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.