Day 6/7 - End of the Week

It's strange, I know it's Friday, but days of the week seem irrelevant really. Imagine Monday is the day I fly out here, and Friday is my last day of work before going home. Everything in the middle doesn't matter.

Anyway, another day, another class. Working at Heights this morning, followed by P49 Cage Training in the afternoon. Pretty straight forward sort of stuff. Cage Training was basically learning how to operate the giant elevator that offers access down into the mine. This isn't an ordinary elevator though, imagine one so big you could fit 85 people in it, or a Toyota Landcruiser with passengers, and it goes to all 17 floors, that's 1.25km straight down, just remember, Q1, the tallest building on the Gold Coast, is 322.5m to the top of the spire. So this elevator travels 4 times that difference, at 45km an hour! Pretty exciting stuff. The cable is so long it stretches (and it's thicker than my arm) so the further down you are the more it bounces up and down.

Anyway, after that Friday was pretty much at an end. Dinner, couple of cold ones and off to bed. Today (Saturday now) I was rostered off, same with tomorrow, and not much to do. Luckily my company had offered to give me a lift into town for a while so I went in for a look around and some supplies. Kmart is the only "major" shop, picked up some nice light tshirts to help cope with the heat. Went to get an Optus card for my phone as they have the only reception out at the site (to make calls etc , I had to stand way out the back of the dongas) I was told they had to micro sims (which I need for my iPhone) and to try Woolworths. Well, after locating Woolies, and finding out they had none either, I spent an hour walking to every newsagent, store, servo that I could find and looked for one with no luck. So I gave up, went back to Optus to just get an internet dongle, and they then told me that they could "cut down" a normal one! Anyway, got it all sorted, now I have phone reception and wireless internet in my donga. Life is that much better now (sad hey)

Went and picked up a few books from the bookstore (Had to make a phonecall to get some author recommendations, ended up with 2 Clive Clussler novels, they sound good) and topped off the morning with an awesome beef burger at Mt Isa Hotel and a couple schooners to wash it down. Now Im watching "Changing Lanes" which I picked up from Crazy Clarks, enjoying a cold one and soaking up this wonderful aircon.

Anyway, another day almost over, it's just started sprinkling. Should cool it down for a bit. Looking forward to Monday to get back into this training and get it knocked over. Really keen to do some work now, classroom's just arn't for me.

• Haven't got conformation on this, but they reckon the majority of above ground haul truck drivers at MIM are women at the moment
• Mt Isa is regarded as one of the best mines to get a start in the industry. Alot of people move here for 6-12 months, get as many tickets at possible then use that experience to get a FIFO job elsewhere paying double what is offered here (or so they say)
• Getting paid to sit at a pub, enjoy beautiful food and drink beer is not a bad way to spend a weekend!