From Outback to Office

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DAY 447

Well today is definitely a historical day in the history of Kangaroojack, its Caroline’s very first day at work today as she had secured some contract work with a government department in Canberra.

As you are aware we left the UK on 07 November 2008 so neither of us have worked for nearly 16 months, we have done our travelling for the moment, I honestly don’t think the trip is over, I still wouldn’t rule out going around Australia again, but at the moment we need to top the piggy bank up.

It was mathematical certainty that either Caroline or myself was going to be first to get a job, this was Caroline’s first interview and she got a contract which we are both pleased about, work had to come sometime, as painful as it is we both have to get back to the work thing.

I took Caroline a cup of tea at about 7.00am to make sure she was awake, she was and she was excited about her day. Caroline went and showered and was soon ready for the day and dressed for battle, she had a piece of toast and we were ready for the off.

Jumping in the Patrol we left at exactly 08.00am trying to judge how the traffic was going to be, the journey length is about 12k’s each way and the traffic was not too bad so it took us about 25 minutes.

I kissed Caroline goodbye and wished her a good day and told her not to lets the other kids pull her hair, she smiled and jumped out of the truck and strode off to the building where she worked.

I pointed the Patrol in the opposite direction and headed back to Susan’s place in Weetangera, where I had a list of things that needed sorting out.

I showered, got changed and headed into town as I needed to go to the Telstra shop where hopefully I would be able to get a resolution to our damaged Broadband dongle.

The truck cannot be parked in a multi story car park as we still have the 6th Patrol spare wheel on the roof rack which makes it just .05 of a metre too tall and thus it will not allow me to be fit under the roof in the multi story car park, so I had to hopefully get a road parking space in town.

With the money put in the ticket machine I walked to the Telstra shop to see what we could do.

Little did I know that I was wasting my time, I went in and spoke to the young female assistant, I might as well not bothered, all she managed to grunt to me, was that I needed to either call bigpond as it was their problem or Sierra Wireless who’s product it was, also adding that she could sell me another one with a plan! How do you explain to someone that you obviously already have a plan which is why you have the equipment in the first place?

Well thanks Telstra for your cr*p service.

I got back and found the number for Sierra Wireless, I explained our predicament and the girl said it would probably cost more to send it to Canada, have it repaired then sent back to us than it would be to buy a new one, so I needed to look deeper.

I was on our mobile phone for about 10 Minutes holding for Bigpond, so cancelled the call and got on line to the live chat room for big pond, (I’m starting to loose heart telling you this story), after speaking to a woman in India, who could just about speak English she gave me an order reference number and said it will be posted to us in 3-5 days so watch this space.

The next important thing I have to do is look for a new replacement fridge, I will not go with EvaKool again, we have been burnt too many times and the service is lacking so we need to look at an alternative.

I think it would be unfair of us, at this point to say who we are looking at as we do not want to be seen as having any favour with anyone or offer advertising, I don’t mind giving a company a good write up once we have made our minds up and used the product so want to be fair.

I have requested some brochures and will let you know how we get on, what we do know is we are going to be without a fridge for a while just when we need it.

Sometime in the afternoon Caroline managed to give me a quick call to tell me she was getting on ok which I was pleased about, explaining that she had just had the phone installed on her desk, she has her security pass already and all she needs is computer access. Caroline had been wondering if I was still driving around Canberra trying to find my way back to Susan’s house, but I assured her that I managed just fine without my navigator and within a blink of an eye I was on my way to collect her from work again.

It is quite a swanky building that she works in, and there is plenty of parking so I waited in the sunshine and watched the steady stream of people drift out of the building via the main entrance.

Caroline came out with a smile on her face which was a plus point and she jumped in the truck and we set off back to Susan’s whilst she gave me the ins and out of her day.

I told her about my equally busy day sorting things out and telling her the good news/bad news on the fridge situation.

The good news being that we can be rid of the Evakool fridge that is nothing short of unreliable and the bad news is we are going to be without a fridge until we can get things sorted, still its just another challenge that we have to get over.

We got back to Weetangera and Caroline went and changed in to her holiday uniform, and she filled me in even more as she had time to digest her day.

Susan had come in from her work armed with some steak so the BBQ was put on and dinner was on the go. I have to say that the steak Susan had gotten was probably one of the very best pieces of steak that I had ever had in my life, it was absolutely beautiful, not in looks, but in taste!

So the rest of the evening has gone as most of them do at the moment, so we won’t bore you with those details.

We have been pleased with what we have accomplished so far, after travelling for 14 months, this has been the very first day that Caroline has worked in Australia and is the next phase of the adventure.

I don’t think we have got the travelling out of our system yet, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we go around the big island again, but for now we just have to conform to the normality of working life.

We have been talking seriously about putting the reigns on the blog for a while, whilst we are working, as the blog’s will become as dull as dishwater, so don’t be surprised if we stop. I know that Caroline’s Mum and Dad will be disappointed, as will a lot of other people, as it has been a great help to them to read about what happens in our daily life, but sadly we cannot keep writing.

Be reassured that when we get moving again the blog’s will re start, and of course if we have an interesting weekend sightseeing or doing something of interest then of course we will blog about it. Its just think you will be bored to tears if we blogged about our working day, well actually perhaps not, but we could not really get away with revealing too much about our working day, it might upset a few people, office politics and all that!

I have my 2nd interview with a company tomorrow at 8.00am so I will have to take Caroline in extra early so I can get to where I need to be by 8.00am so its an early start.

As we head off to bed I reflected on my day, I was surprised how easy it actually was to get ready and go to the office, I was not even as nervous as I thought I would be, that month of Monday morning feelings was not there, of course I was nervous it was my first day in a new job, there are always nerves.

For some reason this whole day I just took in my stride as if it was all very normal, I even sat in on my first meeting and confidently got involved in the discussion, but mainly my day was taken up with reading, my predecessor had left mounds of project paperwork that I need to read and digest before I can move forward. In my mind I had already resigned myself to having a fairly dull day.

I was impressed though at the speed of getting a security pass with my picture on it already, I had that by 11.30 this morning, there is a new computer on order as the one on my desk is apparently very slow, but I guess it will take me time to find that out as I need network id first, and a telephone appeared this afternoon which was soon connected and I at last was able to phone Andy and tell him what time I needed collecting.

Here I am in a fabulous office environment wearing a suit for the first time in over a year, I have gone from café latte to Billy Tea and now I have gone from the Outback to the Office and once again on the café latte’s, skinny latte’s of course.

I am looking forward to the challenges that I may have over the next 6-8 weeks while I do this project, in many respects now it seems like I have not spent any time away from work, I just popped up in a different office, different town and different country where as in England I would just always pop up in a different office in a different town. I feel really pleased that I have this opportunity, my first job in Australia and quite chuffed at this achievement.

Remind me in a few weeks time, when I am fed up getting up at 7.00 to head into work for another day at the coal face.!

I have had loads of congratulations messages from friends, family and blog readers, thank you everyone for all of your wishes!

Now it is bedtime, we have an early start in the morning.

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Photos

Caroline Dressed
For her first day at the coal face.