Meekatharra Reloaded ….. some of the highlights (& lowlights) of 10 days in the bush at temperatures hovering in the low 40’s!!!! (in point form …. I’m getting tired of sentence and paragraph structure):
- I watched an emu run straight into a wire fence .... with humourous results
- I had my first kangaroo .... FOR DINNER!!!! It's just a chewy version of steak. Not bad. Very lean, and no fat.
- 6am start one day, not wakeup but start. Got to see my first Outback sunrise! It was good .... but not great.
- We chased 3 sheep and 1 lamb (not on purpose) down the road in the landcruiser. The lamb tripped and fell, and then one of the sheep bailed overtop it. They both struggled to get up.... them BAMMM. They both got on their feet and ran off.
- One night, watched an Australian Quiz show in the pub and the question was "This person was born in Victoria British Columbia, Canada ......" The answer turned out to be Tara Moss .... she went to my high school!!! Therefore, I am cool….
- Got to see a few more cool animals (dingo, bungarra…. etc)
- Sinead O ‘Connor Karaoke in the Landcruiser. “Nothing compares 2 u”
- Participated in “Chase the Ace” bar game, in which one person gets to draw cards. If they get the Ace of Spades, they win $4000. There was an incident where I heard “70” and thought I WON …. But in actual fact it was “17” … Still have trouble understanding the Australian language.
- Had a CDN moment in a crowded pub on Friday night. Went with 3 straight BA songs. I had to ask everyone to “Please Forgive Me”, because “Everything I do, I do it for you” … haven’t you “Ever really really really really” wanted to listen to BA.
- Holy Crikey!!!! Hearing “Never in 15 years of fieldwork….” and “In 10 years of drilling, I’ve never seen flies this bad” from the more experienced workers is not a good sign. I’ve almost gone completely insane. There have been times when I’ve looked down at my hands and had about 40-50 flies on each of them. I’d say there were probably 1000 within 5 cm of my body. Buzzing, and climbing all over you in desperate search of any bodily fluid. I went to the grocery store, and the mosquito nets were sold out. What are the odds! But there were food covers!!! So I did a little scissor work, and will now look like a bride getting ready to walk down the aisle. Except the aisle of the church is a dusty road in the Outback. And instead of a groom waiting …. I have 1000 little bugs. Yeeeaaahhh!!!
- One great thing about being here for so long. I decided to get a few Cereal snackpacks. Kellog’s!!! Now most of the cereals have actually already been blogged about already;
- However, some new ones:
Frosted Flakes = Frosties … and bizarrely there is no frosting on them. Theeeeeyyyy’rrrrrrr not Grrreeaaattt!
Froot Loops – appeared a bit more sugary
Special K – bigger than the Canadian version, and doesn’t have that crackly sound - Had my first view of a DEADY Australians spider in a sample bag. The White Tail Spider. Crikey!
- There may have been an appearance by Keanu Reeves. Pop Quiz Hot Shot …It’s 45 Celsius, and you have no water, What do you do? What do you do?
- Took part in my first true outback Australian Barbie!
- Had a different kind of Remembrance Day Ceremony. We attempted 1 minute of silence, but the flies didn’t do a very good job complying.
- Wow, it actually rained for a couple minutes.
- I decided to give up the 3+ weeks of beard growth, and went with a Handle Bar moustache. I was quickly given the nickname Chopper, as there was an infamous Hitman named Chopper Read in Melbourne who had similar facial hair. The nickname then morphed into Chopper Five as that was my room number. I would pound my chest and then give a weather report from “Chopper Five” …. "It’s going to be hot today in Meekatharra”.
- There was an interesting show from one of the locals one morning. It began at 7:30 as he walked into the Corner Store, arms raised, and “Roaring”. He then crouched down, turned towards me and “Hissed”. Very similar to what Misty (childhood cat) used to do. He then checked around the store a bit, before making eye contact with me again. He then started doing some random punches, kicks, and then The Crane (Karate Kid move). At this point, the owner of the store says “If you are going to act like a F@#!ing Idiot, then get the F@#! Out of my store!!!!!!”. He quickly left. Rumours were he was on Petrol. Very very very funny.
- One night one of the driller’s offsiders took offence to something that was said by my coworker. Actually conversation is as follows:
Him: “Dude, you gotta tell me what room he’s in, I’m going kick his ass”
Me: “Sorry man, I can’t six say, what room six he’s in, that would six, just go against six work ethics. Room Six”
Him: “Oh man, come on, you gotta tell me, I’m so “bleeping” mad. He dissed me man, he dissed me. What room is he in”
Me: Sixry … I mean sorry, I six can’t say man. If six, you went to room six, and beat him six up. I’d get six in trouble, room six.”
Him: “Shit man, just tell me”
Me: “Six … I just six can’t say, you’ll have to six, find out six what room six he’s in from six someone else.”
Him: “Fine, I’ll find out from someone else”
Can you tell alcohol might have been involved ….. let’s just say, he didn’t show up to work the next morning. - Finally, brought out the Don Boyd look for the final day.
mmmm mmmm .... my first kangaroo
CSI: Australia .... who ate that kangaroo?
Viewing my first dingo
A bungarra
Stop bugging me!!!
Cereal Funpack
Homemade bug net
Killer spider in the sample bag!!!
A willy willy.JPG)
Chopper Five
the "Don" Boyd look
