The Industrial side of the Outback

It’s early morning in the Pilbara, the sun has just come up and there is a slightly cool breeze. The temperature is already near 75 degrees. I made it to Port Hedland. It’s beautiful here, and just like I thought it would be…flat, hot, and lots of red dirt – though, there is a bit more vegetation than I expected. The town is built on a massive delta…if you can call it a town. It’s main purpose for existing is as a port for exporting iron ore mined in Western Australia. It’s almost purely industrial with over 50% of the population working as fly-in fly-out workers and staying in working camps. The day we flew up, there was an article in the paper rating the different camps. I am staying in the worst Port Hedland camp. Haha. Figures. It sounded nice…Beachfront Village…but really it’s a refurbished detention center for immigration asylum seekers. There is a huge gate all around the compound complete with guard towers and video cameras. 90% of the population in the camp is male. The rooms are dorm-style with only two bathrooms on each floor…one male, and one female. Some genius put me in the room directly across from the men’s shower/toilet. Did I mention that the walls were really thin?
If you forget the wire mesh on the windows, the dorm smell, the thin walls…it’s not so bad. All meals are provided in the mess hall where they serve breakfast and dinner from 4 – 8 (am and pm)…and a salad/sandwich bar for a packed lunch. The food’s not bad, but after a week and a half it’s getting a little repetitive.
Did I mention it’s a man-camp? I’ve been hit on more times than I can count…and once by a gal. Another story for another time.
The last couple weeks have been a bit of a blur. I’m glad to be leaving…and heading towards the beach.

Little Creatures

Next May 9 - 22
They’re booked! My sister, Stacy, has tickets to come to Australia! I’m so excited, and we’ve got big plans: the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree National Forrest, Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Darwin, beaches, and Kakadu National Park. I can’t wait. She’ll be coming at the beginning of July as I begin my ‘journey’ home.
This weekend was a good, but short. I had Mother’s Day off, called my mum in the morning and headed off to church and Mother’s Day lunch with the family that I had met the previous weekend. Peter and Annette live out in the hills and have 4 adult children just a little younger than myself. It was really pleasant to get out of the city and hang out with a great family.
There is some talk that I might go work up in the Pilbara just south of Port Headland next week. Though the area is said to be quite a ‘hole’, I’m excited to get up in that part of the country. I’m expecting it to be quite hot and dry and flat with little vegetation and bright red soils. The project manager said that I could fly back from a town called Broome if I wanted to take a couple days up there. Several people have told me to visit Broome while I’m here. It’s supposed to be quite a nice area with gorges, scuba diving and beaches. Though, you have to be careful cause that’s where the crocs and the dangerous jellyfish are…: )
As a side note and totally random, but relevant to my day to day existence, the tv shows are really terrible in the apartment. We get 3 channels on a bad day and 5 on a really good day. “Two and a Half Men”, “How I Met Your Mother”, and “Top Gear” are played relentlessly as well as the Aussie evening soaps called “Home and Away” and “Neighbors”. Occasionally, they do play some good stuff like Mentalist, Man vs Wild, Bones, Castle, and various movies, but you have to time it just right…and the wind needs to be blowing in a certain direction.
This past week was cram packed with late nights and long days trying to get reports out or ready to pass off before I head up to Port Hedland. Thankfully not all of the late nights were work related, I had several chances to go out with friends and spend some time away from home/office. Liv and Dan invited me for dinner one night where we chatted for hours – and I got some advice for visiting the Blue Mountains. I joined Jen and some of her friends visiting from Canada for dinner at the local brewery called Little Creatures, which was awesome.
People kept telling me that I needed to go there, so it was really fun to see what all the hype was about. It’s a brewery/restaurant that’s kind of like a Boundary Bay Brewery (but better). The atmosphere was awesome, the food was excellent, and the beer was great – they even brew their own cider! As a side note: Aussies seem to really like their cider and it makes me happy! I rarely go to a pub that doesn’t have at least one choice of hard cider. Beer is nice, but cider is better. : ) Lastly, Scott Z. invited a couple of us from the office over for a BBQ…and he did it right! The Brat’s were boiled in beer before being brought to the flame and there were Polish sausages and Chicken breasts bought straight from the butcher. Yum! Unfortunately for Scott, most of the nights jokes were teasingly at his expense. Thank you Scott, Jen, Dan, and Liv for redeeming my week!
Oh! I nearly forgot to mention…last Friday was Golder’s 50th anniversary. …and even though I promised to take pictures, I failed. Sorry. It was a really pleasant evening…even though it was a bit of a challenge for me to get there after a full day in the field. They had assigned seating which turned out to be really nice. As a new person, I didn’t have to strategize where or who I would sit with…and whoever arranged it did a really nice job. There were a couple new people at the table, but also some others who had been at Golder for a while. One of the gals I sat next to was a lot of fun. We laughed and joked and pretty soon the table grew to twice the size. Apparently the Perth office gets a lot friendlier after the open bar and a couple bottles of wine. It was really nice, I enjoyed meeting everyone and nearly talked my voice away.

Settling In

Apologies! It’s been two weeks since I last updated. After getting back from my whirlwind back-to-back trips (Melbourne for fun, Esperance for work), I promptly got a head cold. As my father often has told me, I was ‘Burning the wick at both ends’. Too much fun and not enough sleep, it seems, can be somewhat dampening to the adventurous spirit. So, instead of heading north for the three day weekend to discover what mysteries lay there…I slept. And ate. And emailed. And visited the beach. And spent money at the bookstore. If not for hanging out with one of my co-workers Friday night and my time emailing and facebooking (I’m not sure if the last two count as social activities?), I would have been a complete recluse.

The ANZAC holiday for which we got Monday as a day off is similar to our Memorial Day, stands for something like this: Australia and New Zealand Army Corps – not totally sure about the last part. Anyway, it is a really big deal here. People go out of their way to honor the veterans, there’s a huge veterans parade (just veterans and bands), and almost everyone goes to at least one of several public memorial services that are held for fallen soldiers. That’s one thing I wish more Americans had. A little pride in their flag would be nice. It doesn’t mean that we hate others or that we live in a perfect place, but let’s face it. I enjoy the freedoms and privileges of being a U.S. citizen. Sometimes (and only very rarely) I wish we were a little more like Canadians. They put their little maple leaf on everything. Let’s see a little more stars and stripes!

Still feeling slightly under the weather, but on the mend, I worked Tuesday and Wednesday with the CPT rig. Cone Penetration Testing. As it was my first time working with the rig I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. It was marvelous! The probe gives real time data, which I find cool and the accommodation was wonderful…fully enclosed with windows, music, and if necessary, there’s air conditioning. Because of the shelter hard hats and sunscreen weren’t necessary – always a plus. And the company was good. We talked about everything from the latest commotion/scandal in the government to music and health care and cars and tv shows and accents. Really interesting. Maybe it’s easier to talk when you don’t have to yell over the sound of the rig too.

Before I knew it, the weekend was upon me. Fridays in the office are always great in the Perth office. Everyone takes turns throughout the year and whips up a BBQ on the roof at noon…yep, every Friday. Then at 4:30pm, the tech talk begins. The talk is usually on a variety of subjects, such as a new sampling method, or a visiting expert, or someone telling about an interesting project they’re working on…and it’s always supplied with refreshments and followed up with social time.

Last weekend was one of my favorite times in Perth. I’m feeling like I’m finally getting plugged in with some good people – at last! It’s so nice to have some friendly faces around. Last Friday after the tech talk, I joined two gals from the office for Chinese take-out and a movie. Wasn’t sure I’d like it, but if you haven’t seen Zombieland yet, get off this blog and go watch it! Hilarious!…in a sort of morbid way, if you feel bad for zombies. They also turned me on to a ‘new to me’ tv show called ‘The Mighty Boosh’. Let me know if you’ve seen it! On Saturday night I joined a bunch of gals, many from the office, for a potluck-style dinner. So yummy! We watched and critiqued the Iron Chef together and chatted up a storm. I have plans to hang out with one or two of the gals this weekend!

Sunday morning turned into a beautiful sunny day. I went to a church that had been recommended by one of my Brisbane friends and met some really lovely folks. Very friendly and even got an invite to a family Mother’s Day lunch the following weekend. From there I finally went and explored the King’s Park right behind Golder. If I were to try and explain it, I would say that it’s a slightly smaller and less manicured version of Central Park in New York. It has several war memorials and is situated on the edge of a bluff that overlooks the city. There are botanical gardens and manicured lawns, sports fields and café’s, footpaths throughout and elevated treetop walks. Following my trip through the park,
I met my housemate, Alfonso, to go watch Iron Man 2. Both of us really enjoyed it! If you liked the first one, you’ll like this one. I would definitely give it the thumbs up. I think it had the same fun factor as the first one and didn’t make the mistake other sequels by relying on the first one’s success.

I’ve been working on a new project this week that has required a large amount of coordination between the different contractors, sub-contractors and of course our client. It’s a high-security part of the Port of Fremantle where they have had trouble with several piles subsiding. My job is to figure out what’s down there and find out why the piles are sinking as a result, the engineer will decide how to drive the piles and how deep.
One hole is approximately 10 feet from the edge of the wharf while the other will be approximately 3 feet from the edge. The dolphins come in in the morning and play in the mouth of the river, huge freight ships dock about a hundred meters away, and pleasure crafts of all kind pass by almost constantly. Can’t complain about the weather either, it’s been cool in the mornings but warms up very nicely in the afternoons to about 75-80 degrees F.

During the last week, I’ve been talking to both the Perth office and my Redmond office about an end date and I finally have one…approximately. I will be working for Perth through the end of June, taking a couple weeks vacation to travel around, and be back home around the end of July. It’s so nice to finally have a plan. I’m going to be sad to leave Australia, but also happy to come home and see all you, my family and friends. Besides, I can’t wait for Seattle summer! My backpacking gear and the mountains are calling!

Next weekend is Golder’s 50th Anniversary (May 14) and I had a little scare over it. Each office has planned to do something special to celebrate and Perth is having a semi-formal night out at the Perth Convention center. This posed a fairly significant wardrobe problem for me as I didn’t bring a fancy dress for my field work. Between the work day and the odd shopping hours here, I was quite worried that I would end up wearing something only ‘business’ dressy. Except for Friday night ‘late shopping’ downtown, all the stores close at 5pm weekdays and have very limited hours on the weekends (if I get the weekend off!) Yikes! Luckily, I found a shop on my lunch break…tried on 3 dresses and got came out with one successful purchase. Found the shoes and appropriate shade of nail polish at late night shopping on Friday. I’ve never shopped like that in my life! So successful! I must give quite a bit of credit here to one of the girls I met at dinner the weekend before who helped me find all the shoe shops so that the perfect shoe was found. Will post pictures. Crisis averted!

Apostles and a town named for hope (Esperance)

This weekend (April 16-18, 2010), Ali and I met for an adventure weekend in Melbourne. We had three days to discover the beauties of the Great Ocean Road, including the ‘12 apostle’ sea stacks. I’ve wanted to see the 12 apostles ever since coming to Australia was a mere possibility and the fact that Ali was going set the stage for an awesome weekend!

My flight got in 5 hours before Ali’s. So, on my dad’s suggestion I looked for a 1/2 day city tour in the brochures at the airport. What do you know?!!...Grayline does half day city tours of Melbourne! Crazy! For those of you who don’t know, I worked for Grayline for 2 summers during college. I picked up the brochure, booked a spot on the tour, and got a taxi within 15 minutes of departing my flight. The coach tour (normally not my first choice for tours) was great because it was super chill – very nice after the red-eye flight…and it was a place to put the luggage I had with me. The tour took us (me and all the granny’s and gramps) around downtown, and several fringe suburbs. Upscale stores, huge-extremely huge farmers-type market (unfortunately we weren’t allowed out of the coach to shop), creative buildings and sky rises, sculptures, and botanical gardens. The city was an architect/designers dream. My impression was of a super mini-sized New York City with better weather, amazingly creative/beautiful buildings, and more public art. We also drove past the vegemite factory. Haha! I would definitely come back here! …and not just for the vegemite.

After the tour, Ali called to tell me she was on her way to pick me up in the rental car. While I waited, I stopped off at the visitor’s center and loaded up on maps. I like maps. Then Ali was there…it was so good to see her!

The next three hours were a bit trying…all because of a broken rental car and an incorrect map. The car was nothing too major, but definitely stifling. The air wouldn’t work…or rather it did, but it only blew hot air. No matter what. While trying to find the next avis on our way, we found that our map book (came with the rental car) was about 5 years old and didn’t show the new freeway we were on, so none of the exits or road signs made any sense. I hate being lost. Finally we were rescued by the rental company…and traded out the car. The evening, however, was completely redeemed by the restaurant we stumbled upon for dinner. One of the best meals I’ve ever had.

We had a lot of ground to cover in the next two days, so even though it was dark already, we decided to drive out towards the Apostles until we got tired. We found a campground and crashed. The next morning we got up early to watch the sunrise, and as we were leaving the campground there were two red eyes watching us. After getting over the fright, we quickly realized it was a full-sized koala. YES! A wild koala! It was about 4-5 feet up the trunk of a tree when we came upon it. It continued climbing down and crossed the street right in front of us…giving us a nice view it’s rear end as it crossed our headlights. : )

The rest of the day was filled with spectacular views of cliffs, beaches, caves, extinct volcanoes, blowholes, sea stacks, sinkholes, and limestone formations punctuated by fabulous meals and numerous wildlife sightings. The food in the Melbourne and Apostles area would be worth going back for all one their own. Fabulously yummy! And it was amazing how much wildlife we saw! I already mentioned the koala that morning…we also saw puffin-like birds, kangaroos, bandicoots, a fox, emus, another wild koala, hoards of dragon flies, a ring-tailed opossum, another larger opossum, and sulfur crested cockatoos. Words could never do the sights justice, so check out the pictures under the “Photo” link to the right.
After seeing the Apostles one last time at sunrise, we made our way back to the airport. We did only quick scenery stops on the way back, but of course had to stop for breakfast. Soon I was back in Perth. Unpacking and repacking.

The next day I was heading back to the airport bright and early Monday morning for a short 2-3 day project in a beautiful seaside town called Esperance. I flew over with the client and worked for two days, concluding the work a day early. After some intense finagling they allowed me to keep my original flight so that I could stay that extra day and explore. So glad I did! It was a full day, but I managed to see everything Lonely Planet told me I should. I started out with the scenic tourist ocean road loop with gorgeous beaches and a pink lake (that wasn’t all that pink), followed by a trip out to Cape Le Grand National Park. I really enjoyed the National Park. I saw herds of wild emus, packs of kangaroos, huge granite/gneiss outcrops, climbed a small mountain in an hour (wearing my flip flops…cause that’s all I had), then rushed off to see internationally renowned white sand beaches with bright turquoise water. The color of the water was amazing! I’ve never seen the ocean so blue-green. The blue-green contrasted beautifully with the white sand, the vibrant green foliage, and the reddish granite/gneiss outcrops. So beautiful! Did I mention yet that the beaches squeak? Yes, when you scuff your heels on the white sand it sounds like you’re scuffing your sneakers on a freshly polished floor. Very cool.

Now back in Perth, I’m exhausted. Time for a nap…what? Work? Hmmm….yes, I suppose I should.

Of sandy beaches, trees, and work at Freo Port

The last two days of my long Easter weekend were filled with excellent views of nature, wine, and lighthouses. I began Sunday with a road trip to Pemberton to see the giant Karri tree forests. The weather was being volatile and couldn’t make up its mind whether to rain or shine, so the drive turned out to be an excellent decision. It’s was really quite breath-taking to see those huge trees towering above me. The bark is beautiful! It’s thin and stripy…and shows a gorgeous array of shades of tan, orange, green and grey!

A little after noon, I made a stop at the Gloucester Tree, which is a climbing tree that you can climb all the way to the top. Once a fire lookout, the forest service drilled steel rods in a spiral pattern up the tree, like a ladder. The ladder goes all the way to the top of the tree where they’ve built a viewing cage…presumably so that people don’t fall off the 61 meter (~180 foot) tree while they’re taking pictures. Oddly, climbing the tree was one of the more scary things that I’ve ever consciously done. I approached it with confidence since I’m not afraid of heights, but as soon as I was about 15 feet off the ground I noticed how thin and slippery the bars were (especially since it had just rained) and how there were almost no safety measures…only a thin wire mesh to keep you from falling back, but nothing to keep you if you fell down. I did make it all the way up…with a thumping heart, took my pictures and got outta there! Sheeew! Upon reaching ground level again, I had to wait a few minutes to get myself under control before I could ask someone to take my picture at the bottom rungs of the ladder. My muscles were quite sore the next day, I think probably more from the adrenaline rather than the limited physical exertion it took to get up the tree. Following my stressful little rendezvous with the tree, I decided to take it easy at a little farm in the outskirts of town. I watched the chickens, the geese, the ponies, and took in the beautiful garden. Very peaceful..and had some fun with the macro feature on my camera.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early and headed out of town toward Perth, making several stops along the way. First stop was the winery, Vasse Felix. After a tasting and a visit to their art gallery, I walked out with a bottle of Shiraz and a bottle of a dessert wine (sweet, tangy, and in no way syrupy). Next stop was the little surfing town of Yallingup, where I caught some lunch and a latte while gazing at the beautiful beach. I will definitely make every attempt to go back there! It had the most fabulous combination of beach with and chill town hidden in the trees. Camping here maybe?...it is on the Cape to Cape track…hmm. My last stop was my favorite. Cape Naturaliste. After finding out that one must pay for a tour of the lighthouse to even get near it, I opted to hike the walking tracks that crisscross the cape. The weather was alternating between sunny and sudden downpours, so I had the tracks all to myself. After about a half hour of walking, I found myself at the ‘othersideof the moon’ beach. Yes, that’s how it was spelled. Absolutely breathtaking.

On the way back to the car, I nearly kicked a goanna (I think that’s what it was). Scarred the whoopee out of me. But I got pics to show the little rascal. I started stomping as I walked after that point…because I realized that if goanna lived near the ocean, snakes must too.

The rest of the drive back to Perth was uneventful – thankfully! After arriving back at my 'penthouse,' I got ready for my first day out in the field the next morning(Tuesday).

Field work went very well. It turned out to be much easier to slip into metric and calcareous soils than I thought…though I still have trouble when estimating lengths, anything shorter than a meter and I’m lost. Good thing there are tape measures! The days were really long…but that bodes quite well for taking next Friday off when I fly to Melbourne for next weekend!

I stayed around town this weekend, mostly to catch up on sleep laundry, emails, skype, this blog…and other miscellaneous. I expect to be working in the office all week and hopefully exploring around town when I get a chance.

April 3, 2010 Happy Easter!

I find myself in Augusta, Western Australia sitting here on a worn out couch in a sweet little YHA hostel while the Italian Job plays in the background (on one of only 3 channels the tv gets).

It turned out to be quite a challenge to get everything done on time, but here I am. I have a four day weekend because Australians get Friday and Monday off for Easter. So, I had to do some quick thinking and was lucky that there was still a bed available in the hostel that I’m staying. Prior to the weekend, I arrived on Monday and was given a job to set up and run…set up before the weekend to start the first day back! Yes, that’s right, 3 days…and I don’t even know all the laws yet. The poor people around me were pestered by questions repeatedly for three days. By the skin of my teeth and several late nights-and a really late night on Thursday, it is ready. I start drilling on Tuesday morning at 6:30am (!!! Holy Cow! That’s early!)

On Thursday, right after work, I moved to the Golder apartment that happens to be in the same building as the office. It’s on the “roof” floor – I like to call it the penthouse. :) There are three rooms and somehow I scored the master suite with my own bathroom (I think this is thanks to Kristy who is a fellow employee who is helping me get settled-she’s been awesome). The apartment opens up to the roof via sliding door and the view is amazing, the only problem is that there are other offices that look out on that same rooftop. I think this means that there will be no hot coffee or tea in my p.j.’s outside on the roof in the mornings… : ). I haven’t quite figured out the internet there and it’s a bit erie at night to be the only person in the only apartment in a 5 floor building. Also, it feels kind of like an office, windows don’t open, air conditioning turns on for only 2 hours at a time, no keys…only keycards. It does have a full kitchen! I can cook and eat healthy again! Finding the grocery store was another adventure all in itself and probably for another time, but it took me an hour driving around before I finally found one. Anyway, back to the weekend. Most people I talked to in the office recommended driving to the south for the weekend. I booked a car and a bed at the hostel. It was a beautiful drive down with a few random detours by my nutty GPS. The Karri trees are beautiful and stand out starkly in the cleared fields. There were sheep and wineries and very small towns along the way. The population is very light in any area outside Perth. The highway is narrow and feels like a random country road, but I like it, it makes it feel more adventurous. Today was my first day exploring the area. I made “friends” with some kids at breakfast (and promised a game of air hockey later that evening).


My first stop was Jewel Cave, a guided hour-long tour. BEAUTIFUL!! I just can’t get enough. Straws, stalactites, stalagmites, sparkling calcite crystals, the black nothingness when they turn out the lights, and the silence when no one makes a noise… From there I ran off to the lighthouse tour at Cape Luellin (sp?). The guide took us up the lighthouse and out on the top balcony. The view was really nice. After a quick lunch back at the hostel, I found a beach. Gorgeous, but weather was coming in and it was becoming cool and very windy. After freezing on the beach for a while I opted to stay in the wind-protected warmth of my car (door open) to read a book. Just as it was getting dark, the rain came. I played my promised game of air hockey after dinner, got into an awkward conversation with an old lecherous coot, and left to the tv room for some other company and to write this all. I’m seeing so many beautiful things. There are so many options that it’s hard to decide what to see next. The driving is coming almost easily now and the only thing I lack are good friends to explore with. Tomorrow depends on the weather; I may go for a drive, or the forests. I haven’t quite decided. I DO know that I will be taking plenty of pictures, so stay posted! HAPPY EASTER. Jesus loves us enough to go to the cross to be a mediator between us and God. His sacrifice covers sin. I thank God for that and am happy to celebrate the real reason for Easter. Love you all!...and come visit if you can!

March 29, 2010 Transitions

I arrived in Perth this afternoon after a 5 or 6 hour flight and went straight to the office. Thankfully it wasn’t 40 degrees C! It was more like 26, which is about 80 degrees F – and no humidity (or little, it’s hard for me to tell after 6 weeks in Bris)! The area is beautiful and seems to suit me more than Brisbane (so far)…mainly because it’s not tropical and wet, I think. It’s more like Nevada – except with trees. No more humidity…and crystal BLUE sky!
The office seems a bit like a maze and they don’t have anywhere for me to sit permanently yet, but everyone seems very nice – and I already have a project sitting on my desk in the morning. It’s a potential drill job in Fremantle next week, if we can get the permits in time.
I’m staying at a lovely hotel at the fringe of the city, walking distance from the office if I hoof it a ways. It’s an updated old "boutique" hotel with an old wooden elevator and a grand staircase. There’s a pub and a nice dining room on the main floor which have been very convenient and tasty. I think I’ll be enjoying staying here (until the end of the week when I move to another apartment leased long-term by Golder, I think).
As for life in general, I finally hit my wall last week Thursday. It’s not unusual for me to have a bit of a “blues” session after a certain period of long-term change like this. The homesickness bug bit HARD. Nothing really sparked it, maybe having another slow work week, maybe the continued unsettled schedule/living arrangement, maybe feeling like I’m never wearing the right clothing/always being underdressed with frizzy hair, maybe others having their own friends around or having their loved ones visit…who knows! All in all, I've just been feeling a bit blue. No big deal, but it is kind of a drag at the moment. As before, it will pass...and it provides me a great opportunity to tell those of you who are my friends and family how much I miss and love you. I also want to send a big thank you to Jen and Shah at the Brisbane office for keeping me company and keeping me laughing!
One more piece of news before I sign off. I found out on Sunday morning that my sweet ‘lil Cabby had to be put down quite suddenly on Friday night. I will miss his happy and unashamedly exuberant ‘welcome home’ greeting. He was the softest (literally), cutest, full of personality, easy-going dog I’ve ever seen. It’s rather embarrassing, I have been randomly breaking into tears (luckily nowhere too public yet) – and it’s only a dog for goodness sake! I can just tell that I’m going to be one of those old ladies who cry easily – happy or sad. Oh, well. I don’t care, life is painful sometimes and can be worthy of a good honest cry.

Up to Mach 20

Well, well, well, it’s been a while! The weeks have seemed to go by so quickly! I have finally reached a level of comfort here. It’s hard to explain, but when I first arrived everything felt a little…off balance. But, things are much better now. The spontaneous laughter is back and so is my confidence level. I don’t have to check every-other-word (and can now tease back when the Frenchman at work tells us we’re only American and he is a superior race). The last two weeks have been anything but boring. It’s been a roller coaster at work, one great adventure weekend and several eventful evenings out on the town.

Work is super dependent on the weather here…and of course they have had record breaking rains this whole season and record breaking rains the week after we got here (ESPECIALLY up north near our project area). The rain doesn’t seem to soak in, or run off, or evaporate quickly. It just puddles and floods everything. I am told that the first meter or so of the ground is mostly clay and at the first sign of a rain, the roads become impassable. After the last rains, it was estimated that the ground would take 4 weeks to dry up, but…THAT was before a cyclone (southern hemisphere version of a hurricane) was reported off the coast. It’s predicted to hit up north at the project area…bringing more rain. So, with the roads being impassable and the environmental concerns associated with muddy ground and heavy equipment, we are on standby. At first, there was enough work to keep us busy in the office, but now with further delays there is less and less to do. I have been asked to be available for a job based out of the Perth office next week at a mine near the town of Newman in Western Australia. It is forcast to be 40 degrees C for the whole week. YIKES! That’s HOT! I am excited for the opportunity despite the heat, both to be doing something and getting to go to Western Australia. It was one of those places that I really wanted to go, but because of time and distance I didn’t think I’d make it. I should find out next week if it will really happen.

This weekend, the decision was made to stick around town and chill, get organized, settle into our new living arrangement (cute little furnished two bedroom apartment), and finally go to church again. Wonderful!
Last weekend Ali and I struck out towards the coast and an area called Fingal Head, south of the Gold Coast. Beautiful….and WINDY! We had to put our car in front of our tent to ease some of the gusts. Since the beach was rather uncomfortable with all the wind, we decided to go for a drive down to Byron Bay, which was only about 45 minutes south. It was an excellent decision. We ate lunch, got gelato, walked the shops, and visited the lighthouse at the most easterly edge of Australia.
The lighthouse was my favorite. It had a gorgeous walk that extended almost to the very edge of the rocky outcrop where it joined the sea. The waves thundered against the rocks and the dolphins played in the surf. Raw and awesome.
We stopped by the grocery store on the way back to camp and made an amazing meal of grilled veggies and steak on the bbq. (Photos of the weekend are posted via the link on the right side of the page…and for those of you with facebook accounts, I have posted a video of the waves at Byron Bay).

Rain, Leeches, and Squeeky Sand

March 1. Monday. 4-wheel drive class.
Bright and early we headed north of Brisbane…again. 4-wheel drive class, round 2. …and this time we made it on time, without any mishaps! …though, still raining. Unfortunately, because of the rain we were unable to do all of the course…but still, TONS OF FUN! We learned so much about off roading and how to control the vehicle in extreme situatios, and what to do when stuck. Very practical. Some of the obstacles included a “river” crossing, steep slippery hills, huge ruts, and moguls (which are paired pothole and hill in a checker-type pattern – this means that when the front right tire and the left rear tire are on hills the other two tires are floating in the air…and 4-wheel drive can’t accelerate with only two wheels on the ground.) For those of you on facebook, I’ve uploaded a couple videos showing both Ali and I going through the moguls.

Also, there are new photos if you go to the link called "Photos" on the right-hand side of this page.

Tuesday through Thursday were pretty chill. Worked in the office, still diggin’ the landslides, and faults, and debris flows…etc. Ali and I hit up the fancy restaurant in town for dinner on Wednesday night. It was an Indian place that had a sampler meal for two people. We got to try so many more options. One funny thing about eating out here though, you bring your own booze to dinner. Most places don’t have liquor licenses, but they’ll allow you to bring your own in. Some places charge a ‘corkage’ fee, but others don’t.

There are really large bats here. We have been going for runs along the river after work, usually right before dusk and the bats COME OUT! They’re everywhere…in the sky that is! Mitch told us that they are fruit bats. The wing span is about 3 feet and whenever I see them flying over, all I can think of is… Gotham City!...and that Batman must be near. To top it all off, there’s a building that looks exactly like a Gotham City building in the middle of downtown.

…and a small vocabulary lesson:
That’s okay – you’re welcome
No worries – you’re welcome
Dodgy – sketchy
Tyres – tires
Toggs – swimsuits
Budgee smugglers – men’s speedos
Reckon – think
Right-O – sure
How’re you going? – How’s it going?
Haych – “H”

March 5 Weekend. Lamington National Park.

A co-worker from the office here, Shah, a Malaysian transplant of 8 years, asked us if we wanted were interested in going somewhere for the weekend. He had a car, we just had to come up with a plan. So, plan we did! We left Friday after work and stopped for food on the way…at a Texas style roadhouse! Very weird. I suppose that’s what it must feel like for Aussies to go to the Outback steakhouse. The ribs were good and messy, so I left satisfied and grinning. By the time we turned into the park it was dark and raining. The forecast had been for rain all weekend long, with possible breaks on Sunday, but we decided we could handle it…besides, it was still about 75 degrees! The road got narrower and more windy as we drove up, up, and up, in and out of fog. We made it to the campsite just about 9pm, still raining. The rain is different here. It’s like a weird warm rain that feels like a mist, but soaks you within seconds. I don't mind it as long as it's warm.

Saturday morning we woke up to wallabies nibbling on the grass in the small field below our tents, so cute. We had a full day of hiking planned and packed up to hit the trail, but not before stopping for coffee at the resort across the street from the hike entrance. The coffee was good, the hike was wet, and leeches are NOT your friends. The hike was very jungle-like with vines hanging all over the place, broad-leaf plants crowding any available patch of free space, wild birds singing loud exotic songs, mist hanging in the air, and LEECHES everywhere! They sit on the trail and when the feel vibrations of your feet stomping closer, they stretch out and latch onto you as you pass. If you stay in one place…they actually chase after you! And they are NOT slow like slugs, nor do they die easily. At one point – before we discovered that deet or skin-so-soft works on the little suckers – we thought about turning back they were so thick. But thankfully we conquered (and re-applied often) and continued on our way.
The waterfalls were beautiful. We only saw 5 people on the 12 mile loop trail. We encountered a blue lobster looking creature, both in the water and far from it – called the Blue Mountain Crayfish. It hissed and stuck it’s claws out at you if you got too close. Unfortunately, since it was raining and cloudy the viewpoint was a point with no views, but the waterfalls and the jungle were totally worth it. After dragging ourselves across the finish line we did a leech check and settled in for dinner and drinks at a picnic table under a canopy. Stories were told, laughter was had, jungle sounds, minimal bugs, no leeches. Perfect.

Sunday morning we went in search of a hot breakfast. We found a great little café in town with open air seating and COFFEE! After sleeping two nights in a row on hard ground, you’d need a nice tall mug of vanilla latte too! (I couldn't fit my sleeping pad into my luggage...grr)
After breakfast we zipped off toward the Gold Coast, to Broad beach, an area just south of Surfer’s Paradise. I slathered on the sunscreen before hitting the beach and it’s a good thing I did. I am a whitey compared to most people here and the sun is intense! (apparently the hole in the ozone layer is directly above Australia) I only got a tiny little burn on my shoulder after putting on 30+ and being out for 3 hours. Just down the beach there were tons of people and loud speakers going, so Ali and I headed over to check it out. (Shah took a nap under a tree in the dunes) It turned out that there was a huge competition where teams of all ages from towns up and down the coast were swimming, boarding, kayaking…etc in races and relays to buoys approx. 200 meters out from shore. It was fascinating to watch.
After doing a little swimming of our own followed by sunbathing, we headed back to our little hotel ‘home’. I slept like a rock.

The Frizziness Knows No End

Feb 25 – Feb 28
I realized in the course of reading my last post that I had not introduced Ali or discussed how this Australia opportunity came about. In early October (2009), I got an email from Mitch, whom I had worked with before he transferred from the Redmond office to Golder’s Brisbane office. He told me about a project they were bidding on, that if they won the bid, they would need several more people to staff the project….if I was interested in coming to Australia for 4-6 months. Of course I was interested! Longs story short, after months of waiting and the ups and downs of “YES! You’re going.” and in the next breath “oops, sorry. No you’re not.” Well, somehow after all that, I find myself here!

Ali is a coworker who has been at Golder Redmond a little longer than I have, she’s a year or two older and married to JB, who is somehow living without her for the next couple months. We both think rocks are cool, and are having lots of fun together as a great adventure team tackling the wilds of Brisbane and beyond.
The project (without going into overwhelming detail) is to provide geo-hazard and geologic information to geotechnical engineers for design and Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) parameters for a two connecting potential pipelines north of Brisbane, that combined are approximately 530 km long (roughly 300 mi).

Well, now…back to the story.

Feb 25 and 26 Thursday and Friday workdays.
Thursday morning I woke up with only a slightly sore neck (it healed very quickly!) and off to work again. Throughout the week in the office Ali and I had been given several fancy pieces of equipment to use…mostly for work in the field, but also in the office. We have 3G cell phones (strictly called mobiles here, NOT cell phones), Tablets, GPS cameras, handheld GPS with ArcPad (like a Trimble), SAT phones, and UHF radios. (At all times in the field they want us to have 3 types/options for communication.) The Brisbane office here is trying some alternatives to logging boreholes. Traditionally we work with a paper format in the field and then input the information into a program back to the office. Here they are testing out the latest and greatest version of a ‘tough book’, called a tablet, that we can literally write in the information into the program by drawing on the screen using a stylus into a program that automatically inputs it into the right borehole format (and the handwriting recognition is really good!). Obviously, from the amount of time I’m spending yakking about it, the tablet is my favorite so far, it has GPS capabilities (with ArcExporer), normal computer capabilities, internet anywhere with cell coverage, post-it notes program, and a window Journal program that allows you to scribble, draw, and take notes that stay exactly as you put it or can be converted to typing. Needless to say, a large part of the week was getting familiar with our new ‘toys’.

Ali and I also started working on some project work on Friday. I started a landslide study using LiDAR and google maps while Ali helped Mitch with some of the reporting from his field work. Fun, fun, fun! I love landslides!
Friday after work, Ali and I were both invited to go out with a bunch of the people from the office to celebrate a couple birthdays. We got all jazzed up (well, as much could with our limited wardrobe) and started off at a nice restaurant downtown (the downtown area called Fortitude Valley). It was Indian/Mediterranean style and very yummy. After dinner we follow the crowd of Golder-ites (about 30 in all) to a cocktail bar down the street. Turns out, that even in our best clothes we were turned away for wearing flip-flops. I will take a moment to note that our wardrobe has been yet another hurdle to deal with here. First of all, I brought way too many warm clothes…and by warm clothes I mean that jeans and a t-shirt is simply too much. I hardly ever wear jeans…they’re too heavy. The temperature ranges from hot to really hot (even when raining) and I didn’t really need more than 1 or 2 jackets (the office is cool). Also, the Bris office is more dressy than the Redmond office. Ali and I thought we would only be in the office 3-5 days until going out to the field for the majority of our time here. So, needless to say we’ve had to be a little creative to attempt the ‘fresh and new’ look. Also, as the title of this blog entry states…the frizziness is unstoppable. I’ve been to Virginia in the summer before, but somehow I cannot get my hair to look calm or professional. It insists on the juvenile. I feel like a teenager with bad hair all the time - all over again. I tried letting it have it’s own way, I tried blow drying it…and then I finally got my hair straightener to work the other day by getting a step-down transformer…but it seems that the second I straighten, it just curls right back up. Nothing is working…yet. The next step is to turn to product. …will venture in that direction next week, especially if it turns out that I’m not going into the field for a while.

Feb 27 Saturday. Rain.
Saturday really starts with Friday….just before we headed out with the crew, Ali got a call from the project manager to see if she would be willing to go out to the field last minute on Sunday to replace a sick team member. So, first thing Saturday we were headed back to the office to get her all set up for field work, and me to finish up some work, and skype, and email, and bank account stuff and…whatever. It was a nice day of catching up and organizing. It had started raining (it’s the end of the Wet here…the wet season) so it was nice to be inside and I was able to get ready for Sunday and looked up a church that is loosely affiliated with my home church (Mars Hill Church) through a church planting network called Acts 29 Network. It’s a small church plant that started up only two weeks earlier. I got the address and directions, so I was read for the next day….or so I thought.

Feb 28 Sunday. Adventuring in BBQ land.
Sunday started out as a nice beautiful morning. An hour before church started, I bid Ali farewell and good luck in the field, and headed off to a suburb south of town called Norman Park. Whooweee! What a fiasco. I started off at the local train station where I would need to take two different trains to get to my location. I was told that I had a half hour until my train arrived and that I could either wait for my train or walk down to the city cat and catch the boat to my connecting train. Of course I took the boat…the only problem was that the train was a lot further away than they train station guy had told me. But finally I made it – to the train terminal. By this time it was about 10:15 and I was only half way! I got off at the right stop and promptly realized that my directions were street/road map directions…and the road signs were not marked. After wandering around for a while, I finally found some shops that were still open. A very nice lady showed my on a map where to go…and the directions were easy enough. Turns out I went exactly the opposite way I was supposed to go. Ha! Figures. I snuck in only about 20ish minutes late – sweating, but happy to be there. Sermon was great. The church is indeed small, but very friendly. After the service I met the couple sitting next to me (Rob and Dora, about my parents age), then went outside and met a few of the gals who are about my age, then proceeded to meet just about the entire church (I’d say about 30 ppl). A few of the guys invited everyone over for bbq. I stopped by the grocery store with a couple of the girls and got meat before heading over. Lively conversations, lots of laughter, good community, yummy food, and a huge potential for making several awesome friends.
I got ‘home’ to the apartment and guess what?!! Ali was still there! Her job had gotten cancelled last minute due to rain up north. I have to say that I was really happy about having her stay. It’s so nice to have a friend to be around and do stuff with. All in all, it was a wonderful day for me.

Abandoning Anna

Feb 18-20 Abandoning Anna.
Well, we’re off! Brisbane, here we come! The day started off with mad cleaning and dashing about for last minute errands, and then the journey-ing began. One short flight to L.A. and one long flight direct to Brisbane. We left Seattle at 5:30pm and the first flight was mostly….uncomfortable. We sat all the way in the back of the plane, no reclining, screaming baby and the flight staff kept making intrusive announcements. The flight seemed to pass by fairly quickly, though, and soon we were in LA. LAX to be specific. Ha! What a zoo. We got off our plane, walked in a circle around the terminal before asking someone how to get to our gate. First the person told us we had to go out of security, then the guy next to him said “No, no! they need to get on the shuttle.” So they sent us to this unmarked door with a bunch of other people sitting in front of it. Signage was by word of mouth. There was one little soft spoken woman attending it. After about 15 minutes of just standing around, not even sure we were in the right place, the woman attending the door directed us to this VERY sketch waiting area just up some stairs from the tarmac. It felt like they were shipping us off toward something sinister. Well, turns out the shuttle got us exactly where we needed to be and we spent the next 2 hours hanging out at a little Mexican restaurant where they had the Olympics on.

The next 14 hours were actually quite comfortable. The company sprung for business class seats and by some fluke, the plane hadn’t quite been retrofitted with the business class seats yet, so we ended up with first class seats. The chairs reclined to an almost fully horizontal position. The food tasted quite good and the service was really great. Napkins with food, champagne upon boarding, wine with delicious dinner, blankets, noise reducing headphones, socks, toothbrush and toothpaste, and our own on-demand video display. The time passed quickly and after another delicious meal for breakfast we were on the ground.


Feb 20 Day 1 Saturday
Customs was easy and after collecting our bags we went on to immigration where we had to declare practically everything but electronics and clothes! All my packed-along food was examined as was my prescriptions and boots. I got scolded because my boot were dirty (they washed them) and they took away my backpackers meal cause it had dried turkey in it. Oh, well…it was soon done and both Ali and I were heading out toward fresh air! A friend of ours, Mitch, who transferred from our office 2 years ago picked us up at the airport and proceeded to introduce us to left-handed traffic while fielding our numerous questions. I had known about the wrong-side-of-the-road driving (left-handed driving), but it was really odd – especially in the parking lots.  We got checked into our hotel and proceeded to take a tour of the small shopping area near our hotel and stop by the supermarket for a few items. From there Mitch took us to South Bank which is a lively area on the weekends with restaurants, shops, farmers market, “the beach”, and monster boat races in the river. Since the actual beach is about an hour from downtown Brisbane, there are several man-made pools in South Bank that have sandy beaches that serve quite well in place of real beaches.

After spending most of the morning and afternoon together, Mitch left us on our own. Since it was about 2:30pm (BNE time) and 8:30pm (SEA time), Ali and I sat at the edge of the pool and pretty much chilled for a while…exhausted. After some rest and drinking of water and caffeinated soda we were ready to be on our way again, we walked the farmers market and hopped on the City Cat – a commuter boat somewhat like a city bus that runs up and down the river. Soon we were back to our hotel and Ali wanted some exercise, so I tagged along. Mine was a run-walk, hers was mostly a run when not waiting for me to catch up. Along the way we saw tons of Lorikeets (sp?) and cockatoos and other really beautiful birds. There are so many brightly colored, beautiful plants and animals here! And spiders, the spiders are huge – and Mitch tells us we haven’t even seen the big ones yet.
Following the run, the biggest goals were 1 – to stay up until 9, 2 – get some dinner.


Feb 21 Koala reserve. Sunday
Mitch had offered to take us to the Koala/animal reserve with his son, so we took him up on it. We left about 9:30am and got there just in time for the lorikeet feeding. The reserve is somewhat of a mixture between a zoo and a rehabilitation/reserve for injured or endangered species here in Aussie. The lorikeets are brightly colored wild birds that are dominantly green, orange, red, and yellow and are slightly larger than parakeets. The reserve staff makes up a lorikeet meal that looks like oatmeal and dispenses it in several bowls on sticks, once they’ve filled up the bowls, you can go on an pick on up. The birds know what’s coming, so they just swoop on down and start eating. So cool! I only got pooped on once (on my hand), my head became a perch only once, and I only lost 5% of my hearing. They are loud, but so beautiful and it was fabulous to see them so closely. I got to examine them less than a foot away from my face! The rest of our time at the reserve was great as well…baby lambs to pet, snakes, lizards, really large lizards, koalas, Tasmanian devils, wombats, kangaroos, really weird birds,

Feb 22 First day. Monday
Work….well, it was a lot of paperwork and safety training and meeting people.

Feb 23 Defensive driving. Tuesday
Location: 45 min north of the city (from where we are staying). Can I say L. O. S. T. Bad directions. No signs. We finally made it…and to our immense delight this was not your normal defensive driving class. We had about and hour in the classroom and then we ‘popped’ into the yutes (could be spelled utes…I don’t know) and then took a drive around the country side. We drove on paved roads (called bitumen, not asphalt here) and then did a little off-roading through one of the parks with huge beautiful gum trees. The view from the mountainous drive was beautiful! The class finished off with a stopping test to show how to most effectively use your brakes in the case of an emergency. Yes! We literally got up to 35 or 40 mph and slammed on the brakes to see how fast we could stop. Really fun. After the class we drove on out to the coast and took the scenic drive home…after dipping our feet into the unbelievably comfortable water! Not too warm and not too cool.

Feb 24 A bit of a bang-up job. Literally. Wed.
Today was a rough one for me…we had our second driving class today. It was supposed to be a 4 wheel drive class way out in the boonies…and sounded quite fun, but the fun didn’t even have a chance to start. Long story short, as I followed our instructor and Ali to the course (they were in the 4 wheel drive vehicle and I was in our tiny rental car – kind of like a geo metro), I forgot to double check right and pulled out into an uncontrolled intersection. Smashed myself right up. Poor truck (like ford ranger) didn’t have a chance to stop. T-boned me right in the driver door going maybe 30 or so. I walked away without a scratch and am feeling quite fine aside from a sore neck and some scratches from the glass. I don’t plan on doing that again…the paperwork mountain was terrible and still not over with. I thank God that it wasn’t worse and am happy to say that I’m still alive and praising Him. Love you all…just cause I don’t say it often enough.