First impressions of Mingenew

OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. We drove about 5 hours North from Perth and found ourselves confronted with a 'town' famous for its grain producing and wildflowers. We knew this place was going to be banging. In under a minute we had driven past the town and so turned around in an old petrol station that was 'open Tuesdays'. Good God. It wasn't hard to find the pub we are going to be working in as it was the only one, believe me it was hard to spot...the town has a bakery and a corner shop as well, it's practically heaving! We arrived on a Friday night and were greeted by Lena and Sally, 2 German backpackers who we are soon to be replacing, that were working there. Pretty soon the place was busier than we expected but apparently this was only because the whole town were expecting us and so came along to scope us out. It feels good to be popular, just a shame the average age is 60 and you're not welcome if a) you're skinny or b) you have a full set of teeth (the Schein could make a killing around here). Fortunately the place feels slightly younger because there are a group of drillers that are living at the hotel, and make the evenings a bit more interesting. They have a giant oil rig about 20 minutes from here and a stretch of land only a mere 80000 acres wide, and they are drilling away and are about 2km deep at the moment. There's two groups of them, you either work 6am to 6pm or 6pm to 6am, everyday for 2 weeks, ouch! We went to have a look the other night and it was pretty impressive and interesting because it's not something you'd come across very often in the UK!

So far the work has been pretty easy as I've worked in a pub before, the main difference is that there are so many bloody beers here! Honestly, there's about 4 draught beers but then about 50 different cans and stubbies (that's bottles to us), and each local has there own choice, and by now the German girls know exactly what each of them drink before they've even stepped in the pub, and that's service! So we are gradually learning all of them and how as it's so hot here they don't simply have a cellar like at home, they have about 3 different cool rooms and then the drinks either get put in a fridge or an esky (ie big cool box with lots of ice), oh and no one really drinks pints! Add to that the fact that we didn't realise we were employed as a piece of meat to be gawked at! Apparently the other day a newspaper came along to do a spread on the paper and Nic was in some of the photos. You can imagine Nic was a bit shocked when one of the managers so proudly proclaimed to the photographer that 'the backpackers are employed for the lads....we have had two of them marry locals so far!'. Oh. My. God. Believe me I'm not making any plans to put on 10 stone and lose my teeth in an effort to become Miss Hillbilly 2008.