End of Oz II

It appears this stint is coming to another end here in Australia, with my assignment drawing to a close and my pending mobilization to Papua New Guinea for the construction phase. The date has been set for 9-Sept, so I've started making arrangmements to get rid of furniture, sell the car, and send some things back to Canada for storage... This date has been a couple months in making, with an original forecast of June. But I was never that optimistic and have been telling anyone who asked that my mobilisation to PNG was 4-6 weeks away. Well, there was a hint of it before I left for hols but it was confirmed when I returned that it was really going to happen.

Of course I'm sad to leave once again, it's been an awesome year. But I always knew this was the end game. Reuniting with Aussie friends and coworkers from 2006 was great, plus I've of coursed made many more the course of the year.

Life will be a little different in PNG. I'll be living in the national capital of Port Moresby in company supplied apartment style townhouses. I've seen a few pictures and have heard good news about the arrangements from coworkers who have already made the move. The work will be a lot more intense with the work schedule being 7days per week and 11 hour days (77/week). We do this for 6 weeks and then get 3 weeks off, with the standard arrangement to fly back to Calgary (or somewhere of equal or lessor value). It'll take some getting used to, the last assignment in Egypt was 56 hours per week....

We do get a half day off on Sundays, on which I'm hoping to hone my mid-irons at the Port Moresby Golf Club. Other than that I believe social opportunities are scarce due mostly to our work schedule and partly due to our limited mobility in-country. We won't have our own transportation but are instead given access to a pool of drivers and vans. I think most people use them to go shopping and whatnot, and not many pub crawls. I'll make an effort to change this though... I'm hoping my radio call sign will be something along the lines of Party Machine. Hah.

So that's the latest. Here's a picture of my favorite sushi bar whilst enjoying a bottle of cola. Hanachi on the Queen St Mall beside Wagamama and Strike Bowling. Order the sashimi plate, best in Brissie. I'll miss it.



-- Post From My iPhone

California

Apologies for the lack of blogging, but Facebook has ended up being a more convenient place to through pictures and quick updates. But, here's a significant post.

I've spent the last 10 days in central California to stand up for a friend in his wedding to a beautiful bride. A bunch of friends made the trip down from Calgary for the events. The newlyweds planned a great week between San Francisco and the Carmel area. We toured, we wine-toured, we golfed, we went to a ball game, we took scenic drives, we hot-tubbed, we cooked, we had push-up contests, we shopped, and most of all we enjoyed everyone's company with the happy couple.

Here are a few pictures.... Unfortunately they're not in chronological order, but they're here!

Safety first

Last week I was asked to attend a two day safety leadership conference down in kingscliff, to the south of the Gold Coast. It was an all day event with our construction group and most high level client management as well. It was an informative and enjoyable conference held at a great location. The hotel was called Mantra, and this is the pool:


-- Post From My iPhone

A couple posts for Frank

http://everygirlssecret.com/2009/06/bacon-vodka-the-swine-shot-to-get-this-summer/

http://www.andiamnotlying.com/2009/bacon-infused-vodka/

All the latest rage

I hear "the frank" is the next drink of choice amongst young professional types at this year's stampede.

It's Patron with a slice of goodness.



-- Post From My iPhone

Winter evening

On my way to a work dinner in southbank, but had to admire the Brisbane winter evening by the river at the ferry wharf.


-- Post From My iPhone

News of my project

Here's a news article about the specific part of the project I'm working on... constructing the training facilities in Port Moresby.

What does this mean for me, you ask? It means we're a step closer to starting construction and actually mobilizing to PNG, should happen late August for me...

Have I really not posted anything since the end of May?? I get so confused... between Facebook and this blog I'm not sure where/what I've posted.

Anyways, here's some pics from my home leave to Canada. I'm stranded in Vancouver as my flight to Sydney is delayed 2 hours, so it's going to be a 4 or 5 hour layover. Oh well, flying bidness class so the Maple Leaf lounge will get a work out. They better not run out of Crown Royal.

Downtown Calgary, businessmen in cowboy hats, yee haw!

Driving to BC to see g-ma... miss those mountains:
James and Alisha's wedding in Toronto, here's the CN tower view from my hotel room:
Happily married, Alisha is already dozing off! lol, great wedding though and lots of fun:
Golfing at Kananaskis... more good views:
Not complete without wildlife on the course:
More wildlife, my new drive club cover. Say hello to the Beav:

Perth

Flew to Perth this past weekend to see a few friends. James and Alisha who I worked with in McMurray and Egypt, Jeremy who is an Aussie I worried with in Perth and visited in Vietnam, and Joe and Leigh Ann who I worked with in McMurray on UE1. James is here temporarily working on another job in Perth and Joe has made a permanent move here...

The pictures are pretty sad, oh well. I'm missing a few pics of the Swan Valley and all tv wineries we tasted, as well as a couple breweries... Which was definitely a high light from Saturday.

Saturday eve we went for a great dinner and then out for a night on the town, which was great. Sunday we spent mostly in Fremantle for some more touring and beer tasting...

Jeremy and his housemate Rob at the Duckstein brewery in the Swan Valley which is where a few Western Australian wines are made. We toured around the area tasting all of Saturday..


James and alisha--








Little Creatures brewery in Fremantle:





More Freo:














Post From My iPhone

Shirt pockets

Today is the first time I've ever put a pen in a shirt pocket. It was just so convenient. In the past I've just clipped the pen onto a book or whatevere else I was carrying at the time but today the book was too thick and I didn't want to bend the pen's clip, so the shirt pocket was a natural alternative. I'm afraid to use this option on a regular basis though because of the sterotypes associated with pens in shirt pockets. Dorky engineers walking around with pens of each colour plus calculators and rulers sticking out of their shirts. Or anyone over 50... I reckon the only people who it suits are carpenters or cooks, and even they usually have those cool carpenter/chef shirts that have the pockets on the sleeves.


-- Post From My iPhone

Camping, surfing, tryin' to lose my mind

This past weekend was another classic chapter in Queensland lifestyle, spent with the Collin's crew camping on Moreton Island. Moreton Island is just east of Brisbane and is only an hours ferry ride away. We loaded the ute Thursday evening and then blasted off early from work to make the 1pm ferry on Friday arvo.

There was an oil spill off the east of of Queensland in March, which was pretty serious and had actually caused the closure of the Moreton to the public until last week. Here's a picture of the beach during the spill:

But good news, it's clean now and ready to be enjoyed. This pictuer is of Honeymoon bay, which is about a 5 minute walk from where we camped. Perfect.

This is the Collins family on the ferry on the way over (from L to R: Mikaela, Steve, Janine, Chloe):

Here are the Tangalooma wrecks, just off the coast and just next to where the ferry drops us off, right onto the beach. Great snorkling and fishing around the wrecks... I guess Moreton Island was an old whaling station and these are old whaling boats after they decimated the whale population:

This was a quadding tour leaving Tangalooma as we arrived:

Driving up the beach to our camp spot on North Point:

A bypass inland for a little ways:

Sunset over the glass house mountains as seen from the north shore of Moreton Island.

This weekend was the first time I actually felt like a surfer... as in I stood up almost more than I fell face first and bounced off the bottom. There was a sweet little point break off the north point where you had to hike in for about 15 minutes because there was no other access. On Sunday we actually walked down the sand blow you see in the pic, wicked scenery. Dive in off the rocks and away you go. Sunday's session was the best surf experience I've ever had.

Part of the reason we started from the sand blow on Sunday was because we ran into a ranger who told us about the spotting of 5-6 5m+ bronze whalers (f'ing man eating sharks) on the south end of the island. So we took the high road to see if we could see anything in the water before we dove in.... luckily no whalers in site that day... Here's a link to a story about the siting, there was a picture in the paper but I can't find it online.

Good times.

This weekend I'm off to Perth to visit my friend Jeremy (visited him in Vietnam in '06), James and Alisha (fellow Cdns who I worked with in Egypt and Fort McMurray), and Joe Lyttle (worked with in Fort McMurray but he now lives in Perth). Just quick Friday to Sunday jaunt, looking forward to it though!