3 Sleeps :)

Woo Hoo

3 sleeps until I finish work and 4 sleeps until I see my boys! I am soooo homesick and sooo looking forward to finishing this extra long swing! I have worked 17 days straight now... it has gone quickly... can't complain about that, but I am so buggered. I was going to have a flexi today, but didnt happen and I was going to have one tomorrow, but I am doing the inductin tomorrow. That should finish pretty early, so I might have an early mark.

I fly out on on Monday afternoon (after a 4:30am start) and wait around Perth until midnight. Arrive in Sydney at 6am and arrive in Dubbo at 9:30am. Ben and the boys will have the car packed up, ready for the long drive to the gold coast. Yes, I am finally getting a holiday!!!!!! We have never had a holiday, and Ben says that Lewis is Super Excited. We will arrive at the coast late on Tuesday and no doubt have a big sleep-in on Wednesday. We want to take the kids to Movie world, Sea world and maybe Dream world (depending on how motivated we are). We will head home on Saturday morning, have Easter Sunday at home (in my own bed...heaven) then I am off to Dubbo again Monday night to fly out to Perth on Tuesday morning. I will arrive back at work on Tuesday PM.

That is..... if I dont get rained in this weekend............please keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

So, a busy week ahead, but I will be with my boys and on the Gold Coast.... so can't really complain. I will be stuffed by the time I get back to work, no doubt!

WELCOME TO MY LIFE.

But, you know what? I LOVE IT :)

I am so excited to see the renovations that have 'apparently' happened since I have been gone. I will be very impressed I think. I will take some photos for you. And if you know me and my house you will understand my elation at getting jobs done!

What else?

Oh, I am swapping rooms with one of the Underground Shift Bosses. He has a 'gym-side' room and I have a 'pool-side' room - so we are swapping this weekend. Look out! I will be at the gym every morning, before work I reckon. It is so hard to motivate yourself to go to the gym after a 12-14 hour day.

I am such a whinger :) Nah, I go alright.

I brought a TV off my boss yesterday, so i've got me a flat screen tele and dvd player in my room now. I honestly haven't watched a full episode of home and away for 4-5 weeks! My boss announced last week that he has resigned. He does his last swing after Easter. I will still stay, as well as 2 trainers and guess who got the 3rd training job? Sally Jupp - I kid you not! She arrives on site the day after I do (11th April).

Gotta go, I think I have a lift back to the village (going to have an early mark after all).

Love and sleepy eyes,
Jes

Nifty Twilight

Here is a pic I took last night.

Nothing much

The big girl's settled down! Down to a category 1 today - phew... lots of rain though!

Today is day 15 (at work) and day 17 (away from home). I am supposed to by flying out next Monday the 2nd. I dont think there will be any flights between now and Monday, but fingers crossed I get home :)

I am getting very homesick now :(

These are the people in my neighbourhood....

I got stacks of photos of work the other day - hope you enjoy!

Fred - my boss.

Darryl - Safety & Training guy

Richard - Safety & Training guy

Sharaine - clerk

Mel - clerk

Pool

Tennis Court

Bar

Bar again

The shop

My desk

My room

On the lawn, looking towards the wet mess

I'm Lovin' It

I saw the funniest picture today, and thought I would share. I am not making jokes about fat people.... just a funny portrayal of Maccas.

Happy Monday!

Well, I have been away from home for a week, but only been at work for 4.5 days. LOL.

Nothing much to report. Oh, I spewed last night! NOICE. Then when I got to work this morning, Dean said that a few other people had the same problem because of the food (vegeterian lasagne roll things). Then he said "I am too scared to fart" and I just laughed my head off. So... glad mine came out the top :)

Thats all.

Love & 'Riding porcelain ponies'

Jes

Happy St. Pat's Day

THE MAGIC SHAMROCK

Three is Ireland's magic number. Hence the Shamrock. Crone, Mother and Virgin. Love, Valour and Wit.. Faith, Hope and Charity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Numbers played an important role in Celtic symbolism. Three was the most sacred and magical number. It multiplies to nine, which is sacred to Brigit. Three may have signified totality: past, present and future OR behind, before and here OR sky, earth and underworld. Everything good in Ireland comes in threes. The rhythm of story telling in the Irish tradition is based on threefold repetition. This achieves both intensification and exaggeration. Even today in quality pub talk, a raconteur can rarely resist a third adjective, especially if it means stretching a point. "Three accomplishments well regarded in Ireland: a clever verse, music on the harp, the art of shaving faces."

THE LEPRECHAUN

The Leprechaun is an Irish fairy. He looks like a small, old man (about 2 feet tall), often dressed like a shoemaker, with a cocked hat and a leather apron. According to legend, leprechauns are aloof and unfriendly, live alone, and pass the time making shoes. They also possess a hidden pot of gold. Treasure hunters can often track down a leprechaun by the sound of his shoemaker's hammer. If caught, he can be forced (with the threat of bodily violence) to reveal the whereabouts of his treasure, but the captor must keep their eyes on him every second. If the captor's eyes leave the leprechaun (and he often tricks them into looking away), he vanishes and all hopes of finding the treasure are lost.

Good Evening

Big day today. I spent the whole day on the computer working, working, working. The office was empty so I had my tunes on and got into the groove. It pissed down rain today, but the planes managed to land and Darryl arrived. I was getting a bit worried that I would be left on my own this weekend, as the other guys flew out yesterday. We didn't leave work until 7pm tonight and it was still raining. I went straight to my room when we got back, drenched. I put away my washing which I did at work this morning and got changed, went and had dinner and came straight back to my room to ring Ben. We haven't had a good long conversation this week, so I was looking forward to having a chat. Everything is against us, swear to god… the home phone is u/s again. Arghhhh TELSTRA. Then the mobile kept dropping out and we couldn't talk. So I turned my computer on so I could snuggle in bed and watch a movie. I thought I would try my nextG wireless broadband and WTF it worked.

Ben finally called me back and we got to have a conversation. Now I am sitting in the dark writing, listening to the song that I just added. I hate what music does to me. You know when you have an event in your life, or friends or anything really that you relate to as soon as you hear a song. Like 1991 songs remind me of living on the Sunshine Coast, Um Bop reminds me of Em and this song (Colorblind) just makes me sad. Not crying sad, but thoughtful sad. This was the song I was listening to at the Perth airport the other night when there was a coffin being unloaded from the plane. I haven't really even listened to the words, so don't know if it is even relevant.

My favorite song at the moment is Stacie Orrico - I'm not missing you. I just found this song the other day when I was surfing www.pcplanets.com and I had never heard it before. Also, Nelly Furtardo - Say it Right.

I could just imagine the guys at work saying;

Cause I am just talking crap now… I am so tired. I have been waking up at 3am. So, 9pm now and better get to sleep before I wake myself up any more.

Love & sleeping pills,

Jes

Finally at Work

I made it... long story. Oh, you have time. Ok then.

Firstly, where did i leave you last instalment? Oh, a hotel in Perth. Well, I got a phone call on Tuesday night saying that i was on the 6am flight on Wednesday morning to Nifty. So, I packed my shit up and got very little sleep.

I woke up at 4am, had a shower, checked out of the hotel, caught a taxi to the airport and waited for my flight. There were planes & people everywhere. All the mines up here must have had the same problems. Our plane left on time and one left about half an hour before us. Just as we were taxiing up the tarmac the flight attendent said "Welcome aboard your flight to Newman". What the???? We were all confused. Anyway 2 and a half hours past and we landed in Newman at 8:30am.

There is a map for you. I dont know where Nifty is in relation to Newman, but a bit out of the road. The plane that left before us was there waiting as well as 5 or 6 other flights to other mines. So there was people everywhere. We were told that we would wait about half an hour to see if the Nifty airstrip was dry enough to land. I don't know why this was not confirmed before we left Perth.

So, 4 hours later..... still at Newman, waiting, waiting, waiting. We were listening to the goss and apparently someone was saying to leave the people behind and get the freight to Perth. One of the planes (the one I was on) had a fuel leak and was parked up. So they had to get 2 plane loads of people and 2 plane loads of freight up to Nifty???? So then there was a decision that had to be made. Only 10 people were allowed to go to Nifty (on a charter from Port Headland) and everyone else had to get the good plane back to Perth. I dont know what happened to the freight??? I know that they left 26 dozen cartons of eggs at Newman LOL.

I made the short list of 10! YAY.

Then they decided to get the charter to drop 10 people off at Nifty, then go back for another 10. So 20 people came to work and the rest went back to Perth.

You still with me?

While we were waiting for the charter, we ate the plane food from the sick plane for lunch. Noice soggy sangas, a tim-tam and some cheese and bickies. Hit the spot, cause I didnt have any breakfast.

I had a splitting headache sitting at Newman and when we finally got our bags of the plane, I retreived my panadol and all was sweet.

Ok, so the charter arrived at about 1:00pm. And my first reaction was "Oh My God - it is tiny". The thunder was rolling in and we had to get on a 10 seater plane? I am feeling lucky... on account of the really good luck I have had lately :) so I got on the first one.

While flying I was just dozing when i heard a big BANG and i shit myself. Turns out we hit a bird and it dinged up the wing. Nice. We arrived at Nifty at about 2:15pm. The landing was surprisingly smooth and we were all safe and sound.

No one was there to pick me up, then Mel turned up and took me straight to work.

Didn't do much last night and have to change my room again today because they hadn't organised a room for me (Arghhh) so we'll see how we go this arvo. I will wait til later because apparently 200 people are being flown in and 200 being flown out today, so everyone is a bit stressed out right now.

Love and airports

Jes

In Perth

Hi Y'all,
I left Cobar at 8:30pm last night and left a very sad Ben behind :(
I had a pretty quick trip to Dubbo, but there was so much traffic on the road and I hit a bloody kangaroo... it was huge and 2 of them jumped out behind a bush on the passeger side and I cleaned one of them up. It hit the passenger front and rear doors and was pretty loud. That was about 5kms from Nyngan. I pulled up and had a look at the damage (while repeatedly saying f*ck) but amazingly it didn't do any damage. There was a little bit of fur stuck to the side of the door, but that was it! Phew...
So I got to Dubbo at 11:30pm and went straight to a motel. I didnt barely sleep and was up and out the door by 5:30am to catch my plane.
I saw Anne and Adrian Winchester at the airport with baby Jessica (what a lovely name) LOL. She is so gorgeous and little (cluck, cluck, cluck). So chatted with Anne until my plane left. My plane was late landing in Sydney, so I was pretty pushed to get on the Perth flight. I made it and the flight was so long and boring. You know when you fall asleep and expect to wake up to a landing plane?.... well I fell asleep and woke up like 20 minutes later, with 2 hours still to go. Arghh. I watched Borat for the 3rd time and read the in-flight shopping catelouge 2 or 3 times.
So, landed in Perth at 11:30am and caught a taxi into the City. I ended up getting a hotel room in the city but I am sooooo bored. Did some shopping, mainly because I didn't bring much with me and I may be in Perth until Thursday.
So, better go and get back to my busy life, lying in bed watching t.v LOL.

Love 'n' cyclones,
Jes

The Birthday Girl

The birthday girl... Leisa & friend Chloe in the background. (below)

Riley having an iceblock. (below)

The kids (L-R Lewis, Swey, Lauren, Dru and Niamh). (below)

Sister-in-law - Mary. (below)

Other sister-in-law - Christina. (below)


So, no photos of me, cause I was taking the photos... LOL. The birthday party was ok, but Ben wouldn't let me go out. His Mum had a go at him for not letting me go out, but he told her to mind her own business and told me that he didn't want me going out. So 11:00pm and I am sitting in front of the computer semi-tanked writing on my blog, on a Friday night... how sad am I???

Ok, so here are some more photos...
The cake (below)



Father-in-law bob (below)

Brother-in-law duck (below)

Benny (below)

Leisa again (below)


Oh... we did have an interesting conversation... it stemmed from an episode of Friends. If you had a free pass for 5 celebrities who would you choose? This free pass comes with no consequence from your other half. My Mother-in-law was all George Clooney, and other old guys LOL and my Sister-in-law (Mary) was more old James Bond type actors. Leisa was into the younger actors, but here is my list;

1. The rock
2. Stiffler (one of the Duke boys) cant remember his real name.
3. Johnny Knoxville (Don't ask)
4. Vin Diesel
5. Ben Affleck

I put a lot of thought into that list and I think I must be attracted to humor, rugged good looks and muscles.... LMAO

Who would you choose? They guys all chose the likes of Angelina Jolie, Charlize, Scarlett, Selma... you know the typical hollywood types. Like I am any shallower......LOL.

HAPPY 18TH LEISA

My sister-in-law turned 18 today!

Oh... to be 18 again. I had a combined 18th birthday with Jen and my cousin Ben at the Golf Club. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had on a yellow cheesecloth dress. I stayed sober so I could do the family thing. I remember going to the Ox and the bouncers asked for my ID.

Meanwhile, Jen and I were drinking at the Ox and the Grand for a good year before that! I was at work (cafe) one day and a lady that worked at the Grand was there and my boss said "Jes is having a birthday party tonight" and the Grand lady looked over and said "oh, how old" and I tried to keep my mouth shut, but my boss blurted out "18". The Grand lady just looked at me and said "you little bitch!".

Anyway, so I gets to the Ox and Jumbo asked me for ID and I just held up my badge that I was wearing "It's my Barbie birthday" LOL and his reaction was the same......"but you always drink here...." LOL.

I ended up playing pool all night with an ex boyfriend (Travis) and we held the table all night, so unfortunately I didnt get pissed on my 18th.

We are having a BBQ for Leisa tonight (cause she wanted to spend her birthday with the kids) and after that I think everyone is taking her out. I dont know what we are doing yet. I might get a babysitter tonight, after the BBQ and go out with Leisa. Ben might even stay home with the kids??? We'll see...

I will definately have to take my camera tonight and get some pictures. You wont see me in the gutter spewing... I will be holding the camera LOL.

Happy Birthay Leis!

My Trip to Broken Hill

Oh, forgot to tell you about my big trip to Broken Hill.

We left on Sunday morning - had to stop every half hour or more because Riley would throw his Dummy out of reach and Lewis didnt want to play the game. So I had to stop, get the dummy back in his mouth and keep going. The only reason I had to keep doing that is because he was sooking, tired and being just plain grumpy. I am glad I took the Wiggles DVD with me because that is that only DVD that Riley loves and kept him quiet anyway.

I am spewing that I didnt take my camera because I had a few photo moments.

Firstly we dropped into Netallie. Went the Wilcannia-side gate and the road was so corregated, I thought my car was going to fall apart. Just as we pulled up at the gate Sally came running out to greet us and gave me a big cuddle. I havent seen Sal since I was preggo (1 week to go) with Riley and she had only just found out that she was preg with Jamie. So Sal checked out my boys and then I was greeted by Annie. How gorgeous is she. Her tummy is so big and she looks just beautiful pregnant. Annie will be a fantastic Mum - you should have seen her fussing over Jamie and she just looked like she knew what she was doing.

So we left Netallie and headed for the big smoke.

As soon as we arrived we went to McDonalds (I needed my fix) and went through the car wash and fuelled up. We got up to Mum & Dad's, stayed there for a while, then went to the Mulga for dinner. Mum was telling me that she won $900 on a poker machine (what the?) so I went to the bar and had a smoke and threw a twenty in the same machine. By the time i butted out my smoke i had won $200! LOL addicted much? LOLOLOLOL

Riley went to sleep ok at Mum's - I was wondering what kind of circus i would be up for trying to get him to bed - but it was good, thank god.

Mum took us out to the zinc lakes for a look at the ducks. There was no ducks, only little remote controlled boats in the water and about 20 kids (probably about 12/14 years old) having a punch up. Nice thing for my 5 year old to watch. I was about 5 seconds away from getting out of the car and....... no - i am chicken shit LOL.

I saw Rebel at the supermarket for about 5 seconds.

Next morning Riley stayed with Mum and Lewis and I hit the shops. We didnt get much. Just got some clothes for the babes. We got back to Dad's workshop, picked Riley up then went home to Mum's house for a sleep. Anyhow, to cut a long story short - Ben rang a few times asking me when we were coming home and so I packed up the car and we headed off. We got home at about 8pm and surprised Ben - he didnt know we were coming home.

I REALLY need to go and do some work.... REALLY! I have side-tracked myself about 3 times this morning LOL.

This Week

Firstly... the concreted driveway...YAY.

I went on the slip-and-slide with the kids the other day.

Riley in a box.

Lewis on the slip-and-slide.


Have a good rest of your week.

And another week off...

Well, I have another week at home - again due to accommodation problems...but I am not too worried because I am still working from home and I get another week with my boys.

I am heading over to Broken Hill on Sunday to see Mum & Dad. That will be good to catch up with them and do some shopping etc. I will have to get on to Rebel before i go so we can catch up as well. I have a friend in Broken Hill who was my best mate all through primary school and we kind of lost touch for about 10 years and I wound up in the hospital room next door to her when i had Riley. She had just had a baby girl. I havent been back to broken hill since i had Riley, so it will be good to go back and catch up with Krista and her baby girl.

Chloe will be in town tomorrow. Yay - we get to put our heads together and discuss some plans. Will keep you posted about that.

Our driveway at home is getting concreted today - this is 5 years in the making, so i am very excited. Here is a before picture for you. I will post the after picture tomorrow.



Not a really good picture, I know. But you get the picture.

Ok, better get some work done.

Love to you all.