Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Having fun in the sun?

The West Australian outback surprises me every time I visit. On my last stint in Southern Cross we sweltered through 4 days of temperatures well over 40 with increasing humidity. When the easterly blew it was straight out of the hot red centre, scalding your face and making your lungs labour. We didn't consume anything solid. The only source of relief and sustenance was through water, body temperature or cool and beer, definitely chilled.
Then one afternoon I spotted what looked like smoke on the horizon and a decidedly strong and gusty westerly took supremacy. As the dark cloud rose higher in the sky and continued to rapidly advance it begun to dawn on us that it was red. A great red wall of dust announcing the arrival of a cold front. I've never seen anything like it, as it drew closer it was like a solar eclipse. I lamented the loss of all that critical topsoil from the poor farmers but geez it was almost worth it.
When the cloud was finally upon us, the wind howling and the entire horizon dominated by a very post apocolyptic scene it was simply thrilling. The dust stung our eyes as we belatedly hurried back to the house to close windows and doors, and then the world was red. How I wish we'd had a decent camera between the lot of us because the hue that the red tint gave to everything was magical and poorly captured by our little quick shot digitals.



And the fun didn't stop there. I left Southern Cross and headed north a couple of hundred clicks just 2 days later. Clouds were skirting us all day, it was so hot and sticky, the exhaust from the booster truck blowing straight into me, we postulated that because the sun couldn't penetrate the surrounding areas due to cover it was taking out it's vengeance on our small patch. Or at least it bloody felt like it. Then mid afternoon some of the clouds that had ran south in the morning and grown dark and foreboding in the interim suddenly swung towards us again. I thought I could make out the grumblings of thunder over the air piercing noise of the drill rig but couldn't see any lightening. (Yes yes I know the rule, 'if you hear it, fear it, if you see it, flee it) We were stuck on a flat alluvial plain with a scattering of low mulga trees and salt bush. So the 20 foot steel drill rig mast was literally the highest point for a good few kilometres. But we thought nothing of it, the clouds had been messing with us all day. Evidently they weren't done because the cloud did advance, quite rapidly and when the gale force winds hit I knew then that I could hear thunder. As I thought it I saw the lightening too, and just for good measure checked that the radio station was indeed unrecognisable due to the static. Time to park it up boys. We pulled the mast down and scurried back to camp just as the first rain started pelting.
I love it when it rains out here. There's nothing petite or polite about it, there's no soft sighing of water gently touching the surface and soaking in. It sounds like an invading army, loud and unescapable. It soaks the surface and in a matter of minutes erodes the landscape creating new floodways and temporary rivers. It rips leaves from branches and sometimes branches from trees and destroys the workings of ground dwelling invertebrates. It's a glorious thing to witness. Rain is life and it bursts onto the scene proclaiming loudly, here I am! Take me if you can!
Little did we know those pesky clouds had more than mere rain in store for us. Back at camp the near horizontal deluge had passed and we were tidying up the mess when one of the boys says 'Hey did you hear that? Did something just fall off that caravan?' indicating one of the 4 caravans we were staying in. The 2 of us that heard shook our heads. 'Nah mate don't know what you're talking ab-' And he's cut off by the sound of something very solid and quite weighty hitting the roof of the caravan whose awning we're sitting under. We all pause and look at each other dumbfounded. That was no branch, and definitely not a honky nut, no marri trees out here. Then we hear it again and for the 4th time then finally it pings off the roof and onto the ground in front of us. I should have known that turquoise blue hue to the cloud was not a good thing because sitting on the ground in front in front of us now is a hail stone the size of my fist (for reference I do have small girly hands but my fist is still a considerable size). We look at each other, with 'What the?' and 'Holy shit!' expletives. Although obviously it is not sacramental faecal matter. Then from the hill behind us begins a very loud din, I can only describe it as what I imagine a vortex or tornado would sound like. A great whirring and crashing and we're all suddenly standing out in the open gawking. We're hit by a wave of vegetation fragments ripped from their hosts and then the hail came. Fast and hard, huge stones not nice and neatly rounded but knobbly and angular and frankly evil looking. We stood under that awning saying things of religious origin which did not even begin to describe the spectacle. In 5 minutes it was over and the ground was white with hail stones great and small. Rain followed and we were left gob smacked.
Now I'm not so crushed I missed the big hail storm in Perth, because out here it was a million times more exciting. Our boss who tried to visit us that day (without looking at the weather forecast mind you) now has a toyota prado that looks just like the great hail storm car wrecks! Brilliant!

P.s I promise to post the video that one of the offsiders took on his phone, if I ever manage to get it off him....

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I am, you are, we are Australian

'We are one, but we are many, and from all the lands on earth we come. We share our dreams and sing with one voice I am, you are, we are Australian' (©Bruce Woodley 1987). It's Australia Day, the 26th January, a date that marks the first foundations of this great country, the first colonists arriving in Sydney Harbour in 1788. And I'm feeling exceptionally patriotic today. We've never had to fight for our independence, we've never had to quell civil uprisings and the poor natives we're too ill-equipped to form much resistance to occupation. But all that aside I'm proud of the what we have achieved and who we are.
This is a magnificent country, so vast that it contains deserts and salt lakes, snowy mountains and verdant river basins, tropical rainforests and islands and stunning beaches. There are places where statistically you could be the only human being within a 200km radius. The land can be harsh and hostile, after all it was no New World to the early settlers, they sent boat loads of criminals and convicts to serve out their sentences in Terra Nulis (No Man's Land). I've heard the West Australian outback termed a 'Hard Place for Hardy People'. Having lived here my whole life I tend to agree. Just look at the Eastern States at the moment, whilst 75% of the state of Queensland was declared a natural disaster zone due to the worst floods in nearly 40 years parts of Perth in were on fire. But I also know that if you are a hardy person, you work hard and play hard, if you're willing to give everything a fair go than the opportunities within this country are endless.
Get away from the cities like Sydney and Melbourne, full of tourists and yuppies who think 38ᵒC is hot, get into the real outback and you realise it's not just a gimmick. It's a place where 'she'll be right' really means it will be alright because the Australian spirit never gives up and if it ever wavers your mates will be standing there to lend a hand. Heck the Queensland Mud Army (volunteers helping to clean up after the floods) were just every day Australians helping out complete strangers because that's what we do. We may be a young country with citizens from all over the world but once here you can't help but fall in love and admit to being Australian. So before I continue to prattle even further here is a poem that sums it up very well, ask any true blue Australian and they'll agree, I love a sunburnt country! P.s The first verse refers to the mother England that many of the original settlers came from.
My Country
The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
©Dorothea MacKellar (1904)

And just because I can't help it and watching this made me tear up with pride here is a song from Oprah's recent visit to Australia.


Monday, December 20, 2010

Thought Provoking U2 Concert

We saw a fantastic live performance last night, the U2 360 Tour. For only $40 it was the best value for money Sunday afternoon I've probably ever experienced. The sound quality and visual effects were stunning, the stage resembled an alien craft and a moving set of interlocking circular LCD screens further heightened the likeness. Watching the visual onslaught, feeling the bass and Bono's voice vibrate in every cell I wondered what the next step in live concerts could possibly be. However my thoughts were quickly diverted from such materialistic ideas when the band spoke about their collusion with Amnesty International and the recent release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Burmese Democracy Movement who has been under house arrest since her party won 59% of votes in the 1990 general election. She was told by the military jung in power that if she left the country she would be freed, she never left. It warmed me considerably to see that U2 have used their star power and influence to help this woman and her country and left me feeling pretty guilty for my own self-serving existence.

world community Pictures, Images and PhotosDon't get me wrong I have good intentions and a world of sympathy for the down trodden, the starving, the sick, the orphaned and the persecuted. But I've never done anything for these people. Sure I've given some cash to those annoying people that stand in the middle of the shopping centre and sometimes thought guiltily that I ought to give up some of my time to be one, but principles, and work commitments prevent me from asking for money off complete strangers. I feel if people want to donate they will, in their own time and capacity and they will feel a greater sense of contribution than when an over eager fit and frenzied youth shakes a tin in their face. So what is there to do? I want to help, I really do but when I think about the world's many intricate problems, solutions aren't so simple, who would know where to begin? In these times of global financial crisis's how are governments supposed to help when they struggle just to help themselves. And at the end of the day whose responsibility is it anyway? There is a certain logical thought process that tells me these are issues far too big for my sphere of influence but simultaneously I feel a moral calling. Is it evolution and survival of the species which tells our primitive brain to aid our bretheren? Or a maternal instinct when I see a hungry child, alone and sad, and want to nurture and protect them? Interestingly whilst reading the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice I get the sense that they likewise explore this idea of moral responsibility.
Whatever the route cause may be I thank U2 for a wonderful concert and for shaking me out of a self-centered, financially focused mind-set, at least for a night. Next year is a world of opportunity and whilst attempting to put money away for the car and mortgage I promise to try harder at becoming an active member of the global community.
Maybe reading this book will help by giving me some direction? The Global Community by Jens Bartelson.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Good Advice

I recently received a very standard forwarded email chain claiming that Bill Gates gave a speech to a group of school students which included a series of life rules. Whether or not the source is correct each point struck a chord and lame as it may be to just paste it onto my blog I feel it is worth sharing. And yes I still haven't found time to do a proper post on our Bali adventures.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. 

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault , so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now... They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. 
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
 
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one! 



Wednesday, December 8, 2010

True Vampires?

For at least 8 months I've been casually looking in every book store I've happened across for a copy of 'Queen of the Damned' by Anne Rice with little success -apparently Dymocks aren't into stocking books that sell-out the day they're put on the shelves- so bit the bullet and ordered one. Now reading it every day is like a guilty pleasure.
 Just prior to the whole 'Twilight' hype I'd decided it was about time that I read the first really modern Vampire chronicles, additionally a friend with impeccable judgement said they were some of the best books she'd ever read and she's not alone

With this in mind I bought the first two, 'Interview with a Vampire' and 'The Vampire Lestat', with high expectations. Needless to say they went beyond satisfaction. The concepts and characters were so fantastical but at the same time completely human. The stories of the vampires, the outcasts, the lost souls, searching for definition and purpose in a world of ever changing values but consistent human nature. The moral dilemas of good vs evil and right vs wrong seemed to be analysed from every angle by the narrators many varied perspectives. Lestat the fearless brat prince reminded me of many young people I've met whose actions rebel against the imagined weight of the world on their shoulders.  And Louis, the conscious killer, trying to run from his nature, don't we all attempt to escape from the parts of ourselves we dislike or don't understand? I could go on, but you get the picture that these books invoked a lot of empathetic feelings in my own constantly searching soul. Through it all I thought to myself the woman who wrote these must be incredibly interesting, through her books she must have explored the ideas and found the answers. Before writing this I thought it due diligence to do a little bit of research and looked her up.
What I found could not have shocked me any more than discovering her books were non-fiction. She described the Vampire chronicles as an outlet of her own personal search and discovery of the love of Jesus Christ! It felt like I'd just heard that the world was actually flat, not round anymore. I was convinced that from the novels the author was anything but a god-fearing Christian, they seemed to defy organised religion and the fail-safe of heaven and hell. Perhaps my interpretation will now be tinged and my enjoyment lessened.

No more research! Should have just ranted about 'Twilight' as I initially intended. I intended to say that a recent cull of facebook friends was triggered when I got sick of people waxing on about it. In my more cynical moods I find it both laughable and horrifying that so many adults have been enthralled by poorly wirtten novels aimed at young teens. Immature in its story telling and progression and character development. This fellow blogger has summed up a review of Twilight's flaws very aptly. But after reading a couple of Anne Rice's chapters I'm too pleased to whinge overly much.....now to read some more. In case it's not obvious I highly recommend you read The Vampire Chronicles ;-)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Mining tragedy

Back from my holiday and on site completing some solo work all I've been hearing on the radio today is news regarding the 29 trapped -likely dead- miners in the Pike River Coal mine in NZ. It seems a gas explosion occured on Friday due to a deadly mix of methane and carbon monoxide released from a bore hole. Full Story. The gases prevented safe rescue of the poor fellows and with a second explosion today, more powerful than the first, they're presumed dead. My heart goes out to the families.
Wandering around the bush today I thought maybe I'd revise my plans to do some underground mine work in the future. Specially because compared to a dank dark tunnel there are many beautiful things to see on the surface, and no I'm not talking solely about pretty rocks. The West Australian bush is under-rated in my opinion. Tourists and many locals see the western beaches or the far southern forests and seem to forget the stuff in between, which might I add encompasses an area bigger than most European nations. It's not pretty in an ornamental sense and hasn't a particularly breath-taking landscape but I think it's existence alone worthy of respect. This winter local farmers in the eastern Wheatbelt received a mere 100mm of rain, well less than half the average. Yet the bush is full of trees, bushes and perennials. It's a wonder that anything survives in such harsh conditions, when it can be 46C for an entire week -this from first-hand experience- yet it flourishes as best it can. This combined with the plethora of prospecting 'trash' keep me on track when my goldfish brain needs 5 minutes of distraction. Here's some photo's I snapped today to share with the blog-o-sphere, welcome to my other office;
A pile of tinnies from those not very environmentally friendly prospectors, this patch has been worked since the 1920's so could be difficult to find the culprits.

A dumped car, not very interesting I guess but by the angles on the chrome bumper I'd say she'd be a good 50 years old.

A collapsed mine shaft, just a little one, this was worked up til 1924. Probably went down a good 20m, the ol boys would have climbed down there every day and worked with pick and muscle to get their gold.

There was water in bottom of this pit only a couple of months ago, I loved the crunching sound it made when I walked over this.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Welcome to the neighbourhood!

We have a new neighbour! Having grown up in a semi-rural area the whole concept of a neighbour who shares a wall with you is very foreign and can I stretch that to exciting? I couldn't resist popping over and completing the mandatory meet and greet. At least I assume it's mandatory. Anyway our new neighbour has purchased the unit as his first home, and dare I say his well rounded frame, glasses and dear mother indicate he will be approachable and quiet? We can only hope! I feel in this day and age -yes I realise the old before my time nature of this statement ^^ - it's sad that no-one knows their neighbours. They are more than just a free security system....if enabled I plan to be a very traditional neighbour! Better start stocking up on milk, sugar and eggs!
Apologies, prattling about the new resident of Unit 3 wasn't my intent in this post but work has been hectic, what with myself, fellow geo and fieldy all forgetting to sched in resulting in the local police taking a 200km late night sojourn and my Bali holiday coming up in.....4 sleeps!! So in short below is a video which I was saving for a piece -shock horror- about my cat but I couldn't resist sharing;