Apart from hours we are working in the orchard, I don't think I ever have any other chances to have interaction with Australian supervisor, Tony. Few days ago (13 Aug) in the morning, he asked if anyone of us was interested in going with him to the forest, where he's going to get some firewood. And I agreed right away.
It was sunny the next day. And I followed him to the forest, on his car, of course. Usually we get to the orchard via one road, but today we were getting to the forest, which is located the other side of the orchard. Hardly could I see anyone on the way to the hill. As we headed inner towards the forest, trees became bigger and bigger. They just have loads of leaves covering the tops, but not any on the trunks.
Orginally I was thinking about chopping the whole tree down, cutting it into pieces so that we could get some firewood. But as Tony was driving, I saw him looking around, searching for fallen trees. After a while, we located some trees that had fallen down. The younger trees' trunks could be of the size of a toilet roll, while the old ones could grow as wide as a private car wheel. We were not people chopping wood in the ancient time, what we used was not an axe, but a chainsaw. Surely, I was the one helping around, picking up pieces of firewood, aligning them at the back of Tony's pickup truck. Tony cut the trunks into wood pieces of length of an arm. From one fallen tree, ten pieces of wood can be obtained. We went to two different places in total, and loaded the truck to almost full.
I remember there was an article, from a comprehension exercise while I was at school about ten years ago, which should be quite a shocking story to a person of a similar age. It was about a logger who works by himself only in a forest, and unfortunately he got trapped by a fallen trunk of a big tree. And he thought about what to do to get out of trouble. Option one was to cut the tree; but if the chainsaw jammed, he would no longer have any chance to escape. And so... option two... he cut cut his leg with the chainsaw.
That's why Tony never touches any big trunks lying on the ground.
'We never touch it, you never know where it will roll.' He said.
After our adventure in the forest, I went to his house and tasted his home brewed beer; and talked about his life. What he wants to do right now, is to find a girlfriend.
Afterthoughts:
Some time before getting to Australia, my mind was occupied with images of beaches and a blue blue sky. Few days earlier than my departure date, a friend of mine reminded me 'you'd better bring a jacket'. I can still remember the cold wind blowing when i first stepped out of Perth airport. After arriving here in Batlow, it happened to be the first time of my life to see hails and frost on the ground.
And it was also my first time to see a real fireplace, with wood burning inside. Tony' fireplace is equipped with an electircal fan to blow hot air out, and has got small holes to adjust the air inflow to the fire, so as to control the size of the flame.
Peter, landlord of the 'hospital' we are living in, keeps on grumbling on the expensive electicity bill, and links it to our 'excessive usage' of heaters. Last time he said to my English roommate, 'Can't they put on their fxxxing jumper?' A bit later he questioned whether Asian people were not used to cold weather, and asked me, 'Leo, do you prefer to feel hot indoors?'
To ease the tension, I just answered, 'um... sometimes.' Though what I intended to say at that moment was to tell him to fxxx off. We've all paid our rent, which is inclusive of electrical bills. There is no point telling us to use the heater less frequent while the weather is dxxn cold here.
