About everyday (boring) life, Aussie style breakfast and city girl in subtropical jungle

My last week was all about everyday life here. All of my friends where out on a holiday and I needed to manage by myself for total 6 days, for the first time during my almost 2 months stay. How lucky have I been so far if this is the only time I need to be fully “on my own”. I took the week as a challenge to live the easy going normal life, the no drama life. My weekdays have their routines already. I get up a bit after 7am, take a shower and dress up, drink my lemon water (kept that one Eepi) and take the bus to city around 8am, get my morning coffee from Linea Bar on Creek Street and hit the office latest 8.40. The Linea Coffee bar has excellent coffee and service. I went there for the first time couple of weeks ago. With the second visit got a welcome of “Hi Anna, good to see you, how are you? Here’s your long black to go”. I was stunned for them remembering my name or what I ordered as the place is super busy all the time and getting my coffee on the fly. So from that day on I’ve grabbed my morning coffee from Linea. I also hold a prepaid loyalty card that gives me 60 cents off from every cup. Handy.

What has been happening between 8.40am-6.00pm last week (and this week also) is a can of worms that needs to be kept close at this point. But to give you a hint; I am paying quite a high price for the fact that I missed the defensive driving course (am booked to a new one only next Monday) and therefore cannot do what I was supposed to do (i.e. the training around the sites) for these couple of weeks of the interim period before entering my “real role” within the program. Shitshitfuckfuck. Shitshitfuckfuck explains it all. Anyways, I leave from the office around 6pm, do the necessary shopping (if any) in the city and take a bus from Adelaide Street back home. At home I am usually so pissed off of the day at the office that I change to running gear and go running. I thought that the trips to outback Australia and lack of life there would be my key reason to do a lot of sports…but no, you can also be so furious for doing a job of a headless chicken that rage run is the only way to cope with it. Buu.  So running has become my number one ventilation channel. It helps every time. I have some difficulties with the routing as most part of the riverside has no lights and feels a bit unsafe as it gets dark here already at 6pm. So you need to either run by the road (which is not pleasant) or go back and forth the South Bank riverside, which is similar to running back and forth of Espa in Helsinki (= EPIC FAIL). At the moment my routes are those of a headless chicken too… but it doesn’t matter as the main thing is to get the frustration channeled to something else than people around me and the much needed endorphins that bring back the smile on my face. I need to get to my real role soon as this state of mind is similar to a combination of simultaneous coffee and sugar withdrawal syndrome on top of heavy PMS and someone eating my ice cream again. No good. As described I find my patience very short with the project situation right now. I can deal *hit load of *hit in the process of settling down but have zero tolerance with any roadblocks with work. And I know I should be patient but it’s just very difficult as work is the only comfort zone here. I was hired because of my skills and Accenture being the only thing that stayed ‘as-is’ when leaving everything else behind and ending up doing something totally brainless even for a short interim period feels  unbearable. I am counting days, 15 work days to go.

In addition to somewhat blue week at work the weather has been rainy in Brisbane lately, the first time during my 2 months stay. A funny note is that the grayness immediately turned my body into autumn mood and got a huge urge to buy pullovers and scarves. I think that is because my Finnish inner clock is waiting for the weather to get cooler and preparing for the upcoming dark and cold season ahead, a.k.a kaamos, a.k.a the suicide period. I guess my biological year calendar will be slightly confused as it starts to realize that summer continues until further notice. Jetlag is peanuts compared to this. And for those interested, I did buy a cardigan and a scarf as they still are useful during mornings and evenings here. So on Friday night after a bit of shopping I decided to call it a week and went home to watch a movie (the Knocked up, very funny and educating) on my cozy sofa with sushi, big mug of mint tea and woolen socks. To the point and what I needed: to be at home (that I call home), at ease and all by myself. I was fine being all by myself. Even with emotionally tough week behind.

On Saturday morning I woke up early and went for a run, just to celebrate the fact I had had a good night sleep and felt rested. After some 25 minutes it started to rain super heavily but for my surprise I didn’t care but instead turned up volume with Röyksopp, shifted gears and smiled all the way home. I think that moment was once again a glimpse of realizing that I have managed to build a good life here. I am running at 7.30am on a Saturday morning in the rain and was happy about it. Small things can make up your day here. All smile rest of the morning was spent in Martha Steward mode doing laundry and ironing before going to Guggenheim for Hair for an update again. The girl with a cool style welcomed me warmly, asked how did I like West End and if I had the internet connection already in place (amazing how these people remember things, I bet they have a little black book were they write notes about customers) and immediately knew what to do with my hair again. I enjoyed the good coffee and fashion magazines and left 3 hours later, 300AUD poorer but with a good color and cut again. Rest of the day continued in the Martha Steward mode (because it was raining) and later in the evening went to see Friends With Benefits to South Bank Cinema. Exceptionally ordinary day here, the very first ordinary day, a sign of settling in. Ansku likes.

Sunny Sunday started with good breakfast out, another good routine that was lost for the first 7 weeks here.  Back in Helsinki I loved having breakfast out with friends at Fazer, Ekberg, Tin Tin Tango, Engel and many more...and did lots of it during the last few weeks. It’s also aligned with my number two rule of life of  breakfast being the most important meal of the day and so far I have been neglecting that heavily and going with coffee only. FYI the first rule is: never combine parties and the third: never put a plastic bag into your head (this is from my mom when I moved from home 1999 at the age of 19). Anyways, the hunger for proper brekkie is a good sign of being myself again…a bit of help from the fact that I don’t have a) dining table b) chairs c) coffee machine d) Helsingin Sanomat e) much anything else than white wine in my fridge. Luckily there are a lot of nice breakfast and brunch places around (especially on Boundary Street) and I have a long list of places to visit. So far my experience is that Aussies like to eat very heavily: eggs on all different forms, beans, bacon, tomatoes, halloum, hash cake and white bread on one single plate. What is really dominating is the lack of anything fresh. On the “Something light” side of the menu you might find dishes like “Bircher muesli and berries” = a least 300 grams of toasted muesli, in cream with 5 berries on top to make it feel light. “Pancakes” = huge pile of pancakes with syrup, ricotta cheese and whipped cream or “Avo on Toast” = Simple toast with avocado and bit of olive oil on top. For a girl who used to love the Engel Energia-aamiainen (mixed plate of bread, yoghurt with muesli, cheese, fruits and fresh veggies and juice) the offering seems a bit of a nightmare. I want a bit of everything you know. Anyways, as one of my key reasons for moving to Australia was the not-imported Avocados you might guess that my current favorite is the “Avo on Toast” and so far the first price goes to Tempo on Boundary, tested on Sunday morning.

After the so far best Avo on toast decided to head for Mt Glorious, one hour drive from Brisbane and spotted earlier on our way to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. I grabbed a detox beetroot juice from Boundary (what a self-deception to have huge mug of coffee and big avocado toast and then detox juice for healthy life) and off we went. The road up was super bendy, narrow and steep uphill. I felt pity for the cyclist going uphill and cheering for those coming downhill. The main “bush walks” were about 680 meters above sea level and the “bush” was a subtropical jungle. So there I was, a city girl in her pretty ballerinas in sub-tropical jungle. Hear hear, nature calling. I decided to give  the bush walk a go after a quick conclusion that the paths were in good shape (even though my gear wasn’t really proper and the detox juice really kicked in and I needed to pee)  “I think I can manage, it’s only 3km after all”. So what happened; the first part of the route I was one happy camper enjoying the view and cool fig trees around. The second part towards the second lookout turned more wet and muddy resulting in my shoes getting all damp and dirty and me getting quiet and angry. Also throughout the path you could hear the water running in the nearby creek, which wasn’t the best cure for the nature calling. I felt like a kid in a car whose parents have asked twice if one needs to go to toilet before getting on the road and 10 minutes after departure crying at the backseat and asking where’s the nearest loo. The way back I didn’t speak nor smile and walked as fast as I could “Forget the exotic subtropical jungle, I’ll take a closer look the next time”. Never ever has 1.5 km felt so long but I made it. Pheew. Getting out of the jungle we went to this nice restaurant with beautiful view all the way down to Moreton Island to relax and have cup of coffee. When I realized they served butter scones with jam I was all smile again. I didn’t pee in my pants and got butter scones with jam. All good. Ansku vs Nature 1-0.

After good pizza with dear colleagues I was once again very thankful for the weekends being so fun here. No matter how utterly boring my workdays might be at the moment it is good to know that from Friday to Sunday the tide turns. I also have my bed base in place which means I am not sleeping that much on the floor anymore, oh the joy. So far this week has been equally painfull at work, have done my rage runs, freaked out after a suspicious bug bite looking thingy in my leg and got a letter from KELA confirming that I have been officially excluded from the health care system. Exciting. Anyways only two nights till Friday again and then I get to catch-up with my dear Marijke J Yay! Sorry for the somewhat boring post, but at times life can be a bit boring.

Love,

//Ansku

PS: I am all smile after a 90 minute Skype with dear friend...lots of deep talk about the real stuff and felt like being super close. Priceless.

About mining, Monster Trucks, anatomy of crying, parsley and other spices

Wednesday was my lucky day at site. I had finished the trainings already around noon and was told to get a private tour around the field. Yay! I got all my PPE (personal protective equipment) i.e. a helmet, safety glasses, boots and gloves and was introduced to Shaun who was a field supervisor and my escort during the tour. A visitor can never enter the site a) without PPE b) without escort c) without holding ‘The Blue Card’ proving that I have gone through site safety induction. We hopped into a supervisor car (a dedicated vehicle with flags and flash lights), took few miners on board to drop them off on the site and started the tour. Next to the admin building were 5 big monster trucks on line. I stared them in awe and mouth open and Shaun commented those to be “baby trucks compared to what we’ll see soon”. Yeah right! There are no traffic signs on the mine, just odd ramp numbers here and there and no landmarks as the landscape is just “mine”. “You got to know your way around here” was an answer when I asked how on earth people know where to go, also during night, and “haha” when double checking if he really knows where to go. In each of the “crossing” one needs to call to a dedicated channel and request for a permission to enter the area too. We drove to the strip he’s managing, saw a “baby truck” stuck in a big pit and he gave advice for the driver via radio to get back on track again. As we continued our drive there it was, a huge monster truck approaching us with full load. I said OMG, froze and took a hold of my seat. Shaun was laughing “breathe lady, this is what we call a real truck”. That’s not a truck. That’s just insane and absurd, period. Seriously, I haven’t ever seen anything so big on wheels. “Want to get a ride with that one?” Ummm, sure…I think that’s the safest place on earth as it can literally smash everything that comes on its way. He asked if I would feel comfortable if the driver is a woman. Of course, I think women are better drivers, more gentle with gear and less likely to cut corners. So I met Debbie, Monster truck driver with pink hair. She got and advice to “scare the lady around a bit, but remember I need to return her safe and sound to the admin building”, agreed to return in about 30 min to the Monster Truck parking lot, climbed up to the cabin and was ready to go. Our task was to drive to this big shovel, get loaded with dirt (dirt that needs to be removed to get the coal), drive to the dumping point and unload the truck and repeat the same. This is what Debbie does in 10 hour shifts. She says it’s boring, she often has a book with her to read when waiting for her turn at the shovel, she doesn’t care about the big picture with the business/company or feel any kind of accomplishment after her shift but makes it for the good money and thinks life happens outside the mine. Fair enough. She mastered the Monster truck well, told stories of her very first shifts on the drive and said if she falls asleep in the uphill (the truck goes super slowly with the full load) I just need to hop on to driver‘s seat and “unload this *hit there to the left”. Haha, I said that I better start singing to keep her awake and she said “please don’t, talking is enough”. Few details I learned about a Monster truck: they cost approx 8 million AUD each, one tire costs 80 000 AUD and is delivered as an oversized delivery (saw 2 trucks delivering the tires on my way from site to motel), takes in 5000 liter of fuel that lasts approx 24 hours. Careful with the tires ok? Debbie was.

After the Monster truck drive Shaun asked if I have more training to do or have time for some more field tour. I had no plans so continued to see how the shoveling works. A Monster Shovel. This time he was on the driver’s seat to give a much needed dinner break for one of his team mates. I found the shoveling more boring than the driving, but according to Shaun this was higher up on the field hierarchy. He asked if I want to give it a try to fill up one truck. Are you serious? This is a 40 million AUD thingy and you ask if I want to play around with it? I laughed, thanked him for the offer and said no. “Come on, it’s easy, like playing video games”. Thanks, but no, haven’t played video games since Super Mario Bros in 1990s. “Are you sure?” Yes, with a third no I am pretty sure and I cannot afford to break anything as I just got my first salary on Monday and like buying shoes better than Monster Shovel parts. “I won’t tell anyone if you break it”. No. No No No No No. Period. I guess he wasn’t used to taking no as an answer. About time for this super trouper macho miner. He obviously enjoyed hosting a “Lady from Finland”, was telling a lot of war stories, reminding that he has been driving the biggest trucks and shovels on the site (it’s always about the size with men isn’t it), is now a supervisor for some 60 people, makes a lot of money and plans to retire at the age of 45. I asked him why he is in mining. “Because of the lifestyle and the money, I work 5 days and get five off…that makes only 6 months per year with pretty good compensation”. Yearly income is a big thing for Aussie men, they talk about it openly and for a Finn (= suomalainen, ei perussuomalainen) who keeps those things fairly private it sounds like bragging a bit. And I think he was bragging. But luckily by asking questions you get the real stuff out of a rough miner too: behind the money there is a lot of pride for the work they do, strong values like safety and integrity, respect for the people who work for / with you and very often family ties for the industry. Behind the good lifestyle are various simple things from family to friends to sports to seeing the world and hoping to stay healthy to do all that. I also think that the four hours at the field were the best possible on-boarding for me to understand the business. The magic doesn’t happen in the head quarters by office workers in front of their computers. It happens on the field by numerous men and women taking pride of what they do and respecting the safety regulations to make sure everyone gets to go home safe and sound after their shift. I understand the corporate culture a lot better, especially the safety part of it. And got valuable insight about the general mindset in the operations, this is what I call learning.

On the flip side, I don’t think that mining is the coolest industry on earth. I dislike the environmental impacts and lack of sustainability, especially mining for coal. And yes, I am aware that my lifestyle is highly dependent of the industry, but I’d rather not witness what’s happening, it seems so very violent with all of those huge trucks and shovels and blasts breaking something for good and leaving a huge 40km x 13km hole behind. It’s pretty “out there” with an open cut mine that I saw (and plenty more from bird perspective). Also although coal is referred as black gold I think it is just dirt looking grey soil. And I am not into gold anyways, maybe I should visit a diamond mine ;) So, not exciting and sexy industry as such but exciting as there is so much to learn and on Wednesday night I was still happy to have gotten a tour around the field. If I am now staffed to work for a mining company, a coal mining company, it is good to see and understand what’s happening in the operations. It was exciting experience yes, an adventure definitely and also a much needed big change to what I’ve been calling a work environment for the past 3 years. Down there I really felt being 15 000 km away…the shoveling felt familiar though *joke*

Friday was my last day at site and time to say goodbye. I actually had a lot of familiar faces there already and heard “Bye Anna, hope to see you soon again” plenty of times. So it goes, the place that seemed like a *hithole at first turns out to be nice thanks to all the friendly people. I left the site, went back to the motel to pack, ordered the one and only taxi to take me to the airport and said bye to Moranbah town. The taxi driver was swearing again to be super busy and still didn’t have the receipt book with him “sorry, it’s still at home”. No worries. I checked-in in the tent, took a seat in shade and watched to orange-blue & yellow-blue fellow passengers gathering to the waiting area. In addition to me only 3 other people on the flight did not wear team shirt, helmet and safety boots. I told you Moranbah is a mine city J Happy to go home! It was my very first home coming in Brisbane so far, a good one indeed, and after a week in terrible unisex company clothes it felt SO GREAT to wear dress and high heels and nail polish and bright red lipstick. Yay! In no time I had changed and “refreshed” and was off to a jazz club in Kangaroo Point for a Friday night live music show. Part of the music was too HC jazzy for me but most of it was very entertaining and good SB made it even more enjoyable. I also met nice people from Australia and France with whom agreed to have brekkie at Gunshop on Sunday. The night continued from Story Bridge Hotel to Valley with non-stop supply of drinks to make sure my routine of hangoverish Saturday sticks. It did. Indeed it did.

Rest of the weekend was all about good breakfasts at Campos and Gunshop coffee (both excellent), much needed overdose of large-long-blacks after a week of instant coffee on site, IKEA visits to get the bed base but ending up still missing the legs as those were sold out (this is IKEA strategy I believe…to have some of the key parts missing to make sure people come back and make impulse purchases and hoard the overpriced Salt Sill candies too), pizza night at Ross’ place and laundry marathon after 2 busy weeks. I also got my first driving lesson on the right side of the car and left side of the traffic and drove from IKEA all the way to Ferny Grove for the pizza. I think I did a good job with no damage for people or cars involved and only minor detours when missing the GPS instructions to turn as driving straight ahead is more simple and fun. I think driving in the busy city is still quite challenging and energy consuming, but as I learn to know the roads it gets easier too. Anyways after the mandatory defensive driving course I am all ready to drive in outback Australia…at least in Moranbah there was only one road so getting lost would’ve been almost impossible. I leave the ‘almost’ there just in case ;)

Then about the crying notes in this blog, I have received few comments about it J Pliiz do not worry, I am perfectly ok, not crying all of the time, laughing at least twice as much and very happy to be here and enjoying life down under. In my world tears are not a negative thing or relate to sadness only, in 80% of the cases there is not extra drama on it, the tears just come and go without pre warning and end of the story. The remaining 20% is another chapter that will not be discussed in this forum.  It’s very me to get emotional super easily, especially with and about people who on some level sneak into my heart. People who rock my world and leave their stamp on it…like the little people<3, friends, family and lot more. And with little people and age (must admit) I’ve grown to be even more sensitive and emotional I think. They made me realize how fragile and precious life is and appreciate the fact that I’ve been given something that cannot be taken for granted. Same applies for all the random or not so random people who end up being important, you meet them for a reason, be thankful for them as really, they are the sugar, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, basil and parsley of life (dear Aki does not count for parsley as he hates it). To quote a drink menu at Sling “Variety’s the very spice in life that gives it all its flavor”. And BTW, I am not crying while writing this. Ha!

To match with the previous topic, here’s a song I’ve been listening a lot lately Aurinko . I have no particular history with this, it’s not my power song or anything but my dear friend Kaisa played this on a picnic once and it stuck on me. So this is for all of you my dear friends, family and the special ones who give me a big smile (the inner smile too) and make me feel alive. Thanks all for being out there! 

//Ansku

PS: What the *uck is going on with the font size in the blog? Google is trying to tell me that my posts are too long or something? Mur.

About no-show, reality checks, Mordor of Australia, Sisu and miners

Thursday was supposed to be an exciting day with the defensive driving course. I woke up super early, took a cab to Albion and entered an old warehouse office where people were filling in forms. I sat down and started to fill in the form myself, handed it out to the instructor and was told that “ah, you are the no-show from yesterday. You cannot attend this course”. Wot? I am not a no-show. Apparently I was and needed to leave the office immediately *rude*. What happened was that on Monday I was told the defensive driving thingy happens on Thursday, I got a confirmation mail welcoming me to the course on August 10th which in real world was a Wednesday and in my world it was Thursday. How embarrassing. I went back home, changed clothes and left to the office feeling the most gigantic stupido ever. Client is paying quite a lot of money per hour for my work, sending me to a driving course for the whole day and I cannot even read a freaking mail. Two thumbs up for the cheerful spirit. First thing at the office I went to apologize the miss to my client PM. He said “no worries, these things happen, especially when you have so much on your table right now” but it didn’t make me feel any better to be honest. I felt I had just committed a professional suicide and I will get fired or something. Luckily dear Marijke was at the other end of OC. I said I feel like buying a one-way ticket back home. She said it’s a bit strong reaction and this point and I should consider still and this is not the end of the world. Of course, no one is dead because of this but for me it is the end of the world to let people down, especially people who are overloaded already and not in need of any extra work because of my inability to read.  Anyways, missing the driving course was a show-stopper for the plan to rent a car and drive so they needed to organize me an escort to drive me back and forth every day or cancel the training. After few painfully long hours the scheduler came over and said all good and I will have an escort next week and training will happen as planned. I wanted to give her a hug (I didn’t). Instead I got her a Thank you card and strawberries for the extra effort in organizing a plan b. Lessons learnt: do not assume anything and double check the dates. Still, I am relieved for not being forced to drive here. Things happen for a reason, even the embarrassing ones, I believe so.

Rest of the day turned out to be a lot better. After work I got my Virgin phone plan and iphone 4 and two packages from home with candies, hapankorppu, sisu, salmiakki, adorable drawings by the little people and a real letter from Kiira. She’s 5 years old and wrote a letter telling she is missing me very much, explaining what has happened lately and asking if I could come for a visit after my Australia trip so that we could play and eat sweets together (I cry when I write this). I think the letter is the most adorable thing I have gotten in my life…I love those little creatures with every cell of my body and I miss them so much I cannot imagine myself being this far away for years. And I think it is amazing to love something as much as I love them. Anyways, after few tears again Eepi and I went for a run, rewarded ourselves with risotto and a glass of SB (or half a bottle each to be honest) and big piece of chocolate cake from the Five Sisters Coffee House near my place. Better to learn to put things in context again. I got mail from my loved ones, endorphins from running and a good meal in excellent company and have little people's drawings on my fridge door. All of those are greater than missed defensive driving course.

Saying bye to Eepi on Saturday morning was super sad. We had had a great week together and I enjoyed having a friend around…not to mention the service of getting my fridge filled with quality SB, groceries done, yoga and running coach, exploring city and good conversations about life from various different angles J *Thanks Eepi, miss u* The moment of goodbye felt weird as she’s going back to where she belongs and I am staying here. It once again made me realize that I am here to stay. It was the first time someone has come over for a visit and the first time someone is leaving back home and feelings attached to first times always come as a surprise to me, no exception here. And I still suck at goodbyes. I cried (of course), started cleaning fiercely, hit my toe twice to the same stupid bathroom sill and decided to leave to city to get a good cup of coffee. Coffee pick-up turned to a trip to Sunshine coast which was exactly what I needed after my mixed-feelings miserable morning and to-be too short weekend because of work on Sunday. Sunshine coast was much cozier and a lot less touristy than her big bro Gold Coast. I liked it better. First thing there I called to congratulate my mom turning 60. She cried at the other end of the phone (the crying gene comes from her obviously), I kept myself together and told her to enjoy the day with her nearest and dearest-minus-me and promised to raise a toast for her over lunch. I was of course sad to miss the party but also excited to be in a new place again, see my love Pacific ocean, get to stand in the water and dig my toes into the fine sand. Smile. We had lunch at over-priced Italian restaurant, headed back home to Skype with the little people <3 and ended up having an easy going night at the Powerhouse.

Sunday was lost for travelling then. I needed to be at the airport already 11am so didn’t have time for anything else than packing during the morning. I wasn’t on the best mood really. I am very jealous of my weekends and travelling to Moranbah felt like someone eating my ice cream portion and making me pay for it. Mur. At the airport I went to security check and asked if they have those little plastic bags to put my liquids in. “No, we don’t have them. You can carry liquids on Sundays”. Ok, that’s weird. The plane was super small and majority of the passengers where men (and most likely miners). A bit before landing I saw 3 different mine sites, commented them to be huge and the guy sitting next to me said that what I see is not huge but big instead. Landing to Moranbah was literally in the middle of nowhere. The “airport” was a small barrack building (that was told to be under renovation), check in was in a tent and people were sitting outside on plastic chairs and the luggage was delivered with a tractor. I had pre-ordered the one and only taxi in the town, driver said to be “hell busy with you visitors coming over and leaving at the same time” and I didn’t get any receipt as “I forgot the machine home, sorry”. No worries. I got the key to my motel room, went in, realized it is quite terrible, spotted a cockroach and a spider, made a silent scream, killed both and carried the remains far away to make sure their families are not gathering for a funeral in my room, felt super anxious and decided to go for a run to escape “all this”. Running felt good, especially the first part of taking distance to the sloppy motel and dead bugs, I didn’t really want to turn back at any point but was forced to as I haven’t done much sports lately and am in shitty shape. On the positive note, I think I will be in excellent shape in no time with these trips to mines ahead. After my run had a shower and went to the Coles (grocery store) nearby to get water and something to eat and felt more than happy to find wine gums also. I must say it was the most pathetic Sunday in a while…well, figure it out yourself if wine gums are the highlight of your day. I went to sleep in fear of the wildlife crawling in and leaving the lights on. Five nights to go, that’s less than six at least.

Monday was once again another “first” work day. I was super excited. Had no idea what kind of people the miners are, how they perceive the topics of the training and are they going to throw me with tomatoes or kindly sit and listen and do what is expected from them. There I was, room full of miners in their overalls, hands in dirt and helmets on the table looking very reserved and somewhat suspicious of the upcoming few hours. Most of them said already at the door that they have better things to do and if it would be possible to reschedule the session or just skip it. Oh dear, a bit of a change mgmt work ahead I thought. Showdemgirl. “Good morning everyone and congrats for winning the best possible way to start your Monday morning!” Rock ‘n Roll, here we go and no way back. First ice breaker was the fact that I come from Finland and have never visited a mine before. They found this super exciting, asked what brought me down here, started smiling as I told them I didn’t come with family, they said some aussie guy will be lucky and listed a lot of places for me to see and experience. Some of them also knew Koskenkorva and Duudsonit and one of the trainees had been in Finland 1996 and remembered “liquorice kossu and Silja Carnival cruise to Stockholm”. Uhu, the Crème de la Crème of Finland. After 15 minutes I had half of them on my side and in 30 minutes pretty much all. Tension was gone and the feeling in the class room relaxed and fun. I had also Sisu with me and promised a taste for everyone scoring 100% on the different skills assessment. That ended up being a success and they immediately started to compete internally who gets the most “guts candies”. I tried to explain the concept of Sisu with words like guts, persistence and perkele (beforehand apologizing for swearing in a training event but thinking it is not as bad  as they don’t understand what I say) and as a side product educated them also about the winter war against Russia. “Gut candies” sink in with them and I think Sisu would soon be a best seller at Goonyella. At the end of the session I asked if my dear group has the “guts” to taste Salmiakki, which is similar to Sisu but a bit different. Everyone raised their hand excited to taste. You should’ve seen their faces. Big, rough miners being totally stunned by the taste, like when you are having something super spicy, helplessly looking at each other in search of peer support and face grinned trying to deal with it like a manly man should. Priceless. We all had a blast, they thought the training was way better and more fun they than ever expected and they learned a lot. The best possible thank you in my opinion. I think I can do this, I think I am good at this. Well done Monday and a big relief as the rest of the week is repeating the same sessions.

Besides work there’s nothing to do here. Today I went running again (proud), then to Coles to get something for dinner, watch telly, prepare for the sessions and now write my blog.  Moranbah is all about mining. There are 8000 permanent residents here, 12000 including visitors and contractors and approx 80% of them work on a mine site. There are also few “mine camps” around, areas of barrack buildings where people from outside Moranbah are staying for the week. Everyone here is wearing a corporate “uniform” of two different teams: team of blue-orange and team of blue-yellow. The blue-orange team is the biggest and also the team I am representing. If you wear normal clothes you are considered as a stranger (I do wear normal clothes outside work). You also see a lot of fancy cars as miners make shit load of money.  It’s also expensive here for the same reason. I have spotted sports court, Chinese restaurant, 2 bars (one with karaoke every Wednesday), adult entertainment store, police and a hospital. Not much to do for a city girl I would say. So nights here are a bit lonely….a price you need to pay for the experience I believe.  I am counting days to get back to Brisbane again, get a good dinner, see familiar faces and sleep in my own bed, or own mattress as I am still missing the base. I have 3 nights to go. One, two, three.

Outback Ansku says good night :)

//Ansku

PS:I have been listening Ipanapa and Paukkumaissi albums a lot lately as I find those to be enough cheerful for the somewhat depressing atmosphere here. Listened Adele for a while but started to cry. Urho Kepponen, Jopo, Onnenpäivänen and Saunatonttu are my current favorites. Spotify is a life saver really! Also promise to add pics soon, mine pics J

About Moreton Island, exploring Boundary Street, first work days (again) and pics

On Friday I got my very first guest here! Dear Eepi who had been in Sydney for a week and thought this is a great opportunity to stay a bit longer in .au and visit me. Yay! The moment of  reunion was a bit hilarious, at the other end of the world “welcome to my crib”, can’t believe we both are here. I had of course the traditional Ansku B&B welcoming sparkling and strawberries in place and had booked Gunshop coffee nearby for dinner. In my opinion one needs to have a proper dinner on the night of arrival.  Gunshop was nice, not wow, but worth visiting and our waiter was wearing way too small stretch jeans and pursued us to change our selection of NZ Sauvignon Blanc to Aussie Riesling which turned out to be very mediocre one. In my humble opinion stretch jeans are a bit questionable male garment and 2 size too small stretch jeans a definite no-go. Well, tells a lot about the Gunshot that the thing on top of our forehead when thinking about the place is the waiter with the jeans J Anyways it felt so good to have a deep conversation with a dear friend who knows me well, Eepi and I have always had it. Talk with big heart.

Saturday was booked for a day in Moreton Island which is the 3^rd largest sand island in the world of which 98% is protected National Park. Our guide Megan and her huge 4WD minibus Mathilda picked us up from  West End 6.50am, got some 8 more people on the way and headed to Brisbane port and took a ferry to Moreton. Around 10 am we arrived to the South Side of the island where the ship wrecks are …only 2 hours away from Brisbane city and realized we had landed on a paradise! Beautiful. The car was more steady on the extremely bumpy sand “roads” than in the highway earlier and it took a lot of skill to manage a huge 4WD on the narrow paths with extremely soft sand underneath. Our guide Megan was a superwoman really, small girl but with more guts than 2 average guys. She was funny too. First stop was at The Desert, a huge sand area with high sand dunes. The sand was so fine it seemed unreal, like snow. We each got this light board, climbed on top of the dunes (very heavy and excellent exercise) and got a 2 minute instruction how to actually ride down safely: On your belly to the board, elbows up (to keep the front part of the board bent up), ballerina toes and GO! Scary but fun. Another important lesson is to keep your mouth shut…I didn’t and ended up having lots of sand in my mouth. Second time was better but still very difficult if one has a tendency to scream whenever things get very exciting. That was my first experience about sandboarding, very cool and definitely very exotic for a Finn.

Calfs sore we packed our group to the minibus again and a small sand dune as a side delivery. No more sleepy eyes and teeth crunching we headed to our next stop of refreshing dip @ Blue Lagoon “because I don’t want you guys stinking in here”. Blue Lagoon is a sweet water lake that has lots of tea tree in the water. A natural day spa! Our dear Mathilda didn’t make it to a very mild uphill because of extremely soft sand (tried several times to do a track to make it to the top, with loud cheering, but no luck) so got an unexpected break by the Pacific Ocean. We had approximately 14km of pure white sand beach to both directions, beautiful waves forming with hypnotizing sound and endless horizon in front of us. All smile again. I have never seen anything so beautiful. Never. Eepi and I went wet our feet, took pictures and were extremely excited…we both have a soft spot with places like this. Then walked to the Blue Lagoon, a bit surreal  lake in the middle of sub-tropical forest, by the look the place could’ve been in Finland. The water was extremely cold, but I WENT SWIMMING. The lovely summer weekend at Kurrela has definitely raised my fear factor scale with cold water, can do. After the refreshing dip we headed back to our minibus that had in the meanwhile turned into a fast food restaurant. Never mind the cheap wraps served from a back of 4WD Minibus but if the view is the magnificent Pacific Ocean the lunch got 10 points and a sigh. *sigh* I think the lunch was the happiest moment so far here in Australia. I almost cried…and also said to Eepi that “think about it, this is 2 hours away from my home city and I can come here almost whenever I like”. Took a picture although I think I can remember the feeling for the rest of my life by simply closing my eyes. Another Australia upside.

After lunch we headed to the light house to see the Island end to end. The view was breathtaking again, total 38 km of beach ahead, Mount Tempest the highest coastal sand dune in the world, turtles coming to surface for air and two whales (!!) spraying water (no jumps). Breathtaking again. This is something merely impossible to capture by pictures or describing how it looked, you gotta see it yourself. So my dear friends, if you are visiting me and Brisbane, Moreton Island should be of priority in your places to see list. I fell in love with the place, will most likely visit it plenty of times and hopefully for overnight too (Mum, please send my sleeping bag over as I don’t want to sleep in a rented sleeping bag. Thanks). Tired but happy we headed back to our ferry, took few pics out of the ship wrecks, learned that they are not really ship wrecks but sunk in there on purpose to provide shelter for boats staying on the island and now providing home for over 150 species of fish. Also learned a cool fact about a bird called the Pied oystercatcher (very common in the island). If you see them in pairs it means they are a couple, love for life (like swans do) and the males are exceptionally romantic as if the female dies the male is so heartbroken it stops eating and eventually dies but if the male dies the female gets a new younger husband. Cruel isn’t it? We left overwhelmed, so much beauty is difficult to digest at once. Tired but happy returned back home around 6pm, well done girls.

Otherwise our weekend was all about wine-dining. Our guiding light has been The Good Guide, a brilliant little booklet of Brisbane “where to go’s” in terms of fashion, art, design, insider trading, life and laughs. And meaning the local insight to explore the city, not the touristy and mainstream one. Each main city area has their own booklet, which makes it very convenient to use. Hungry and thirsty after long day at Moreton we went to eat to The Jamjar at Boundary Street, a place recommended by the waiter with too tight jeans and our TGG. The restaurant has only bar facing to Boundary street and all the tables are in a cozy inner court. The decoration was a bit weird (skulls were the main theme), the staff was very friendly, the owner a cute super trouper hipster in his fourties with cap and converse sneakers that had seen a lot of life and simply fabulous drinks and food. I think I had found my “Kantis”. How convenient that Jamjar is the favorite restaurant of a girl who loves making jams J Thank you waiter with too small jeans. Thank you TGG. Thank you West End.

Sunday was again hangoverish (has been throughout my stay here, worrying isn’t it?). We ate our breakfast at a small coffee house at Boundary, then went to see the young designers market in South Bank which turned out to be big disappointment, we summarized the experience as “työväenopiston huovutuksen alkeet –kurssin kevätmyyjäiset”…not that bad really, but not something a Finn would call Design, decided to go and see Jameson Street and ended up to Cru wine bar for much needed pick-me-up glass of champagne. Instead of champagne our Jamie Oliver looking waiter recommended excellent sparkling wine called Pelorus from New Zealand, Marlborough. Well done Jamie. The afternoon was super slow. Had our sparkling, bought cheese and bit of groceries from the market place, walked down James street and went back home for a nap. Later in the evening we had dinner at The Little Creek (at Boundary again, lots of good restaurants there), a small restaurant always full of people and a place that always comes up if you are asking for restaurant recommendations. Funny thing about LC is that you can bring your own wine (this is actually quite common in Australia but very new to me). Once again we had a delicious dinner and salty lamb chops were a match made in heaven with our hangover. What a weekend! In overnight I needed to turn from tourist to a guide and I think I did pretty good job. Lots new places and definitely exceeding expectations on the “one new place a week” target.

So Monday was my first day at project. Again dressed up to my lucky purple Tara Jarmon skirt, Ted Baker blouse and high heels I was all perky and excited to finally have a purpose of life. First task was to attend to a general introduction session where this driest of the dry lady went through bunch of rules and regulations in the company with a heavy emphasis on safety. I learned that I should be very careful in cross roads as sometimes busses might touch the sidewalk when turning, there are no heating equipment in the coffee area as heating food might bring up strong odors which are not pleasant, you cannot eat anything on your work desk (drinking is allowed, pheew), evacuation preparation sound is ‘beep beep’ and evacuation signal is ‘whoop whoop’ (these were demonstrated too) and the evacuation point is some 10 blocks away so if you are wearing high heels it might be a good idea to walk bare foot and if an officer comes to my desk asking me to pick a marble from a bag and the marble is red I need to go to a drug/alcohol test. Anyways the session lasted for 45 minutes and the lady went through lots of info without smiling once. That’s an achievement I think.

After the introduction I got my laptop, my Accenture project manager introduced me to bunch of key people and I was told that “ah, you’re Anna-Maria, you are by the way flying off to site next week to facilitate training from Monday to Friday”. Ooookay, this is called a kick-start. My PM came to ask if I have an Aussie drivers license? Ansku: No. PM: Have you done the defensive driving course? Ansku: No. PM: Have you ever driven a car in Australia. Ansku: No. PM: Ok, gotta get you to a defensive driving course then as next week you need to rent a car to get to the site and back, cool with that? Ansku: No as I have never driven on the left side traffic. PM: Hey, that’s peanuts, where’s your adventure spirit girl? Ansku: *fake smile* I have just moved from Helsinki to Brisbane all by myself so I guess I don’t deserve a comment about lack of adventure spirit *fake smile*. Anyways about 45 minutes later I received a confirmation that I am flying out next Sunday (losing my Sunday, epic mur), I need to rent a car to get to my hotel and drive daily approx 1h to the site and I am not getting a GPS as the only renting company around does not have one. Jesuschristmotherofall, am I in a candid camera? This is a safety first company that tells me to dry my hands well before touching any electric devices to avoid electric shocks and they are sending me in the middle of nowhere with a car and without a GPS? WTF! I sat down to my desk and panicked. Must admit I panicked. This was the moment that my Anne was warning me about a bit over a month ago. When we had our last session she said “remember, most likely there will be the moment when you feel too much is too much and are being faced with obstacles seeming impossible to overcome and you’re heart starts racing and you feel you are losing it. Then just take a break. Go out, take a walk, take your time and remember to breathe and say to yourself that all will be good. Your mind is stronger than you believe and it can take over the panic”. I did exactly as she told me. I left the office, went for a coffee by the riverside, focused on breathing slowly but steadily and said I can do this, I have to do this and all will be good. This is cold water and I need to swim” *breathe* I left the office around 5pm, head spinning and not focusing I bumped into stupid glass doors and started to cry as it was just-too-much-what-next-slip-into-a-banana-and-brake-my-head-aaaarrrgh. I was very happy I didn’t need to spend the evening alone. Eepi was waiting for me, I had already given her a heads-up about the news and she knew what to expect. She gave me a hug and said I can do this. I didn’t believe her (and still don’t) but it helps someone else believes in you. Suck it up girl and swim, that’s what I am getting paid for.

So at the moment moving at the other end of the world and finding the means to establish your life feels like peanuts. In few days I am off to Australia outback, need to stretch my brain with the left side traffic and be very aware of the kangaroos especially in dawn and dusk time, professionally facilitate training after 4 days of on-boarding, show what I am made of and make the most out of it. Somehow I think my life has lots of reality TV potential! Anyhow I hope you keep your fingers x:ed for me that all goes well. Tomorrow is a big day as I am attending a defensive driving course…no idea what it means, hope I learn to drive on the left side of the road and sit on the right side of the car. Exciting blog posts ahead I guess J

Night night my friends,

//Ansku

PS: People have been asking for pics (for a reason) so there is a link to my picasa Aussie album at the bottom of the page! Yippeeeee! Maybe I have 5 technical brain cells afterall :) Also, for some reason I don't want to place the pics in the text, it looks "messy" to me

About buying appliances, using appliances and 1 month milestone celebration

Thursday July 28^th  was my 4 weeks down under celebration day. It felt I have been here much longer because so much exciting stuff has happened exceeding all of my normal life standards. Or maybe my life has been very boring before? Earlier the week I had agreed with Ross that we will go and get me a washer and a TV to get all the big home appliances stuff done (telly wasn’t really my priority at this point but as I am very dependent on people with car I decided to have everything sorted out at once if possible). Ross had already done some research on where I would get the best deal in the city and had a plan in his mind. To give a little context for this shopping experience: Ross is very much into bargaining and I am very much a fixed price girl.  I hate bargaining. I’d rather pay extra than live with the awkward feeling of arguing about the price. I don’t like arguing. I knew Ross’s price strategy beforehand and had prepared to step into uncomfort zone again with large-long-black-to-go-please.  We went to this huge appliance store and before stepping out of the car Ross said “Anna-Maria, you stay quiet and I do the talking ok? Watch and learn”. Oh dear, here we go. Indeed Ross did all the talking, a lot of talking, he had a show going on and  I just stayed quiet and gave compassionate smiles for the sales person who of course knew what was the deal there. I left the store 45-50 minutes later with a washer and TV and got them on a good price. On the way back Ross asked if the level of bargaining would be possible in Finland. I said no. He said “I have my own system you know. I can live in Australia or in Italy but I would be considered crazy in Finland”. I agreed. Jokes aside, I am extremely thankful for his help and saved 200 dollars too, worth new pair of shoes or a dress J

Early afternoon I had the new appliances at home and ready to use. Jippiiii.  It’s amazing really how much joy one can get out of simple thing of having the opportunity to do laundry. I can do laundry! I can do laundry whenever I like! Welcome to 1960’s Ansku. I think I would make a good wife.  I opened a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, run 2 programs to clean up the washer and felt more homely than ever before. Water is for frogs. Talking about water, it tastes a lot like chlorine here and the shitty taste has resulted in me not drinking it, not even in the form of tea as chlorine plus mint isn’t he most charming combination, same with coffee. Buying bottled water is very expensive and not ecological so at home I had to choose between chlorine water, bad tea/coffee or the white wine collection in my fridge. Obvious, the wine. This went on almost for a week until I got it in my head that I need to do something about it. Seven days and six nights to realize I cannot keep on drinking wine so much and need a water filter. It’s a long time you know. In reality I cannot think a proper reason why I didn’t get the filter in the first place so I guess we are back to the priority discussion again: in my world having a well cut hair and a fridge to cool down the wine is more important than drinkable water. Anyways, in my moment of house wife simulator I chose SB of course, so many reasons to celebrate that day. Around 6pm I got an offer to go and see three bands play at Zoo, the Tavastia of Brisbane. Line-up was supposed to be Rock, Indie and Blues Rock, not really my scene (except the indie) but I am always open for live music. End of laundry marathon, balance in the universe,  I went to Valley to see a live gig as a young free lady should on a special Thursday night and enjoyed it a lot.

Believe it or not, still a story to go about the washer (amazing how much one can write about a darn washer to an Aussie blog...or maybe I shouldn't...will anyways) On Saturday morning I decided to do a bit of laundry before heading to the West End market.  I had bought proper washer detergent, poured it into the compartment without using the measurement cup because it looked so small, selected the program and pressed start. All good I dressed up and packed my stuff for the market, went to see if everything is ok and saw the bathroom floor covered with foam.  The foam came from floor drain, washer door (front loader) and dispenser drawer. Lots of it. Shitshitfuckfuck, this doesn’t look right. I stopped the program, had plenty of different buttons blinking but no idea what it meant, got very nervous, left the bathroom, decided to have a cup of coffee and a 10 minute timeout to figure out my next move. *Breathe* In real life I would’ve called my brother, but the time difference makes it a bit tricky. Dear bro is my first point of contact for my various emergency situations like solving problems that need more than four technical brain cells (I have four, had only two before joining Accenture), calming me down when I am super upset or giving me a reality check when I self diagnose a cancer or similar or just saying “no, I don’t believe you left the coffee machine on” if I am unsure about it on my way to work. Priceless. Miss you Antti!  I also thought calling my new friends here wasn’t an option as the mess going on in my bathroom was quite embarrassing. I didn’t want to put my new friendships at risk because of being 31 years old and unable use the washer. I closed the bathroom door just in case the washer could explode or something, took another cup of coffee and realized I don’t have much options here. Girl, you gotta start reading the manual. *Shitshitfuckfuck I have to read the manual*  It had no instructions in case of a foam party in your bathroom, but found instructions under header “to empty out of water”, great.  To empty out of water did not fully empty out of foam and I needed to run the drain and rinse program two times to be on the safe side. Got very clean clothes, clean bathroom floor, coffee overdose and didn’t make it to market. Lessons learnt: use the measurement cup. Especially if it is very small.

Surviving the washer accident the rest of Saturday was booked for celebrating down under milestones: Marijke 6 months and Ansku 1 month. The plan was to dress up, eat well, have drinks and shake booty. Marijke had booked a table from a Japanese restaurant Sake located by the riverside. Excellent choice. We ordered a bottle of sparkling , told our very talented waiter to take care that the sparkling keeps coming (he took this quite seriously, kept an eye on us throughout the dinner and made sure our glasses were ¾ full all the time. We didn’t mind at all) and ordered tuna collection and dumplings for starters and sashimi, S express and popcorn rolls for main. My favorite was a small spicy tuna taco that was washed down with sake. I usually don’t like sake but here it was an icing on the cake to balance the spicy taco. The popcorn maki was also very innovative mix of crispy tempura and kind of smoky mayo. Beautiful, tasty and surprising. Just as good food needs to be.  No room for dessert we enjoyed the eye-candy around and promised for the waiter to be back. So far Sake has been the best restaurant I have visited, it takes a bit of time and effort to find the good places here, like in any other city I suppose. Marijke and I agreed that this will be our once a month tradition, to dress up and eat well. She also has a target of checking one new restaurant a week and I took that as well…perfect target for a girl who likes good food and eating out. From Sake we headed for drinks first to Moo Moo wine bar (nice atmosphere but boring people) and then Jade Buddha (great view but not what we needed), realized that the booty shaking is not happening at Riverside and took a cab to Valley (for those interested I was not dressed according to Valley standard but wore my new and pretty maxi dress and super high heels instead). Rest of the night was pretty much spent on the dance floor. I guess it was around 3am we called it a night and took a cab back home. A good night with a good friend, starting to see the upside of leaving lots behind.

Sunday was the day after then. Every cell of my body was suffering from the day after. Luckily I had agreed a bit of a sightseeing for the day to make something out of it…I think we Finns are programmed to feel bad about having a hangover on a beautiful sunny Sunday? After lazy morning coffee at South Bank Kalle picked me up to Mt Coot-Tha, a “mountain” nearby with excellent view to Brisbane city. Up there I realized how wide spread the city is. CBD is very recognizable with skyscrapers, the wheel of Brisbane points out South Bank, TV tower my hoods in West End but otherwise the city is all flat. 10% of Brisbane looks like a city the remaining 90% is all suburb.  Around 3.30pm I felt I was finally able to eat something and went to James Street at Valley, a weird combination of furniture stores, coffee houses and market hall in very industrial neighborhood. Worth to see. It was a pity I felt half dead as the various stores looked super interesting…all I could do was sit and have my third coffee and big bowl of Bircher muesli and hope I didn’t look as bad as I felt (I think I did, even with the “quick freshing up” before leaving out. Not all of us look gorgeous the day after as my dear Frederik does. *jealous*) After 4pm breakfast headed to have bbq with few Finns living in Brisbane, they had hangover too so I blended in easily (a sad fact to blend in because of hangover though). Tired and proud of myself to make through the day I came home around 8pm, jumped to my big cozy sofa, opened TV and realized Devil Wears Prada is on and passed out before seeing the end. Milestone weekend 1 - Ansku 0.

As you can see I am totally in the mode of being more tired on Monday mornings than on Fridays after a work week. I love the weekends as so much is happening and with tiny tiny steps I’m getting more hold of Brisbane. I am still green but not a tourist anymore, a big difference there. And to balance out the busy weekends my weekdays are dedicated for building life routines and settling down (well, for work too but not much happening before the project starts). This Friday I will also have my dear friend visiting me… 3 nights to go for a warm hug, life updates and exciting week ahead.

Hugs,

//Ansku

PS: I got lots of mail today. A postcard from France, Munthe Plus Simonsen fashion from Denmark (ordered online) and candies and Marimekko towels from dear mom. Felt like Christmas eve! I love getting mail, it narrows the distance and the personal notes make my heart smile <3 My dessert tummy is smiling too, thanks to aussie customs for not counting Fazer candies as prohibited goods.