This Adventurous Age

SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY     RV2

Our day off.

We just slept in, relaxed, did washing.

It was far too hot to venture out of the cool of the rooms, unless we had to. Every day now was into the high 40’s.

John thought he felt a bit better. Today’s rest should do him good.

There were some power outages through the day. Clearly the generation system here was having difficulty coping with the heat and the load placed upon it, just as at RV1.

Our men packed up at RV1 and came back here, where they went to work on the verandas of the new rooms.

Apparently Spotless at RV1 got totally fed up with the compressor problems of the freezer and the cool room, phoned a different company that worked on these things, in Hedland, and ordered them to the site on Monday to fix everything! They were not happy with the work of the Newman company. I silently wished them luck, because it was problems with that Hedland company that had caused me to use the one from Newman way back. Kind of a circular thing…..

FRIDAY 2 FEBRUARY     RV2

Spotless comms were still out.

John arrived back from RV1, with the bus. He complained of bad pains in his side and back. Possibly from doing a lot of lifting? Or, he thought, he may have pulled a muscle when he was cleaning the bus, yesterday. Nonetheless, he forged on.

 Loaded the Acco with stuff for RV1 – there was no one here to help, of course. Except me! I did assist, a bit. But it was so bloody hot out in the open, to the point of being hard to do physical stuff.

He took that load to RV1, unloaded it – again with little help. Then it was on to Hedland – purchasing. He also collected a load of gravel, which he took to RV1 and unloaded. He brought a load of the missing beds, an ice machine and some other stuff back here. It had been a hard day’s work for him and it was 8pm when he finished.

John reported that the Acco brakes were not working at all well. I wondered if we would be able to get it through the final days of the project, without having to get the mechanics out to it?

John had news that K was sick – flu? He was still trying to direct the work on the new buildings at RV1. Fortunately, the two men there were sensible enough not to need his direction – in fact, they would probably do better without it!

THURSDAY 1 FEBRUARY     RV2

John had an airport run first thing as the four workers at RV1 were going out on break. That only left K and John on today’s worker list there. In the afternoon John went back to the airport to collect the two men coming back from break. In between time, he cleaned and detailed the bongo bus – on specific instruction from BB, who had not been happy with its condition, the last time he saw it.

The concreting was finished at RV1.

I just continued with my paperwork collation, serial number organizing, Building Registers and the like. A really huge job overall. The Spotless comms were still out, so they were in and out of my office all day.

Communication came from HO that we were to fly home next Thursday. That made sense, as there was not much more to be done here – apart from the installation of the extra SPQ’s. I would be quite pleased to go – but having K working here without someone to keep tabs on him and (gently) prod him in necessary directions, might not be the smartest move by the high-ups!

That would make five weeks of being here. Enough of the heat, dust, remoteness and not having wheels to go anywhere. But it would have added about another $30,000 to our coffers, which kind of balanced the scales!

WEDNESDAY 31 JANUARY     RV2

Electrician left today. No sparkies left on site now.

Our camp power was on and off all day – eight or nine times in all. But that main camp was not our responsibility, thankfully. The longest outage was 45 minutes. Very bad for all sorts of machinery and technology. It put Spotless comms out, so they were now coming in to use my phone and fax. A pest. Shades of the old days! With my site office not wired up to the camp power but on its own genset, the power stayed on to my systems.

It was amazing how quickly the bedrooms heated up when there was no air con.

There was definitely a gastro bug in camp!

The concrete delivery place that K had found was not very reliable. They were late getting the stuff to RV1 again, today. The heat was causing cracking problems in the concrete.

John arrived back from RV1. He did the pool work – put in the depth markers, fixed the Krawly hose, did the bunds around the pool chemicals. He’d already done that for the pool at RV1. He loaded up some materials that K wanted, into the bus, then drove back to RV1 with that, and overnighted there again.

There were storms in the afternoon. About 4pm there was strong wind, thunder and lightning, rain. The electrical storm continued on after dark and was quite spectacular.

My existence in my bedroom “cell” here is quite monastic. Don’t think I would like the FIFO life on a long term basis.

TUESDAY 30 JANUARY     RV2

John went off with the Acco, with the bobcat on the back – needed at RV1. He then did a tip run to Hedland and collected the pools signage/markers from the afternoon plane, before overnighting at RV1.

So, down to just electrician B and me, here.

K had managed to locate someone to bring concrete out to RV1, so today they were pouring the veranda spurs for the new buildings. The cement delivery was very late, though.

There was a big storm at RV1 last night, that left large pools of water everywhere and showed up drainage problems over much of the camp. K would work on some sort of attempt to rectify this.

New message from HO – the company plates were now to stay on the sale buildings! Good thing John had not started shifting them, yesterday.

About 3pm there was a strong willy wind, that scattered loose stuff around again.

Yesterday’s fire to the NW was still going, so there was a discernable smoke smell about. We had been able to see the glow clearly last night, and again tonight. I idly wondered what I would do if the camp had to be evacuated?

MONDAY 29 JANUARY     RV2

One electrician, John and I were the only project people at RV2.

The electrician reported that a number of the SPQ dongas were really badly wired. I passed that comment through to HO – up to BB whether he took up that comment with the builders.

John had a sticky job – literally – out in the heat. He had to go around all the Pod 1 and 3 buildings, putting sticky company labels on every donga. These were the ones that would be taken away again, once the railway was built, with the central Pod 2 remaining here to be the rail maintenance camp.

After that, he worked on his coffee table tops.

Still no concrete at RV1. Apparently K went into Hedland to try to source some. He might have been better to have just sat and used the phone. – certainly quicker. But it got him off site again.

Instructions came from HO, to take all the metal ID plates off the Pod 2 dongas that would be sold to FMG, and relocate those onto any of the leased dongas in Pods 1 and 3, that did not already have plates. Job for John, but I was to keep a record of the changes.

There was a very large bushfire visible in the distance, all afternoon.

The pool Krawly hose at RV2 was not long enough. John was to get more, next time he was in Hedland.

There was a shower of rain in the late afternoon, then a wind/dust storm about 8pm.

SUNDAY 28 JANUARY     RV2

We had a day off.

Everyone else was at RV1, except for the two electricians.

Work at RV1 was still held up by lack of cement.

I was really looking forward to finishing up here and going home.

FRIDAY 26 JANUARY     RV2

A very, very hot day!

There were only us, one worker and two electricians, of the company people, at RV2.

John took an Acco to RV1 and picked up a load of rubbish from the new buildings unpacking, and went on to the tip.

K appeared here from RV1 – came to get some tools. RV1 work was still held up by lack of cement. If K had thought to phone and order this a week or more ago, he might have gotten it. But he expected to be able to phone and get instant service. It rarely worked like that, up here.

A sudden strong willy wind at lunchtime blew my office sat dish over, along with a number of plastic chairs and redistributed rubbish about the place. I was able to set the sat dish up again, and the system still worked. Amazing.

Spotless ran out of gas, so there was no fish and chips for tea. I had been looking forward to that too.