15/12/09
We’d been for more than a week in Molong now. Leading a sweet idle life.
I didn’t mind as much about not getting a job right away. To tell you the truth, I liked not having to work. Besides, I was enjoying the Molong library much too much to want to work.
Picture this, dear readers: Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (the days when the library would be open) how sweet it would be for me to take my morning walk to the library. Hang out there in the very comfortable air-conditioned space until the next prayer time arrived, and walked back to my tent, resting my head on my pillow (and my body on the hard ground) with my legs crossed and relaxed, and a book in hand.
Who is crazy enough to trade this kind of existence with fruit picking under the heat?
However, I did realize that some people needed the job. And some people were really looking forward to gaining experience, and for them alone, I wish that we would get a job in the end.
THE CALL
One bittersweet day, a call from Snowy Mountains reached the ears of our Ameerah. Ina was delighted to announce that we got a job waiting…but instead of in Orange or Molong, it was in Snowy Mountains…which is like almost 6 hours drive from Molong.
That night, we’ve got a decision to make. It was a choice between staying in Molong and hoping that the fuits arouns here would ripe SOON, or make a move to Snowy Mountains tomorrow. After the Isya prayer, we hung around in the gazebo, talking and discussing the pros and cons. After MUCH deliberation, we decided to move on to Snowy Mountains where the job has been confirmed.
Duduk di Molong menunggu kerja bagai menunggu buah tak masak (literally!!).
THE JOURNEY
They asked me to be the co-driver for the first car. I was soooo exasperated at first. How could they do this to me? They KNEW Afiza and MAP just don’t mingle well….like water and oil, mixing them up would never work!! They KNEW the words ‘map’ and ‘directions’ were anxiety-inducing and palpatation-triggering to my heart and my mind. But WHY do they have to insist that our car should be the first car on the road? I didn’t get it? Were they deliberately trying to torture me?
Pelbagai ALASAN aku dah cakap, dan setiap alasan di patahkan:
-Korang nak suruh kita semua hilang dan sesat, hah bagilah aku jadi co-driver kereta first. At your own risk!
-Ala, Afiza ni. Bila lagi nak belajar?
-Larr.. ni bukan masa nak belajar. Ni masa untuk make damn sure kita tak sesat. Bagilah orang lainnn….please, please!
-Ala, Afiza boleh nyer. Afiza kena dengar cakap Ameerah. (now, they’re trying to make me feel guilty!)
-Aku tak faham. Apa salahnya kereta korang pergi dulu?
-Sebab kereta kami lagi laju drpd kereta kamu. Kang kamu tertinggal. Kalau korang pegi dulu, kitorang boleh make sure kitorang follow your pace. So, tak ada siapa tertinggal.
-Hiys! (aku dah tak ada alasan).
Because I took all my responsibility heavily…it would devastate me if I got them all lost!! If I take a job, I want to do it well. I didn’t want to get the blame if anything bad happened.
Luckily, Kak Dash arrived that day from Newcastle (she arrived later than all of us because she had some business to attend to in NC) bringing a GPS!! hahahah. Senang kerja aku!
So through out the journey from Molong to Snowy Mountain, I sat back on the front seat, relaxing and basking in the glory of my impressive ability to read the GPS. heheh. My heart was no longer my own for I had fallen head-over-heels in love with GPS. I made a mental note to buy this for my future car!!
We stopped at the information centre to find a place for prayer as well as to buy some refreshments. The newly-arrived and still exhausted Kak Dash gave us some tazkirah after the prayer. We cut the tazkirah short because some birds the species of which I had not the slightest idea of, decided that our canvas looked like their personal toilet bowel. Hmmph!
The journey was sooo arduously long. After I have passed up the job of co-driver to the next person, I fell into a very light, very unsatisfying sleep due to the unbearable heat. I covered my face with my straw hat, but the rest of me was sweating so profusely that I could not sleep long enough at one particular position. At last I gave up and just enjoyed the view.
And what a view!
Once we’ve neared the end of the Snowy Mountains Highway, the roads became more curvaceous than the body of Merilyn Monroe. huh! Not fun(not Merilyn Monroe; I mean the roads). And if we looked at the side views we could see some range of mountains and hills adorned with golden grass. Sunset was quite nice around here too.
And once the last ray of sunlight was gone, the air became cool enough to allow me a much needed sleep.
Tumba Rumba
We arrived in the small town TUMBA RUMBA (one of the towns around Snowy Mountains) at nine p.m. By the time we have settled everything with the owner of the Caravan Park, everything was pitch black.
We were trying to decide whether we should go ahead and set up our tent right away or just sleep in the car for tonight. We were dead tired after the journey and I wasn’t sure whether we’d be able to wake up at 4 tomorrow to get ready to work.
With a much needed illumination supplied by our cars’ headlights and a few torchlights, we set up to work right away. We set up the small tent first (my tent) because it was much easier. And then we went on to work on the big tent.
The big tent was much more fancy and a bit trickier to build in the dark. Luckily, both Mr and Mrs Owner-of-the-park came to help us and speed up our work. I was proud to declare that we’re all quite an expert at setting up tents that we could do it even in the dark. I might even be cocky enough to say that we could do it in our sleep now.
The Challenges
I was quite concerned when I found out that Wani had the most excruciating gastritis she’s ever had for a long time. After setting up the tent, we quickly put our dinner in the dulangs so that Wani could eat her dinner and hoepefully relieve some of her pain. I was also concerned about the possibility of her vomiting on me tonight…since we’ll be sharing the small tent. huhuh
I suggested that we should go to the nearest Tumba Rumba hospital. I was more than willing to accompany her. I really didn’t mind if I didn’t get to start working the next day. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.
But Wani refused to go to the hospital even as she struggled with the pain.
Luckily, just before we all went to sleep, Wani had vomited in the toilet and that seemed to relieve her symptoms.
So, Wani, Ilya and I got into our small tent to get our night rest.I got the middle position, as usual.
But when I lied down on the ground, I realized that we’ve set up our tent at a very unfortunate place.
Guess what?There was one BIG GIANT ‘bonggol’ (like akar pokok yang terkeluar dari tanah) situated right on my sacral spines, just above my bottom!
How could I be soo unlucky??
There was no way I could get a good rest with the bonggol pressing against my spine!
I complained and whined, of course! hehehe. Wani was used to hearing me complain so I did it even more.
Wani gave me some small pillow to put on top of the bongol. That helped a bit. However it meant that I slept with my sacral spine higher than my head. I felt like I was doing some acrobatic move or something!
A much needed rest? Not bloody likely!
