Embracing Luigi
As I type this, I am walking to my local shopping centre to pick up some new hearing aid batteries and then catch a train into the city of Adelaide.
It's a warm day, but overcast. It's Spring here and the few flies I've encountered have started to become annoying. They'll become unbearable in the Summer months.
I have a backpack on filled with work shirts and a pink Hi-Vis (high visibility) vest and a wet weather jacket over my arm ready to be returned to the labour hire company I work for sporadically and my iPad is broadcasting a podcast to my hearing aids via Bluetooth.
I'd been working every day for the last three weeks at the Royal Adelaide Show in the Beef Cattle section.
My main job was to shovel cow manure as needed during the event, but also doing the setting up and packing down duties.
I'm glad it's over until next year.
Now I can let my calloused toes and my sunburnt ears recover. The black bits on my toes are just bits of fluff from my socks.
(Graphic images below: be warned)
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Dishonering Luigi
The above plushie is of Luigi, from the Mario video game franchise owned by Nintendo.
I found this particular plushie while working at the Royal Adelaide Show way back in 2022. It was a prize that was won at one of the sideshows that was discarded, possibly by a child in a stroller along a major road.
Luigi was on the side of the road and slightly damp from the recent heavy downpour of rain that usually happens at least one day in the first week of September. The rest of the week is usually quite warm.
The grey, overcast sky matched my bitter and angry mood at the time, and the bright green of his hat provided a hopeful colour contrast to the scene, so I picked it up.
I pledged then and there to do whatever it took to never work at the Royal Show again, or at least in that position. Working there this year was a betrayal of that promise to myself and dishonouring to Luigi. (I'm being somewhat tongue-in-cheek about Luigi though.).
I'll explain my then bitterness below.
The Royal Adelaide Show
The Royal Adelaide Show is an annual event that happens usually in the first week of September.
It's like a massive state fair with carnival rides, a ferris wheel, sideshows, food stalls, competitions that cover everything from cake decorating to photography to handicrafts, livestock judging and auctions (horses, cattle, sheep, goats, etc.) showbags filled with plastic toys for kids and chocolate, sweet things, etc.
It's a real money spinner for the state and it provides a lot of employment for those willing to get their hands dirty (don't worry, I was wearing gloves).
As mentioned above, I was working in the Beef Cattle section in 2022 as well as this year.
One day, while I was shovelling manure, I see a cattle breeder coming towards me transporting two cows. I stop what I am doing, step back to let them pass. Without warning or even reason, he started screaming at me, calling me a "stupid fucking cunt!" and a string of other expletives that I left me dumbfounded and then when I had processed what had happened I stormed off to cool down.
I'd flown into a murderous rage. I had a sharp shovel in my hand and the horrific mental images that came to mind would be too disturbing to recount here, but I kept my distance from the area for the rest of the day.
I settled down and eventually reported the incident to my supervisors. They gave me a six pack of beer to take home after final day of the Show.
My anger, unreleased, became bitterness and Luigi became a symbol of self respect and a reminder to keep looking for work, keep self improving and keep moving forward and to never accept being devalued by anyone.
In the interim, I have signed up with other labour hire companies and tried to find other work to keep me afloat.
Some of whom have offered me shift at the same venues at a higher rate of pay and more frequent shifts.
I can't pass that up.
Honour your own "Luigi" (promises to yourself, and self respect).
Thank you for reading.
Shaidon.
All photos are haven been taken by me, unless otherwise indicated and the sources supplied.
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