Training was quite fun last week. At Norwich Park I
had once again room full of rough miners with good sense of humor and the site
coffee was the best so far (not instant). I got an invitation for another field tour
the next time I am visiting the site from a supervisor and an open invitation to a BBQ party at
Gold Coast, in a penthouse, from a very cheesy and a bit older Brazilian guy. Thank you, but no thank you (to the BBQ party I mean). He also commented my name Anna-Maria to be the
“most beautiful name in the world” *with cheesy Latin American accent* and that
I would love Brazil for sure, especially his home city. Great, and let's move on with the topic of the day.The rest of the group was laughing for
his effort, everyone seemed to know where he came from. Oh the Brazilians. I also met a girl who's going to Europe for a holiday and planning to visit Helsinki for half a week and gave her lots of tips&tricks for her stay. And the best part of it; between Helsinki, Stockholm and Oslo, Helsinki was the winner for the northern Europe city to visit. Also, at Norwich Park I needed to choose a marble from the bag again and still haven't experienced the random drug/alcohol test. Green marble it was. Maybe I should try my luck with lottery too?
Talking about names, here at Australia I am struggling
if I should introduce myself as Anna or Anna-Maria. Anna is of course very
short, concise and easy to remember but somehow doesn't feel like me. Anna-Maria is also very international,
although here it is most of the times turning into Ann-Marie. The problem with
Anna-Maria is the fact that no one used it back in Finland. It was used mainly by
my parents in case I have done something bad...my mom is especially scary in her
"Anna-Maria Kristiina Karjalainen" with pitch getting lower and icy
eyes letting you immediately know you are in trouble (And to clarify, this
hasn't happened in near history, maybe when I was 15 or something). Anyways, I
am so used to being called Ansku that it is very difficult to adapt to a new name,
I don’t obey the name Anna-Maria unless it’s mom or dad. And yes, Ansku seems
to be a bit too tricky to pronounce although two of my colleagues and Marijke
do that and I always smile when I hear them say it. So far I have been using
more of Anna-Maria, but if in a hurry, tired or similar I'll just
say Anna because it usually does not lead to further spelling exercise. We'll see what happens with time. Surname is a different story. It is
impossible for the Aussies and I am widely known as "the girl whose
surname I cannot pronounce". People get very confused with so much consonants
and weird pronunciation. And I end up apologizing for the complexity and saying
that one of the key reasons I hope to get married is to get a new surname that
is shorter and easier to pronounce and spell. Also the guy doing the travel booking
says he doesn’t like to do those for me as he needs to spell out my name every
time. Ha! Maybe this is the reason for my bad luck with travel bookings? I do! Anyone?
I’ve also had my share of Australian “mate” culture. “G
‘Day mate” is a common way to say “what’s up dude?” (Also “Ta” is very retarded
way to say thank you) and miners use it a lot when they meet a male colleague,
at least this was the impression I had over the 5 weeks. I also hear women
calling their male colleagues mate, but not vice versa. Well, last week when
one of my trainees was leaving the session he gently punched me to the shoulder
and said “Thanks mate, good session mate”. I was shocked. Not because he said
thank you but because of the “mate”. And the punch. The combination of double-mate-and-punch. I am not a mate. I am a female. I wear nail polish, in toe nails
too. I have lip gloss. And make-up. And jewelry. And underneath the unisex
company gear out of non-flammable fabric with reflectors and orange color there
is a woman. Me! Anna, Anna-Maria, Ansku! Not a mate, mate! I didn’t say
anything for the guy, I just gave a very confused smile and wished him a good
weekend. Is it the short hair?
When I told this to my client contact (a lady) and few
colleagues too, I was told it is a good sign that a miner is calling you a
mate. “Because it’s an expression used when they think you are on their side
and accepted”. Well, in a way I see the point and agree the intention behind
the mate and the punch was good. It was his way of giving feedback. As in
Finland no feedback is the good feedback here apparently ‘Thanks mate’ is a
sign you’ve done well. And of course it is good to hear you’ve done well with
the most boring topic ever. Also before starting I was a bit worried about the
fact of being such an odd ball at the site with no credibility and was happy to
see it’s not a case and I have a weird skill of being able to bond with people
from very different worlds. But still I think being called mate isn’t very
flattering, it was a hit towards my womanhood that is struggling to survive in
the unisex, non-flammable gear. Don’t know if I should grow a thicker skin and learn to take the “hey mate” as a positive thing? Say “Thanks mate”
and punch back? And learn to punch too? Oh well, it is a long way down from the
world of office geeks in their socks and sandals to a mine site with these
rough around the edges macho guys with dirty faces and dirty sense of humour. I
needed a big change and I got it…gotta love the adventure. Also as
Marijke said the punch on the shoulder is way better option than someone
grabbing your ass. I second that. And it was good feedback after all.
As I told you weekend was very hot here in
Brisbane. So far the nights have been fairly cold and day temperature max 23
degrees but last weekend we hit the 30 degrees and I didn’t even need my heated
blanket. I haven’t really assimilated the fact that I am living in an eternal
summer and that days are sunny by default and clouds or rain a rare exception. It
feels unreal. I still automatically choose the sunny side of the road. I still
carry pullover or a light jacket when going out at night although you don’t
need it. I still feel like being on a holiday just for the sake of being able to have brekkie
outdoors, visit beautiful beaches with 1 hour drive and wear sunglasses every
day. It is amazing what warmth and sun can do for your mind and soul. You have
the “life is good” mode on. Saturday was most likely the warmest day here so
far, already at 10am it was almost 25 degrees. I put on my summer dress and
headed to Dandelion & Driftwood for some quality coffee and brekkie
outdoors with Kalle. At D&D I finally got the scones with cream cheese and raspberry
jam and learned that traditionally scones are served with whipped cream and my
request is a bit of odd one. I explained that throughout my life scones and
bagels have been in the same category and best when served with cream cheese
and jam and the owner told my categorization is wrong but he will get me what I
want if it makes me happy. It did. D&D is a lovely coffee house. It’s very
cozy, the owner has great sense of humour and they are passionate of what they
do and serve good stuff. The only thing that sucks is the location, you need a
car to get there conveniently. A car with aircon that is.
Saturday was also a moving in day for Marijke and had
agreed to carry the big stuff with bunch of colleagues. She’s moved only 280
meters (280 meters closer to my place, yay) so it didn’t really make sense to
rent a car/moving company and in addition moving is fun if you do it with
friends. She had also borrowed shopping carts from Coles to help out with some
of the stuff which was a brilliant idea in my opinion. We were a funny sight
carrying the sofa and the mattress in the middle of the road as the footpaths
are so narrow. For our surprise no one was
blowing the horn for blocking the traffic but waving friendly instead and cheering for support. I also
got a title of being “the strongest woman in Finland” as I got slightly upset
with the guys analysing on how to get the washing machine up the stairs. In my
opinion you do not wonder or analyze, you lift the darn thing and get it up the
stairs ;) We got it up, and I got a big bruise in the process (my own fault).
Anyways moving was fun and afterwards it was good to enjoy the afternoon sun on
her balcony. Rest of the weekend was very easy going. I met dear Kaija after
her holidays in Finland and saw bunch of pictures from back home that made feel
a bit home sick for the beautiful Finnish summer. I also got salmiakki and
Fazer liquorice which is always much appreciated. It is such a cliché, but
salmiakki is pretty important part of life for a Finn…as is rye bread. Kaija is
going to Finnish bakery in Brisbane this week to get me some and I think I will
eat the first piece standing and keep a silent minute for it. Aaaah, think about
it, rye bread with butter. Yes, I am hungry while writing this.
Now I am back here at Moranbah, giving training at
Broadmeadow mine site. I had once again a bit of hassle with the travel
bookings, or maybe just the common story of no bookings whatsoever made for me
for this week. I arrived to the office with my suitcase, found out the lack of
bookings, laughed (I am in the laughing mode already with these hiccups) and took
the 2pm flight to Moranbah but had no rent car as they were sold out. In the
plane I was sitting next to very talkative and very hangoverish “oil company
representative” who talked so wide Aussie English it was a struggle to
understand. Especially when I didn’t even want to understand. I tried very hard
to keep him quiet by reading a magazine or listening to iPod but he didn’t care
and kept talking talking talking and telling war stories from the site and me
understanding maybe 30% of what he said. Why is it so difficult to say for a
person that you’d rather read your magazine or book than discuss? And why some
people are not able to read the social signs of other people wanting some peace
and silence? I was wondering this for the total 1h50 minutes flight and didn’t
come to a conclusion, the more beer he had the more talkative he went. At
Moranbah airport I went to try my luck with the car hire companies and managed
to get one due to no-show (how rewarding to realize other people are no-shows
too) and without a map or GPS I drove to Moranbah and found the motel with
first try. No wildlife in but no hairdryer, hand soap or lights in the
bathroom either.
Training has been ok, but I find myself to be a bit
tired of repeating the same thing over and over again. I have the tournament
tiredness going on and it doesn’t help that one needs to get up at 5am to be
at site 6.30 latest to start the session at 7am. I am not at all a morning
person and should learn to be to make my life less painful. On Monday morning
we had a fire alarm at the site (the beep beep sound) and went to the
evacuation assembly area to wait for further instructions. Unlike at Keilaniemi
here people act immediately when they hear the alarm sound (I first thought the
sound was a truck reversing nearby and did not react at all). Apparently
someone had a bun in the microwave a bit too long and the situation was over
pretty soon. Classic, bun in a microwave oven!
Last night during my run (love sports tracker, its
brilliant) I saw a dead snake. Not very fat but very long one. I was told it
was most likely a brown snake, one of the most venomous snakes in Australia and
a miner told me today you have 3 minutes of life left if it bites you and they
are common in the town. Didn’t want to hear that. Anyways a dead venomous snake is peanuts as Marijke’s colleague had a goanna in her toilet. Yes, a freaking
big lizard in the toilet, they are dangerous too. So now the site she’s working
at has a safety rule of checking the toilet for goannas before sitting and also
lifting the rim to check that there are no snakes curled underneath. How
comforting. People say a snake or lizard in a toilet is a urban legend but really it isn't. I said to her that if I ever have any lizards or snakes in my
toilet I’ll head to closest international airport and call it a game.
Seriously. She’s a brave woman and nowadays a day can be considered good if
there is no wildlife in the toilet. Back to basics.
Back to basics. Tomorrow I get to go home a day earlier than planned, sleep in my own bed, have proper coffee, blow dry my hair, sleep longer and wear a dress and high heels. Also I will most likely get fresh rye bread, but that's not basics, that's luxury here.
Pusssss!
//Ansku
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