Happy new year

Happy new year to all my friends and family all the way from work in the middle of the Tanami desert.

It can't get much better than this... Or can it?

Danger in the Mansion

On Wednesday night, I was happily ready for bed, lying there on Skype, when I notice a spider climbing down the curtain, being the polite person I am, I said I will call that person back as needed to deal with this spider.

Promptly picking up a glass, I pinned the spider to the window. To my dismay, with everyone else fast asleep in the house, I had forgotten to pick up anything to slide between the window and the cup with one angry spider under it. So acrobatically stretching with my foot, I’m reaching for an envelope with my toes to grab it while holding the glass to the window.  Fortunately my toe dexterity was sufficient for any disasters to be obverted and I was able to collect the spider with the envelope and glass.

Here is the beast itself, the mighty Redback Spider.

It's been a while,sorry!

Well it's been too long since my last post, a lot has happened and a lot has been forgotten. But a new post is being written, some snippets for you:

The boring bits.

Christmas

Chilli plants

Tennis

Bicycles

Putting my neck on the line

Red back spiders...

Melbourne

So, as you can probably gather from my last post, that I am in Melbourne and will be for another couple of days.

It's been a lot of fun laughter and entertainment in this awesome city. The MCG looks amazing and the Australian Open Tennis will have to be done on another trip. 

Today we have been along the Great Ocean Road and seen the 12 Apostles which are pretty spectacular, unfortunately this adventure is going to come to an end too soon and I will have to return to the desert.

Dingos to Koala Bears, who knows as it's adventure time!

Back from the desert, and off to Melbourne for a well earned holiday.

Adventures of Melbourne, coming soon to a computer screen near you!

Well, another swing in the middle of squat has been completed. I survived on my own, in the school of life.

An interesting week it has been, meeting my direct boss for the first time and getting a handover from her is where the story begins. As to be honest the journey back to the desert was rather uneventful and you sit there for 4 + hours wondering why I’m doing this. So back to the handover, and where the work begins, my boss was great, not having any expectations for me and leaving it at; “do what you can and anything you do manage to achieve is a bonus” as she walked out of the door to go catch her flight back to Perth. Which is where I sit now, writing this blog with the smell of grotty plane food around me, listening to the dolce tones of Jake Morrell. Which in turn are being drowned out by the noise of the Pratt and Whitney Engine happily spinning the propeller to my left as the sun is setting of the deep red sands of the desert of Western Australia.

So now I’m sat there in my office thinking,”wtf mate, this is it; you’re on your own now, where to start!” Blankly I stare at the weekly schedule trying to form a plan for a knock on the open door for the Mine Manager to come in a request my attendance in a meeting for a review of the stope failure that took place on my last swing. “Great I’m thinking, there is a start, but not the start I was expecting or wanting, but it is a start.” I sit there with various people while the HLSP (Health and Safety, I don’t know what if fully stands for, oops!) dude reads his way through the report and we discuss a few questions from that, and off I’m sent to see how the hiring of a C-ALS device is going and where we are going to drill our holes. A “C-ALS” it’s basically a down hole laser scanner that fires 1000’s of points at the stope wall and then you can view it as a 3D model.

Now being off and going for the week, people coming into my office, asking routine questions and me trying to give routine answers, like “I’ll look into it, or go see that person.”  Very rarely I’ll be able to answer their question. And yes it did happen.

Thursday came about far too quickly, having had an awful night’s sleep, not being able to switch off and my mind still racing faster than Sebastian Vettel, I got up and tried to prepare myself for the day ahead wanting to tick some tasks of the list. I set about for filling one of my only aims from my boss was to get down the hole and underground as much as I could. For 2 reasons really, to get some experience in what I’m actually looking at and to build relationships with the operators which is key as they are normally your best sources of information.  This in my opinion so far, has easily been the most fun; everyone is really helpful and willing to share information with you, to help you learn so you can help them.  Especially when they find out that you’re a graduate not the experienced engineer they were told you are. So in spending time underground, that meant you have reports to fill in and conversations to act on when you get back in the office, which took ages as I was struggling to find the relevant procedures and documents that had followed and filled in.

Just as the day was ending the brute of a production foreman came in (actually a really nice guy, just talking about his size, and there is another story there but that’s for later) and said we had a pillar failure on the edge of a stope and could I go and check it out. INSERT NECLEAR BOMB to my tired little brain. He wanted to know if I could assess the area to see if his charge crew could load and fire some pillars underneath it! Quite rightly I’m thinking crap in many languages, in bold and capital letters. But the Brute, said don’t worry about it now, nothing is happening tonight, I’ll take you down in the morning as I couldn’t drive on my own and we can have a look at it then. Last week’s drama kicked in and I called for some help from the head office guys to see what I should do, and air my concerns as night shift could be going in there as who knows what they want to do. Head office allied my concerns and said I was thinking the right things and get the area barricaded off till I could assess it, which I did just before jumping on the bus to go home and have a beer and get to bed. 

Back in my room that evening feeling exhausted from driving all day underground, let alone the hot, sweaty and some stressful bits in between the relative comfort of sitting in the air-conditioned Ute. I lay there thinking again; “wtf mate, why are you here going through this, your well out of your depth here, and the sharks are circling.” Finally I fell asleep to be rudely awoken by my alarm clock telling me it was that time again, and bleary eyed I rose again to start another day in paradise feeling like kak and rather overwhelmed.

Off underground we head with the Brute, the Papua New Guinean Senior Mining Engineer (who is also a top oke and my supervisor for the week) and a chick from HLSP to inspect this pillar. Nervously I cast my eyes around with the cavern of the stope not far in front of me and I start to assess the situation in my head.  I stood there and stuck my head above the parapet expecting a sniper (Brute) to shoot me down like the Australian in Beneath Hill 60 (good film) and said; well that pillar is not safe, we need can’t charge that ring (line of explosives) safely, we need to make a plan, to which my supervisor agreed. Not knowing Brute to well and expecting his question I apprehensively stood there waiting for him to disagree with me, but surprisingly to me, he was in agreement! The 4 of us started throwing ideas around as to the options to get the gold laden “dirt” out of the ground safely. With no obviously solution but plenty of questions from me (not Brute) we headed on to several other places underground with only 1 possible plan at that stage.

Back on surface that arvo (afternoon) and with CALS progress and this pillar amongst the daily tasks the afternoon pasted rapidly and I almost missed the bus home only for one of the lovely girls in drill and blast who also almost did the same thing, dragged me out of the office, with me running to the photo copier so I could prepare my Newmont Core Value Topic for the following morning (Eek, I was thinking). Exhausted after 2 dreadful night’s sleep, and the long days, I stumbled back to my donga (hut) with my bottle of James Boags and promptly set about thinking what can my Core Value Topic be? Having found something, not sure if it was any good, I gave up and showered just before I shot-gunned my beer and passed out with not too much time to think why I was there or my uselessness.

Saturday morning at our daily pass meeting came my first surprise that I was at least doing something right. My Supervisor awarded me a scratch card for my efforts towards safety and trying to get a plan together for firing the rings under the pillar the previous day. Unfortunately I didn’t win anything, but my scratchy is in the second chance draw so another go at potentially winning $500, but more importantly was the feeling that I was achieving something and the effort was being noticed. My core value topic went down very well too, on the subject of how many other of our Core Values can be completed by doing this one 5 minute task of undertaking a SafeDRILL (watching your colleagues at work, and give them polite feedback on the good and bad things they are doing, basically anyway.)

Of I went after the meeting with one of the Mine Geo’s underground, chauffeuring him around his different rig sites and exploring the mine while stopping in on a couple of places I needed to visit too with the aim of the day getting as much underground driving experience as possible.

Meeting and scheduling day was upon us (Sunday), and with still not having much clue as to what I was actually supposed to be doing day to day, I had practically nothing to schedule (oops) but my superintendent didn’t mind and she suggested I try and go with one of the shift boss’s for the day and learn off him underground instead.  This chance I jumped at, but wasn’t without any issue, vehicle availability was an issue and would stop me from going with him as he would be sharing a vehicle with someone else. A plan was hatched, our Tech Services Ute was in the LV yard having just been serviced, so if we could get that we would be good to go as no one else was going underground. So off we went, an hour late, having faffed around trying to get the Ute from the other side of the mine, with him showing some of the areas underground he was concerned with.  Another massive learning day it was, and a feeling of accomplishment was achieved especially as I now had my 40 hours of supervised LV driving. But still also knowing things had to be done and it was the end of Sunday. The warning in the back of my head having been told, whatever you haven’t achieved by Sunday, you won’t get it done before handover.  Monday was going to be hectic, as the Perth guys would be back online for the week to answer the questions that the guys on site couldn’t answer and I had neglected asking the guys who were meant to be enjoying their break.

Monday was indeed a hectic or more chaotic day trying to get the loose ends tied up and questions answered.  The day flew by with not a lot feeling like it was achieved and me almost forgetting to leave the office only for my superintendent to chase me out of the office, having forgotten to keep an eye on the time again. Which I might add was rather lucky as she had only come to see me to give me another scratchy for some awesome safe check’s and setting the standard for the team, another blank cash wish but another good feeling (and not missing the bus).

Tuesday was another hectic lost feeling morning but slowly getting stuff done in the office, and a lightening trip underground to assess one of the Geo’s future diamond drill rig sites as a matter of urgency. The only problem being that it was at the bottom and I mean the bottom of the mine and both the geo and I had handovers to write. Back in the office, the training supervisor came in who I spoke to on Monday morning and said he could fit in my LV assessment. So I dropped everything and thought, well let’s tick this off too. So an uneventful and question packed 2 hour assessment later, he reckoned I was competent and would sign me off as long as one of the other people I had driven with underground would also put their name to paper and say I was competent, so for a beer and less hassling I found a willing volunteer. I am now scarily the proud owner of my underground LV ticket. 

The chaos of handover was here, fortunately in the Tuesday sunset meeting, my opposite wasn’t yet in which gave me another few hours to write my notes the next morning. On Wednesday morning in the chaos of writing my notes, and answering question, while on the phone to my project manager from Coffey, my Maori opposite arrived, who had been on annual leave at the world cup enter. A really likeable and funny guy, we had a lot to try and sort out. Giving him as much information as possible so he could get back into the swing and continue the fun and games I was dealing with we talked and planned for the following 4 hours to give him a chance of getting back into it after the disasters I had caused. With a touch of luck, he will be fine…or so everyone says!

After that essay, if you’re not already bored, you will see I have survived, and am on a plane carrying a lot of gold across the desert in total darkness and nothing to be seen out of the window.  Im off to enjoy my break and hopefully play some sport…

Kings Park

 It is the largest inner city park in the world. Here is the view on CHOGM day when the war memorials and alot of the park were closed off for security! But still a lush view out over South Perth and my house.

I'm getting old

So I have decided im getting old, whether I like it or not as based purely on the fact that on a bank holiday (due to CHOGM and the Queen) I went to the DIY store and bought some plants.

The plants in questions for those horticulturists among you are an Agave Attenuata (below) for my room and on my bedroom balcony are Jalapeño and Serrano (pictured earlier) Chilli plants. (Que welcomed tips from a Camborne School teacher and an ex Trewirgie School teacher.)   

Part 2 preview...I'm getting old

$10 dollars to who can tell me what plant it is?

Another couple of weeks have past, and I have now been down under for over a month. Part 1: The Goldrush

So as the title say’s I have been down under in Australia for over a month now, and since my last blogging, I have spent 2 weeks in the Tanami Desert at Dead Bullock Soak Mine. After arriving on a Fokker 50 (Grandpa, just for you) and having 4 days of inductions including my LV (Light Vehicle) induction I was allowed to venture out into the mine for the first time properly. With that, I was sent underground with a Nipper (Top Left Photo at the lowest part of the mine) who takes drill bits, mesh, rock bolts etc. to the jumbo’s and does loads of other jobs like setting up headings and throwing bolts for the jumbo operators.  I was quite relieved come 5 O’clock when I was told there wouldn’t be space in our LV for me as the Nipper has to take the jumbo ops. Back to surface at the end of the shift, which meant I could catch a lift in the back of one of the CAT AD55 dump trucks (Top Right) to surface at ~8 kmph, a relaxing end to an exhausting and hot day albeit fun day underground, all I wanted was my bed.

The following day, was the beginning of learning my job from my supervisor as after this swing I would be on my own as the only geotechnical engineer on site.  And what a first day of learning it turned out to be, with us being sent to investigate some rock-noise which could be heard. As it turns out it was a relatively major with a rock fall event inside a stope causing a truck tip to be lost which we had just finished setting up so we could put waste rock into the stope instead of taking it to the surface. Fortunately nobody was hurt or in the area at the time, and the following investigation took up most of my time for the rest of my swing as my senior geotechnical engineer flew off site for the end of his swing the following day, leaving me to deal with the investigation into the causes. So on top of my normal day to day jobs, I now have some experience into a rock fall investigation which is pretty cool, albeit a little stressful at the time when you have information overload from learning all these new things.

Yes that’s right; my uni degree taught me nowt!   Most of the learning starts on the job.

So after your 12 hour shifts, you come back to camp, which is a “short” bus ride away from the mine and if you’re not too tired, you can use the extra facilities, other than the dry mess (canteen) and picking up your laundry. The camp has wet mess (bar) and social area with a table tennis table, pool tables, and darts boards. There is also a gym, and above ground swimming pool (which drunkards keep breaking to the tune of about $30,000 by throwing deck chairs into).

So far other than the bar, which sells cheap beer, I have not had a chance to use the extras yet, but I did do my gym induction. Now you’re thinking, same old lazy me! Which is true, but you normally just want your bed. But a couple of nights after work, a few of us have  got together and had a beer or 2 (and no more as you have to blow 0000’s the next morning, numbers and it’s a window seat).With the Saturday night BBQ being a nice chilled out evening.  

My donga (room/hut in the desert Top Right, just by the telegraph pylon just left of centre) is basically a large sea container or that sort of size split into 3. It’s nice, I have a good view and am lucky to be on the edge of camp where it’s quiet (the walls are so thin, I can hear the guy next door on the phone and that’s the persons voice on the other end of the phone, just kidding, but they are thin) . It’s air conditioned and an en-suite, and had all one would need to sleep in, but its basic, I actually quite like it. Get home with my can of beer, have a shower, and get into bed and read my book on my kindle, while listening out for the dingo’s wandering about the camp.  

After flying back through a thunderstorm, in the little Fokker 50 sat next to a fat chap who gave me no space in my little window seat and proceeded to sleep for the whole 4.5 hour flight, I’m now back in Perth for 6 days of R&R with CHOGM and the Queen being in town causing chaos that only my gran (or the Queen) would know how to do. Just kidding Gran!

So another week comes to an end, and another eventful week it’s been. The work is now starting to pile up. The highlights of the week have been going on a 4WD gravel defensive driving course, which included time on the skid pan. Carolanne, Tom, Henry and myself (and Fraser, when he arrives from the UK) have moved into our new house/ mansion, of which has taken up most of our time while we haven’t been at work. 

The house we moved into was owned by a rich Indonesian business woman who was using it as a holiday home for herself and friends and has been taking a while to clean as it was needing a little TLC. Fortunately this is mostly surfaces wiping etc, and hovering, which in this house due to its size has taken a while. But all is good, and it’s starting to become home except my belongings in shipping haven’t yet left the UK which is uber frustrating.

Here is a picture or a pelican taken down on the pier, with Tom and Henry in the foreground, and the Perth CBD from the pedestrian flyover just down from our house.

On Friday night after work, Tom, Henry and Myself went into town, where we met Carolanne, Andy, and George for an awesome Burger and Belgian beer. Where to order a certain beer, I cant remember which you have to trade your shoe in so you don’t run off with the glass which is mildly amusing. Later in the evening George showed us a trendy cocktail / whisky bar where we saw Jenny Rumble’s (ex Truro School) and we directed Anna too. This whisky bar would allow you to buy the bottle and they would store it for you, which was a rather tempting proposition till you saw the price tags ($170+ for not even a rare or elusive bottle). On the note of bottles on alcohol, anyone coming to visit should be a good visitor and bring their duty free allowance, as spirits are rather expensive here (£30-40+ for a bottle of Bombay Sapphire in a liquor store for example).

On Sunday night, after the disappointment of the Bok’s losing an epic game against the Aussie’s (which I have been getting stick for today, never mind the French beating the English), Henry masterminded our first roast dinner. The roast pork was almost like a hog roast, Henry cooked it to perfection, it was amazing!

So this week started with me applying for my WA driving license (£75 for 5 years!) and helping the open pit team so far today and into tomorrow with some stats they need doing. Then 99% sure im off to the Tamami Desert on Wednesday to do some site coverage for Newmont’s Tanami operations for 2 weeks. After that I go onto what is known as a FIFO (fly in, fly out) 9/5 roster consisting of 9 days on and 5 days off for 3 months, which more than likely means I’ll be working over most of Christmas which im not too bothered about as its more expensive to go away during that period.

The mine is called Dead Bullock Soak Mine, (co-ordinates -20.526330947 and 129.933914184) and is one of the most remote mines in Australia. Link to the map below: http://www.geodata.us/australia_names_maps/aumaps.php?fid=121550&f=121&name=Dead%20Bullock%20Soak%20Mine

I hope you are all well, and do drop me an email or facebook message if you are reading this, it’s good to hear what everyone is upto. Especially as I can see from the page statistics that people have viewed my page from interesting places in the world making me wonder who is reading my blog from Lithuania, Indonesia, UAE, Germany and Georgia? Would love to hear from you all.

J

Melville Mansion

Just moved into our new house well more of a mansion really, its amazing. Walked into what is now my bedroom which overlooks the river and saw a dolphin, straight up no lying (good spot Carolanne).

Pictures to come soon, just some shopping and buying house'y stuff first!

So week 1 of work “proper” is done and what a hectic week it’s been.

Monday morning started with meeting my team leader Vadim for the first time, and that meeting outline the “plans” for the coming months. Within two minutes of the “meeting”  finishing I received an email from the office principle saying was going to be needed to provide some site coverage for 3 months on a mine up in the Tanami Desert, which just goes to show how fast things change in the mining industry as I am likely to be starting that on Tuesday.

The rest of the week proved to be just as fluid as on Wednesday arvo Kim told me to go talk to one of the metallurgy team as she wasn’t able to go on a conference the following two days as she had to finish a report. So Thursday and Friday I attended a conference in Backfill techniques. All of this while trying to get sort out houses, drivers licenses, PPE etc. But on the houses front we found out on Friday we have been accepted on “Melville Mansion” in Como, which is really exciting and we move in on Wednesday provisionally, so hopefully everything will be sorted out by the time I get back from my swing. 

"Melville Mansion"

So rolling onto the weekend, having spent the morning at the Frampton’s while my washing was on We watched the Australia v Russia game and then the AFL grand final, which I am becoming  hooked on pretty quickly (unfortunately like the beginnings of my Australian accent).

 Saturday was Henry’s birthday so as one would do, we headed out for the night, where standing  in a bar on Murray Street, a young lady walked in who I said to the boy’s; “I recognise her.” To which they replied; “don’t be so bloody silly you muppet,” So off to the bar I toddled and tapped her on the shoulder and said; “Sarah?” who turned around and with a dropped jaw said after a pause; “Anna is a blithering idiot,” or words to that effect as Anna had told her I was coming to Perth but hadn’t said I had arrived yet so was understandably shocked to see me! So that was certainly a surprise for the night.

So with the plan to go out and do some exploring, on Sunday morning we sort of with the plan to go to the John Forrest National Park and inland to the town of York (where Henry is from in the UK). So into the JFNP we went to find some Roo’s and have some lunch. With the mission accomplished of finding some Roo’s and 2 different types of Parrot we headed to York.

Photos from today, the road bridge taken from the suspension bridge in York with the storm gathering behind.

Where we had nice wonder around “The first inland town in Australia” which was nicely in bloom after all the rain we have had. Some of the places we wondered around and past in York were the Motor Museum, the suspension bridge built by the convicts, the sock factory and the Old Mill Market. So all in all a nice relaxing Sunday before the week begins again tomorrow. 

Week 1... The Beginning!

So having arrived in Perth at ridiculous o’clock on Tuesday morning (00.55) then stood in the immigration queue for a hour to walk to the desk get a stamp and walk straight through. At least my bags were ready, off and out through customs your thinking, well no, another queue, to be told, thanks sir, have a good night (some people based on their landing cards have to have their bags x-rayed). Outside I head and for the taxi rank, where there is another queue, but finally I get one, and off to “home” (Good Earth Hotel) in East Perth feeling shattered. Arriving at 3.30am I have a shower and climb straight into bed, to not be able to sleep! Trying to kick the jet lag starts here.

So Tuesday had a relatively early start of 9am, as I still couldn’t sleep, to unpack and go and explore the CBD in the drizzle, before having to sort out Medicare and Bank accounts etc later in the week.

Wednesday was a good one, seeing the Frampton’s for the first time in 15+ years, which made Glynne and I chuckle when we recognised each other and Bull Creek station. So in the sunshine having met young Richard for the first time, we took the dog for a walk down along the Canning River, to get within 300m of home before the heavens opened, and we were drenched. Fortunately a good cup of tea, a superb roast (lamb, my favourite), and some nice wine made up for getting wet let alone the company of seeing friends again after far too long (mum and dad take note).

The rest of the week, apart from continuing to try and kick jet-lag completely was taken up by house hunting which is proving to be a nightmare, people have said 1/10 to 1/15 chance is typical. So lots of viewings and phone calls.

Induction day on Friday went smoothly, everyone very friendly as you would expect.  Saturday this week consisted of more house hunting and then watching the rugby in the Lucky Shag with Steve from school and also CSM, and Henry, Carolanne and Andy.  Sunday morning was filling in more housing forms before getting bored and heading down to Freemantle (Freo) to the Little Creatures Brewery (www.littlecreatures.com.au/) for some food and beer. Now back in my room, writing this while watching the Singapore GP thinking that might be a trip for next year. First proper work day tomorrow...