First Week at Work

Yippeee!!!  At last we have found our dive gear.  It had been sitting at Customs at the airport here waiting for us to claim it.  I was told yesterday that I would need a letter from work to avoid any additional fees and taxes.  I had been told that the fees and charges were 15% of the value…OUCH!!!  In the end I didn’t need the letter and it cost me nothing, and it was dropped off to my door today.  How lucky are we.

All we need to do now is find a local with tanks, weight belts, and an air compressor to fill the tanks.  I'm told they are here...somewhere.

We do have internet at home at the handsome cost per month of $100 for 10GB – OUCH again, but that was the cheapest alternative.  We could have paid up to $500 per month for 500GB.  If there is one thing they know here it is how to charge for little luxuries.  I checked our usage of the 10GB plan and after 3 days we had used 30% of it so we are now back to turning it on only when we need it.

The other option is wait for the weekend when it is $1.99 for 500MB.  Denise had 100MB remaining after 2hrs this morning.  She allowed updates to come through.  I wait until work to download anything big.

The good thing is Viber and Skype both work over here, but we are only connected to the net at home, so you will need to prearrange calls or ring in the evening after 6pm (4pm Brisbane time) and hope it’s when we have the internet turned on.

For those who want to see our house on Google maps, enter the following coordinates

1°19'56.7"N 173°00'47.9"E

Looking East

The house

Looking West

I have also attached more pics of home as the seas were calm.  It is looking West and East, and looking back at the house from the edge of the Pacific Ocean.  Now we have our dive gear we can see what is out there.  It does look like a rocky bottom under the waves, but I’m hoping there is some coral at the edge of the breakers.

Looking from one end of the house towards the Pacific Ocean

The final picture is looking from one end of the house to the back door.  In the foreground is our computer table, on the left is the lounge/entry area.  Down the right wall is the bathroom (with washing machine) and our bedroom is the next door down.  On the left are two other bedrooms.

"Safe" ladder

I decided to add another to show I have installed one of three fire alarms.  Note the bracing on the ladder – proper third world health and safety.  The ladder initially only had the string as bracing.  After it moving a little while I was screwing in the first alarm I decided to add the belt as a backup.  I knows, but that is the only ladder I had.  It was that or stand on the table.  I thought the ladder was safer…

Does anybody have any idea of how to clean and keep clean tile floors when you live 20mtrs from the sea?  All ideas welcome.  The problem we have is the floors seem to be permanently coated in salt from sea spray.  While I asking for ideas, does anybody know how to get rid of geckos.  We have been told to leave the geckos as they eat the insects.

We still haven’t found a car, but have seen a few.  The criteria is that prefer station wagon, must have high clearance, room for us plus dive gear, working air conditioning and mechanically sound to last at least 11 more months.  Suburu seems to be the car of choice here.  I have also seen many Hongba (yes, that is a g in there) motorbike.

Work is now 1 week down and I’m still discovering things - no surprises there.  I expect this will continue for the whole year.  The good thing is I have made progress and discovered they do have some good processes and procedures, they are just not documented.  As they say in Australia, there are many opportunities for improvement.

The good thing is that the area I work in is the maintenance team so we have working air conditioning most of the time.  The air conditioning only stops when the power is out and that appears to be a daily occurrence.  Funnily enough, we don’t seem to have power problem at home - so far anyway.  I hope it stays that way as air conditioning seems an essential for good sleep, particularly if there is no sea breeze.

My work supplied PC didn’t arrive until I was leaving on day 1, so when I powered it up the next day I had issues, so back to IT.  Luckily they live in the next office.  I have been back to IT to sort things out with my PC and connections to their network and the internet at least twice a day, and we are still not quite there yet.

There is a free air conditioned work bus (what doesn’t have air conditioning here?) that takes me to and from work each day.  It is about 12kms and takes between 35 and 45 mins depending on what is on the road.  I get picked up around 07:25 and am usually at work by 08:10.  My work hours are 08:15 to 16:15.  The bus leaves work around 16:25 and usually drops me off around 17:00.  The walk from home to the Main Road (yes, that’s the name of the main road) takes about 5 mins, but you must remember to amble or you will end up in a lather of sweat.

Entertainment on the bus depends on whether it is going to or from work.  Going to work it’s talk back radio and the host appears to be asking locals questions and seeing if the host can catch the local out - much to the enjoyment (giggles and laughter) of those on the bus.  The afternoon trip is either music (usually played on two video units, one of which the driver watches), or listening to Parliament (they are sitting now).  The music selection on the afternoon drive appears to be about six songs so I should know all the words soon, or at least the ones in English.

Denise’s Bit

My week has had its ups and downs.  I have cleaned to my heart’s content and washed like only Mrs Wishy Washy could do with a twin tub machine.  It is quite the job juggling the water so I don’t manage to electrocute myself.  I now have the cord well and truly off the ground, I just have to be careful not to coat hanger myself on the cord.

I have been grocery shopping; what an eye opener!  The plane must have bought vegies.  There was cauliflower, broccoli, radish, ginger, leeks and celery.  So for a whole cauliflower $9.?? / kg and the one I picked was $13.00, I decided that I could do without it this time.  Celery, $7.50/half, one leek $8.50, so I have to pay it or I don’t get fresh veg.  I paid $1.00 for an egg.  I will have to go and see the ladies in the village to see if I can get eggs from them.  We can’t get potatoes here, so to make up for the lack of potatoes we had potato Deb.  Well I stuffed it the first I made it but have excelled myself tonight.

My down days are when I feel a bit trapped but I get over it fairly smartly.  While Peter was at work I received an invitation to go to the High Commission for a swim, he would have liked to have gone but he missed the ride.  I just wish that we could find some transport for ourselves.