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Other entries in Hastings

A day in the life of an apple thinner

This is what it's like to pick apples. At least, if you're us.
6:00 - Alarm goes off. Supposed to be at work by 7:30, but we don't get in trouble if we're not. Snooze button.
6:45 - One of us starts to stir and generally kicks the other one awake on the way out of the room. This is far more fun for Cat to do since Matt sleeps on the bunk above her, giving her ample kicking opportunity. Matt usually just steps on Cat on the way down.
7:00 - Breakfast, construction of sandwiches for lunch, resigned acceptance of inevitable lateness for work.
7:30 - Leave for work. Matt usually drives because Cat needs an inch-thick layer of sunblock on before she can leave the car.
8:00 - Arrive at work. Sit in car for about five minutes wishing we didn't have to get out. Wave at Czech coworkers who don't speak much English. Notice that Texan coworkers haven't arrived yet -- again.
8:10 - Begin working. Being an apple thinner is not particularly stimulating work. Basically you take extra apples off the trees. Big bunches of apples have to be taken down to two, bruised or rotten apples have to come off, and tumour apples (bumpy ones) have to be removed. Conversation is highly varied -- we have no one to talk to but each other so we've talked about everything ranging from whether Korean food or Japanese food has stickier rice to the differences between being a Boy Scout and a Girl Guide (the primary difference seems to be how much hitting takes place) to whether or not Matt's paste eating as a child contributed to his current short memory.
9:00 - Start to become very bored. Wonder if it will rain. One of us generally remembers at some point that we're essentially picking projectiles and we often stop and chuck apples at each other for a while. Sometimes we throw them at passing chickens too. But not at the pigs. The pigs here are scary. Continue thinning.
10:00 - Smoko. That's what they call break here. Sometimes we keep working until we can't stand it anymore, but usually that's around ten o'clock anyway. Then, we go back to thinning.
10:30 - By now it has either started to become REALLY hot or started to rain. Whine. Continue thinning.
10:45 - Arrival of Texan coworkers.
1:00 p.m. - Lunch. Peanut butter sandwiches, if you're wondering. A banana if they were on sale; a hard-boiled egg if we were feeling ambitious the previous night. No apples. Continue thinning.
3:00 - Start looking at watch every ten minutes. By this time, we're either very hot or very wet. Usually very hot. We average about ten litres of water between us on warm days. More thinning.
3:15 - Departure of Texan coworkers.
5:00 - If it's been a productive day, we leave. If not (it usually hasn't), we stay.
6:00 - Usually by six we can make up a reason to leave. If it's really cool and dry out, we sometimes stick around until seven, but most days we can't stand it by then.
6:30 - Back to hostel. Immediate showers and throwing of pesticide-smelling clothes somewhere away from human habitation.
6:45 - Make dinner.
7:00 - Simpsons.
7:30 - Various fun activities with fellow inmates -- err, orchard workers. Learning Irish card games from Dominic, making fun of Saskatchewan to Jodie, debating politics with the Texans and the hippie chicks. Sometimes we feel ambitious and do productive things like laundry.
9:30 - Go to bed.
9:45 - Ask people watching loud movie on Sky to turn it down.
10:00 - Sleep.

Sounds like fun, don't it?

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