Walk with me

(Warning: reading this post may lead to exercise)

About once a week someone turns up at the office needing a bill paid straight away, or the drillers need to borrow cash for parts until the money get transferred from Romania. It means I end up forking out (mostly because I have company $$$ and hate any of my guys forking out their own) and usually means I have to take a walk down to the ATM or Multibanco or hole in the wall or whatever you wish to call it. Its also the same walk I do if I have to post my water meter reading, or post postcards to you all.

I walk down our street past the dogs which bark whenever anything moves near them and the orange trees we steal from whenever in season. I turn on to the main road and walk past the service station which isnt in service these days, past the primary school with the kids playing football, sitting on the wall looking at these strange adults and yelling at each other, climbing trees. I walk past the old men sat around the cafe and around the old fountain, each with a walking stick, most with flat caps, and the sheepskin jacket (black wool on the outside) traditional to the region, all talking about everything and anything. Sometimes one of the guys we use for earthmoving or the electrician or the carpenter will drive past and wave.

The road becomes cobbled after the fountain so if its morning I walk past the street sweepers, a gang of old ladies in straw hats sweeping the street with a broom. It also narrows a lot which increases the chance of being mown down by an insane Portuguese motorist. Crossing is fraught with danger - we've watched amazed a cat stop, look left, look right, look both ways again and then walk across the pedestrian crossing. Since its happened twice it cant be just a coincidence.

The walk is one of the only "Bill" moments in the day. Its different to the same walk that we do as a group to go to lunch every day, even though its the same walk. At the moment Im alone just before work but I can hear the cars pulling in. Then the conversation and arguing starts, the radio noise, the planning of the day/week/lunch, and a semi-regular trail of people through my door with questions, ideas, receipts, invoices, drilling reports, or just stuff to come and have a look at. Therefore as a break the walk is precious. I have started it in every emotion from tired to angry to frustrated to purposeful to happy to thoughtful. As I walk my mind, my thoughts expand and are released, my mood dissipates.

Some days those thoughts mean I dont see whats around me and could be walking anywhere. Some days I am like a child looking around for every new and different thing. Usually Im just enjoying the sense of being here, of the fresh air and the olive trees on the hill, the town and the people that have become so familiar.

There is this strange stocktake in my mind at the moment of other places I've walked - the walk to school through Hamer Park, along City/Floreat Beach, walking from the mine to camp at Big Bell looking down on the pit, the walks after work through the Pilbara, around the airstrip at Rhodes, the walk along the Swan near Applecross. And not just Perth - the walk up a mountain at Jasper, the drunken stagger through Vancouver, the walk through Highams Park re-tracing steps I trod as a child, through Kreuzberg or Frederichstein, the opposites of sunny, quiet Schwabing and a hectic and crowded New York and then around Ako and Kobe with the strange serene sense of calm in a place that is so crowded and artificial/concrete/glass/neon. Its almost like a wrap-up, a summary and suddenly the question "Is this it?" is in my head. To ignore it I start asking myself what else do I want to see, where else do I want to experience.

What is your walk? Where is it? Go on, go and do it. My challenge for the weekend. Its as easy as walking home from work, into the town centre or to the shops, around the park near your place, going up to a lookout over your town and city or even to the water if you have it. Get out, let your thoughts go and experience your surroundings.

So what DID give me food poisoning?

Yes I stole that title from Deeevo. I find it ironic that Im laid low in a European country with a stomach bug from something - either a bad yoghurt (the boys today told me to be careful which brands you buy) or the leftover pastry from yesterday (highly suss although it was a really nice shop in Evora) or just an overload of good (i.e. rich) food - not through eating something weird and wonderful in Japan or drinking til dawn last night (didn't even have one!). Whatever it was I couldnt eat anything at lunch today (will spare you the gory details) and have spent the afternoon between bed and the couch (thankfully not the toilet anymore). Note I have to word this to balance seeking attention with avoiding being fussed over. I mean I already have my head fieldy ringing me every couple of hours to make sure Im getting better. And I dont want to write one of those "Im sick so Im not going to write anything but look at me!!" posts.

So yes good food. Thats how you celebrate the end of a drill programme - pastrys in the afternoon on the rig, bread, sausages, beer and wine after work, lunches of bread, egg and coriander soup with chicken on the side (and wine), half a pig grilled in Evora yesterday (with wine) and today wouldve been the other half of the pig (with wine) if I could stomach it. That is the flip side to all the pain you go through running a project e.g. my post earlier in the week which those in my job will recognise as the usual shit you go through - just it always happens all at once!

So now the couch once again on a Saturday night (aint my life glamorous?!). Portuguese TV is helping me through with Spurs-Liverpool reruns, Elektra, the news, "Rat Wars", The Price Is Right PT-style (called Dinheiro na mao or Money in the Hand) and a strange Harrison Ford movie Ive never seen where he's a Russian sub commander. MTV has Madonna (yes ABBA covers are that popular) and Beyonce (better!). Thank f*k I just found Futurama.

Therefore being bored Im playing with all the weird and wonderful things on the internet. I have plugged it already but I am in awe of Pandora - pick a band and it makes a playlist full of similar music from around the world. No longer do you have to take a punt on import CDs talked up by NME/Rolling Stone which turn out to sound completely different to their description. Or you can compare and contrast Antena Tres and Triple J - both independent state-owned youth-focussed broadcasters.

Other stuff to play with - you could create a map of the world and see how much of a world traveller you are. I thought I was OK but only have managed 4% of the world :(

Notice that Africa and South America are glaringly absent. Mind you so is Asia.

To skew the odds in my favour I focussed on Europe. Up to 15%. Theres a lot out there who will do better than me on this. Notice I've managed to go all around Spain and not visit it. Hmm. That should change in the next 6 months. As should the lack of visits to Eastern Europe or the Austro-Hungarian empire. Scandanavia's another big hole when you look at Europe like this.

I have to win one of these so I zoomed in on England. I'm supposed to link here "I've visited the counties in yellow. Which counties have you visited?". Go on. You know you want to. I mean you might even beat me? In reality I cheated since I harrassed my parents for details of the trips I did as a kid to make sure I almost filled one of these bloody things!!! Part of me believes if you can't remember being there it shouldnt count.

made by marnanel
map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey.
© Crown copyright 2001.

The sudden realisation I'm back at work

Or: how it only took one week to drive me round the bend again

Spring has arrived in Portugal. Its sunny and warm outside (kind of - 15 during the day, Im still freezing at night and in the office). As proof these two are running around the back of our office eating anything within reach.

I can hear the "awwwwww's" from here. They're actually both evil. Between them they are completely killing what little work ethic there was around here. Not that motivation was helped by last week:

• Monday - looked at core from hole finished on Saturday again and realised Id ended hole in mineralisation. Also that they waited 8 hours on standby before I finished - ie if they'd drilled through night shift they would've come out of the zone. Then approved lab invoice only to realise next day they'd analysed for something we didnt ask for and therefore overcharged us.
• Tuesday - delete connection to mail server from outlook in morning almost breaking email. Not that I can connect to server using outlook anyway (since its in Perth) but is still nice for things like contacts. This is part of NEW REGIME where instead of web-based email I'm using outlook/POP and also using new extenal HDD instead of a very full & slow C:drive. But since laptop hasnt been reformatted yet Im still working from both drives which in the short terms is slower and will inevitably lead to data mis-matches and loss, making the new regime all the more difficult to implement. As it is now I hate Outlook 2003.
• Tuesday PM - join a gym. Entertaining going through all the "Do you drink? smoke? have a heart condition?" in another language. "How many coffees a week?" Ummmm. The gym guys here are disturbingly (and genuinely) friendly and always walk past and give a big thumbs up and a "great, keep going" or ask "everything good?". Which is really nice although I suspect an evil motive behind "now hold that for 20 seconds - its the best!" - its not as my abs bloody hurt after 10 .
• Wednesday - go out to see current status of diamond hole which will not end (actually ended yesterday after one blown motor, one blown repair job and 70m past planned depth). On way back get distracted so end up half in ditch - roads are a bit narrower compared to the Pilbara. Also theres more traffic so you cant drive down the middle of the road (well not as much). Would all have been OK except that as I realised where I was the road went over a little bridge with some nice brick edging. So wipe out bottom of car. Steering starts feeling a bit funny. This piece of metal may or may not have come from the bottom of the car (no way I'm saying more without lawyers). Of course I did an incident report/investigation....

• Thursday - find out have broken a steering bar on the car. Cost 350 euros. Not allowed by head fieldy to pay for it as we have to take car back to Lisbon/rental company to get it done. Instead I can lend drillers 450 euros so they can get a new fuel pump for their Land Rover as any money transfer wont get to their account til Monday.
• Friday - driller turns up at office asking for me to print an email from his office. The GNR (local cops) turn up on his heels. The email is the renewed insurance form for their car to replace the out of date version he gave the cops that morning. But they would also like to see his license, especially since they thought thats what he was going to get when he drove away from them...... So the fun starts. We go through "I don't have it on me", "its being renewed so its in the mail", "I didnt get given a temporary license" and "my old ones were stolen in Indo" (all this while refusing to budge from my office) and get to "Why do they want to see my passport?" Gee I wonder. Again no comment in case its used against me in a court of law.

That probably is a better answer for "Whats it like over there?" than the long and vague spiel I gave people in Perth. Did I mention the sun was shining and the lambs were frolicking?!

Perth or What I did on my holiday by Bill O aged 27.5

Tourist definition: "Perth is the major city on the west coast of Australia with 1.9 million inhabitants and the capital of Western Australia (the biggest state in Australia), also the most isolated city in the world. It lies on the Swan River which also hosts the port of Fremantle. Between the river and the beaches most of Perth's beauty and attractions revolve around the water. Climate is anything from pleasant to hot to humid to chucking it down in rain but usually its pleasant (according to me thats 23-32 degrees, sunny and light breezes). It is a windy city though with a strong sea breeze most evenings."

I couldve just shown a photo to say that:

Perth is an important financial centre - easy with only 8 cities you say but as WA contains most of Australia's mineral resources the CBD/West Perth are home to most of Australia's major and junior mining companies. Its convenient when your company's head office is in your home city - you could argue that the proximity to all this mining led to my career but in fact most of the workforce in these companies is from other states or New Zealand. Choice bro.But for Bill Perth is not just a place. Perth is home and therefore includes much much more. Lets be Portuguese and start with food. Yes theres the iconic barbies. But how about Szechaun sausage with bubble tea at 1am as a way to sober up?! Cuisine consists of or is influenced by anything thats been brought with our many immigrants. While I was back I had Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Turkish bread with hummus (may not sound special but if I say Ankara those who know will understand), nachos (again not so unique but I made them and they were damn good - satay chicken nachos with guacamole). I missed Indian, Greek, Indonesian, African and thats just the specialty restaraunts. Most cafes have at least one curry, one noodle/stir-fry dish, pasta dishes or dishes like chilli mussels or chicken soup with coriander and rice noodles or grilled chorizo, dishes now thought to be "Australian".

Of course there was a few nights out too - Perth "entertainment" tries to marry the English pub with the Latin al fresco and usually comes up with drinking beer outside in the sun, near water where possible. Theres only half a million mock English/Irish pubs. Aussie beer is changing too from the ice cold refreshment used to cool you down while drinking in the sun to more English, fuller flavoured ales or pilseners. And no-one drinks Fosters.

My home suburb of Mount Lawley was orginally declared a "dry" suburb by its founder. Which means my usual haunts the Queens and the Inglewood are seperated by a good 2kms. Controversially one of the cafes managed to morph into the Flying Scotsman around 10 years ago which means theres a handy refreshment stop around 1.4kms into the walk. For some reason the Scotto has always looked like this to me when Ive walked past over the last 10 years and its nice to see it hasnt changed.
There are some more worrying changes to Perth, especially when it comes to urban planning.
Dont panic potential tourist. Perth is not riddled with cross-dressing prostitutes. Only sometimes when fancy dress themes for birthday parties get stretched to the limits of a velvet slip dress padded with balloons :) Other special occasions like Australia Day get explosions and alcohol as befits the anniversary of the English running aground to start a penal colony in a foreign country using their rules (ignoring subtle details like the people already there, the climate and the lack of water).

The normal Australia Day celebration in Perth is drinking smuggled alcohol (public drinking is illegal in Australia) from midday thus getting completely drunk and stupid and missing the fireworks through being passed out or arrested. Departing from the norm we relaxed on a balcony drinking mango daquiris (Bills recipe - 1.5 caps bacardi, 1 mango, lots of ice, mix, blend, drink), tequila sunrises, eating homemade gourmet mini-pizzas and crackers double stacked with grape and brie, with the cricket and the Hottest 100 on in the background. Only when the sun was setting did we venture to the waterfront to watch the sky light up. To enhance the fireworks experience a commercial FM station puts together an soundtrack of Australian commerical hits (ie pub rock standards and ex-Neighbours pop) from the last 30 years. Unfortunately we had no radio. Luckily someone decided to rise to the occasion and describe the fireworks for the benefit of all, well more acting as an early warning system "It's coming, it's coming". And so is Christmas. In fact it was "sparkling like a Christmas tree" (poetry m'dear). As his excitement grew during the frenzied finale he began to shout "Rocket coming, rocket coming" or "Big Rocket coming". I suspect his day job is narrating porn movies.

Somehow my time in Perth coincided with the 2 one-day cricket internationals. Coincidence - I think not ;) Those who dont like sport or can't understand cricket might appreciate the spectacle - since we don't particularly like our national flag everyone dresses in green and gold (not canary yellow) meaning a full and colourful WACA. Not so colourful is the rubbish thrown during the mexican wave or the fights between aggro drunks. Its strange how pissed you can get on mid-strength (only beer sold in the ground). Anyone else seeing a pattern between smuggled booze, drunken idiots and typical "Aussie" celebrations? Those who appreciate cricket will understand the joy in seeing Gilly smacking 100 off 88 balls. WA's isolation from the rest of Australia makes us a little parochial when it comes to sport, economics, in fact anything really. Dont get me started on how much of Australia's export earnings we contribute. So even if its Australia playing the crowd will be supporting half the team a little more.
To this mix of what Perth is and what I do with it I add some emotion - the strange feeling of not having my own home in my hometown, the frantic juggle to sort out my "affairs" (no not those - packing my belongings into storage and trying to work out what needs to be paid or cancelled or changed), the effort to achieve all the work things I wanted to do, and the desire to catch up with everyone and spend time with those I love. The welcoming hug of home can become constricting when you add to it the pressure of your own expectations. I reckon I did none of those well but somehow I managed to do them all - drinking at the Ingie, the Queens and out the back of 209, eating at the Boatshed, Little Creatures, Sienas and the Red Orchid, lunch in West Perth without wanting to go back to work, meetings where I forgot all the important items I was going to push for, playing beach volleyball everywhere but at the beach, sleeping on the grass in the sun at the WACA, walking around the Swan, even singing "The Gambler" on Cathys birthday, yes, all of my normal life. Perth never seems to change when I go back, it lets me slot back in like I never went away. It was a shock to be back in the middle of it rather than only able to observe and react through the detachment of email. Most important was seeing that everyone was OK, that life moves on, quicker for some, slower for others, the same battles and frustrations or exciting and incomprehensible new challenges. It seems a lot now when I look back on it and the delay in blogging it partly represents an attempt to reflect. Contradictions abound - Im more relaxed yet more determined, Im glad to be back yet wish Id had more time at home, its nice to be alone again yet if anything Im missing people more, I dont really feel like talking yet Im spilling my guts on a blog. Im back in Portugal and it doesn't seem like I left here either. Confused? I am.

Your next trip should be to Singapore......

On the Perth-Singapore flight I sat next to a middle-aged Singaporean lady. Strangely enough we began talking about Perth and Singapore.... I was talking about Perth and mentioned that I thought it wasn't as rich as Singapore when sharply "Who told you Singapore was rich? Its not rich, there is no money there". She went on to explain - that the ruling family holds all the money while everyone else lived in decaying 60's and 70's apartment blocks. That all the companies are run by their sons and daughters and all the profits stay in the family. That no-one can speak up about it as to criticise would mean ending up in jail. That everyone keeps their head down, their mouths shut.

She tells me a joke - theres two fisherman, one Malay, one Singaporean. They fish all day and the Malaysian has a full load of fish, while the Singaporean has nothing. The Malaysian asks the Singaporean why and he answers "Its because the fish here dont open their mouths"

I looked down at her wrist and saw a diamond studded watch. I listened to her tell me "I am old and I am ill in my kidneys. Singapore stresses me so I go to Perth every month". But not next month. Next month she's going to London to see her son. He went to school in Perth, at Christ Church, he started university doing Science/Engineering at UWA. But then he got a scholarship to Oxford. He's an astrophysicist now, he's still in the UK. But he won't come back to Singapore. So she goes to visit him a few times in the year.

She says again that Singaporeans arent rich, that they spend all the money they get. I start thinking that even if its everything they've got its still a lot of money being spent. I wonder whether thats because their children do so well that any notion of leaving an inheritance, leaving a legacy has no point. But I say nothing. So she asks me whether Ive been to Singapore. And I say no.

And suddenly her voice changes a little. "One day you must try and spend a few hours. Take the bus from the airport - its free - and you can get on and off at all the attractions. You can do it in 3 hours, its easy, everything is very close together. Not like Perth. Maybe one time you could even fly in from London in the morning and take the evening plane to Perth. That way you can see everything, you just take the train into town. Don't bother staying overnight, dont spend money on a hotel. You should go to the island of Sentosa. Do you like food? Theres wonderful food everywhere. You must visit."

Home. Thats what it means.