I've worked on orchards in the past and noticed that after a day's work, when I closed my eyes at night I could still see apples or kiwifruit or whatever in front of them. I noticed yesterday after a day at the inlet that I could see banana passionfruit when I closed my eyes. It's a creeping weed plant, presumably introduced for its edible fruit but it grows rapidly to surprising lengths - up to 20m. Tracing it to its roots and ripping it out is a mission as it goes around in circles underneath the long grass.
The job's basically better all round than last year's: slightly higher pay, shorter commute, a bit more variety - not just boxthorn to remove but blackberry, banana passionfruit, ivy, gorse, snakefeather, boneseed and more - and not all of them have prickles. I discovered there is boxthorn there after all - horrible plant with two-inch spikes - but none of the giant ones that are growing near Paekakariki luckily. It's a good time of year to be outdoors, and almost makes up for missing out on tramping in the first week of the year. I get scratches off the blackberry but on the other hand the berries are a nice snack (the banana passionfruit's not ripe yet).
And over at the other job it's fairly repetitive indoor stuff in front of a computer reading court cases and converting to hypertext - which has the 'perk' that I can listen to CDs while I'm doing it. The cases range from some in impenetrable legalese that I can hardly tell what they're about to a couple of bluntly disturbing rape and murder ones. There was a Fijian guy who poured petrol on his girlfriend and set fire to her (fatally) for leaving him and got a life sentence, that kind of thing.
Both jobs are at the semi-skilled level; I'm still under-achieving, but they give me flexibility with the hours and so not a bad lifestyle. I'm waiting to hear back about the job interview I had last week, and since they haven't called yet and it's a long weekend I won't know til at least Tuesday. It would be good if I get it, so I can be on a salary for a year and put something solid on my CV rather than being at the mercy of fate when it comes to jobhunting.
On the other hand, not getting it wouldn't be all bad. I could keep working outdoors for the rest of the summer - something office workers could well envy. There's a DOC volunteer week in the bush doing restoration of an old railway line in March which I could go to after the Fringe show if I don't have a fulltime job. I'd have an excuse to spend half the year in Melbourne then come back and finish the diploma (shorthand shouldn't be quite so horrible second time around since I'd know what I'm in for and not be juggling it with a hundred other journalism assignments); and spending a year teaching English in Asia to save for Europe would probably be a good thing for the sake of the foreign culture experience. Getting the PR job would give me more options later on though but maybe in a more western context.
And along with the jobs there's the Fringe show - it's all been at a pre-production stage so far, doing planning and writing stuff. Sunday we're getting together to design the poster, then the first rehearsal is the following weekend. It'll be good to actually get playing again, get it out of the hypothetical stage - I haven't touched the guitar this week, need to do some practice. Each year my music should develop in a new way, and the albums function partly as milestone markers. I spent the first half of 2004 thinking I was finished up as Loose Autumn Moans seemed to be the end of the line, but I eventually managed to pull Ascension Band out of the hat, and there was also the one-off reunion of The Winter on December 29th which I was very pleased with. But this is 2005 and what I did last year is no longer relevant. I have to take things to the next level and there's definitely huge room for improvement - I've been playing for ten years now and I still can't 'play'...
Anyway, here's the timetable for the next few weeks. Between this and working I'll be keeping myself occupied. Funnily enough I haven't felt depressed this year. Staying busy has psychological benefits.
Sunday 23 Jan 7.30pm - Poster design session
Thursday 27 Jan 9.00pm - Fringe programme launch (media event)
Sunday 30 Jan 7.00pm - 1st rehearsal
Wednesday 2 Feb 7.00pm - Rehearsal
Wednesday 9 Feb 7.00pm - Rehearsal
Friday 11 Feb 9.00pm - Fringe artists’ party
Sunday 13 Feb 1.00pm - Outdoor mini-gig (20mins) on waterfront
Sunday 20 Feb 7.00pm - Rehearsal
Friday 25 Feb 10.00pm - GIG AT HAPPY
Sunday 27 Feb 7.00pm - Rehearsal
Friday 4 Mar 7.00pm - GIG AT NEWTOWN
Saturday 5 Mar 7.00pm - GIG AT NEWTOWN
Is banana passionfruit more like banana, or more like passionfruit?
Posted by: Sister Novena at January 22, 2005 02:07 PMI don't know, I haven't tried them before. The ones there at the moment aren't ripe yet so they have no flavour at all.
Posted by: Dave at January 22, 2005 02:19 PM