I was sitting with Dale (my partner) just tonight watching The Best Of The Paul Hogan Show. For those who wouldn't know Paul Hogan aside from Crocodile Dundee, he started off as a scaffolder and painter on the Sydney Harbour Bridge until someone decided he could have his own telly show to make a few bucks.
And that he did. His sense of humour and Aussie larrikanism put his name into Australian comedy history, probably moreso than many others. Okay, maybe not Graham Kennedy or those of that ilk but certainly one of his own.
At the end of the show, Dale suddenly said, "They don't make humour like that anymore". And it was so true. Why it was so funny we have no idea, but I couldn't help laughing at the Cooking with Hoges segment on how to make a nostalgia sandwich. Firstly, it involved getting the loaf of bread and grabbing the middle two slices, since the top slices might be poisonous or be stale, probably the former. Then you got your butter and slabbed it on, but don't wipe the excess butter back into the butter tub, do it on the Vegemite jar. But then when you get the Vegemite out of the jar to slab onto your bread, don't use the bit around the top of the jar because it has butter on it, which is bad for you and poisonous. Then take a bite of your finished product and wash it down with a mouthful of milk from the bottle. If you do it properly, crumbs will have gone back into the bottle. And so it went on.
And tonight for instance, A Current Affair mentioned Dennis De Nuto from The Castle (but they didn't mention The Castle, only his name) stating his signature line from the film, "Its the vibe". As mentioned in a previous blog, that was made 16 years ago. Hoges' show was in the 70's. I highly doubt there are many shows that a) are still relevant today as those two and b) carry that quick witted humour and Aussieness that defines us from the rest of us.
There have been so many American shows come out that are honestly quite crap by comparison and nothing like our Aussie humour. Look at Kath and Kim. It worked here in Australia but not overseas. Why? Because it was written for Australians. My Name Is Earl was probably the closest thing to equate it in the US since they wrote it for Americans. We get Aussie humour, no one else does, except maybe the Poms.
I know I have been a bit of an advocate of Aussieness of late but that is because I am honestly fearing our loss of culture. I read Tobruk recently and loved every bit of it. The ruggedness of the Aussie diggers, the humour in which they seemed to bring forth in any situation, the lack of authority that they showed but ultimately the toughness that defined them from the Brits and the Italians, not to mention outwitting the best Army of the time, being the Germans. How's that, a bunch of Aussie battlers being the thorn in Rommell's side. And they so were, to the point of sticking it up them but being good sports about it all. Even when they were caught or took prisoners, they did so with honour for the enemy and respect. With all due respect to the Germans, so did they.
But what made Tobruk a success? From what I could see from Peter Fitzsimons' book, it was the tenacity of the Aussies, the ability to make do with what they had and the laughter and humour that they could show in the most harshest conditions.
Our Aussie spirit is one that is defined so clearly from others and yet is threatened to be wiped out in a world of PCness and greed. What happened to helping the man next to us? You just don't see it that much these days.
This kind of went a bit sideways but hey, it is all relevant. I guess getting back to the topic at hand, we have our own sense of humour and our own culture, despite it being "new" as everyone keeps saying. We are a strong nation and a very rich one. We are the lucky country for a reason and one that is loved by so many. I only hope that it stays the way it is.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Life
Why is it that I am writing a blog on life itself? Because it throws sooooo many questions up in regards to it.
For instance, I gave up a job that was paying $100k including super to end up with no job and nothing for the immediate future. And you know what? That doesn't bother me.
That is not to say that I will become one of those dole bludgers that I absolutely hate because they eat up my taxpaying dollars, but instead, this is something that I have never done before, and a risk that I am glad that I have taken.
Now I can find the time to do all the things I wished I had the time for. How my friend Kat has the time to do things, I'm not sure. Cos I know that me, when I was working full time, either when I was in town I often had to stay back and finish work or start early, often being stuffed at the end of the day, or when I was working remote, in my R&R I didn't find I really had time to be able to do the things I wanted to do in my time off because 1, I couldn't just journey somewhere because of Dale and 2, I didn't know if I would have the energy anyway. We were able to do some things, but not really go exploring like I could do.
But ultimately, I am happy not grinding the wheels inside my head for a big corporate company that doesn't give a crap about my livelihood. I have come to realise that these big companies, whilst always knowing that they have no interest in their workers, I didn't realise just how stupid some of their ideas are until recently. And I have a very, very good understanding now why most supervisors can't stand engineers.
Well, the gloss of being an engineer wore off pretty much as soon as I first started working as one. There was no hands on work like promised, they said that there would be but I soon realised that once upon a time there might have been but all engineers are now are glorified data entry clerks, and given enough time, will not know anything more than one about engineering, due to a lack of being on site.
I know I could have been a fantastic engineer had I been one 30 years ago as opposed to now. Getting my hands dirty was really, the biggest thing that drove me to work in construction.
But I soon came to understand that I will never get to have that hands on experience that they say I will. Because unfortunately, that's what engineering consists of nowadays. So am I sad to leave the engineering world?
No. Because I will soon return to it, in time. You see, the risk I took in resigning from my role was one that was potentially going to take me to the army, as a surveyor. So I will be returning to engineering but in a different capacity. And a few people who have known what I want to do support my decision and say that it is actually a good choice.
But until I can prove that I filled out my medical form wrong and that I do not suffer from headaches, I will need to ensure that I have a form of income and that is where the casual job fits in.
Working casually in whatever capacity, probably retail, sounds fantastic, and no one ever thinks that working in retail is fantastic unless they have a real desire for it! But me, working maximum 30 hours a week and doing my own thing for the rest of it is sounding better and better each day. I can do volunteer work as well, something I would actually like to have a go at, for the RSPCA or the like, putting my time into something I have a lot of interest in, not something that brings me dollars. Riding for the Disabled was another venture I wondered about, once a week or whatever.
Whatever the role, I have the time now to do it. And this is something I have not had in the last 10 years or so. So I am very much looking forward to it, even if it wasn't what I was envisaging what was to happen a month ago when I put my resignation in.
Life happens when you are planning other things, or some such phrase, as William Shakespeare put it. He couldn't have put it better.
For instance, I gave up a job that was paying $100k including super to end up with no job and nothing for the immediate future. And you know what? That doesn't bother me.
That is not to say that I will become one of those dole bludgers that I absolutely hate because they eat up my taxpaying dollars, but instead, this is something that I have never done before, and a risk that I am glad that I have taken.
Now I can find the time to do all the things I wished I had the time for. How my friend Kat has the time to do things, I'm not sure. Cos I know that me, when I was working full time, either when I was in town I often had to stay back and finish work or start early, often being stuffed at the end of the day, or when I was working remote, in my R&R I didn't find I really had time to be able to do the things I wanted to do in my time off because 1, I couldn't just journey somewhere because of Dale and 2, I didn't know if I would have the energy anyway. We were able to do some things, but not really go exploring like I could do.
But ultimately, I am happy not grinding the wheels inside my head for a big corporate company that doesn't give a crap about my livelihood. I have come to realise that these big companies, whilst always knowing that they have no interest in their workers, I didn't realise just how stupid some of their ideas are until recently. And I have a very, very good understanding now why most supervisors can't stand engineers.
Well, the gloss of being an engineer wore off pretty much as soon as I first started working as one. There was no hands on work like promised, they said that there would be but I soon realised that once upon a time there might have been but all engineers are now are glorified data entry clerks, and given enough time, will not know anything more than one about engineering, due to a lack of being on site.
I know I could have been a fantastic engineer had I been one 30 years ago as opposed to now. Getting my hands dirty was really, the biggest thing that drove me to work in construction.
But I soon came to understand that I will never get to have that hands on experience that they say I will. Because unfortunately, that's what engineering consists of nowadays. So am I sad to leave the engineering world?
No. Because I will soon return to it, in time. You see, the risk I took in resigning from my role was one that was potentially going to take me to the army, as a surveyor. So I will be returning to engineering but in a different capacity. And a few people who have known what I want to do support my decision and say that it is actually a good choice.
But until I can prove that I filled out my medical form wrong and that I do not suffer from headaches, I will need to ensure that I have a form of income and that is where the casual job fits in.
Working casually in whatever capacity, probably retail, sounds fantastic, and no one ever thinks that working in retail is fantastic unless they have a real desire for it! But me, working maximum 30 hours a week and doing my own thing for the rest of it is sounding better and better each day. I can do volunteer work as well, something I would actually like to have a go at, for the RSPCA or the like, putting my time into something I have a lot of interest in, not something that brings me dollars. Riding for the Disabled was another venture I wondered about, once a week or whatever.
Whatever the role, I have the time now to do it. And this is something I have not had in the last 10 years or so. So I am very much looking forward to it, even if it wasn't what I was envisaging what was to happen a month ago when I put my resignation in.
Life happens when you are planning other things, or some such phrase, as William Shakespeare put it. He couldn't have put it better.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
'The Aussie Institution'
We have a bloke who is from Iran working with us. He speaks exceptional English, but he tends to struggle a bit with the Aussie language. Numerous paraphrases and Aussie-isms get thrown around every day, and the poor bloke must honestly wonder what country he came to, because we sure as hell don't speak English here. At least, not in the way it is supposed to be used.
Not to mention, the amount of quotes repeated in our everyday worklives must honestly be baffling as well.
So, I wondered, to catch these skilled migrants up to speed with Australia, what would I get them to watch/listen to/read/attend to give them a broad overview of Australia and its culture?
Added as an afterthought, these are in no particular order. Some of these things were triggered by an occurance and others were what I have thought of since.
1. The Castle.
One of the blokes quoted this today and it went straight over our migrant engineer's head. So we were like, just add it to the stuff we'll have to introduce him to.
This film is 16 years old (!!! - I know, I find it hard to believe too) but it is as relevant today as the day it was released. How many times have you heard someone quote, 'tell him he's dreaming', 'you're an ideas man (insert name here)', 'jousting sticks?', 'Dad, I dug a hole', and one I tend to use a bit, 'it's karma, it's the vibe, it's marbo'.
The little comedy with a big Aussie heart (probably a pretty cliche statement but so, so true) that has now fortold many Aussie families' battles with big companies. For one, my Nan and Pa, with the Bendigo airport wanting to extend their venue into their kitchen. Not something you want to be dining next to of a morning.
How much does that movie just emulate the way that Aussies behave in and around the country? I have heard criticisms about the fact that they are are bit of a boganish family, but being realistic, how many families can relate to the Kerrigans? Heaps.
One of the managers I used to work with was probably the best impersonation of Darryl Kerrigan that lived. Not to mention he has an incredibly dry sense of humour anyway so that it always made working on the most sh*t boring task bearable.
I forgot the most used quote of all! So I will give it the credit it is due and put it out on its own. And in awesome finality, The Castle could be credited as:
'This is going straight to the pool room!'
Better move on anyway.
2. The 12th Man.
Again, the reason why this was brought up was because yesterday, there were four of us deciding what colour a particular off-colour tile was going to be called. I said, cream. Then I proceded to go, 'Cream, bone, off-white, white, ivory' and by the time I got to 'ivory' our supervisor said quite finally, 'beige'. We had a thoroughly good laugh about that and had to then go about trying to explain it to the other engineer.
Anyway, go anywhere in this country and you don't even need to enjoy cricket to know who Billy Birmingham is. Put it this way; I reckon cricket is one of those absolutely cr*p games of sport that was ever invented. However, had it not been for test cricket, Twenty20 would not exist today. Nor would the numerous other offshoots of cricket such as beach and the most favourite and best form of the game, backyard cricket.
The 12th Man has probably done to cricket what Tiger Woods did to golf, until his penchant for prostitutes and 'other women' came about anyway. It made a relatively sh*t game to watch unless you were a diehard something to look forward to. Hearing Richie as through the mouth of Billy Birmingham getting up to start his day as if he were in the commentary box was brilliant.
I was introduced to The 12th Man via my brother's recorded tapes (yes, before CD's were invented, CD's you say? Yes, an old-school DVD is the best description for it, and tapes have been around for donkey's years) of tapes of tapes and whatever else. The 12th Man was one artist who it didn't matter what version you had of his recordings, so long as you had a copy. I was 10 when I first started listening to it. It was pretty popular with us kids for the amount of swearing that was in it. Not to mention it was pretty awesome some of the stuff he'd rattle off. As I got older, the more I appreciated the cleverness of the names (who knew that there were actually cricket players with as hard names to pronounce as the Pakistanis on the 12th Man?!) and the storylines that Billy Birmingham came up with.
His 'Boned' effort wasn't fantastic, but at the same time he'd also been around for about 20 years by this stage and storylines were thin on the ground.
His best efforts were probably Still The 12th Man! just because it was a day in the life of Ritchie Benaud.
A massive part of the Aussie culture right here.
3. Melbourne Cup
'The race that stops a nation' is the biggest nationwide sporting event I would say. Anyone who is anyone and who isn't even has some form of interest in the cup, even if it isn't always a day off.
For three and a half minutes it's the most important thing happening at 3pm (or is it 3:10pm? Dunno) in the country. Everyone stops work to listen or watch the race after having usually put a bet on during the day or the week leading up to it. Sweeps are held everywhere and so even if your horse comes dead last you will at least get your money back. But if your horse comes 4th to second last, you forfeit whatever you paid in the sweep.
In relation to this, read up history on who Phar Lap was. He was the most famous race horse in Australia's history, although Makybe Diva probably comes a close second to Phar Lap now. Phar Lap only won the Cup once, but probably could have won it a second time had he still been alive when it came around again. Makybe Diva, having won it a record 3 times, will have her name known for years to come.
4. ANZAC Day.
The one day of the year where it is more Aussie than our national day. I was so touched by our little service up the top of Aircraft Hill out here in Wadeye that now I look back on it, I am glad it happened. I thoroughly missed Dale that day, but I was so glad to have made A service, and the service we had was incredibly touching. All the boys who work on our job attended, even though it was their day off. Then the stories come out as to why it means so much to everyone, and it was just a thoroughly awesome occasion.
I had to work that day, and I was so tired for the rest of the day, but still, the occasion was great. I just made sure I watched the numerous services throughout the day in my breaks.
ANZAC Day means more to me than Australia Day does. It is a day of commemoration of all the hundreds and thousands of men and women who have served the nation in battle, and who continue to serve today.
I can listen to the Last Post numerous times that day and it gets me every time. I usually blubber the whole way through it, I don't know why it gets me so but it does.
I have been lucky enough to go to the ANZAC Day footy match between Collingwood and Essendon twice. I can't stand either side but the opening sequence of events is truly captivating. This was before they had to cut short the minute's silence due to drunken d*ckheads ruining it and showing no respect whatsoever. But there is nothing more moving than being in a stadium of 90,000+ spectators who are completely silent.
5. Waltzing Matilda.
For that matter, Banjo Patterson. But Watzing Matilda was his most famous work. Not everyone knows the words to our official national anthem but they sure as hell know the words to Waltzing Matilda.
Learn it, sing it and speak to anyone about it. Our unofficial national anthem that gets taught to all of us from the time we start school.
And it's based on a true story I might add! But this poem is a bit of a harp back to our settler days, when wanderers commonly roamed from place to place looking for work. When work wasn't available, they would simply steal whatever they could from the squatters (settlers) to live. Our European history is all about hardships, sacrifices and tough times, which is why Australians are such tough, nuggetty people who can outlast our opposition in so many areas.
6. Learn (but don't say, cos it sounds ridiculous listening to foreigners trying to speak Aussie slang) the meaning behind the following phrases:
'No worries'
'All over it like...'
'Do away with...'
'Piff... at...' (Okay, that's me being a Victorian and not believing that not everyone who was even born here knows what this means)
'Mate, can you give us a hand with...'
'I broke the seal...'
'Sloshed, plastered, ratsh*t, maggoted, f***ed (although this can have several meanings so it's a context thing), there are numerous others but I cannot think right now'
'He/She came down with...'
Some other phrases that are the 'like' phrases that need to be known and understood:
'CD skips like a 12 year old girl'
'... Charge through the roof'
'... Charge like a wounded bull'
'... Sticks out like dog's balls'
And others such as:
'I was pineappled with the pointy bit first to do...' (Although this is more military slang, it does get used in construction A LOT, probably because we all get pineappled at some point or other to do some really cr*p job)
'CBF'ed'
'POQ'
'2:30itis'
And general slang for different things, women, men, friends, animals, places, other people etc.
There will be other's I'm sure, but it is past my bed time and I need to rest. Big day tomorrow!
Not to mention, the amount of quotes repeated in our everyday worklives must honestly be baffling as well.
So, I wondered, to catch these skilled migrants up to speed with Australia, what would I get them to watch/listen to/read/attend to give them a broad overview of Australia and its culture?
Added as an afterthought, these are in no particular order. Some of these things were triggered by an occurance and others were what I have thought of since.
1. The Castle.
One of the blokes quoted this today and it went straight over our migrant engineer's head. So we were like, just add it to the stuff we'll have to introduce him to.
This film is 16 years old (!!! - I know, I find it hard to believe too) but it is as relevant today as the day it was released. How many times have you heard someone quote, 'tell him he's dreaming', 'you're an ideas man (insert name here)', 'jousting sticks?', 'Dad, I dug a hole', and one I tend to use a bit, 'it's karma, it's the vibe, it's marbo'.
The little comedy with a big Aussie heart (probably a pretty cliche statement but so, so true) that has now fortold many Aussie families' battles with big companies. For one, my Nan and Pa, with the Bendigo airport wanting to extend their venue into their kitchen. Not something you want to be dining next to of a morning.
How much does that movie just emulate the way that Aussies behave in and around the country? I have heard criticisms about the fact that they are are bit of a boganish family, but being realistic, how many families can relate to the Kerrigans? Heaps.
One of the managers I used to work with was probably the best impersonation of Darryl Kerrigan that lived. Not to mention he has an incredibly dry sense of humour anyway so that it always made working on the most sh*t boring task bearable.
I forgot the most used quote of all! So I will give it the credit it is due and put it out on its own. And in awesome finality, The Castle could be credited as:
'This is going straight to the pool room!'
Better move on anyway.
2. The 12th Man.
Again, the reason why this was brought up was because yesterday, there were four of us deciding what colour a particular off-colour tile was going to be called. I said, cream. Then I proceded to go, 'Cream, bone, off-white, white, ivory' and by the time I got to 'ivory' our supervisor said quite finally, 'beige'. We had a thoroughly good laugh about that and had to then go about trying to explain it to the other engineer.
Anyway, go anywhere in this country and you don't even need to enjoy cricket to know who Billy Birmingham is. Put it this way; I reckon cricket is one of those absolutely cr*p games of sport that was ever invented. However, had it not been for test cricket, Twenty20 would not exist today. Nor would the numerous other offshoots of cricket such as beach and the most favourite and best form of the game, backyard cricket.
The 12th Man has probably done to cricket what Tiger Woods did to golf, until his penchant for prostitutes and 'other women' came about anyway. It made a relatively sh*t game to watch unless you were a diehard something to look forward to. Hearing Richie as through the mouth of Billy Birmingham getting up to start his day as if he were in the commentary box was brilliant.
I was introduced to The 12th Man via my brother's recorded tapes (yes, before CD's were invented, CD's you say? Yes, an old-school DVD is the best description for it, and tapes have been around for donkey's years) of tapes of tapes and whatever else. The 12th Man was one artist who it didn't matter what version you had of his recordings, so long as you had a copy. I was 10 when I first started listening to it. It was pretty popular with us kids for the amount of swearing that was in it. Not to mention it was pretty awesome some of the stuff he'd rattle off. As I got older, the more I appreciated the cleverness of the names (who knew that there were actually cricket players with as hard names to pronounce as the Pakistanis on the 12th Man?!) and the storylines that Billy Birmingham came up with.
His 'Boned' effort wasn't fantastic, but at the same time he'd also been around for about 20 years by this stage and storylines were thin on the ground.
His best efforts were probably Still The 12th Man! just because it was a day in the life of Ritchie Benaud.
A massive part of the Aussie culture right here.
3. Melbourne Cup
'The race that stops a nation' is the biggest nationwide sporting event I would say. Anyone who is anyone and who isn't even has some form of interest in the cup, even if it isn't always a day off.
For three and a half minutes it's the most important thing happening at 3pm (or is it 3:10pm? Dunno) in the country. Everyone stops work to listen or watch the race after having usually put a bet on during the day or the week leading up to it. Sweeps are held everywhere and so even if your horse comes dead last you will at least get your money back. But if your horse comes 4th to second last, you forfeit whatever you paid in the sweep.
In relation to this, read up history on who Phar Lap was. He was the most famous race horse in Australia's history, although Makybe Diva probably comes a close second to Phar Lap now. Phar Lap only won the Cup once, but probably could have won it a second time had he still been alive when it came around again. Makybe Diva, having won it a record 3 times, will have her name known for years to come.
4. ANZAC Day.
The one day of the year where it is more Aussie than our national day. I was so touched by our little service up the top of Aircraft Hill out here in Wadeye that now I look back on it, I am glad it happened. I thoroughly missed Dale that day, but I was so glad to have made A service, and the service we had was incredibly touching. All the boys who work on our job attended, even though it was their day off. Then the stories come out as to why it means so much to everyone, and it was just a thoroughly awesome occasion.
I had to work that day, and I was so tired for the rest of the day, but still, the occasion was great. I just made sure I watched the numerous services throughout the day in my breaks.
ANZAC Day means more to me than Australia Day does. It is a day of commemoration of all the hundreds and thousands of men and women who have served the nation in battle, and who continue to serve today.
I can listen to the Last Post numerous times that day and it gets me every time. I usually blubber the whole way through it, I don't know why it gets me so but it does.
I have been lucky enough to go to the ANZAC Day footy match between Collingwood and Essendon twice. I can't stand either side but the opening sequence of events is truly captivating. This was before they had to cut short the minute's silence due to drunken d*ckheads ruining it and showing no respect whatsoever. But there is nothing more moving than being in a stadium of 90,000+ spectators who are completely silent.
5. Waltzing Matilda.
For that matter, Banjo Patterson. But Watzing Matilda was his most famous work. Not everyone knows the words to our official national anthem but they sure as hell know the words to Waltzing Matilda.
Learn it, sing it and speak to anyone about it. Our unofficial national anthem that gets taught to all of us from the time we start school.
And it's based on a true story I might add! But this poem is a bit of a harp back to our settler days, when wanderers commonly roamed from place to place looking for work. When work wasn't available, they would simply steal whatever they could from the squatters (settlers) to live. Our European history is all about hardships, sacrifices and tough times, which is why Australians are such tough, nuggetty people who can outlast our opposition in so many areas.
6. Learn (but don't say, cos it sounds ridiculous listening to foreigners trying to speak Aussie slang) the meaning behind the following phrases:
'No worries'
'All over it like...'
'Do away with...'
'Piff... at...' (Okay, that's me being a Victorian and not believing that not everyone who was even born here knows what this means)
'Mate, can you give us a hand with...'
'I broke the seal...'
'Sloshed, plastered, ratsh*t, maggoted, f***ed (although this can have several meanings so it's a context thing), there are numerous others but I cannot think right now'
'He/She came down with...'
Some other phrases that are the 'like' phrases that need to be known and understood:
'CD skips like a 12 year old girl'
'... Charge through the roof'
'... Charge like a wounded bull'
'... Sticks out like dog's balls'
And others such as:
'I was pineappled with the pointy bit first to do...' (Although this is more military slang, it does get used in construction A LOT, probably because we all get pineappled at some point or other to do some really cr*p job)
'CBF'ed'
'POQ'
'2:30itis'
And general slang for different things, women, men, friends, animals, places, other people etc.
There will be other's I'm sure, but it is past my bed time and I need to rest. Big day tomorrow!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Books, books and more books!
One thing I've noticed since being out on site, and remembering what it was like on site ages ago, is the ability to read a heap of books because of the time after work I have. On the RDO as well, if you don't have a bike, boat or fishing gear.
Combine this with a really good 2nd hand book store and you have a wealth of reading to be had!
There is a fantastic book store in Darwin's Smith St Mall that is a book exchange (in fact, that may even be the name of it...) where I have spent many hours perusing the book shelves for titles that take my fancy. At half price for near new books, why the hell not? They only reason I see now to buy new books is if I cannot locate them in a second hand place.
Every 6 months or so I go back to the bookstore and stock up on books again. Last time I bought 12 books, a lot of them were really quite new too and it worked out to be $10 a book. Some might say that is expensive but when the same book before was bought for $24 or $30, even $19, this is a considerable saving. And I LOVE reading!
So, why are second hand books great for me? Aside from the prices of books?
Because I end up coming across numerous gems of books that I wouldn't ordinarily buy because of cost and the risk of buying a book that was crap.
So by chance at least you can buy books that are cheapish that sound good and if they aren't quite up to what you thought it isn't such a bad thing.
So I thought I would rattle off a couple of books that I have come across:
1. Autumn Bridge
A Japanese novel, albeit written by a Japanese American, about the history of the Ochumichi clan, and it passes through numerous times and spaces. It was a head case of a book, but the intertwining stories were great. The blurb unfortunately only centred on one area and so I was disappointed when I didn't get to read about that one much, since that was the reason I bought it, but in hindsight the book was really quite good and gave a very interesting look into the Japanese culture.
2. In The Company Of Heroes
The real story of the pilot shot down in Somalia during America's occupation of Mogadishu in 1993. It was thoroughly interesting, even though I initially bought it for Dale. By chance, I also bought at the same time the actual book of Black Hawk Down, although I didn't know the link until after I got home. I thought I was just buying a couple of war books for him!
3. Numerous Paulina Simmons books
For some reason, this author finds a lot of her books in the Book Exchange. Yet her books are quite good. Oh well, that just means more for me! :)
4. Candy
I didn't realise there was a book of Candy that the movie was based on. It was a very interesting take on the heroin scenes in Melbourne and Sydney, although I had read a real-life memoir of a woman who was a street prostitute and heroin user who graduated to the better brothels in Melbourne and worked her way to the top, to finally be able to get off the smack. It was called In My Skin, by Kate Holden.
This is only a very small handfall of books, and since I haven't finished them all, I am clearly not going to be able to rattle them all off here! But they are a fantastic option for students and for the deep-pocketed people.
Combine this with a really good 2nd hand book store and you have a wealth of reading to be had!
There is a fantastic book store in Darwin's Smith St Mall that is a book exchange (in fact, that may even be the name of it...) where I have spent many hours perusing the book shelves for titles that take my fancy. At half price for near new books, why the hell not? They only reason I see now to buy new books is if I cannot locate them in a second hand place.
Every 6 months or so I go back to the bookstore and stock up on books again. Last time I bought 12 books, a lot of them were really quite new too and it worked out to be $10 a book. Some might say that is expensive but when the same book before was bought for $24 or $30, even $19, this is a considerable saving. And I LOVE reading!
So, why are second hand books great for me? Aside from the prices of books?
Because I end up coming across numerous gems of books that I wouldn't ordinarily buy because of cost and the risk of buying a book that was crap.
So by chance at least you can buy books that are cheapish that sound good and if they aren't quite up to what you thought it isn't such a bad thing.
So I thought I would rattle off a couple of books that I have come across:
1. Autumn Bridge
A Japanese novel, albeit written by a Japanese American, about the history of the Ochumichi clan, and it passes through numerous times and spaces. It was a head case of a book, but the intertwining stories were great. The blurb unfortunately only centred on one area and so I was disappointed when I didn't get to read about that one much, since that was the reason I bought it, but in hindsight the book was really quite good and gave a very interesting look into the Japanese culture.
2. In The Company Of Heroes
The real story of the pilot shot down in Somalia during America's occupation of Mogadishu in 1993. It was thoroughly interesting, even though I initially bought it for Dale. By chance, I also bought at the same time the actual book of Black Hawk Down, although I didn't know the link until after I got home. I thought I was just buying a couple of war books for him!
3. Numerous Paulina Simmons books
For some reason, this author finds a lot of her books in the Book Exchange. Yet her books are quite good. Oh well, that just means more for me! :)
4. Candy
I didn't realise there was a book of Candy that the movie was based on. It was a very interesting take on the heroin scenes in Melbourne and Sydney, although I had read a real-life memoir of a woman who was a street prostitute and heroin user who graduated to the better brothels in Melbourne and worked her way to the top, to finally be able to get off the smack. It was called In My Skin, by Kate Holden.
This is only a very small handfall of books, and since I haven't finished them all, I am clearly not going to be able to rattle them all off here! But they are a fantastic option for students and for the deep-pocketed people.
Back On Site
There are a few things I want to talk about here but I won't go into great detail on any.
1. Organising my time back in town a lot better.
BIG BIG thing here! :) Now that I'm back on site, I have to organise my time off a LOT better than I just did then. The first couple of days sre, I was buggered and couldn't do much. But with my spare time, do the things I want to do. Bake more, make stuff or just overall make good use of my time. I think ultimately take a couple of days to go elsewhere. Do something you've never done before, have fun at the same time!
2. "You're an engineer, you'll get all the perks."
More like, why should I have things done quicker or done for me just because of that one word? Why is it that the boys are yet to find out if there's going to be a FIFO roster set up or not? Since not one of them could go to town on his own, and dehydration is such a problem, I went and bought some Sqwincher sachets. $45 it cost! For a single packet of 50 sachets. Had I known it was that expensive, I would have taken more from Bradshaw than I did. How disappointing. But at least the blokes should know now that there are electrolytes, albeit not heaps but more than there was, if they need it.
3. Venting.
Harping back from what I said in my entry on the Sammy Award, you know the blokes like and trust you when they're venting to you about your co-workers. I mean, your fellow engineers. I won't go into it to protect those that were saying it but it's pretty cool to know.
4. Wadeye.
After my old boss put the wind up me about not to go out on my own even during the day, I thought right. No running after work, but something else. Hence why I bought a skipping rope. But after driving around after work and seeing how many 'whitefellas' ran, I thought so long as the main road is the only place you go, no worries. And tonight, after I'd got sick of skipping, that's what I did. Did the construction camp block. I saw some locals running up the hill as I came towards the main road and they were a couple of young kids, an older girl and a couple of older women. They were all chirpy and all said hello, whether it was verbally or a physical wave. So I'll take to running further and further from now on, obviously not in the long grass and obviously only in the day.
5. Being away from Dale.
After everything that went on last week, I was so lost coming back to my room here. I mean, after I worked (since I could barely think of anything but work during the day) when I finished. Dale was gone to Litchfield and all I wanted was to talk to him. But I knew that wasn't going to be possible. Even though I did get to, he didn't always listen when I just wanted to vent and then when he did the reception was stuffing up. So it's been rather frustrating and if it weren't for writing in this, I'd be even moreso.
6. Hobbies.
I beats me why I can easy spend money on things that need doing yet cannot justify spending not half that money on hobbies. Yet I realise that in order for me to be able to enjoy life at the fullest, and will be actually able to achieve my goals, I need to carry these out. Take up my jeans! Make different things! A centre piece, just enjoy crafty things like I used to. I must thank Kat for reminding me that spare time for an engineer can be filled doing all sorts of fun and thrifty things. I just need to take more time to do it. I think the mere fact that it's now me paying for it and not Mum has made me very careful with money, a little too careful! But thanks Kat! :) I baked yoyos when I was home last time, although I will have to try a bit harder with them, and I will have to try more things next time!
I think that might be enough for now, this is just random dribble I thought of!
1. Organising my time back in town a lot better.
BIG BIG thing here! :) Now that I'm back on site, I have to organise my time off a LOT better than I just did then. The first couple of days sre, I was buggered and couldn't do much. But with my spare time, do the things I want to do. Bake more, make stuff or just overall make good use of my time. I think ultimately take a couple of days to go elsewhere. Do something you've never done before, have fun at the same time!
2. "You're an engineer, you'll get all the perks."
More like, why should I have things done quicker or done for me just because of that one word? Why is it that the boys are yet to find out if there's going to be a FIFO roster set up or not? Since not one of them could go to town on his own, and dehydration is such a problem, I went and bought some Sqwincher sachets. $45 it cost! For a single packet of 50 sachets. Had I known it was that expensive, I would have taken more from Bradshaw than I did. How disappointing. But at least the blokes should know now that there are electrolytes, albeit not heaps but more than there was, if they need it.
3. Venting.
Harping back from what I said in my entry on the Sammy Award, you know the blokes like and trust you when they're venting to you about your co-workers. I mean, your fellow engineers. I won't go into it to protect those that were saying it but it's pretty cool to know.
4. Wadeye.
After my old boss put the wind up me about not to go out on my own even during the day, I thought right. No running after work, but something else. Hence why I bought a skipping rope. But after driving around after work and seeing how many 'whitefellas' ran, I thought so long as the main road is the only place you go, no worries. And tonight, after I'd got sick of skipping, that's what I did. Did the construction camp block. I saw some locals running up the hill as I came towards the main road and they were a couple of young kids, an older girl and a couple of older women. They were all chirpy and all said hello, whether it was verbally or a physical wave. So I'll take to running further and further from now on, obviously not in the long grass and obviously only in the day.
5. Being away from Dale.
After everything that went on last week, I was so lost coming back to my room here. I mean, after I worked (since I could barely think of anything but work during the day) when I finished. Dale was gone to Litchfield and all I wanted was to talk to him. But I knew that wasn't going to be possible. Even though I did get to, he didn't always listen when I just wanted to vent and then when he did the reception was stuffing up. So it's been rather frustrating and if it weren't for writing in this, I'd be even moreso.
6. Hobbies.
I beats me why I can easy spend money on things that need doing yet cannot justify spending not half that money on hobbies. Yet I realise that in order for me to be able to enjoy life at the fullest, and will be actually able to achieve my goals, I need to carry these out. Take up my jeans! Make different things! A centre piece, just enjoy crafty things like I used to. I must thank Kat for reminding me that spare time for an engineer can be filled doing all sorts of fun and thrifty things. I just need to take more time to do it. I think the mere fact that it's now me paying for it and not Mum has made me very careful with money, a little too careful! But thanks Kat! :) I baked yoyos when I was home last time, although I will have to try a bit harder with them, and I will have to try more things next time!
I think that might be enough for now, this is just random dribble I thought of!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
R&R (06/05/2010)
It's funny that you can crave the sight of someone for three weeks of a month because you aren't seeing them in the flesh at all. The only way you can see them is with scratchy video calls or with photos you've taken beforehand.
However, if you stay in each other's pockets all week, it only takes a couple of days and all of a sudden you cannot stand the sight of one another, as much in love as you are.
More like, we didn't exactly plan this break at all. I really should have organised a trip to Alice Springs but I guess I had a few other things to do. Not to mention I was pretty well stuffed and the idea of sitting at home doing nothing was too good to be true. I forgot that after three days of 12 hour sleeps that eventually I'm going to get over the issues of fatigue.
I was annoyed that the concrete things that had been planned were in the middle of the time we could have gone somewhere, anywhere, but couldn't due to not being back in time for the next concrete task.
Even funnier, this was me in Dale's position last year. Between the time of JLC and Talisman Sabre, all I wanted to do was spend time with him because of not being able to see one another for 2 months. He kept wanting to go out with the boys. I kept trying to spend time with him, he kept resenting the overbearing nature of my doing so.
Count forward 12 months' time. It is I who is coming back for time off between work. At some point, I will want to spend time with other friends. Even do something that doesn't constitute laying in Dale's arms or reading, such as house work.
Dale cracked it because I wasn't spending every waking moment with him. I cracked it back because I felt he was smothering me. Vicious cycle.
But I also know that when I do go back to site I'll be happy for the first couple of days and then after that I'll be over it and all I'll want to do is see him again.
Lessons learnt of spending time together.
08/08/2010
For the record, after I wrote this out, it only took a couple of hours for us to get over what we or I referred to as "cabin fever". The last two days or R&R were realy really good, cuddling up to Dale and just making the most of our last two days before my coming back to site. And I cried a few times today, so maybe I wasn't going to be happy for the first couple of days after all. Well, not like what I thought I was anyway. 20 days to go, well, 19 really now! :-)
However, if you stay in each other's pockets all week, it only takes a couple of days and all of a sudden you cannot stand the sight of one another, as much in love as you are.
More like, we didn't exactly plan this break at all. I really should have organised a trip to Alice Springs but I guess I had a few other things to do. Not to mention I was pretty well stuffed and the idea of sitting at home doing nothing was too good to be true. I forgot that after three days of 12 hour sleeps that eventually I'm going to get over the issues of fatigue.
I was annoyed that the concrete things that had been planned were in the middle of the time we could have gone somewhere, anywhere, but couldn't due to not being back in time for the next concrete task.
Even funnier, this was me in Dale's position last year. Between the time of JLC and Talisman Sabre, all I wanted to do was spend time with him because of not being able to see one another for 2 months. He kept wanting to go out with the boys. I kept trying to spend time with him, he kept resenting the overbearing nature of my doing so.
Count forward 12 months' time. It is I who is coming back for time off between work. At some point, I will want to spend time with other friends. Even do something that doesn't constitute laying in Dale's arms or reading, such as house work.
Dale cracked it because I wasn't spending every waking moment with him. I cracked it back because I felt he was smothering me. Vicious cycle.
But I also know that when I do go back to site I'll be happy for the first couple of days and then after that I'll be over it and all I'll want to do is see him again.
Lessons learnt of spending time together.
08/08/2010
For the record, after I wrote this out, it only took a couple of hours for us to get over what we or I referred to as "cabin fever". The last two days or R&R were realy really good, cuddling up to Dale and just making the most of our last two days before my coming back to site. And I cried a few times today, so maybe I wasn't going to be happy for the first couple of days after all. Well, not like what I thought I was anyway. 20 days to go, well, 19 really now! :-)
Home Again (03/05/2010)
I wrote this obviously last week but had not a chance to publish it. Apologies for the confusion! Bear in mind this might happen a bit with uploading stuff.
It's funny (and good) to be home again after being out bush for three weeks. It amazes me how tired I can be when I finally allow my body to sit back, relax and say no work for 7 days. Yay!
But it also amazes me over the little things. For example, coming home to a house that's been cared for without my being there. Realising that by coming home, I've interrupted Dale's routine of how he does things, and wondering what to do or food to buy since I won't be here in 5 days. I never realised how hard it'd be FIFOing away from my partner, simply because our time together is so precious.
But I am enjoying the fact that I can get away now, I know I can do it, as much as it sucks. It was something I needed to do, and Dale knows it, so it's not such an issue.
Even thoough we've had arguments about it. It's funny as well because he now knows what it's like to be the one stuck at home while the other goes away. Holding down the fort and being the one who's partner is absent whenever there's a function on. It's a horrible feeling and one that we both know all too well.
The anger you feel towards your partner for leaving you when you're stuck at home having to look after everything when they go out bush and get to at least talk to people at the end of the day. The feeling of "I'm stuck here while you're off doing your thing" plays on your mind as well.
And when your partner does come home, "how dare you leave all your crap around when you haven't been home at all this last week". I know it, Dale knows it, any partner or a shift worker/FIFO worker?Defence member knows it.
On the flip side, the feeling of being away from everything at home, the knowledge that the people you work with, your partner is never going to know, the hardships of working on ANZAC Day when all you want to do is be in town to be with your boy on his day of days, and one that has always meant so much to you, once you finally understood the meaning of it.
It saddens me knowing in 5 days I won't be here anymore. My boy will be accessible by phone or email only, not hugs and kisses whenever I want.
That it 4 months' time he'll be overseas...
The sacrifices you make now more than make up for the regrets you may have in the future. And if you are truly in love, then as hard and as angry you'll be at times (because it is only human nature to be so), the happiest you'll be when you throw your arms around one another for the first time in a long time.
It's funny (and good) to be home again after being out bush for three weeks. It amazes me how tired I can be when I finally allow my body to sit back, relax and say no work for 7 days. Yay!
But it also amazes me over the little things. For example, coming home to a house that's been cared for without my being there. Realising that by coming home, I've interrupted Dale's routine of how he does things, and wondering what to do or food to buy since I won't be here in 5 days. I never realised how hard it'd be FIFOing away from my partner, simply because our time together is so precious.
But I am enjoying the fact that I can get away now, I know I can do it, as much as it sucks. It was something I needed to do, and Dale knows it, so it's not such an issue.
Even thoough we've had arguments about it. It's funny as well because he now knows what it's like to be the one stuck at home while the other goes away. Holding down the fort and being the one who's partner is absent whenever there's a function on. It's a horrible feeling and one that we both know all too well.
The anger you feel towards your partner for leaving you when you're stuck at home having to look after everything when they go out bush and get to at least talk to people at the end of the day. The feeling of "I'm stuck here while you're off doing your thing" plays on your mind as well.
And when your partner does come home, "how dare you leave all your crap around when you haven't been home at all this last week". I know it, Dale knows it, any partner or a shift worker/FIFO worker?Defence member knows it.
On the flip side, the feeling of being away from everything at home, the knowledge that the people you work with, your partner is never going to know, the hardships of working on ANZAC Day when all you want to do is be in town to be with your boy on his day of days, and one that has always meant so much to you, once you finally understood the meaning of it.
It saddens me knowing in 5 days I won't be here anymore. My boy will be accessible by phone or email only, not hugs and kisses whenever I want.
That it 4 months' time he'll be overseas...
The sacrifices you make now more than make up for the regrets you may have in the future. And if you are truly in love, then as hard and as angry you'll be at times (because it is only human nature to be so), the happiest you'll be when you throw your arms around one another for the first time in a long time.
Hypocrisy
Why is it that hypocrisy and bureaucracy seem to go hand in hand, and not only that, they seem to be very apparent with upper management???
I don't believe I need to go into the inner workings of my brain here, but trust me when I say that I had never been so annoyed with management as one of the days on site during my last roster.
I also note that engineers nowadays have to make do with no vehicles, no computer, no printer or whatever so that everyone else can keep working. This is of course if we are lacking resources, which we seem to do with vehicles, and everyone else is fine, including Safety, but us engineers cop the raw end of the stick. And then we have to do the longer hours to make up for the fact that we are without resources.
Annoying!
I don't believe I need to go into the inner workings of my brain here, but trust me when I say that I had never been so annoyed with management as one of the days on site during my last roster.
I also note that engineers nowadays have to make do with no vehicles, no computer, no printer or whatever so that everyone else can keep working. This is of course if we are lacking resources, which we seem to do with vehicles, and everyone else is fine, including Safety, but us engineers cop the raw end of the stick. And then we have to do the longer hours to make up for the fact that we are without resources.
Annoying!
Venting
Well, this is actually a couple of weeks after the event (20/04/2010) but I have found I have run out of time to be able to upload all the time. Usually my nights are spent not doing much and ensuring that I get as much rest as possible for the next day.
Anyway, I already unleashed about this at the time to a few people, but I thought I would share them here since they are such an important part of this job, and any other job in general. More like, they do not drive a job but they are such a big part that they need mentioning.
1. Taking sick leave.
At what point has a doctor's certificate come to be a worthless piece of paper? Apparently sick leave is for those who ar slackers and shirk the minute work gets too tough.
Case in point. I had a certificate for the couple of days I was sick but someone complained because I was seen to be walking around (hardly) and apparently didn't look sick. So I got told by the Project Manager that people don't question it but ensure that if you don't want people talking, make sure I really do look sick when I take leave.
2. Pens.
Pens (and those little pocket notebooks) are an engineer's best friend. It's what we use to keep a track of everything when we're on site so that those crappy little notes are faithfully copied into an engineer's larger notebook/site diary/whatever when they get back to the office.
In a remote location, stuff like stationary seems to fall on the side of "not important" when ordering as opposed to other items like "pipe fittings" or "door knobs" or most importantly, "steel reinforcing". So funnily enough, when a pen goes missing, you tend to really crack it. This can be the same for any office, I know, and it isn't always pens, but it seems to be the most common thing.
Case in point 2. One of the local labourers came in and gave me his timesheets. He asked if he could borrow a pen to fill out his timesheet for that day (although it shouldn't have been filled out until the end of the day - it was around 3pm by this stage). He filled it out and said he'd wait outside for his ride.
But I realised he took my pen with him. When he finally came back, after I'd already spent ages hunting down another to no real avail, I asked if he'd taken it and he said no. Except that it was sticking out of his shirt pocket as he said it. So I questioned him on it and he relented without saying anything. I asked for it back again since they are a rare commodity and instead of just handing it back, he took the lid off and gave me the pen.
What f**king use is a pen without a lid to an engineer??? Of course you can use them in the office. But the lid of a pen helps hold the pen in place in your shirt so that it doesn't leak ink and is easily acessible. What really shat me off was the amount of times I had given him a lift or helped him out in some way. I was so ropeable about that I basically decided he would never get a lift or anything remotely like help off me again.
What bothered me so much was that he is supposed to have a tertiary education and he goes on about it a lot too. So he should have been far better than that, but of course, no. Then again, this bloke has often taken advantage of us and no one has said a thing.
It's just frustrating, both items.
Anyway, I already unleashed about this at the time to a few people, but I thought I would share them here since they are such an important part of this job, and any other job in general. More like, they do not drive a job but they are such a big part that they need mentioning.
1. Taking sick leave.
At what point has a doctor's certificate come to be a worthless piece of paper? Apparently sick leave is for those who ar slackers and shirk the minute work gets too tough.
Case in point. I had a certificate for the couple of days I was sick but someone complained because I was seen to be walking around (hardly) and apparently didn't look sick. So I got told by the Project Manager that people don't question it but ensure that if you don't want people talking, make sure I really do look sick when I take leave.
2. Pens.
Pens (and those little pocket notebooks) are an engineer's best friend. It's what we use to keep a track of everything when we're on site so that those crappy little notes are faithfully copied into an engineer's larger notebook/site diary/whatever when they get back to the office.
In a remote location, stuff like stationary seems to fall on the side of "not important" when ordering as opposed to other items like "pipe fittings" or "door knobs" or most importantly, "steel reinforcing". So funnily enough, when a pen goes missing, you tend to really crack it. This can be the same for any office, I know, and it isn't always pens, but it seems to be the most common thing.
Case in point 2. One of the local labourers came in and gave me his timesheets. He asked if he could borrow a pen to fill out his timesheet for that day (although it shouldn't have been filled out until the end of the day - it was around 3pm by this stage). He filled it out and said he'd wait outside for his ride.
But I realised he took my pen with him. When he finally came back, after I'd already spent ages hunting down another to no real avail, I asked if he'd taken it and he said no. Except that it was sticking out of his shirt pocket as he said it. So I questioned him on it and he relented without saying anything. I asked for it back again since they are a rare commodity and instead of just handing it back, he took the lid off and gave me the pen.
What f**king use is a pen without a lid to an engineer??? Of course you can use them in the office. But the lid of a pen helps hold the pen in place in your shirt so that it doesn't leak ink and is easily acessible. What really shat me off was the amount of times I had given him a lift or helped him out in some way. I was so ropeable about that I basically decided he would never get a lift or anything remotely like help off me again.
What bothered me so much was that he is supposed to have a tertiary education and he goes on about it a lot too. So he should have been far better than that, but of course, no. Then again, this bloke has often taken advantage of us and no one has said a thing.
It's just frustrating, both items.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The 'Sammy' Award
This particular item of note is not just about the aforementioned title. It also harps on one other key area of this job - the ability to get along with others, in particular, workers.
I will start from the start. As all civil/structural engineers know, Quality Management is an annoying but key part of any of the construction phase, especially when it comes to paperwork. The fun part are the tests themselves, because that is where you can get your hands dirty and play with mud, concrete, or whatever else you have to test. In this case, concrete.
The concrete testing entails a slump test - filling an upside-down conical device with concrete and when lifting it up, seeing how low it has 'slumped', or fallen from its original height. With each slump test comes typically three cylinder tests that are compressed at a later stage. On our site we have 4 cylinder tests, for reasons I won't go into. So anyway, Phil and I went to go do a pre-pour inspection and since all was well, we said they could pour. Since Phil didn't want to get his hands dirty, I ended up carrying out the slump test on my own. So I carried out the slump test on my own, but one of the boys Bill lifted the bucket to the testing area for me since no one else was there. Then Eddie, their supervisor, came and gave me a hand to fill the cylinders because there should have been two anyway.
I had initially started to trowel off the cylinders for capping but Eddie said to leave it for a while to let them settle and said to go get a drink to fill in the time. So I took that time to clean my tools. After that, Eddie showed me properly how to trowel down the tops and I said to him that he can inspect my work for a change.
Anyway, I got to tea that night and Bill said, 'What did you forget to do after the testing?' and I had no idea until he said, you didn't clean the bucket. The bucket that the concrete gets used for the tests. He continued on by saying, 'I reckon that's a carton (standard payment in mining, construction and other blokey types of industry) but we did end up cleaning it for ya. If you were the other engineer, we would have left it. But we'll look after ya.' Now, this they didn't have to do since the company I work for carry out the tests, they, as part of the subcontracting company, do not. They covered my arse (by washing the bucket and preventing problems down the track with it not being washed) when they could have left it. After the admission that if it were Phil they would have left it, I felt really chuffed. Especially after the admission that they'd look after me. Pat, another granno, said, "We all stood around and thought, should we? Yeah, she's only new!" and with the excess concrete in the bottom, Damon (yet another granno) carved my name in it as a keepsake.
The next day at pre-start I got Bill to show me it since I really wanted to, and he brought it over and I sat it near where I was sitting. Bill ended up blocking the way after I signed onto the meeting sheet and I thought, oh well, get it after pre-start, then next thing Eddie explained that there was a bit of an incident on site and as soon as he mentioned, we have a new engineer on site, I just went bright red and all the boys were laughing good naturedly as Eddie said that he presents the 'Sammy' award, like the Darwin award, for forgetting to clean the bucket. That's when Bill gave it to me in a more official capacity. In my acceptance speech, I explained that I have never been more embarrassed in my life but that I was chuffed at the effort and it will take pride of place on my mantelpiece. I saw Damon on site later that morning and he said, you're really going to keep it? And I said, of course, you guys went to the trouble of cleaning the bucket and giving me this. I think he was pretty pleased, and then I showed both Damon and Bill at tea that night where it was in my room in a photo.
To explain why it meant so much that they did this, I should clarify a lot better. As a whole, workers hate engineers. It goes back to the days when engineers earned tonnes more than the workers and the workers were paid poorly in comparison. So even though these days are long gone, it is still in the nature of workers to hate engineers as a whole. I can understand though, some engineers are arrogant idiots and do treat the workers poorly so they deserve everything they get.
But it just goes to show that even though my job is about making sure that the job gets done right, there are ways of going about it and there are other ways of going about it. Phil and I went about things in two different ways; his was to come down hard and say it needs to be done properly and this is where it needs to be, mine is to say, yeah, the drawings you guys are using are pretty crap and I can see where there have been issues since I'm having trouble with them myself. But it looks like that one is supposed to go that way and cover does need to be 40mm to the outside of the cast, so it's pretty alright, just that bar needs to be moved a bit. The rest of it looks pretty good.
That way, when you do stuff up, like with the bucket, or like when I accidentally locked myself out of my room and I had all three spare keys on my keyring and asked Rohin (one of the transportables blokes) at breakfast time to break into my room, especially when after I caught up with him on site he had just copped a bollocking from one of our supervisors, and again when my venetian blind came crashing down and I had to get Andrew, Rohin's supervisor to fix it, they did it without question, just had a bit of a laugh in Rohin's case about my key and went to fix it when I asked them to.
It just makes the job go so much quicker and easier if you remember that you are no better than anyone else simply because you have 'engineer' in your title. I think one of my old bosses put it best when he said, 'These people (IT servicedesk or HR or others in similar roles) need to realise that they aren't the ones that make money for the company. It's the bloke on the end of a shovel.' And if you can stick to that principle, and treat everyone on site with the respect that they deserve, then working remote is a breeze. I know that should go without saying on any site, in any job, but I have found that working in town where everyone goes home at the end of the day, people then seem to be absolute arseholes to deal with a lot of the time because they don't have to eat tea with them that night after work.
If I could give some advice for engineers out there choosing where they want to work, do a stint remote. You will learn far more than any university degree will teach you. You will learn ten times more than working on a city site will teach you because you will properly get to know the workers you are working with and what their likes and dislikes are. You will realise that they are real people. And you will understand that despite what your company says, the people drive the project and if your workers don't want to work for you, you can forget any decent production.
I will start from the start. As all civil/structural engineers know, Quality Management is an annoying but key part of any of the construction phase, especially when it comes to paperwork. The fun part are the tests themselves, because that is where you can get your hands dirty and play with mud, concrete, or whatever else you have to test. In this case, concrete.
The concrete testing entails a slump test - filling an upside-down conical device with concrete and when lifting it up, seeing how low it has 'slumped', or fallen from its original height. With each slump test comes typically three cylinder tests that are compressed at a later stage. On our site we have 4 cylinder tests, for reasons I won't go into. So anyway, Phil and I went to go do a pre-pour inspection and since all was well, we said they could pour. Since Phil didn't want to get his hands dirty, I ended up carrying out the slump test on my own. So I carried out the slump test on my own, but one of the boys Bill lifted the bucket to the testing area for me since no one else was there. Then Eddie, their supervisor, came and gave me a hand to fill the cylinders because there should have been two anyway.
I had initially started to trowel off the cylinders for capping but Eddie said to leave it for a while to let them settle and said to go get a drink to fill in the time. So I took that time to clean my tools. After that, Eddie showed me properly how to trowel down the tops and I said to him that he can inspect my work for a change.
Anyway, I got to tea that night and Bill said, 'What did you forget to do after the testing?' and I had no idea until he said, you didn't clean the bucket. The bucket that the concrete gets used for the tests. He continued on by saying, 'I reckon that's a carton (standard payment in mining, construction and other blokey types of industry) but we did end up cleaning it for ya. If you were the other engineer, we would have left it. But we'll look after ya.' Now, this they didn't have to do since the company I work for carry out the tests, they, as part of the subcontracting company, do not. They covered my arse (by washing the bucket and preventing problems down the track with it not being washed) when they could have left it. After the admission that if it were Phil they would have left it, I felt really chuffed. Especially after the admission that they'd look after me. Pat, another granno, said, "We all stood around and thought, should we? Yeah, she's only new!" and with the excess concrete in the bottom, Damon (yet another granno) carved my name in it as a keepsake.
The next day at pre-start I got Bill to show me it since I really wanted to, and he brought it over and I sat it near where I was sitting. Bill ended up blocking the way after I signed onto the meeting sheet and I thought, oh well, get it after pre-start, then next thing Eddie explained that there was a bit of an incident on site and as soon as he mentioned, we have a new engineer on site, I just went bright red and all the boys were laughing good naturedly as Eddie said that he presents the 'Sammy' award, like the Darwin award, for forgetting to clean the bucket. That's when Bill gave it to me in a more official capacity. In my acceptance speech, I explained that I have never been more embarrassed in my life but that I was chuffed at the effort and it will take pride of place on my mantelpiece. I saw Damon on site later that morning and he said, you're really going to keep it? And I said, of course, you guys went to the trouble of cleaning the bucket and giving me this. I think he was pretty pleased, and then I showed both Damon and Bill at tea that night where it was in my room in a photo.
To explain why it meant so much that they did this, I should clarify a lot better. As a whole, workers hate engineers. It goes back to the days when engineers earned tonnes more than the workers and the workers were paid poorly in comparison. So even though these days are long gone, it is still in the nature of workers to hate engineers as a whole. I can understand though, some engineers are arrogant idiots and do treat the workers poorly so they deserve everything they get.
But it just goes to show that even though my job is about making sure that the job gets done right, there are ways of going about it and there are other ways of going about it. Phil and I went about things in two different ways; his was to come down hard and say it needs to be done properly and this is where it needs to be, mine is to say, yeah, the drawings you guys are using are pretty crap and I can see where there have been issues since I'm having trouble with them myself. But it looks like that one is supposed to go that way and cover does need to be 40mm to the outside of the cast, so it's pretty alright, just that bar needs to be moved a bit. The rest of it looks pretty good.
That way, when you do stuff up, like with the bucket, or like when I accidentally locked myself out of my room and I had all three spare keys on my keyring and asked Rohin (one of the transportables blokes) at breakfast time to break into my room, especially when after I caught up with him on site he had just copped a bollocking from one of our supervisors, and again when my venetian blind came crashing down and I had to get Andrew, Rohin's supervisor to fix it, they did it without question, just had a bit of a laugh in Rohin's case about my key and went to fix it when I asked them to.
It just makes the job go so much quicker and easier if you remember that you are no better than anyone else simply because you have 'engineer' in your title. I think one of my old bosses put it best when he said, 'These people (IT servicedesk or HR or others in similar roles) need to realise that they aren't the ones that make money for the company. It's the bloke on the end of a shovel.' And if you can stick to that principle, and treat everyone on site with the respect that they deserve, then working remote is a breeze. I know that should go without saying on any site, in any job, but I have found that working in town where everyone goes home at the end of the day, people then seem to be absolute arseholes to deal with a lot of the time because they don't have to eat tea with them that night after work.
If I could give some advice for engineers out there choosing where they want to work, do a stint remote. You will learn far more than any university degree will teach you. You will learn ten times more than working on a city site will teach you because you will properly get to know the workers you are working with and what their likes and dislikes are. You will realise that they are real people. And you will understand that despite what your company says, the people drive the project and if your workers don't want to work for you, you can forget any decent production.
An alternate look at the locals
Ironically, after writing part of the previous post in my notebook (parts of it were written a few nights ago and I only uploaded it a couple of minutes ago) I felt the scaredest I've been out here. Now, I can see why Robert, my old boss, said not to get too complacent.
And not that I was scared shitless, but I learnt that I will not go back to the PTM camp* via the backstreets again for tea. I left here straight after putting down my notebook and started to drive into town. There were heaps of locals walking around town, and so I went off the main road.
I turned into the main side street I take, though I can't remember the name, and heaps more were down there so I slowed to around 10km/h, with my window down (that was probably my first mistake) and they were hardly moving off the road for me. So I try not to stop completely but then get told to "slow down mate", when I was going pretty slow as was. I slowed down a bit more where a bunch of kids were yelling and playing, also just off the road, and then they started throwing stuff at or in the tray of my ute.
It does scare you a bit when you are one (white at that) and they are many and clearly annoyed and I think you'd be lying if you said you weren't fussed at all by them. Then as I rounded the next bend, near the footy oval, more of them decide to either wave or give me the equivalent of the middle finger salute.
So I won't say I'm not still a bit cautious driving around but it's something to think about.
The other thing is driving back from the PTM camp. At dusk it's hard, but at night, you are seeing silhouettes and that's about it. Really, that is about it. At least first thing in the morning whilst it's dark, no one is about.
Overall it's been good though. Like earlier yesterday, after I left the office to go home sick, I had my 'Sammy' award (will speak on that later) with me and there was a young boy about 6 or 7 outside the door.
He said 'rock' and smiled, and I said, not rock, 'concrete' and then pointed at the stones and said, they are little rocks. And I said as I pointed to the aggregate in the concrete, these are little rocks too. And I pointed to my name carved into the concrete, S-A-M, and said, S, A, M. I'm Sam, and pointed to myself. And he said 'Sam'. And I said, that's me, and he repeated 'me', as he had with 'concrete'.
Little things like that make me forget the hostility of the night before.
________________________________________________________________________________
* The PTM camp is where all of us were staying when we first got here, but some are near the TDC - local subcontractor - workshop and others were at the PTM camp, now I am camping at our proper construction camp, although I wouldn't normally have got here so soon but we ran out of beds at the PTM camp. That means that we still have to eat at the PTM camp for all meals, so in other words we come home to our rooms here on one side of town and have to drive to the other side (a couple of minutes' drive) of town to eat. It's annoying, and especially since I've had a cold the last couple of days, meant I couldn't just go back to my room to rest, my room had mini excavators working literally outside my window. Today was better, I was down at the PTM camp most of the day and came back here for a couple of hours until tea time.
And not that I was scared shitless, but I learnt that I will not go back to the PTM camp* via the backstreets again for tea. I left here straight after putting down my notebook and started to drive into town. There were heaps of locals walking around town, and so I went off the main road.
I turned into the main side street I take, though I can't remember the name, and heaps more were down there so I slowed to around 10km/h, with my window down (that was probably my first mistake) and they were hardly moving off the road for me. So I try not to stop completely but then get told to "slow down mate", when I was going pretty slow as was. I slowed down a bit more where a bunch of kids were yelling and playing, also just off the road, and then they started throwing stuff at or in the tray of my ute.
It does scare you a bit when you are one (white at that) and they are many and clearly annoyed and I think you'd be lying if you said you weren't fussed at all by them. Then as I rounded the next bend, near the footy oval, more of them decide to either wave or give me the equivalent of the middle finger salute.
So I won't say I'm not still a bit cautious driving around but it's something to think about.
The other thing is driving back from the PTM camp. At dusk it's hard, but at night, you are seeing silhouettes and that's about it. Really, that is about it. At least first thing in the morning whilst it's dark, no one is about.
Overall it's been good though. Like earlier yesterday, after I left the office to go home sick, I had my 'Sammy' award (will speak on that later) with me and there was a young boy about 6 or 7 outside the door.
He said 'rock' and smiled, and I said, not rock, 'concrete' and then pointed at the stones and said, they are little rocks. And I said as I pointed to the aggregate in the concrete, these are little rocks too. And I pointed to my name carved into the concrete, S-A-M, and said, S, A, M. I'm Sam, and pointed to myself. And he said 'Sam'. And I said, that's me, and he repeated 'me', as he had with 'concrete'.
Little things like that make me forget the hostility of the night before.
________________________________________________________________________________
* The PTM camp is where all of us were staying when we first got here, but some are near the TDC - local subcontractor - workshop and others were at the PTM camp, now I am camping at our proper construction camp, although I wouldn't normally have got here so soon but we ran out of beds at the PTM camp. That means that we still have to eat at the PTM camp for all meals, so in other words we come home to our rooms here on one side of town and have to drive to the other side (a couple of minutes' drive) of town to eat. It's annoying, and especially since I've had a cold the last couple of days, meant I couldn't just go back to my room to rest, my room had mini excavators working literally outside my window. Today was better, I was down at the PTM camp most of the day and came back here for a couple of hours until tea time.
The local indigenous - a Westerner's perception
I had written down a bunch of my thoughts on things earlier in a notebook and didn't really write it well enough. So I will try to get it down a bit better now.
People have various reasons for working remote. Mostly it's money driven. I'm not going to lie; the money helps, but I won't say it's the most important thing.
That title belongs to the people I surround myself with on the job.
Be it workers, locals or blow-ins of various sorts, my job is not money driven, nor is it even having an interest to build things. It's working with people, and doing something to give benefit for others. Call it cliched, call it whatever, but it is honestly true.
So, the real reason for me to be in an area such as Wadeye is to see how indigenous people live and to involve myself as much possible. Meeting Gerald in the office was a great start. What a nice bloke! When he realised I had an interest in learning the language or even just to speak with him, as an outsider, he took the time to teach me how to say 'good morning'. It was interesting to learn it phonetically; certainly not a way I had ever learnt languages at school. But I finally got my head around it the following day, just in time to go out into the community to actually interact with the local indigenous families.
After going out into the communities the other day and seeing what work needed to be done, I discovered a few things that I had not previously thought or known. I realised the various members of the community are very humble, very proud and perhaps even quite shy. Overall, they were also quite nice, which is not to say that I thought they wouldn't be, but I guess as a blonde haired female Westerner, I was a bit apprehensive of what they would think of me.
They are very intelligent in their own way, their own culture. It actually made me wonder, why force Western ways upon them if they have a system that had worked for so long prior to Westerners? I guess that then depends on individual thoughts in the community, what they prefer, because putting it bluntly, that would mean no footy, and indigenous communities Australia wide loooooooove their footy.
All I know is that when I made an effort to speak a little to them in their houses, saying 'good morning' in the one word of Murrinh-Patha I knew, waving to the kids and pulling faces at them and making them smile, talking to the women in the house saying they are lucky to have many cooks because it was only myself and Dale at home, to see them smile and share a joke, to have the patriarch break from a stern look (given typically men and women wouldn't normally interract with one another like Westerners do anyway) into a smile when I said 'good morning' in his own language, to hear another patriarch have a joke that the women always force food down his throat after I said it smelt fantastic (because I was getting hungry by that stage), and having a chat with one of the younger men in the house about playing football for the local community, that's the sort of thing I get out of this job.
I disagreed with a lot of things I saw, but I know that they would think the same thing of things we as a Western society do as well.
So long as I continue to interact as best as possible with the local indigenous, and learn as much as possible, that is when I will feel that I have got something out of working in Wadeye.
People have various reasons for working remote. Mostly it's money driven. I'm not going to lie; the money helps, but I won't say it's the most important thing.
That title belongs to the people I surround myself with on the job.
Be it workers, locals or blow-ins of various sorts, my job is not money driven, nor is it even having an interest to build things. It's working with people, and doing something to give benefit for others. Call it cliched, call it whatever, but it is honestly true.
So, the real reason for me to be in an area such as Wadeye is to see how indigenous people live and to involve myself as much possible. Meeting Gerald in the office was a great start. What a nice bloke! When he realised I had an interest in learning the language or even just to speak with him, as an outsider, he took the time to teach me how to say 'good morning'. It was interesting to learn it phonetically; certainly not a way I had ever learnt languages at school. But I finally got my head around it the following day, just in time to go out into the community to actually interact with the local indigenous families.
After going out into the communities the other day and seeing what work needed to be done, I discovered a few things that I had not previously thought or known. I realised the various members of the community are very humble, very proud and perhaps even quite shy. Overall, they were also quite nice, which is not to say that I thought they wouldn't be, but I guess as a blonde haired female Westerner, I was a bit apprehensive of what they would think of me.
They are very intelligent in their own way, their own culture. It actually made me wonder, why force Western ways upon them if they have a system that had worked for so long prior to Westerners? I guess that then depends on individual thoughts in the community, what they prefer, because putting it bluntly, that would mean no footy, and indigenous communities Australia wide loooooooove their footy.
All I know is that when I made an effort to speak a little to them in their houses, saying 'good morning' in the one word of Murrinh-Patha I knew, waving to the kids and pulling faces at them and making them smile, talking to the women in the house saying they are lucky to have many cooks because it was only myself and Dale at home, to see them smile and share a joke, to have the patriarch break from a stern look (given typically men and women wouldn't normally interract with one another like Westerners do anyway) into a smile when I said 'good morning' in his own language, to hear another patriarch have a joke that the women always force food down his throat after I said it smelt fantastic (because I was getting hungry by that stage), and having a chat with one of the younger men in the house about playing football for the local community, that's the sort of thing I get out of this job.
I disagreed with a lot of things I saw, but I know that they would think the same thing of things we as a Western society do as well.
So long as I continue to interact as best as possible with the local indigenous, and learn as much as possible, that is when I will feel that I have got something out of working in Wadeye.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Welcome to Wadeye - an English language lesson
Please don't bring ganja into our town.
Those that smoke ganja are stupid and are losers.
Iced Earth.
Megadeth.
Judas Priest.
Lance 'Buddy' Franklin.
Pantera.
The slogans are as you are welcomed into Wadeye (or Port Keats depending who you are) and the later single or double words are what is written all over a lot of the houses, inside and out.
The thing is, for all the languages in the area, I was amazed that the graffiti is written entirely in English. Either English or some form of code of English. Even though no one speaks it amongst their own clans, it is the only form of anger expression with graffiti amongst Wadeye's young. I guess if you learn your language phonetically and it isn't used anywhere except to communicate, why would you need to write it down anywhere? English isn't used often amongst clans, but it is used in this instance.
Maybe I should explain a bit better. There are 7 different language groups, with the most common being Murrinh-Patha. The other 6 are slowly dying out with the younger generation because they are not being taught in schools, or even amongst their own clans. It is actually quite a sad state of affairs.
English is spoken well with most of the tribes but they don't speak it every day. It is more of a second, third or even fourth language for a lot of them. From what I have seen, they only speak it with white fellas, since none of us can speak any of their languages ('though I am trying).
So for them to be writing their anger on the walls of their homes in English, really dumbfounded me. It was only in thinking why that would be the case was why I had come up with what I did.
To be honest, I feel really bad for not being able to speak their language and speaking to them in English. I don't mean to, but what choice do we have when there isn't any good way of learning it? I can only keep trying to learn it little bits at a time to use at later stages, I guess.
Those that smoke ganja are stupid and are losers.
Iced Earth.
Megadeth.
Judas Priest.
Lance 'Buddy' Franklin.
Pantera.
The slogans are as you are welcomed into Wadeye (or Port Keats depending who you are) and the later single or double words are what is written all over a lot of the houses, inside and out.
The thing is, for all the languages in the area, I was amazed that the graffiti is written entirely in English. Either English or some form of code of English. Even though no one speaks it amongst their own clans, it is the only form of anger expression with graffiti amongst Wadeye's young. I guess if you learn your language phonetically and it isn't used anywhere except to communicate, why would you need to write it down anywhere? English isn't used often amongst clans, but it is used in this instance.
Maybe I should explain a bit better. There are 7 different language groups, with the most common being Murrinh-Patha. The other 6 are slowly dying out with the younger generation because they are not being taught in schools, or even amongst their own clans. It is actually quite a sad state of affairs.
English is spoken well with most of the tribes but they don't speak it every day. It is more of a second, third or even fourth language for a lot of them. From what I have seen, they only speak it with white fellas, since none of us can speak any of their languages ('though I am trying).
So for them to be writing their anger on the walls of their homes in English, really dumbfounded me. It was only in thinking why that would be the case was why I had come up with what I did.
To be honest, I feel really bad for not being able to speak their language and speaking to them in English. I don't mean to, but what choice do we have when there isn't any good way of learning it? I can only keep trying to learn it little bits at a time to use at later stages, I guess.
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