He didn't show up.

I was dressed to the nines. Even had my one our shoes on. Hair was up, I was even running on time.

Now earlier that day I had received a phone call from the restaurant, wanting me to confirm that I was still coming. Yes. I then rang "him" to check that he was still coming. Yes.

It takes me an hour to get to the city from my house. After fourty minutes of driving I got a message from him. Too sick. Can't make it. Sorry.

Hmmnnnn........I have tonsilitis, but I still made it. I have the decency to share my germs around to keep a date. Damn it!

Next time I'm going to invite a third friend, just for when he pikes out on me at the last minute.

You'd think I would learn by now. This was the dinner he was shouting me because he wanted to make up for all the times he had ditched me at the last minute. Sigh.

And he's only a friend. Thank God for that. Definitely no sex for him if he was a lover, that's for sure!

On a lighter note, my best mate who is a school teacher, asked my permission to give her 27 year 5 students my email address, so they could email a real person and ask them about their job. No worries I said, go ahead.
4 Questions each. 27 Students. Hmmnnn...... I really should have thought about that. Sigh....... My first answers to the first child were quite in depth. Usually when I start talking about my job I can't stop. At that stage there was only one message in my inbox. Right now I can tell you I'm a little overwhelmed! He he he. They're cute questions though. From the mouths of babes (and the odd smartarse I might add) though I won't tell their teacher that.

I'm going now - to answer about 26 emails.
See ya.

The show went well......

Hello there. I've been really busy with Carry On Guides this week. The show went well.......except a little technical difficulty I had with some of my lines on the opening number on the Saturday matinee. Having the flu and an ear infection didn't help me much. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it! Finale on Saturday night totally went off. I'm sure it wouldn't have been so good if I didn't completely screw up in the matinee. I guess I just got a little too comfortable. God I hope it doesn't make it on the video.

Had a really quiet day on Sunday. I've spent the last 18 weeks rehearsing on Sunday nights, so it was pretty wierd being home all day on a Sunday. I did a massive spring clean, cleaned out the shed and my spare room. Right now my house looks like a bombsite. I'm cleaning out the spare room for a girlfriend who is going to stay with me the month before she gets married. I'm chief bridesmaid and I'm starting to feel the pressure. Talk about Bridezilla. Geez. Hmmnn.........

Went out to lunch with a girlfriend today. Then I saw a movie "Fantastic Four". I enjoyed it. I have a list of movies I want to see as long as my arm. There's just not enough time (or money!) I''ve only got 2 more days left at home this hitch. Tomorrow I'm going out to lunch with another girlfriend, then a mate from work is taking me out to the Greedy Goose for dinner. I'm really looking forward to it. He's taking me out to make up for all the times he's piked out on me. You know the type, always promises to show up but never does. I'm a little unsure if he will actually turn up on the night. Hmmmnn.......

On Wednesday I'm supposed to be having dinner with my mum, then my accountant is coming over to do my tax.... at 10.30 that night! Damn that's late. But it is the only time I could fit him in. I'm leaving on Thursday morning for work.

Things I also have to fit in during the next two days are.......getting material for the bridezilla maids dress, organising to see my seamstress to make it up, getting the dog to my friends house (inbetween mums dinner and taxman, packing my work bag, getting keys organised for bridezilla's visit, cleaning out spare room (properly) for bridezilla's visit, paying the friggin electricity bill............ hmmnnn..... does bridezilla really need electricity? I guess the shit would really hit the fan if I did that to her.....he he he.

There's a whole bunch of other stuff I need to do before I leave, but I won't bore you with those. All I really want to do is sleep and shake off this flu.

I'm off to be a couch potatoe. Hopefully talk to you tomorrow night, let you know if he showed up at all.

G'day, Wednesday already, where does the time go when you're home. Geez. I think I left my last blog raving about the Bombay Bicycle Club.


On Sunday I had an all day rehearsal for Carry On Guides, the theatre group I'm in. I had a wonderful day, the show's coming together really well. We had two full run thru's, and we got positioned properly for some of the dances. Now, I'm not terribly graceful, nor do I have a fantastic memory. I'm pretty good at fudging and I love dancing so I always have a massive smile on my face whenever I do dance. And I tend to put alot of energy into things, possibly to make up for me not really knowing what I'm doing.


Now there's one particular dance that I just don't get, smile or no smile. So I just tend to jump up and down on the spot until the music stops. I was actually still waiting to get kicked out of the dance, until Sunday arvo, when I got put in the front friggin row! Faaarrrrkkk...... I almost died. Front row centre and didn't know when to kick left or shimmy right. Bugga. I thought I might get a nice comfortable back row somewhere. Not. Hmmmnnn.....


The COG rehearsal finished at 4, and I was so pumped and had had such a great day singing and dancing with all my best mates (bar one - you know I still love you nic) I was pretty much ready to do it all again. I was actually bummed I had to go home.


That night I had the biggest friggin nightmare about that bloody dance. I dreamt it was the opening night and I completely made a giant fool out of myself and let the entire team down and everyone was laughing at me. After I woke up a bit the next day I realised I couldn't swallow. And my joints hurt, and i was feeling really lethargic ....
etc..... Yep, sick a friggin dog. Great. I hope the seven year old singing "FAME" with me in the finale knows her words!


Tuesday I spent at my mate Kates house, learning "that" dance. I think I got it. Unfortunately Kate wont be yelling out "LEFT, RIGHT KICK, SHIMMY" etc when we are on stage. Bugga. Tuesday night was the first dress rehearsal in the theatre. It went pretty well. Mental note.... high heels + that dance = not the best idea I've ever had. Mid jump while turning in the wrong direction, heels can be a little distracting. I was just imagining what I would tell my boss when I couldn't go to work because of my two broken ankles. Hmmnn......


It's Wednesday now, I'm having a pretty easy day today. It's almost lunch time and I'm still in my jarmies. Just put the bins out, in my jarmies. It's about a five minute walk. While i was walking down the hill (ugg boots, scungy old tracky dacks, over shirt like uncle scrooge, no bra, bed hair, dog trailing at my heels) I think I ran into about every cute and gorgeous man in my compex of units. Nice!


Got another dress rehearsal tonight. We open at 7.30pm at the Shedly in Elizabeth on Thursday the 18th of August, just in case anyone out there would be interested .


Gotta go now, Trippi is going to have a bath. Only he doesn't know it yet. He he he he...........

Hi honey I'm home.

I'm finally home. Yay! Got home on Friday afternoon. I slept in again (after only 3 hours sleep) and had to have another mad dash to the airport. But I didn't get a speeding ticket this time.


There is nothing like having a crap in your own toilet. I'm sorry I tell you this so bluntly, but there is just nothing like it. Hmmnn.........


I messaged all my mates on the hour long taxi ride home. By the time I walked thru my front door, my social life for the next two weeks was pretty much planned. I found a nice surprise in my carport. My good friend Jen had delivered a gorgeous bunch of flowers (it was my birthday while I was away) that her and a couple of mates went in on. It was one of those bunches that also had chocolates on sticks stuck in. ( If that makes sense.) Tell you what, there's nothing like it. Those chockies were gone in about half and hour. Yum! Thankyou so much guys, the flowers really brightened up my day, and it was totally unexpected.


After the chockie binge I had a little nap on the couch. I had a dance class at 6pm in the city, and I was still only surviving on 3 hours sleep. Another good friend gave me some more loot at dance. I call it my little bag of jewels. Totally unexpected but thoroughly loved. Thanks Jack, love your work!


After dance it was Hungry Jacks time. ( Mental note - hungry jacks after two and a bit weeks of plain camp food doesn't go down that well. But you won't realise this until about 3 hours later!) Then it was a late pickup for my baby Trippi, then home to watch the late night movie, huddled under about 4 blankets on the couch. God it's cold. I'm used to 25° days. I was cold to my core. That usually doesn't happen to me - all the extra layers you see.


Saturday
Up relatively early. Up to the shops to get some ingredients for a yummy recipe I got from the cook at work.
Cooked it up (Penne pasta with cream and avacado chicken) to take for a picnic lunch with my friend Tina while we watched her other half play baseball. Took a really nice bottle of muscat too! Trippi came too, needless to say, I had a rather relaxing afternoon.


Home by five to pick up my best mate in the whole wide world, Nic. Then out to the Bombay Bicycle Club for dinner. What a fabulous place. If you live in Adelaide, try it out. They have animal sounds in the toilet. You find yourself saying, "oh, was that an elepant, lion, tiger etc..." Nice One. From there it was on to Spats, a gorgeous little coffee shop that we found years ago, before it was popular. These days you find yourself waiting 20 minutes for a table, although it is totally worth the wait!


Am home now, it's a little late (just gone 2am), and I gotta go to a rehearsal for my show tomorrow at 10am.
Gotta go sleep now.
Night night.
Ps, my tummy is too full!

I should be home.....

I'm a bit bummed today. I should be walking in my front door right now, but instead I'm still sitting infront of the computers at work, 1000km away. Sigh.

I had actually arranged to have lunch with a girlfriend at the airport. I was flying in and she was flying out. It would have been really nice.

Now I have to work another day. (Not that we are drilling at the moment, but still, I'm here.)

We should be drilling again later on this evening. Great. I get to run around again all night, knock off at midnight, go and get about 5 hours sleep (that's if I can fall asleep straight away), get up at the crack of dawn and make the 3 hour drive to Moomba.

Last hitch I slept in, bugger, half an hour running late. Then I got stuck behind a friggin cattle muster. I kid you not. They were mustering cattle on the road. I drove up next to the 4wd that was bringing up the rear. It must have been the land owner. He looked at me, I looked at him (with my best impersonation of helpless female) and he must have radioed the guy on the motorbike, cos very shortly the guy on the bike came thru the cattle, and waved at me to follow him. Straight thru the cattle. Man, it was an ocean of beef. Big ones, little ones, ones with massive horns, old ones, babies. I was so worried I was going to hit one. The guy on the bike was going pretty fast, and I was struggling to keep up. After about half an hour I made it past the cattle.

Right, now I'm running an hour late. Shit....... I'm going to miss my flight.

So I may have been driving a little quicker that I should have been, then BANG........front left tire goes flat. Great......... Now, I've gotten my 4wd tire changing routine down to about 10 minutes. No worries. If I make it to Innamincka by 8.30am, I should be right to get to Moomba by 9.30ish.

Normally, we keep our spare within easy reach, just in the back. Just open the back door and grab it. Well, that spare I had flattened two weeks prior on the way in, and the mechanic was in the process of fixing it.

So, I had to get the spare spare tyre out. You know, the one mounted underneath the vehicle. Hmmmmnnn............. I started with a bit of a striptease in the desert. Good going home clothes off, crusty work gear on. Climbed under the car to have a look. Excellent, spare tire is covered in about 9 inches of mud.

Then I had to try to remember how to get the friggin thing down. I know I had seen it done by someone about 5 or 6 years ago. Now what did the 4wd instructor do......?

After a little head scratching and minor fretting and a whole lot of swearing I finally figured it out. After I got the tyre down, it was no worries at all. Just as I was tightening my last nut, guess who drove past. Timmy and another one of the roughnecks, on their way to moomba to see the medic. Tim had put a screwdriver thru his hand. They slowed down to see if I was ok. Yep no worries. I asked them if they would put the flat in the back for me (those bastards are heavy) and they couldn't help but check my nuts were tight enough. No worries boys, my nuts are always tight.

Away I went. Now I had to make up about an hour and a half. Needless to say, I literally flew down the Streslecki Track. Then I roared down the Della Road. Finally made it to Moomba. The time was 9.30 exactly. Went thru the security gates, drove up to the airport, then got swiftly pulled over by the security guard for speeding. I was doing 55km in a 40 zone. Bugger. I got a written warning (and my boss phoned me up at home a week later to tell me off).

Glad they didn't catch me on the Stres Track or the Della Road. Hmmmnnn.......

Whoops, it broke.

Broken Hydromatic.

What the....... well, all you really need to know is that we have stopped drilling for a couple of days so it can be fixed. What that involves is pulling all the pipe out of the hole, dissasembling the offending piece of equipment, taking it to Adelaide so it can be refabricated, then sending the bugger back to be reassembled on the rig.

Yehar! That means no running around for me for the rest of my hitch.

That means 2 days of leisure. I love sitting around reading, listening to music and general time wasting and getting paid for it.

So, what have I been doing today?

I have found myself lost in the net, reading other blogs and becoming inspired.
I have not much interesting to report today, but let me tell you about the time I was "Lost!, In the Desert".

It was just another hitch, much like any other. The rig had recently done a rig move, so when I flew in at the start of my hitch, I was greeted at the airport by my offsider and given some handover notes and a mudmap.

A little explanation, a mudmap is just a rough hand drawn map, with the odd cattle grid drawn on and the occasional distance to a certain turnoff marked in approximately the right spot.
I have seen some pretty crap mudmaps in my years out here.

Anyway, I left Moomba and found my way out to the new lease. No worries at all. Unfortunately, the camp was about a 20 minutes away from the rig. Bugga. Means you have to wake up earlier to get to work on time. Ok, I found the camp. I'm not lost yet. Quite simple really, leave the rig, chuck a left, go straight for about 6 minutes, dogleg, left, left, right, cattle grid, etc etc. There are no roadsigns you see, or the ones that are out there have been exposed for so long that the writing has been sandblasted off the signs by the desert weather extremes.

Started work that day, finished at midnight. Was totally stuffed, cos I was travelling all day, then had to do a long shift. A couple of the boys were waiting around for a lift, I had 4 spare seats, so I did my customary "want a lollie little boy" routine. There was a new moon, no lights in the distance, all I had were my trusty mud encrusted headlights and a memory of the drive from rig to camp from 12 hours prior. When I started to think "oh shit, which way?" the boys just piped up from the back seat, "left, right, right " etc. Cool, made it back to camp no worries. (I won't tell you that I wasn't really paying that much attention to which way I was going, cos I was so friggin tired.)

Next day, driving to the rig, I just aimed the car at the 120 foot mast that I could see in the distance. Still not lost.

So when are you going to get to the good bit you procrastinator you?

That night was a windy night. I'd almost call it a dust storm. Bugger, it WAS a friggin dust storm.
I knocked off work, got in the car, (no boys wanting lollies tonight) and started the drive back to camp. It was so windy that I could only see about 4 meters in front of me. I was burning along at about 30km/hr when I came across my first turn off. Or what I thought was my first turn off. From there it was the dogleg, left, right, left, etc..... Now, because the visibility was so bad, I assumed I was going in the right direction, because I couldn't see any landmarks or familar terrain (let me tell you that it all looks the same anyway, even when you know where your'e going).

What actually got me worried was when the road I was on turned into a rather rough track. A track I did not remember ever driving on. From there the rough track turned into a rougher track, which deteriorated into a non track. Needless to say, before I knew it I was driving, just driving on land not prepared for any vehicullar travel whatsoever. Bugger. At this stage I thought it might be prudent to turn around and go back. So I did. And got bogged in a sand dune mid turn. Bugga. Still no lights on the horizon. No moon. Visibility down to about 2 meters infront of the bonnet, wind blowing a friggin gale etc....

After what felt like a very non panicking 4 minutes or so I managed to become unbogged. Yehar. Thankyou Jesus. I wasn't worried at all. Only to turn the car around to see that my tracks had been blown away in the wind. Nice.

At this stage I'm thinking, "oh shit, will they notice that I didn't come home tonight?" "If I keep driving around, I'm just going to get more lost. Maybe I should just sleep in the back seat, and try again when the wind dies down and I can see in the daylight".

Well, they were the things I "should have done". What I did, was keep driving around in the scrub, hoping to come across a road. Finally I did. I came across a really nice road. A road that I thought I recognised, a road that would take me straight back to camp. I proceeded to drive along, after a few minutes, no camp, some more minutes, still no camp, few more minutes, bugga! Turned round and drove back to where I found the road. Drove up a nearby dune and tried to spot the lights of the rig. Thru the lull in the storm, I thought I could see something.
I made a bee line for it and thank God, it was the rig. By now the dust storm was starting to die down a bit.

I knocked on my wellsite geologists door, and had to confess that I couldn't find my way back to camp, and would he please help me. Surprisingly, he didn't give me any shit, and just got in his car and escorted me home (back to camp). Now this guy would give you shit about the tiniest little thing. Apparently I was so white and shakey when I asked him, that he thought he wouldn't push me over the edge.

I thought I was only gone for about 30 minutes. Turns out I had been gone for about 3 hours.
Hmmnnn..........Sigh.....

I'm not proud of it. It was really one of the most nerve racking times I've had out here.

Tune in for tomorrows fascinating rendition of the time I was locked in the toilet!
(I can't see anything interesting happening at work for a few days).

PS, I've just found out that they have nobody to replace me on Thursday, so I will be going home on Friday instead. Bugga.

Not much time

Hey Kids,
I don't have much time because we are drilling away furiously.

Today my thoughts are on Andy Thomas and the crew of the spaceshuttle discovery. Well, actually, my thoughts are really on his mum, and what she would be thinking right now.
The shuttle is due to land in a couple of hours, and I will be holding my breath. I'm listening to the radio over the net, hopefully everything goes well.

Fingers crossed
Cat.

A little bit about me......

G'day.
I'm having another quiet day at work so I can tell you a little about myself.
I work on an oil rig in the Ozzy desert.
Here are a few pretty pictures.....

We always seem to have magnificent sunsets out in the bush.

My rig from the only hill nearby.

My rig again from even further away.

Notice the isolation.....

So, what do I do.... Well, I'm a Senior Mudlogging Engineer. Huh?

We are out drilling exploration oil and gas wells, and it is my job to grab the cuttings that come to the surface, wash the mud off them and bring them into my lab and look at them under the microscope, to see if there are any oil or gas bearing sands.

I produce what is called a "mudlog", which is a running visual chart of the well, including the lithologies that we drill thru, the r.o.p. (rate of penetration-how fast we drill down) other drilling perameters and most importantly any gasses that we get to the surface.

It is also my job to monitor for safety, let the drill floor know if we get any signs of a kick (you know the olden day movies that have an oil well that suddenly spouts oil out of the top of it, well that is called a "kick", and it usually comes along with a massive fireball, death, destruction, pain etc etc....)

I do a few other bits and pieces as well, but I think you get the general gist of it.

We are on a fly in fly out rotation. It is supposed to be 2 weeks on and two weeks off. Right now we are so flooded with work and lack of people that we have been on 2 weeks on and 1 week off for a few hitches now. (Hitch=your two weeks on. Eg, last hitch I did almost no work!)

All I can say is that it really really sucks. You're out here doing 12 hour days for 14 days straight. Then you practically have a day travelling home. You end up only having about 6 days at home. The first day you usually spend sleeping cos you're so stuffed. Sigh.

Oh well, that's enough of me complaining. There is alot of good stuff from this lifestyle. If I do get on the rotation of 2 and 2 again, it means I have 2 weeks at home every month, to do with what I want. No need to go into the office everyday, driving thru peak hour traffic etc.. The pays ok too. Not massive like most people think. (We are officially the lowest paid out here - our union is trying to change that!) But what you have to remember is that while we are up here, we don't have to put fuel in the car, buy groceries, pay for water or electricity etc... All those little incidental things that add up at the end of every week. Well, the simple fact is that there is nothing up here to spend your hard earned cash on. No shops, no pubs. No Pubs! Yes, this is a dry rig, that means no alcohol. At all!

So, that's work. The guys are all really good, and there are some benefits of being the only girl on an oil rig. Not what you think! You Sicko!

No, I meant that I get my own toilet and shower block!

I've only got 4 days left out here. Then I'm having some annual leave. I get a whole two weeks off this time. Yay! I can't wait. I'm in a local theatre group, and our show is on in the theatre starting mid august.

I love theatre, movies, singing and dancing. I miss all that being out here. I miss my friends and most of all I miss my little puppy "Trippitaka". Trippi for short. One of my girlfriends is looking after him this hitch. He usually goes into a kennel. I know I know, it was never supposed to be this way, but life happens. But I was lucky because I found this really old couple who used to run a massive kennel full time, but now in their retirement, they have an excellent setup where they only take the odd little dog. And they take such excellent care of him that I would pay twice as much as I do already, just to see my baby looked after so well. He gets a little bit of extra loving.

Unfortunately, last hitch, Brian had a heart attack. I think he's going to be ok. But I thought that his wife probably wouldn't want the hassle of looking after Trippi for a little while. Hmmnn.... I always new it would happen one day, the thing is, is that they're sooooooo old! Oh well.

Ok, so that's a little bit about me. I have to go and pretend to do some work now. Talk to you later.

Cat.

Well hello there.....

Well...... I made it at last. This is going to be short and sweet. I'm dying to see this published on the net. Hmmnnn......

Finally, I made it!
Well, hello again my honeys.Finally I worked out how to do this. This is about my sixth attempt at it. My first attempted entry was extremely witty and interesting, but I lost it somewhere in the big wide web. My second attempted entry was also extremely witty, but with a little less of the interesting. By the time I got down to my fifth attempt at an entry....... well, you can see the two lines I wrote. Totally uninteresting with no wit. Hmmnn..... sigh, I have brain pain now.

I've been thinking about having my own blog for a while now. Especially since I waste so much time at work reading other people's blogs. I can't wait to reveal to the entire world (or the sad lonely computer nerd who accidentally found this page) the embarrasing goings on in my little sphere, and the people in it.

Hopefully this won't turn into a big fat winge fest, no milk for my cup of generic tea etc....So for your viewing pleasure (and my magnificent time wasting skills at work) I shall now attempt to post a photo of yours truly.... here goes.

Ok, it landed in the top left corner. Oh, I'm the girl. I'm now going to attempt it again, but will try to put the photo underneath this writing.......



No worries. That is me is the very gracefull pose of falling over, happily captured in the act by the offical D.L.A.F.O. photographer. (Drink Lots And Fall Over Society) I'm very glad that I didn't let the team down that night. That's a whole other entry. Hmmmnnn......
Right, I think I'm getting the hang of this photo entering business..... let's try for a nice one.



Ahhh..... mum will be so pleased.

Right, it's 10.34pm, and I only have 2 hours left till my shift ends. I am going to post this now. Hopefully it ends up in the right spot.

Next entry I will tell you a little about myself, and try not to crap on too much.

Fly and be free.

Cat.