Being a slave again

For a whole week, I hoovered flies from nooks and crannies, weeded baby oak trees, played with stupid fat dog, was jealous of cat who had its own electric blanket, polished chandeliers til sparkling, cleared out and re-filled a shed with plastic pots, seeds and bird nests, and made multicoloured pavlova with one of the kids. Not to mention bedtime story-reading! And getting head lice! (To be fair its an unsolved mystery where they came from. It was either the childrens' fault, or from a hostel I stayed in before getting to the house....I would like to think of myself as the innocent victim!). A whole week, in return for board and lodging at a luxury country retreat, which was rather nice actually. So quiet (apart from screaming children). It was a family-owned posh B&B type place, with mummy, daddy, three children (6, 10 and 11) and 1 extra exchange student from Japan who was 16 I think. They were all very nice and I was just beginning to settle in properly as a gardener cum au pair, when I got notice that my working visa for Oz had been accepted, so I got back on the plane (Virgin Blue airline - sister to Virgin in UK - it was a weird flight, eg one of the stewards told a "dumb blonde" joke really quietly over the speakers so I couldn't hear the punchline, and then they dressed up in binliners with j-cloths on their heads saying that was their new uniform and we were the lucky first people to see it...I had been up at 2.30am for the flight though, maybe I was dreaming? And most weird of all, none of the security staff asked me any questions this time. I guess that's coz I've already got the Oz visiting and working visas etc stamped in me passport, but they didn't even care whether I was carrying any muesli or honey with me this time - what if I was? And they didn't ask if I was carrying headlice with me, which I wasn't, coz they're all dead now, but if I was, that could have resulted in a national epidemic or something! And maybe NZ headlice have fewer natural predators in Australia?! See! They were a bit lax this time, weren't they) and now here I am back in Sydney. Have been hunting for interview/office clothes today coz have got an interview tomorrow! Eek!