Singin' in the rain...

Gidday.

I am getting adventurous today and attempting to attach a video to this post, fingers crossed it does what I think it might. As my old boss used to say, "a picture is worth a thousand words". (Edit- unfortunatly that idea didn't work, I'll work on it and get back later).

It's raining cats and dogs and iguanas here today. Well not really, actually water droplets. And a lot of them. We are on the tail end of a bit of a cyclone and just getting stung with the torrential rain. Turns out our front door leaks. We heard a drip drip drip and thought "hmmm what's that" and opened the front door and got completely drenched. The house floor is built with a slope, so the water tends to follow that. Unfortunately, the slope is heading in to the house, not out. Never mind, a couple of towels more or less sorted that out for now.

Bit of an inside day today, but that's probably a good thing, gives us a chance to catch up on housework. I'm off to Maura coal mine next week, so there might be a gap in blog updates until I get back. Should be interesting if this rain keeps up, I imagine a large open cast mine might turn into a bit of a lake. Will soon find out no doubt.

Ended up going to Rockhampton last night, had a bit of a look around their zoo, and found a cool store with every cd, movie, dvd, and piece of hi fi equipment you could ever wish for. An awesome store. Got to see some Koalas close up, and even got to pat one. Pretty much feels like carpet. Pretty cool creatures though. They sleep for 20 hours a day, and then eat for the remaining four. The reason they sleep so much is because eucalyptus leaves don't have many calories and they haven't got much energy to spare. They tend to move trees once a night. This is usually when they get hit by cars, so if you see a Koala sign, you have to be alert. Because the world needs lots of lerts. And so you don't hit a koala. They used to hunt koalas and used their fur for packing material, kinda like a fancy eco-friendly bubblewrap. Koalas are now protected however.

We must be having a bit of luck, because we managed to get all the way home without hitting a kangaroo with the office lady's car, so some things are going our way. It's one of the few vehicles without roo bars, and would be just my luck to write it off. It's really strange seeing huge roo bars on things like new falcons and commodores, but it's quite common over here.

Righto, it's lunch time here so I will go and see what I can locate. Hopefully this rain abates before too long. The crazy thing is it is still 25 degrees even with the rain, so every one's still out and about and doing what they would normally do, except for getting soaked whilst doing it. There are "this road is subject to flooding, markers show the depth" signs everywhere, and then snow posts with meter marks on them showing the depth of the water across the road.

Sadly, I left my 4WDs at home, and I didn't pack my water wings....

TTFN

Rods and Cones

Gidday.

Well, not much to report today, a fairly standard sort of day I guess. Spent most of the day on the workbench, which made a change. Had a few teething hiccups but nothing major, managed to sort it out.

Had to fix some tail light wiring on a mine vehicle... did I mention all mine vehicles are hard to work on? This particular vehicle has had about 5 different people have goes at rewiring the taillights by the look of it, it was a big mission to fault find. Managed to bypass the problem and it now works... thankfully.

Had a BBQ after work which was good, we have pretty much settled in and have a pretty good idea about what all the guys do and who to see about what.

Still no Internet however... was kind of hoping it would have been connected by this week but no go... fingers crossed for next week.

Speaking of next week, updates may or may not happen due to me going to a mine for a week, first time, so it should be an experience.
First day is an induction, so going back to school again.
There is a SOP (Safe operating procedure) for everything, including how and where and when to park your vehicle, etc. And you need permits to work, it's all pretty well controlled apparently. I will know more once I have been myself obviously.

Right, it's getting later than usual and my laptop battery is going flat so I shall leave it at that for tonight. There is a sailboat in town apparently so we might try and hunt that out tomorrow.

Still pretty warm here, but what would you expect.

TTFN.

These boots...

Gidday.

Well, I am still waiting for our proper Internet to be connected. I jacked it all up last week, and still no sign of... well, anything. It will be interesting to see what arrives first, the bill, or the service.

However, I am making do, even if it is stupidly expensive at $10 for 100 Megs. Pretty glad I bought that N97 phone, it has been worth it's weight in gold this trip. A lot of phone here are still not "3G" compatible, and everywhere I go I am told "oh you have to make sure your phone does technology x" and I can just say "Yup", cos the N97 does everything thrown at it.

Spent today going to a cellular site, and performing some maintenance. You certainly cover some KMs here, you basically jump in the truck, drive to Kaikoura (From Timaru of course) swap a few things over, call a few people, then drive back again. And that's the days work. Done. Just like that. On a regular basis.

Met my first 110 KM an hour zone today, quite strange getting used to legally driving at over 100. Apparently out in the outback they have "unlimited speed zones" where basically you drive as fast as you like. Looooonnng straight roads with no traffic here though remember. There's storeys of cops passing people at 160 clicks, but I'm not certain how true that is. Over here you have 12 "points" similar to our demerits. They remove a point if you are caught speeding, 10KM over is 1 point, anything over 10KM is 3 points. 30KM over the signed limit is instant loss of license for 3 months. When you have your license taken off you when you run out of points you can choose to either surrender your license for 3 months, or else continue driving with only 1 point for the next three years, and if you get caught for anything you lose licence for 3 months. Once you lose a point it takes a year for it to return.

Or something like that. It was explained to me all in a rush so I can't vouch 100% for its accuracy I'm afraid.

I did learn one useful thing today. It is not recommended that one purchases a crunchie bar and then leaves it inside a vehicle in the Australian sun for a few hours. And then, whatever you do, do not try to consume said chocolate bar.
What did yours truly do? Attempted to consume the chocolate of course. Not the smartest call I have ever made.

Thought process went something like this:

"Mmmmm that chocolate bar looks nice... I think I'll have that"
*Opens bar, spraying chocolate around*
"Hmmm that wasn't very smart... this is going to be a problem, I really regret opening it now, but now that I have, I can't really do much with it other than eat it. Oh well, here goes"
*slides the remaining hokey pokey centre from the bar out of the chocolate covered wrapper, and takes a bite*
"This really wasn't worth the effort Carl you silly person. Now you have totally melted chocolate all over your face too. Righto. Stay Calm. Finish the solid center then we can deal with the rest"
*Finishes bar center, causing face and hands and front and wrapper to be covered in melted chocolate*
"Hmmmm... I don't think the driver has quite realised the mistake I have made... carry on like it's deliberate and say nothing! Hmmmm... what to do with this pool of liquid chocolate in the wrapper... I know! I'll eat it!"

2nd major bad call of the day.

*Sprays more chocolate everywhere*
"Hmmm that wasn't smart you idiot. Should have left well enough alone. Too late now I suppose. Right. What can I do with this wrapper, I don't have a plastic bag or anything... hmmm there's my drink bottle. That will do!"
*attempts to feed chocolate wrapper into top of drink bottle, which is considerably smaller than said wrapper*
"This isn't fitting very well... never mind, can't give up now, I have run out of options, and I'm surprised the driver hasn't wondered why I'm covered in chocolate yet. I'll just feed this a bit more...."

Third major bad call of the day. I had fed the wrapper in open end up. Which, as the opening of the bottle was smaller than the wrapper, did an excellent job of feeding all the melted chocolate up to the top (open) end of the chocolate wrapper, creating an aesthetically pleasing chocolate fountain. Not the first object I would have requested had a genie in a lamp been available and granting wishes, but you do have to work with what you have been given right?

"Oh bother. This can't be good. You should have seen that one coming you idiot. Now there's even more chocolate everywhere!"

You get the picture anyhow. Longer story short I managed to get the wrapper in the bottle, covering myself and the bottle in the process.

So, consider lesson learned. And please, learn from my experiment, no matter how good that chocolate looks, it really really isn't worth the hassle. Trust me on that one.

Righto, that's probably enough for tonight... we have a BBQ after work at work for Australia day (thought that was over by now), so that should be interesting.

Enjoy your nice NZ weather.

Ciao.

Oh I must comment on the picture too... This is of a pedestrian crossing. Over here they all have big pictures of legs. Was a laugh every time we saw them for a start, now it's just becoming standard.

Electric Blue

Gidday.

Updates a little later than usual this evening, has been a pretty busy day really. Achieved a fair bit so that's the main thing. The picture which I will hopefully remember to attach below is of the sun setting last night across the top of the power station.

Fitting that I took a photo of the power station, because today it decided to stop providing power. City wide blackout for about 15 minutes, I am informed that this can be a regular occurrence. I told them that back in NZ they usually didn't bother with small outages, when we have an outage it has to be good... like 7 days. Or more.

Slowly meeting some of the locals here, most of them are pretty friendly, and most soon cotton on to the fact I'm a Kiwi. Can't think what gives it away. "I've been in the country since about the 6th" tends to do it. I'm contemplating learning Australian just to be able to blend in. They tell me the ribbing stops after a few months... but seeing will be believing. It's all pretty light hearted stuff, and I just remind them that they are all a bunch of shackle draggers from way back either way.

When I applied for the job here they mentioned there was some "under floor" cable running etc... now I assumed this would be like kiwi floors, and was not looking forward to crawling around with the snakes. Well, I was a little mistaken. I have been introduced to a style of home called a "Queenslander". Which by the name, I am assuming is native to the queensland region. Basically imagine a large wooden house, similar to the early NZ ones. Now imagine it a story up, on stilts. That's pretty much 75% of the houses here. Even at my height I can pretty much walk around underneath them without hitting my head. Luckily, this makes running cables somewhat easier than I anticipated. (And it makes it easier to run if you do encounter a snake).

Most of these style houses are built from hardwood... drilling through floors/walls/beams etc is a lot harder than NZ pine let me tell you. The hammer drill investment was worth every cent.

The guys at Ashley's will be pleased to know some things don't change... I managed to shear off the head to a main coach screw holding up a projector bracket in a school the other day. I was reminded of the bolt up the pole on cave hill, I think that was also hardwood. You would think I would have learnt. However I did successfully attach about another 16 or so into hardwood beams without incident, so for all intensive purposes I'll try to blame the bolt for shoddy construction.
(However, I have managed to not drop anything on anyones head yet... it's still early days though).

Here's one for Marion "the shell lady"... all the petrol pump colours are stupid over here! It's still taking me a while to work out, but it's like black nozzles for 91, and green nozzles for diesel! Very confusing, your filling up and then you have a brief moment of panic when you look down and see a green nozzle into a diesel tank... then you remember it's actually normal for Auzzies. Crazy stuff.

Righto, it's about bedtime for me.

TTFN.

Australia Day

Gidday.

Well. It's finally here. That one day of the year which allows all Auzzies to wave blue and red and white flags and call each other "Australian". Heaven forbid you do anything unpatriotic today, for you will be labeled "Unaustralian" and over here, that is an insult indeed. And for once I'm not joking.

However, I did manage to poke some fun at the locals and wore my "NZ" black and silver fern top to the boss's Australia day BBQ. And what's more, I got away with it without being shot at. Met a few of the bosses friends and some other guys from work who normally reside out at a mine. Pretty decent sort of blokes, as most of the auzzies I've met so far seem to be.

I am most impressed with Auzzie meats. The sausages and steaks and lamb are magnificent. They really push the lamb thing here, and I can see why. I am now convinced that NZ must export all it's decent meat, because for a country known for it's sheep (as I am reminded regularly), our meat is nothing compared to the auzzie offering.
I know NZ is capable of producing this quality because some of the home kill meat I have sampled back home is very similar in quality, and has much more flavour than the stuff you buy off the shelves.

Anyhow, after the BBQ we spent pretty much all of the afternoon in the pool, so I'm hoping I'm not too burnt. I did apply the sunscreen but I didn't realise I had spent quite so long in the water. Had a game of pool after we were out of the pool which was good because I happened to win. Another score for the Kiwis.

Spoke to one guy there and he said: "Mate, your from NZ, I've been to NZ and seen NZ, and it's incredible. Why on earth would you want to leave?". Definitely food for thought, perhaps the NZ government needs to ask themselves that exact question.
Almost everyone you talk to here either knows or works with a Kiwi, there is a lot of us over here. Some choose to move for the weather, some for the lifestyle, but most people move for the $$$. Have I mentioned there is a heck of a lot of money in Australia? I guess it's one of the advantages of being able to just dig stuff out of the ground and sell it to the world. You are more or less mining money. NZ cannot compete in my opinion, especially with over taxation and poor management. The tourists don't get to see that side of NZ, perhaps if it were made more widely known the government would be forced to do something more about the situation instead of taking us Kiwis for a ride.

Anyhow, enough politics for today. Short week now, only 3 days to go, so that's pretty good. Got a few outstanding jobs to complete so I should have plenty to keep me out of trouble until the weekend. Think we might head up to Rocky seeing as we didn't make it today, go and win some more pub pool if we can.

Right, it's half past 6 at night now, and almost dark, so I might go and sort out some dinner.

TTFN.

Hey hey Train

Gidday.

Figured it might be time for another update. Don’t know if I’m going to manage to write something every day but hey, I’ll give it a shot. Tell you one thing, it’s a very strange feeling not having a dozen things waiting to be done. No vehicles to work on, no trains to work on (yet), nothing to fix... nothing to construct... it’s totally not like me that’s for sure.

It’s getting to the point I’m tempted to go and work on the broken discovery at work for fun... there’s a TD5 with turbo and overheating issues (sounds like the poor thing has been abused) and a 3.9 V8 that was rolled... apparently it was driven back to work like that, so it might not be all bad.

There’s a V8 classic rangie here too, apparently only one guy can get it to start for him... I’m keen to have a closer look when I get a chance too. The boss has got a real mint condition classic rangie, very impressive vehicle actually.

Well, spent another day back at school today. Pretty similar to NZ schools from what I can tell. I think they don’t start until they are 6 or something though, however I’m not 100% sure on that. Pretty much finished as much of the job as we can for now, still awaiting parts which is a bit of a problem, but what can you do?

No points for guessing what day it is tomorrow.... Yes folks, it’s Australia day! To us mere mortals that means a day off work, to the Australians it’s one of the big patriotic events of the year. I’ve bought some cheap auzzie memorabilia so be warned, it might be heading across the ditch in a mail bag soon enough.

I’m very tempted to wear my “Go NZ” All blacks/silver fern top at the auzzie day BBQ tomorrow... so if your blog update over the next few days looks like swiss cheese I’m probably full of shotgun pellets.

Saw a Kookaburra today! First real live wild Kookaburra I’ve ever come across. Got a bit of a pic, pretty pathetic though. I need to get a camera with some optical zoom. Mind you, I probably wouldn’t have been carrying it with me on the job today anyhow. The Kookaburras a pretty cool bird, wish we had them back home.

Well it certainly didn’t take long to get into the swing of things here... Don’t get me wrong, there’s still heaps to find out about how they do stuff, but there’s pretty much work to be done all the time now so I’m already starting to get a backlog. I guess at least this way when it is quiet there’s still work to do.

Looks like I’m heading out to Dawson mine next week, not sure what the internet coverage is like out there but I hear it does exist in places. One week with another guy, then I make the call if I’m confident to handle the next round on my own for a week. Should be interesting, they have been getting in excess of 40 degrees out there. They are all pretty sun wise, sunblock/hats are all provided, as are water bottles. You can’t go drinking any old water on a mine, as most of it is actually acid. You have to look for “potable water” signs.

The mine vehicles are all rusting away, due to the acidic water. It just gets everywhere, it will be the death knell for most of them. You don’t have to worry about WOFs over here though, as long as your vehicle is “roadworthy” that’s it. They occasionally conduct spot checks and check basic things, but it’s not a 6 monthly requirement.

Righto, I think that’s about it for now, I might go and hunt down some tucker.

TTFN

Two of a kind, workin' on a full house

Gidday.

Thought I better carry on the tradition and construct another update. Fairly cruisy day today, for a Sunday. Sundays in Auz are completely different to NZ. You can pretty much do anything on a Sunday, in the morning at least, in NZ. But not here, pretty much everything is shut. Looking around Gladstone on a Sunday, most people are probably at the pub. Auzzies do enjoy their drink.

There are a few people out and about cycling/walking etc, fitness is another big focus over here. I am rapidly growing tired of seeing television ads for “biggest loser”. You would average probably 12 or 16 ads in a standard evenings television viewing period. They definitely need some new ads... they have a dancing sausage advertising “Peter Boodle’s quality meats” which is a bit of a joke too.
They love taking the mickey out of other companies ads too, “Hungry Jacks” (BK) have an “Angry Angus” burger, advertising “It’s not fancy, it’s angry!” A direct rip of the McD’s “Fancy Angus” burger. But if you believe the ads, “the burgers are better at hungry jacks!”

What is this... a free advertising section? I’m sure you get the point however.

Pretty good weather is predicted for this week, mostly 33 and 34 degrees. Could be raining by the weekend apparently, but their weather forecasting capabilities are about on par with the NZ metservice’s, so I for one will not be holding my breath.
We have been invited to our branch manager’s house for an Australian day BBQ on Tuesday, so that will be interesting. It shall be our first real deal Auz BBQ, so we will have to play it by ear. One thing I have learnt is you cannot take anything for granted in other countries. Some things which you take as read back home are just unheard of over here.

Speaking of BBQs, we came across some “Kangaroo Sausages” in the supermarket the other day. We already were short of freezer space so decided to wait until next week, so once we have tried them I will let you know how we get on. Apparently Roo meat is supposed to be quite edible, but I’ll judge that for myself.

Speaking of food, we tried out our third “Fush n Chup” shop last night. I shall attach a picture of the resulting meal. Not as expensive as the first one, and an entirely different meal. Much superior. This round cost us about $10 each, that included a portion of chips (probably about 1/3 scoop NZ terms), a battered fish, and a “Pluto pup” (hotdog in NZ lingo). What you also get (aside from it all being contained in a cool polystyrene box) was a salad as well. (And lemon, and Tartere sauce). Personally I felt this augmented the meal well, and was a nice touch.
The chips were battered. Not just deep fried, but actually battered, and were delicious. The fish was well done, not too oily like the first one was. Very tasty with the lemon and sauce. The “Pluto Pup” was again disappointing; they only have those pre bought “corndog” type savaloys on a stick. Whereas they batter/construct their own back in NZ, we are yet to find anyone doing that over here.
Unfortunately.

I must admit, one feels a complete dick going into a fish n chip store and asking for a “Pluto pup”. However, if you ask for a hot dog you would either get an American style hotdog or a burning Labrador.

Actually probably a blue heeler... I don’t think I’ve actually seen a Labrador here yet... perhaps they burnt them to extinction with all the Kiwis coming over and asking for hot dogs. Most dogs here are short haired (funnily enough). And the magpies are scrawny things missing half their feathers. NZ magpies are far sleeker. Both sound about the same though, with the very distinct warble.
Anyhow... I think that’s about all I have to report for now. I keep thinking of things throughout the day and think “I really should write home about that” but then when it comes time to update I forget what it was I was going to write about. Perhaps a notebook might be in order.

At least it adds some weight to the reply when someone asks me “How was that?” I can now answer: “Oh, it was nothing to write home about”.

Tallyho.

Wrapped up good

Gidday.

Your blog today is accompanied by music by a new Auzzie band I have discovered, called "The McClymonts". Not only are they good looking,they actually do some excellent music too. I can now manage to listen to music again as I have managed to purchase a semi listenable set of speakers to plug into my laptop... as you can tell we are slowly making life more comfortable.

35 Degrees outside today, you start to just accept the heat, and it's not noticeable anywhere like it was when we first arrived. Stepping out of the airport at Brisbane was the biggest shock to the system I must say. I now understand why Uncle Grant freezes so much when he comes back to NZ.

Fairly cruisy day so far today, which is good for a Saturday. Ryan's on call so we have to remain more or less in Gladstone area in case he gets called out.
Finally managed to finalise some Internet!!! Ended up going with Telstra, despite everyone telling us to avoid them, because at the end of the day they were the only ones which could provide the level of service we were after at a reasonable (?) cost. I use the word reasonable with caution, as it's still daylight robbery, but it's the best option given the circumstances. We shall be getting 25 GB of data for AU$100.90 a month, which works out about $50.45 each. An expense I know, but it is difficult to live without Internet these days.

That price includes a landline telephone also, but the call rates are not cheap, about 20 cents per 30 seconds for local calls. (For some reason all phone costs are charged per 30 seconds over here). I was desperately looking for naked ADSL, but the only people who can provide it as a service don't have gear in Gladstone. You can't win.

More examples of my confounded luck... Our pin numbers arrived in the mail for our visa debit cards the other day (mine a day late as usual) and we finally got around to changing the default pins today. Well, I should say "attempted to change". Ryan's worked piece of cake... by the time I got to the ATM the pin I thought they had given me and the pin they actually had given me appeared to be two different things.
Turns out I had miss-memorised it luckily, but now I'm locked out of the ATM for 24 hours so I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Oh yes... yet again got stung by the stupid "no free calls off prepaid telephone" rule over here. Grrr. Rang telstra to jack up the Internet and again halfway though the call I get disconnected... blew $20 on the call this time. Beware, "freephone" numbers are not free if you have a prepaid phone. Yet another example of the money grabbing mongrel tactics the telcos use here. Having said that, the gentleman I was dealing with on the phone was kind enough to offer to discuss cellphone plan options with me. I nearly told him what he could do with his flaming cellphone plans.

Another thing, the auzzies don't have cellphones. They have "Mobile phones". And they don't know what a crescent is. Over here it's a "Shifting spanner". You can forget pozi drive. And square head screws are about as rare as emu teeth. And RT's are "2 ways" or "2 way radios". If you do anything wrong you better be prepared for "a pineapple up your arse". Boy if I had a cent for every time I've heard that expression. And that's dead set fair dinkum.
Did I mention these auzzies are crazy.

I'm slowly getting used to the crazy money over here too... one thing the NZ goverment *did* do good was decide to shrink our NZ coins.
Over here your trousers just about fall off because of the weight of the coins in your wallet... and most auzzies don't seem to understand us calling coins "shrapnel" either. I should write a letter to the government saying they should follow NZ's lead and lose some blasted weight.

And while they are at it they should make $1 coins smaller than $2 coins... The amount of times I have attempted to pay $2 for a $1 item and vice versa...
I mean come on, how often do you physically check the number on the coin? It's not my fault they have their coins backwards.
And they have their hundred dollar notes green. Just like our $20s. You should have seen the look on the cashiers face at "Hungry Jacks" (BK) when I attempted to pay for a $12 meal with a $100 note. I just completely thought it was a 20. Wasn't the first time either. Ah well, I haven't got that sort of cash lying around now so that solved that problem.

Almost pay day :D I have a box of some bits and pieces that I'll sometime get around to sending back to NZ, so if there are any reasonable requests now is your chance. No promises mind.

I'm pretty much living in Auzzie dollars now, I used to mentally transfer everything back to NZ bucks, but it's easier to just to deal in the new values now.
That way I'll get a better surprise shipping money home too :D

Righto, I better go and do something productive. FYI, don't try and go shopping on a Saturday... due to no Sunday trading Saturdays are stupidly busy.

Ciao.

Almost Australia Day

Gidday.

One thing I can say with some certainty is that the Auzzies are patriotic. In fact I suspect the only people more patriotic are probably the Yanks. It is Australia day on Tuesday, and boy don't you know it. There are little auzzie flags everywhere... I keep telling people that there's too many stars.

Everything on TV is "Auzzie day this, auzzie day that". You cannot get away from it. It's crazy, we don't seem to get quite this worked up about waitangi day, which I'm guessing is the closest thing we have to Australia day. You can just about get shot for not celebrating it on Tuesday. I have been warned.

Anyhow, thought I'd just make that point. It's almost as bad as the Australian open. Everything on TV now is "coming soon, after the tennis". Well when does the blasted tennis finish? They play tennis here until 4 in the morning! A young 17 year old player was caught on camera blaming the officials for his loss, for "making me play tennis after my bed time". The auzzies are ripping him apart for that comment, but to me it's a fair observation.

But, aside from that, most Australians are pretty interesting people.

We were installing some devices to a school today, the entire job went pearshaped from the first second we started. The gear was supplied by a different company. First mistake. The gear was missing bits. Second mistake. The person who designed the system obviously had no idea how stuff actually works. Third mistake. I suspect he assumed that air had these magical properties which allow all sorts of electrons to flow through it simultaneously causing things to magically work. Including mains power. And although, yes, I am aware it is on the cards in the future, induction charging and all that, this guy still had the IQ of a carrot.

Going back on Monday to sort it out... could be interesting. Was introduced to Asbestos registers on this job, which is basically a book with every part of the establishment on it and weather or not it contains asbestos. I think the idea is that it takes you so long to find the specific page for the specific panel you are looking for that by the time you find it the asbestos has lost all of its carcinogenic properties and is now completely harmless. Good in theory I'm sure, but I'm still gunna wear a dustmask.

Met some auzzie teachers too, similar sort of mix in NZ, about one male and all the rest female. Most older, but one or two younger ones, all I can say is boy do I wish I had a teacher like them. (The younger good looking ones of course).

Anyway, I better go and construct another meal. Had a guy come and install another air con unit for Ryan today, and for some reason the idiot has managed to break all the blinds in my room whilst doing so. My room is not in the scheme of putting aircon into Ryan's room, so I think I might have to ask some questions.

Weekend tomorrow, so all shall be well.

TTFN.

Just another day in paradise(?)

Gidday.

Just home again after another day at the office. I am going to attempt to get clever today and see if I can successfully upload pictures to this thing. If you see a picture after this text it probably worked. If you don't... forget I was even going to try.

Earlier start today, was on the road by 7:00 heading to a cellsite for a bit of maintenance. About an hour and a half/two hours up the road... not far in Australian terms apparently. Did I mention this country is huge? Driving down the road nearing the site, the tech driving mentions that he has never actually been to this site before. Great stuff. We do however manage to find the track without too much difficulty. Did what we had to do, and headed back. Got back to base about 14:00, so that was most of the day gone.

Headed over to install some technology equipment into a building requiring 10 of these devices installed urgently to find that half the equipment we will require hasn't arrived, and the original concept differs somewhat from the job spec. *sigh*
Man handled about 10 large flat boxes around the site with these stupid rope handles that make life awfully difficult. I'm convinced that the designer of the box thought "how can I make these the most painful way to carry and still get away with it?". Clearly the steel knife edge idea was classed as too dangerous, but the ropes were a close second I would say.

Anyhow we are going back first thing tomorrow to attempt to install some for real, so it should be another interesting day.

Starting to get used to the heat a bit more now, although airconditioning is still very much my friend. Things like lifting and carrying and climbing are certainly more challenging in the temperate climate.

Still no luck on the Internet front, but I'm working on it.

One other thing...
I am convinced that the Australian mail system is sorted in reverse alphabetical order. Three times now mail for Ryan has arrived a day prior to a letter to me, having both been sent at the same time as we have both applied for them at the same time.
As Ian Fleming (if memory serves) wrote: "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, third time it's enemy action."

Or in the words of the famous Mr Rosanowski: "First time funny, second time silly, third time smack."

Such is life.

TTFN.

First actual blog update

Gidday.

Well, another hot day here. It's getting to the point we should probably just take it as read that it's hot... 35 degrees today. When it's actually cold, then we will have reason to write home about it.

Pretty busy day at work today, they seem to have caught onto the fact that I can do stuff, so had several jobs to do today. Pretty good company to work for overall, I suspect I am going to enjoy my time here. Well worth the trip on experience points alone I reckon.

Whoever told me that you don't burn as quickly in Australia was a flaming lier. 2 minutes was the official burn time in Brisbane in the weekend. And I beleive it. When I mistakenly got burnt in the weekend I thought "That was foolish, oh well, now I know". Now it's a case of "hell this sunburn hurts consistantly, I am intending to never get burnt ever again." 3 days later it's still giving me greif. They consistantly warn about sun exposure here, and it's classed as a major workplace hazard. Which it is. Trust me.

There's a "mountain" nearby needing some repeater work on it, (NZers, read Hill, it's not quite tall enough to be a mountain even though over here apparently it is) so looks like I may have drawn a short enough straw to be included in the assult mission.

This could be by helicopter, or by shank's pony. The conversation went something like this:
Boss: "it's only about an hour and a half... if you don't get lost".
Me: "Gee, thanks."
Boss: "Oh, I've never actually been up there myself, but I hear the tourists do it all the time for excercise".
Me: "Thanks again."
Boss: "You will know the repeater hut, it's next to the white cross where someone fell off the track and got killed".
Me: You really know how to encourage people don't you...

So anyhow... I'll let you know how I get on with that one.

Early start tomorrow, I was told what for but I've temporaraly forgotten to remember exactly what that reason was. However, I will no doubt find out.

Seem to be getting on top of the mozzie problem, they don't seem to be bothering me as badly as they were, the repellent seems to be working. Coincidently I read somewhere that mozzie repellent doesn't actually repel per say, it actually "hides" you from the mozzies radar so he doesn't know you are there. A bit like that black radar absorbing marterial they used on the blackbird so it didn't get seen by radar. Very clever stuff.

Internet. Don't get me started on internet. Over here "ISP" obviously is actually pronounced: "License to print money". Everyone is out to get you. They charge stupid prices for basic products, for example one provider works out to be $109 Auzzie per gigabyte. I mean come on, if that's not daylight robbery I don't know what is. Cheapest I found was an ADSL provider providing naked ADSL for around $100 a month, 30 gigs "On peak" (12 AM till 12 PM) and 60 gigs "off peak" (12 PM till 12 AM). We thought "righto, sounds good, lets do it". Went through the motions.. but wait. The provider doesn't actually have ADSL equipement in our town. The competition does, but they want about $160 for 25 GB all up. Bugger that.

"Righto" said I, thinking there must be a better solution, and not happy paying over the top pricing for basic internet services. We investigated the wireless internet option, which the cheaper provider also provided. $55 a month for 7 GB on a 12 month plan. Sounds good, given the options. Right, very well, head down to the shop to jack it up then. (You also need to buy a modem for $150).

First problem: "Do you have ID"? yes, yes we do. Here, have our passports, bank cards, letters from the bank, letters from the australian tax department, NZ drivers licences.... surely that's enough?

Apparently not. You also require a medicare card. Which is fine. Except under normal circumstances most NZers wouldn't get one for 2 years. We can get one because we have permanent employment here, but again the list of requirements and "supporting documents" is as long as my left arm.

So, not liking to be beaten so easily, I hatched a cunning plan. I noticed there were prepaid options. I thought to myself: Righto, if we went prepaid for a month until we get medicare cards sorted, that's gets us going even if the first month costs us a bit more, and then once we are ready we will go directly onto the contract, using the same modem, and win all around.

Apparently not. Yes, you require a modem for the prepaid data at a cost of $99.
Yes, you could start a contract once you have the medicare card (assuming they accepted us even after that.) BUT... you would still require a new modem, because it transpires you cannot go onto a contract without them suppling you and charging you for a new modem weather you require it or not.

Did I mention every big company is out to get you?

I can't win... I was hoping my luck would change when I hopped countries but apparently it followed and got through customs. Damn them and their instant photo ID. Christ, I can get into the country without even talking to a customs official, I can open a bank account with only a passport, but I cannot even pay an entire 12 month contract in advance to get flaming internet.

I rest my case.

Anyhow, time I went and constructed a meal, I'm quite getting the hang of this cooking lark. Much like chemistry at school really. Quite exciting.

Bye for now.

Seventh Email

Greetings all.

I got smart this time and attached my phone to my laptop so this time I can type on my computer and still send it through my phone. Technology these days....

Well, we had a pretty uneventful night last night, cooked some sausages for dinner, the auzzie sausages and beef are pretty darn good actually. Was going to watch Gone in 60 seconds but the tennis was on and delayed due to rain, so about 10:00 PM I gave up and went to bed. Tennis is huge in Auz. Sleeping in is starting to become easier, up until this weekend I was awake about 5 usually. It gets real light, and I guess kinda half being on NZ time didn’t help. You get tired sooner here too, again could be the NZ time thing, but I reckon the heat does it too. Normally by about 8:30 I’m sleepy enough to go to bed, its well dark by 7 so no dramas there.

Decided to go to a place called Agnes Bay today, it’s about 1.5 hours southish of Gladstone. It’s a pretty good swimming beach. A few topless female sunbathers too so that was worthwhile.

There was a big sign saying beware of stingers, swim at your own risk, but everyone else seemed to be having a good time so we jumped in regardless. Was pretty warm in the water, more like having a bath than swimming, but still cooler than the air temp. You can’t walk on the high sand in bare feet, it just burns you like fire. We spent about an hour and a bit in the water just bobbing around. Heaps of surfers here, and surf clubs everywhere you go. They were doing a surf training while we were there, about 20 kids on surfboards.

One thing we did find here was a takeaway shop called “Hook in”, run by some Greeks, and they do the closest thing to fair dinkum Kiwi fush n chups that I’ve seen yet. That’s a bit of auzzie lingo for you. So was pretty impressed with that effort, although it probably won’t be able to be a regular thing, imagine driving to rakia or burnham for your dinner and you would be about right. Except replace everything that you can see on the way with gum trees.

My god, there are so many gum trees here. You can’t get away from them. Everywhere you go or look they are there. All the hills are covered in them. None of the lovely grass or tussock or pine covered hills we get in NZ, it’s all bloody gum trees here. Good if you were a gum-tree-loving Koala I suppose.

We saw our first real life wild dingo today too, on the way back. We called into a place called 1770, so named because it was where Captain Cook landed in, you guessed it, the year 1770. Another beach town, but not as nice swimming as Agnes. More boats etc here.

They do a boat trip/day trip to the great barrier reef, you pay about $165 and they take you over in a boat and give you snorkels and you spend 5 hours swimming with the turtles and the finding nemo fish. In a isolated safe lagoon, so no stingers or sharks. So once we get some money coming in I will be doing that trip me thinks. Unfortunatly they pay once a fortnight over here and it just so happened we started right on a pay week, so in effect we basically work 2.5 weeks before we see any money. However when the money does show it should be good.

Anyhow, drove back to Gladstone, went past turkey bay. We were going to have a look but it’s about 25km off the main Bruce Highway, so we shall endeavour to do that another day. That and Ryan appears to have a delayed hangover from the night out we had in Rocky on Friday... he was sweet as on sat but not too flash today.... that will teach him.

Only mistake I made was when I was putting on my sunscreen I forgot to do my shoulders cos I was wearing a Tshirt at the time, so the hour n a half swimming has left me with bright pink shoulders and flaming sore wearing any clothing that hangs on them, IE tshirts. Ah well, we live and we learn. Hopefully.

Righto I think that’s about it for now, I’ll touch base again if I remember anything interesting.

TTFN.

Sixth Email

Gidday,
I'm currently sitting in the laundromat for saturday's washing session, thought I'd construct another update while I was sitting here waiting for the soap suds to do their work.

30 degrees currently and appears to be getting hotter... At least we arn't in melbourne, they still getting 42 degree days. I've now spent three days on inductions... Grant was pretty right in his descriptions. I did a vodafone and kordia induction on wed, then the generic coalboard one on thurs fri. Could have probably fitted the coal one into one day... That course included basic first aid and basic fire fighting, had to put out a small fire with a co2 extinguisher which was interesting.

Came back for the night in between, although last night being friday we stayed and went to a local pub with a Kiwi mate and her freind. Washing is now finished and can't work out how to save this so I'll send it and finish it soon. Standby....

(Continued...)

Gidday again again,

I'm back home now from doing the washing, we went home via the supermarket to get some more milk and water, and a clothes horse to dry clothes. I learnt one major thing in this trip. The auzzies cant build clothes horses. We managed to find one that will do, but it's pretty unstable and nothing like the kiwi ones. I may have to modify it. Am giving it a test run as we speak. Well, as I write anyhow.

Righto... Where was I before. Something about staying in rocky after the course... We finished the induction about 2:00 (did I mention the auzzies love knocking off early... We finish at 4:30 most days) so drove round rocky seeing stuff. I may have purchased a small australian bhp mining HO trainset just for interest during the course of our exploring. (Turns out it's too big for the space I have so that will be shipped home.)

Went to a free zoo, I'll send some pics through. Was pretty awesome, got to see koalas, roos, crocodiles, a python, a cassowary... Went to a place called red rooster for dinner, the Auzzies laugh when you tell them you have never seen it before because it's as common as mcdonalds over here. They sell chicken like kfc but without the spices, it's like roast chicken. Quite good actually.

Went to the local pub with the before mentioned mate, you have to be a member but it's only $1 to join up. The hours are crazy over here... For example they have strippers on 5 till 7, then 7 till 9 is main busy bit, then after 9 most people head home and by 10 we were only people there, closing at midnight. Admittdly this is small country type pub, in main town nightclubs open till 3 then after that you can stay in but once you leave you are not allowed back in.

It's dark by 7 so that's why everythings earlier. We shot a few games of pool nz vs auz, unfortunatly they bet us 3 nil. Only by one or so balls each match, but enough to win. I bet my mates mate about half a dozen times however, so all was not lost.

Geckos everywhere, they love crawling over signs. Moths are huge, bigger than nzs butterflys. Real impressed with the pub though, will have to go back. They love when you say ten, six, fish and chips, chilly bin, pin, and damn near every other word you can think of. I just pay them all out for speaking funny where ever we go.

At work we have a pom, two south africans, and 3 kiwis, so we almost outnumber the locals now. When the guys left the pub it was only us 4 remaining, which was good cos we had 3 kiwis and one auzzie, so it just felt like being in nz and paying out the auzzie. Apart from the heat. Nz would have never have got that hot.

Walked back to the car and we sorta hung out there till bout 2 in the morning, then we drove back to gladstone. Luckily managed to not hit any roos, because we still driving the office lady's car, I don't think they would have been too impressed had I put a kangaroo print in it.

Bought a dewalt hammer drill yesterday too, work has no tools, it's gunna take a few weeks to sort that out. Amazing what you take for granted, at least at Ashleys we usually had access to the right tool for the job. You can claim tool and work clothing expenses back off your income tax though, so I think I'll actually end up paying for it out of my tax which was handy to know.

Righto... Think that's pretty much it for now, I'm getting sore thumbs typing on this thing so I'm looking foward to internet. Turns out gladstone is classed as a small rural town in auz so there's no decent adsl coverage so I'm having to go wireless... Bout 55 bucks a month for 7 gigs of traffic. Internet is flaming expensive here compared to NZ, we have much better deals and options in nz. (and far better cellular coverage too).

Anyhow... Cards arrived from the bank today, so that's good. Theres no (read: very little) Sunday trading here either, which is quite good. They do some things right these australians. Righto I'm off for now. TTFN.

Fifth Email

Gidday all,

Second day of work is now over, it's still 34 degrees and its now 8:00 at night. Luckily we not further south, down in adielade they had a high of 43, melborne was high 42, they are having a bit of a heatwave over here at the moment.

As I write this a gecko has ran across the floor and has climbed up the wall, and is now running around on the roof. They have some weird stuff over here that's for sure. It's crazy here, either it's stupidly hot or freezing in 20 degree direct aircon blast. Unfortunatly my work bench is pretty much direct in the airflow so I might have to wear a vest at work. Work is... Totally not what I expected. So far it appears like it's a lot easier.
Much better tracking and invoicing systems than back home, but it is a larger company. Went for a coalmine medical exam today, they gave me the all clear. Got a two day coal mine induction at rocky on thurs and friday. Should be.... Interesting.

It appears there is a ticket for damn near everything, you just about need a ticket to say you are authorised to breath when it comes to mine work. Workshop is pretty poor compared to Ashleys, but on the brightside any tools we buy we can claim back as expenses off our income tax. Gst is weird over here, it appears to be mostly 10% but there's no gst on things like water and cereal.

No watties, heinz are close however. The baked beans are not as good as nz ones. They have mccains frozen veges and frozen chips which are nz, and mainland cheese, so thats cool. And you can buy marmite here. Just. One thing you cannot buy is a wire cheese slice. They just plain dont exist. And.... No one uses pozi screws. For anything. Its all philips. No square stuff either. That was nuts, cos everything back home was pozi pretty much. All sorts of crazy wee things like that all over the place.

So, might go and watch some tv briefly then hit the hay, I'm still kinda on NZ time, sleepy early and awaking early. It's pitch black by half 7, and full light by.. 5ish in morning.

The lizard has now done a complete lap of the ceiling and is looking around for his next challenge. Right thats all for now. Lots of interesting stuff in this country thats for sure. OK I'll keep you posted when I get a chance. TTFN.

Fourth Email

Gidday again,

Met a largish spider at a vintage musuem today, luckily he was as dead as the norwiegan blue in the monty python sketch. Had a look around some old buildings, quite interesting, not disssimilar to the old nz goldmining stuff really.

Drove to a lake today and had a look, it's huge. People boat and swim there. Went to another golden beach down the road, it has lifeguards on duty most weekends so is pretty safe to swim at.

Had a look at a large aluminium smelter too, but couldn't get any decent pics. Still stupidly hot outside, apparently the humidity goes away in about 2 months and it's just heat after that. At the moment it's muggy as. The coldest temp recorded here last winter was 13 degrees, and apparently thats "flamin freezing" say the locals.

I just smiled, I reckon I could handle 13 degrees alright. I told them inland in NZ some days don't get much above 0 deg in winter and they thought I was mad. See the UK has had a cold winter, like -20 in places. That's getting real cold. Anyhow last free day today, first day at work tomorrow, should be interesting.

Third Email

Gidday again.

Got some more data for my phone so can afford to send some more pics, I'll try remember to attach some after I've written the text up. About 32 degrees here currently, pretty warm.

Went for a bit of a drive around tour of gladstone, saw some interesting things. There is a huge aluinim smelter here which produces 7% of the worlds alumnim which they use for aluminium metal. Went to a lookout to see most of gladstone, took some pics from there too which was interesting. Met some huge ants... They like 1.5 cm long, and fast as hell. First I knew about them was when they picked up our car and tryed to carry it back to their queen. Ok I may have made the last bit up. Once you see one and start looking you realise there is about 1000 of them all running round.

Went to go out the back door this morning and this lizard fell on me and kept on running, finally cornered it long enough to get a bit of a pic but then he ran off. I'm hoping he's run into Ryan's bed, I'll wait for the girlish scream tonight. Met even more strange birds... It's like living in an exotic avairy. Saw the body of a night beetle, and I kid you not, it was about 10 cm long minus the head. I'm not looking foward to meeting one of those.

Small ants are everywhere, it's uncommmon not to see them. And lots of them. So many fords and holdens over here its unbeleivable. You can't look anywhere and not see a ford or a holden. Most cars are all flash, there is definatly a lot more money here.

Gladstone seems bigger than Timaru, a lot more happening. Not as big as chch though. People seem friendly enough. Finally stopped raining today, we have had a chance to see more of what gladstone is like without the cloud and rain. Righto, I'll keep you updated as I find out more. TTFN.

Second Email

Crows. If you have seen Alfred Hitchcocks "birds" that's the ones. They make this loud squak that gives you a huge fright and they would grab food from your hand if you let them. Huge, about 3 times size of a magpie.

We have magpies too, that's one bird I do recognise. The green parrots are mint, I'll try get a pic of one. They just flying around, you look up and there's like 5 just sitting in a tree. I'll try find a pic of a Ibis too, they are funny as.

Slowly learning our way around, driving takes a bit to get used to, they have a few strange rules. Mostly good drivers except those with p plates, I've now named them plonker plates as most of them are idiots. I've built more flat packed furniture the last few days than anyone should, it's quite a challenge. Tryed auzzie fish n chips... They come in a cardboard box with lemon. You ask for a hotdog and they are like what? Apparently they called puppy pops or something... I couldnt quite work out what the young lady was saying. Chips were mostly oil, very soggy. Fish was soggy too, I couldn't finish it. And not cheap. Bout $20 auz for 2 fish 2 hotdogs and one portion of chips, which is about half a scoop nz wise. Will try a different shop and see how we get on.

Drove about 25 mins to find a miter10. It was about the size of keemans tools in Timaru. Bunnings here is huge. Went to repco. Old old building, old old stock. No room to move. Small as. Grass right to door, no path. Not quite sure why they are still open actually. Supercheap are here and better than NZ, and autobarn are here and better again. Autobarn here is like repco size and quality wise in Timaru.

Went for a drive around the marina today, very interesting. Again will get pics at a later date. Slowly getting stuff sorted. Predicting 29 degrees for tomorrow. Still raining on and off, apparently they have been in drought for months and then it's rained constantly since xmas. Lot of water on surface, I don't fancy getting stuck in that mud. Looks like glue. Heaps of 4wds, seen one or two defenders, heaps of discos though. All with huge roo bars. Anyhow I'll carry on, thumbs getting too tired to type more on my phone for now. Have fun, I'll catch ya later.

First update

Gidday all, if you have nothing better to do than read the ramblings that follow you must have a lot of spare time on your hands. However, who am I to judge, as I did after all bother to post here in the first place. Because I am lazy the next couple of posts will be emails which I constructed whilst settling in here in Auz. These were typed on a cellular telephone so I take no responsibilty for their grammatical abilitys. After that, I will only post here instead of emailing everyone direct as this way I can hit many birds with one projectile. In theory.

First Email:-- (Slightly format improved from the original manuscript)

Gidday,
I still havn't got any decent internet on and it could be a week or two before we do. Checking phone throught data plan occasionally so that's that really. It's stupid hot, luckily got a brand new aircon unit in my room. Actually had to turn it off because I woke up bout half three freezing my arse off at 18 degrees inside. Outsides mid 20s (at night).

Raining pretty much since we got here so no spectacular pics for you yet. Some real strange creatures here, werid ducks, crows, herons etc. Herons are hilerious to watch, they look like giant cartoon creatures. (Turns out these are actually Ibiss. I didn't know this at the time of writing). Mozzies are a pain, caught a few having a chomp on me. Have invested in some repellent.

Sheilas here are something else, never seen so many gorgeous girls in one place (Brisbane especially). Met most of the work crew, pretty easy going bunch, very much like Ashleys in more ways than you can imagine. We have a car to use for now until we get vehicles, so have spent all day today shopping. Spent a fair bit but we are pretty much set up now.

Company is all very understanding and willing to help out with anything and everything. Slowly getting the hang of where stuff is here, most town driving is 60 km so thats taking a bit of getting used to.

Rent free for a week and a bit. Pay is fortnightly, so won't see anything for 2 weeks. Stocked up on food so we should be pretty right.

Rain... Seen nothing like it. Imagine lake tekapo.... Falling on your head, all at once, and you will b getting close. Couldn't see to drive. Only downside here is no washing machine, so we have to take all washing to the laundromat down the road.

Boss is away on a job at the moment but he has a disco and a couple rangies in the fleet. Everyones trying to get rid of them apparently, crying shame really. Discos for sale apparently but I might try and con him into keeping it... (Turns out it's been overheated and turbo issues... waste of a good TD5) Address here is about 200 meters from work, real handy. Flat doesnt look much from outside but it's fine for all we need.

Anyhow its past my bedtime, I'll write more and organize some pics once I get some decent internet. Booked in to see bank manager tomorrow afternoon, and got some flat pack furniture to build. Town although similar people count wise to Timaru the shops etc are huge. Giant shopping malls etc. Main street pretty nice though. Auzzies all seem pretty cruisy and more friendly than nz'ers are (generally). Ran into a guy who runs a computer shop here, he's been here 20 years but is from Ashvegas, had a laugh about that. One other kiwi workin for Nixons too. Small world. Right must go. Catch ya later.

Test

Testing testing one two one two... is this thing on? It appears it is. And so Carl's blog was confirmed. Marvelous.