31 May 2010

Life out in the Sticks

So, I often say that I'm off "out bush".
But what does that mean, exactly?

See that map of West Australia on the side bar?
The red star in the North is where I work. About 6 hours drive from Port Hedland, the same from Newman. And forget about sealed roads. We have none. In fact, often, forget about roads...

But despite the lack of roads, we have to live somewhere:
But thats just the office and storage space.
We cook on the fire:
And this is my bedroom:
And I mean bedroom; it may look like a swag, but inside are fairy lights, a weather station, alarm clock, "bathroom cabinet" (ok, tooth brush, toothpaste, hairbrush and mirror) and entertainment system (ok, iPod and book). 
  In winter its freezing. Because we're so far in land and on the edge of the desert there is nothing to keep the heat in, so night time temperatures drop to just above freezing. You can pull the top over the swag, and we've got decent sleeping bags, but its still cold. 
In summer, the night time temperature doesn't drop below 30 degrees C, and its horrible and sweaty and its really hard to sleep. I end up pouring water all over me and sleeping in a wet bed with no covers and fly screen down (risking the spiders and scorpions) in attempt to catch any breeze that might cool me down.

Its not all bad though. We have a washing machine, and satellite internet!
And we used to have a gym, but someone took the tarp away, so now we just have a smattering of exercise equipment that we never use because we're too busy, too tired, too hot, too cold, or fed up of falling over in the bull dust.

Welcome to my life!

25 May 2010

Run For A Reason - Race Report

Sunday was the inaugural 14km HBF Run for a Reason.


It dawned dark and stormy, after a very wet day on saturday. I wasn't optimistic! Actually, I was out the door before dawn, but I already wasn't optimistic. I hate running in the rain!


Start was pretty chaotic, but after thye first few hundred meters the field spread out and we were good to go.


The route started and finished at the WACA, and ran mainly on freeways and through the Graham Farmer Tunnel under the city. That was a major selling point for me, especially the tunnel. Now I've cycled and run through it! Its so hot and stuffy in there though, even though it was cold and windy outside.


Out of the tunnel marked the halfway point.


10km in and I was about equalling my 10k PR according to my watch, though I've heard that the markers were a bit out. The last 5km were hard... the wind was crazy strong, and there was a bit of occasional drizzle.


On the home straight, past the 14km mark, full on finish sprint... and still no finish line... and still no finish line... and still no finish line... finally we were in the WACA and the finish line materialised. Apparently the final distance was 14.484km:


Just to let you know, given the nature of the HBF Run for a Reason course (along freeways and through the Northbridge Tunnel), we were unable to get an exact measurement until event day as the method used for measuring courses isn't permitted on the freeway during its normal use. For those of you who are looking for an exact measurement, it's 14.484km


Now, I MapMyRun-ed it once I knew exactly how it went, and I got 14.5km. So surely they could have given us a heads up without needing to wait for the route to be measured officially on the day...
500m isn't too much to worry about as part of a 14km race if you know its there, but it is when you're using all your remaining "go" to get a strong finish, and at 13km you can see yourself finishing in under 1:20, its a bit annoying when the end  is so much further away than you think.





Good points:
I ran a decent race despite running 21km as my "long run" on tuesday.
The entertainment on the way round. I love races that do that.
I cycled there and back too. I'm now one of *those* people.


Bad points:
I didn't run quite as fast as I would have liked.
The start was crazy
The end was silly.

Spun Out 2010 - Friday and Saturday



"SpunOut is back for the 6th year in a row and promises to be even better than the last!

SpunOut is the Perth Fire Group's annual fire and circus skills workshop weekend. The event is open to anyone wanting to have a go at fire and circus arts and caters to all levels of skill, from beginners to professional performers.
Workshops will be held in all levels of poi, staff and twin staff as well as fire eating, hula-hooping, stilt-walking, uni-cycling, ball and club juggling, contact juggling and much, much more."

And what a weekend it was! 

Friday night was getting used to fire, so tracing and fire eating.
Say goodbye to those arm hairs!
I was never quite brave enough to actually eat the fire, especially because my lovely mentor and expereiced all round circus person Colin (the guy on the unicycle around the foreshore, for any of you Perthites) only put small amounts of fuel on my sticks, so by the time I'd got my confidence up they were about out! But at least I tried :)

Saturday dawned misty, so I went for a walk down to the lake:

Then the days festivities kicked in:




Unicycling- I fell off, but it was fun, and I did pretty OK.
Hooping was great fun. We learnt to keep it spinning around our waist, then get it to come up over the head, then back down again. Then down to the knee, but then I just looked like an idiot maniacally trying to keep it going!
Dave taught the intermediate/advanced 3 ball juggling :)
Stilts! Coming off the learner stilts but loving the real ones.

Saturday night was the fire show...
TBC!

21 May 2010

Dino Pyjamas :D

So, when I went to the shops to buy the brides Ruffle Skirt material they had this oh-so-cute flannelette material on special:
I'm a geologist, they're dinosaurs. It was always going to happen.
So I bought a couple of meters and decided to make some new PJ pants, since its getting cold in Perth now.
I followed these instructions.
Hopw cute! and so warm:
Apologies for the bad photos! 
They're elasticated, but with a cute little bow on the front, just because.
I'm going to appliqué some panels of the dinos to a cheep T-shirt too, so I have a matching dinosaur PJ set. Cute pyjamas are no longer the realm of little kids :D


I'll do my catch up posts soon!
Promise.

20 May 2010

Burlesque Ruffle Skirt Project

I'm so far behind with my diary-ing/blogging!
But I just had to share this :)
Its a ruffle skirt I've been making for the hen night I'm going to/organising back home.
We're doing saturday night out on the town, burlesque themed.
So I'm thinking this, with the heels and some fishnets, and an as yet unknown top, long black gloves and feather boa...


It ruffles amazingly. I keep putting it on and doing belly dance moves to make its ruffle and shake.

Now to make a second for the Bride, in white and baby blue. 
This time I'm going to be a bit more careful with the ruffling and make sure it sits symmetrical. 
I've not seen the bride in person for a couple of years, so its going to be a bit of guess work and a last minute fitting to get it to fit!

If you want to make your own, I got the inspiration and a tutorial from my new favourite site!

12 May 2010

I'm alive!

But still super busy.

Cairns was amazing! And it was really good to catch up with my best friend again after these long 3 years. Even if I would have seen her in 3 weeks anyway.

I went to my first ever wedding!
SO that was insiteful. At least I know what I'm in for now.

And now I'm posting from my slow satelite internet out bush... roughly -22 S and 120 the other one, if anyone knows Lat/Long.
Drill rig is going big guns, then followup work and cooking leaves little time for typing, even if the internet was better.

Hold out til monday!

04 May 2010

So busy!

So busy!


Do you ever feel like the world is spinning really fast under your feet, but youre never quite touching the floor?!


I was out bush all last week on a Heritage survey. It went surprisingly well actually, apart from them not turning up on the day they were supposed to.


Off to Cairns tonight to catch up with one of my best friends from home, so spent today and last night getting some of the stuff I should be doing sorted. It should be a good few days though.


Ran 17km this morning.
Still 4 months til the City to Surf.
Maybe I'll do the marathon...