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.......