Getting the 80 ready to rumble

Working on the Toyota Landcruiser 80 series

After buying the 80 Series, I just wanted to give things a good going over so that it was done.  All of it was fine but I was concerned about the condition of the radiator, so while doing all of that we did the water pump, changed the belts, gave her a service and just general tidy up.

Richard getting inside the engine bay, it is just too high to try and work over the guards.

We had to take out the radiator, waterpump, timing belt and fan.



All the gear ready and the new radiator sitting in the OEX box.



Just about to take the waterpump off.



Just working away.

I'm baaaaaack!

Hello lovelies,

I finally get to write a blog post after 3months of letting the boss man have my laptop to secure himself the frigging excellent job he has now, and therefore Eak has been writing the last few posts (as I am sure you can tell!).

I've been in Rockhampton for what seems like an age! I have been thoroughly enjoying working for CQMI, they have been so amazing to work for - very understanding and since it has been a casual contract they have given me an awesome start back into radiography after having almost 6 months off (due to going home over Xmas, down south to the farm and then working in the cafe in Emerald).

The boss offered me a permanent contract, which I was seriously considering since Eak had applied for a job near Rockhampton so I was thinking, 'Finally, things are working out' - BUT NO! Eak landed the awesome opportunity to work in Chinchilla on the APLNG projects in that area (the work that he has been posting on here). So off to Brisbane he went to get orientated and didn't have the pleasure of seeing him until a month ago (17-19 August 2012), I drove over 1,100kms that weekend to see my lovely man, shit I am good!

 

My great aunt, Hazel and her daughter (my second cousin) Debbie are living in Rocky too, so it has been fantastic to catch up with them a bit, since they have lived in Aussie for many years I did not really know them very well.  So it has been lovely to get to know them better, spend time with them and yarn!

Mum and Dad came over for a week in early August, it was so lovely to see them.  Nana Jo and Grandad Brian were travelling up the coast in their caravan, they spend about 3months of the year in northern QLD to escape the shitty New Zealand winter.  So our paths all crossed and caught up in Rocky the day that Mum &  Dad flew in, then we drove the 5hours north to Airlie Beach to spend a long weekend in the lovely Whitsunday region.

Mum, Dad, Grandad & Nana Jo looking lovely in the sun!

Shute Harbour, took some pictures to show Eaky so he could see how pretty it was, and all the spenny as sail boats. But the Whitsundays region is just stunning! I probably will not get an opportunity to get up to Airlie again, but I would love to go back - its very chilled and very tropical (I got a few mozzie or midge bites too which sucked).

One can only dream....

Having a Hahn beer with my Pappy on my apartments' balcony.  What a fantastic life!

 



I have saved the best news until last!
I have just accepted a full time, permanent job for Clarke & Robertson Radiology, they are part of the I-MED company whom I have been working for for the last 3.5months .  The are located in Ipswich, QLD which means that its a 3hour drive West to see Eaky and a 45min drive East to Brisbane.  My boss from Rockhampton rang these guys to tell them that they should hire me because I am awesome (haha) so then I had to drive down to meet with them Friday (31/08/12) so by 3pm that afternoon it was all locked in and they were ready to sign on the dotted line.
I was offered a 4day/week job with Toowoomba Public Hospital but after being offered $5/hr more by the Private I-MED company, full time work with CT training on a brand new 256 slice Phillips CT scanner (booyah Radiography peeps, maybe its an overkill - really what do you need 256 slices for?) anyway I am excited to get CT training, potentially Mammo & MRI training too!
I start on the 19th of September in Ipswich, so I need to find a place to live then get some furniture etc and I will be ready to rock n roll - I am pretty excited and very fortunate to have the opportunity to have a wicked boss to get me this sweet gig!  I am very relieved to have a permanent job to go to, as I left Fulford just over a year ago and have not had a stable job or place of residence in over a year.  Strange to think that I have been out in the big bad world outside of the safety blanket that was Fulford Radiology and New Plymouth for over a year!

Will keep you posted with any more progress.  Hopefully still more exciting things to come!!
xxxx Missing everyone lots!
Lots of love, Shahn

Bunya Mt Trip

Bunya Mountains

On Saturday 1st of September, we decided to hit the road for a two hour trip towards the Bunya Mountains.

http://bunyamountains.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunya_Mountains_National_Park

This is heading east along the highway towards Toowoomba 

Looking southwest from the top

Casually,  horse and cart up the mountain range.

These guys were everywhere.

Looking towards the inland of Western QLD Australia from on top of the Bunya Mt's.  It was windy as, and land as far as the eye can see.

 Checking out the trees, looking like a spoon!

 

Bunya Pine Araucaria bidwillii

The track went through the tree.

I can't remember if this is a Hoop pine or another Bunya pine.

Looking east towards Brisbane

What a sweet as day or two

Sailing at Moreton Bay

 

I got an amazing day sailing on Saturday, just turned up at the local yacht club in Moreton Bay.

I ended up crewing on a nice 34ft yacht, not sure what type but she sailed well. She could not point very high but we got it boogying and got our lean on.

 

Returning from the trip with the crew, got beers and homemade sausage rolls - magic!

Just Chilling

Heading for the second mark, good winds and flat seas.

We got out early as, we were a bit of a slow pig and some of the boats were amazing

The little head to head we had. They ended up getting us before the final leg.

 

 

On Sunday I decided to check out EKKA, everyone was going on about it but was not really impressed, small and not very diverse! It felt like going to a large pet day with a few food and clothing stores. The field days at Mystery Creek are far better and more interesting.

So I decided to hit the Maritime Museum.

Old Tug

Ella Watson's yacht, really nice - still in full working order, I did not realise how old this boat was (Built 1984). Crazy to think such a small boat has been round the world.

But then you see this little boat, called Happy II, it has made it around the world - a brave mad man sailed this one.

Old School Floating lighthouse

This boat is amazing you can spend all day walking around her, she is massive.

Well that was my short weekend, good fun may even head out for another sail next weekend as I will be back in Brizzy.

Outback bound

What I have been doing out in the farmland of south-eastern Queensland...

So I have been starting to get my hands on the role and been visiting all parts of the project

So this is Michael and my adventures with Powerlink

This is me and the project managers Alvin and Aaron out mapping the easements going a bit of ground truthing making sure the pylons are not placed in ponds (Melonholes or Gilgi's) and checking to see whether trees like this bottle tree fall within the easement.

Here is one of the melon holes they can be large. Quite strange in such a dry area but these soils are very heavy clays that crack and swell which in turn over time create these wet ponds.

Here is another bottle tree on easement

Out on the plains

Just having a gander at the ALPNG pipeline as we checked out the easement she's a big pipe about 1.5m

Getting my pose on kitted out in my PPE safety first

A tree within a tree

Just checking that the Boys (John Holland) are doing a good job, they are drilling the footings for the pylons took about 30min to drill all four holes to 6.5m not bad.

This is me, supervising the Stringing (getting the conductor up in the air) Gang (BBUGL) after the pylons have been built.

Getting the cable all ready to join up, The reels each have about 2.5km on them and we were doing a run of 6km

The Boss (Inspector) Dan and the stringing crew. He was the only Aussie on the job most of the stringing crew were Philippian and a few Kiwi's and Eastern Europeans. oh and orange shirt pretty much means your the boss. 

Here are the boys joining the conductor Rico the leading hand in orange, making sure shit does not happen.

Here are the blocks with the leading wire. This wire is flown by a chopper, I have not seen this yet maybe next week.

Well this is my adventure in the bush so far, keep you posted.

To infinity and beyond

Ok so where are we? I'm currently about 4.5 hours inland from Brisbane in a small country town called Miles (of about 2,000 people). Random thing about Miles is that all the bar staff are Irish. There are so many Irish out here and a few Kiwis

Shahn is B (Rockhampton) and I'm in A

 Working for a company called Powerlink as a Land Management Officer. Building the ALPNG 132kv power supply lines, a short project. Which is part of a collection system to pump the gas north.

Oh yea and its freezing this far inland easily -1 to -4 in the morning but I am on the inland side of the great dividing range which is really a small hill when compared to New Zealand.

But we can start with my first week of training in Brisbane, at the main office that has an aboretum about a quarter acre that all the office workers look out into it has little ponds and all inside with small bridges and fords very cool.

But best thing was my sweet rental cars for my first week, first I got a nice v6 commodore then I got a calais and it was awesome.

But now I'm out in the middle of nowhere, though there is a lot of work going on, but not too much fun stuff to do. Rent here is crazy $800-$3000 a week for a 3 bedroom house lucky I'm not paying that, but I have work based in Chinchilla. And I have got my self that sweet little pad in the Chinchilla and its nice.

Here is my work Ute and it is sweet as, fully set up for exploring in the rough, with diff lockers, compressor fridge and winch but I'm losing this wagon and getting a Prado at some point - bit gutted

Here is one of the powerstations we are transporting power from (just outside of Miles). Most of this area was cleared a long time ago and is not very productive land so a lot of reveg going on. I am primarily working with the Brigalow belt. This area is also prone to rapid erosion once the soil has been disturbed. Sodic soils are common and the erosion is really amazing, happens so fast.

So we have not been doing too much traveling and looking about in the last two months due to work commitments but.... good news! We now own a 4X4, to get out and about in the vast Australian outback! she is a bit of a beast but hopefully will take us to places no-one has been before,  now do we sell the little echo? not sure...

Shahn has a interview for a position in Toowoomba about 2 hours south of me, the largest inland town in australia.

I have little else to say, just can't wait to have a look around and find some fun things to get into but so it has been full on with work to do this!

Calabi-Yau the changing of states

Hello, 

So here we are, working too much. Unable to get any tripping in with me working 72hr weeks on nightshift, has been trying. Almost falling asleep driving the truck at about 3am seems to be a common occurrence, but so far I have had no damage although the other day I managed to drive into one of the sheds..... classic not sure what I was thinking (I left the hoist in the up position...... gutted)

Just a small dent or "dint" as they all seem to say over here, bloody Australians!

I managed to open up some cracked welds on the top ram box but we sorted it.

Well I left the 60 series slip by, not sure if it was a good decision but it had done - 500,000km on the clock scared us a bit. So now I'm still looking for a decent 4x4, we are currently looking at a land rover defender.... What do you think? as you can see i'm really not too fussy about the type, I just want a strong reliable vehicle that can handle traveling around. So if anyone has any suggestions or advice it would be much appreciated. I mean I would love a Toyota troopy 4 door  but have you seen the price.... its insane

 ok here she is....land rover defender 1993

oh but just found a troopy bit high in price but looks good

toyota troopy landcruiser- 1994

Its a cool looking car aye.

Well the other news is that I have a new job, working as a Land management officer for a fixed term in a place called Miles (about 3 hrs inland from Brisbane and 6hrs south of Emerald) I start on the 16th of July. So I finish work at the cotton gin hopefully on friday or thursday.

So this is not a bad situation although Shahn is still doing locum work in Rockhampton and unsure as to how long she will have work or accommodation.

Oh yea man how cool is it that they discovered the Higgs boson... I thought I would just add this video Large Hadron collider

So hopefully we can organise a 4x4, get a place, Shahn find work and finally get to do some fun tiki touring around.

As always... Watch this space!