I've had a BUSY Week and a half...

So since the last time I posted I've been to a conference/forum for the Iron Ore, Western Australia arm of BHP. Been to work for a few days and come back to Perth for my break before getting into my shifts. The conference was held at "The Vines" out in the vineyard-heavy area of Perth (sort of). I've got a picture of the vineyard just outside the patio doors of my room below.

I stayed at The Vines resort and got to spend 3 days going to talks, drinking, participating in team building activities (ie. look like a moron games, think university Orientation but with grown ups) and meeting the other people who work for BHP Iron Ore. It was a lot of fun!

I got to meet alot of the people I will be working with/for, many of them were not from Australia, even a few Canadians! I even won a PS3 on the second night :-) It's very pretty and fancy...... but I don't play video games...... think I can trade it in for a Wii?

I had a day and a half to recuperate before heading up to Newman. Funny thing, I arrived amidst the first rain of the year. Lots of rain. The tail end of a cyclone I'm told. I have the BEST timing! It was good though, the rain cooled things down a bit, it was the first day under 40C that month!

My new boss, Margaret, picked me up from the airport and took me to my new home away from home! Eco-Unit 18 at the Eco-Units on Gun Club Road. It is larger and nicer than my apartment in Vancouver. Well nicer on the inside, it's not near anything in town and I need to get picked up and dropped off every day. On the up side, someone picks me up or drops me off every day. I am a little spoiled. I eat at the Caravan Park Mess, and work in the offices on the Mt. Whaleback site or in the field.

The drills weren't up and running in the area I work in, maybe by the time I get back out there...

So I spent my 2.5 days at work going through various Inductions and getting my kit sorted out. They issue each of us a bunch of stuff, 4 BRIGHT ORANGE work shirts, some work khaki's, steel toed boots, and some other safety equipment. The shirts are very, very, very, bright. Here's a picture. And those white stripes are actually reflective strips. Oh yeah, we are HOT.

For the non-geologists out there, we are all staring at our feet because we are looking at rocks. This is our job. Yes, we are paid for this. And it is awesome.

On the filed trip we went looking at a few different formations and getting the new people (there were...... 4 or 5 of us that started in the last month or two) oriented in the rock package.

This is about standard topography in the Pilbarra or Hammersley provinces. You should check out what is called a valley.....

Oh yes, this is one of the valleys...... the picure to the left. I know, easy to miss, it's right in the middle of the picture, that slight depression...... Yup. That's a valley.

It isn't all quite this flat, there are little "mountain" ranges (that make the Yukon look positively terrifying in comparison) and interesting features like Ando's Crack. Yes someone named something Ando's Crack. Please insert your own joke here, there are too many for me to choose.


Ando's Crack was the second portion of our field trip, by this point I was getting a little stressed from the heat - though I am aclimatizing - and I didn't get as much out of it as might of. Seriously, I was sweating faster than I could drink water, it was HOT.

Ando's Crack was actually pretty cool, as you can see from these pictures:

This is the entrance, and the lovely tree blocking the way so our vehicles couldn't get in any farther.

I took pictures of some of the fauna in there but none turned out but here's a list: Tadpoles, 10's of thousands of tadpoles, all tiny and all creepy. 2 cute little lizards that run on their hind legs, adorable! One baby Monitor Lizard, apparently they have pointy bits. 100's of thousands of tiny, creepy caterpillars, at least i think they were caterpillars. They were gross. One dead snake , eaten snake, also gross. Yummy!

This one is for all the geologists out there, it is the hinge zone of an anticline, plainy visible, or at least it was at the time, here.... well, you'll have to trust me. This is also called "The Cathedral". I think. I was getting a little punchy by then and just wanted to leave so the name may or may not be correct.







And this is the view as we leave Ando's Crack. There are no people in it because I am in front of everyone because I really want to get the hell outta there.

I spent the rest of the day with a headache and acting a little weird. I may have to apologize to a couple people on Wednesday.

Well, maybe not apologize, one of them really bugs me - told me I wasn't a REAL geologist because I do exploration. He's a mining geo. I pointed out about 10 ways in which he is actually an engineer and left as soon as my bags came. I won't be apologizing to him. This is might be bad manners, but he started it.

So after getting "home", and by home I mean back to my hotel/apartment that has staff coming into all the freaking time - it's weird - I slept off the sun issues, and then went shopping the next day.

Shopping!!!! I got myself a cute little iPhone which is way more fun than it should be, I kind of love it. And I may name it. I've put the new number in my Facebook profile for people who need it and sent out emails with it. If you didn't get an email and feel i have slighted you.... well, the computer likes me most of the time but not all of the time. There were a few I had to resend or got error messages with the email addresses I was using. So..... it's not my fault, I swear. Love you!

And today I spent my day getting orientated to the rest of Perth and surrounding subburbs. The SIRVA lady even took me to look at a few places for rent. I think I like the Subiaco neighborhood the best - it's not close to the water but it feels more like home. And I think having beach people around all the time might piss me off, so it's best if I stay away from there.

I even looked at a place in Mount Lawley that, if it's available in April, I would actually rent. It's what they call a "villa" here, ground floor only, is one of 5 villa's that are part of the same building. For clarity, if there were only 2 places it would be called a duplex but there are 5.

And now I am tired. And almost over my annoying cold! So I am not going to push it staying up too late (I've been up since 5:45am). Later people!

Kimmy

I made it to Perth

So I made it to Perth, it's pretty warm here - being their summer - but it's not too bad. Jet lag comes in handy sometimes, I'm up very early and get to enjoy the cool of the early morning while I putter around getting stuff done and do errands. Once afternoon get's here it's way too hot for me. I think I'll get used to it but it may take a couple weeks :-)

My flights over here from Canada were..... hectic. I arrived at the opposite end LAX (LA Airport) from where I had to catch my flight to Sydney, and LAX is a very larde airport. As well, I had to pick up all of my luggage to change airlines due to problem with the way it was booked by the travel company, getting it from one end of the terminal to the other was an adventure and I got a few funny looks - I had alot of luggage. I was VERY relieved to see the Qantas signs as I was nearly in the parking lot by the time I found it, haha.

I missed my flight from Sydney to Perth by 15min (between a late flight arrival, very long line ups at customs and getting a little lost) and got moved back to one a few hours later. Which was actually lucky, I was sitting with a policeman from Perth who managed to allay my fears about moving to Perth. Telling me funny story's and giving advice about where to go and where not too. Made me feel quite a bit better to talk to someone about how things run here, and get good recommendations on local beer's. And I guess I have to live north of the river, he was quite clear about that, dangerous south of the river I suppose, haha. He's never been to Edmonton I guess.

I'm staying at a hotel downtown in Perth, just off the river. I'm booked in at the Grand Medina for the next 3 months. My suite is a one bedroom apartment, larger than my place in Vancouver by a good bit, heh. Pretty nice place but hippy/trendy feeling you get in Vancouver, no matter the time of day, people out in casual clothes walking the sea-wall or out and about, Perth is more conservative, lots of business wear down here. Or maybe that's just the immediate few blocks.

Today I going on my "Orientation" arranged by the relocation people. It starts at 9:30am, and as I've been up since 4am it will interfere with lunch, or what my stomache thinks is lunch, haha, this is the downside to jetlag.

I'm moving to Australia TOMORROW

Well, I am moving to Australia tomorrow. Perth to be exact. This should be interesting.

For the people who don't already know (you obviously haven't spoken with my mother) I am moving for a job with BHP Billiton, the worlds largest mining company. I have a job with them as an Exploration Geologist, I've been working in exploration for the past 3 years (since I got out of school).

I am not as happy about moving as I could be, I tried to find a job in Canada but there just aren't any right now, at least not for Exploration. So when BHP actually wanted to interview me for this job I was surprised. I was even more surprised when they wanted to fly me down for the second, on site interview - also the only time I have been to Australia before now, haha - and then they offered me the job. And it was too good not to take. Experience with a Major, in a new country, on the other side of the Earth (so very far away), good experience, interesting, good pay, good benefits...... It was all a little too good to turn down.

But, after having spent the last month with my family, which now includes 2 adorable nieces, I think I will miss them all quite a bit. More than I thought. As well, I have friends who I might not see more than every month or 3, but ....... they used to be a quick plane ride away, an hour and a half from Vancouver to Edmonton, and are now a 30 hour travel fest away from. And I will miss Vancouver. I was sad to leave the people there, it was my first home away from the comfort zone of Edmonton, and I leave some pretty amazing friends there who I will definitely miss, although they all seem to be getting married and/or engaged, so it might be time to run away :-)

Well, I better get onto packing and finishing up those last little things I have to get done before I leave.