Changes to the weather. End of another swing.

Installing a Gantry crane at the Screen house.

I thought it was hot to warm all year around up here... It's not...
I wanted to wear shorts and thongs every single day of the year..!
I walked into my Donga to find warm air coming out of the air-con......, and walked out in the morning to find the outside colder than inside......, This is very unfortunate. Not paradise after all....
Dropped the air-con from 24 to 21 to stop the hot air from driving me insane.
As the 5 week swing finishes, I have gone from anxious, waiting for the "de-mobe" to relaxed, waiting for something to happen. As it happens, lots have moved onto other jobs rather than wait to be pushed. (Gorgon/Barrow Island - $50+ billion dollar gas plant, Gladstone/Curtis Island - $20+ billion gas plant and then Wheatstone - Gas plant and Darwin - gas plant) There is plenty of work around so changes may happen, but it is a part of the cycle. I packed up excess clothing etc. and am flying them home.


5 of 15 Helicopters that I counted for Offshore platforms

It is still odd to be boot camping (my new passion) and watch 2 Qantas planes come into land. This is a town of 17,000 people and it has commercial jets coming in and out everyday. To drive into an airport with nothing around it, and see 15 Sikorsky Helicopters (Big.. 16-20 seaters) servicing the offshore platforms sitting there. This place is a hive of activity.


Went to a Social Club function.
Salami, cheese and coloured pickled onions.
Bring back the 70's. Tasted great...
 

Strangely enough, the constant noise of generators, vehicles reversing, triple locomotives connected to 2 kilometres of rail cars, cranes and machinery are now familiar. I am no longer outside my comfort zone.
Heading home for 9 days.... Lets see how the family cope with a stranger in the house..

Ground hog day...! and General observations

Ground Hog Day....
There is always something to look forward to in a normal life at home. There are weekly cycles that are great indicators that life as not stood still. Things to look forward to. Maybe the weekend. Maybe just seeing your children at the end of the day or a meal that you have been looking forward to.

Last piece of ducting being craned in

Out here every day is the same..... From the moment you walk into your Donga after your flight back. There are no changes during a week that make any day feel different. No indicators that life is travelling along. No weekends, no children's sport or training. Bed time is too early to watch regular TV shows. You do your washing on a week night or on a Saturday night. It does't matter. The meals served in the Mess hall are the same every night (except the random seafood night). Time just stops... I have all the technology available to me to help me keep life in order but without a calendar in my face, I have no idea. I call home to check in on my other life and have to consciously try to work out what day it is so I can ask appropriate questions.
And then all the 3.30 wake ups in a row. 13 days without a sleep in. A day off. Then repeat.
Your life is one day that rolls into another... then another...
No complaints. Just a part of this lifestyle.

Next 2 cardumpers shells being built. We are the front runners
on this contract. But they are not ready. These are big cranes...
2 conveyor tunnels are in the foreground.

Other general observations.
Short hair and very few beards.
Lots and lots and lots of goatees.
Tattoos, including chests, backs of hands and necks. Young and old. Male and female. I do feel like the odd one out.
And a favourite...In the evenings at camp. Garish t-shirts with mismatched board shorts. Probably christmas and birthday presents that were never allowed to be worn at home. Some blokes really need their mums or wives to give a little guidance..

I can see why uniforms exist...