From the craziness of living and working with Yvonne, my next desination was a farm where I was going to work planting trees to earn some much needed cash.
The guy that owned the place had offered to come pick me up at Yyvonnes, which he did and we headed to his farm.
I had a feeling of apprehension when I first met this guy, rightful cautiousness about my own safety, unsure if he would be another weirdo or a genuine guy.
But there was only one way to find out. He seemed ok. Yyvonne had known people who'd worked for him before and he checked out ok, so my doubt had obsided but a little was bound to linger.
There was something about him that I just wasn't sure about. I can't put my finger on it. When he talked he always addressed me part way through his sentences which I found odd. He always seemed to turn to look at me when talking while he was driving. I don't know why but I found this strange too. Everything he said though, that was fine. He was a mild mannered man, ensured me that he wanted me to feel completely comfortable in his home and happy. He was very much into history and talked about both Tasmania and Britain with great knowledge. I began to relax a bit and chatted to him and my experiences of Tasmania and what i'd enjoyed about it.
We arrived back at his home not too far out of Launceston in the countryside. He had a small be adequate house that he shared with his two dogs. A bit messy, but for an older gentlemen living alone, it was pretty much what I expected.
His manner, still made me feel a little on edge but I figured I was just being stupid and that everything was ok, which it was.
I felt like I may have been over reacting about him when he asks me if I would be interested in waitressing. Hestiating, I remembered about a guy who had rung me a few days before asking if I wanted to waitress in lingerie, then he says don't worry I don't think its not your thing and I politely decline. FFS.
I hope I'm wrong and that its not the same job proposition the guy rang me was talking about before. The phase 'not your thing' is questionable. Waitressing, is a standard profession, so therefore can be most peoples 'thing.' He didn't explain his comments. I thought it best to leave it. I would have been interested in getting some extra work but at the risk of finding out that it was work of the unsavory kind, I didn't ask any more.
While eating lunch not long after I had arrived too, he started talking about feelings he had about a lost love. The more he talked it was revealed that it was quite some time ago, a lot longer than I first imagined. He said that he felt better over the last year. As it turns out its was over six years previously and he never actually had a relationship with this women but a 'deep spiritual connection,' and she was a lot younger than he. Not the kind of thing you start talking about when you first meet someone, but then again after meeting Yvonne who basically told me her life story within the first ten minutes of meeting her, it was less of a shock nowadays. I turned the conversation away to some time he spent in Brazil and thanked god that another person was coming the next day.
The following day he left me pretty much on my own at the house all day while we went to some meetings he'd arranged with work collegues and friends. He'd left me with a few tasks to do so I got on with them once he'd left. He returned later in the afternoon, not long after the Japanese girl who was also going to work for him had been dropped off my the couple she was staying with. He acted a little odd, but not any more than he had done previously and invited Yoyoi to go with him to buy vegetables but not me which we both found strange. Not more than ten minutes later after he'd could have left he rang me again for the millionth time that day. This time though, I wanted to leave as soon as I hung up the phone.
He called to tell me that he didn't think I was happy and that I should leave.
I found it all rather biazaar. I hadn't given him any indication that I wasn't happy there, and certainly hadn't let on about my feelings about him being strange.
To me it felt as though I wasn't right for him, for whatever reason and now he had a new girl I could leave. Harmless or not I wasn't staying a minute longer than I had to. I also wasn't going to leave Yayoi there alone either. I hung up the phone and immediately packed. As soon as he returned, I got him to take us back to Launceston, where the couple who had just dropped Yayoi off were more than happy for us to go and stay with them.
Whether or not he was a harmless old man wanting the best for me or if he was a seedy old man and I wasn't going to do didn't matter. I just went with my intuition and got the hell out of there. Something its just best to go with your gut feeling and leave.
While travelling you learn so much about yourself and the world and in this case it was all about making the right decision.
P.S. Number of trees planted: One
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