Saturday night, despite the varied states of delicacy we were in, was the final blow-out on the farm, with a few barbecue value packs of meat products being produced by Tony, a roaring fire going (I'd become the fire-maker when I succeeded one day where Freddy and Ben and Tony had failed - Bog of Allen one, Black Forest nil), wine and beer flowing freely and like some salad and fried onions and potatoes for the vegetarians appearing courtesy of Sue. So as per usual, we gorged ourselves enough to make up for the preceding week's enforced vegetarianism, and drank into the night and solved the world's problems and listened to music.
Sunday was a day of rest. Rest and hangover. The last of the work on the CD was done and all was in preparation for burning, and then we watched half of three movies on television and hit the hay.
And today was Monday, the last day. I didn't go out picking oranges today, I started getting the CDs burned and packed my gear, and CD-related fun (not actually fun) ate up the whole day. I passed around the travel journal book thingie my aunt and uncle had given me for Christmas before I took off for everybody to write their details in, and handed out the CDs, including one for Christoph and one for Sue (and the family, but she's the most computer-literate). We got given our money - I took mine in cash, and it amounted to 1127 dollars and seventy cents, if I remember correctly, which is after tax and the five hundred I'd borrowed in bits from Tony for general expenses. This is less than I'd hoped for when I left for Leeton originally, but on the other hand I've had lots of fun, not just gruelling wage-slavery, so I can't feel bad about it. Not until I'm starving and freezing in Tasmania, anyway. Tony and Sue took off with an eventual destination of Sydney, I think, via an overnight with some friends or relations or something somewhere, so I shook hands with Tony and said thanks and that it'd been a lot of fun (Sue had vanished before I knew what was going on). They left us a load of sausages to cook on the barbecue for dinner, so we got those going and when the others came back from picking oranges (Michael took the afternoon off also) they were pretty happy to be greeted by sizzling sausages. We ate those until Ross arrived, and then loaded gear into the back of his ute, said goodbye to everybody and hit the road. So now Ross is driving, Nick has shotgun and myself and Michael are in the back, and we'll probably arrive in King's Cross (backpackers, hookers and drug-related violence) in Sydney at about midnight. Michael called ahead to his destination hostel and was given the door code and a promise that there'd be a key to his room behind the door in the kitchen. I called Dizzy to tell him I'd have to wake him and he didn't mind.
And so ends this chapter of the adventure. I was expecting it to be okay but not much fun, but it was fun, so I don't have to embark on a voyage into utter hedonism in Tasmania to unwind. What I love about travel is never knowing what you're going to encounter, and I got plenty of that - who would have expected to learn German by going to prune vines in New South Wales? As the aim of my journey is to have random encounters and get experience points, the experience points I earned in Leeton went mostly into Language: German, but I put one or two into Agriculture: Vine-pruning and Agriculture: Orange-picking (I had to, but I'm sure it'll be of use later on) and into Photography, Driving and Computer Use.
There's a few thoughts about meeting up again with the guys - Freddy suggested coming to the next Oktoberfest, which certainly sounds like fun, and Christoph invited everybody to his parents' holiday house in the mountains, and I like Zurich and that sounds like fun too. Christoph also expressed an interest in doing some salmon fishing in Ireland, and although I couldn't offer him any accomodation because I don't have a home to go to, and I can't really show him the secret hot-spots because, well, fishing my ass, I'll probably keep in contact with him a bit (he requested emails from Tasmania and Perth and so on) so we'll see what happens.
Once I maneuver my ridiculously heavy rucksack and my temporarily heavy little backpack (it's got fridge stuff in it, like a jar of capers, a jar of olives, a jar of mustard, a bottle of vodka and other heavy glass things) along the train system to Chatswood and then walked it all to Dizzy & Britta's apartment, my first plan is to get some quality time on the Internet in. Then maybe some videos - I still haven't seen the From Dusk Til Dawn trilogy - and then the long-awaited Advanced Open Water diving course at the weekend, with I think a theory section on Thursday evening. I am REALLY looking forward to it.