Saturday Morning, 7:39am AEST

Here I sit on the veranda of my room in the accommodation village of the Osbourne Mine camp south of Cloncurry in Northern Queensland. It has been raining steadily for an hour or so. The sky is overcast but not as dark as it was before. There are a few isolated patches of blue sky trying to break through but the greyness dominates the view. The rain should pass but it is going to leave behind a network of soggy, slippery dirt roads, so depending on how much sunshine we get, there is little chance of working today.

It is officially less than one month until Christmas. Looking back the year has gone by so quickly. I feel like I need to apply the brakes a little. Geo work certainly makes it go quickly as you spend a week somewhere, a month somewhere else, a few weeks home and then away again and suddenly a few months have passed by. It is good to be busy but I am looking forward to the Christmas break. I have a few weeks off that I will be spending down in Tas. I haven’t been back since March (I think) so it will be good to see family and friends and catch up on all the news.

So I managed to lose another phone! Actually, I think it got lost without it being my fault this time. It was left in a vehicle and it was used by some people we were working with and when the vehicle was returned at the end of the day, it was gone. The good news is that it was my Telstra T100. With a retail price of $49, I can cope with replacing it. For the money, it is has an exceptional feature set. The only reason I am online right now is that the phone has an external antenna socket and allows you to dial in to the net using a Bluetooth connection. My dedicated USB NextG card doesn’t have enough reception to work at all but the blue tick phone does.

Back at the start of the month saw the 9th anniversary of Amber’s death. It is unbelievable that it has been that long. In a few days it will be the second anniversary of Brad’s death which happened at GTMO. It is always such a shame when young people are taken when in their prime.

The rain is still falling here. I probably should change my shirt as the dampness is starting to feel uncomfortable. The clouds alternate between light and a mid grey. I do find the sound of the rain on the steel roof relaxing.

It is now 8:01am AEST. Time to take a look at some data.

Enjoy your weekend!