THURSDAY 30 NOVEMBER     RV1

Low 40’s. I was dreaming now about cool things – green grass, rain, even cold. Was starting to look forward to being home – green grass, a shower of comfortable temperature, an absence of red dust.

The men from the SPQ building company agreed – very reluctantly – to stay and fix the showers properly this time. It was a very messy job and they got fibreglass gunk all over them, so I could understand their attitude. The ones at RV2 were checked again too, and 24 there were found to still be defective. Guess those guys were going to be around for a while yet!

John went to Hedland in the morning – to the plane and to buy oddments needed for work on the punch list.

I was notified that the roller door for the wet mess was ready and would be sent here from SA via one of the transport firms that had been bringing buildings.

John put up safety mesh around the sports court and around holes that had been dug for light poles in the car park. When he was walking across the car park area, his eye was caught by a glint on the ground, and he picked up a large piece of clear stone. He brought it in to show me, convinced that it was a chunk of topaz – it certainly looked like it to me. We put it aside to keep. (A couple of years later, a jeweller confirmed it was indeed topaz – good quality – and I had it made into a ring. My permanent piece of RV1)

There were still faults happening with the smoke alarms. I was not sure that problem was going to be fixable! Just too hot.

I was working now on a stock take of everything that was in the office – divided into what would stay with the leased office (not much) and what would be sent to RV2 or on down to Leonora. I was also trying to track down all the bed linen that John had purchased, weeks ago, for the company rooms at Fly Camp. Although I had kept it in a separate store area at Fly Camp, it had got disorganized because we had people in both places for a while, then some of that bedding was used here when we first moved in – before Spotless took over upkeeping the rooms. So I had to go right through the linen store at Fly Camp, and here. Spotless reckoned our stuff was all separated and stored, here, but I could only find some of it. Some could have gone to RV2, of course. I was not going to be able to tidily account for it all and that annoyed me.

At night there was a very bad smell coming our way from the poo plant!