it'd be amusing for you to read. So, the living room constantly smells of goat, nothing can alter the odour. The first night we were all smoking quite heavily in there, and it changed nothing; the living-room kept smelling of goat in the morning. There are also these long sticky slips of paper that hand from the ceiling to catch flies. They're everywhere in the house, inclusive the unlucky multitude of flying insects gathered for maybe centuries? There is one directly above the breakfast table. If this wasn't enough to put you off your bread in the morning, there seems to be an unconditional love for animals in this place. The various dogs and cats are allowed in the kitchen at all times, given dishes to lick clean, fed the scraps off our plates while we're still at the table, and allowed to eat/lick any spillages. The cat got onto the kitchen surface the other day and ate the surface of a quiche Jenny had lovingly made. This quiche was then eaten by everyone as if nothing had happened. Talk about hygiene.
We've just been chatting to Michel, the Belgian man. He'd had quite q few glasses of wine throughout the afternoon and was proving a lot of the entertainment this evening. Jenny was explaining how in the States they call the bathroom the restroom, and I translated it, 'ou tu peux te relacher', 'where you can rest/relax'. He found this absolutely hilarious and started imitating people at the toilet, relaxing their bowels, as it were. We've just retreated into out little room, while he's decided to take a piss against the wall before heading back to his camping car.
He says he's not going to stay here long as he doesn't feel our host is particularly warm towards her helpers. It's true. But at least we've got each other. I'd hate it if I were here on my own. The plus side is that you do get to get involved in the making of the cheese and in the milking etc. So I guess you can't have everything every time.
Tomorrow she's off to sell her produce at a local market, so Jenny and I are in charge in the cheese room, which will be fun. We bought some pain au chocolat in a market today, which we will savour for breakfast, as we didn't get a meal this evening.
Stay tuned!

It's milk o'clock

Wow, so I thought I'd write today as it's been a super interesting day.
I got the cheese farm yesterday, it's in La Caunette, about a 20 minute car ride from Ventenac, where I was staying last week. Julia and Maureen drove me, and they took me out for lunch in Minerve, which is an enchanting little village, where the Cathars use to took refuge in. So I was really sad when they let me go. I think it's one of the saddest aspects of this HelpX experience, the goodbyes and the first day at new places. When I got here, Melissa, the host, was having a siesta, so her brother just told me to dump my bags in the living room and occypy myself with something til she got up. So I went out for a walk to check out the surroundings and on the way met the neighbour, a really nice woman who just started talking to me, and we ended up going on the walk together. When I got back Melissa was up. She can't be more than 30 and hasn't got very good social skills. She doesn't talk much and seems to find everyone annoying, or at least the helpers. She didn't show me around or anything, so I just waited til Elly and Jenny got here. Elly and Jenny are the American girls I met at Chateau Brandeau, and we got on so well I decided to rejoint them in this farm.
Ok, so today. Firstly we worked in the cheesery, a tiled room, very clean and sterile. We turned over the cheeses to help in the drying up process. She males mostly goats cheese, as it's goats' milk, but also does camembert and a couple other varieties. The interesting thing is, it's the same milk and the same additivies (ie a milk bacteria and a special enzyme) but different methods, like different ways of cutting the milk before it curdles, and different temperatures and drying times, and molds of course. So we also put the freshly curdled milk into molds and a lot of cleaning aswell, the place needs to be spotless.
After a very simple breakfast of bread and jam (nothing like the feasts at the chateau) we proceded to the garden to clear out the space around the fencing that keeps the goats enclosed. This was probably the worst job I've done since being on France. It was just cutting down bushes and brambles and sawing trees, and there were a lot of rosebushes and barbed wired, so we all got plenty of cuts down our arms. There were also these huge flies that actually bite, and really hurt, and that didn't make the job any easier. But that was only until lunchtime, then we have the afternoons to ourselves pretty much.
We were exhausted after lunch and just kind of sat around chatting, playing UNO by the pool, until half 5, milking time. So we had to move the goats around and get them reeady to be fed, and they don't often do as they're told, so you have to grab them by the fat on their neck and pull. I'm scared of hurting them. There are about 5 babies too, and they're the cutest things. I just watched the first few times and then Melissa let me milk one. You have to hold the udder in you hand and make a sort of milk pouch with your hand and then clench hard. It's not easy and the goats get anxious because they're not used to different hands, but very fun nonetheless!! And we eat cheese at all times here, it's yummy yummy.
After that, Elly and me did a bit of weeking in the garden and picked some strawberries. Then, at about half 7 we realised there was no wine left in the house so we jumped in Michel's camping car and drove the the neighbouring winery, and bought a 20 litre carton. Michel is a helper from Belgium, he's very funny. Then I talked to Michel for ages by the pool, and we talked about our HelpX experiences, then had dinner and now I'm in my room/shed, on the worst mattress I've ever slept on.
Getting up at 6 am tomorrow to help with the milking. We'll see how that goes!

In the kitchen

Taking a break from making risotto. Have to cook for the helpers, or 'the boys' tonight as Julia and Maureen are going out.
It's been ridiculously hot today, I started work early to avoid the mid-day sun and finished my 5 hours by lunch time. I was cleaning windows, finishing the kitchen steps and labelling sheets so they don't go amiss when taken to the launderette. The work's not very excting atm, as Julia is getting ready to head back to the Uk for the summer and just needs a hand tidying up. Tonight's my last night here, I'm going to hit the local bar I think.
So, I haven't written about Provence at all. It seems like ages ago now. Leaving chateau brandeau was pretty hard, as it's probably been my best experience in France. The helpers were great company and the work satisfying and fulfilling. Made me feel useful and even though monotonous, working under the sun surrounded by vines is... well, you can't really beat it. So after that, spending a couple of days in Provence on my own with no work on my hands was quite a change. I'd always heard Provence was very beautiful and was keen to follow the steps of Van Gogh and Cezanne, but it was a bit of a disappointment. I think it must have changed a lot, I just found it pretty touristy and the countryside did not blow me away. Perhaps my expectations were too high. The towns advertise Van Gogh walks and all sorts, but it's just a marketing plot to attract tourism. The Cezanne walk was following metal tiles all around the Aix en Provence, no information pannels, no samples of paintings.. Look, Cezanne walked on this pavement. And the main museum only has a couple of his paintings, the curator didn't want to make a big deal of Cezanne. Bad curator. I guess the hospital Van Gogh was interned at in St Remy is worth a visit, really nice courtyard, but again, its walls have been completely covered in VG prints and it's lost its feeling of authenticity. My favourite was the city of Avignon, where I stayed for 2 nights. It's pretty small, so you can get to know it quite well, and it has an enchanting feel about it. Lots of old buildings and secret squares. Cobbled streets and hidden wine bars. Busy during the day and quiet when the evening comes. Lots of people-watching and good shopping too. The problem with thse sort of places is that, apart from walking around, there is not much to do except spend money. It's all about cafes and restaurants, there not much else to do. This was not so wonderful when I was on my own; I was pretty much the only young single young female sitting at a table, and bars and terraces are more enjoyable as socialising spots, in company of other people. So I went to Aix and stayed with Elly and Jenny, the American girls who I met at Chateau Brandeau, and who were renting a flat in Aix. I had a great time with them, we had a very relaxing time, just sitting around the table chatting over coffee, we watched a film on their little patio with duvets, wine and candles, we tried hiring bikes, but the machines wouldn't accept out cards, and we went to the beach in Marseille. I was so glad to spend time with them after my time in Avignon. I'm going to be joining them tomorrow at the cheese farm for a couple of days, until Friday or Saturda, when my parents will be coming to spend the weekend and take me back home!
Mixed feelings about this, it's going to be really hard leaving France. It;s been my home for nearly 3 months now and boy, what adventures have I had. So many wonderful people and so many learnt skills. Although, I should take a break from the drinking - I'm sure drinking every day for 2 months and a half can't be good. But wine here is like water. Doesn't count as alcohol then.

My next entry will be from the cheese farm. Let the milking begin!

Chateau times

It's been a while since I wrote, these past few days have gone by at the speed of light, and I'm trying very hard to stop time, since my due date to be back home is quickly approaching. We've been working very hard at the chateau, trying to get things clean and tidy for an inspection, that took place yesterday. It's an inspection to become part of the Alistair Sawday guide book, which is a sort of club, with listings of some of the most enchanting bed and breakfasts in France.So Julia, the host here, has been stressing to get things looking spotless. In my time here I've done mostly painting jobs, the kitchen, the bathroom and the front steps. Very enjoyable I must say. And the place is simple amazing, great views and I've got one of the guest bedrooms, so pretty spoilt! I guess it makes up for my room in the first farm. This is what's nice about this system, the variety of hosts and conditions.
So it seems we've passed the inspection, which is great news. I don't really want to be inside while the sun is shining outside, so might come back to writing in the evening. I want to make the most of the day!