Through the Eyes of a Wombat

Another long time has gone by between posts, but I have been busy!
It was a week for milestones, actually, as I have gone from casual hours to a full-time salary (my first salaried job as a pilot), reaching three hundred hours, and having my first ever layover.

The boss has been consistently pushing back my expected start time ever since I arrived, and when at the start of July he decided to let me know that he expects me to start in Halls Creek at the end of August, I let him know that things were getting beyond a joke. I let him know that having me hovering around, working twelve-hour days but being paid whenever he remembered that I'd been doing huge amounts of work for him, really wasn't good enough. To his credit though, he put me onto a salary straight away, and now its only a matter of days until the end of the first pay cycle, and the money starts arriving!

Broome does seem to be busier than Halls Creek at the moment, too, (despite what the boss believes), which is working well for me, having flown 70 hours since I arrived - though the first three weeks had almost nothing happening. The disadvantage to Broome, however, is that I still have nowhere to live - despite the boss promising me over a week ago to sort something out. I will absolutely refuse to live in his house, though a room will be opening here very soon, for not only is the company office part of the house, but the whole house is an absolute pigsty. Yet he himself has somewhere to live, so it keeps slipping his mind that I, still, don't.
Still, something may happen sooner rather than later to move me to Halls Creek, where I will at least have my own room and be able to unpack my car!

But I spent Sunday night in Halls Creek, on my first ever overnight layover! I'm expecting a lot more of these as my career progresses, and I'm expecting over the years to grow to dread them (thanks for the tip, (ex-)cabin-crew peoples... you know who you are!) but for now, it's exciting. I did have the single best nights sleep that I've had since coming to Broome (ironic that it wasnt even in Broome), which I can clearly ascribe to having a room to myself, where I control the background noise! The other pilot living out there is fantastic; we managed to find plenty of things to pass the time in the thriving metropolis that is Halls Creek. Yet still, the highlight for me was the ability to close the door, have the room to myself until I chose to wake up the next morning!

I've come to learn with this company that many things are promised, but until they actually happen I'm not holding my breath. Having said that, I may likely be spending the first week of August living in Fitzroy Crossing, while the pilot out there takes some time off. This will also have the advantage of some decent sleeping. On another note, I was introduced to the primary investor in this company tonight, a very nice chap who owns a pearling farm. Whether anything will come of it or not I don't know, but he was rather interested to hear I speak Japanese, for apparently he has need from time to time to bring clients out from Japan to his pearl farm, which is in a location served only by air, and he feels he could put a Japanese-speaking pilot to good use. I shall keep you updated if anything does come of that - but as I said before, still not holding my breath!

For now, it's off to bed for me: I have another early start with a staff transfer to one of the diamond mines, followed by an afternoon dropping parachutists over Cable Beach.