Before I begin I would like you to do two things; pour yourself a glass of wine. Any wine is fine (I myself prefer Red), and next I would like you to get some vinigar pour it into a glass (not with your wine) and put it at hands reach. I will give you a few minutes...........................................................................................
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...................................................................all right...have you poured it? Are you sitting down comfortably? Now; hold your glass up to the light and look at the colour, smell it, but don't taste it, this post is interactive, you can't drink it until I say so, and no cheating.
Now that you are settled with your wine and vinegar I will begin with a question. Have you any idea what goes in to a bottle of wine or your glass for that matter. The picking, the process...there is so much that goes into that one glass. What goes into it you ask? Well lets start with the picking of the grape itself.
We (me and a bunch of us from the hostel including Robbie and Isam) have been picking grapes for the past 4 weeks - not with the same people as in my last post (we didnt like working for them and it took them weeks to pay us the $30 we made so not worth it) - we actually worked with a with a few different people over the weeks.
The first guy we worked with was Tony. Tony was awesome. He was fair, treated us well and I learned quite a bit from him. If it was gonna be a short day and he just needed bins filled he paid us hourly, if the grapes were smaller then he raised the price of the bins which is always a bonus. We worked on two vineyards with him. The first one we went to was incredible, the view was just breathtaking. The vineyard itself was on a hill which looked out at a lake surrounded by beautiful rolling hills with sun shining through the clouds that sat at the tops of the hills. We could see the other side of Kelowna and the other vineyard we worked at with Tony. I would forget where I was sometimes and just pick away and then look up for a moment and have to stop and take a breath because the view always amazed me. The other vineyard we worked in with Tony (the one we could see from across the way) was owned by this sweet Italian couple. The woman made homemade pizza for all the grape pickers the day we were there along with a supply of canned drinks - coke, iced tea, gingerale - and desert...Robbie was over joyed as he slept in and didnt pack a lunch. The pizza was so good....not only is pizza my favourite food group but it was homemade Italian pizza, you could tell the dough/crust was homemade yum yum.
Apart from taking us to beautfiul vineyards with owners who fed us he also taught us (well me for sure) keys to picking grapes. It doesn't sound like much, however you can't just go out there and snip away. there are grapes that are shrivelled and dry that are not bad they are actually just sundried and have a lot of flavour. There are ones with rot, you can tell by looking at them and they will have mold inside the cluster, if the whole cluster isn't ruined you can just cut off the bad part - though Isam, because we were working per bin just through out the whole cluster because cutting off the bad part wasted time and just wanted to move as fast as possible...I did however cut it off, I like to be thorough. Sometimes the moldy ones just look yuck and gross. As I am picking away I here ''eww, what the fuck is that?!?" "whats wrong" I asked Isam. "What is that?" he said pointing into the vine "I just put my hand in it." I saw what looked like - and I really can't put it into any better words - a pile of mud coloured squished poo hanging in the vines LOL I know gross right. "I don't know, maybe some bad grapes?" 5 minutes later Tony came buy with a cluster of a poo like cluster saying "if you see this its mold" ...question answered.
We also worked for a French group which taught us about picking Pinot Noir. We had picked it with Tony, the vines are thick and your hands get scratched up really easily so we knew what we were picking except picking here was more picky, if the colour is off - no lighter grapes, a few is fine but they all need to be dark and no flaws - or if they smelled you just tossed them. This is where your vinigar comes in, yup, thats right pick it up stick your nose in and take a big wiff - come on, don't feel silly this post is an interactive post and it can't be interactive if you don't interact lol. Smell that? Thats a bad cluster of grapes, and the vinegar isn't even that bad, imagine vinegar with a musty smell or add a bit of a rancid smell. If they smell like your vinegar or worse they are bad - do not throw it out you are not done with it yet.
I was so sore when we worked for them. We had just done like 3 days of picking and my back was so sore and my arms were so achy from carrying and dumping my buckets into the bins (that is when Isam wasn't doing it for me). However I was working and I was working good, infact I felt that I was going faster then I usually did until the owners wife came up and said "you are working to slow, we can't have you working like this you need to speed up!" Speed up? I thought...hell lady I'm moving like wild fire right now! These people were not impressed with us at all and in French (everyone we worked with was French even from the hostel except me and Daisuke who is have Spanish and Japense - I like to call him my Japanish/Spanese friend) - said that we are not worth the money they are paying for us. It was hourly pay which was good but the thing is they are hardcore professionals her husband has been picking for like 20 years and grape picking is there business so they have heaps of experience, they are fast, really fast so I can understand us being slow compared to them. However, if you are posting for grape pickers in a hostel I don't know exactly what they were expecting? Whatever I got paid and on top of learning colour and smell of bad grapes she taught a stance for grape picking that stops your back from getting sore and that enables you to cover more ground and faster. They did ask us back the next day and then decided against it because of our work speed, which we were happy about in the end because we were so tired and could barely move.
Tony got back to us for some more work that week so we went with him, but Isam went with the French group as they really liked him and wanted to help out with netting, picking, bins basically all the grunt work. It was hourly pay so he went with them for 3 days and me and the others went to work with Tony for the next 3 days which only lasted for a day because he had less product then expected so there was no more work.
We had the next 5 days off before we started a gig the following week that we got through one of our mates who was already working there. It was so nice to have the days off. My body was so sore and the early hours in the morning and cold days were killer.
We decided to let lose on the Friday night. Unfortunately I let lose a little too much. We started drinking at 4pm, we were sitting around playing cards (shit head) so we were having beers. Then Isam and I got into the wine, then two Saxon and Simon brought out the shots of Rye. 10pm we end up at Sapphire (Nightclub) where I apparantly was at the bar every five minutes - which I would like to add is because everytime i ran out for a smoke or to the toilet and I asked a friend to watch my drink I came back and my friend and drink were gone - and I did (which I don't remember) 3 shots of tequila and I remember shots of jager. To top it off I got kicked out of the nightclub!!! Apparantly the liqour inspector was there and that out of everyone in the club I was too drunk to be there. I was an happy club goer that night.
News travel fast at our hostel home the next day not only did I feel like a Mac truck ran over me and then reversed it was the KIH (kelowna international hostel) News Flash. "Emmie I heard you got kicked out last night?" "Morning Emmie, I heard you took on 3 bouncers last night?" "So you got kicked out huh!"
"How do I feel so horrible?" "It was all the shots we did." said Isam "Ya I bought a couple of jagers." "Ya babe but I bought you like 3 shots of tequila." "There is no way I did 3 shots of tequila I dont' beleive you" "I bought 6 shots, 3 for me and 3 for you." "Did I drink them?" "Haha ya." "Ohhh, why would you give me tequila, I take it and say 'see you tomorrow' that stuff kills me and I black out. Thats why i feel yucky and got kicked out of the club." "It has nothing to do with the fact you started drinking at 4?" "NO. It was the tequila!" Oh to kill ya, how I hate thee lol. However, my short lived friendship with Tequila wasn't the reason I got kicked out. Isam had lost his wallet and was looking all over the club for it. I checked our table with everyones coats, I was checking all the pockets but I couldn't find it. While this was going on I remember the bouncer saying to me "excuse me you are going to have to leave, the liquor inspector says you are too drunk to be in here." I didn't even have a drink at this point. "I"m sorry I'm just looking for my boyfriends wallet, he lost it so I am just checking our coats. - Lets pause for a minute, I'm not gonna make a big thing about it but just so there are no questions. For those of my readers who don't know, Dan and I seperated. There is no bad blood things just did not work out. We are both with other people and I whish him nothing but the best as he is a great guy. - However what I do not remember is finding a random pile of coats -which were not ours or our friends - and started checking their pockets for Isam's wallet -which was in my purse the whole time. So not only was I know stupidly drunk of Tequila and shots of rye -which i'm not suppossed to drink - I am now going randomly through strangers coats. This was apparantly the final straw for the bouncers because three of them actually grabbed me and escorted me out. Robbie - who told me this the next day - walked up and said there was no need to man handle me and that I was not refusing to leave and for them to take their hands off of me. I was outside for I don't know how long with no coat and Isam inside who had no idea I had been kicked out. I have no idea how long I was out there for even what I did, I don't even remember Robbie waiting for me but Isam finally came out for a cigarette and said "hey babe, what are you doing out here?" "they kicked me out."
LOL I should've kicked myself out earlier. Man I felt horrible the next day...one of the worst hangovers I have had in awhile - not including the one in Vancouver. I decided to swear off alcohol forever...I didn't want to look at it or smell it, I could barely eat. Ughh it was awful.
The next day was thanksgiving and the hostel put on a Thanksgiving dinner for all the guests. It was fantastic! They cooked, turkey, ham, homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce, yams, potatoes. It was amazing...plus everyone had to contribute something - kind of like a pot luck. I made a lovely pasta salad "A glass of wine from the girl who has sworn of alcohol forever!" "Well," I said "I'm not really drinking, I'm cooking. I'm having a glass while I cook, it's completely different." "uh huh, sure it is."
There was so much food and so much wine. The tables were set up out on the back patio, the sun gods shone down on us for the day which was awesome. Everyone who works at the hostel is Aussie except for 1 Kiwi ...and they managed to get every traditional Canadian dish to make an authentic Thanksgiving and did a fantastic job, it was probably the best Thanksgiving I have ever had (sorry mum). Everyone was in good spirits, the music was going, it wasn't the everyday backpacker noodles or pasta for dinner, it was a real feast with people from all over the world...I really couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate.
( I know you are dying to drink your wine but just a bit longer I promise. I hope you haven't cheated as I want you to get the full effect and appreciation for that nice glass that is calling your name right now. Haha. A few more minutes I promise.)
On Tuesday we started our new job, which ended up being fantastic. We worked for the winery Ancient Hill and it was such a great experience. We picked heaps of grapes, the past 11 days. There were cold mornings and afternoons. Some days were so warm and sunny which put everyone in fantastic happy moods. Sometimes on the cold mornings they would bring us out coffee to warm us up and sometimes after work they would bring out bottles of wine for us (nope not yet). We are sitting there it was our 4th day in, enjoying some wine after a long day when Daisuke comes running over to Isam completely out of breath. "Isam.....I saw....a bear!!!" "What? Where?" "Vineyard...I went to...my bag. Fuck....so scary." Isam, me and a few others grab out camera's and head toward where Daisuke said he saw the bear. Daisuke came with us but he hung behind us about 10 feet completely freaked out.
We rounded the path where Daisuke said he saw the bear but it was gone by the time we got there. "Right there by that tree!" Daisuke said pointing "I forgot my bag so I came to get it, I came around and saw it, about 10 meters from me. I stared at it for 3 seconds, it stared at me." "What did you do?" "I ran through the vineyard as fast as I could." " I don't think you are suppossed to run when you see a bear. Did you check behind you to make sure it wasn't following you." "No I didn't want to look." Haha poor guy was so freaked out. The owner were laughing at him. "What do we do if we see a bear?" Someone asked Richard - the owner. "Well waht you do is take out your phone and take a picture. That way we can send it to your family and show them what you saw your last minutes."
We knew bears were around. Not only do they eat and ruin the grapes but they like to evacuate their eaten grapes in the vineyard so avoiding big piles of bear poop becomes part of your everyday routine, along with picking, carrying buckets and sniping your fingers. It's funny, its a monotonous job but it doesn't seem monotonous if that makes sense. I mean as much as we are working, we have our ipods, we can smoke, we talk we laugh, we have coffee breaks. I never woke up saying I hate work, I really actually enjoyed, even on really cold days with wet feet it still wasn't bad.
While the picking was going on every few days they would pick a few people to work the crusher. This machine is huge. First the grapes go into this vibrating part where rocks, grass and bad grapes are shaken out but you still have to pull out big stuff. This is where our noses came into play. We had to make sure everything bad was taken out as from this part the grapes went down into a conveyor belt which then dropped the grapes off into the magic machine. The magic machine pulls the grapes clean off the stems. It spits the stems out and drops the grapes into the crusher where they are crushed (obviously) and pushed into a long tube carrying the grapes into the tank where it sits and becomes wine. I got really stressed out at first. I thought "OMG I am responsible for good wine right now. If I let anything bad through then this wine will be bad." So much pressure lol. It was such a nice break though from picking, but it was cold and Isam and I were getting sick but it was still enjoyable. Some bins smelled (smell your vinegar) so bad as soon as they were dumped into the sorter. We had to keep smelling (smell your vinegar) to make sure they could go through, they may look good but it's all in the smell (yup smell again). It got to the point I had to get Isam to smell the grapes I was picking up because all I could smell with vinegar (smell again). I couldn't tell if they were good or bad(smell again). How is your nose? Not so good huh. Well lol thats what we went through, but man I willl tell you, just sorting the grapes is a lot of work and I had absolutely no idea that that amount of work when it to grape picking and sorting, it really makes you appreciate that glass of wine.
NOW YOU MAY DRINK. I know, torture but I really wanted you to appreciate it...plus too had the amount of times I cut my fingers and they bled and now I have had a cold for 3 days from being outside in the yucky weather. It's not just the grapes its the pickers work as well lol. The day we sorted I had to clean the machine, I was drenched from the hose and - of course - as i am hosing it down the head decides to blow off and the hose just went full force into my face.
Our last day (Friday) the owners bought us pizza and opened up quite a few bottles of wine. It was such a great way to end off our 11 days. Everyone was in high spirits - prolly from the wine. They needed us back the next day to finish sorting. We were sorting the pinot noir by hand as the crop was quite bad, there was more bad then good in the bins and it would've been too much for the machines so we had to sort it before it got sorted in the machine. We were all super keen on the hours but i woke up so sick the next morning with a fever that Isam begged me to stay in and get some rest which I did only because we were going out to see our mates band. I had a blast but I was even sicker yesterday and still feel like poo today :/ LOL oh well. While I was dancing to our friends band ( My Kind of Karma <--- check them out they are awesome) some big huge guy comes up to me wraps his arms around me and says "I want to eat you!" "Cool" I said "you should talk to my boyfriend about that" seriously who says that. On what planet does that actually work on. Oh well, whatever, we had fun, I didn't get drunk, tipsy, but not drunk. Isam did loose his wallet again but don't worry, I didn't check strangers coats and take on three bouncers lol our friend in the band found it.
Well, that is all my lovelies. I hope you enjoyed this one and I hope you have a different look and appreciation for that yummy glass of wine you are drinking (you have possibly already poured another one), enjoy.
*My Beautiful Life*
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...................................................................all right...have you poured it? Are you sitting down comfortably? Now; hold your glass up to the light and look at the colour, smell it, but don't taste it, this post is interactive, you can't drink it until I say so, and no cheating.
Now that you are settled with your wine and vinegar I will begin with a question. Have you any idea what goes in to a bottle of wine or your glass for that matter. The picking, the process...there is so much that goes into that one glass. What goes into it you ask? Well lets start with the picking of the grape itself.
We (me and a bunch of us from the hostel including Robbie and Isam) have been picking grapes for the past 4 weeks - not with the same people as in my last post (we didnt like working for them and it took them weeks to pay us the $30 we made so not worth it) - we actually worked with a with a few different people over the weeks.
The first guy we worked with was Tony. Tony was awesome. He was fair, treated us well and I learned quite a bit from him. If it was gonna be a short day and he just needed bins filled he paid us hourly, if the grapes were smaller then he raised the price of the bins which is always a bonus. We worked on two vineyards with him. The first one we went to was incredible, the view was just breathtaking. The vineyard itself was on a hill which looked out at a lake surrounded by beautiful rolling hills with sun shining through the clouds that sat at the tops of the hills. We could see the other side of Kelowna and the other vineyard we worked at with Tony. I would forget where I was sometimes and just pick away and then look up for a moment and have to stop and take a breath because the view always amazed me. The other vineyard we worked in with Tony (the one we could see from across the way) was owned by this sweet Italian couple. The woman made homemade pizza for all the grape pickers the day we were there along with a supply of canned drinks - coke, iced tea, gingerale - and desert...Robbie was over joyed as he slept in and didnt pack a lunch. The pizza was so good....not only is pizza my favourite food group but it was homemade Italian pizza, you could tell the dough/crust was homemade yum yum.
Apart from taking us to beautfiul vineyards with owners who fed us he also taught us (well me for sure) keys to picking grapes. It doesn't sound like much, however you can't just go out there and snip away. there are grapes that are shrivelled and dry that are not bad they are actually just sundried and have a lot of flavour. There are ones with rot, you can tell by looking at them and they will have mold inside the cluster, if the whole cluster isn't ruined you can just cut off the bad part - though Isam, because we were working per bin just through out the whole cluster because cutting off the bad part wasted time and just wanted to move as fast as possible...I did however cut it off, I like to be thorough. Sometimes the moldy ones just look yuck and gross. As I am picking away I here ''eww, what the fuck is that?!?" "whats wrong" I asked Isam. "What is that?" he said pointing into the vine "I just put my hand in it." I saw what looked like - and I really can't put it into any better words - a pile of mud coloured squished poo hanging in the vines LOL I know gross right. "I don't know, maybe some bad grapes?" 5 minutes later Tony came buy with a cluster of a poo like cluster saying "if you see this its mold" ...question answered.
We also worked for a French group which taught us about picking Pinot Noir. We had picked it with Tony, the vines are thick and your hands get scratched up really easily so we knew what we were picking except picking here was more picky, if the colour is off - no lighter grapes, a few is fine but they all need to be dark and no flaws - or if they smelled you just tossed them. This is where your vinigar comes in, yup, thats right pick it up stick your nose in and take a big wiff - come on, don't feel silly this post is an interactive post and it can't be interactive if you don't interact lol. Smell that? Thats a bad cluster of grapes, and the vinegar isn't even that bad, imagine vinegar with a musty smell or add a bit of a rancid smell. If they smell like your vinegar or worse they are bad - do not throw it out you are not done with it yet.
I was so sore when we worked for them. We had just done like 3 days of picking and my back was so sore and my arms were so achy from carrying and dumping my buckets into the bins (that is when Isam wasn't doing it for me). However I was working and I was working good, infact I felt that I was going faster then I usually did until the owners wife came up and said "you are working to slow, we can't have you working like this you need to speed up!" Speed up? I thought...hell lady I'm moving like wild fire right now! These people were not impressed with us at all and in French (everyone we worked with was French even from the hostel except me and Daisuke who is have Spanish and Japense - I like to call him my Japanish/Spanese friend) - said that we are not worth the money they are paying for us. It was hourly pay which was good but the thing is they are hardcore professionals her husband has been picking for like 20 years and grape picking is there business so they have heaps of experience, they are fast, really fast so I can understand us being slow compared to them. However, if you are posting for grape pickers in a hostel I don't know exactly what they were expecting? Whatever I got paid and on top of learning colour and smell of bad grapes she taught a stance for grape picking that stops your back from getting sore and that enables you to cover more ground and faster. They did ask us back the next day and then decided against it because of our work speed, which we were happy about in the end because we were so tired and could barely move.
Tony got back to us for some more work that week so we went with him, but Isam went with the French group as they really liked him and wanted to help out with netting, picking, bins basically all the grunt work. It was hourly pay so he went with them for 3 days and me and the others went to work with Tony for the next 3 days which only lasted for a day because he had less product then expected so there was no more work.
We had the next 5 days off before we started a gig the following week that we got through one of our mates who was already working there. It was so nice to have the days off. My body was so sore and the early hours in the morning and cold days were killer.
We decided to let lose on the Friday night. Unfortunately I let lose a little too much. We started drinking at 4pm, we were sitting around playing cards (shit head) so we were having beers. Then Isam and I got into the wine, then two Saxon and Simon brought out the shots of Rye. 10pm we end up at Sapphire (Nightclub) where I apparantly was at the bar every five minutes - which I would like to add is because everytime i ran out for a smoke or to the toilet and I asked a friend to watch my drink I came back and my friend and drink were gone - and I did (which I don't remember) 3 shots of tequila and I remember shots of jager. To top it off I got kicked out of the nightclub!!! Apparantly the liqour inspector was there and that out of everyone in the club I was too drunk to be there. I was an happy club goer that night.
News travel fast at our hostel home the next day not only did I feel like a Mac truck ran over me and then reversed it was the KIH (kelowna international hostel) News Flash. "Emmie I heard you got kicked out last night?" "Morning Emmie, I heard you took on 3 bouncers last night?" "So you got kicked out huh!"
"How do I feel so horrible?" "It was all the shots we did." said Isam "Ya I bought a couple of jagers." "Ya babe but I bought you like 3 shots of tequila." "There is no way I did 3 shots of tequila I dont' beleive you" "I bought 6 shots, 3 for me and 3 for you." "Did I drink them?" "Haha ya." "Ohhh, why would you give me tequila, I take it and say 'see you tomorrow' that stuff kills me and I black out. Thats why i feel yucky and got kicked out of the club." "It has nothing to do with the fact you started drinking at 4?" "NO. It was the tequila!" Oh to kill ya, how I hate thee lol. However, my short lived friendship with Tequila wasn't the reason I got kicked out. Isam had lost his wallet and was looking all over the club for it. I checked our table with everyones coats, I was checking all the pockets but I couldn't find it. While this was going on I remember the bouncer saying to me "excuse me you are going to have to leave, the liquor inspector says you are too drunk to be in here." I didn't even have a drink at this point. "I"m sorry I'm just looking for my boyfriends wallet, he lost it so I am just checking our coats. - Lets pause for a minute, I'm not gonna make a big thing about it but just so there are no questions. For those of my readers who don't know, Dan and I seperated. There is no bad blood things just did not work out. We are both with other people and I whish him nothing but the best as he is a great guy. - However what I do not remember is finding a random pile of coats -which were not ours or our friends - and started checking their pockets for Isam's wallet -which was in my purse the whole time. So not only was I know stupidly drunk of Tequila and shots of rye -which i'm not suppossed to drink - I am now going randomly through strangers coats. This was apparantly the final straw for the bouncers because three of them actually grabbed me and escorted me out. Robbie - who told me this the next day - walked up and said there was no need to man handle me and that I was not refusing to leave and for them to take their hands off of me. I was outside for I don't know how long with no coat and Isam inside who had no idea I had been kicked out. I have no idea how long I was out there for even what I did, I don't even remember Robbie waiting for me but Isam finally came out for a cigarette and said "hey babe, what are you doing out here?" "they kicked me out."
LOL I should've kicked myself out earlier. Man I felt horrible the next day...one of the worst hangovers I have had in awhile - not including the one in Vancouver. I decided to swear off alcohol forever...I didn't want to look at it or smell it, I could barely eat. Ughh it was awful.
The next day was thanksgiving and the hostel put on a Thanksgiving dinner for all the guests. It was fantastic! They cooked, turkey, ham, homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce, yams, potatoes. It was amazing...plus everyone had to contribute something - kind of like a pot luck. I made a lovely pasta salad "A glass of wine from the girl who has sworn of alcohol forever!" "Well," I said "I'm not really drinking, I'm cooking. I'm having a glass while I cook, it's completely different." "uh huh, sure it is."
There was so much food and so much wine. The tables were set up out on the back patio, the sun gods shone down on us for the day which was awesome. Everyone who works at the hostel is Aussie except for 1 Kiwi ...and they managed to get every traditional Canadian dish to make an authentic Thanksgiving and did a fantastic job, it was probably the best Thanksgiving I have ever had (sorry mum). Everyone was in good spirits, the music was going, it wasn't the everyday backpacker noodles or pasta for dinner, it was a real feast with people from all over the world...I really couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate.
( I know you are dying to drink your wine but just a bit longer I promise. I hope you haven't cheated as I want you to get the full effect and appreciation for that nice glass that is calling your name right now. Haha. A few more minutes I promise.)
On Tuesday we started our new job, which ended up being fantastic. We worked for the winery Ancient Hill and it was such a great experience. We picked heaps of grapes, the past 11 days. There were cold mornings and afternoons. Some days were so warm and sunny which put everyone in fantastic happy moods. Sometimes on the cold mornings they would bring us out coffee to warm us up and sometimes after work they would bring out bottles of wine for us (nope not yet). We are sitting there it was our 4th day in, enjoying some wine after a long day when Daisuke comes running over to Isam completely out of breath. "Isam.....I saw....a bear!!!" "What? Where?" "Vineyard...I went to...my bag. Fuck....so scary." Isam, me and a few others grab out camera's and head toward where Daisuke said he saw the bear. Daisuke came with us but he hung behind us about 10 feet completely freaked out.
We rounded the path where Daisuke said he saw the bear but it was gone by the time we got there. "Right there by that tree!" Daisuke said pointing "I forgot my bag so I came to get it, I came around and saw it, about 10 meters from me. I stared at it for 3 seconds, it stared at me." "What did you do?" "I ran through the vineyard as fast as I could." " I don't think you are suppossed to run when you see a bear. Did you check behind you to make sure it wasn't following you." "No I didn't want to look." Haha poor guy was so freaked out. The owner were laughing at him. "What do we do if we see a bear?" Someone asked Richard - the owner. "Well waht you do is take out your phone and take a picture. That way we can send it to your family and show them what you saw your last minutes."
We knew bears were around. Not only do they eat and ruin the grapes but they like to evacuate their eaten grapes in the vineyard so avoiding big piles of bear poop becomes part of your everyday routine, along with picking, carrying buckets and sniping your fingers. It's funny, its a monotonous job but it doesn't seem monotonous if that makes sense. I mean as much as we are working, we have our ipods, we can smoke, we talk we laugh, we have coffee breaks. I never woke up saying I hate work, I really actually enjoyed, even on really cold days with wet feet it still wasn't bad.
While the picking was going on every few days they would pick a few people to work the crusher. This machine is huge. First the grapes go into this vibrating part where rocks, grass and bad grapes are shaken out but you still have to pull out big stuff. This is where our noses came into play. We had to make sure everything bad was taken out as from this part the grapes went down into a conveyor belt which then dropped the grapes off into the magic machine. The magic machine pulls the grapes clean off the stems. It spits the stems out and drops the grapes into the crusher where they are crushed (obviously) and pushed into a long tube carrying the grapes into the tank where it sits and becomes wine. I got really stressed out at first. I thought "OMG I am responsible for good wine right now. If I let anything bad through then this wine will be bad." So much pressure lol. It was such a nice break though from picking, but it was cold and Isam and I were getting sick but it was still enjoyable. Some bins smelled (smell your vinegar) so bad as soon as they were dumped into the sorter. We had to keep smelling (smell your vinegar) to make sure they could go through, they may look good but it's all in the smell (yup smell again). It got to the point I had to get Isam to smell the grapes I was picking up because all I could smell with vinegar (smell again). I couldn't tell if they were good or bad(smell again). How is your nose? Not so good huh. Well lol thats what we went through, but man I willl tell you, just sorting the grapes is a lot of work and I had absolutely no idea that that amount of work when it to grape picking and sorting, it really makes you appreciate that glass of wine.
NOW YOU MAY DRINK. I know, torture but I really wanted you to appreciate it...plus too had the amount of times I cut my fingers and they bled and now I have had a cold for 3 days from being outside in the yucky weather. It's not just the grapes its the pickers work as well lol. The day we sorted I had to clean the machine, I was drenched from the hose and - of course - as i am hosing it down the head decides to blow off and the hose just went full force into my face.
Our last day (Friday) the owners bought us pizza and opened up quite a few bottles of wine. It was such a great way to end off our 11 days. Everyone was in high spirits - prolly from the wine. They needed us back the next day to finish sorting. We were sorting the pinot noir by hand as the crop was quite bad, there was more bad then good in the bins and it would've been too much for the machines so we had to sort it before it got sorted in the machine. We were all super keen on the hours but i woke up so sick the next morning with a fever that Isam begged me to stay in and get some rest which I did only because we were going out to see our mates band. I had a blast but I was even sicker yesterday and still feel like poo today :/ LOL oh well. While I was dancing to our friends band ( My Kind of Karma <--- check them out they are awesome) some big huge guy comes up to me wraps his arms around me and says "I want to eat you!" "Cool" I said "you should talk to my boyfriend about that" seriously who says that. On what planet does that actually work on. Oh well, whatever, we had fun, I didn't get drunk, tipsy, but not drunk. Isam did loose his wallet again but don't worry, I didn't check strangers coats and take on three bouncers lol our friend in the band found it.
Well, that is all my lovelies. I hope you enjoyed this one and I hope you have a different look and appreciation for that yummy glass of wine you are drinking (you have possibly already poured another one), enjoy.
*My Beautiful Life*
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