First Stint Completed

Today is the first day of my week off, and I spent most of it staring at the inside of my eyelids.  Since starting work on the 2^nd of the month I have had one day off, and the last 7 I have been on nightshift.  So it is a bit of a relief to be getting a few days of in a row.  Three crews have now been assembled and a roster has been formed: 1 week of days, 1 week of nights and then 1 week off.

Upon knocking off at 6:30 this morning after a pretty tough night, working through a bit of a storm (yes, there was plenty of drifting going on) it was a unanimous decision to head straight to one of Kalgoorlie’s many pubs.  I managed to get 1 bourbon down, and then decided that a feed was what I was really after.  Thankfully Hannans (the pub) does a mean breaky and I tucked in to a plate of spaghetti on toast whilst the other boys (most of whom are Irish) just kept drinking.  An hour or so later I called it quits and headed for the minibus.  Not bothering to start the engine, I went straight for the bench seat at the rear of the minibus and slept for a couple of hours before driving home to sleep some more.  This evening after waking up I discovered that my neighbour (one of the Irish lads from work) was no home yet, so I thought I do a mercy run back to Hannans before handing the minibus over to the next shift.  I found him still there propped up at the bar unable to walk or talk and barely able to keep his eyes open.  I had a good laugh with the bar maid who was rather relived to see me and then carried my mate out.

Working a 12 hour nightshift on the mine site was pretty tough.  It was hard to see, particularly when there were rain droplets on the windows and mirrors, and what limited lighting there was always seemed to be shining in my eyes rather than on where I wanted to be going.  Also it was hard to see the potholes in the haul road, so I was constantly getting bounced around.  The hardest part though was staying awake, especially around 4am nearing the end of the shift.  Thankfully I am on probably the best and definitely the most relaxed of the three crew and there is a lot of rubbish thrown around on the two way radio which helps to keep me awake.

Whilst over the last month I have spent most of my time in the Dump trucks I can also say that I have been in every machine on site.  It has been good to get back into an excavator and found it was like riding a bike (you never forget how).  I have spent a small amount of time on the grader and dozer.  The hardest part of the grader is that there are so many different ways to adjust the blade to cut the road, but at least you can see the front of the blade so you know when to make an adjustment.  The dozer is the complete opposite, you cant see a thing, it is all done by feel.  Also, the dozer has so much power so it just keeps on pushing and it is really easy to dig a hole if you haven got your level right.  I think I will need to spend a few more hours in the dozer before I get the feel for the right level?!

Well that should just about bring you all up to speed on where I am at.  Hope all is well wherever you are in the world, and hopefully the weather is being a bit kinder to you.  Another storm has just blown in, thankfully it is someone else turn to go to work tonight.  I think I will go and have a quick bite and then go back to bed.