Welcome back, and new jacket!
Today, many people came back from R&R! Flore, Duncan, Delon, Michael, Boon! So happy to see them all back! Boon brought a lot of gear! hoho!
Duncan went to Japan and did all the greatest things there! He bought me a giant pocky!
I discovered a new hole in my favourite red socks!
But on the bright side, I got a new jacket!
Left camp at 8am with Constantin, Marius, and Michael. Dropped by the supermarket for some snacks.
Saw Nathaniel outside! I used to get PPE from him, but he no longer works at Koniambo.
We made a stop on the way to the caves.
Then back into the car, and towards the caves.
Then Aurelie, Jacu, Luke and Lydia arrived, so we went inside.
I saw a bat, I was scared at first, then Marius said it’s cute, then I started to think it was cute too.
Spent a while inside, but this time, we didn’t go through the whole cave, just through the first few rooms. Then we came out.
After the caves, we went to Le Skipper for lunch.
I tried Jacu’s lens, it’s for crop sensor, and I didn’t turn on the crop-lens-detect at first. So it gave a nice vignette.
It was a fun little lens to use, and nice to have autofocus!
so I could enable face-detect.
Jacu got to try my lens on his camera.
The food took a long time to come, I had salmon and fries.
and then a karanoughat for dessert.
After lunch, we went outside for a quick walk. It was very windy.
Then we came back to camp. I played tennis, then had a rest (cut most of the hair off my face!) before dinner. Ready for another week! 2 weeks left until R&R I hope to keep warm tonight, it was so cold last night that I kept waking up!
“Best before” means “still okay after”, right?
As I finish here at the end of next month, I’m making sure I eat the rest of the food I have.
Today, found a tin of milo at the back of my cupboard. BNIB (brand new in box), foil still intact, inherited from Ray before he left.
I looked at the best before date at the bottom.
October 2012… that’s when I first arrived here!
Emerson cares for me and wanted to take it away from me, but I think it’s fine! Well… I still feel fine!
At 7:30, I went to the canteen to have breakfast (potatoes, 2 sausages, 3 croissants). The serving lady was funny, she said “you are beautiful boy”. So I replied “merci”. lolol.
Went to get on the bus at 8:45. But it took a while before the bus left.
We saw Lak there too!
Then back onto the bus, and headed to Faoue beach.
It was my first time to this beach. When we got there, it was quite cloudy.
Many of the Filipino guys headed straight to the water and started pulling crabs out!
Here’s a small one Richard was showing me, he was holding it in his thongs.
While another group started the fire and food preparation.
When you stop for a moment, and look into the water, there is so much life in there! I saw many starfish, and didn’t want to walk into the water, I didn’t want to step on them!
Thomas cooked bak kut teh.
And the other guys cooked pork adobo.
While I lay down, and look up into the trees.
Then I ate the fried chicken with sauce.
Me with Brian the pro-cook!
With Franklin, Reden and Marc.
The ladies were painting their finger nails. Martin said he’d do it if Thomas did it… and then Thomas did….
Here’s Emerson cleaning his pot.
and a group of guys singing.
Then I left with Josh instead of waiting for the bus. When I got back to camp, I had a shower and relaxed for a bit, then went to play tennis with Andrew. It was just more practice for me, and it was a lot of fun. We do ridiculous things. We played across two tennis courts, hitting over the centre fence. I’m really bad at playing, I wanted to hit the ball, but instead, it hit my forehead. I hope it doesn’t bruise. Then Scott came back (with the bus, which was delayed, and then broke down, then they had to wait for the replacement bus!), and then I left.
I ate so much today that I’m too full to go to dinner.
After work today, I got a call from Scott, asking if I wanted to play tennis! So ok! I booked the court and went down there, practiced serving until Scott came. Most times, I can hit it over the net and clear it well, so well, that I can even clear two nets (the tennis net, and the fence). I think I’m improving though! I’ll give it another go tomorrow.
After tennis, I went to dinner, and after dinner, back to my room for a quick shower, and to grab my laptop as I organised a gaming session tonight.
We just played counter-strike. I was server, so had the advantage of no lag.
Had to finish early so that I could return the room keys to reception before they closed at 10pm.
Tomorrow, I will go out to the beach for a barbeque.
It’s been warm and sunny here for the past few weeks, and humid since Sunday.
Last night, when I was leaving work, it started to rain.
This morning, I was awakened by the glass bottles in my room rattling, as my room was shaking from the strong winds. It was raining for most of the day, and the air was cool. It was a nice refreshing change.
In the morning, we had the weekly toolbox meeting. I was presenting, again. I went through the slides yesterday with safety-man-Marc and was ready. On the way to the meeting, safety-man-Marc told me “remember Adam, no jokes, professional”. So the safety meeting started, and I read the slides as straight as I could.
Everything was going fine, no jokes, professional. About halfway through, I thought something was funny, but in my mind “remember Adam, no jokes, professional”. However, I could not contain the laughter, I had to pause and hold my breath and not let it out. I think others were noticing that I was trying to keep something in. I was reading the list of offences that would cause expulsion from site, including the miscellaneous offences (narcotics, prostitution), then someone behind me said in a disappointed voice “so I can’t sell my body?”. Self control, no laughing, professional, hold my breath, don’t smile, hold my breath, bite my lip. Then someone else said “no, not on site, but maybe at the bush-bar”… keep a straight face…ignore it… no… Then someone else called out “don’t smoke your vegetables”. OK. I couldn’t keep myself from laughing. FAIL.
I got new rainboots today! No more wet socks!
Here’s a sign on the substation door.
“If nasty smell or an unexpected noise appears in the vicinity”… What do you think of when you see that? “A nasty smell or unexpected noise”. I just think of the toilet.
Here’s Francois trying to change the canteen TV channel at Wednesday lunch so he could watch the hockey.
And here’s Jayson on the computer just before heading out to site.
Sometimes, with these face-coverings, I can’t tell who it is. Even harder when it’s like this.
After a while, you can recognise them by body shape, and also by bandanna design.
On Wednesday night, mind blown. I walked into the canteen, to see tables on one half changed.
New circular tables, and blue chairs! Maybe someone will come and take our order as well! The question now is, “who is more resistant to change? Those who move to the other side of the canteen with the old-configuration of rectangular tables? Or those who stay on this side of the canteen but with circular tables?”. Personally, I prefer sitting on this side of the canteen, even though the tables are circular. Sitting on the other side of the canteen, makes me feel backwards, makes me feel as if I should switch hands to eat with, and hold the fork in my right hand and knife in left.
and here’s the lunch of the office-lunch-club.
And since it was Thursday, it’s burger night! woohoo!