My Journey from when I got back till now
10.07.06 – 16.07.06
This week I arrived back in the at Liverpool airport. Still constantly worry about my uncertainty I caught the bus to Manchester. I came here because it is the one place besides Burnley which I am familiar with. Also because I know exactly how to get back to Burnley from here if need be.
After checking into this nice hostel run by the “Hatters” I went and had afternoon tea with Raymond. As soon as I got in his car he apologized for what had happened, even though none of it was his fault and I didn’t blame him at all. However these things happen, that’s life. As Darren would say “It builds character” ha ha.
At the hostel I meet a few people, but I can’t remember their names. Usually what happens to everyone is, they introduce themselves and start talking about things and then forgetting each others names. Then the next time you meet you can’t really ask for names again because it seems embarrassing even though he or she has probably forgotten your name too. Nonetheless you still meet a lot of interesting people.
The next morning I woke up early knowing that I have to find a job and accommodation. Otherwise my next option would be going back to Burney where Darren said he could get me a job at his Bar and stay at the staff house. However this is not something that I wish to do, so I am determined to work it out here in Manchester instead of returning.
During the course of the week I have been to every employment agency. Every time getting the exact same answer. “Sorry we only have office type jobs” and when I ask about the factory or laboring jobs advertised at the front they always say “sorry they have already been taken” In the end I found one placed where the lady told me that I was looking in the wrong places, and that I needed to go to the job center. When I got there I couldn’t believe how many people there were. This and the fact that it was just now entering school holiday period made finding a job even harder. I phoned a few employers from the job center with little luck.
After a while I got a call from Darren telling me he’s in Manchester for the day. We meet at Deansgate which was the main street where the buses from Burnley stopped first. Three beers later with him and his mate Ross I went back to the hostel, on the way picking up some dinner from the supermarket.
There was free internet at the hostel, which was great because now I could just use that to look for jobs as well as accommodation online. Gumtree.co.uk was also a great help. Now all I needed was my resume which I knew I had on my laptop, but that was at Raymond’s house. So I had to go pick it up from him at his work.
After all the time it took to get it I finally had my laptop and my resume. Next I uploaded it onto Ripway.com so that I could access it from any computer with internet. I could have just as easily used Hotmail or Yahoo, but I knew that some places with internet don’t allow you to open attachments so Ripway was the best option.
The rest of the week was basically the same. Get up, have breakfast and spend the rest of the day using the internet until dinner time. In the evenings everybody would gather around the common room and talk, watch TV and use the internet.
Nearly a whole week has gone by and still not much progress, besides the emails from people who have seen my advertisement on Gumtree, who did not respond when I sent them my Resume etc. So on Saturday I had decided to go back to Burnley on the following day.
I woke up early on Sunday hoping that there was a job waiting for me in my inbox, but there wasn’t. Disappointed I made my way to Deansgate to catch the X43 bus back to Burnley.
17.07.06 – 23.07.06
Upon arrival I had to wait a while until Darren showed up to pick me up from the bus station, because I have never been to his staff house before. One of the first people that I meet was Charles. Charles is South African who used to work at the walkabout. Later I meet Gem and Tabs who also lived there.
In the afternoon I went to see the other Charles, Darren’s boss and spoke to him about a job and staying at the staff house. After it was all settled he told me to come back Thursday to fill in the paper work.
The first night that I was there it was quite however for the rest of the week I really didn’t get much sleep because there were always people constantly coming in and out and also because I went out with them occasionally so that I didn’t look like a loser sitting at home by myself.
It wasn’t long that I learnt that the staff house or the town itself wasn’t really for me. Not just because of all the people, but all the drugs. Nearly everyone I knew took pills and smoked weed and always came home fucked. Not to mention the theft in the building two days after I moved in.
In the beginning of the week I spent much of my time still looking for a job. At first I went to job agencies and the job center again because there would defiantly be a lot more ordinary jobs here since it’s just a small town. However once again I didn’t have much luck here either because all the jobs were taken by school kids on their holidays.
My next option was once again to use the internet, this time I went and used the one at the library, which was better because there wasn’t always a queue of people waiting for you to get off. However the down side was that you could only be logged on for two hours a day. None the less I was still able to use the internet in peace and quite.
My tactic was a bit different this time towards using the Gumtree website. Originally I was just hunting for jobs and placing advertisements in certain areas. This time my plan was to place an advertisement in every city in the UK titled “21yr male looking for any live-in jobs” This had worked. I was getting many replies. Mostly from hotels and farms. There were even two fake con-artists pretending to offer me a job as a payment representative, offering me 2000-3000 pounds per month. I had replied to nearly all of the employers and sending my CV like they asked but didn’t get any responses. While other sites were just useless.
By the end of the week I was ready to give up, and had started to plan my final Eurotrip while I still had the money. I had gotten as far as looking for the prices for the EURail ticket when suddenly I get a call from Kathy offering me a job as a fish vaccinator and that I would get free accommodation during the week as well as three meals a day. I was thrilled. I was even able to get Charles a job too since he was still looking.
All that’s left to do now was to get some of my stuff back from Raymond’s house on Saturday afternoon. However instead of just some of my stuff it had turned out that Susan didn’t want any of my stuff in his house anymore and told Raymond to give it all back to me. So we had no choice but to drive to a local car park and repack everything so that he could leave it at his friends place for me, which was lucky.
Once again on a Sunday morning, after saying goodbye to everyone the previous night I went and caught the bus back to Manchester. From there I could catch the National Express Coach to Scotland, Inverness, near the home of the Loch Ness Monster.
Once I arrived I made my way to the “Ho Ho Hostel” on High Street. Only to be informed that the Hostel World website didn’t make my reservation nor did they for about 6 other people and that they could only offer us the common room floor. So I left and after walking around town with all my stuff trying to find another hostel or bed and breakfast I ended up returning back to the same Hostel because everywhere was fully booked out because of the Inverness Tattoo from 24th – 29th. They even made everyone pay 15 pounds just to even sleep on the floor. Luckily I had been carrying my sleeping bag with me.
24.07.06 – 30.07.06 Week 1 of Job
I woke up early this morning before anyone else and headed downstairs to the McDonalds right next to the hostel after wait waiting a few minutes I meet two other vaccinators, Aaran and Monknowl. Shortly Kathy arrived to pick us all up and go to the meeting place where all the other vaccinators were waiting.
A few hours later I was setting foot onto my first fish farm in “Sutherland” which was about an hour north of Inverness. The site was known as Shin. With me were 5 other Mike the team leader, Jim, Aaran, Steve, and Louise.
Everything was so weird and different at first, nothing like I had imaged it, however after a few hours I got used to it. Even the thought of handling a living and breathing creature didn’t bother me anymore because I knew that I was helping it live (at least for another 18 months till it was on someone’s dinner plate).
After a long day we would go to the accommodation which was supplied by the farms, except for Louise because she lives near by. It would usually be was a nice bed and breakfast. At night dinner, which the boss Kathy had made, was usually thawed out and cooked. Jim seemed to be the primary person though who did all the cooking. Afterwards we would sit around and watch TV and go to bed.
Everyday that week was basically the same which in a way is good because everyone can save a lot more money by not going out drinking or anything like that.
On the weekend I went to the Inverness Tattoo and watched marching, dancing and lots of bag piping. It was ok but nothing like the real Military would be because this was mainly just performances from young cadets. However it was still really interesting, and at the end they even had fireworks.
31.07.06 – 13.08.06 Week 2 and 3 of Job
This week was a really good week because I got the opportunity to go to the Shetland Islands in the most northerly point of the UK. The teams this time were Jim, Louise, Kathy and her dog Boyzie. To get there we drove to Aberdeen (3hours) and then caught the North Link Ferry to Lerwick (12 hours). Lerwick is considered the mainland and from there people catch other ferries to nearby islands, which is what we had to do. So we went from Lerwick to Yell and Yell to Unst.
During the week we worked on one of the fish farms in Unst. It was ok however there was no shelter from the rain except for our rain coats. In rains nearly everyday, but strangely it stops when we finish work.
After work we stayed at the John the fish farm manager’s house. It was actually really fun because there was cable TV and most nights him and I would play Poker, not for real money though. I even learnt a new game called Maltese Poker, which is what they apparently used to play during the war.
One day after work we all went for a walk to Muckle Flugga which was the official most northerly point of the UK. It was a far distance from the car park, maybe about 40 minutes, but well worth the walk. On the way down Louise fell over and hurt her ankle and Jim slipped over.
The second week we worked on a nearby island called Fettler. It was really nice there. In fact when I first arrived at the site it almost felt like I had just arrived at “Snow White’s House” because there was nothing but beautiful green mountains, flowers all over, rabbits hopping around, birds flying, a beach and a small lake. Probably the best place I’ve been to so far on my trip.
On the last night of our job in Shetland we finished of by having a few beers at the local pub. It was exactly what most of us needed to unwind after 2 weeks of hard work. The next day we caught the different ferries and made our way back to Aberdeen and then to Inverness.
14.08.06 – 20.08.06 Week 4 of Job
This week I went to the Migdale site, which is one of Shin’s sister sites about 5 minutes drive further down the road from Shin itself. Once again I was on the same team as Jim and Louise. The only person different was John, Kathy’s husband.
This week was to be very different for me because I felt that I had to try even harder then ever to hit higher numbers. In the end I felt a had achieved my goal reaching high numbers (for a new start) nearly everyday except for the first since I was still trying to get used to this new table, so I was pretty happy. Hopefully next week I can maintain and even increase those numbers.
On the weekend I found a place nearby with a free internet hotspot so from now on I can just take my laptop in there and have coffee and use the internet.
21.08.06 –01.09.06 Week 5 and 6 of Job
Another new week and another new place. This week I am at Scathcarron about 2 hours North West of Inverness. It’s a nice place, with mountains everywhere. Basically the same as everywhere else in Scotland. The team this week consists of Manuel AKA Monolo, Peter, Martin, Eric, Magic and myself.
This site is one of the more professional ones that I have been to. It’s different in the way that it is on land, while most other sites are usually on the lochs. It also has 6 giant tanks containing 1.8 million fish, that are under constant surveillance by onsite staff. But the best thing is that since it is out of the loch the water is more easily controlled from diseases and sea lice.
This has been a very successful week for me. I was constantly hitting higher and higher numbers everyday. The highest being 14100. During the week Eric and I went and explored the mountains after work. We walked all the way to the top and took photos of the surrounding areas. There was even a small stream which ran down mountain side.
Since I will be back here next week, I decided to stay over the weekend with Monolol and Jerik (Eric) so I wouldn’t have to pay for a hostel.
On the weekend I had to go into town and buy some food. At first I just walked, but when it started to rain I just hitch-hiked with two separate people. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that. It’s very easy because everybody in these little towns are very friendly. At night Monolo, Scott, Jenny and I went out to a few pubs to celebrate my birthday from the day before.
The next day I was bored and didn’t want to stay and play video games anymore so I went for a long walk all the way back to Loch Carron about 6 or 7 miles, taking about 2 and a half hours. Luckily on the way back my friend Scott from the fish farm gave me a ride back.
After a good rest on the weekend it was Monday again, and time for work again. The team was one again Monolo, Eric and I with the exception of Ash and Mike the team leader.
During the week we all just played the Xbox every night and watched movies occasionally on my laptop. Other then that there wasn’t much to do since the TV had no reception and we were in the middle of nowhere. However the week still past fast enough.
04.09.06 – 08.09.06 Week 7 of Job
This week was pretty boring. We worked at Loch Arkaig and Inchmore. Once again the surroundings were beautiful. One of the nights I even went and walked to the top of some of the hills near our accommodation. Which by the way was absolutely marvelous.
The best thing about this house was that it had Sky TV, so I stayed up every night watching Seinfeld and South Park. A few weeks later I found out from the Site manager, that we were the best team of vaccinators that they have ever had. Besides that there isn’t really much to write about for this week.
11.09.06 – 20.09.06 Week 8 and 9 of Job
This week we went to Shetland (Lerwick, Unst, Fettlar, and Belmont) again and was one of the best weeks I’ve had at work so far. We flew this time rather then taking the ferry like last time. Personally I’d rather take the ferry because it’s more fun, however taking the plane allowed me to take some nice aerial photos of the different islands.
The first night we were there we missed the ferry to Unst all because we went to get Curry for dinner. So that night went stayed at a near by bed and breakfast, which was offered to us for free because the boys stayed in the living room. During the week we stayed at John the fish managers’ house again like last time.
The 10 days we were there, went by really fast. Every night Kathy would cook a delicious dinner for us. One night we even went down to the wharf and picked mussels. At night John, Carl and I would play poker, drink beer and watch Seinfeld.
There wasn’t really anything talk about concerning work except for the fact that I was the fastest for a couple of days, Carl’s smelly hand dubbed “The Hand” and the three now famous lines in the pink team “Fucking Fettler, Bastard Belmont and Chicks are evil”
On the plane ride back it was really cool because Carl and I got to sit in the seats in front of a guy who was in handcuffs and being escorted by two officers. That was basically it for Shetland. My last trip there forever. I hope I haven’t missed out anything important about our Shetland trip.
25.09.06 – 05.10.06 Week 10 and 11 of Job
These past two weeks have been pretty interesting being on Mike’s team with James, Jarek, Magic and Neil. It all began very early Monday morning by making our way to Skye where we took the ferry to South Uist for our first job.
The first Loch site we went to was very shabby indeed, with no shed, no mobile reception and hardly any standing place at all. None the less we carried on working. At night we retired to what James describes as the smallest cottage on the entire island. To be fair it would have comfortably accommodated 4 people but not 6. In the end Mike and James had to go spend the rest of the week and a close-by B&B.
After we had finished we did one of those typical mad island dashes to catch the ferry to North Uist. On the way running over a beautiful white duck crossing the road. It was horrible seeing all the white feathers flying everywhere in the rear view mirror. Yet also sadistically funny.
“Why did the chicken cross the river, because he saw what happened to the duck” Ha Ha
On North Uist we worked on the geocrab site in Harris. At first I was really excited to see the sheds because I thought that we were going to work indoors, however soon after I realized all the tables and gear were outside. During the week I would go spend lunch time by myself on the shore gazing out at the beautiful sea and the amazing mountains.
At night we spent the night at a really nice place in Tarbet, but unfortunately all was ruined because someone (we all know who!) is a smelly bastard who never had a shower the entire 2 weeks we were on the island. Not only that, he was also constantly coughing on everyone and everything with his smelly smoky breath making the task of preparing lunch in the kitchen sometimes unbearable, not to mention dinner time. With that aside the trip to North Uist was nearly good as my trip to Shetland.
On the weekend Mike, James, Neil and I went to the town of Stornaway for some groceries and some personal shopping. I was a little disappointed though because I didn’t have a camera with me for the entire 2 weeks because it was being repaired in Glasgow. At night we went to the pub since we didn’t have to work the next day. It was alright but I wish that there were more people in the pub to make it livelier.
The next morning James being the great chef he is made us all a wonderful breakfast, with sausages, bacon, black and white pudding, eggs, tomato and toast. After eating all that I decided that there was no way I would sit around, so I went for a walk out of town. I made it about 4 miles (6.8 Kilometers) before turning back, before dark. Altogether I walked 8 miles.
Once again it was time to leave. It really is amazing how fast time flys sometimes and just as we came we would leave in a mad dash. Only because we still had a few thousand to do in the morning.
We had finished on a Thursday making it a long weekend which was great for me because I finally got to go to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Even better was, that I got to go with James, who is a great tour guide.
I only spent a little time in Glasgow the rest o the time I was in Edinburgh. While I was in Edinburgh I stayed at what was perhaps the best hostel ever. On Saturday I went to the Edinburgh Castle and got in for free because there were no guards on duty. When I was there I saw the dumbest people in the world. Firstly there was one guy who stood on top of the wall. He got yelled at by the security guard because he could have died. Also there were all these people who kept standing on the canons, and obviously they were yelled at as well. Bloody Idiots. At night I went on a ghost tour called the “City of the Dead” it was pretty cool but if I ever had too, I could probably do the tour myself.
On Sunday I went to the National Gallery, where they were showing these different forms of the human being either being too large or too small. Never the less they were proportionally perfect and everything from the skin to the hair looks incredibly realistic.
The rest of the day I just walked around visiting a church, the monuments on the top of a hill which I can’t remember the name of and also doing some shopping since that was obviously the main thing to do there. Then later on James picked me up and we went to the next place that we were staying, which was great because that meant we didn’t have to wake up early and drive 3 hours to get to work like we would usually.
09.10.06 – 13.10.06 Week 12 of Job
To continue on from my last blog we got up later then usual that day, but just enough time to get ready for the arrival of the next team. Once again it was Mick and Magic with the addition of Martin. This meant that it was “Team Gofer” (Insert teeth and hands gesture here) again.
Work was great this week because unlike last week we didn’t have to drive miles to get there it was undercover which meant I could wear less clothes, the fish were great with hardly any abnormalities, and best of all I broke my personal record which is now 23600 give or take.
In the afternoon because our house was at the top of the hill we had the best view, unfortunately I still didn’t have my digital camera yet, but I did actually but a disposable one, and if all else fail I have mental photos haha. By the way I just want to mention that James drove me to the actual place in Glasgow where it was getting fixed so that I could drop of something.
The night time of the week in my opinion was the best because there was so much room in the house, so you could always have your own private space. We also got to make cool fires to keep the house warm.
16.10.06 – 18.10.06 Week 13 of Job
Cool this week Team Gofer was reunited again. Unfortunately its for the last time because this was James last week, before he would leave to do charity work and go back to university.
We had a short week, finishing on Wednesday. Fortunately the place we were staying at this week was paid for the entire week so James and I stayed for the entire time. The place was great and had free internet in the house so I just left my laptop on all the time to download music. Another great thing was that it was right in town so it didn’t take long to walk to the shops and back.
On Saturday we drove to _______ castle and took a few photos. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go inside. That would have been really cool. Later that afternoon we went over to Albert’s (James’s friends) where we built a table. Well actually I just watched and James helped. Anyways it was still cool watching it come together.
23.10.06 –03.11.06 Week 14 and 15 of Job
This week I was lucky enough to go back to the house at Spean Bridge and since there was no one there except for Jerek and Carl I decided to go there early.
Nothing overly exciting happened these two week at Lock Arkaig and Kinlochmoidart. We saw a large plane being escorted by 5 jets, lots of small shitty fish, lots of rain, and bit of ice in the morning and one of the fish farmers fell in the loch head first and some long drives to work by the end.
The best part of the entire two weeks was defiantly the weekend that Jerek, Carl and I stayed at the house while everybody else went home. The weekend began with us catching the bus into Fort William where Carl and I found a jeep that was leaking petrol all over the road. We then went and told the shop owners who quickly proceeded to run over to the police station and then close their shop doors. After waiting a while and realizing nothing much was going to happen we left.
Later that afternoon we went to go catch the bus home but found that we had missed it by minutes so we had to wait a few hours for the next one to come since it was a Sunday.
That night was probably one of the funniest, because Jerek had bought some Vodka, had a few shots and was instantly drunk. Then when dinner was ready he was on the floor trying to cut into his arm with the knife saying “I can’t cut this chicken” Luckily he had a jacket on and didn’t hurt himself. The night ended with him ringing on of his friends asking him to help him to his room. We actually had photos of all this but Jerek made me delete them the next day.
06.11.06 –11.11.06 Week 16 of Job
This week I went to the Lake District with Mick, Magic, Allen and Jerek and I have to say that it was one of the best teams that I’ve been on. Simply because we were always having fun while still working hard or even just at home.
During one of the lunch breaks I went up to the top of the dam which over looks the farm and took lots of photos. That was basically the only lake I saw in the Lake District the entire time I was there. Everything else was just like a normal job. Except for the nice BBQ we had at the end of the week at Trevor’s house and the long drives, but it was all worth it I recon.
13.11.06 –17.11.06 Week 17 of Job
Foyers what can I say except it was totally boring and tedious. Half the time we weren’t even working and when we were it was very slow. The great thing was that it was a home job meaning that every night we could go back to our more comfortable homes rather than the temporary places we usually stay at.
The next best thing is the site was right next to Loch Ness making it very cool. At lunch there was even time to go down to the shore and take photos of the Loch. I didn’t get to see the Loch Ness Monster though. Better luck next time.
20.11.06 –03.12.06 Week 18 and 19 of Job
Another two weeks on the western isles. This fortnight was probably the hardest two weeks so far. It all began with us being a day late because of the weather. The next day after the weather died down we drove to Ullapool to catch the ferry, which by the way was a rough ride. Then because we arrived so late we had to wait another day till we could start work.
Finally on Wednesday we (Peter, Allen, Martin and Neil) started work at Amhuinnsuidhe. It was only a small job though, just left overs from the last team that was here from before. Later that afternoon we drove to the site at Geocrab. It’s the same place that I was 8 weeks ago with Mike’s team and also the same place where I first reached 20,000 fish. A few days later we had to move yet again to another site called Barvass in Stornoway. The new accommodation was great, especially for me because I went upstairs first and choose the room with the queen-sized four post bed with bathroom.
The job at Barvas was a bit slow Though. Especially the day when we had really strong winds which we still had to work in. Personally I thought it was a little crazy, but it had to be done. In the end we finished the job on Sunday and left for the ferry on Monday morning.
06.12.06 –08.12.06 Week 20 of Job
It’s the same team this week for GairLoch. Luckily it’s only for 3 days because everybody wanted to go home early to get all our stuff done before the Christmas party.
The day finally came. It was the Salmovac Christmas Party. The night began with a delicious full three course dinner with plenty of laughs. After dinner it was an all you can drink open bar, providing we flashed our business cards to the bar maids. I won’t go into detail all the things that happed to everyone that night, but let me just say there were lots of very sick and hung over people the next morning. All in all it was a great party.
13.12.06 –16.12.06 Week 21 of Job
Oh man I can’t believe it back to the islands again. This time it seemed even harder. At least we got to be inside of a shed though. Also it was very close to home so we didn’t have to get up to early. I think the small loch is called Uragah near Tarbert, which is where we were last time.
The best part of going to the islands for me has to be the 3 hour ferry crossing. On this occasion the ferry was especially rough. So rough that if you were to walk around at the wrong moment the ferry would go up and on the way back down it felt like you were going to hit the roof, but that’s the fun of it. We also had to change directions which delayed the arrival time.
It was lucky that we were already on board because sometimes if the seas are too rough they don’t leave until the afternoon or even the next day.
On night around 11 or so you could see the Northern lights. Unfortunately Magic and I were already asleep and Arran decided not to wake us up in case we were grumpy.
18.12.06 –20.12.06 Week 22 of Job
No way it was my last week and I’m so excited to have finally finished. It was only 3 days but it felt like an eternality.
I’m back at Gair Loch again, which is lucky because last time I didn’t get the opportunity to buy any postcards or take photos from here.
Well that’s it no more blog entries from my job as a Salmon Vaccinator. In the end I have vaccinated in total 1,406,770 salmon and proud of it. Good Luck Future Vaccinators.
10.07.06 – 16.07.06
This week I arrived back in the at Liverpool airport. Still constantly worry about my uncertainty I caught the bus to Manchester. I came here because it is the one place besides Burnley which I am familiar with. Also because I know exactly how to get back to Burnley from here if need be.
After checking into this nice hostel run by the “Hatters” I went and had afternoon tea with Raymond. As soon as I got in his car he apologized for what had happened, even though none of it was his fault and I didn’t blame him at all. However these things happen, that’s life. As Darren would say “It builds character” ha ha.
At the hostel I meet a few people, but I can’t remember their names. Usually what happens to everyone is, they introduce themselves and start talking about things and then forgetting each others names. Then the next time you meet you can’t really ask for names again because it seems embarrassing even though he or she has probably forgotten your name too. Nonetheless you still meet a lot of interesting people.
The next morning I woke up early knowing that I have to find a job and accommodation. Otherwise my next option would be going back to Burney where Darren said he could get me a job at his Bar and stay at the staff house. However this is not something that I wish to do, so I am determined to work it out here in Manchester instead of returning.
During the course of the week I have been to every employment agency. Every time getting the exact same answer. “Sorry we only have office type jobs” and when I ask about the factory or laboring jobs advertised at the front they always say “sorry they have already been taken” In the end I found one placed where the lady told me that I was looking in the wrong places, and that I needed to go to the job center. When I got there I couldn’t believe how many people there were. This and the fact that it was just now entering school holiday period made finding a job even harder. I phoned a few employers from the job center with little luck.
After a while I got a call from Darren telling me he’s in Manchester for the day. We meet at Deansgate which was the main street where the buses from Burnley stopped first. Three beers later with him and his mate Ross I went back to the hostel, on the way picking up some dinner from the supermarket.
There was free internet at the hostel, which was great because now I could just use that to look for jobs as well as accommodation online. Gumtree.co.uk was also a great help. Now all I needed was my resume which I knew I had on my laptop, but that was at Raymond’s house. So I had to go pick it up from him at his work.
After all the time it took to get it I finally had my laptop and my resume. Next I uploaded it onto Ripway.com so that I could access it from any computer with internet. I could have just as easily used Hotmail or Yahoo, but I knew that some places with internet don’t allow you to open attachments so Ripway was the best option.
The rest of the week was basically the same. Get up, have breakfast and spend the rest of the day using the internet until dinner time. In the evenings everybody would gather around the common room and talk, watch TV and use the internet.
Nearly a whole week has gone by and still not much progress, besides the emails from people who have seen my advertisement on Gumtree, who did not respond when I sent them my Resume etc. So on Saturday I had decided to go back to Burnley on the following day.
I woke up early on Sunday hoping that there was a job waiting for me in my inbox, but there wasn’t. Disappointed I made my way to Deansgate to catch the X43 bus back to Burnley.
17.07.06 – 23.07.06
Upon arrival I had to wait a while until Darren showed up to pick me up from the bus station, because I have never been to his staff house before. One of the first people that I meet was Charles. Charles is South African who used to work at the walkabout. Later I meet Gem and Tabs who also lived there.
In the afternoon I went to see the other Charles, Darren’s boss and spoke to him about a job and staying at the staff house. After it was all settled he told me to come back Thursday to fill in the paper work.
The first night that I was there it was quite however for the rest of the week I really didn’t get much sleep because there were always people constantly coming in and out and also because I went out with them occasionally so that I didn’t look like a loser sitting at home by myself.
It wasn’t long that I learnt that the staff house or the town itself wasn’t really for me. Not just because of all the people, but all the drugs. Nearly everyone I knew took pills and smoked weed and always came home fucked. Not to mention the theft in the building two days after I moved in.
In the beginning of the week I spent much of my time still looking for a job. At first I went to job agencies and the job center again because there would defiantly be a lot more ordinary jobs here since it’s just a small town. However once again I didn’t have much luck here either because all the jobs were taken by school kids on their holidays.
My next option was once again to use the internet, this time I went and used the one at the library, which was better because there wasn’t always a queue of people waiting for you to get off. However the down side was that you could only be logged on for two hours a day. None the less I was still able to use the internet in peace and quite.
My tactic was a bit different this time towards using the Gumtree website. Originally I was just hunting for jobs and placing advertisements in certain areas. This time my plan was to place an advertisement in every city in the UK titled “21yr male looking for any live-in jobs” This had worked. I was getting many replies. Mostly from hotels and farms. There were even two fake con-artists pretending to offer me a job as a payment representative, offering me 2000-3000 pounds per month. I had replied to nearly all of the employers and sending my CV like they asked but didn’t get any responses. While other sites were just useless.
By the end of the week I was ready to give up, and had started to plan my final Eurotrip while I still had the money. I had gotten as far as looking for the prices for the EURail ticket when suddenly I get a call from Kathy offering me a job as a fish vaccinator and that I would get free accommodation during the week as well as three meals a day. I was thrilled. I was even able to get Charles a job too since he was still looking.
All that’s left to do now was to get some of my stuff back from Raymond’s house on Saturday afternoon. However instead of just some of my stuff it had turned out that Susan didn’t want any of my stuff in his house anymore and told Raymond to give it all back to me. So we had no choice but to drive to a local car park and repack everything so that he could leave it at his friends place for me, which was lucky.
Once again on a Sunday morning, after saying goodbye to everyone the previous night I went and caught the bus back to Manchester. From there I could catch the National Express Coach to Scotland, Inverness, near the home of the Loch Ness Monster.
Once I arrived I made my way to the “Ho Ho Hostel” on High Street. Only to be informed that the Hostel World website didn’t make my reservation nor did they for about 6 other people and that they could only offer us the common room floor. So I left and after walking around town with all my stuff trying to find another hostel or bed and breakfast I ended up returning back to the same Hostel because everywhere was fully booked out because of the Inverness Tattoo from 24th – 29th. They even made everyone pay 15 pounds just to even sleep on the floor. Luckily I had been carrying my sleeping bag with me.
24.07.06 – 30.07.06 Week 1 of Job
I woke up early this morning before anyone else and headed downstairs to the McDonalds right next to the hostel after wait waiting a few minutes I meet two other vaccinators, Aaran and Monknowl. Shortly Kathy arrived to pick us all up and go to the meeting place where all the other vaccinators were waiting.
A few hours later I was setting foot onto my first fish farm in “Sutherland” which was about an hour north of Inverness. The site was known as Shin. With me were 5 other Mike the team leader, Jim, Aaran, Steve, and Louise.
Everything was so weird and different at first, nothing like I had imaged it, however after a few hours I got used to it. Even the thought of handling a living and breathing creature didn’t bother me anymore because I knew that I was helping it live (at least for another 18 months till it was on someone’s dinner plate).
After a long day we would go to the accommodation which was supplied by the farms, except for Louise because she lives near by. It would usually be was a nice bed and breakfast. At night dinner, which the boss Kathy had made, was usually thawed out and cooked. Jim seemed to be the primary person though who did all the cooking. Afterwards we would sit around and watch TV and go to bed.
Everyday that week was basically the same which in a way is good because everyone can save a lot more money by not going out drinking or anything like that.
On the weekend I went to the Inverness Tattoo and watched marching, dancing and lots of bag piping. It was ok but nothing like the real Military would be because this was mainly just performances from young cadets. However it was still really interesting, and at the end they even had fireworks.
31.07.06 – 13.08.06 Week 2 and 3 of Job
This week was a really good week because I got the opportunity to go to the Shetland Islands in the most northerly point of the UK. The teams this time were Jim, Louise, Kathy and her dog Boyzie. To get there we drove to Aberdeen (3hours) and then caught the North Link Ferry to Lerwick (12 hours). Lerwick is considered the mainland and from there people catch other ferries to nearby islands, which is what we had to do. So we went from Lerwick to Yell and Yell to Unst.
During the week we worked on one of the fish farms in Unst. It was ok however there was no shelter from the rain except for our rain coats. In rains nearly everyday, but strangely it stops when we finish work.
After work we stayed at the John the fish farm manager’s house. It was actually really fun because there was cable TV and most nights him and I would play Poker, not for real money though. I even learnt a new game called Maltese Poker, which is what they apparently used to play during the war.
One day after work we all went for a walk to Muckle Flugga which was the official most northerly point of the UK. It was a far distance from the car park, maybe about 40 minutes, but well worth the walk. On the way down Louise fell over and hurt her ankle and Jim slipped over.
The second week we worked on a nearby island called Fettler. It was really nice there. In fact when I first arrived at the site it almost felt like I had just arrived at “Snow White’s House” because there was nothing but beautiful green mountains, flowers all over, rabbits hopping around, birds flying, a beach and a small lake. Probably the best place I’ve been to so far on my trip.
On the last night of our job in Shetland we finished of by having a few beers at the local pub. It was exactly what most of us needed to unwind after 2 weeks of hard work. The next day we caught the different ferries and made our way back to Aberdeen and then to Inverness.
14.08.06 – 20.08.06 Week 4 of Job
This week I went to the Migdale site, which is one of Shin’s sister sites about 5 minutes drive further down the road from Shin itself. Once again I was on the same team as Jim and Louise. The only person different was John, Kathy’s husband.
This week was to be very different for me because I felt that I had to try even harder then ever to hit higher numbers. In the end I felt a had achieved my goal reaching high numbers (for a new start) nearly everyday except for the first since I was still trying to get used to this new table, so I was pretty happy. Hopefully next week I can maintain and even increase those numbers.
On the weekend I found a place nearby with a free internet hotspot so from now on I can just take my laptop in there and have coffee and use the internet.
21.08.06 –01.09.06 Week 5 and 6 of Job
Another new week and another new place. This week I am at Scathcarron about 2 hours North West of Inverness. It’s a nice place, with mountains everywhere. Basically the same as everywhere else in Scotland. The team this week consists of Manuel AKA Monolo, Peter, Martin, Eric, Magic and myself.
This site is one of the more professional ones that I have been to. It’s different in the way that it is on land, while most other sites are usually on the lochs. It also has 6 giant tanks containing 1.8 million fish, that are under constant surveillance by onsite staff. But the best thing is that since it is out of the loch the water is more easily controlled from diseases and sea lice.
This has been a very successful week for me. I was constantly hitting higher and higher numbers everyday. The highest being 14100. During the week Eric and I went and explored the mountains after work. We walked all the way to the top and took photos of the surrounding areas. There was even a small stream which ran down mountain side.
Since I will be back here next week, I decided to stay over the weekend with Monolol and Jerik (Eric) so I wouldn’t have to pay for a hostel.
On the weekend I had to go into town and buy some food. At first I just walked, but when it started to rain I just hitch-hiked with two separate people. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that. It’s very easy because everybody in these little towns are very friendly. At night Monolo, Scott, Jenny and I went out to a few pubs to celebrate my birthday from the day before.
The next day I was bored and didn’t want to stay and play video games anymore so I went for a long walk all the way back to Loch Carron about 6 or 7 miles, taking about 2 and a half hours. Luckily on the way back my friend Scott from the fish farm gave me a ride back.
After a good rest on the weekend it was Monday again, and time for work again. The team was one again Monolo, Eric and I with the exception of Ash and Mike the team leader.
During the week we all just played the Xbox every night and watched movies occasionally on my laptop. Other then that there wasn’t much to do since the TV had no reception and we were in the middle of nowhere. However the week still past fast enough.
04.09.06 – 08.09.06 Week 7 of Job
This week was pretty boring. We worked at Loch Arkaig and Inchmore. Once again the surroundings were beautiful. One of the nights I even went and walked to the top of some of the hills near our accommodation. Which by the way was absolutely marvelous.
The best thing about this house was that it had Sky TV, so I stayed up every night watching Seinfeld and South Park. A few weeks later I found out from the Site manager, that we were the best team of vaccinators that they have ever had. Besides that there isn’t really much to write about for this week.
11.09.06 – 20.09.06 Week 8 and 9 of Job
This week we went to Shetland (Lerwick, Unst, Fettlar, and Belmont) again and was one of the best weeks I’ve had at work so far. We flew this time rather then taking the ferry like last time. Personally I’d rather take the ferry because it’s more fun, however taking the plane allowed me to take some nice aerial photos of the different islands.
The first night we were there we missed the ferry to Unst all because we went to get Curry for dinner. So that night went stayed at a near by bed and breakfast, which was offered to us for free because the boys stayed in the living room. During the week we stayed at John the fish managers’ house again like last time.
The 10 days we were there, went by really fast. Every night Kathy would cook a delicious dinner for us. One night we even went down to the wharf and picked mussels. At night John, Carl and I would play poker, drink beer and watch Seinfeld.
There wasn’t really anything talk about concerning work except for the fact that I was the fastest for a couple of days, Carl’s smelly hand dubbed “The Hand” and the three now famous lines in the pink team “Fucking Fettler, Bastard Belmont and Chicks are evil”
On the plane ride back it was really cool because Carl and I got to sit in the seats in front of a guy who was in handcuffs and being escorted by two officers. That was basically it for Shetland. My last trip there forever. I hope I haven’t missed out anything important about our Shetland trip.
25.09.06 – 05.10.06 Week 10 and 11 of Job
These past two weeks have been pretty interesting being on Mike’s team with James, Jarek, Magic and Neil. It all began very early Monday morning by making our way to Skye where we took the ferry to South Uist for our first job.
The first Loch site we went to was very shabby indeed, with no shed, no mobile reception and hardly any standing place at all. None the less we carried on working. At night we retired to what James describes as the smallest cottage on the entire island. To be fair it would have comfortably accommodated 4 people but not 6. In the end Mike and James had to go spend the rest of the week and a close-by B&B.
After we had finished we did one of those typical mad island dashes to catch the ferry to North Uist. On the way running over a beautiful white duck crossing the road. It was horrible seeing all the white feathers flying everywhere in the rear view mirror. Yet also sadistically funny.
“Why did the chicken cross the river, because he saw what happened to the duck” Ha Ha
On North Uist we worked on the geocrab site in Harris. At first I was really excited to see the sheds because I thought that we were going to work indoors, however soon after I realized all the tables and gear were outside. During the week I would go spend lunch time by myself on the shore gazing out at the beautiful sea and the amazing mountains.
At night we spent the night at a really nice place in Tarbet, but unfortunately all was ruined because someone (we all know who!) is a smelly bastard who never had a shower the entire 2 weeks we were on the island. Not only that, he was also constantly coughing on everyone and everything with his smelly smoky breath making the task of preparing lunch in the kitchen sometimes unbearable, not to mention dinner time. With that aside the trip to North Uist was nearly good as my trip to Shetland.
On the weekend Mike, James, Neil and I went to the town of Stornaway for some groceries and some personal shopping. I was a little disappointed though because I didn’t have a camera with me for the entire 2 weeks because it was being repaired in Glasgow. At night we went to the pub since we didn’t have to work the next day. It was alright but I wish that there were more people in the pub to make it livelier.
The next morning James being the great chef he is made us all a wonderful breakfast, with sausages, bacon, black and white pudding, eggs, tomato and toast. After eating all that I decided that there was no way I would sit around, so I went for a walk out of town. I made it about 4 miles (6.8 Kilometers) before turning back, before dark. Altogether I walked 8 miles.
Once again it was time to leave. It really is amazing how fast time flys sometimes and just as we came we would leave in a mad dash. Only because we still had a few thousand to do in the morning.
We had finished on a Thursday making it a long weekend which was great for me because I finally got to go to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Even better was, that I got to go with James, who is a great tour guide.
I only spent a little time in Glasgow the rest o the time I was in Edinburgh. While I was in Edinburgh I stayed at what was perhaps the best hostel ever. On Saturday I went to the Edinburgh Castle and got in for free because there were no guards on duty. When I was there I saw the dumbest people in the world. Firstly there was one guy who stood on top of the wall. He got yelled at by the security guard because he could have died. Also there were all these people who kept standing on the canons, and obviously they were yelled at as well. Bloody Idiots. At night I went on a ghost tour called the “City of the Dead” it was pretty cool but if I ever had too, I could probably do the tour myself.
On Sunday I went to the National Gallery, where they were showing these different forms of the human being either being too large or too small. Never the less they were proportionally perfect and everything from the skin to the hair looks incredibly realistic.
The rest of the day I just walked around visiting a church, the monuments on the top of a hill which I can’t remember the name of and also doing some shopping since that was obviously the main thing to do there. Then later on James picked me up and we went to the next place that we were staying, which was great because that meant we didn’t have to wake up early and drive 3 hours to get to work like we would usually.
09.10.06 – 13.10.06 Week 12 of Job
To continue on from my last blog we got up later then usual that day, but just enough time to get ready for the arrival of the next team. Once again it was Mick and Magic with the addition of Martin. This meant that it was “Team Gofer” (Insert teeth and hands gesture here) again.
Work was great this week because unlike last week we didn’t have to drive miles to get there it was undercover which meant I could wear less clothes, the fish were great with hardly any abnormalities, and best of all I broke my personal record which is now 23600 give or take.
In the afternoon because our house was at the top of the hill we had the best view, unfortunately I still didn’t have my digital camera yet, but I did actually but a disposable one, and if all else fail I have mental photos haha. By the way I just want to mention that James drove me to the actual place in Glasgow where it was getting fixed so that I could drop of something.
The night time of the week in my opinion was the best because there was so much room in the house, so you could always have your own private space. We also got to make cool fires to keep the house warm.
16.10.06 – 18.10.06 Week 13 of Job
Cool this week Team Gofer was reunited again. Unfortunately its for the last time because this was James last week, before he would leave to do charity work and go back to university.
We had a short week, finishing on Wednesday. Fortunately the place we were staying at this week was paid for the entire week so James and I stayed for the entire time. The place was great and had free internet in the house so I just left my laptop on all the time to download music. Another great thing was that it was right in town so it didn’t take long to walk to the shops and back.
On Saturday we drove to _______ castle and took a few photos. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go inside. That would have been really cool. Later that afternoon we went over to Albert’s (James’s friends) where we built a table. Well actually I just watched and James helped. Anyways it was still cool watching it come together.
23.10.06 –03.11.06 Week 14 and 15 of Job
This week I was lucky enough to go back to the house at Spean Bridge and since there was no one there except for Jerek and Carl I decided to go there early.
Nothing overly exciting happened these two week at Lock Arkaig and Kinlochmoidart. We saw a large plane being escorted by 5 jets, lots of small shitty fish, lots of rain, and bit of ice in the morning and one of the fish farmers fell in the loch head first and some long drives to work by the end.
The best part of the entire two weeks was defiantly the weekend that Jerek, Carl and I stayed at the house while everybody else went home. The weekend began with us catching the bus into Fort William where Carl and I found a jeep that was leaking petrol all over the road. We then went and told the shop owners who quickly proceeded to run over to the police station and then close their shop doors. After waiting a while and realizing nothing much was going to happen we left.
Later that afternoon we went to go catch the bus home but found that we had missed it by minutes so we had to wait a few hours for the next one to come since it was a Sunday.
That night was probably one of the funniest, because Jerek had bought some Vodka, had a few shots and was instantly drunk. Then when dinner was ready he was on the floor trying to cut into his arm with the knife saying “I can’t cut this chicken” Luckily he had a jacket on and didn’t hurt himself. The night ended with him ringing on of his friends asking him to help him to his room. We actually had photos of all this but Jerek made me delete them the next day.
06.11.06 –11.11.06 Week 16 of Job
This week I went to the Lake District with Mick, Magic, Allen and Jerek and I have to say that it was one of the best teams that I’ve been on. Simply because we were always having fun while still working hard or even just at home.
During one of the lunch breaks I went up to the top of the dam which over looks the farm and took lots of photos. That was basically the only lake I saw in the Lake District the entire time I was there. Everything else was just like a normal job. Except for the nice BBQ we had at the end of the week at Trevor’s house and the long drives, but it was all worth it I recon.
13.11.06 –17.11.06 Week 17 of Job
Foyers what can I say except it was totally boring and tedious. Half the time we weren’t even working and when we were it was very slow. The great thing was that it was a home job meaning that every night we could go back to our more comfortable homes rather than the temporary places we usually stay at.
The next best thing is the site was right next to Loch Ness making it very cool. At lunch there was even time to go down to the shore and take photos of the Loch. I didn’t get to see the Loch Ness Monster though. Better luck next time.
20.11.06 –03.12.06 Week 18 and 19 of Job
Another two weeks on the western isles. This fortnight was probably the hardest two weeks so far. It all began with us being a day late because of the weather. The next day after the weather died down we drove to Ullapool to catch the ferry, which by the way was a rough ride. Then because we arrived so late we had to wait another day till we could start work.
Finally on Wednesday we (Peter, Allen, Martin and Neil) started work at Amhuinnsuidhe. It was only a small job though, just left overs from the last team that was here from before. Later that afternoon we drove to the site at Geocrab. It’s the same place that I was 8 weeks ago with Mike’s team and also the same place where I first reached 20,000 fish. A few days later we had to move yet again to another site called Barvass in Stornoway. The new accommodation was great, especially for me because I went upstairs first and choose the room with the queen-sized four post bed with bathroom.
The job at Barvas was a bit slow Though. Especially the day when we had really strong winds which we still had to work in. Personally I thought it was a little crazy, but it had to be done. In the end we finished the job on Sunday and left for the ferry on Monday morning.
06.12.06 –08.12.06 Week 20 of Job
It’s the same team this week for GairLoch. Luckily it’s only for 3 days because everybody wanted to go home early to get all our stuff done before the Christmas party.
The day finally came. It was the Salmovac Christmas Party. The night began with a delicious full three course dinner with plenty of laughs. After dinner it was an all you can drink open bar, providing we flashed our business cards to the bar maids. I won’t go into detail all the things that happed to everyone that night, but let me just say there were lots of very sick and hung over people the next morning. All in all it was a great party.
13.12.06 –16.12.06 Week 21 of Job
Oh man I can’t believe it back to the islands again. This time it seemed even harder. At least we got to be inside of a shed though. Also it was very close to home so we didn’t have to get up to early. I think the small loch is called Uragah near Tarbert, which is where we were last time.
The best part of going to the islands for me has to be the 3 hour ferry crossing. On this occasion the ferry was especially rough. So rough that if you were to walk around at the wrong moment the ferry would go up and on the way back down it felt like you were going to hit the roof, but that’s the fun of it. We also had to change directions which delayed the arrival time.
It was lucky that we were already on board because sometimes if the seas are too rough they don’t leave until the afternoon or even the next day.
On night around 11 or so you could see the Northern lights. Unfortunately Magic and I were already asleep and Arran decided not to wake us up in case we were grumpy.
18.12.06 –20.12.06 Week 22 of Job
No way it was my last week and I’m so excited to have finally finished. It was only 3 days but it felt like an eternality.
I’m back at Gair Loch again, which is lucky because last time I didn’t get the opportunity to buy any postcards or take photos from here.
Well that’s it no more blog entries from my job as a Salmon Vaccinator. In the end I have vaccinated in total 1,406,770 salmon and proud of it. Good Luck Future Vaccinators.
posted by Andy at 5:32 AM
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