Now back in Kal with the overhauled computer, and it's great to be back online! Pathetic aren't I?
Well, lots of things happened, so I better get down to talking about them hey?
My Dad and I had a very good time up with my sister and her husband in Hervey Bay. They have nearly finished the building of their catamaran and I just had to have a look at it and of course to take some video for Easy who was back in Kal working.....so I could holiday of course!!! The boat is going to bring much happiness to all who sail in her methinks! Whilst sitting in the cabin ,I got the same little frissons of excitement I did when we were getting ready to take off with our caravan! We plan to be there for the launch, and I just KNOW that will spur someone in this household into wanting a catamaran even more than he does now!
After spending the night with Pam and Rob, Dad and I drove back down to Brisbane but we stopped off at Maryborough, a large town just south of Hervey, where our ancestors landed from Britain many moons ago. The town is just full of beautiful old historic buildings and Dad and I love museums, so guess where we spent hours and hours? The original Geraghty's store, where you can still see the stock on the wooden shelves and in the barrels aout in the store room, from over a hundred years ago. It's exactly as it was left, and very interesting to see. The curator was very interested in Dad's family's history, and they swapped names and addresses for the passing on of any information. Another place we spent a bit of time in was down at the river station area where the boats used to tie up and offload the passengers and freight from England. Dad even found some information on his old wartime boat he served on, and some photos of it. We had "the tour" of the customs building and learnt it's story in a very interesting talk given by a knowledgable lady. (They certainly know their subjects in these towns!"
Back on the road to Brisbane, we passed by the turnoff to the Bushtracker caravan factory, and as I expected, we passed another brand spanking new Bushtracker being towed home by some extremely smiley people in their Landcruiser. It was hard not to wave and carry on, but as I was driving the very sedate family Magna with not a caravan in sight behind me, I thought they would think I had gone nuts, and didn't even look sideways as I passed them! NOICE VAN though!!!
The flight back to Kal from Brisbane was very long. 5 3/4 hours straight.....I was lucky to have a spare seat beside me so I didn't need to scrunch up in my seat. I'll never order low fat meals on a flight again!! Was like leftover cardboard vegetarian crap and only because I was hungry did I eat it! I thought I would be a good girl and stick to my diet.....silly me! Well, the diet's still happening, although the scales tell me I am actually gaining weight despite my best efforts. People are telling me I look like I have lost more weight since Christy's wedding, so maybe it's just a glitch. I will persevere......17th month though...it's wearing very thin......
I got the shaft from work just after I came back from my little holiday too. It was "on the cards" as they say. I did apply for another position at the same place, not really wanting the job that much as it involved 12 hour shifts again, and was not really surprised when I didn't get it. I am back on the books to do sentry work again, which suited me any way, so I am not complaining. Easy is happily socking his dollars away each week, having decided not to pursue the job up north any longer. He got a letter from them saying that they may not be ready to employ until early next year now, so he said forget it. He has numerous contacts in places up north, so we may yet be heading that way in the future. Until we actually hitch Doris onto the car,and are rolling out the gate here, I will believe we are meant to stay here indefinately. Christy and Tant are making noises about coming for a visit in February......something to look forward to for sure!!
We took a drive south west of here last Sunday to Cave Hill Reserve. It's a smaller version of Wave Rock and Cathedral Cave combined, and a really nice drive through the dense bushland. We only saw 2 other vehicles the whole time, and enjoyed the quiet with only birds to listen to apart from the doof doof music from one of the cars as it roared down the road. Sitting on the back tailgate of the car eating our lunch, we speculated on how crowded and noisy the place must be when the holidays are on as we have been told every man and his dog gather there then! The architecture of these places intrigues us greatly. Each one of these huge rock outcrops has it's own water directing device....slabs of rock cemented on their ends ina row right along the top face of the rock, and in this case, each slab has it's own small buttress rock cemented at each and every join. The theory is that when it rains, the water runs down the rock face until it hits these walls and then travels along until it runs into the small dam at the foot of the hill. I have taken quite a few photos and placed them in the web photo site for you to see if interested. Driving along on the way back to Kal, we chanced upon an abandoned settlement of some kind, and we also found their water supply - a small rocky basin with drystone walls directing the water into the waterhole. Easy was delighted to find hundreds of great big fat tadpoles inhabiting the waterhole, and risked life and limb to catch some to take home and "grow them up". I think they are horrible things and want nothing to do with them! Great big blobby yukky things the size of a 20 cents piece...I thought tadpoles were supposed to be cute little black things! I hate to think what they are going to grow into! No toads here yet, but they look like them! They now live in MY lunchbox of all places!!
More newly made mates have left the caravan park today. The silly part of it is...they have lived here on and off for 3 years and we didn't know them until fairly recently. Is this OUR fate? To be here 3 years or so? It's looking like it as the fuel prices roar upwards. The joke is...we will only be able to afford to move from one long term stay to another, and the idea of travelling around looking for work will be too risky and we will have to be permanents at a lot more places than we bargained on.
Speaking of travelling, Easy is going bush for 4 out of the 5 days next week, and so I might be going too....if he can wangle it with the powers that be, because ordinary people aren't supposed to be going with him to these places. I'm not ordinary am I??
To be continued..........

From The Brisbane Office !
Howdy folks. This blog update comes to you from the Brisbane Office Branch....yep I am in Brisbane at the moment soaking up the warmer weather. It's dear old Dad's 80th birthday and I decided to pester him for a few days, thinly disgused as "a visit". Hard to believe it is 10 years since Christy & I surprised him by showing up on the doorstep for his 70th!!! I couldn't do that this time....you can't shock really elderly like that...might kill them!! (I just KNOW I am going to get a smack when he reads this!)
Had a good flight overnight from Kalgoorlie...the stupid part about it is that I flew down to Perth fromKal and then hours later, flew back over Kal on my way to Brisbane! You'd think that the airlines could at least conjure up a direct flight for these ocassions wouldn't you? Any way, had an uneventful trip...but didn't manage to get a lot of sleep this time, not like the last time I took the redeye flight. Had the only child on the flight sitting....guess.....right behind me...ya just can't help bad luck sometimes can you?
Any way, Dad and I are having a great time. He is doing very well for himself...he looks really well, and is venturing into previously unchartered waters ...cooking etc. I am not allowed to mention the cooking!!
We are venturing up the Q'ld coast to my sister's place at Hervey Bay to spend a short time there. I can't wait to see the boat they have been building (under the house) for the last umpteen years. It's nearly finished and Easy wants to see some photos, and I will take a movie too. The drive is about 4 hours...all the way on huge freeways etc, so I will get a bit of long distance driving in again. Had none of that since I have been in Kal apart from the odd trip down to Esperance and a couple to Perth.
Will update again once I have my computer back on board. It's going to the doctor for some serious surgery.
To be continued............

Another Sunny Day In Kalgoorlie
It’s a beautiful day as I write this, and I’m cooking pea and ham soup for tonight’s yummies. Winter is a great time for hearty food as you all probably know, but it’s murder on those of us who are on a perpetual diet. I have been on one such venture for the best part of 17 months now…yes it’s coming off…albeit s-l-o-w-l-y , and this is being helped by the strenuous physical activity of being a Pit Tech at work. As you have read in the previous post, I have been cut back to 2 days a week now, so I have to find something else to occupy my time during the week. I WAS to see another boss in the processing side of the nickel plant, but incredibly, only last week, he was involved in a nasty accident during an inspection of the inside of a high pressure vessel, falling some 6 meters inside the thing, and breaking 4 ribs and a leg. So….asking him for work back in this part of the plant is a little bit out of the question at the present time! DAMN! Actually, I found work rather pleasant last week, as the geologist whom I usually work with had “had a really hard day” the day before, and so he took Friday off poor love……..honestly, he is SUCH a wimp…a couple of weeks ago, he had to have a day off with “the flu” when we had all had the same COLD that week. I really don’t think much of him at all and it’s very hard to work with him…he is a very strange piece of gear…a real “rock licker” as they call geos.
I took off for Coolgardie, the little mining ghost town 32ks away from Kal, last week to have a look at some of their great museums. This little town used to be massive in the gold rush days, as most of the places around here were, and they have THE most amazing museums! The first one I went to was the Pharmacy and Dental museum. Oh boy! Talk about bringing back some memories of my times in the dentist’s chair as a child! I don’t feel that old, but I must be if a remember things that are now in a museum!!!! And the pharmacy was just full of perfectly preserved packets of powders and pills, which I can remember in our family medicine cupboard. Next place to head for was a lovely old two-story building, housing one of THE best bottle collections I have ever seen in my whole life. We had been informed of this collection by our mate Dave from two doors down here in the park, and it is every bit as interesting as he said it was. He is a bit of a collector himself, and I thought, “must be good if Dave’s impressed!”, and it IS! There are row upon row of glass cabinets full of perfect bottles of every description and colour. There’s a cabinet of pale lavender ones, a cabinet of dark blue ones, a cabinet of pink ones, a cabinet of brown ones, a cabinet of clear ones, cabinets full of earthenware bottles, square bottles, round bottomed bottles, marble stoppered bottles, animal shaped bottles, tiny perfume bottles, some of which I remember from my childhood when I used to look at my mother’s things on her dresser, and there seemed to be a cabinet for earthen ware beer bottles from each and every state in Australia as well. Oh, and scotch whiskey bottles of every description were there in abundance as well. In short, you could probably find a bottle representing just about every type of container ever made in Australia. And the incredible thing was…..each exhibit was perfect in every way…without any cracks or blemishes at all! The couple who own this collection started by accident many years ago, digging up an old waste dump in and around Kanowna, which was a mining settlement east of Kalgoorlie, and they got well and truly bitten by the collecting bug, and made a life long hobby of it. They have collected from all over Australia and there is an article on them in an old Pix magazine also on display in the museum. A lovely afternoon was had by myself, closely examining these bottles, with only the ticking of the old wall clock in the courthouse building where the exhibition was located, to remind me of how much time I was taking to have a look. I love old buildings as well, so just being able to wander about inside them was a bonus in itself. There’s something about sleepy country towns and the people who volunteer to man the museums in them……they are all so pleased to be able to talk to you and answer your questions about what is there to look at, unlike the ones in the cities. THEY are all seemingly too busy to bother with you, and don’t like telling any body anything if it’s not “in the brochure”. The little lady I spoke to in the Pharmacy museum was an absolute fountain of local knowledge and although it was an absolutely freezing day with an icey wind whipping around the ankles, she took the time to wander up and down the road outside with me, to point out the various places I shouldn’t miss seeing. The goldfields were such a rich place to be living in then, but there was also great poverty amongst the people. Seeing the huge contrast between the landed gentry and their extravagant lifestyle, and the workers who had little more than a hessian tent for a home, brought home to me just how resilient and determined people were in those days! I doubt whether modern day settlers would tolerate the conditions today. I know, I whinge if something’s not to my liking, and can’t imagine how I would cope given the same situation! On the way home, I passed a sign, which pointed to “Jack Carin’s Camp”, and this was a place the little lady at the museum said I should not miss. There is a mine site right opposite a small wire fenced enclosure, separating the modern from the old. This is where a little old man – Jack Carin lived alone for 30 years, in a squalid collection of tin huts cobbled together with bits of wire. Even the dogs he must have had rated highly enough to be given their own “Taj Mahals” in tin. His own hut had a quirky skull and crossbones sign roughly painted on the door…probably to keep the inquisitive towns kids away! It looks like he had a certain sense of pride in his abode, as the whole front area is paved in bricks, each placed as precisely as if they had been laid by a modern day professional. The walking area is delineated by a white painted brick along the edges, and it is all still in perfect order even though he died in 1971. The story of his death is a sad tale too. Apparently, he had an accident on his pushbike while riding into Coolgardie for supplies, and upon release from hospital, he took his own life rather than be a burden on those who knew him. His camp has been left exactly as he did, fenced off with a high wire fence, and turned into a tour stop for any one interested enough in having a look. I’m so glad the mine didn’t see fit to engulf the site, electing instead, to preserve it for all to see.
It’s cold enough now to have the heater on all night……………..we still have not fitted our Webasto heater, which we won last year in a Bushtracker rally raffle! This is, to me, a shameful state of affairs, and the pressure is on Easy to GET IT DONE!
He, being ever cautious and a perfectionist, is taking things one step at a time, and so far, we have 1. Had a look at it. 2. Decided where we might be able to fit it. 3. Had another think about where we could fit it. 4. Accepted a weekend electrical “love job” for one of the hospital staff, so doing more investigation for fitting the Webasto is out of the question this week end…AAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!
There’s only so many weekends in winter EASY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Still no word, on the job for him “up north”. He reckons if he hasn’t heard anything more by the end of this month, then he will abandon any plans for it. Sounds like Gussie Gilmour was right when he said “it will never get up off the ground”…..Gus having his own mining venture up north kind of puts him in the loop of things, and he voiced his opinion way back last year when Easy told him of the plan to work, indirectly, for Fortesque Metals, who, you all must know by now, is embroiled in a mammoth battle with BHP over use of the railway lines in the Pilbera.
We met another Bushtracker owner here in the park yesterday, and he has been travelling alone for many years now. A retired bank financial adviser…..with an F250 which he changed over to from a Cruiser…..I invited him over for fizzy drinks yesterday hoping Easy would pick his brain, but it was not a topic of conversation on this occasion. I am getting increasingly unconvinced that to buy another Cruiser is a good move. Easy is investigating the supposed new 130 model, which he believes is to hit Aussie shores next year. However, no one at Toyota will admit to knowing anything about this mysterious vehicle! The way diesel prices are heading, we will never leave Kalgoorlie because we won’t be able to afford the fuel! Lucky I like the place hey! Easy, on the other hand, is showing tell tale signs of wanting to head off again. The van has a thick layer of dust over it (water restrictions forbid any cleaning of cars or vans in the park) and a lot of the near neighbours are all heading off for other places shortly…..hope the next lot are as much fun. It took us a while to get to know our Tasmanian friends over the road, but we will miss Trent and Claire a lot. He has the same laconic way of speaking as a few “other Tasmanians” we know….which is probably why we like him so much. Not often we take so well to such young people because usually they are just twits with a vocabulary to match.
To Be Continued………………………………….

What's what this week
S'been interesting to say the least..........

I was beginning to really struggle with my job as a Pit Technician, and so I decided to apply for a less physical job at the same plant. Now, any of you who have ever resigned from any job, will know that "they" don't take too kindly to being given notice from an employee, so I didn't tell them I had applied to move on. Word travels fast I guess, and I found myself in the boss's office on Friday arvo, being told that my services would be cut back to 2 days a week from this week, as I was unable to keep up with the rest of the crew. This suits me fine, as I was always pretty alarmed when down and dirty in the pits with dump trucks and diggers roaring around with in a few hundred meters of where I was clambering over freshly blasted rock and stuff, with 25kgs of paint sloshing around on my back! I actually fell right over onto my back last Thursday with a full back pack, and couldn't for the life of me regain my feet. Felt a right twit lying on my back while trucks drove past ......can imagine the comments in the cabs can't you! I was being pressured to hurry up and finish marking a huge area of the pit floor alone, when I got taken away from that job, and upon telling my boss that I still had some to finish later on in the day, he was amazed that I had not finished it, and said as much, seeing as "You have been there all morning". It was almost.....what have you been doing? Enjoying a slack attack down there? I never got as much as a lunch break the whole day, just gulped something when ever I was near the office, and by the afternoon, I was so exhausted I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. You can imagine Easy's surprise when I got off the bus and just "lost it" for about half an hour in sheer frustration! I am too old for this crap and don't need it. I have applied to do what's called General Services, and this entails generally making sure the tradesmen have what they need out in the field in the way of tools and materials, and escorting trades vehicles that haven't got clearance to drive on the haul roads and what ever else there is, I can't imagine, so if I get a start.....it will all be new. I won't know for a couple of weeks.
Oh yeah, one really nice thing happened on Friday at work! Me and the little bloke I work with sometimes were over at a remote pit doing some survey work, when we came across a feral goat with twin kids. The babies were SO new that they had no fear of us and let us catch them and have a long cuddle! They can only have been a couple of days old at the most because they were still clean had their dried up umbilical cords still attached, and didn't stink yet. Dear little things! I would dearly loved to have kept them as pets. It was awful having to abandon them on the road and drive away quickly so the nanny could find them and look after them, as they were bleating in a most heart rending fashion and running after me every time I tried to leave them!
On another note, I am flying over to spend a few days with my dear old Dad in Brisbane for his 80th birthday in a couple of weeks. I'll enjoy this as the last time I visited was not a happy time due to Mum's illness and subsequent passing away.

We had an interesting afternoon yesterday (Sunday) when we took a tour of the largest of Kalgoorlie's brothels. Yep, the brothel! I didn't think it was worth the $25.00 they stung each of the 13 of us who went, but we can say we've been there now. The "lady" who was our tour guide could have been a little easier on the eye than she was (hugely obese and not very attwacktive Wiktor!!" But the boys got the eyefull of the place they were after in any case. After, half a dozen of us sat around at our place while we waited for the pork roast to finish cooking in the Cobb Cooker, before we hacked it to pieces and feasted on it. Was a freezing cold night and the roast tasted great along with several glasses of Lambrusca. We crawled into bed about 10pm and fell into a blissful slumber, only to be rudely awaken at midnight, by the guy over the road bashing on our bedroom window shouting "Easy!!" Apparently, the other neighbour over the road had seen "around 15 or so young people" all roaming around in the park and had been watching them in the dark, when they proceeded to open up our car and ransack the glovebox!!!!! The 1st neighbour came barrelling out of his van, scared the daylights out of these "people" as he he was starkers...to their horror! and they all ran out of the park and down the road. I had thought before I went to bed, "I must remember to lock the car" and that was the last time I thought about it. Lucky they never had a chance to take the generator or anything else we keep in there! They were more interested in what may have been in the glove box...probably thinking there would be money....Bastards.....at least they didn't get the contents of the fridge again...we now have a huge lock on that after they emptied it last time! Took the cops 10 minutes to arrive, by which time the "people" were long gone, but the coppers knew exactly who they were looking for......makes you wonder why they can't do something about these little pricks who roam the streets looking for stuff to steal. This is the second time we have been disturbed by the "people", and it's starting to feel uncomfortably like Alice Springs. Might be time to move on maybe...........

Still no joy with opening the photos on the cd mentioned in the previous blog.......Super IT techs are working on it!!!!!!
To Be Continued................

Not Much Going On Here This Week........
Well, my apologies to those of you going crazy trying to find the photos of the Dumbleyung medallion handover......the pics are proving a bit of a worry. You see, I put all the photos I had on the computer's hard drive onto a cd for "safe keeping", and now I can't open the darned things. The folder has 15mb in it and the poor computer is really chugging trying to open it. I have placed the Dumbleyung folder back onto the hard drive to see if I can open it from there, and so far it has been trying to for 15 minutes or so!!! It's a bit of a worry, but I am determined to do it, so maybe next week I will have a photo or two to show you.
My work at Cawse Nickel is proving to be VERY physical, and I am losing weight to the extent that I have used the very last notch on a belt I bought a couple of years ago and had 6 extra notches put in it! Went clothes shopping today (something I NEVER do) and had the great pleasure of buying some pants in a size I haven't been in for 13 years! YAAHOOOO!
It's getting guite cold here at night now, and last night it rained a little bit....enough to make the atmosphere damp and miserable. This creates havoc at the nickel mine as only a small amount of moisture can cause the haul roads to become so slippery that the bosses close the pits. Can you imagine the haul trucks doing donuts down the ramps??? Doesn't take much for them to do just that....I don't fancy sharing the same pit floor as a 90 tonne truck in a flat spin....it's bad enough just working within 15 feet of them in dry conditions! One day I am going to sneak Easy's little camera in with me and take some pics of "down in the pits" so you can see it for yourselves.
Still no news on his interview prospects with Fortescue Mining in the north yet......waiting waiting........
We are going to have a drive out to Coolgardie tomorrow to go through the little museum in the railway station. Apparently they have devoted a whole room to the Varishetti rescue. (See the last weblog post for details).
Told you there wasn't much going on here.........
To Be Continued..........

This Week's Events
The trip to Perth was, for Easy, a mixed kind of success. His job interview just drags on and on it seems, with the company now telling him “he may hear from them in the next 4 weeks, IF he has scored yet ANOTHER interview”!!!!!! AGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Like Christy says, “Is he interviewing for the Prime Minister’s job or what?” It has been 5 months now, and he is no closer to knowing if he actually has a chance than he was after the first interview. Like he said, “Lucky I already have a job eh?!” I think he’s actually getting pretty itchy feet…….time to head north. I really hope he does get this job as I am just starting to settle into my job as Pit Technician at Cawse Nickel. It’s very hard and physical, but the weight is coming off and I am at last, starting to harden up a bit! Last week, I actually got the job of pushing the button to detonate the last blast we had there, and it was QUITE a thrill to watch the fly rock hurtle up into the air and hear the huge “crack” of the explosion when it went off. A day or so later, I was down in the pit amongst the humongus diggers and the dozer which was ripping up the pit floor, dodging them all while I laid marking tape out to define where they could dig and where they couldn’t. I had a momentary thought when the ripper was chunka-chunka-ing towards me, that he would not even feel anything if he drove over the top of me and dug me into the pit floor!!! The bloke driving it is a little Swede who has a really old fashioned pipe permanently clenched in his teeth and speaks with a heavy accent. He was most concerned that I would break my leg if he didn’t level the floor a bit, and I was MOST grateful for the trouble he went to as the furrows he was ripping up were waist high and the ground was VERY treacherous to clamber over. Meanwhile, the dump trucks were being loaded just meters away by a huge digger……just eating away at the bench tonne by tonne, relentless in it’s hunger. I really wished I had Easy’s little camera with me to take a video of the whole proceedings because it was really exciting to be down amongst it all and I wanted to show him, but maybe next time……….
The flies are still horrendous in the afternoon when I am out and about, so I bought a fly net especially made to go over the helmet and wide shade brim I wear. I hate to think what they will be like in summer, as I really really do not tolerate flies well at the best of times. I am just getting used to having to slather sun- screen all over my arms and face before I go out, but I have still managed to get quite a suntan. It’s amazing just how filthy I get from lugging bags of dirt around, as it sticks to sweat and sunscreen real well! I have a permanent ring of orange dirt around my neck-line which no amount of scrubbing seems to move!
One of the blokes who catches my bus in the mornings used to be a tour guide here and knows quite a bit about the history of the place. He and I were discussing the Beaconsfield mine accident and he told me of a similar one just over a hundred years ago in Coolgardie, when a miner became trapped underground by water in the shaft, for 9 days. The rescuers sent diving gear up from Perth by train at a breakneck speed, which became a land speed record for trains in those days (9 hours) and they rescued him! I have to have more history lessons from him as I became very interested, but he didn’t catch the bus the next day. The miner’s name was Modesto Varishetti if you are interested in looking it up on the net. Actually…would you believe “Australia All Over” the abc program with Macca had a story on this guy this morning!!! Apparently there is a book written on the subject by the title of "The Entombed Miner" and I am going to have a look through the local library to see if they have it.
More developments have emerged on the Dumbleyung football medallion saga too, with Easy meeting Mr Stewart’s grand daughter in Perth last week end to return it to its’ rightful family. More light was shed on the possibility of how Papa Schorer (Easy’s grandfather) came to have it in his possession, when it was discovered that they were both in Narrogin, one playing football and the other teaching there. Stay tuned folks. There are some pics in the photo web site of Easy returning the medal to Jenny Davis, the grand daughter of its’ original owner! (My apologies for the quality of the photos as I had forgotten I was mucking around with the settings on the camera and had left it like that. Easy doesn’t know a bad photo when he sees one and thought they were supposed to look that bad!
The Miners Hall of Fame Mine Rescue day was a bit of a fizzer after all too! I was pretty disappointed in it generally, and was thanking my lucky stars that I will probably never have to be rescued by some of the crews I saw in action there. They made the Boy Scouts look professional!!!
To Be Continued……………………………..

Closer to a result
This week young Easy is down in the big smoke of Perth attending yet ANOTHER interview for the "job up north". It's a bit of a bummer having to travel all that way just for 20 minutes, but he is still in with a chance according to the interviewer. Oh joy.........hmmmmm, actually,it's starting to become a bit of a drag , and he will be so pleased when they DO some hiring and things get going! They have whittled the applicants down from 1200 to 300 and the next interview which we won't know whether he has or not, for another 4 weeks, will then probably sort out the haves from the have nots. He has taken the trip to Perth on his own as I have to work, but I think it will be great for him to spend time with his Mum on his own. She is in the process of moving house and has some electrical jobs for him to do, as well as just enjoy his company. He has been to lunch with lots of ladies.......one of them old enough to be his grandmother, but charming nevertheless, and had a ball doing it. Today, as I write this, he is returning the little Dumbleyung football medallion to the great grand daughter of the man it was presented to in 1915!!! I would have LOVED to have been there for that, but he is under strict instructions to "get heaps of photos and a bit of a story, so I can write one up for the Wagin Argus newspaper". I am sure it would make for great reading as a follow up to the original story which got the attention of the family in the 1st place!!! Phew! Lot of explanation there!
I am enjoying my new work at the nickel mine now that I am able to drive around on an unrestricted license there. I always did work better on my own, and find I can work a lot better at my own pace. The only part I really dislike, is when I have to "markup".... scramble over the pit floor with 20kgs of paint in a pack on my back to mark where the digger has to remove the material.....the rubble I have to clamber over is very treacherous to my weak ankle and I am scared to death that I will seriously hurt it if I "go over on it again". I strap it very securely.....too securely it seemed last week when I bruised it badly from strapping it too tight! Wish Tant was here to give me a football strap-up! I made road signs last week......managed to bugger up the pop rivet gun.......nitoned and loaded 7 exploration holes for sampling myself in one morning.......got really toasted by the sun even through factor 30 sunscreen.......made hundreds of delineator poles and rotor lights for the haul roads..........oh and I discovered that I "came highly recommended by the labour hire place I work for". It seems that the young bloke I work with sometimes has a family connection there...his father is the manager....and he knew all about me before I even came to work for the mining section! He said they "really like YOU and said great things about you".....crikey! I had better not bugger anything up then eh!? (I have bought some crc spray to fix the rivet gun!)
Because Easy is away until Monday, I have the weekend to myself, so I am going to the Miner's Hall Of Fame open day tomorrow to watch the mines rescue competitions. Should be a great treat and I can't wait! I am sort of in training for when he is away for 35 days at a time...have to amuse myself on the weekends then....not so much a drama during the week as I am in bed most nights by 8pm. One night it was 7.15 and I found myself nodding off! Boring old fart hey!? Well, I AM awake at 4.30 every morning after all!
I hope this weblog is actually entertaining to you who read it.....a bit of feedback would be good! Even a personal email would be even better! Some of you I haven't heard from since just after Christmas! The only emails I seem to get these days are advertisements or HUGE joke ones (Angie!!!) which are a pain to download so no one sends me them any more hey!!!!!????? So, how about a letter from YOU letting us know how YOU are???????????
To Be Continued.............

Anzac Day
I think I am “all socialised out”………and I no longer get huge goose bumps happening each time I hear bagpipes! Don’t get me wrong – I still LOVE bagpipes, but I am desensitised after being around them for 3 days solid. The NZ band was just a treat to be with and they obviously love what they do. We had a hilarious day with them when we went on a tour of the goldfields…up to the Superpit lookout, which impressed them, no end, and then on to the ramshackle old two-up school shed in the bush. Two –up is illegal except for on Anzac day, and we had a quick look at the building before continuing on to the famous Broad Arrow bush pub, which is on the way to my work place, about 30 minutes out of Kalgoorlie. I had heard a lot about this pub, but never actually visited, so this was all new to me too. Well!!!!!! WHAT a classic Aussie bush pub! Have to see it to believe it folks. Every wall, with the exception of one room inside, is covered, and I mean COVERED in signatures and poetry etc etc from countless years of scrawlings. Unbelievable! Of course Easy and I added our small contributions to the walls, and spent quite some time reading some of the others…sometimes-recognising people we knew. Up on the roof there sits a full sized mannequin of a man on a seat advertising the “Undies 500”..a comical race held each year in Kalgoorlie to raise money for something. We had one of their famous “Broadie burgers” for tea…almost as good as the Mole Creek Cafe’s burgers….almost!……accompanied by a million bush flies. The place is famous for them! It was after dark and fairly cold, and still the flies were everywhere. Hate to see ‘em in high summer! During the afternoon, the pipers and drummers entertained the rough bikie crowd there with a rousing round of songs as they marched all over the dirt paddock outside the pub! It was a treat to see as the sun went down on the tartan. One of the drummers, a very funny lad called Andrae, suffered a fly crawling right up his nose while he drummed, but he never missed a single beat until the number was finished, and THEN, he was in dire straits until he snorted the crawler out and nearly threw up! Of course he was then the but of every fly joke known to man for hours afterwards! I must tell you that after one particularly beautiful tune, a bikie moll came up to us and admitted that she had “goose bumps all over! Something that’s never happened to me before!” she said……..well ya have to admit it WAS beautiful to listen to and there’s firsts even for bikie molls who have probably seen and done more things than most of us!
That was Sunday……back to work for a day, before we were up at sparrow’s on Tuesday – Remembrance Day for the dawn service. It was a beautiful clear cold morning when Easy and I arrived at the cenotaph to wait for the bands to show up. After about a half hour, we could hear the pipes approaching, and down the road they came, kilts swirling and spats gleaming with ceremonial daggers tucked neatly into the tops of their long socks (I am sure there’s a proper name for these). They looked magnificent and sounded even better, and the fact that they appeared out of the darkness with the dawning light behind them made the effect even more special. There was even a lone horseman who paraded around the cenotaph with his horse kitted out in the real saddlery of the era. It turns out that he was the old fella whom Easy used to go to for riding lessons. He had a slouch hat complete with the ostrich feathers and the uniform he wore belonged to a mate who collects the real thing. The crescent moon was situated just under the morning star and looked very bright in the deepest blue-black of the morning sky. There’s nothing quite like an outback dawn sky….the colours are always more vivid than anywhere else, and when the sky starts to colour up with the dawn, it takes your breath away. The last post was played and I found myself getting quite emotional, as was, I guess quite a few other people in the very large crowd formed there. This was, after all, my 1st Dawn Service, and I will remember it always.
I took Easy back to the Boulder RSL club for the traditional rum and milk breakfast, before creeping home for some much needed sleep. Rum and milk does not inspire me at the best of times, and I figured I would be better off in a warm bed than standing around watching people drinking at 6.30am! I actually ended up watching the news on tv……something I had not been able to do for weeks as I am always up and gone before any news is on tv. Soon it was time to return to see the 11am service at Boulder, with another street march by the combined bands. I missed seeing them march as I left it a bit late to get there, so had to be content with seeing them all march down the main street of Kalgoorlie for yet another service in the town hall. This march was probably the best one of all as it went for a couple of kilometres, and I was able to film most of it including the excitement of an ambulance which was on an emergency dash and found itself in the midst of the marchers! Once again the lone horseman was with the band, this time riding along, and the old horse had 10 years life scared out of him when the pipes started up behind him! By the time he was well into the march he was right though, and nothing fazed him again. He was a big hit with a lot of the kids in the crowd, and I thought he did well just to stay on his feet on the bitumen, as his shoes were causing him to slip quite a lot. He seemed to me, to be nearly as old as the old fella riding him!
The rest of the afternoon was spent back at the RSL (I went home again…..too much socialising for me again!) and the next time I caught up with the band, was Wednesday night when we attended their farewell dinner. They put on a bit of a “kangaroo court” and generally had a good night mucking about, and one of the older pipers played a few of his favourite tunes. He obviously loved doing it, because he played a tune he had written himself, and anything else any one asked him to. We had to love and leave them all at 10pm as we both had to be up at 4.45am next day for work………..no rest for the wicked as they say……but I would not have missed it for the world! Next year, the Kalgoorlie/Boulder band is going over to New Zealand to do the same thing as the Kiwis did here, so if we are still in Kal, and Easy is actually playing in the band, we may well be joining them. That would be something to look forward to!
Work is getting easier to understand and I am actually “hardening up” a bit and it’s not so painful at the end of each day! I managed to complete a task by myself in an hour and a half last week which took me most of a day the first time I did it! I am also learning how to wire in explosives and to fire them and all about the “shot patterns” from the shot firer……this is particularly interesting to me as Easy and I did a little bit of blowing up stuff while we were in Tassie one year. (Easy has his agricultural shot firer’s license). I am kept pretty busy all day, which makes the day go quickly. Next week will be good because the geologists who have been away on holidays are back at work, and that means more work for me to do. Easy is still travelling up to Leonora and Laverton each week to service the bush hospitals, but this week he is flying down to Perth on Thursday for his interview with the mob who are looking for sparkies and all sorts of other tradies to set up a camp up north near Newman and Port Hedland. This is the job, which pays fabulous wages and has you flying in and out of Perth for 5 weeks out of every 6, so if Easy gets his job with them, he will be commuting by plane to and from Perth and Kal, as I refuse to live in a city again. So……….keep everything crossed for him folks! We will let you know how he goes!
We went to the speedway last night for the final meet until it resumes next October. What an exciting time we had with one spectacular prang seeing a sprint car flip right up in the air three times before it destroyed itself! The driver walked away, but gave us an exciting spectacle! Our car was covered in brown mud again, as is usual after a speedway meet, so Easy gets to wash it again today the luckeeee boy! It’s a beautiful autumn day today, and he has been up on the roof of the van washing down the solar panels. They are really dirty because you can’t wash anything here due to the water restrictions, but we need our power, so they get done with a bucket of water. I would LOVE to wash the whole van down as it’s really filthy after sitting here for 15 months…….yes we have been here THAT long! Easy is starting to get itchy feet, but that may be cured if he gets this job up north. Me?……I am quite happy here for the present time. I may get the wander- lust again too, but while I have steady work, and love Kalgoorlie, I am content to be here.
To Be Continued……………………….

A Most Musical Weekend
Mood:  lyrical
And a most enjoyable time was had by all!
We have had an exceptionally musical weekend and it isn’t over yet. On Friday night, coming home from “fizzy drinks at the hospital happy hour”, I noticed a band setting up in the sound shell just down the road from the caravan park where we live, and mentioned it to Easy. He knew all about who it was and why they were there……the Perth Army Brass Band was in town for the ANZAC day celebrations next week, and they were putting on a free concert on Friday night. BEAUTY ! So we hotfooted it down there after tea and set up camp in our chairs for an hour or so of some really great music. They were very professional, and had some members who were aspiring singers as well, so we had the added bonus of a sing along too. It was a bit cool there on the grass and I’m glad I took my “bluey” coat to snuggle into. Winter is not far away! Of course, Easy was dressed in the usual…..thongs……so his feet were like a dead man’s! He enjoyed the concert too, as did a couple of our neighbours from the park that we had persuaded to come along.
Next day….Saturday, we went to the railway station to meet and greet the New Zealand Army Bagpipe band who had travelled over from NZ for the ANZAC weekend as well!! Travelling up from Perth, they were piped off the train with great gusto and merriment, to the surprise of a lot of the other train passengers, and I got some photos of the event, which will duly be posted onto the web site at a later date.
To my surprise, I discovered that my old boss from Tru-Blu hire (where I was the relief driver for a couple of weeks last year) is now the bass drum player with the same pipe band Easy is in. Small world ain’t it?
Saturday night saw us at the Albion Shamrock hotel in Boulder for a march down the main street of the same town, featuring the NZ pipe band again. They looked fantastic in full rig, and caused quite a stir as they strode down the street to the sounds of the bagpipes and drums. Once they reached the pub, the local Maoris gave them a traditional welcome (sung in Maori) and the merriment really began with a stirring round of hymns. Even the feral old blackfellas hanging ‘round on the street were singing along ! The evening meal was partaken (we had delicious steak and lamb shanks) and afterwards, the playing carried on with lots of familiar tunes including the Aussie and NZ national anthems.
Sunday morning saw us down at the local RSL club for a cooked brekky with the band a little more subdued than they had been the previous day. Whilst Maoris can certainly “sink some piss” as they say, there is a limit to how well they can pull up the next day. There’s even more entertainment planned for the rest of the day (which we haven’t got to yet…it’s only 10.45am as I write this) with a tour of the Superpit planned, and then a bus trip out to the Broad Arrow hotel, which is about 30 minutes out of Kalgoorlie in the middle of nowhere. We intend tagging along for both of these activities as part of the Kalgoorlie pipe band contingent.
Tuesday will see us up and about by 4am ready for the dawn service followed by the traditional rum and milk breakfast and all the drinking, which goes with the rest of the day. I am NOT looking forward to the quality of sleep I will no doubt get with himself cutting zeds after such a day! Wednesday will be a difficult day to work through……..
To Be Continued……………………

New Kid On The Block
This is actually the 2nd attempt at this update because I stupidly cut but didn’t paste the last one and so I lost it! GRRRRRRRR

Of course it will never be the same wording, which is a bit of a bastard because it was a huge update, but here goes anyway.

I started my new job this week at Cawse Nickel. Officially I am known as a Pit Technician, but really I am the Geologist’s sampler. I am required to wear a “bumble bee” outfit – the brilliantly coloured orange shirt with reflective silver stripes that is extremely hard on the eyes when new like mine! I used to laugh at Easy when he wore his, and now it’s my turn to slink home and tear it off before everyone sees me. Not at all like some of the tossers here who seemed to think it is some sort of status symbol and parade around the park hoping everyone will notice. The job involves me going out into the bush on the Nickel mining lease to where the drillers have done their thing and left me several neat little piles of dirt to test for various minerals. I use what is called a Niton gun. This thing looks like something out of Star Wars, is worth more than my life, and it has radioactive “somethings” inside which interact with the soil samples when pointed at them and activated, and it then gives me readings of various minerals in the soil. I have to read probably 25 samples from each hole and then once I have sampled them, I bag them all up and take them back to the office ready to be sent to the lab in Kalgoorlie for testing, mainly looking for the nickel content. It’s a nice job when it’s cool as you are way out in the bush, but no so pleasant when it’s hot and fly-ridden. I feel sorry for the drill rig crews as they are all working their little bums off. They all seem to be wiry tough blokes, but cheerful enough. They all wanted to shake my hand when I was introduced to them, but I declined the greasy oily filthy outstretched maulers which got a great laugh from them! I told them I have to draw the line somewhere! This part of the job is fairly physical because by the time I sample several holes, I have handled several tonnes of dirt! Once I have placed the samples in the bulker bag to be collected, I have to then enter all the data and send it off to the lab, as well as for the office records. At first it was very confusing, and as I don’t get on at all well with the program Excel, I was fighting it, but now I can get around the problems I have with it through repetition.

Another part of my job involves lugging up to 20kgs of paint around on my back in a weed spray unit while I am down on the pit floor marking up when the diggers have to excavate. This happened for the first time yesterday only 20 minutes or so after a blast. I was part of the “blast sentry” crew posted out on one of the haul roads to make sure no traffic got past the point while the blast was happening. After the all clear was given, I was sent down to the pit floor with back- pack, to paint in the areas to be excavated, but the bad part was that the area to be painted was right over a really big “heave”. The heave is the area of material thrown up by the explosion, and this one was about 12 feet high and full of huge fissures and house sized rocks and bull holes, which are basically voids, and to avoided at all costs. At first I thought that this was a joke designed to test me, but all too soon it became apparent that it was no joke, but part of the job! So there I was, loaded up with all this brilliant hot pink paint, trying desperately not to fall over (successful) or wrench my ankle (unsuccessful) and to find the points which the surveyor had marked and which I had to join up with lines. The other pit technician with me, was all over the heave like a bloody mountain goat, and she did tell me that “to do this job you have to be part mountain goat” and I was seriously thinking, “how wimpy must I be looking?” as I tried to do my job. Thankfully the mark ups aren’t all this bad, so I will have to make a real effort to harden up before the next one next week and to learn to read the stupid geologist’s maps! (The maps are stupid, not the geo’s…although the geo’s ARE really strange people with NO sense of humour at all.) The only people who will be around next week will be myself, the other pit tech and a female geologist, so the all-girl A-team will have to show the boys how it’s done!
Once I have obtained my unrestricted license to drive around any area of the mine, I will be able to go out by myself and to go at my own pace for a while until I get used to it all. At the moment, if I did venture out alone, I would surely become hopelessly lost on the maze of hauls roads and bush tracks criss-crossing the place. It is very daunting when you are the new kid on the block and they expect you to know it all after the first day! Still, this is how I am placed in most jobs, so I should be used to it hey? Part of the training involves taking a ride in a dump truck to see how little visability there is from the cabin, and to get through to you how dangerous they are when sharing the same haul roads with light vehicles i.e. you! I tell you what...they have very little scope to see much of anything from up there!! It really surprised me! The driver of my ride had been driving for all of two weeks (he was a bottle shop attendant before this!!!) and had been given 2 day's training!!! Scarey huh!? Actually it was good to talk with him because he was unwittingly the final straw for me in deciding to give aspirations of driving dumpies away. He told me of the incredible stress they are under to "meet production targets". They are constantly under the hammer to get back to the face shovel to be loaded again, and it seems to me, to be production 1st, and safety 2nd! This sounds horribly like the stress I was under while driving the slag hauler and I never want to be a part of that again. I will be quite content to stay doing my 7am to 4pm day shifts 5 days a week thanks, and not the awful 11 days on and 3 days off roster the drivers have to do, and then there's the night shifts!!!! Don't mention the night shifts!!!!

A few of the office staff are starting to speak to me now I am in their part of the complex, never mind that I have been catching the same bus to work as them for the past 7 months or so! The office is full of very serious geologists and engineers and very different to the process plant I was working in before as a sentry. One or two of the blokes I used to work with have come through the office and hissed “traitor” at me and yesterday one of them grinned and muttered something at me, and when I said “what did you say mate?” he said “We lost a bloody good sentry when you passed over to the other side!” I thought, “Bloody hell, it’s like I have died!”, but it’s touching to think that they miss me! This place is very divided with the process plant, the admin staff and the mining side all keeping very separated. Silly really, but it used to be like that in the Post Office. One nice practice they have is to have a rostered person each Friday to provide morning tea for the mining section, and it was “my” geo’s turn this week. Well!!!!! You ‘d be forgiven for thinking we were back in pre-school waiting for our fruit to be cut up, the way they were all standing around the mapping table waiting waiting waiting for their nummies! The geo had been out helping me to load all the sample bags into the bulker bag when he suddenly took off muttering, “Have to save my sausage rolls from burning!” and was gone in a flash. He very proudly produced hot cross buns, Easter eggs, ginger kisses, mucky chockie cake, and mini pies and sausage rolls to the oohs and arrs of all concerned. Apparently there is quite a contest going on to see who can produce the best Friday smoko. Hmph! I will have to bring out the big guns when it’s my turn won’t I? Mole Creek Cafe cheesecake and slices spring to mind here as well as home made sausage rolls!

On to other things……cast your memory back several episodes to the “Dumbleyung football Premiers of 1914 medallion” saga……….remember when Easy’s grandfather had a little brass medallion in his possession and when Easy’s mum was going through all the stuff she had of his, she found it? Well, we placed a story in the local paper for the area, The Wagin Argus, and the story struck gold so to speak! Fate stepped in and the step great nephew of the man in question - George Stewart, saw the article in the paper quite by accident, as he was only in that area for a wedding, and would not normally have seen that paper. Of course he took the article to his mother, who then phoned Easy and introduced herself as George’s step niece. According to her, George only had one daughter (who only died in the last 6 months), who then had three offspring, one of whom has now been in contact with Easy. This lady is understandably excited about meeting up with him to receive the medallion, and to try and work out how it came to have passed from George to Easy’s Papa Schorer. She is actually in the process of doing the family tree so this is very timely for her! The story gets interesting here because they were both POW’s in the 1st world war, but where? Easy’s mum will be also going with him next month to see the lady, as he will be in Perth for his job interview (see a previous post). So for those of you who were asking about whether the medallion reached it’s rightful owners, “watch this space!!”

Well, can’t think of anything else I wrote the 1st time, so I’ll post this now before I lose it again!
No doubt I’ll remember other things I should have written up after I post it, but too bad.
To Be Continued…………………PS HAPPY EASTER!!!

The Big Day !
Mood:  happy
Have you ever felt like you were in a movie? This is exactly the feeling we had while we were in Tassie for Christy and Tant’s wedding, but it was the nicest weird feeling! The weather was perfect and I mean perfect…..not a rain cloud in sight for the whole 2 weeks…pretty good going for Tassie. The sun shone and it was quite warm during the days with crisp nights. Every one was in high spirits, the bride was calm and actually enjoying herself, and the groom, although a little tense at times, was in good form.
They threw their home open to 9 people for accommodation during the lead up and afterwards, and what a mix of different types! We ranged in age from 13months, to 51 years, and our occupations were as diverse as you can get. Poor old Whiz the cat was in a permanent state of “stranger danger” until he learned to check at the door before entering, especially where the baby was concerned!
It was just great to see old friends, and make new ones, and the amount of “Oh my GAWD look at you!” going on was a real hoot. Jan hadn’t seen one of the bridesmaids since she was at high school with Christy at Alice Springs, and other friends from many years ago since their daughter was married some 9 years ago.

There was lots of family from Jan’s married days there, there was Jan’s own dear old Dad, and her two sisters and a bro-in-law, as well as many of Tant’s rellos and his own grandfather!!
The venue was at a beautiful stately homestead and English gardens called Strathmore, near Evandale in the north of the state, and a more beautiful and gracious setting would be hard to find. It was like a scene straight out of England, complete with acorn trees, pear trees heavily laden with plump fawn coloured fruit, and a vege patch complete with huge golden orbs of pumpkins. The happy couple were actually married beneath an almond tree in fruit, with the first hints of autumn colours in the leaves on many of the deciduous trees in the grounds. Just breathtaking!

The girls had arranged to spend the pre wedding night at the venue, and it was my privilege to transport them all there the night before along with the precious cargo of “THE DRESS” and the bridesmaid’s outfits and all the frippery, which goes with it all.
What a hoot that car trip was! There was much giggling and toasting going on in the back of the car, and the journey took hours to complete, but the effects were not felt until I got back to where my Dad and two sisters and bro-in-law were staying, as well as a couple of old mates from Darwin days……I just fell in a heap when I got home and there was just the boys having a boys evening…..I bawled my eyes out…..why? Dunno!!! What I DID find incredible was the fact that I couldn’t handle a few hours of “preparation” when Christy had been doing it for the past 14 MONTHS!!! She is a born organiser and I am supremely proud of what she did to make the day so perfect.

Actually, the only time she did nearly lose her composure was when I drew her veil over her face for the photos! She found herself in a bit of an emotional state until we practiced breathing calmly and I convinced her she was supposed to be having fun! All too soon, we found ourselves outside at the pre-determined place to start the wedding march, and with Easy cracking jokes to loosen us all up (and they worked!) he and I very proudly accompanied a radiant bride to her equally radiant husband to be, under the almond tree. There was a quartet playing violins and cellos to the tune of “Canon” for the wedding march, and the bridesmaids led the way in their lovely diamante covered “froggy green” frocks……well, for an unashamed frog fanatic, what OTHER colour is there?
The ceremony was very touching, and went very smoothly, and the photo session afterwards was conducted in various places around the stunning grounds. I can’t wait to see the official photographs as the photographer herself was showing me some of THE most beautiful shots on her digital camera as she took them…obviously pleased with how they were turning out.
Amongst the literally dozens of amateur happy snappers on the day, one person stood out in my humble opinion, and that person was my son Danny. He took the task bestowed upon him of “taking some pics of his sister for me” to the extreme, and did it so well and with such aplomb that I really think he should think seriously about taking up the hobby. He has the eye for the unusual shots and I found loads of his shots were exactly as I would have taken them had I been in any other position but MOB (Mother of the Bride). Many thanks for your excellent job Chook.
And the whole time, the caterers were bustling about with trays laden with really scrummy hors d’ oeuvres to keep us from getting too hungry before dinner. The meal was fantastic…..beautifully prepared and presented, with a choice of 3 entrees, 3 mains, and 3 desserts.
There were several speeches from the “main men” including a really touching one from Christy’s Poppa, and all were well received by the guests. The cake, a delicious chocolate mud one, complete with a small figurine of the couple’s cat Whiz sitting in front of the little bride and groom was duly cut, and served as part of the desserts. Next, the dance floor was well and truly utilised by all and sundry, including a rather dashing “John Travolta wannabe” in Easy himself (Shock!!) accompanied by a great little group called “Three’s Company” who could really put out some good music.

The departure hour of 11.30pm arrived and Christy and Tant were fare welled down the aisle of linked hands over heads to their limousine, which whisked them off to the bridal suite at the casino in Launceston.

The following day and, indeed the week after until they left on their honeymoon, was filled with casual days out on the deck at their home with friends and relatives, just catching up on the news from all quarters, and a bit of fun toasting Poppa’s 80th birthday a few months early, so we could have a drink of special scotch with him.

As I write this, Christy and Tant are in the middle of a week’s honeymoon in the Maldives………….lucky buggers! She has been emailing me with daily accounts of what the place is like and what a great time they are having. It’s all going a bit quickly for me, so goodness knows how it is for them! Lucky they have the luxury of digital photos and video cameras to remember it all. I know I will be still sorting through the 1000 plus photos I have of the wedding for many months to come. Meanwhile I will post a few on the web site and rotate them through after a couple of weeks or so.

To Be Continued (but with what I can’t imagine!)………………….

The Countdown's On!!!!
Mood:  mischievious
This is the last entry I will make before we take off for the MOST anticipated wedding ever in the history of weddings...........yes folks, this is it, the marriage of the Minge and the Tant. To be more specific, my daughter Christy is to wed her fella Anthony in good old Tassie. I can't wait to get there!!!! It's been nasty and hot here in Kalgoorlie, and I am dreaming of being cold again, and yes, I will even forgive Easy for whingeing about the cold HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
Oh I am SOOOOO excited! I am filling in time here while I wait for my hairdressing appointment. I am having a colour done this arvo. Well, I can't turn up as the MOB (Mother of the Bride you dummy!) with GREY hairs can I?????? And there are quite a few of them now let me tell ya!
I have been working almost fulltime for the last couple of weeks out at the nickel mine and am ready for a holiday. Yeah yeah, I know, pathetic after 2 weeks I am looking for a rest????????? Well I am getting to the stage where I am not really cut out for 12 hour days 7 days a week and I declared to myself this year, that I would start the gentle slide into retirement............
Another bit of news is that Easy has been given a second interview for the job up north that we both applied to work at. He is trying for the Electrician's Supervisor, and his interview is not until 5th May, so we have plenty of time to get used to being apart if he gets it. He will fly in and out to the job from Perth, and I will stay here in Kal and work more hours to fill in the time.

OK It's now almost a week later and we are actually here in Tassie getting the last minute things done for the big day. The weather's perfect........freezing! The days are great....not too warm, and the nights are very fresh! Jeans and tee shirt weather, with the occasional shorts thrown in.
Christy and I did the Mum & Bride thing yesterday and had a whole day in the big smoke by ourselves getting me outfitted for the day. Put in a fun day of doing girly shopping things and having all the shop assistants (just like the Prue types off Kath and Kym) falling all over themselves to have us buy their clothes. So.............the MOB Mother of The Bride's clothed, and ready to rock and roll on the day, the last minute things for the day are being refined as we speak, and it's all of us holding our collective breaths until we DO IT! I am now off to go and see our sheep and to say hello to various folks around Mole Creek whom we said we would call in on to say g'day, so this is short and spweet. The next blog will have photos and all the news.
Very excited...................
To be continued.............

A Most Eventful Trip
Mood:  happy
Well, it was the Labor Day long week end here in sunny downtown Kalgoorlie, and I HAD planned on taking a trip down to the coast to spend some fishing time with Easy doing what he loves second best in the world....fishing. BUT every available place of accommodation was booked solid. Damn! "What to do now?" we asked ourselves.
Back track about...oh....8 years.....to a time when Easy's Mum had passed on to him, a tiny little golden medallion which she had found amongst her own father's possessions after he died. He has had this little trinket tucked safely away, only taking it out to look at it every now and then, and to plan just when he could possibly return it to it's rightful owner's family.....seeing as it is 92 years old! In 1914 the Dumbleyung Football Club were the premiers and each player received a small golden medallion to commemorate the occasion. Just how and why Easy's Grandfather came to have this medal which belonged to a G.Stewart, is the subject of intense speculation within our household, and of course my (Jan) imagination is running riot! Could he have won it in a card game when he was a POW in France? Did G Stewart entrust it to him there? Did they know each other as young men at all, or did Grandfather pick it up somewhere lost? Who knows?
Now,Dumbleyung is a very small sleepy little town in the wheat belt of south east Western Australia, and about 400ks from Kalgoorlie, so we thought, "Why not have a crack at finding some family there?" and with nowhere to stay on the coast...the obvious choice was to head inland! What we didn't bargain on was the fact that it was a long weekend, so chances were that the town would have emptied out and all would have gone away. Luckily, the post office was still inhabited, and the lady who we spoke to was a "born and bred" Dumbleyungian, and she just happened to have a huge pictorial on Dumbleyung and the Wagin area, complete with photos of....................the 1914 Dumbleyung Football Premiers!!!!!!!!! You see, they don't mind opening up for tourists on a Sunday there....not like your city folk who would have ignored us if they had seen us....no, no, these people even gave us phone numbers of the football club secretary, and allowed me to photograph the pages I was interested in from the book, and in short, were exceedingly helpful. AND...the biggest lead yet is to come......the post office lady knows of a gentleman by the prestigious name of BASIL, who, although he is pushing 100 years old, will MOST LIKELY know of the Stewart family we seek! I can't wait, can you???? How exciting this all is! Dumbleyung is also famous as the town where the Sir Donald Campbell land speed record run in the Bluebird was held on Lake Dumbleyung. This is a huge lake normally dry, but this week end it was busy with water skiers making the most of the water it held.
The drive down there was all the more interesting because we decided to do it the slow way and travel on all the little bush tracks. About 194 ks from Kalgoorlie, we turned off the main drag at a place called Yellowdine, and drove down the Emu Fence Road. This is frequented by mining personnel, so we had to keep our wits about us and keep an eye out for the trucks. It seemed strange to be driving along on perfect sealed roads in the middle of no where for a bit, until we turned off onto the bush tracks which took us in the direction we needed to go. The place was nice and refreshed after some very heavy rainfalls the previous week, but we needed it to be a bit drier in order to get through one place called Lake Grace which, apparently had been quite severely affected. By the time we actually got to Lake Grace, the roads were open, but the locals were a bit sceptical as to whether we had actually driven through the way we said we had! "Yer not from 'round 'ere are yers?"
We passed some lovely country and the flora was quite spectacular in some places....between Brookton and Corrigin, the wild grevillia are just a picture...huge pink and white cones of flowers covering the 6 foot high bushes on both sides of the road in some places. Of course by the time I decided to photograph them, I saw not one more the whole time! There was also a proliferation of small green parrots locally known as 28's and some other smaller ones, very pale green with bright red beaks. I have yet to look them up in my bird book, so can't tell you what they were. And the dear old stumpy tailed lizards who insisted on making suicide journeys across the road.... Luckily for them, Easy has a keen eye and stopped for every one of them and in some cases, assisted them off the road whether they wanted it or not. Quite hissy cross little critters they are!
The 1st night, we stopped at Hyden, the place where Wave Rock is situated. I had long wanted to actually visit this rock, after seeing photos of it for years, and I was not disappointed, although Easy said he thought it was much bigger than it was.
Amongst other things to see there, was a lace shop, chock a block full of exquisite hand and machine made lace. It was fearsomely hot and humid there and the building housing the lace had suffered flood damage, so the atmosphere was very unpleasant inside with the damp. There was also a little old lady, very well preserved, who told me in no uncertain terms how lucky I was to "be getting me as well as the lace".....she apparently had something to do with the collection. She something of a bloody pain after hovering around me the whole time, as I really like to just browse at my own pace. She was whipping out drawer after drawer of lace samples and insisting on me closely examining them all, and the whole time I was just dripping with sweat and just wanting the fan or airconditioner on at least! I made the error of asking where we should stay in Hyden, and she told me the Hyden Motel was the place to stay, and was telling Easy he should go ahead and drive there to book, and she would bring me in the Mercedes later when I was finished in the lace shop!!!! "Shades of Norman Bates" I thought, and was ever so pleased when Easy declined the offer! Normally I would have been impressed, but there was something odd about her.........she was VERY posh, and very cultured.......has lived all over the world etc...what the heck was she doing in a place like Hyden? Surprise surprise...she was involved in some way with the motel...waiting tables at the restaurant that night, and again in the breakfast room the next morning. Probably an owner or something. Some body in the motel obviously likes roosters......EVERY room was literally stuffed with dusty glass cases full of all sorts of roosters........this was getting creepy......I was expecting to see bottles with dead babies.........The place was obviously once very busy as it was huge, but we were literally the only ones there apart from a couple of cowboys in the next room who made their presence very noticeable in the wee hours of the morning with raucous laughter which was painfully clear through the paper thin walls! Were they practicing for "Brokeback Mountain" perhaps?

The next night we found ourselves in Corrigin, and decided to try the local motel.....only to find a sign telling us they would be in the office at 6pm. Oh well, it was 5.30pm so we could wait.......... 6.30pm and they arrived in a flurry, full of apologies, and had us settled into a very 50's retro room in a flash. Oh well, it was clean and comfortable, and we snuck next door to the roadhouse for a quick meal before hitting the sack. Easy wanted to ring the Turners who live near Corrigin, but I suggested that this was not a fair deal as they were not expecting us at all.....so please forgive us if this was the wrong thing to do Sue-Ellen and Neil! Next morning, we had quite a long conversation with the motel owners and left feeling like we had made new friends! It's nice when that happens as it sort of countered the bad feeling from the place at Hyden!
We called in to the town of Wagin, which is hosting the Wagin Woolorama next week end. It will be a pity to miss this as we love country festivals and suchlike! Jan just had to stand for the photo in front of the "Big Ram" and tickle his fancy!
The drive back saw us take a slightly different route and we found ourselves in the midst of what was obviously a quite substantial settlement of some kind. I have downloaded an information page on Mt Palmer as follows:

Mt Palmer
The Mount Palmer goldmine operated from 1934 to 1944 and was not only genuine but a very rich strike. The deBernales group exercised the option and formed a company known as the "Yellowdine Gold Development Ltd" to work the area. During 1937 Mt Palmer was worked continuously employing 130 men. Due to prosperity of the mine and number of men employed, bringing with them families, the townsite was surveyed and the 1st auction of land was held in March 1935. A total of 67 blocks in all were eventually sold. Many of the streets were named after local identities, buildings soon went up and although most were of hessian, tin or canvas, the town boasted boarding houses, bakeries, a saveloy shop, butchers, patient medicine shop. All that remains of "the most pretentious two-storey hotel" built in Goldfields at the time is the brick archway. The hotel was famous for its very long bar and two storeys. The bricks were eventually carted to Kalgoorlie and built into the 1st chain store in the field. The building is now the Bankwest Bank in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie

This was a very interesting find and we spent ages just poking around amongst the ruins and wondering what they had been part of. Now we know.........

We crossed the "rabbit proof fence" a couple of times too. This fence, for those of you from overseas, is the remnants of what used to be a fence built form the top of Australia to the bottom and designed to keep out rabbits and other vermin such as foxes and feral cats. It relied on people patrolling constantly up and down to do repairs and keep it in good order, to work. Now, with the demise of rabbits due to the calici virus and modern methods of baiting and suchlike, it is more or less a tourist thing and certainly not a solid barrier any longer.
There is one thing which was very obvious while we were driving through the paddocks, and that was the huge number of tree belts now in place throughout the paddocks. Very gratifying to see, and I am sure that the animals will appreciate them, as well as the trees will lower the salt tables. The land scape changed dramatically from the start to the finish of our 1338km journey, and we enjoyed every minute of it.
To Be Continued..................

Rain Rain & More Rain!
There I was, working out at a new location this week (Kambalda Nickel Concentrator) when we were hit with the rain bearing depression from the latest cyclone to hit the north of here. Man did it rain! I was waaaay up on top of a conveyer belt tower with a couple of boilermakers replacing a sluice shute, and you could see the rain bearing down on us from miles away. It advanced like a great grey veil, accompanied by howling gales which nearly whipped our feet out from underneath us. The temperature went from boiling hot and humid to freezing in a few minutes.
Next morning....5.30am start....and it was pitch black as we drove the 45 minutes to the site. Poured with rain the whole time, and some of us were thinking "How can they expect us to work in this?" I was "laughing" as I had an all-in-one wet weather suit which I had been given when working at the Cawse Nickel Refinery last year. I hadn't ever taken it out of it's bag, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality and functionality of it. Not just your average rain coat! I was nice and dry in it while everyone else had to make do with the skinny little cheap rain coats and pants that the mines supply as throw aways. Just makes me look like a huge great fat pig in a yellow skin though! Well, we sat around for a couple of hours and then got sent home again. Another 45 minutes in the bus, and I was home again. That's o.k. I was tired anyway, and slept for the afternoon, but before I did, I took a trip up to the local lookout and photographed the stormy cyclone sky over Kalgoorlie. (See new pics) On the way through the township of Kalgoolrie I saw two very big trees which had been completely up rooted and flung down in the main street just outside the town hall. One of them had been torn apart half way up it's trunk too....just amazing the force of the winds which did this! By the time I got home, our awning had come adrift at a couple of spots where the pegs had torn out of the ground, but I managed to bang the pegs back into the soggy ground enough for them to hang in there....and this is ground which is normally like concrete! There was lots of flood damage around Kal...kind of reminicent of the days in Alice Springs when the flood waters would cause this sort of damage. Kalgoorlie is no where near as prepared for sudden heavy rain as Alice was, and it does not surprise me when the streets turn into raging rivers within moments.
Have just been given the choice of 2 night shifts starting tonight, or 1 day shift out at Cawse tomorrow....can't see me doing a night shift when I have been awake since 5am today, so I took the day shift.
We have a long week end this one coming, and Easy and I are going to drive down to the south coast to a little town called Hopetoun. It's west of Esperance and supposedly has nicer beaches than Esperance, which I find hard to believe! Only 300 people there, and Easy's mate Timmy has his parents still there on their farm, so we may visit them too. We'll take some fishing gear too this time and see what we can come up with.
Easy is being quite the little social butterfly this week with "fizzy drinks" 3 nights in a row! He was in Laverton on Tuesday night, Leonora Wednesday night, and Timmy is coming over for dinner tonight, and then there's the Friday night fizzy drinks at the hospital .........he WILL be a mess won't he? Sounded a bit worse for wear when I spoke to him today after last night's socialising around the bbq at Leonora! Ya just can't tell him he's not 17 any more! Still it IS a lot of fun as I found out last week when I infiltrated the Friday night fizzy drinks at the hospital. WHAT a funny bunch they are. Two lancashire boys, a bonny great big scottish laddie fresh off the plane, a sewth efrican, and a coupla orstraylyans thrown in! I laughed so much I cried last week listening to the carry on. Easy calls it the League of Nations and he's right! I will be sad to miss it unless I can get off the bus early on the trip home past the hospital. Might just give that a try will I ?
To Be Continued...............

Go Away....Don't Wantcha!
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Singers and Songwriters of the 70's
Got the reject letters in the mail today from Spotless.............and I'm not sure just how I feel about that yet! I can understand how they wouldn't want a broken down old crock in the kitchen, BUT.....to reject the number 1 sparky??????? Strange..........anyway..............we won't dwell on it or send bombs in the mail, life's too short. SO......this brings up the question of WHEN WILL WE MOVE ON? I said to Easy the other day "What will we do if neither of us gets the job? Where will we go and when?"
He wants to go to Geraldton (up the coast a bit) and have a look about and I must admit the feet are getting a bit itchy too! We have a place to go to (the Bushtracker owners we met here before Christmas who have a farm near there) and possibly some work for Easy. I am really enjoying the work I am getting lately though. This week I have just done a "Casey Gem" induction......me being silly here (unusual....) the induction is to KCGM or more commonly known as Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine (The Superpit) They are having one of their little shutdowns and I am to perform sentry duties for JR Roche Mining this week. It's the total opposite to the site I was sentry-ing for last week, in that the overkill is spectacular.....safety this and safety that to the point of being ridiculous. They are like Nazis. All the more so this week because a contractor was killed there last week through a bizarre chain of events, so the place is in meltdown as far as safety goes. Not like the mine site I was in last week where it was alarmingly lax. It's gunna be hot this week too and we have to wear long sleeves as well as safety vest etc etc and the site is in a hollow and hot as hell anyway. I might lose a few kilos without really trying!!!
Easy is "bush " for 4 days this week....3 days up at Leonora and Laverton, and 1 day back at Coonana. He loves it. The hospital gave him a brand new v6 commodore ute for a work car the other week and he says it goes like the clappers. He is on strict instructions NOT to kill himself in the thing as I will be REALLY annoyed if I have to continue on the 'round Oz trip on my own! He says it sure beats the clapped out old Hilux he used to have to nurse up to Leonora and back. Too plash for dat one eh?
The lady next door works for a company that really believes in looking after their staff, and she and her husband got given an all expenses paid weekend away off Esperance on a fishing charter boat. They came back with no less than 3 huge eskies full of reef fish, and we scored 3 beauties (think they were Nanigais). GREAT eating!
At the moment I am listening to a set of cds from the dreaded Time Life music people who are worse than Readers Digest to get rid of. All 60's and 70's stuff. It's great because I know the words! I just hope I don't get hounded for the rest of my natural life by them to buy something else..........
All the gum trees around the van are in full flower. They look absolutely beautiful with huge clumps of bright yellow fluffy flowers. And at last all the baby galahs have grown up enough to now feed themselves and spare us the agonizing "feed me feeeeed meeeeee" squarkings. THAT nearly drove me to breaking out the bloody shanghai at one stage! Easy was actually in the process of going outside early one Sunday morning armed with some rocks to throw at them when he was confronted by a tourist clutching a video camera! The guy was all raptured with the dear little birdies and was filming them.....would have made great footage if Easy hadn't seen him and had gone ahead with his plan of attack complete with cursings!!! Oh well....at least he had his pants on..........
To Be Continued............

Brought Back Down To Earth
Mood:  d'oh
Howdy all. The interviews for the job............what an eye opener THAT was!
To start from the beginning.....
We arrived in Perth at 11.30am, went straight to the coffee machine place and I bought a proper commercial type grinder and today I enjoyed the PERFECT cuppa from it (glad I indulged myself now!).
Next , at 5pm we went with Easy's bro-in-law who was also having an interview into Perth city to the new exhibition centre and joined what seemed like millions of others in filling out our registration forms. It turns out that out of the 12,000, yes 12,000 applicants, we were in the group of 1200 who got the interview...........phew! So far so good. Next, we sat through 3/4 of an hour of the company "Spotless" telling us how wonderful they were and how well they looked after their staff etc etc and a slide show of various safety stuff, and other completely irrelevant stuff before they then started on the rules and regulations of the camps..........oh boy! Shades of the nonsense that Voyages dumped on us before we started at Ayers Rock!
By the time it was our turn, it was 8.15pm and we went for a 10-minute interview in bulk in a room with 10 other interviews going at the same time! Then things started to go pear shaped as far as I was concerned!!!!!!!! The girl who interviewed me says to me "I notice you and your partner have applied as a couple? Well, the company does not cater for this and there is NO guarantee that you will even be at the same site as him, let alone on the same shift. There is no couples accommodation, only single men's quarters." By this time my jaw was on the ground, I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and I could feel my eyes getting wider by the second!!!!
I asked her if there was any right of appeal, and she went on about how she was not qualified to comment etc etc. SO................................IF we both get the second interview, which by the way is during the 5 days in the the week after the wedding, so we would need to have our's on the day we get back to Perth!!!, we will have to start bargaining with them for all we are worth!
WHAT A PISS OFF!!!! I was under the impression that mining camps tried all in their power to make sure that couples could stay together for stability in the workplace....it seems that is not even considered here! Imagine if we both were in separate camps and on differing shifts....we would almost certainly never see each other....what would be the point of it all? And it's work for 35 days straight with 7 days off......so we would be really hanging out to see each other at ALL!
There's always a silver lining in each cloud so I am led to believe, but this one is just one big storm if you ask me!!!!
The job is to set up the construction camp taking up to 2 years to do it, before we start on building the mining camps in 4 different locations between Newman and Pt Hedland, so the separation would be for a very long time.............
We won't know whether we have the 2nd interview until "before March 10th" so we have a bit of a wait.
We have not decided to abandon this venture, electing instead, to see how far we get with the interviews, and IF we are offered the job, how much we can bargain our way around this problem of separation. The HR chief did mention the fact that to get this far was a positive sign and we are taking a deep breath before we go on.
Today, Easy is “bush” at the tiny little railway line settlement of Coonana on the edge of the Nullabor. He and another fella do the maintenance needed at the health clinic. He doesn’t get to go out to the Black Swan nickel mine on Mondays any longer as they reckon they have enough sparkies, but 2 of them have now left, so maybe he will get to go back there. He loves doing different things and getting around the place, so I hope this happens for him too. Me?…..I have 3 day’s work at Paddington gold mine next week. I am not inducted there yet, so I’ll most likely have a half a day out there doing that 1st, before I go out to be a sentry on the shut down there. It’s great to be moving around to different places even though I do like working at Cawse nickel where I am posted mostly. The company I will be working for at Paddo pays REALLY well, so I am happy about that! The old card took a bit of a flogging this last month and needs repairing badly! We had to replace the two back shockies on the Cruiser after discovering one of them completely shagged out. And they were new only 4 years ago! We’ve put Old Man Emu ones on this time and they have a great reputation so we think we’ll get a bit more out of them than the last ones. There’s talk in the camp of 4WD vehicles OTHER than F250s now! Easy’s discovered a V10 Toureg (Volkswagon) and he likes the look of it! The best bit is……they are more expensive than a 250!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bloody hell! He always DID have expensive tastes but this is getting ridiculous! They seem to be the same if not larger in the body than a Cruiser, and don’t look like a veedub. We will see………..
I am still battling my weight and walking miles every day. The other week I was wearing my little pedometer at Kanowna Bell gold mine when I lost it in a tank of cyanide sludge! BUGGER! I was climbing up a ladder on the side of the tank and it unclipped and landed in the sludge. I hope the company is happy that my very expensive pedometer is clogging up their works! I bought a real cheapie WITH radio from Priceline yesterday and actually had JJJ FM radio to walk to this morning. I started off at 4.30am in the dark and was staggering by the time I got home at 6.15am, BUT I still had the music! My hip is still giving me grief and makes walking extremely painful sometimes. It comes and goes and I find that if I watch the angle of the footpaths, the pain comes about when the slope is fairly pronounced, so I try to avoid those places.
We had a couple of visitors last week that we had not seen for at least 15 years! Chris and Geoff lived in Alice when we did, and then moved around, as he was a Conservation Commission ranger at various remote locations around the Territory. We lost touch after they moved away from Timber Creek, but have a mutual friend who put them onto us here in Kal……thank you Robbie! The plan was to have a nice roast lamb lunch on Sunday when they came to visit, but the day turned out so hot and humid that the roast was left to cool and we had it with salads instead. Hint…..roll a leg of lamb in French onion soup before cooking it on a webber bbq or in a Cobb cooker and drizzle Lambrusco over it as it cooks YUM!!!!
We had a great afternoon catching up on all the news about mutual friends and what’s been happening and were sad to see them go. They have work up at Pt Hedland and we just might catch up with them again one day.
Just 6 weeks to go until Christy’s wedding!!!!! I’m starting to get little frissons of excitement when I think about it. She says the weather is on notice to be PERFECT when we are all there, even though it’s pretty crappy at the moment. Kal has been having some unseasonably cool days for the month. I am actually feeling quite chilled as I sit here and type and yet it is 20 degrees.
To be continued…………………….

Feelin' Patriotic !
Mood:  happy
This morning I was out and about on my morning walk really early (4.30am) and couldn’t help feeling very content and happy with my surroundings. “So what?” I hear you say…how many of YOU feel that way about where you are and what you are doing hmmmmm? I hope it’s the majority, because there is nothing worse than being unhappily stuck somewhere…been there and done that! The atmosphere around me felt distinctly Australian with great flocks of raucous pink and grey cockies exploding from the beautiful gum trees in the half light, and the sight of vehicles being driven down the street adorned with small Australian flags – a leftover from the Australia Day celebrations of the 26th January. There’s something about being awake at this hour of the day here in Kalgoorlie. You witness a definite pattern in the shift worker’s drop-offs and put-downs, where they wait each day, and how they get to work, whether it’s with a mate or a whole bunch of them in a shift bus. Mostly, I see the 6am starters gathered at the service station next to where I live. I am one of these sometimes, as I wait for the 5.15am bus, which takes me out to the nickel refinery when I have work there. Lately though, I have seen the 5am starters, because I walk so early. I received some curious looks at first, but now I am just “another crazy early morning galloper” to them, and they ignore me. Funnily enough, the friendliest people I meet in the mornings are the women of my own age. We greet each other with a cheery “Good Morning!” and a genuine smile…..not so the really serious “pounders” who seem to be on a mission as they grimly power walk, heads down and with scowls. I always think “what is the point of being out here in the beautiful pre-dawn if you aren’t enjoying it?” when I am overtaken by these people. I wish I knew their stories! One fellow who is, it seems ALWAYS walking, both morning and evening, is a success story in the weight loss game, according to the shift bus driver I chat with in the morning if I am going to work. Apparently, he was enormous, and had been given an ultimatum by his doctor. Now, he has lost 2/3rds of his weight, looks very athletic, but is a driven soul as he strives to lose even more weight. He never looks like he is having fun, and never says anything or smiles or even acknowledges me as I pass him. I hope he gets what he is hoping for…….
I thought I saw a flock of black swans fly over this morning! Apparently, three of them flew down into the Super Pit last week, exhausted with the heat. They are a long way from the coast……we used to see flocks of them at the sewerage ponds near Alice Springs too. Goodness knows what they are attracted to way out here though!
Speaking of the temperatures….I placed the thermometer out in the sun the other day when it was 42 in the shade, and it went to 48.9, so I am wondering just what the reading would have been the day it was 47 in the shade! It’s quite cold in the mornings here this week. I was shivering in the pre-dawn today, and when I got back from my walk an hour and a half later, all hot and sweaty, the temp was still only 16. I am just starting to feel cold again an hour later. Does this mean I am finally acclimatising? If we get the jobs we are hoping for “up north” I will have to learn to tolerate even higher temperatures as it gets REALLY hot up there!
What did you do for Australia Day? Easy went to work, the Capricorn in him driving him to make more money, as he doesn’t get paid if he doesn’t work on public holidays. He made himself useful out at the Black Swan nickel mine, but was home fairly early on in the day as the usual workers all buggered off early, as the bosses were not there! I didn’t do anything…….there was a breakfast on down at the park near here, but because I am dieting, this was not an option for me! I DID have one b-b-qed snag with Easy at dinnertime though….bugger the diet – you have to have at least one Aussie tradition on the day! The big fireworks show was on down in Perth again (we went to that last year) but the telecast was not on until 10.30pm, so I taped it to watch at a more reasonable hour tonight. Just checked the tape and it didn't tape the show!!!!!!!! Bugger it!
I did intend going to watch the “Kalgoorlie Dawn Australia Day Ceremony” held at the Kalgoorlie Miners Hall of Fame and televised by channel 7 but, it started at 4.45am, and that’s when I start my walk, plus there were millions of people there, and I try to steer clear of events where there are hoards all wanting free breakfasts, and trying to get their heads on tv. Been in the bush too long I think………………

Easy aquired another fridge for us to have as a beer , and fruit and vege fridge today! Yaaay! The other one we had was starting to play up and froze the spuds yesterday. It has a very touchy thermostat and would not play the game no matter what we did. He'll have to buy another hasp and staple to put on this one in order to lock it......we got raided by some little thieves the other night..hope they got a good hangover on my bottle of gin they lifted. They only got 3 of Easy's beers as that's all that was in there. Luckily he hadn't restocked for the week yet! He went out and got the biggest lock he could find to put on it, and we have been hearing noises (paranoid) every night since. Found out it was 3 local kids...they got caught in the act of going through someone else's car the other night. No doubt the cops will give them a warning and they will be back.
To Be Continued………………………….

Warm Enough For Ya?
Mood:  incredulous
How's 47* in the SHADE sound???
Not impressed? O.K. how's standing out in the sun on a lime covered concrete pad for 5 hours sound? And the temperature would have to have been at least hovering around the 50s plus mark too. MAN it was hot!!! I was on a 3 day shutdown at a gold mine 20 minutes out of Kal, doing my usual sentry work. We used to have to be at the yards by 5.30am each morning, and on the day after the 47 degree one, they had us there by 4.45am and guess what? .....it was a cool day that day!!! Only 38*. What an experience I had. I reckon if I could survive hot days like those, then I can survive anything! It was actually cooler inside the lime tank that day, although the bloke I was observing was certainly feeling the heat by the time he finished what he was doing in there. I have never seen men work harder and in such terrible conditions as out here in summer! They just keep going and going, and hardly a complaint. Although one of the other sentrys did only last 5 hours before he was cactus, and had to go home. There's a lot of tough females in the game too. The scaffolders seemed to be all huge Kiwis and one of their numbers was a woman and boy was she a giantess! Like a huge clydesdale mare...not an ounce of fat on her though, just a very big tall solid woman who shouldered planks and scaffolding tubes and carried them up flights of stairs with out even a sign of hesitation. I felt quite the little old weakling beside her, and the fact that she would just turn her gaze on you as you walked past, without even saying a word, just staring at you, sort of made me feel a bit ill at ease. I certainly would NOT want an argument with her! Actually there was a piece in the local paper telling how a group of maoris "did the haka" at a group of blackfellas who were assaulting some other fellow in the street one night here, and they scared the blackfellas off until police arrived! Quite believable! They ALL seem to be covered in really scarey tattoos and they are ALL huge with weird hairdos and an attitude to match. The main groups of races you see at the mines here seem to be Kiwis, South Africans and Tasmanians.........
Any way, I had an interesting 3 days, made a bit of money, and proved that I was not the sook I thought I was when faced with really hot weather. Overnight last night it was 30 and I did feel a bit uncomfortable when I turned the aircon off and the fan on, but the option was there to have the cooler back on if I wanted to. A couple of the really hot days were accompanied by high humidity which made things pretty unbearable, just re-enforcing my distaste for the tropics!!
I just missed out on a cruisey little month-long contract with a Govt dept doing data entry and sample loading......the two days I need to be in Perth for the interview for these jobs up north buggered it up for me. Never mind....there's always the regular day or so a week out at Cawse Nickel.
It's looking even more positive for us two regarding those jobs up north too. A few people have now received "no thanks" letters, and we are still on the short list. They are going to give us an induction video followed by the interviews, and then the decision will be made in the following week I guess. They are really looking for Electrical Supervisors, which had Easy in a bit of a panic...he does NOT do responsibility at all well even on his own admission...but we have persuaded him that he is the right person for the job, and he should go for it.
We are both getting a bit excited at the thought of Christy's wedding being only 9 weeks away!!!!!! Time has gone so fast even though the engagement will have been a 14 month one by the time they marry. I am so looking forward to all the excitement and the get together with all the family again too. It will be SOME party!!!!!
To Be Continued.............

It's Looking Promising!
Mood:  happy
Well folks, further to the last chapter in the adventures of the Sandhills, things are starting to get exciting in the camp! I got a phonecall last week to arrange an interview for the jobs we applied for in the construction camp up north! Yip Yar! We can hardly believe our good fortune, and are very nervous! The interviews are on Feb 7th down in Perth, so we will hot foot it down there on the day as we are not required to turn up until 5pm. There was a great big article in today's West Aussie newspaper talking about how a lowly dishwasher (that's ME!) can earn as much as a skilled tradesman or an entry level surveyor! A bit of an insult to the tradies but hey who's gunna knock it back!? It sounds like it will be a full time job for every day for 5 weeks, with only 7 days off, but if we can stick it out for a year or so, we will earn great money. (New Cruiser here we come!)This kind of reminds me of the days when the resort was being built at Ayers Rock...I hope it turns out to be as much fun as was had at the rock while things were being constructed.
Putrid, you'd remember how life was in the good old days! We know a few peole who all have interviews coming up, and it would be great if we all got jobs there. We'd know half the camp already!
On to other things.....
Easy clicks over another birthday this coming week, and I bought him a great little digital camera to bring him into the 21st century a bit more. We had discovered an ancient camera still containing film, which he hadn't used since we were in the cafe in Tassie. On developing the film, we decided it was pretty ordinary, and wouldn't it be nice for him to be able to see what he had taken instead of guessing? Christy had a beautiful little Panasonic Lumix with her in Brisbane, which I had a play with, and I decided to follow suit and got one for Easy at a great price off the net. He LOVES IT! Simple to use with a huge LCD so even he can see what he's taken at a glance. He had 3 days up north last week, and came home with some pics of the flooding over the roads, the hospital cat, another workmate, and some flowers and interesting sunset views. Not bad for his 1st effort! I have placed some pics on the web album so you can see his artistry!
Not much else to report apart from the weather starting to get really hot and steamy now. Not pleasant at all, and we live inside with the aircon mostly during the day. The mossies are thick at night and one always seems to get inside and feast on me all night! I wake up most mornings with huge dinner plate sized bites all down one side. I can't hear them coming with my anti-Easy-snore-earplugs in! I sprayed the whole van last night before we went to bed......fat lot of good it seemed to do! I just don't want to end up with Ross River Fever or something equally as nasty.
To Be Continued..............

Back to the Bush
Mood:  chatty
After a lazy sleep-in the day after the drags, we decided to do some catching up with one of Easy's old mates from boarding school and his family. Gus, Jackie, Milanda, Zackary and Jamieson are a delightful family who live in the outer Perth suburbs. We had fun with them last year on a rented boat we drove up and down the Swan river in...remember? Any way, THIS year, Gus decided to go sailing instead! So, there we are down at the South Perth reach, with hundreds of other holidaying people, all enjoying the sunshine and bike riding, and sailing of small catamarans. Jammy could not be parted from his brand new bike (Christmas pressie) and we had to almost surgically remove it from him to get him sat down for some lunch! It was about then that the "adults" decided to go for a ride.....and images of Kermit De Frog riding his bike in the muppet movie would not stop flashing in my brain as I watched Easy and Gus and Jackie all ride off into the distance. NOT a good look Easy!....specially with the cowdy hat still jammed on your head! Next was the sailing foray onto the Swan River.......still with the hat on.....well, he does need a hat doesn't he? They all got a dunking and came back walking like they had cacked their pants.....the water WAS cold! Much later in the day we dragged our weary selves back to our digs, and a hot shower. Surprisingly, the weather has stayed cold, and sunny, whereas everywhere else seems to be suffering either rain and yuk, or sizzlingly hot weather. Just lucky I guess! Next day saw us heading off down to Mandurah to visit another school friend of Easy's, Neil Turner ,Sue-Ellen,Pia, her new boyfriend Ben (quite yummy!) Sigourney, and Reid. They have a property near Corrigin in the wheatbelt, and holiday each year in a seaside house in Mandurah. The cricket match was going well in the back yard, and afterwards we all trooped down to the new marina to look at all the latte swilling yuppies, and pretend to be beautiful people too! Mandurah has exploded from a sleepy seaside settlement to a clone of the resort towns of Noosa and the likes. Pity it is being spoilt so completely. After a great day of catching up and chatting, eating all things good like huge blocks of chocolate and fresh fruit and strawberries etc, we dragged ourselves home again......we seemed to do a lot of that! .....Holidays, doncha love 'em?
We decided to have a look at the Perth zoo on new year's eve day, as neither of us had been there for many years. It was very pleasant wandering around through all the displays, and the animals are all very well looked after, although Jan was a bit dubious about the Orang Utan's enclosure.....there didn't seem to be anything for them to play with and they looked bored out of their minds. The female with a baby spent most of her time huddled under a hessian bag sleeping.
We had a chat with a very knowledgable park guide about the birds and the crocodile.....it had tried to eat a little girl once when she was standing right up against the glass, so the zoo has installed a guard rail to stop people approaching too close......some people need to take a serious look at their intelligence levels maybe???? He was a very big croc, just lazily floating and watching us all......sizing up lunch maybe? There's no way I would have approached the glass let alone my "little girl".....hmmmmm.....
We decided that when Easy comes back as an animal, it would have to be a rhino......a G.O.C. with a horn...............
The male was just wandering around behind "her" as she lay in the shade with the kid, made the mistake of asking her how about it.....and she had him running for cover as well as startling the baby one into a dead run before he knew what for!!! Don't blame her, she WAS a bit grumpy, but he was even grumpier after that sort of a knockback!
We found our way into the bird section, and of course we found a cage of 2 parrots who just had to have a whistling competition with Easy the bird man. These birds (red headed lory) were something else! Total extroverts, with THE loudest whistle....ear piercing....and they would stop and consult each other when ever Easy would do a different whistle, and then launch into a louder version of their own right in our face! They reminded us of the raptors from the Jurassic Park movie...all intent and VERY interested in us at close range as they chattered amongst themselves. I would not trust them if you were disabled in their cage. I reckon they would attack you. Then we found the beautiful ENORMOUS green and blue macaws. They are just so big and a really lovely bird. The two in the cage were hanging off the wire right up next to a young fellow who was talking to them. Their heads and beaks were the same size as his head!
There was to be a concert that night in the zoo parklands, so we were being bundled out of the place early, and judging by the hoardes of people with removalist trollies loaded to the hilt with blankets and eskies and chairs, and the millions of kids with them, we had the better deal, and left fast.
Never got to the Freo markets....too busy. Oh well, there's always next trip.......
That night was New Year's Eve, so we tore up to Kalamunda pub in the hills above Perth to spend it with Gus and co. Had a fun night...Gus is a bit of an extrovert, plus a Michael Douglas double, and we had fun dancing and chatting over the noise of the very good 3 piece band. We were duly thrown out at about 1am and made our way home. Surprisingly there was not much traffic and I didn't see one police car! We are getting quite good at negotiating our way around Perth using the freeways, and so it was a fairly straightforward trip home. A very late sleep-in, and then we spent lunch with a Sanders sister (Neenie) and Easy's Mum Dee, and another sister (Carlie) and her husband Rolf (whom we stayed with) and enjoyed a beautiful roast pork complete with the trimmings. Talk about spoilt! We have to go back to boring old chicken and salad when we get home!!!
Monday dawned cool and cloudy for our trip back home, and by the time we got to Merredin, it was gently raining. All the way home the rain fell, and the temperature in the van was a chilly 16* when we arrived late in the arvo. Apparently we had missed "sickeningly hot" weather, and thunder and lightening storms and this was the second day of cold that Kal had since we left. BARGAIN!
Next day was more realistic but with humidity as well, so Sanders thought he was back in Yukville...sorry, Darwin. I went for a walk this morning in the cool , but still came home with the sweat pouring off me! This only serves to re-enforce my decision never to return to Darwin! There are quite a few roads closed to heavy traffic around Kal with all the rain they have had in the last few days, and the Indian Pacific railway line has been washed out east of here too!
We have applied for jobs in a new mining venture way north of here up near Newman, and will be holding our breath to see if we are successful sometime in February. The money is fabulous, the shift is lousy (5 weeks on 1 week off) and it's fly in fly out from Perth, so we will need to move back down there again.
To Be Continued............