Well, here I am on site. This'll be a quick one because it's getting late and I'm tired.
The people here are great. I'll introduce you to the team in a later post, but it seems like a close-knit team. We eat together and everyone is prety supportive. The camp itself isn't as integrated as Coyote was - there's no way you'd ever get to know everyone on site and when trying to find my room, I asked four people - none of whom could direct me there - and all of whom I later discovered were only a block or two away from me!
Our offices are brand new - so new that I don't even have a computer yet and am working on someone else's. They moved in a week ago, so the aircons are all in perfect condition, the desks are large, the rooms are clean and we're situated right next to the lunch room.
The landscape is beautiful. The dirt is a deep red, rocky, ever-changing, miniature gorges that are a gradual calming of the deeper gorges of the nearyby Karijini. I have a view from my room across to three hills, shaped like little mountains, pointy at the top. The rises and dips have character, some peaks knobbly and sudden, others smooth, others cut out in sudden edges like anvil.
The trees are small, the wildlife apparently is similar to what I saw in the Tanami - mangy camels and dingoes, healthy bungarras and grasshoppers, of course spiders and plenty of snakes. The skies are swirled with a mass of smoky grey clouds as the wet season struggles to make its mark so far south of the tropics.
The camp is huge, with lots of paths and lots of grass. I'm somewhere down the back, where it's quiet, dark and far away from the wet mess. (There are advantages to being the person who assigns rooms!) My room is s-p-a-c-i-o-u-s. There's even a little black leather couch and coffee table! Plenty of space for books and pictures and clothes. The bathroom is also huge, with a wide corner shower and a basin set in actual WOOD! Well, plastic made to look like wood, but the effect is pleasant. The bed is a king single and is happily situated under the remote-controlled LG aircon. There are plugs for phone and internet at my desk (yet to be tested for actual function so we'll see if they work once I get some cables). The tv has more stations than I've bothered to look at yet, including 3 movie channels. It's all very new and clean.
The gym is also large and well equipped. Classes are held every evening, a variety of walking, core strength exercises and more. There's a 25 metre lap pool, hard courts, and a kitchen that serves an abundance of tasty, healthy food. I've been issued a crib pack which comprises a cooler bag, several containers, a water bottle and a cup for the fair trade coffee that is available from the site crib.
You might also wonder what I do. I work within the REG - the "resource evaluation group". My team are geologists, drillers and field technicians. Basically they find and analyse which bits of dirt the others should dig up. Mostly I spend my day emailing people to tell them that if they'd stop bugging me for five seconds I might actually get a chance to book the travel they're asking about. I'm dealing with some remarkably impatient and often stupid people, but mostly they need to be disciplined so that they stop changing bookings for tomorrow and then asking in the same breath about the status of bookings for next month. One girl in particular springs to mind - she has been thrown into absolute panic and despair at the thought of having to look up her own travel confirmations online. All this modern technology - how terrifying!
The core of my work is to book people's travel and accommodation, and confirm their site access is all in order. Sounds simple, but when you take into account the constant late notice and frequent changes, the lack of spare rooms and the panicked emails from people like the poor aforementioned damsel, it becomes quite time consuming. I'll also soon take on some of the work related to invoice approvals and then of course do all the other bits and pieces that come across my desk. A few of the team have already said it's not fair that I should be in the office all the time, so it seems I'll be given frequent opportunities to go out and visit some of the drill rigs as well.
First day on site: hectic, interesting, exciting. I'm especially dazzled by the beauty of the landscape and rejuvenated by my return to Australia's heart; the frizzled kiss of her heat waves, the dancing clouds of her skies and the deep reds, browns and greens of her paintbox.
Photos
The view of my room from the entrance
My little "lounge room" (that's the table you can see the corner of in the photo above)
The view of the entrance from my bed.
My pretty bathroom - you can't really tell but the towels and bathmat match the room!
The people here are great. I'll introduce you to the team in a later post, but it seems like a close-knit team. We eat together and everyone is prety supportive. The camp itself isn't as integrated as Coyote was - there's no way you'd ever get to know everyone on site and when trying to find my room, I asked four people - none of whom could direct me there - and all of whom I later discovered were only a block or two away from me!
Our offices are brand new - so new that I don't even have a computer yet and am working on someone else's. They moved in a week ago, so the aircons are all in perfect condition, the desks are large, the rooms are clean and we're situated right next to the lunch room.
The landscape is beautiful. The dirt is a deep red, rocky, ever-changing, miniature gorges that are a gradual calming of the deeper gorges of the nearyby Karijini. I have a view from my room across to three hills, shaped like little mountains, pointy at the top. The rises and dips have character, some peaks knobbly and sudden, others smooth, others cut out in sudden edges like anvil.
The trees are small, the wildlife apparently is similar to what I saw in the Tanami - mangy camels and dingoes, healthy bungarras and grasshoppers, of course spiders and plenty of snakes. The skies are swirled with a mass of smoky grey clouds as the wet season struggles to make its mark so far south of the tropics.
The camp is huge, with lots of paths and lots of grass. I'm somewhere down the back, where it's quiet, dark and far away from the wet mess. (There are advantages to being the person who assigns rooms!) My room is s-p-a-c-i-o-u-s. There's even a little black leather couch and coffee table! Plenty of space for books and pictures and clothes. The bathroom is also huge, with a wide corner shower and a basin set in actual WOOD! Well, plastic made to look like wood, but the effect is pleasant. The bed is a king single and is happily situated under the remote-controlled LG aircon. There are plugs for phone and internet at my desk (yet to be tested for actual function so we'll see if they work once I get some cables). The tv has more stations than I've bothered to look at yet, including 3 movie channels. It's all very new and clean.
The gym is also large and well equipped. Classes are held every evening, a variety of walking, core strength exercises and more. There's a 25 metre lap pool, hard courts, and a kitchen that serves an abundance of tasty, healthy food. I've been issued a crib pack which comprises a cooler bag, several containers, a water bottle and a cup for the fair trade coffee that is available from the site crib.
You might also wonder what I do. I work within the REG - the "resource evaluation group". My team are geologists, drillers and field technicians. Basically they find and analyse which bits of dirt the others should dig up. Mostly I spend my day emailing people to tell them that if they'd stop bugging me for five seconds I might actually get a chance to book the travel they're asking about. I'm dealing with some remarkably impatient and often stupid people, but mostly they need to be disciplined so that they stop changing bookings for tomorrow and then asking in the same breath about the status of bookings for next month. One girl in particular springs to mind - she has been thrown into absolute panic and despair at the thought of having to look up her own travel confirmations online. All this modern technology - how terrifying!
The core of my work is to book people's travel and accommodation, and confirm their site access is all in order. Sounds simple, but when you take into account the constant late notice and frequent changes, the lack of spare rooms and the panicked emails from people like the poor aforementioned damsel, it becomes quite time consuming. I'll also soon take on some of the work related to invoice approvals and then of course do all the other bits and pieces that come across my desk. A few of the team have already said it's not fair that I should be in the office all the time, so it seems I'll be given frequent opportunities to go out and visit some of the drill rigs as well.
First day on site: hectic, interesting, exciting. I'm especially dazzled by the beauty of the landscape and rejuvenated by my return to Australia's heart; the frizzled kiss of her heat waves, the dancing clouds of her skies and the deep reds, browns and greens of her paintbox.
Photos
The view of my room from the entrance
My little "lounge room" (that's the table you can see the corner of in the photo above)
The view of the entrance from my bed.
My pretty bathroom - you can't really tell but the towels and bathmat match the room!
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