Live from Meeka

Well not quite..... After waking up at 4:30am (3:30 if you factor in the changing of the clocks), I was all set and ready for my cab to arrive at 5:30am. Then the waiting. More waiting, followed by waiting. Calling Swan Taxis, and then waiting. I had heard rumours of Monday mornings being terrible due to all the Fly In Fly Out miners, and just the fact that Perth taxis were horribly unreliable. Well finally, at 6:30, the taxi arrives. One problem, I was supposed to have been checked in by 6:15.

Enter Zac, the Ethiopian cabbie. A very polite, apologetic cab driver, who actually took it upon himself to pick me up, even though there were closer taxis that were supposedly "ignoring" my pickup. The drive to the airport probably consisted of one red light. Zac was flying through traffic, weaving in and out, and telling the traffic lights "yellow means go faster". I was clutching to anything I could hold. Making the flight took a back seat.... making it out alive was priority one. It was just like The Amazing Race.... except there wasn't a million dollars at the end .... but there was Meekatharra.

I arrived at 6:50 due to the phenomenal drive by zac. 10 minutes before takeoff. Unfortunately, the bags had already been put on the plane, and the weight calculated. They wouldn't let me on. This is where all those years of watching Amazing Race's Charla and Mirna were going to help me. I pleaded, I cried, I begged, I screamed, I bribed, I collapsed, I even told them that I would win $1 million if I got on this plane now. All for not. I guess I was missing one thing ..... a midget :(.

I then had to take the shameful taxi ride back to the office. Try again tomorrow. Also found out today that I'll be spending 14 of the next 18 days in Meekatharra. By that time, I think I will have found a new home!

Meekatharra - the end of the earth

Well I am off again to Meekatharra tomorrow morning. I thought I might take a little time and let everyone know about the Magic that is Meekatharra. It's not all shredded tires, emus, kangaroos, and bullets.... but it's close.

As you can see from the map, Meekatharra is a "Shire" in the Mid West of Western Australia. It's named is derived from an Aboriginal work meaning "place of little water". I can't think of a better location for a town than the place of little water. The average annual rainfall is 237 mm. However, most of the rain is due to infrequent heavy storms. Temperature wise, the mean average maximum temperature for the year is 28.8 C. But during the summer months, it can easily climb into the mid to high 40's.

The population consists of about 950 people, and I'm really not sure why these people choose to live there. The town was settled during a gold rush in the 1890's, but the good times did not last long. The reason it has survived is it became an important location in the Western Australia Government Railway system. Meekatharra is now the major supply centre for pastoral and mining for the surrounding region.

Also of note, Meekatharra is home to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. This is an air ambulance service for those living remote areas of the outback. They provide emergency assitance, primary healthcare, and assist with distance education. The runway in Meekatharra is over 2km long, and is a diversion airport that can support emergency landings for major jumbo jets. This runway was used in a famous emergency landing of the then Prime Minister's plane in the 1980's. After spending a few hours there, his wife described the town as "the end of the earth".

Daylight Savings Update: The curtains have yet to shown significant signs of extra fading. Will continue to keep a watchful eye on them.

Daylight Savings. You Fall Back, but I....

Spring Forward!!!!! Wahoo! I can't wait for Daylight Savings. I am aware of the fact that I already "sprang" forward in March in Canada, and now I'm springing forward again, thus losing 2 hours of my life. If I end up back home before March. Then I'll lose ANOTHER hour. However, the extra hour of sunlight in Perth is going to be life-altering. No longer will I come home from work, and have about 30-45 minutes of daylight left. It's going to be almost 2 hours of sunlight (for now). This means I will be able to bike down to the beach, and go for an evening swim. Or catch in a quick nine holes. Or take a leisurly strole to the grocery store to ..... wait, no, grocery stores close at 6pm.

Perth, and WA (Western Australia), is a little behind on the times. This is actually just the 2nd year they have ever tried Daylight Savings. It's the second year of a 3 year trial, at which point, Daylight Savings will go to a referendum. The previous 4 votes have all been unanimous in "NO".

I decided to read a few comments on a "Your Say" page on http://www.thewest.com.au/ . Here are some of the reasons Perthites give for being anti-daylight savings:

• The roads will get busier in the morning as people won't want to drive in the dark (remember that the sun will still rise at 6am).
• Kids will stay home and watch tv and eat junk food after school because it will be too hot (right, there is a big difference between the temperature at 3pm and 4pm)
• Kids won't know when to go to bed (never remember this being a problem back home)
• It will cause Perth to have 30 minutes longer daylight than the east coast (not sure who came up with that one)
• People will have to walk their dogs and exercise in the dark at 5am .... (what do these people do in the winter????? not only is it dark then, but it's cold)
• Criminals will prosper as everyone will be at the beach at night
• Too difficult to change all those damn clocks
• The curtains will fade due to the increased sunlight (my personal fav)

Perthites have come up with several suggestions. People might understand Daylight Savings better if its name changed:

• Clock Changing Day
• Daylight Transference .... because we aren't really saving daylight.
• Daylight Robbery ... since they have stolen our "cool" mornings

My absolute favourite though is one person suggested "why don't business just change their hours of work for 1 hour earlier. That way only the people working will be affected". Oh my, that wouldn't be confusing.

Well I can't wait for it to kick in. The only issue I have is that I'm flying to Meekatharra again on Monday for a 7am flight, which means it's technically at 6am, which means Jonny is going to be getting up very very early.

From Jim Vandemeer to Marty Havlat

If you get that you are either a) my brother , b) very clever , c) have spent the last few years suffering!

Did someone say .... Jelly Fish???

Well today [actually very late last night] started off with quite the shock ..... literally. As I was putting my digital cameras in to get charged up. I had an issue with the Aussie/North American converter. The issue resulted in a 220Volt shock up my arm. It definately wakes you up. The tip of one my finger nails actually turned black. Try going to sleep after that!!!! I'm still waiting for my superpowers.....

Fortunately, I survived, and had already decided to take Tuesday off work. The plan: Go to AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia) up north in Hillarys. Who with: My favourite person .... ME! How am I getting there: With Jacques (my bike). How long a distance: 20km. How long will it take me: Very long as I kept stopping at every single beach because they just kept getting more and more spectacular. The bike ride was breathtaking, and life-changing! I'm not entirely sure why I decided to start working here. I think I should just quit and do that bike ride every day for the next 10 months! (at least when it's Mid 20's outside).

I made it to Hillarys and AQWA and had a great time. Having a shark swim over you and be only centimeters away is surreal. It was also neat to see some of the many poisonous underwater creatures. Memo to self: "Don't Touch ANYTHING!!!"

On the way home, I decided to spend a couple hours at City Beach. I did a little walking, a lot of Lying, and there was some major enjoying!!! I got a little tuckered out from all the relaxing on the beach. Headed home. Ordered a pizza, and opened a couple letters [Thanks Matt/Valentina [also currently watching CSI Miami :) literally!], Laura/JP [can't believe they stole my recipe for jonchos .... although, there was no mention of layering], Gramps), as they all arrived today!!! What are the odds?

Photos from the Day:

The Bike Ride to Hillarys

AQWA

City Beach

Walking to the water at City Beach

Golfing in Perth

Yup, that's a stick for a pin .... had never seen that before

I hit up a church garage sale on Saturday, and picked some cheap golf clubs. Cheap being 5 clubs for $15 bucks. One of them happened to be a very nice Cleveland wedge, that because it looked rusty, was offered at a shockingly low price of $3. Some of the clubs looked as old as my grandpa's. They had wooden shafts. Let's just say, they weren't big sellers.

I then biked to my local golf club. Biking with golf clubs is not easy on a road bike. The course was in awful condition. The greens were as harry as. There was one hole where the pin was actually just a stick. But it was fun to hit the links. The highlight of the day was holing out a shot from 50 yards. The low light, was realizing that absolutely no one else witnessed it, and it's very awkward High-5ing yourself. Photos click here.

I'm taking the day off work tomorrow and am going to bike north along the coast to Hillarys to visit AQWA (the aquarium of western australia). It should be a fun trip. I just hope that Jacques can make [Jacques is the name of my bike].

Hawks Win, Hawks Win!!! More Importantly, Leafs LOSE!

What a way to start the day! The Blackhawks destroy the Leafs, outscoring them 5-1 in the 3rd period. The game is on national tv with Hockey Night In Canada, and my parents set up the webcam in front of the tv for me. Within minutes of doing this, the Hawks had scored twice. Then the goals kept coming. Those poor Maple Leafs fans, losing again. At one point I was talking to my parents on the webcam, texting back and forth with my brother, and talking to my grandpa on the phone. So much technology.


You gotta give credit to Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Kane. The future of the blackhawks. I'm considering packing up in Perth, and moving to Chicago to buy season tickets for the next 20 years. I may miss out on the beaches. But I'll have Toews and Kane.


Go Hawks!

Duncan Keith beginning the onslaught

Not very good positional goaltending by Raycroft

Yup, looks like the puck crossed the line

Robert Lang loving it!

For some reason, the pics got small for Jonathan Toews ... I guess it was too much for the computer to handle

Same with Patty Kane

Brent Sopel is on the Hawks? Does life get any better? Here's hoping he doesn't have another cracker incident like last year

You suck Ponikarovsky.... how many penalties on the night?

Shouldn't the Leafs have someone in net?

JT - he's bringing sexy back

Leafs fans look happy

You can see me, in the laptop, in the reflection .... amazing

Random Brashear - Laraque fight

Don Cherry: "I've always said I like Robert Lang"

Ron McLean: "When have you said that"

Don: "Always"

Chicago WINS!!!

Iron Mike - Local Issues. Local Action.

Looks like Iron Mike Keenan has given up his hopeless job of coaching the Calgary Flames, and put his focus on running for parliament in Perth. Good onya Mate! No one supports local issues, and then takes local action like you.

There is an Australian Federal election in mid-November. The current Prime Minister John Howard has been falling off the pace fast ever since his party revealed that the opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, went to a strip club in New York 5 years ago. Not the smartest move as Rudd became an icon overnight! There is a debate coming up, if I watch it, I'll try to write a blog about it.

Random Daily Photo

As I'm beginning to run out of ideas/motivation .... for now. I may start just adding random photos on days where I'm tired. This was a romantic shot taken on Tuesday {the typical day to get married in australia} in King's Park.

Not much new to report. I head back to Meekatharra in 10 days. Wahoo! What sort of crazy adventures will I get up to this time?

Cereal Blog #5 - Nutri-grain

Wow #5 already. Don't get too frightened family. I have still have enough to make it to 7!!!

I've been giving Australian cereals a hard time of late, and in some cases it is well deserved.... "Rice Bubbles Squares" ... Anyhoo, I thought I might write about an Aussie cereal that gets a thumbs up of approval. Nutri-grain!!! No, not that Nutri-grain. You're thinking of that savoury, fruity chewy bar that you eat in the morning because you have no time cereal. This nutri-grain is an actual cereal, and is "THE ENERGY CEREAL". It's High in Protein, Carbs, and Low in Fat!!! Tastewise and Lookwise, it has a bit of a "Honeycomb" vibe going on. So far my favourite Aussie Original. But then again, I haven't tried Milo yet, and I'm not talking about that black guy from the early Saved by the Bell shows.

In life news. I'm off to spend a night at a hotel in the Swan Valley for work. Hopefully some more interesting stories / photos to come!!!

Fremantle Line Back in Service.

Looks like I've finally gotten the video application to work properly. This opens up so many windows :). My train line is back in service. On Monday, I decided to take a video of me catching the train in the morning. I wasn't impressed :(.

Booo Egypt and the Trains

I headed downtown today to go to an Egyptian exhibit at the art gallery with a friend. For the past week my train line has been shut down, so I've had to take the bus, which on Sundays, isn't very frequent. I ended up getting there a little early, and took a few snaps of the city. Later, I observed a hysterical man screaming about Rupert Murdoch and newspapers. It was quite humourus ... thus I pulled out the camera. He proceeded to run around, and then got into a confrontation with an employee at a coffee shop .... of course... photos are below.

The exhibit was pretty good, however, there was a negative cloud cast upon the visit as Eugene the security guard forced me to check my camera / back-pack. It was horrible. Not only can I not drink my water, I can't take any photos. My heart is still bleeding.

Then off to the grocery store in the CBD before hitting the bus. I cut it a little close, but was in line at the grocery store with plenty of time to spare .... that is until the fellow in front me chose not to pay for his $29.95 purchase with a $10 and $20 bill. He decided to use all 20cent and 50cent coins .... 50 ... $1 ... $1.20 ... $1.70. As I was watching this I said to myself "this is going to make me miss the bus by 1 minute" .... then as he hit the $20 .... I thought "maybe I should kill myself by hitting these bananas over my head" ... well I didn't miss the bus by a minute ... make that about 20 seconds. So it was an hour of standing around doing nothing. Thanks to Transperth's shutdown of the train line!!!

On a romantic note, the missing of the bus allowed me to witness, for the second time, this couple as they said goodbye. They look about 75 to 80 years old. The woman is in a wheelchair, and she rolls up on the bus. The old man stands outside the window doing what looks like sign language to her. As the bus drives off, they wave goodbye for the final time. I wonder when I'll see them again!

Justin Timberlake Statue

Night time in Perth

I headed to an Indian Restaurant tonight called Annalakshmi with Mark and Holly. It's an all you can eat vegetarian buffet that is located right on the river with some stunning views. It's very good food, and all the food is donated, and then cooked by volunteers. At the end of the meal, you pay what you think the bill should be. Why can't all restaurants do this? It was Very Good Food!!!

Then headed up to King's Park to take a few Night Time snaps of the city. It was a gorgeous night!

View from the Indian Restaurant

Perth City from King's Park

It's beginning to look a lot like summer

Another lazy Saturday spent at the beach with friends. The temperature got up to 29 C today, although it seemed a bit cooler at the beach with the breeze. I decided to jump in fully for the first time. The water is still a bit chilly, but once you are in it is amazing. It's hard to come out! But then the Shark Patrol flies overhead and you remember about all the hidden dangers. Eeek!

The highlight of the day was when I headed off to go to the toilet .... 3 guys just start yelling and cursing at me, asking where I'm from. I thought it was due to my blinding white skin. But nope, it was due to the NZ Rugby shirt I had on. Turned out they were Kiwis, and were very ashamed of the team. When they found out I was from BC, a beer was in my hand (one of them spent 6 months at whistler). Then I joined in some rugby tossing and watched as one of them made a pass at every girl on the beach. It was fun times. I'll keep you updated if I run into them again!

I don't see any sharks ..... Shark Patrol must be doing their job

POETS Day

Piss Off Everyone Tomorrow's Saturday!!!

One of the many useful things I learned at the 4WD course today. It was 7 hours of driving fun! It was a bit intimidating when the instructor hands you the keys at 8am and tells you "let's get going". After the initial panic [I'd yet to drive in the city], I calmed down and hit the road. Everything goes fine .... until I enter the traffic circles of death .... especially the multiple lane
traffic circles... when do I signal? before, during, after? But no worries, spent the rest of the day driving through sand, rocks, hills etc etc. My one weakness was always drifting over to the left part of the lane.

Also got to practice the Anti Lock Brakes. By practice, I mean driving ~80km/hr on a gravel road, slamming the foot on the break [to the point where you actually come off the seat], and then also try to lightly turn the car.

I had two great cabbies today. Steve from Wales, and Abdul from Pakiston. Immigrants... Just like me. Overall, it was a great day to spend at work .... but now my back hurts.

Exhaust Jack - you lift up the car using air from the exhaust pipe

Cereal Blog #4 - Snap, Crackle, Pop!

Kellogg's Rice Bubbles!!! Wait a minute, back it up here .... beep, beep, beep .... Rice Bubbles???? What the *bleep*? What happened to the Krispies? Are Australians not educated enough to understand what a krispie is? so they have to call them bubbles? The characters are the same [Snap, Crackle, and Pop], the box is the same, the cereal is exactly the same [snaps, crackles, and pops when you add milk], so why the name change?

Now to the even more important part. Do they have Rice Bubbles Squares? Is that what they call them? Rice Bubbles Treats? Looking for some confirmation from the Aussies here. It just doesn't roll off the tongue very well. I'm not impressed....

ps I did win the Mini XBox Game .... SCORE!

Life Update: I successfully passed first-aid today getting 19/20 on my test. The guy beside me yelled at me as he admitted copying off me for the question I got wrong. Highlights include: Getting the most action all trip ..... from a dummy ;), Pretending to have Epilepsy, having 4 of 4 people pick out I'm Canadian and not American!, and all the awkward moments where you have to touch [be touched by] complete strangers while you are pretending to be in drama class.

Cereal Blog #3 - Weet-Bix

Weet-bix. Made by Aussies. Loved by Aussies. The closest thing to this in Canada is Shredded Wheat. However, instead of being Shredded into wire-like pieces, Weet-bix is just one big, massive brick of "Weet". I'm actually considering building a house out of Weet-bix. Problem is that these things act as the greatest Sponge in history (photos below). You put a few bricks in a bowl, fill it with milk, and let it sit for a couple minutes. The milk is gone! Dry Weet-bix bad, Spongy Weet-bix.... GOOD!!

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha

It's official!!!! I'm Swedish! I went to a conference in Burswood today, and they had difficulty spelling my name. Well it is 3 letters long!!! J-O-N. Someone must have thought, "That's not how you spell "Yawn" or "Yan". You spell it J-A-N. My name was actually spelt that way on the organization chart at my last job, so it's not the first time.. I can understand John, but Jan???

To cover up the mishap I just added an "enson" to the end of "Boyd", and talked with a Swedish accent. "Yaaaaahhh, I'm from Svvveeeden. Markus Naslund, Sedin Twins score super goals yaahhhhh Svveeeden".

Well Jan is still better than being called "Grant" or "Craig"!!! That's a whole 'nother story.

Doing my Sveeedish Impression

Aussie Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone in Canada!

I spent the morning having Thanksgiving dinner with my family.... well they had dinner, I had a bowl of cereal. Webcams are fun and you can do some neat things with them (like watching the Canucks season opener). However, webcams at the dinner table aren't the best idea. My family "seated" me up on a ladder so I could overlook them eating. You can only enjoy watching people eat for so long! Can you say Awkward?

On to today's main event. Amy organized an Australian Thanksgiving at her place with around 20 people. Most were Canadian. Pics here. It was a BIG success, with turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, pumpkin pie, goon bags, etc etc etc. The Centrepiece that Amy made was spectacular, and creative genious!!!! Something tells me I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night and have visions of this thing peering over my bed.

We had the main meal outside until it started to rain. Nonetheless it was heaps of fun, and a great event. Well done Amy!

Only time will tell what the next big CDN event will be. Likely Halloween!!!!

I have a great week ahead at work. Conference on Monday, First Aid on Wed/Thurs, and then 4WD course on Friday. Only 1 day at the office!

Meekatharra - Day #4 & 5 - warning! graphic content

So after the many warnings, and many near misses as kangaroos, cows, emus, and sheep ran across the road, I finally hit my first animal.... It was an emu that ran out in front of the car, and I had zero time to respond. I tapped the break a little, but held firm and kept the wheel locked straight. Emus don't really cause the damage that kangaroos or cows do because they are smaller, and lighter.

Unfortunately, the emu did not take the 80km/hr impact very well. We sat in the car knowing that we would have to go back to put it out of it's misery. Our only option was a tire iron meaning we'd have to get up close and personal ith it. Fortunately a car came up a few minutes later, and there was an old bloke who took a look at us and knew he would have to do the deed. He got out a shovel. It was very heart-breaking, but as any Aussie would tell you, it's just part of life down under...

Also, we had the pleasure of changing another tire today. At least this one wasn't in the middle of the night... Only in the heat of the mid-day sun. The temperature was very hot today, up to around 37 C [In Perth it was 21 C today]. As compared to the cooler 32, 33 C that we worked in the previous three days. I think I drank about 6 litres of water, and only went the washroom (i mean toilet .... don't say washroom here, ppl laugh at you) about twice. The water just gets sucked out of you!

One more day to go .... what crazy adventures will happen tomorrow. I can't wait!!!

FRIDAY - Day 5

Not too exciting today, hung around town and enjoyed country living. Watched some store
owners go wacko losing their patience.

Took the worst flight ever, 30 minutes from Meekatharra to Mt Magnet. We stayed low and
were stuck in thermal winds (vertical winds) that are caused as the hot surface air rises
into the atmosphere. Major turbulence the whole way. The woman behind me asked the
stewardess if this was normal. She smiled and said "Yup". Just great.
Can't wait for the next adventure!