The End of an Era

Well it's all change again.

I'm writing this from Sydney, as I have finally left the Fruitshack!!

The last few weeks were kinda fun. The most exciting news is that I am now a Hollywood A Lister. Just kidding, but I did make an appearance on Australian breakfast TV show, Sunrise. They filmed a live segment about Sumo Mandarins, a variety of mandarins grown only in Leeton. I was just an extra, picking in the background and throwing mandarins in the air, but hey, I was on TV =]

The day before I left we got the fire pit going and I learned how to make stick bread. It's incredible. You make a simple bread dough then knot it around a big stick and toast it over the fire. After 10 minutes you twist it off the stick, which leaves a hole down the middle of the bread which you fill with jam. It is delicious!

And then on my final night the sunset was the most beautiful I have seen yet!

So finally, after 4 and a half months and picking over 31 tonnes of citrus fruits, I am back in the real world and on the move again! I caught a bus from Leeton to Sydney yesterday which took 9 hours and 30 minutes. But it was an incredibly beautiful drive through miles and miles of farms and hills. I even saw kangaroos from the bus.

Michael and Debbie, my boss and his wife, took me to the bus stop and waved me off. And Debbie baked me cookies that were still warm when she gave them to me. They are such lovely people, I am really sad to leave them.

Now that I'm back in Sydney, things are weird! There are so many people!! I forgot how busy the real world is. And I also forgot what it felt like to be warm - I am just wearing a tshirt after months of jumper, jacket and scarf!! And to be able to buy food within a minute in any direction, what is that about?! I'm used to walking 40minutes to get to a store, then 40minutes back to actually make anything.  But a step off the bus and there's 3 cafes just calling to me!

Just to share, I have found HEAVEN in a bakery called The Dough Collective. They do so many different delicious breads and rolls. For example, Kidney bean and walnut scroll, Pumpkin and sweet potato and cream cheese knot, Mixed bean and cream cheese roll, Gagnam crown (Korean kimchi and cream cheese - Oh My God!!). And then there's all kinds of fruit or cheese or chocolate breads, even Mocha and walnut rolls! I've possibly spent all the money I made on the farm already…

ANYWAY, back to the important thing, Moving On.

I'm excited to see my friend David this afternoon. He's working in the Opera House bar now, so I'll head down there with him after we get some lunch together. And then tomorrow I am back to travelling. I catch a train at 7am which takes me up to Byron Bay where I will be reunited with the beautiful boy who is waiting for me there. I feel like a little kid on Christmas Eve!!!