Market run down
yesterday Bec told me to write a blog about market, so here i am, i will...
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it is tuesday night. 8:30pm is arriving very quickly, i really should go to bed, but i am having a wonderful conversation with Mr Green and i dont want to leave. 8:30 quickly becomes 9pm. it is then that the section of my brain that tells me i have to get up in 4 hours forces me to go to bed.
i say goodbye to Mr Green, and all the other people i was msn-ing with.
i realise then that i have to have a shower. as i stayed at becs house the night before i had not had a shower that morning, and i was not going to have one at 1am when i got up.
but the shower helped me calm down, and try to get my thoughts concerning Mr Green straight. i am nervous, and excited, am semi shaking, and cant stop smiling.
i slip into bed, kick off my quilt and balnkets so i am only in my sheet and thin doona, its supposed to be a warm night.
muffled voices, which would normally keep me awake, lull me off to sleep.
***
i wake. the house is silent, the cat is sleeping next to me. when did i let him in?
i open my eyes, the clock reads 12:59. i sigh.
my body screams to remain sleeping, my eyes are tired, and i am comfortable. but no, i must get up.
i turn on my lamp which wakes up Leo (the cat). he looks at me sleepily, and i know that i must be looking at him the same way.
my radio alarm goes on, some random song that i didnt let play long enough for me to recognise, and so not get stuck in my head.
i get out of bed and spend the next 5 minutes sifting through the mess on my floor for clothes. i layer. singlet (new), t shirt, thin jumper, YITS hoodie and my brown pants. that way i can take of the layers as i warm up.
i find my bag and empty out the contents. my mobile, my drink bottle, my wallet. all into the bag.
i exit my room with the cat at my heels.
toast. one peice. vegemite. i force it down, even though eating at that time is so unnatural. i sit at my bench, leo jumps onto the seat next to me. i pat him. he purrs. i know he just wants to suck up to go out, but i love him anyway.
my mobile vibrates. my normal morning message from Dan.
i am ready to leave at 1:20, and so i go and wait outside. off go all the house lights, in stays the cat, front light on. i know that dad will turn it off after i leave. he is awake. i can hear his radio. ABC... what we listen to in the truck.
i look up. i can recognise only a few of the constilations i see, the front light stops me seeing more.
you would expect at that time of the morning, that everything would be quite, but i hear music coming out of the house opposite. faint, but it seems loud against the otherwise silence of the street.
i hear the truck, gear change, gear change. i cross the road and wait. Stan turns the corner, and slows down enough for me to climb into the cabin.
it is 1:23.
i am greeted with the normal "are you well?" i answer, "yeah" and ask the question in return.
i am cold, the heater doesnt kick in until we reach montrose.
ABC radio fills the silence, and gives us something small to talk about. i am not very conversational. my morning personness only extends so far.
earl grey tea. Stan drinks it. i dont. i dont drink hot drinks.
but the smell rises to my nose and i inhale deeply. a beautiful smell.
road works on the eastern freeway. there is little traffic, but more than you would think. a p plater speeds past us in a 40km road work zone.
they are laying bituman.
i look out to see if i can catch the slit second glimpse of the arts centre. it is green. how appropriate.
we arrive at the footscray markets early. 2:20. we cant get in until 2:30.
stan phones some of the fruit and veg people, to place orders. i look over my folder to see who gets what. 10 lettuces to seville IGA, Tim from Vllage Greens isnt getting very much. Woori Pizza are getting a box of A grade button mushrooms. three different sorts of carrots again. box, bag, dutch.
we move forward. it is time to go in. we wait in que. arrive at the gate, stan flashes his card infront of the laser, and the gate lfts. he calls a greeting to George, the guy in the office there, who calls a greeting back.
we pull into our bay. 56. half under the rook, half exposed. i pray that it doesnt rain.
i jump of of the truck and open the curtian. wham, click click click, pull, pull.
stack some junk pallets for some guy to pick up later. they are heavy, though not as heavy as they look. my muscles strain to move them. Chep pallets are the good ones. they are blue.
Stan says hello to the man who is in the bay behind us. i recognise his face, but dont recall his name. he is always in the same place, as are we. opposite Lamana banana's.
the man is nice. as is the fork lift drover for the other people we are usually next to. but today he is a bay away.
perhaps it is the fact i am a girl, but all of the forklift drivers are nice. all ask me where to put the boxes when they come deliver them, and most are friendly and smile at me when i dont know where they go.
stan goes off and to order and pick up some more stuff. i sit in the back of the truck, my legs dangleing over the edge. i look up at the sky. i see a plant, mars perhaps. or venus. its quarter to 3.
i finally get a delivery. lettuce, or something. i cannot remember. i slowly start to work. i check over my list to see who gets what. seville 10 lettuce, 2 cauli. tim 2 lettuce, 1 cauli. i put a check mark next to them. this way i know they have arrived.
there is a lull in the deliveries. i sit and wish i had paper to write on. my mind muses over many things.
i watch the relative business that i can see. fork lift drivers zooming past, with pallets, without pallets. trucks who squeeze through deceptivally small spaces. the roads have lines on them. the lanes look smaller than they are. huge semi trialers, fork lifts, scooters, a golf buggy.
banana's arrive on a trolley. i slowly slide down and look like i am doing work again. it is 3:30. mars, or venus has slipped behind a building.
the bright lights make market seem like day. the noise, and activity ignor the fact that it is dark in the sky. i try to also. would i prefer to be in bed? perhaps. but not really. this is a world that i am happy to be a part of. but only for a short time. i could not do it for long.
more orders arrive. i busy myself by organising them into where they need to go. tim behind the passanger seat in the truck. seville on the gound for the moment. near the passanger door. it goes on the other side of the truck. cant get there yet.
eastfeild goes at the back, but for now is getting stacked near the tyre. and then the others where i dont know, get stacked onto the truck, next to the bin. at the back, but on the side. over the wheel.
the nice man removes the crap pallets. i wonder if he would have got them down himself, instead of me, if i werent a girl. but im not, and its a perk.
i sit down again. everything is arranged into the piles. i wait for stan to come. and for more of the orders to come. it is 4:15. stan will be here soon. one of the guys comes and picks up a bin (not a literal bin, but a wooden bin to put loose items in). he will give us pumpkin and watermelon and potatoes.
stan comes back, on the scooter, full of nectarines, bok choy, spring onions, and other similar items. cherries and apricots too. stan takes one of the apricots, pulls it in half, and gives me half. it is nice. not quite ripe, but not terribly sour.
i take a cherry too. very nice. i nibble on the seed for a while.
stan gives me directions in what to do next. load a pallet, this there, that here. lettuce 5 boxes high, bananas, apples.
avacados on top, then cherries.
finally the pallet is loaded. its tall. taller than me by a box. i have seen them taller.
i wrap it, going as quick as i can. i get dizzy by the end. i didnt do it extreemly quickly, but i dont do good wth spinning around.
we load the truck. 3 (technically 4 but two are half bins) pallets for seville, two for eastfeild, and loose items and boxes for them, not much for Tim, some stuff for some other place i havent been to before.
i do up the truck.
it is 5:45.
the sky is that non colour grey where is looks like it is cloudy, but it is only the colour before dawn. the sea gulls are flying around. the fish market is next to us, the flower market in the other direction.
i sit in the truck waiting for stan to come back from dropping off the scooter and forklift.
i am struggling to keep my eyes open, i shake my head, drink some water, but they still are forcing themselves closed.
we leave. before 6. the sun hasnt come up yet, but it is light. the city scape is right before us, and then dissapears as we go around it to the eastern freeway.
i fill in some prices in stans folder. from ferlazzio. capsicums red and green, beans, corn, chillies, passionfruit, zuichinni.
the sun has risen. it shoots right into our eyes. stan puts on some sunnies. i close my eyes and revel in it.
i can feel myself falling off to sleep. i open my eyes, and try keeping myself awake again.
luckily we are too early to deliver, and we pull into a service road for half an hour. i close my eyes, listening to the news. i tell myself that im not going to sleep.
i wake and the news is on again. it is 6:30. i rub my eyes, the sun is shining right into them. stan starts the truck again and we pull away.
to eastfeild first. cute guy isnt there. i didnt expect him to be, he wasnt last week. but the owner is. eastfeild doesnt have a big order. the owner is nice and takes all the boxes from me. i wonder if hes doing it just cause hes nice, or if he thinks i cant carry them... what ever the reason, i get up into the back of the truck and open some wrapped pallets for them. i pass down potatoes, of normal and sweet varieties. organic bananas, beans, cherries. corn. brocili. pumpkin, watermelons.
my back is sore from bending down to move the boxes, straighten and all the boxes are gone. i move some boxes to Tim to the other end of the truck, and jump out just as soon as stan is closing the back.
we leave, and go to stans house. breakfast time. its 7:30 when we arrive, before school time zones.
a big breakfast awaits me. 4 peices of toast, jam on two, cheese on one, scrambleded eggs on another. hetty used to be a camp cook, and did a wonderful job...
we are off again after that. to seville. i send a message to someone, get one from jess (of the best friend variety) about morning sickness.
seville delivery is easy. they have a fork lift, their order is on pallets. i stand around and try to look helpful.
woori pizza next, only a box of mushrooms. i got in and drop off.
then to tims. village greens. tim is a nice man, and his order was small enough today so i didnt get too busy.
after we give tim all his oder stan gets us a drink from the cafe there. and sit and talk to tim.
choc strawberry milkshake. i feel slightly sick after finishing it... it is a lot of milk in an empty stomache. my tirdness is starting to catch up with me, so i dont let myself stay still for too long. there is still one order to go before home.
and so we leave yarra junction, off to lilydale.
the sun is shining a lot now.
its getting warm. i am in my t shirt and singlet. my pants have grot on them.
we arrive at the last place. i cant remember the name. an exclusive bretheryn type of place. all the females wear long skirts. they are friendly, and smile a lot.
they have peacocks. nice colour, but not very practical.
almost home. petrol.. err.. diesil first. i sit in the cabin and know i am almost home. i am getting more tired, and want to sleep. i feel a little sick, and warm.
i am home. two mangoes, and normal pay richer.
the dogs bark, and jump. i am tired. i pucsh my way into my house. a cool sanctuary.
and so here i am, sitting in front of the computer. have been blogging for over an hour... i really need to sleep...
hope that gave you some insight into market...
