Day 13 - Mackay

Hello family & friends, welcome to Ness & James in Mackay, we arrived yesterday afternoon & checked into the Quest apartments at Mackay. Having worked up here many times I have a bit of inside information on the best places to stay, so told Ness to book us into Quest. It is right in the CBD & the actual room has a separate bedroom, living area & bathroom with laundry.

 Went out for a wander around the CBD, made up mainly of shops, pubs, clubs & offices. For those of you that have not been to Mackay it is surprisingly “NON” touristy, being at the start of the Barrier reef I would have thought that this place would be more touristy. But I think it is too busy being a small city & does not have the time to be a touristy destination.

 We went into a couple of shops & Ness bought herself some tops & guess what else she found? Yes you guessed it.... a new pair of shoes! I just shook my head.

 Dinner was at a restaurant that had outdoor dining so we sat on the footpath & ate. Just as it started to get dark there was a growing noise of birds squawking. It got louder & louder almost until it was difficult to hear each other across the table. The waitress explained that they were rainbow parrots that feed on the berries in the palm trees. The berries get the birds “Drunk” & they go crazy for 30-45 minutes each night.... a bit like happy hour huh!

As we had been up since 4am we decided to have an early night, watched a movie very generously supplied by Christopher & Marc, we are getting through them! Thanks. Was a weird movie though... The Road, man I can’t wait for world war 3, I’m starting to build a stockpile of food now..... Oh I don’t have to, I already have nearly a tonne of canned food in our caravan!

We woke up late, must have both been tired. Last night we grabbed a brochure with some info on Mackay, we noticed that the showground markets were on today.... Woo Hoo, so showered & headed out to the markets. Here was our first disappointment of the day. The Mackay showground markets consist of a couple of wooden tables, & a van selling fresh fish & prawns (Brad Atkins, you would have been in heaven... I can smell the curried prawns from here)

So we decided to give the markets a miss & headed across to the appropriately name “Canelands” shopping centre. Well after being in Dysart for a week Vanessa was in Retail Heaven! Real shops, Target, K Mart, Specialty shops & a food court, she was almost crying! I needed some new shorts so decided that Target would be a good option, found a couple of pairs on special for $9.98. I said to Ness that I would meet her in the men’s section after she had a look around, she turned up with 3 new tops & guess what?... YES ANOTHER PAIR OF SHOES! We are going to have to get a trailer on the back of the van just for her shoes!

The rest of the day was spent looking around Mackay, man this place is pumping, everything is being built here, roads, new shopping centres, new houses, I guess it has a lot to do with the mining industry, a lot of people that work in the mines base their families here in Mackay, so the town has huge amounts of disposable income being spent here each day/week/month & year. So the town is really riding the wave. Just to give you an idea of how this place is growing, there is a Mercedes Benz dealership just being built in town!

Did I mention that Ness bought TWO yes TWO new pairs of shoes, wonder if she bought any canned food while she was out today?

We were going to look into going on a boat out to the reef today, but we got caught up shopping.... yes SHOE shopping! No I can’t blame Ness, we decided just to spend the day in Mackay.

So not much news today, I’ll report tomorrow on where we ended up for dinner. Oh and don’t forget we go back to our hosts Pauline & Mellissa tomorrow, I’m sure next week will have some interesting stories for you.

 No questions last night so I have no answers for you!

 Same time, same channel!

Adiós

James

Day 12 - Dysart for the last time!

Morning/Evening Bloggies, well we are leaving Dysart today. We had a 6am session with the last group of workers, I have to say they were the most interested. See how Murphy’s law works? On the day we are keen to leave & get to our next destination, the group just wanted to keep asking questions & dragged it out for longer than it normally lasts! Good thing I charge them a fortune!

 This visit has been good, we have learned a bit about the site, the town & more about the people that work & live in this industry & environment, all Ness & I can say is we are glad we are just passing through!

 The drive to Moranbah was good, but with the amount of rain that they have had up here a lot of the creeks were flowing & quite high, none high enough to cut the road but still quite exciting. Hey Egg, there were a lot of Toyotas parked at the side of some of the creeks! The Land Rover made it through no worries.

 Got to Moranbah & found the caravan park, boy were we in for a treat! The ladies who run the park were rough as guts! Pauline was waiting for us at the caravan park entrance, short spiked hair, Jeans & boots & a shirt with her sleeves rolled up. Roll your own cigarette hanging out of the side of her mouth.

 “How are ya’s?” were her first words! She then showed us to where we could park the van & I must admit I was surprised at the quality of the accommodation. The Donga (Portable building) was brand new & had never been used. “We don’t get many wheelchair people up here” or words to that effect! So we parked the caravan out the front & will have use of the van & the Donga.

 While Pauline was showing us around, her partner (Not sure whether business or life?) turned up, a lovely bloke called Melissa.... Well if she is not a man then she should be!

 Many of you know that Vanessa is not short of a word or two.... well she had nothing on these two, they obviously don’t get much of a chance to socialize in Moranbah. Ness & I both left to set up the room & the van & they were still talking to us as we were leaving! If you get up this way you just have to stop in at the Moranbah Caravan Village. Say hi to Pauline & Melissa.

 Left the van in Moranbah & then drove to Mackay, we are going to spend the weekend in Mackay. Woo Hoo, stay tuned for the Mackay report.

 A few of you have sent in some questions, thank you it is great to hear what you want to know. I will try to answer all of them as soon as I can.

 My sister Heather wanted to know if kids have a 6^th sense, because when my boys & her son were younger they used to sit on my knee & not wriggle off.

 Heather I have noticed this too, it seems that kids know that when they are on my knee they just have to sit still, and in fact some of them seem to even hang on using their legs. So to answer your question, I think that kids just know that some people are different & even on a basic level they change their actions to suit the situation they are in. But now you mention it some of the places I went with Jamie, Brad & Daniel were pretty bumpy & uneven. Yet they seemed to stay on quite easily..... Weird huh!

 Brad (My brother in law) I have a suggestion for you..... invent a sport that involves hitting a golf ball, tackling your playing partners & getting pissed all at the same time. You & many others would be in heaven! Hell even I would give it a shot.

 Brad (My Son) I knew you would have clean undies on mate, keep up the good work!

 Arama & Meredith, thank you for the questions, hope you got my deep & thoughtful answers. Next time post them on the blog so everyone else can see what you want to know.

 And Sarah, the hunt is on for a poly waffle. Ness & I are sure we will find one in a country milk bar somewhere that has been on the shelf since 1978, we will carefully bubble wrap it for you & send it to you express post.

 And lastly but not leastly, Dan (My other son) tried to ring you tonight, but the phone rang out. I’ll call you after Basketball tomorrow mate. Good luck & play like you did last week. He scored 6 goals/baskets/hoops. Awesome!

 Stay tuned for the weekends report from Mackay

 Salutare qualcuno Till tomorrow.

 James

Day 11 - Dysart ....Still!!!!

Y’know what!..... this email/Blog/internet thingy is a great way to learn about people! When I started writing my blog I thought it would just be a bit of fun & give me something to pass the time in the “Caravan of love” but it has been a really good way for people to learn more about Ness & myself & also for us to learn a little about some of you.

 You see what has been happening is some of you have been posting questions on the website, others have been asking directly via email.... and this is great! I know some people prefer to ask face to face if they want or need to know anything..... but some people like the indirect contact that the internet can provide.

 So keep sending Ness & me your questions, I or we will answer them either directly or via the web... depends on how you send us the questions. I’ll assume that if you ask via the web you won’t mind me answering via the web?

 My sisters kids have also been reading the blog & it is good that they get to know us as well, seems they are interested in what I do & the effect or impact it has on some people, Well Cam & Sam all I can say is that if I did not think it was helping people to avoid injury then I would not do it. And I also really enjoy the challenge of finding out what it takes to get through to some people. Braidy you would not believe what we are eating.... we are staying at a minesite & they have a full “Canteen” (Just so Braidy understands..... she would get confused if I called it a Mess) in one of their fridges they have Jelly, ice cream, cakes & deserts.... and you can have as much as you want. Next time you see Uncle James he will be as fat as a house!

Rang my brother in law Andrew yesterday, as we received an email from a Canadian Pharmacy that was offering us cheap Viagra!... it came from his email address. It was a Virus! It had hacked into his account & hijacked his address book..... funny thing is he works in I.T. so I guess who better to be able to fix it. Good luck Andrew.

 Brad Atkins wants to know if the golf course in Dysart has sand or turf greens.... Why Brad, you planning on coming up here for a holiday?.... DON”T! But to answer your question it has really good turf greens, I’m sure the mining companies chip in a few dollars towards ground keeping, but the course looks fantastic. Our caravan is actually parked only 25M away from the 3^rd hole, there are large metal fences to stop wayward balls from coming into the camp where we are parked.

Heaps of Roo’s on the course though Brad... do you get a penalty shot if your ball hits a Roo?

 Yesterday I did a session with the guys from the site. After the session one of the guys came up & had a chat to me. His mate has had an accident & is in a similar situation to me (Spinal cord injury) and he is really struggling with things. He lives in Dysart & there is really not the structure & support that he needs at this early stage. Anyhow the thing that really struck Vanessa & myself was how much his mate really cared & was concerned for him!

 The reason I am sharing this with you is that most of you at some stage will have a friend or a family member that will get sick, have an accident or even leave us (nice way of saying Die). It is important to understand that we will be affected in some way by this & also make sure we do what we have to to cope with it. I have not met the guy that has had the accident, but I really felt for his mate who was obviously affected by it.

 Hi to my son Brad.... have you got clean undies on today & had a shower? See I can still nag you from long distance Brad. Also make sure you get your book from the RACV, unless you want to keep catching buses to & from TAFE.

 Today I have a couple of different sessions to do. The mining company has asked me to do a “Community Talk” where they have invited members of the local community to come & listen to me and after that I have to go & visit the local school and talk to the kids. So it will be a bit different, we will take the camera & post some pics of the talks. I like doing these ones, as most of the people that I talk to are there because they “Have” to be there. These ones are voluntary so most of the people that attend are interested in what is going on. Had a few laughs with the locals.

 Do any of you believe in Karma? Or what ye sow ye shall reap? Or any of the sayings that tell you that you will get what you ask for?

 Well yesterday in my talk I mentioned that when I go bike riding I like to take someone with me just in case something goes wrong..... Ness & I went for a ride after my talk & guess what? I got a puncture, luckily it was on my back wheel & I was able to ride home with it flat. So I will be careful in future to only mention things that I want to happen!

 We had to move the van again today so the truck could empty the skip, so we made an executive decision & left the car hooked up when we moved it back. It will save us hooking it up in the morning.

 Hey this weekend will be exciting, we finish in Dysart after my morning session tomorrow at 6am. We then move on to Moranbah which is about 90km away. But... Wait there is more, we will unhook the van & leave it in Moranbah & then Ness & I will drive over to the coast & stay Friday & Saturday nights in Mackay. Cool huh, this working holiday sure is working for us.

 Speak to you soon

 היי שלום  to my Jewish friends

 James

Day 10 Dysart

Today I wanted to share a little bit of information about where we are, a lot of you will be creating mental images of our travels, here is some information about the town, I stole most of the info from the internet.... hope you don’t mind

 Dysart is a friendly community with modern facilities. Established in 1973, the town caters to the coalmines of Saraji and Norwich Park as well as the many surrounding cattle and grain properties.

 In the mid-1990s Dysart was a thriving community with a population of about 4500, however restructuring and downsizing of the mining industry in 1997 saw the population decline to approximately 2500 with a current population of approximately 4000.

 In the centre of the town is located an Olympic-sized pool, It has a shopping mall, a nine-hole golf course and a bowls club.

 Although built specifically to service the mining operations, Dysart is a public town administered by the Broadsound Shire Council.

 Dysart has a sub-tropical climate; daytime temperature range from 25 – 38 degrees Celsius in the summer months with occasional heatwave conditions in December and January. Winter temperatures range from around 19 to 25 degrees Celsius in the daytime.

 Got a question from Rob.... Thanks Rob....The rest of you get your act together! Rob has asked if there is any particular site that I want to take Ness to & why. I would have to say that I am lucky in that I have been to many amazing places in Australia with my work. A lot of minesites are in remote places & believe it or not the mining companies do a great job of only working in the areas that they are allowed to & they do very little damage to surrounding areas. But some favourites of mine that we will get to on this trip are The Pilbara, there are a few iron ore mines in the Pilbara that are surrounded by natural gorges. The beauty of the Pilbara is that it can be barren for miles & miles & then you come across this amazing rock outcrop or waterhole, other beautiful places are Bowen in Qld, Weipa up the top of Australia, Nhulunbuy in the gulf, Tom Price in WA, the Hunter Valley in NSW, a sunset in Darwin is something that everyone should experience. Actually Rob, now that you have made me think of it every place we will get to on this trip will be different. Currently we are in the lushest green countryside I have ever seen, & I have travelled here lots. When we get to WA it will be the opposite..... But still beautiful.

 Rob also asked how many pairs of shoes Ness has worn so far.... Well I’d like to say that she has only worn one of them! But she has actually worn 5.. Yes 5. She actually wore high heels when we went for dinner the other day!

 Another question from Campbell was “What is the can count?” well I don’t know how many cans we have left but I’m guessing it is about 150Kg worth.... I told Ness if we don’t start using them ill dump them at the Salvo’s. It is hard though as the food at the mess is supplied & really nice. So we don’t have to cook.

 Still raining here, a lot of the creeks are flooded & some roads cut. The mine also cannot work when it is wet as the trucks just slide all over the roads. Some of the equipment weighs over 400 tonnes fully loaded, that is heavy... so you don’t want it sliding down the road out of control. So the guys just do maintenance, clean the truck cabins & lunch rooms. Some of the managers use the rain as an opportunity to give the guys additional training. Which most of them hate!

 Ok, till next time...arrivederci

 Ps.... send us some questions!  If you send them via post comment on this website then others can also see the questions you raise.

James 

Day 9 Dysart

We went out for dinner last night, to the Country Roads restaurant In Dysart. I can recommend this place to you as I have stayed here several times. It is a strange place the Country Roads Motel as it is 50 rooms, painted white, with shade sails & manicured gardens. All smack bang in the middle of Dysart.... it is great if you ever pass through here it is worth visiting just to see this place. It just don’t fit in.

 The food is good though, they get fresh seafood trucked in daily & being in the middle of cattle country the meat is always fresh & plenty of it. See another plug that I get absolutely nothing out of!

 Before we went out though Ness & I were in the caravan getting ready, it was dark outside & the lights were on in the van.... so people outside could easily see in. The van is parked near the mess so sometimes people have to walk nearby to get to the mess. Anyway Ness was getting changed & she turned to me and asked “Do you like these undies?” they were quite cute.... and I said “Yes I do, and the guys outside probably like them too”....She dived for the window & pulled the blind down quicker than I have ever seen her move. (There was no one outside by the way!”)

 On the way back from the restaurant it was dark & we had the lights on, two little creatures crossed the road in front of us.... they hopped like kangaroos but were only the size of small cats? I thought they might be wallabies, but they looked too small... they were tiny. Do they have Quokka’s in Qld? Anyone know what they might be?

 The other thing we saw was a snake, I noticed it on the road just as we passed over it, we turned around & unfortunately had run over it, I was quite upset as it looked like a small diamond python.

 Still having rain up here, the showers are amazing, it just dumps an inch of rain in an hour or so. The puddles are getting deeper. We had to move the caravan again today, they had a delivery truck come & it needed to turn around where we have the van parked. Good practise for hooking & unhooking the Van, we are quite good at it now.

 I’m running out of things to write about, so now I’m asking you guys to ask us some questions.

 My sister asked me recently do I feel that workplaces really take to my message? And I can only answer this by saying that I feel that some people will listen to my messages & actually make an effort to change the way they work & think. But the thing is that I can’t really measure how much difference my talks make. I can say that I have had some direct examples of my talks stopping someone from hurting themselves.

I did some talks for a company in WA, about 4 months after I had been on site I got a phone call from one of the senior managers asking me for my fax number. I asked “Why?” and he said shut up & just give me your fax number. Anyway he faxed me through an incident report where a truck had reversed over a dump and fell 25 meters & ended up on its roof. The operator undid her seatbelt & fell to the roof & hit her head. She got 17 stitches, so a relatively minor injury. I was reading the incident report & I got to the operators statement.

It went through what she did & how she remembered the incident. But I can remember reading the last two lines that said “I have only been wearing my seatbelt since that guy in a wheelchair came out & did his talks!”

 So to answer my sisters question I don’t really know how many people my talks affect, but even if it saves one person from hurting themselves it is worth it!

 So there you have it for today, feel free to ask any questions.... I’ll answer it, if not I’ll make something up.

 Until next time..... ▷ 하강 상승조로 말하면 다정한 느낌을 줌. (and this is not Chinese)

James