He ain't heavy, he's Al's brother

In the tradition of 'Hotel DeRooy' (formerly located in Gove, now in Brisbane) Al's little bro (Big D) has been staying with us for the past 10 days in the BrisVegas. After a week with rellys in Bundy he came down for just over a week at our place. Well I can tell you after the dinner cooking and kitchen cleaning that he did he's welcome anytime.


The did the traditional, 'take the visitor to the Goldy or the Sunny coast' on Saturday and took Big D to the Eumundi markets. Beginning with Coffee and Churro's it was beautiful weather in the Sunny hinterland. We found a few exciting things including 2 commercial gerbra plants for me. Apparently they flower up to 80 times a year! Yippeee gerbras all year round. We also picked up a couple of presents for upcoming bday's and special events in the family.


We then drove to Mooloolaba for a burger and a froghurt on the esplanade. Whilst Al chatted to other pilots we took a quick peek at K-Rudd's plane at the airport before heading home, a little tired.


Next week - PNG! Yes I am off to our operations in PNG...stay tuned for my first pacific experience!

We can be happy underground

I am not sure that I am so 'happy underground' after my experience at Ballarat last week and I have developed an unparalled respect for those that work down there.

My first day at my new job I was off to the mining and processing operations in Ballarat. Talk about baptism of fire....I had it. Thrown in the deep end with the operation, meeting new people and the intranet redevelopment project. Thankfully my boss and two of our consultants were there to answer the really hard questions.

I now have a new venacular for work (there is nothing like a few acronyms to confuse people) that includes; stope, portal, decline, leeching, jumbo, CLT, BLT (sounds like a sandwich), JSA, SWI, STP, PRG and step backs.

The highlight of the week was, of course, my trip underground. Michael, one of the GeoTech team, took my boss and I underground to show us some of the development work and generally how things were going 'down the hole'. If anyone wants to buy me Geology for Dummies, for Christmas it might come in handy. Try as I might I couldn't summon enough information from my Year 5 unit on Gold to get me through the day. There were too many geological terms with 'ite' at the end for my liking!

I can tell you: 1) that it was interesting and 2) I have never been so happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel in my entire life.

I'll stick to the surface on the earth thanks!

Take me to the July sun in Cairns

Well actually I'm leaving the July sun in Cairns now on my way to freeze my butt off in Ballarat but here's a wrap up of my short lived holiday with the 'old' and the 'older' (ie Mo & Squeezey).

I had 4 days between jobs and a small break was in order so I hopped a plane to Cairns to join Mo & Squeeze for a few days of fun in the sun. My biggest achievement on day 1 was getting a sun tan and starting my book! Squeeze and I paddled in the pool (which was freezing) and ate chinese sitting on the balcony of our room.

Day 2 took us up the skyrail to Kuranda. This is a great tourist attraction and a really easy one if you've got small kids or 'olds' that don't get around so well. We were easily able to get Squeeze on and off the skyrail carriages with the help of the friendly staff. Not much to do up at Kuranda and if I see one more badly made didgeridoo I will scream! But nonetheless we had a great time pottering around the markets, eating gormet prawn sandwiches for lunch and giggling at the number of 'WYD' pilgrims hanging around.

Day 3 well I had to call it...and I called badly. We decided to stay and lounge around the pool instead of drive up to Port Douglas and about 11am it started to rain and it still hasn't stopped. We had fun anyway, taking photos underwater with Mo's camera and geneally lounging about until then. Mo-pants and I then went to the shops while Squeeze watched some telly. We lazed about all afternoon before getting dolled up and headed down for a happy-hour cocktail and a game of travel scrabble. Mo whipped both our butts (which I will get revenge for later...) but it was great fun. We bit the bullet and had dinner in the hotel restaurant which turned out to be a great 'birthday' dinner for the 86 year old Squeeze. The staff made a big fuss and brought here out a special dessert with a sparkler in it. People in the restaurant sang happy birthday and 'hip hip hoorayed' her which she loved.

Anyway...on my way to Melb now and better go as they are boarding our flight. Will post photos soon.

Nhulunbuy state of mind

Get out your Billy Joel 'Greatest Hits' CD and sing along with my version of New York State of Mind.....Nhulunbuy state of mind

Some folks like to get away,
Take a holiday from the neighbourhood,
Hop a flight to a Melbourne show or to Goldywood.
But I'm takin' a 717 on the Qantaslink line --
I'm in a Nhulunbuy state of mind.

I've seen all the soapie stars
In their fancy cars and their limousines,
Been high in the hinterland with the wineries;
I know what I'm needin', and I don't wanna waste more time
I'm in a Nhulunbuy state of mind.

It was so easy livin' day by day
Out of touch with handbags and shoes;
But now I need a little give and take,
The Arafura Times, the NT News.

It comes down to reality,
And it's fine with me, 'cause I've let it slide;
I don't care if it's Scout Camp or Little Bondi.
I don't have any reasons; I left them all behind --
I'm in a Nhulunbuy state of mind.

I'm just taking a 717 on the Qantaslink line.
'Cause I'm in a Nhulunbuy state of mind.

Nhulunbuy - I'm going to miss you!

Come fly with me

Crystal blue skies, fluffy white clouds and the sun creeping over the east. It's going to look pretty spectacular right? Well try looking at that, on climb to 9000ft in a plane with your huband at 6am on a Sunday morning. Not everyone's cup of tea, but for me it was perfect.

Al had to fly a member of QLD parliament to a couple of places in inland QLD on Sunday so I tagged along for a bit of flying fun and a chance to see more of QLD.

We started out in Bris at 6am and then flew to Harvey Bay to pick up our passenger. From Harvey Bay to St George; where it was a cilly 10 degrees when we landed at 8:30am. St George is a town of about 3000 people, according to the local earthmoving contractor who drove us into town from the airport. And friendly, as many small country towns are. We had coffee at the local bakery in the morning, strolled along the Balonne river and had lunch at the local pub (well, one of the 4 local pubs). I remember saying to Al during lunch at the pub (over our HUGE burgers) that I was having a great time. He looked at me and said 'I can tell when you're enjoyng yourself because your eyes sparkle with delight!'

Finally, we returned to the airport for a quick kip before the next leg of our journey. Our kip was interrupted by local businessman/retiree Charlie who had arrived at the airport to pick up some friends and decided he was up for a chat with two strangers! Charlie turned out to be a plane enthusiast and actually owned a Cessna 210 so he and Al had plenty to talk about. 45 minutes later Charlies' passengers had arrived and so had ours.

From St George we moved onto Inglewood to drop off our passenger before heading home to Brisbane. Al, being the cheeky bugger that he is, decided to do zoom climbs as we took off from Inglewood, which he knows I hate. His joke came back to bite him on the ass when he was wondering why we weren't picking up speed. It turns out in all his earlier cajoling he had forgotten to put the landing gear up and it was creating too much wind resistence for us to get up to full speed. :-)

When we got close to Bris, Al got permission for us to circle over the city and I went mad with my camera. I took so many photos I am hoping that one of them turned out okay! Will load them up soon so you can see for yourself the continuing adventures of Holnal!