On a Quiet Day in the North

Well it's a Sunday and I am sitting on Groote Eylandt as part of a tailing dam construction project for GEMCo [manganese mining] - things are a little quiet as there are none of the usual meetings held during the week.

It has been an interesting experience thus far. I started providing the WorleyParsons health & safety coverage for this site/project back in May and had expected only to have to do 1 or 2 trips. Several months later I have been back every 3rd week with only a single exception & it looks like I will continue to return for a week in every three until at least December.

There is a long story to my time up here (Groote Eylandt is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory - approx 4 hrs flight from Brisbane (if I was able to catch just one plane!), which I won't bore you with. Instead I am posting a few photos (there are not many to choose from) to give you a feel for the country up this way...

This little guy was given to me by Christine (our project adminstration) on one of my first few visits. It was a real pep-me-up as I was struggling with the many HSE issues being left unresolved. The sign he holds is a good reality check & yup I know I wouldn't swap my current job however stressful to try on bathing suits! Thanks Chrissy xox

On another visit, Ed decided a breath of fresh air was what was needed so took a 'short' trip on another quiet Sunday to explore the coast to the south of the mine lease, try my hand at some fly fishing & experience the 'other' side to our island location.

Although not my favourite landscape there were some truly lovely spots and also some fasinating finds like these salt plains.

Unfortunatly it is hard to see the beautiful carpet of colour spread out behind (& all around) me in this photo but I refer you to the next photo...

Here you can see the deep red colour of the succulents surviving in this harsh (hot & salty) area. Just amazing.

I added the another shot below to show the stark contrast between the rarer green ones to the red ones.

That's it for this round...

I hope to add some more photos again next time ... soon. LOL ():)

A Little Bit of Time to Kill

Okay so I see it has not only been now weeks it has actually been years since I last updated this blog. Thank God for my friend's blog having my blog linked as I drop into his blog infrequently but clearly more frequently than my own!

2007 was a bit of a changing year - I held a couple of jobs including my current one. A raft of flatmates came and went. I took on my current commitment of a committee position in the Cocker Spaniel Club of Queensland [Trophy Officer] - most definitely not worth the angst. Built a vege patch out of old hardwood stair treads.

I love pictures so I have posted one to share - this is Morris on his 4th birthday with a present. He looks pretty pleased with it in this photo! Sadly I had hoped that we could use it at our favourite dam swimming hole but discovered that after about 5 throws it stinks better then any stone. Lucky the throw in which I learnt this was rather short and I was able to retrieve it with my toes off the muddy bottom.

So this brings me to 2008 and a lull in my work load as our current project is winding down and I move onto another. In the mean time a few minutes are available in which to update you all.

So stay tuned....

():)

Fun Food

Not to seem like a complete moron but I am just trying to add this photo to my blogspot profile and so far picasa is defeating me.

Fingers crossed I can use this somehow????

():)

So now that I have worked out my photo issues I should probably explain what is happening in this photo since it is now showing up rather repetitively this month! lol
I had a Canadian girlfriend come to visit earlier this year (August) and on this night I decided to do rice paper rolls for dinner.
It is a very simple yet filling meal in which you soften rice paper discs in hotwater and then moving quickly to place your choice of filling on before rolling springroll-fashion before the whole thing sticks to whatever surface you are working on.
On this night I think I tried following a receipe for a ground beef and vege mix. Sadly it didn't quite live up to expectation as I recall it being too salty or having some sauce imbalance. I think next time I will go with more of a carefree approach and use more sauteed vegetables.
Tamara (my friend) took the photo.

Suddenly mute!

Well hellooooo!
Even though I figure there will be few that will find there way to this blog and I am still curiously drawn to the concept of posting my general musings out into the cyberspace world!
Being a little bit of a beginner to this I am also keen to get something out there ... just to see what it will look like and then better still how much control I have over that look. I guess this actually says alot about me in general really but then again maybe this is just humanity??
I ended up here and absolutely enthralled by a friend's blog page and the links to his friend's blogs and fasinated by how people think ... the similarities in the majority of cases [but often to afraid to share in 'reality'] and then the differences.
Anyway enough already... time to see what this will look like out in cyber space!
Until my next d&m musings cause me to strike again.

():)