Saturday – For the final time for a while

It sometimes felt like this day would never get here. I'm checked in to the plane, and the flat is polished, and washed, the beds have been made. The only thing missing from this place to call it home will be Mrs. Marmite, and the Little Spreaders. I'm off to the airport later this evening, and I don't know if I can wait. I'm more excited than excitement itself – to steal a phrase from Baldrick, but his was about cunning!

On the list of things today – get some snacks for the flight, get a haircut, pack the suitcase (although I like to only pack once, I'm sure I'll put things in and out of the case an awful lot before I finish packing. Then there will be waiting until my ride arrives to take me to the airport.

Hopefully I'll catch up with most people over the next 3 weeks – remember to mark the date 26^th July in your diary to come and give Mrs. Marmite and the Little Spreaders a good send off with an Aussie BBQ at the house in Telscombe Cliffs.

I'll be able to still get all my emails in the UK so don't be shy. I've had a few ideas about what I should rename the site when I'm back up and running.

Friday – I’m no movie critic but...

Hype for a film I find, is not to be trusted. I'm going to listen to word of mouth from how on. I'll tell you why. I went along to the cinema today to see the new Will Smith film "Hancock", which in my opinion, is very poor. I didn't get into the cinema in the best of moods, as I had been given the run around at the front desk when trying to buy a ticket.

When someone is in a ticket booth, you would expect them to sell tickets wouldn't you. How hard is it? I should have realised that something was going to not be in order, when everyone who was going to the ticket desk seemed to have to wait a while before getting their tickets.

I've discovered what the problem was. The manager was at the ticket desk (I guess they must have been short staffed), and he didn't really look like he knew how to work the machine that you press buttons on, and then a number appears in a little screen. When the customer pays you what it says in the little screen, you then press more buttons, and then a drawer opens, and a ticket is printed. It's commonly known as a cash register.

Anyway, in between answering questions from three different members of staff, and making one phone call (no excuse me, or I'll be a minute – how rude) I eventually got the ticket. I wish I hadn't bothered now.

I'm sounding like a grumpy old man now. Customer Service isn't a point that is very high on the list of priorities here. I would like to think that it was only limited to a couple places, but it isn't. At least you don't get a false "Have a nice day", like in most places in America. In fact you are lucky if the ½ witted teenaged is able to put that many works together into a sentence. I'd just settle for a thank you.

Thursday – Yummy Indonesian food

Work is finished for me. I did have a rather busy night, and not really much chance to sleep. When I say not much chance, I think only did two jobs from 2 until 8 in the morning, but that's unusual for Mandurah. After getting away a little late, I headed home.

While driving up to the city, I thought that I had better drop off the keys to the beach house, so made a little diversion (it was only supposed to be about 5 minutes out the way). That was in Victoria Park (which if you remember was where I was working for the past two months).

My tummy started to talk to me, and I remembered an Indonesia Cafe close by. My goodness, I'd forgotten how good and authentic the chicken satay was. After I munched through those (only 6 sticks) I had a real taste for Indonesia food, so I ordered a bowl of Soto Ayam. (Soto Ayam – Indonesia for chicken soup – is hard to describe, but here goes; a clear very tasty chicken soup and then on the side there is a whole selection of shredded chicken, vegetables, rice and rice vermicelli, a boiled egg and crispy onions that you add to the soup. It is actually a breakfast dish in most places in Indonesia).

The rest of the day I didn't do much, as my tummy was full, and I was feeling weary from the previous night's excursions. More TV under the blanket, and a few gallons of my favourite drink, before going to the local hotel to watch some of the Test Cricket of South Africa v. England, and then some live band. They weren't too good, but better than some I've seen in there.

Wednesday – Weather is on my mind

Rain, wind, cold and wet. They are four words I wouldn't have used to describe Australia, before I came here. Of course there is the winter, but I never thought about it. And even when I arrived into 40 degree plus weather, it never crossed my mind that things would take a turn for the worse.

I find myself now longing for the summer to come around again. It will be great when the things start to warm up. I did notice that I'll need my pullovers with me when I go back to England later in the week. I was watching some of the tennis last week, and it did look pretty miserable.

After the work last night (it never seemed to end) I slept the whole day. Probably best, because I don't know if I could have stayed in the house in Golden Bay for much longer, with the wind rattling the shutters, and no heating.

The work was just another night of bits and pieces, but again nothing particularly noteworthy. I didn't get much sleep, but I don't mind, as I'll be able to nod off back at home during the day.

It seemed like it hasn't stopped raining for about 2 days. Actually it rains really heavily, and then the sun comes out for a while, and then heavy rain again. I can't recall the overcast/drizzly days that are a lovely feature of a Brighton Winter.

 

Tuesday – I didn’t tell them what I wanted to

Work, work, work. That is what was on my mind all day. I had to make the drive down to Mandurah for the final time this week, as after the two nights were finished, I'll be working somewhere else.

It was an alright night, with nothing to taxing. We did get used as a pawn in a power-struggle between two of the hospitals. One wanted someone to be transferred to the other one, who didn't want to accept the person, so someone at the first hospital got their knickers in a twist, and started to panic, and make up symptoms – it seems – to get the person accepted at the other hospital.

The control manager called me on the phone, and told me what the situation was, and also informed me that there were some very senior health department people involved in the situation, and for me just to do what I do second best (What I do best at the moment is speak my mind), but not to say anything to the first hospital.

How well does the boss know me already? Anyway, we did the job, and that's that. Nothing else to say.

Monday – A signed up member of the Apathy Club!

Strong, very militant unions, which run an almost closed shop, have an extremely powerful base, and which can hold managements of companies almost to ransom, with their demands, and extremely strong negotiating positions are a thing of the past in the UK. We can argue the merits and pitfalls of such a system until we are blue in the face. The UK is still trying to make sense of the abolition of this system. Here in Australia there are a lot of businesses that are in the grip of these strong single unions. As to be expected the paramedics here also have a very strong negotiating union.

Somewhat appropriately, in a part of a country which the ambulance service is struggling to define a role, either as an emergency service, or a transport service that will answer a few emergency calls, the union is under a general, rather toothless sounding ambiguous group called the "Hospitality, and Miscellaneous Workers Union". So the Hospitality Workers are those people who work in hotels, casinos, and bars, and the Miscellaneous Workers are people who don't fit in anywhere else.

Anyway, since I've arrived the union has been negotiating on our behalf for our tri-annual agreement on our working conditions, and wages. We get a three year agreement with our terms and conditions, and wage rises. It turns out that on June 30 this year the last agreement expired. There have been meetings on and off since I've been here, and surprisingly there hasn't been an agreement yet between us paramedics, and the St. John's Ambulance Board.

Today there was another of those meetings that all the ambulance service members were invited to attend, and hear the latest pay offer, and what is requested in return for this money. There were some tempting giveaways at the union offices including free hotdogs, and t-shirt's in order to entice us to come along. Sadly, as I was down in the country depot – Mandurah, and couldn't attend.

I will listen with interest the outcome of meeting, and I'm sure that it won't be long – as there were newspaper reporters there. I wonder what the general public will make of the fact that we've been recommended to turn the 15% pay rise over 3 years that has been put on the table. I'll let you know the general reaction.

Sunday – I had to admit defeat

I know that people look online and then when I say how cold it is, I'm told that online it says that it isn't as cold as I have said. I'm not sure of why there is a discrepancy, and so I did some investigation as to the difference. It turns out that the site that most places get their info about the current weather from is the weather reporting centre at the domestic airport, and the temperature doesn't reflect the 3 or 4 degree difference around the area.

When I was driving to work this morning I head on the radio that the temperature was 2 degrees out at the airport, which I found quite strange, as I had ice on my windows, and my car thermometer said -1. I am getting quite soft, because I have forgotten what -1 feels like. Also a couple of the banks had the temperature on their big billboards (why is it always banks?) and they were agreeing with me.

Eventually I warmed up once I got to work, and as it was a sunny day, the temperature got up to about 18 or 19 degrees, but that wasn't going to last I knew. Boy was I not looking forward to a cold night in Golden Bay Beach House, with only a wood burning stove for company.

The day wasn't the hardest work I've done for a while, but as is the way most of the time, we ended up finishing quite late though. It was already dark and very cold again, by the time I arrived at the beach house. Number 1 priority was to get the heat from the fire. (Survival Training Kicking in – Protection, Location, Water, Food – and as I had some wine, and a bag of crisps and a couple pickled onions in the fridge that was water and food taken care of, and no one was looking for me so it didn't about location).

After being so impressed with the fire the last couple times I stayed, I thought it would be a snap to get this one up and running, but oh no. Last week, in trying to coax the wet wood to burn, I had used most of the kindling, and there wasn't much around, plus the wood wasn't dry yet, and refusing to light. After 20 or 30 minutes of singeing my fingers, and getting very frustrated, I admitted defeat, as I knew where there was a place with more than a couple pickles, and has heating.

You guessed it; I trundled back up the road to my house. It was going to mean another early start tomorrow in the freezing, but at least I'm warm over night. When you look at the temperature online in Perth – don't believe the current temperatures on Google. The minimums and maximums are usually a couple degrees off a well, but it does give you an idea. I've put a weather forecaster on the BlogSpot if you want to look.

Saturday – How many days left?

Anticipation can sometimes be better than the actual happening. I don't think that this time it is going to be the way. The anticipation is that it is now 1 week before I climb those metal steps, get comfortable in the seat, suspend belief for about a whole day, and then with a bump and a squeal, I'll be arriving in sunny London Gatwick airport. It doesn't feel like 2 months since I started planning my trip in earnest, but it's rolled around quite quickly.

I have a list of things to do before I can leave here. Most of the items are completely done, and other things I'm not going to be able to do, until next Saturday. I need some distraction for the next week, and I'm not sure what I'll do. There are a couple things (such as work), but that's not going to take all week.

Off the top of my head here's the complete list: cleaning the house (1 hour), change the bed to some clean sheets (5 minutes), pack my suitcase (20 minutes – years of practice while I was with Thomas Cook Airways and Leisure International Airways), get some supplies in the store cupboard for when everyone arrives (I could stretch that out to a couple hours – even though it is only nappies, washing powder, breakfast for the first morning we arrive). As you can see, I'm not going to be busy this week.

I sat out the front of the apartment in the afternoon, in the sunshine, and chatted with Kim again for a couple hours. A few people from the other apartments in the block stopped by and had a chat, every now and then. After that I was early to bed, as work loomed tomorrow and I was planning on leaving at about 6.

Friday – Christmas in July

As it is winter time, I am feeling a little festive. Although I say winter, I'm meaning more a late autumn day, with rain showers, interspersed by a few nice sunny spells, which are actually very warm, and pleasant. The rainy, cold intervals are getting a lot more frequent, and it is actually getting to where I think its cold – and I could roll around in snow naked and think that it was only mildly chilli.

I did eventually get a heater/radiator for the bedroom, and the lounge has a setting on the air-conditioner that blows out warm air. I'm sure I've mentioned it before. Anyway now I'm as roasted warm as I can be anytime, and with the heater, I don't have to have the air-conditioner on (which is a cost consideration).

After Thursday evenings excesses at Earl and Jan's house, I didn't really feel up to much. I'd arranged with some other of my work colleagues to go to a evening function in the city, at a place called "The Lucky Shag" – which, by the way, is named after a sea bird – for an event called Christmas in July.

Everywhere is advertising their own version of this novel idea, and feeling a little festive, I thought excellent – some cheap chrimbo decorations up, some dodgy music on the stereo, and a few festive drinks will make me quite merry.

Sadly the only thing that was Christmassy was the name. There were no decorations, no one with Christmas baubles hanging off their earrings, no Slade on the sound system, and not a drop of mulled wine anywhere. We did still get rained on while we sat outside though.

So that was Christmas in July. I'll add it to the list of things that I shouldn't get excited about.

Tomorrow I'm off to the beach to watch some boogie boarding competition, and it is going to be big waves, and windy, but not too much rain. It should be good.

I'll see if I can get some photos

 

Sunday – Thursday – I haven’t done this for a while

I know that it's been a long time since I've done a week entry in one go. I've been a little remiss in putting my thoughts down on paper (so to speak) because of two reasons. 1. I haven't had any new or original thoughts, and 2. I'm using a computer, obviously.

My mind has been on coming home, and I've been putting the final touches on my travel plans and making the house here more Tin Lid friendly. I've been into IKEA again to get a wardrobe. (For saying I detest the place, I seem to be going there a lot recently).

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were full of work, and not much else, then Wednesday was a recovery day when I did nothing but fall asleep on the sofa a couple times, and not much more than that.

Thursday was when I headed to IKEA, and then wrestled with a wardrobe trying to put it together. I understand why it was supposed to be a two person job now, but with some ingenious use of my head (holding something up) and the broom handle, I managed to get the thing together. I guess it would have been easier with two people, but unless I split myself in two, I wasn't going to have a helper.

Later that evening I went to a little get together with a couple of the guys that were on my training course, when I started here, for a South African Bush Meal called a poikkee which is a stew type meal – cooked in a pot over a open fire, and then served with rice, and some cornbread, which is also cooked in a pot over hot coals. It was yummy.

So that was my week in a nut shell.

Oh, and the biggest news was that another two pieces of paper have arrived to do with the permanent visa, and now I have everything I need, except for another medical, and a chest x-ray, and a family to apply with also. That will be easily rectified soon.

Saturday – Another Night at the Beach House

I was getting into my car on Saturday, when a man came up to me and asked for a lift. I said "You're looking great, and the world is your oyster." I think he went away happy! I hope so anyway.

I started the second last block of shifts, before my Gran Tour back to the UK, so the routine was pretty normal, with an early start, to get ahead of the traffic, and headed down to Mandurah, ready for my 8 AM start today. It was only about 1 hour drive as it was the weekend, and there weren't too many cars on the road.

On arriving at the depot, both the night crewed ambulances were there, but unusually, they looked like they hadn't had a wink of sleep through the night. It can be quite deceiving working at a supposed "quiet" station, as on Friday night, everyone was out in the town, and feeling quite frisky. A couple of the calls that they had attended made the news.

My day was filled with mostly mundane, usual types of calls, but I was very tired when I headed to the beach house in Golden Bay after work. I remembered my experience last week with trying to keep warm, and so I stopped off at a roadhouse (petrol station on a country highway that doubles up as a restaurant/general store – a little like a Little Chef and Petrol Station all rolled in to one – with food that looks about as tasty).

I looked around the store, and then located what I was searching for. Outside (not under cover) were some big bags of firewood. It had been trying to re-enact the Genesis account of the Great Flood story for most of the day, so I rummaged through the bags in an attempt to find a bag of firewood that wasn't sodden. I was almost successful.

With my damp firewood in one hand, and my small bag of belongings under the other arm, I was very relieved to finally get into the dry of the house. I set to, and with a couple of piles of twigs and newspaper balls, I got a fire roaring in the pot belly wood burner, and then opened the bag of firewood I had brought with me. It didn't take long to realise that the bag of wood was really going to take a lot of convincing to get burning.

It was mostly damp wood, and with the limited trail craft I've got, I knew I was fighting a lost cause trying to keep the fire going. But after a lot of poking around, and piles of twigs and more newspapers to coax the fire into life numerous times, eventually it was warming the place up – just in time for me to go to bed.

I didn't need anyone to give me a lift today, as I was feeling pretty good about things – for the first time in a while. I am really just wishing the next fortnight away in a hurry.

Friday – Very relaxed today

I don't know what the young lady was looking for today, but still I guess that it was just another hoop to jump through. I had a house inspection today. I'd cleaned the place and made it look spick and span. It doesn't take long to clean the three rooms I have been living in, but did it anyway.

The young lady came in, and after a quick chat, she glanced in each room, and then in 5 minutes, the inspection was all over. I don't think that it was a pass or fail inspection, and they just wanted to make sure I wasn't living like a pig, or using the house as some sort of house of ill repute or the like.

Anyway, after the inspection, I just got ready for work, and then watched T.V. It was going to be an early start so I had an early night. It was very relaxing.

Thursday – I’m think there should be rules

One of the funniest T.V. programmes that I've seen for many a long day is a short BBC comedy, talking head type programme that interviews some middle aged comedians/funny men about things that irks them. It's called "Grumpy Old Men". Last night I caught an edition of it while channel surfing and decided about my bruises I'd received from my excursion into IKEA yesterday.

What is a man going to do? I'd decided that I'm going to have to change the bedding back at IKEA again, after vowing yesterday that I wasn't going to step foot in the place with sharpening up my elbows, and getting some body armour to protect myself. To steel myself for the excursion I thought that I might fortify myself at the Coffee Club with a cup of coffee and slice of cake.

While day dreaming over my cake, and coffee, I noticed an ATM in front of me, and watched it, as I didn't have much else to do. By now you must have come to realise that I can make long tirade about some of the most mundane things in life. The use of an ATM is going to get that treatment. Let me tell you why.

After watching the ATM for about 20-30 minutes, sipping my coffee, I never saw anyone use it. Here in Australia, you have to use your own dedicated bank machines, to avoid getting any charges. After finishing my coffee, I went to get a little bit cash. As soon as I walked up to the machine, three other people decided that they would get some money/do all their banking/top up their mobile.

After a few minutes I got to the front of the queue, and withdrew my money. Behind me were two or three people waiting to get their money. I went over to a bench, sat down, and put the cash away. I looked up to see the machine, because I didn't have as much as I needed, and was going to get some more out. All of a sudden, I came up with a plan. I'd watch the ATM for a while to test an idea I had come up with.

I watched the machine for about another 30 minutes, and no one used the machine, but as soon as I went up to it, there was a queue again of about two or three people behind me. That must be one of the unwritten ATM rules, that there can never be only one person using the machine, and as soon as someone walks up to it, other people need to join them.

Oh – and if someone is using the ATM when I'm waiting, they must pay a couple bills, deposit some money, check the balances on 4 accounts, and then after all this, and getting their money, people must then count the money, and then individually fold each note, and place them into a wallet one at a time, before walking away from the machine.

Oh – and by the way, I didn't venture into IKEA. I was decided it wasn't necessary in the end, and after my little personal "Grumpy Old Men" episode, I thought that I might as well go home and lie down.