Happy Easter and Hello From Byron Bay

We apologize for not posting for so long, but we've kinda settled into a busy routine of work and play, so there just hasn't been much time to spare! So here's what we've been up to:

Byron Bay Cookie Company:
We've just started our 5th week and the CC, and the days and weeks are just flying by. Our initial 3 days/week turned into full-time right off the bat. We've been working Monday to Friday, either 1:30-10 or 2:30-11 (some days are longer, some are shorter), and there have been a couple of Saturdays and Sundays in there as well. So needless to say we've been quite busy, but the paychecks of $20/hour (time and a half for any overtime) have been quite nice and we've been able to save quite a bit of money.

For the most part, Brin has been working in the bakehouse, and I've been working in the packaging department. In the bakehouse, Brin's duties are to measure out ingredients for the cookies, mix all the ingredients up in a huge mixer, and then scoop out all the mixed dough into a big bucket that gets dumped into the Kreugar (a machine that shapes all the dough into cookies). Just to give you an idea, most batches call for around 25kg of flour, 15 kg of sugar, and 8 kg of butter. Holy moly is right! This equals a lot of scooping and lifting of heavy bags, so needless to say, Brin will be ripped in no time! Brin is the only girl who works in the back, and she actually puts most of the men to shame. Her supervisor is very impressed with her not-so-prissy ways.

I, on the other hand, get the pleasure of working with around 5 women in the packaging department. A lot of estrogen going on here, and some days the tension - between two of the women in particular- can be a bit much. I try my best to stay out of it, and I guess you could say it adds some spice to a days work. My duties include making boxes up, putting cookies on a trolly to be packaged, and putting the packaged cookies into boxes. Pretty mindless work, but most times the days fly by.

The Byron Bay Cookie Company makes mostly cookies, but they also do biscotti, flatbread, and breadsticks. They have a website that you can check out to see what it's all about.

www.cookie.com.au

The company just recently had some cookies at a tradeshow in Toronto, so keep your eyes peeled for them.

WWOOFING:
Today is actually our last day out at the Relax Haven. We've been here since March 3rd, and we're finding that our 11+ hours of work everyday (between the haven and the cookies company) is getting to be a bit much. It was great for the time being, as we were able to save up a lot of much needed money, but now we're looking forward to having our mornings, and part of our afternoons, off to relax at the beach and take in the local culture. We're moving across the road into a basement flat, which is fully furnished. We're really excited to have our own space.

Not only were the hours getting to be a bit much at the haven, but so was being around rats, cockroaches, ants, and spiders. The whole place is basically outside accomodation - the kitchen and living room included - so it wasn't uncommon to have a rat scurry out from underneath your chair while you're watching TV, or have a cockroach crawl out of your box of cereal. Needless to say, the past month has been an experience, and it has taught us a lot about tolerance and has also made us thankful for what we will be going home to in the fall.

Our duties at the haven varied greatly. Some days we did Collin's (the owner) bookwork, other we did yard maintenance and house work. We even managed to build a fence and use some power tools.

There have been many people to come and go here at the haven, and we have made friends from Germany, Sweeden, Norway, and the UK. Like I said - it's been a great experience and there have been many good things that have come about from it.

Spare Time:
As I had mentioned before, we haven't had a lot of this! However, our weekends are usually free to do as we please, and there's usually a lot going on.

Byron has an incredible market every first Sunday of the month, and we make sure to hit this up. There's tons of great food, lots of crafts, and all sorts of fantastic accessories.

A few weeks ago we went to a dance class in a near-by suberb of Byron. It was good fun, and we might go again.

Believe it or not, we've only been to the beach a couple of times. There are many beautiful spots around Byron though, and now that we have more time we're looking forward to discovering them.

This past weekend Byron hosted it's 18th annual Blues Festival. Tickets were long sold out, but Brin and I were determined to go on Monday to see Ben Harper. Monday came, and we still had no tickets. We walked down to the festival site to see if we could snag some from a scalper, but still no luck. At one point I told Brin - "I just want somebody to walk up to us and hand us tickets!" And you'll never guess what happened. It was just after 3pm, and Brin and I decided that it just wasn't meant to be for us to see Ben Harper. Just as we stuck out our thumbs to hitch a ride home, a guy came up to us, asked us where we were going, and then said, "How 'bout going to the Blues Festival instead?" and handed us two wristbands. Apperantly, two of his friends had to go home and he decided to give the tickets to the first people he saw that weren't going in the direction of the festival (we were hitching home, which is at the opposite end of Byron). So we taped on our wristbands, took the guy for a drink at the closest pub, and then accompanied him and his group of friends to the festival. We had an absolute blast, and hung out with him and his friends the whole time. We also discovered some great new artists, such as Missy Higgins and The Waifs. AND, not only did we get to see Ben Harper, but one of his very good friends as well...JACK JOHNSON!! We almost lost it. It was the perfect end to an amazing day.

Other than that, a good chunk of our time is just spend living life: running errands, catching up with friends and family, reading, relaxing. As soon as we're settled into our new home, we're hoping we can do some local sightseeing in the mornings and on our weekends off. Easter was kind of the peak tourist season- especially with the festival, which brought in around 50,000 people - so Byron should be much more settled now.

So I guess that's a quick summary of what we've been up to. We're planning on continuing our work at the factory until at least the 11th of May (when we go to Brisbane to see Keith Urban!). After that, we'll either continue to make our way up the east coast, or come back to Byron for another couple weeks at the Cookie Company. I guess that'll all depend on how our money situation is looking.

Until next time, keep fit and have fun!