It appears that I may have missed an update last weekend, not entirely sure how that happened but it was probably something to do with me forgetting and/or not getting around to it. However, as the baboon said... "it's in the past!".
Yet another busy week at the mine this week, being a man or two short at the moment is certainly keeping the rest of us on our toes. I'm doing the contracted work at the mine, and then doing installs etc after that as overtime, just so we can try and knock some of the extra work off.
Originally the plan was to take the dual cab navara as usual, but it turned out it had a cracked bearing and the universals were shot. So that went in for a service, and it was decided that I should take the 70 series landcruiser instead. Which I didn't mind much, although I would never admit it to Tom, I have a certain appreciation for 70 series cruisers. So I proceeded to use my weekend getting it up to as close to mine standard as possible, fitting reversing buzzers, fixing tail lights, replacing wiperblades etc. Come Monday morning I jumped in and got a few KM up the road when the slight odd sound in the drive train turned into a loud persistent very odd sound in the drive train. So I pulled over and did some fault finding, and began to suspect something somewhere in the transfer case. I decided it wasn't wise to carry on for a week on the mine wearing that out, so I rang the boss. Which was good fun as this was about 5:30 in the morning and he was well asleep.
Long story short, we had no other vehicles other than his own one, so he told me to drive back to his place and he would give me that for the week. So I limped back into town, took all his gear out of his truck, and put all my gear in. Luckily it goes alright, so I took it out and finally got the mine, albeit a little on the late side.
The first few days were pretty busy, catching up on all the work that the fellow the week before hadn't completed, and also fixing any new stuff that came in. This was made more interesting by the fact there were no 2 ways, no am/fm radios, and no microphones in the mine stores whatsoever.
I rapidly used up my own spares which I had tucked away, and then basically had no other way to repair any swapout faults. I even ended up losing my workshop radio to a truck that urgently needed one. Luckily by the end of the week, some AM/FM radios appeared and I could carry on and tidy up the AM/FM jobs. Which involved two installs into drill rigs... which took a while. At least it was a good feeling wiping that job off the "to be done" list.
After hours I had to deinstall and reinstall a radio from a vehicle that had been hit by a roo. I'll attach a photo... you would think bullbars would stand up to a roo, but not so. Bent the bar completely and wiped out the front corner of the truck.
Speaking of roos, I was parked up at a repeater site having a bite to eat, when I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and saw this large kangaroo staring back at me through the passengers window. I immediately reached for my camera, but he started to bound away. I got a couple of photos as he hopped away, I was hoping to get one of him right at the truck but it wasn't to be. I also encountered this strange flying creature which was bright metallic green, again I'll attach a photo but it's a bit small.
One other job I had to do was program some radios in some road trains which another employee had managed to get wrong. These things are long... real long. I saw one guy backing one, although admittedly only in a straight line. I imagine it would get real interesting going backwards.
So, aside from working and getting ripped off by the NZ government and customs, not much else has been happening. If you ever import "scale replicas" into NZ... be aware. They charge you an importation surcharge, a biosecurity levy, and GST on the item, including on the freight, even if you have already paid GST in the country of origin. And, they only have an 0800 number listed, so you can't ring them internationally to abuse them. This time I just paid up, but if they try it again I'll be complaining. How they get away with charging GST on an item not purchased in NZ, and even more so, on the freight to get it there, beggers belief.
Anyhow, enough from me, I'm intending to attempt to get some more done on my train layout, as the poor thing is getting neglected with me being away from home so much at the moment. I'm back out at the mine next week too, although hopefully that will be it for a week or so. We have a new guy starting the mine run shortly so that will take some pressure off.
TTFN
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