Day 64 Bear Grills Night
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 08:43AM Monday night, civilization, full TV reception, SBS..... Guess what is on tonight? Yep, Bear Grills night!!!! Can’t wait.....
Ok our day today..... we went to a top secret company facility, one of the biggest (if not THE biggest!) mining companies in Australia. We had to do an induction that included us agreeing that we would not take photos of the site & would not disclose any information obtained!..... Felt like we were entering a prison!
We entered the main room and were confronted with huge screens containing information on the company’s production targets, actual production, Product location & all sorts of other sensitive stuff (technical term there!) And we mean huge screens....I reckon they were about 25 meters long and about 5 metres high and there was 2 of them on a massive black walls. One for tracking the trains and for the mines
It was awesome! Do you know that all the dump trucks are fitted with GPS and can be tracked from this room even though it is 1500km away from the mine site, and the controllers can tell the trucks where to go via direct radio contact from this room! This room was also full 100’s of desks with about 4 computer screens per person with direct video footage of and to the trucks. Amazing!! Felt like I was on Mission Impossible set.
All the trains have GPS locators too, and there is a simulated picture of the rail network with the location of all the trains!..... Talk about big brother!!!!
Hey we have been in the bush too long! I didn’t cope too well with traffic today, the last month or so we have been lucky to see one or two cars each hour that we were in the car. Today I had to drive on a dual lane road and there were cars only meters away from me! Man it was scary.... give me the country roads anytime!!!! We have a Mitsubishi Lancer as a hire car...bit different to Dolly. James even managed to take a gutter out in the Lancer as we went around a corner....I so couldn’t stop laughing.
Ness had a Hot Chocolate today, from Macca’s..... $4.50, I didn’t have one as someone sent me an email telling me how much exercise you have to do to work off one hot chocolate! Not fair!!!!
Ok so once we left NASA we decided to go shopping, ended up at Belmont Fair, parked the car and headed into the shops. Man it was heaven, they had a K Mart, Coles, Woolworths. Ness went to the post office, and I just sat in the shopping centre and watched people go past, it was so cool.... amazing how you can get used to things and then miss them when they are not there!
Vanessa had to buy some new earrings, on mine sites you are not allowed to wear “Dangly” earrings, so she needed some studs. Typical Ness and instead of buying one or two pairs she decided to buy 10..... Yes Ten!!!! Pairs of studs!!!! It was actually 12 pairs...all different colour studs and plain silver ball studs. Important to have choice!!
We also tried to buy some tea towels for my mum..... She collects them. There are 140 specialty shops in the shopping centre and none of them sell Perth tea towels! Don’t worry mum.... we will find some for you.
On the way home we drove into the city & past the Swan River, this weekend they have the Red Bull Air Race here, so we will get a chance to see some of the planes on Saturday before we head back to Newman.
Back to the hotel room to make a few phone calls, catch up on some work (Ness.... Not me!) and do a few things..... then it was time for dinner, made it to the restaurant just at the end of happy hour! So nice to have a beer in a glass served by a barman rather than a stubby shoved across a bench by a person that does the bar at night & cleans your room during the day (not that there is anything wrong with a stubby shoved across a bench!)
The menu has sooooooo many choices! And you don’t have to queue up behind 4 smelly blokes to fill up your plate!
Tonight we had Wontons with chilli sauce for entree & then Ness had baby squid sesame crumbed with honey vegetables!...... I thought I was going for the safe option and ordered Duck & mushroom Risotto. I was so disappointed when it came out, it was rice with a few mushrooms, a bit of meat (not sure it was Duck) & it had jam in it! Why do people mix sweet & savoury food! It just is not right!!!! James that was Plum Sauce and was written on the menu.
Ness has discovered Soduko, do any of you do Soduko? Crosswords have always been my thing...but quite enjoying the number change.
Ok better go, have to get changed into my Bear Grills outfit & sharpen my pocket knife ready to watch Bear tonight. Help me!!
Speak to you all tomorrow.
Love from us...... If you don’t hear from us come looking at the shops! We will be the ones just sitting in the mall looking at the shops and the people!!!!!
James & Ness
Reader Comments (5)
Any new shoes to go with those earrings? Nathan is off to the States today for 10 days and I have given him a papercut out of my shoe print so he can buy me play shoes..........have also given him an extensive shopping list......
I also have found Suduko after moving on from Cryptic crosswords. I also enjoy the clueless crssowords where you get only a couple of letters.....have you tried them?
Hi team
Sorry been a while however life been busy!!!! Have been in Sydney for the past week and discovered that I don't do computers at home since I use them all day at work! Saves a few brain cells. Back to Auckland on Saturday however only for two nights then down to Picton for a week. Once I'm back in Auckland I move into my own room (sharing with a couple of girls I know). I'm feeling a lot better knowing I have somewhere to hang my stuff.
Anyway, glad to see your both still chugging along. Why do trains need GPS? Surely they remain on the lines built for them? Or is this country that big that they lost the train track map? Will get a chance to read more blogs again once I have my head around what I do until then I'll leave it for others to ask obvious questions!
Hey Meredith, did you put an order in for more booze?????
Cheers ears
A xx
Soduko?? Is that like Sudoku?? Or is it Sudoku for dyslexic people? Thanks for the help tonight, I am about to create my PowerPoint resource. Wanna borrow it next time you talk to school kids?
According to facebook it is spelt Bear Grylls - deosn't matter, he is a pussy anyway!!!
You need to get online and watch this weeks four corners report - the coal industry is killing people, they had a report on Singleton, very interesting!
I have decided, after spending four and a half hours a day in the garden, that instead of a housewarming party - I will be having a hip replacement party
Voltaren isnt doing it for me anymore, I was told by the specialist four years ago that I only had five years left before the replacement and the bugger was right.
PS: I was right also - the post above proves it - told you Georgia spell checks! LOL!
So, they take you pair into a top secret place and make you sign a contract agreeing not to devolge any information, and 8 hors later you're blabbing about the signs and control centre.........good one guys ;-)
Are you pair aware that you are fully fledged "city slickers" !
Wait till you get to our place, we are 10 klm's away from a shopping centre......I hope you can handle the isolation !
Mate, see what happens when you stray from good old steak...you always get dissapointed.