In the 8 months since we returned home from Thailand a lot has happened. I'm quite behind. But Dad reminds me that my regular readers (who, it should be noted, have decresed a bit in numbers. We'll just dedicate this post to Mom-Mom, Mrs. Dunn, and Uncle Marty, none of whom need these blog posts anymore because they can just follow along from Heaven!) might want to know what has been happening! So here's a fairly chronological rundown...
We got home from Thailand and fell face-first into the busy season in Exmouth. I was working 3.5 jobs around town, and counted myself lucky that my various employers would coordinate my schedule amongst themselves and just let me know when they had decided I would work!
Job 1: Exmouth Fuel Supplies: Making breakfast sandwiches for the hungry denizens of Exmouth
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| Early mornings are not always joyful for me |
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| Shifts start at 5am, so lots of beautiful sunrise views |
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| Sometimes joyful |
Job 2: Bundegi Beach Shack: Making smoothies and taking food orders, with occasional barista-ing in between. Mostly just getting paid to watch whales playing in the Exmouth Gulf.
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| Behind me at the cash register |
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| My window view |
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| My view from the cash register at the Bundegi Beach Shack |
Job 3: Batters Fish and Chips - taking orders, wrapping orders, occasionally being a burger cook
I don't have any photos of this. Trust that it included free hot oil hair treatments with every shift.
Job 3.5: Occasional shifts helping out at the Trussy, the local RSL (basically the local VFW post, for my American readers), and my favorite place to spend Sunday afternoons when I'm home.
Also no photos. Probably for the best.
Matty started working away when we got back from Thailand, so his schedule was many days of working 12-hour shifts in a row, followed by a week or two of him being home and underfoot while I was still working these various jobs. But SOMETIMES I could manage to swing a few days in a row off so we could take Bluey camping. Or go hiking. Or go day tripping to Coral Bay.
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| Hiking Charles Knife Canyon |
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| Blue Jay morning tender run |
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| Sunrise from Bluey |
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| Swallow visitors on Bluey |
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| Grilling fresh fish |
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| A very competitive game of pool in Coral Bay |
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| An even more competitive pinball match at the pub in Exmouth |
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| Easter Sunset cruise crew |
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| Easter Sunset |
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| Kayla |
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| Chilly morning on Blue Jay |
When Matty was away at work and I had days off, I spent the whole time crying, at home, alone. Except when I was out and about...
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| Skurfing with Dingus (on the surfboard), David, and Kristy |
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| Out on the SS Wild Verser |
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| Captain Dingus |
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| Dingus & Tropi test driving Matty's electric skateboard |
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| After work beach trips |
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| Diving with Rose & Gaia |
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| Diving with Rose & Grace |
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| with Tash and Corinne at Whalebone |
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| with Dougie and Tracey at the Trussy (not a working day!) |
Before I knew it, March had turned into April and the Apocalypse was upon us. I'd been hearing about it for the whole three years I've lived in Exmouth. A total solar eclipse was going to be visible from Exmouth, and it was one of the only places in the world that it could be seen. So for folks who didn't want to risk the civil unrest in Papua New Guinea, we were it. Businesses had been preparing for YEARS for the expected influx of tourists, and the day itself was magic.
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| Beach Shack crew who worked that day - we closed for the half hour around the eclipse so we could all watch, too! Ania, Adam, Jared, me, Jimmy, & a chef who only worked with us for 5 minutes whose name I forget. Oops. |
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| Stephen, my eclipse watching buddy |
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| Scottish Jimmy, my manager at the Beach Shack, showing off his eclipse glasses |
I was starting to get sick of Matt being gone. For all the fun I was having, juggling schedules at 3.5 jobs was tricky and it was annoying to leave Matt at home while I went to work during his limited time in town. So I started making actual moves towards getting a job where I could work away, too. Rationale being: we'll get on the same swing, then all our time at home will be free time to do whatever we want! So at the start of May I did a course to earn my forklift license.
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| Sunset at the lighthouse |
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| One of my neighbors |
Blink and it was time for our next holiday: Mother's Day Weekend in Victoria with Matty's parents, brother, and sister-in-law.
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| Twelve Apostles |
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| Us with Robynne, Kyal & Mick |
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| Go birds. |
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| Required pilgrimage to Reading Terminal Market |
Memorial Day Weekend itself was spent in Pittsburgh, surprising my dear friend James for his birthday weekend!
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| At a drag show with Danny, Scott & James, along with Alaska Thunderf*ck (I didn't pick her stage name, Dad!) |
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| Brewbus bicycle tour of Pittsburgh! |
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| with Danny |
Once back in Delco, I spent the next few days doing "death cleaning" with Mom. She read a book, "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning," which inspired her to want to do a house clean out. It's all about how we shouldn't keep things that no longer serve us, even if Great Auntie Mabel did give it to us for our 30th wedding anniversary, etc. Letting things go. The book has even been made into a delightful show with Swedish stars who help people get rid of their stuff. Anyway, Mom doesn't need the Swedes because she got me!
Death cleaning took a pause so we could do a trip to Texas. His friends, Ray and Casey, welcomed us into their home in Mineral Wells outside of Dallas and we had the best weekend grilling, shooting stuff, and laughing.
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| at the Mineral Wells Welcome sign |
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| Gabriel, Ray & Casey's grandson, was just the cutest little button |
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| Ray was a very patient teacher |
We had a blast with Ray & Casey, then headed back towards Dallas to hang out with more friends! Robert & Mandy hosted us in their gorgeous home in Wylie, and then we went to the Ballpark at Arlington to catch a Rangers game with them, Jack, and Megan. Fuzzy's Tacos completed the amazing nostalgia trip. And since the last time I watched a ball game with Jack, Megan, and Robert was in Philly, it all came full circle!
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| Jack, Robert, Mandy & Megan |
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| Megan & Jack |
We had a few days of free time that we weren't totally sure what we wanted to do with, but Robert and Mandy made a recommendation: Broken Bow, Oklahoma. I'd never spent time in OK, and they said it's a really neat little mountain town - perfect to go and just lay low. After a few weeks straight of socializing and Matty meeting new people nearly every day, it sounded perfect. So we booked a little cabin and away we went! We spent the few days swimming in lakes, eating at tiny country diners, and snoozing on the couch. Just what the doctor ordered.
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| Peter Toth sculpture |
Before we knew it we were back home in Delco to spend more time with friends and family.
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| Before the Phillies game; at Xfinity |
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| Paulie, Rachie, & Meggie @ Citizen's Bank Ballpark |
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| Pre-Game Pic |
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| KP |
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| And then I talked Matt into doing trips like this for the rest of our lives together! |
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| Meggie, Grant, me, Matty, Bridgie, Rachie, KP & Peter, Dan & Jack |
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| Breaking in our new hiking boots at the CREC |
In an absolute whirlwind, it was over. We were boarding another plane, this time back to the Philippines and on to Australia. Our Manila stopover was supposed to be 13 hours but in a plot twist we ended up staying two nights. The airline footed part of the bill, streamlined our trip so that we skipped Melbourne entirely and went on to Perth directly, and we got to spend a day exploring Manila. It was not a place to which I'd return, but YOLO. I used my first Asian-style squat toilet at the airport, experienced my first earthquake while we were waiting at the customer service desk to make our flight change arrangements, and stayed at a really ritzy hotel near Rizal Park in the center of the city.
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| on Brutus' (the boat's name) back deck |
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| A quokka visitor while we ate lunch |
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| on Rottnest Island |
Once we made it home to Exmouth, we spent a few days living on Blue Jay. Dingus, our housemate, had his parents staying at our house so we wanted to stay out of their way. It meant a few days just laying low, getting organized, and easing back into life at home. And a little bit of fishing and crabbing.
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In my tool store at work! Dirty face now standard.
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at 4am on my first day before going into work
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My new job title is officially "Storeman," but would, in my estimation, be better called "Tool Librarian." That's the bulk of my job: handing out tools to the folks who actually use them. Cleaning them when they come back covered in filth. Re-shelving until their next use. My role has some elements of a Yardie, too; keeping storage areas clean and tidy, making sure that random bits and bobs out around the yard are properly cordoned off with traffic cones ("witches hats" to Aussies), emptying the various rubbish and recycling bins around our yard, weeding. It's a good mix of being inside and being outside, I think, and it's been really engaging as I'm trying to learn everything all at once. When everything is brand new to you, where do you start!?
The new gig is on what's called a "Two and One" roster. I work 14 days of 12 hour shifts in a row and then have a week off. The two weeks when I'm at work I live in a mine camp (which sounds bleak, but includes air conditioned rooms, my own bathroom, and hot cooked meals for me in the camp mess), and then when I go home to Exmouth I get to basically be as much of a tourist as I want! All the camping, fishing, swimming, boating that I want. That's my favorite part. My least favorite part is that it's only a week! Ideally, Matt and I would both love to be on a 2/2 roster - two weeks of leave for every two spent at work.
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| There are frogs living in the various water tanks around camp and site, so sometimes you surprise them when you flush. They hop like mad to prevent going all the way down the drain, and at night when I go to the bathroom at site, they sing to me. |
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| "poo frogs," my friend Grant calls them |
The first few swings at work were pretty hairy in terms of seeing my partner. Matty was working away and our R&Rs didn't always line up. He was doing 5 week swings to make sure that we could spend that week off together. Not sustainable. So he made some phone calls and got a job at my mine site! It's a small community, mining. I'm beginning to learn that about every industry - stick around long enough and you'll get to know everyone. Matty doing this for the better part of 2 decades meant that he already knew half the guys in the crane yard when he arrived. So now we're on the same roster, and can drive to and from work together! Since I always do a week of night shift, followed by a week of days, this means that now I can take a little catnap on the 4.5 hour drive to work. Nice to have a chauffeur!
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