Toilets.

Roger comes in arms flapping and frothing at the mouth, nothing unusual about that.

"The units that came out of Indonesia are useless, we should not pay a cent for them"
"What are you talking about?"
"None of them fit, they all have the wrong connections"
"Are we talking about ablution blocks?"
"Yes the McDowell once at Hegigio"
"What's the problem?"
"Three of the four toilets are blocked!"
"So?"
"They have three inch outlets instead of four inch!"
"So?"
"Well the guys that are staying at the camp use a whole roll of toilet paper every time and then flush whole roll card board and all through the toilet"

"Now I understand, I don't think a four inch outlet would make any difference, you better get a plumber"
"OK"

Deaf.

I am currently suffering from complete hearing loss in my left ear. On Saturday I was getting a bit of an earache on Sunday it was getting painful but I was on my way to PNG and decided it wasn't worth cancelling my flights for, on Monday night it was painful enough to keep me awake but still more flights to go. This morning it hurt slightly less but I was profoundly deaf in one ear.

OK first order of the day was to see our doctor who has given me two kinds of pills to take, one a pain killer the other one an antibiotic to get rid of the ear infection. The prognosis for recovery is good but I am still deaf as a door nail and can hear my own voice echoing in my head whenever I speak.

Home and away.

Back in Sisibia again after a lovely time in Auckland with Bronwyn and the kids. Daniel and I spent most of our time together in the hotel swimming pool. He is well and truly over his fear of getting his hair wet and enthusiastically dived for stones from the bottom of the pool, helpfully dropped in there by his sister.

Auckland was a pleasant break from Whangarei and Bron and I discussed the merits of buying a property in Devenport to be close to the shops and cafés it seems a little excessive for that though.

So back to Whangarei and what a drama the motorway was packed with traffic and at many a place we were lucky to do three kilometres an hour. I was knackered by the time we got home.

Update

Let's try for a bit of an update.

The days are fairly routine at the moment, get up at five in the morning, have a shower, shave and breakfast then deal with the emails that have come in overnight from those with insomnia or in other timezones. Discuss site security ,who is threatening who, are all our work areas open and accesible, which crews need armed protection etc. The following conversation is typical.

Eric "What's happening today?"
Terry " Some people at the watersource are threatening delta crew"
Eric "verbal or do they want to chop them?"
Terry "They say stop work and the men are afraid"
Eric "Will they chop them?"
Terry "Maybe"
John "What are we going to do about it?"
Terry "I'll go down and talk to them"
John "Will you take some police?"
Terry "I'll take one mobile squad"
Eric "Any other problems"
Terry " No everything else is quiet"

Funnily enough when people are trying to do the right thing we seem to end up in trouble as well. The other day for example one of our bush labourers fell ill and arranged for his brother to do his work. An excellent arrangement in his mind. Of course half way during the day when one of our expat supervisors caught up with the crew and realised that there was someone he didn't recognise we had to tell him to stop working as he didn't have safety gear, hadn't been given a medical fitness test and wasn't inducted. Seems like sometimes you just can't do the right thing.

Holy floor.

As I expected for some time now the pressure on our current accommodation is stretching facilities beyond their breaking point. In this case quite literally after the floor in one of the shower blocks caved in and an employee disappeared with it. Luckily no one injured as far as I know but obviously we need to get some work done on the rotting timber, like have it replaced.

FW: Holy floor.

As I expected for some time now the pressure on our current accommodation is stretching facilities beyond their breaking point. In this case quite literally after the floor in one of the shower blocks caved in and an employee disappeared with it. Luckily no one injured as far as I know but obviously we need to get some work done on the rotting timber, like have it replaced.

Back on the job.

After some luckily uneventful flights I made it to Brisbane on Monday morning in time for the weekly controls meeting and a whole host of subsequent meetings and gatherings that were on the whole fairly productive. Then yesterday I did the long trek to Sisibia where as a form of welcome it was raining cats and dogs. Now I am sitting looking at the three hundred or so emails that have collected in my inbox during my absence.

Lovely.