Detroit, New York, and LA, but I'm stuck in the NT

A New Beginning

I would like to firstly wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! May 2006 be a great year for you. I can't believe we are starting a new year already, but as they say (I don' t know who 'they' is), time flies as you get older, and that's what has happened to me.

My new beginning started on the 26th Dec 2005. I flew down to McArthur River to start my new job as a laboratory technician at the mine. I was quite nervous and tired when I arrived. I was again picked up by John with the bushy beard and he mentioned once more to me that he'd never live it down for thinking I had blonde hair. Once I dropped my bag off in my room (which incidently had a tennis raquet, thongs and guys clothes in it) I was taken to the laboratory.

When I got to the lab, I met the other new girl Natasha. She is a lovely person and I'm glad I will be working with her quite a bit. She was thrilled to see me as she had been the only girl at the mine from the time she arrived!!!! I was shown how to prepare samples and also spent a lot of time weighing them out for the tests we conduct. I learned very quickly that I'm quite BAD at weighing things out accurately (to 4 decimal places). It really took me ages to weigh out a few samples (whereas, it takes other people about half an hour to 45 minutes). I will strive to improve. Everyone was very patient with me, which I really appreciated. Thanks guys!!!!

I found my first day to be incredibly long and I kept wishing in my head that I was back at DEET Financial Services (my incredibly comfy comfort zone). However, I told myself that I needed to get through the first day and get as much out of this job as possible. After work was over, I caught the bus back to camp, grabbed some dinner and went to my room. Natasha had told me that she was meeting a couple of guys for a game of pool later on and that I was welcome to join them. I decided to make a couple of phone calls (from the public phone) to my parents and Kasun and then check out the computer room before joining them.

After I talked to my dearly beloveds I asked around about how to get to the computer room. When I arrived there I saw a guy on a computer. I looked for another one I could use, but alas, there were no more to be found!!!! I was amazed, I had actually imagined there would be a minimum of at least three computers in a room known as a 'computer room'. The guy on the computer said he'd be finished soon and we soon started talking. I told him how funny it was that there was only ONE computer in the room and he kinda laughed and said yeah that it used to be even more dodgier because there used to be servers in there. He was pretty nice and he started giving me helpful hints about cheating in the random drug tests and things like that. I mean, I have no idea what kind of person he thought I was, but I was glad for his concern (BTW, I don't take drugs!!!!).

After he finished we swapped seats (kinda like musical chairs, but not, because I was initially sitting on one of those exercise balls) and I decided to check my email and also my blog. However, I was unable to access my blog due to some sort of screening of sites they do, I was totally depressed about that!!!! The guy (he's remaining nameless incase someone reads this and thinks he's a drug cheat) told me it used to be the case that ANY sites could be accessed and that when people used to walk into the room they wouldn't look at the screen incase it was anything 'like that'. Hehehe, I suppose it's a good thing that certain sites are banned!!!!

I went to meet up with Natasha and her friends after that at the bar and found that the bar is an INCREDIBLY COLD place, I stayed for five minutes and left because I was FREEZING. After going to bed too late, I woke up very tired in the morning the next day.

I'll just fill you in on some funny/strange things that have happened to me so far:

• I got teased for waking up at 4.30am (as I fear not waking up at all) by some guy.
• This same guy thought I was gay.
• I dodge cane toads and frogs when I walk around camp in the evening and morning
• I wear a fluro orange shirt with reflector panels on it to work. I also wear blue ill-fitting trousers with the same reflective panels.
• My clothes have my name on them.
• I wear 'workman' boots.
• I aim to go to bed by at least 9.00pm each night.
• I am paranoid that people are looking at me (I really am).
• I don't really try to make many friends (I think this will take some time to get over).

That's pretty much it. I mean, I really am liking the place now. I'm sure I will make more friends and start being a bit more social soon. I just need to get a little more comfortable with this whole ratio thing, but so far, everyone I've met or smiled at have been VERY nice to me and I really am thankful for that!!!

And so the saga of the bush girl (AKA the Darwinian) continues.

Have a great day and a great year too!!!!!

Jack Handy Thought For The Day: I wish I would have a real tragic love affair and get so bummed out that I'd just quit my job and become a bum for a few years, because I was thinking of doing that anyway.

posted by Anika From Darwin @ 9:03 PM