StephandDamo

Another update from us... In June we had a visit from Mum, over from NZ, and Greg, over from Geelong (near Melbourne). It was great to show them around and take them to some of our old haunts including - the land of love - Kalgoorlie - where Damien and I met! On their arrival we headed to the Leonardo DaVinci exhibition in Perth which showed replicas of many of his inventions. Watch out for this guy, he’s fairly handy with his artwork and his inventions! I knew about his artistic side, but I hadn’t really realised the extent of his mechanical ideas and how much of modern engineering principles has evolved from ideas he had sketched. What a legend! Damien and Greg (who both love anything mechanical) were in their element. We had a walk ... read more

We travelled to the Basque Country to stay with our friends Mikel (who we had met in Edinburgh days) and his wife Leire and baby daughter Kira. Mikel had taught us to rock climb in Edinburgh and we had been to the Basque Country in earlier years to do a bit of low level rock climbing and to see the country. On the drive from Barcelona to Basque Country, we stopped in a the Pyrenees Mountains and skied for a day at Candanchu, right on the Spanish/French border, staying in a town called Jaca (Haka). We missed the left hand turn into the Candanchu township and did a u-turn in France - so we had about 1 minute in France! Mikel and Leire made us so welcome and we loved their town, Azkoitia (Ath-coy-tia), surrounded by ... read more

Just a quick update from Murrin Murrin after having been here now for around 3 months. My how time flys on by. Our typical day here consists of waking, working 12 hours, eating (maybe the odd bevvie or two on a special night!), sleeping, waking… By the 14th day it really is time for the one week off. The temperature is heating on up here and yesterday the unofficial temperature was reported to be 46oC. It has definitely been the hottest day so far. I find it bad enough when I am working outside, but poor old Dami, having escaped the ’heat of Hawke’s Bay’ (in NZ) is now having to suit up in this weather in a protective acid suit. It’s an all in one overall number, made up of a gortex type of material ... read more

The latter half of August/ early September saw Damien acquiring work on a minesite on a fly in fly out roster (FIFO). I very quickly became a lady of leisure in Fremantle, familiarising myself with the shops and café strip and donating my time to charity! My flatmate Nicola is the Senior Environment Officer on Rottnest Island, 17km west of Perth. I headed out to the island for two days to plant trees in two areas 1) after being burnt out after a flare from a boat which landed on the island during Australia Day celebrations last year, and 2) replanting an area cleared for pastoral land around 60 years ago. I think I have made myself carbon neutral for this year at least! The ‘Quokka’ is a native of the island. It is a half ... read more

Arriving back into Kalgoorlie after nine years was very exciting! We couldn’t wait to take a drive around the whole town and see what had changed. What had changed? Nothing! Well actually, that’s not true. The outskirts of town had become more populated with various businesses. There were now more clothes shops and at least 3 coffee shops making flat whites and lattes! But generally it all looked like it did when we left it. However last time we were here we had a big group of friends who were now all gone (except for Dion and AJ, a kiwi couple we made friends with from our previous work here. They have had 3 kids since we left!). So it is a weird feeling coming back because it kind of feels lonely. My brother was here ... read more