I've been in Broome for about a month now, and I am finally getting around to posting again. Yes, I know, very very bad of me. My only excuse is that I don't want to use the work computers to post - I dont want any connection to this blog on the work computers in case I want to say things about them... not that I ever would... but just in case.
Anyway, the last four weeks have gone by at varying speeds. At first, things were very slow, and I found myself very frustrated at the lack of anything happening. The company here is run from the boss's house (which does save them from renting an office), but it means its very hard to draw a distinction between 'work time' and 'not-work time'. They seemed to be in no hurry to get my check flights and line checks done, and seemed content that I should be also in no hurry, that I was in Broome should be enough. I flew three flights to the same remote community and then there was nothing for over a week. I have actually taken a side job with the local skydiving operator to make some more money while hanging around, and of course every hour with them counts too!
This last week has been amazingly busy, getting up at 4am four days running, to get the paperwork done, the aircraft prepared, and ready for take-off at 6am. From one day taking the 210 out to a diamond mine where the company had left another aircraft the week before because of some maintenance problem, then me flying the second aircraft back to Broome (an aircraft I had never flown before at all, yet now at the end of the week I have logged over fifteen hours in), to a hugely busy day flying all over the place from Fitzroy Crossing and then later in the day back to Broome, to a flight to Kununurra and back, stopping in Halls Creek for lunch, Friday at least seemed like a quiet, relaxing day despite taking off at 6am and landing back in Broome at 5pm. Though it sounds like a long day, seven hours were spent waiting for the passengers - we had to take a couple of architects to a couple of remote communities, wait for them to do their work, fly to the next community, wait, and so forth until it was time to get back to Broome. I did get almost the entire way through my new book, which I am VERY glad I put in my flight bag.
The "plan" according to the company, which seems to vary on an almost daily basis, is to have me in Halls Creek by around about July 10th... a date which seems to get pushed back further and further every time I hear about it. That is frustrating itself, because until then I am really without proper internet access, and can't properly unpack the car, which has now been packed for over a month since I left Sale. As long as it happens soon and I get paid in the meantime, then I can wait a little longer...
On the postive side, we have been having some amazing days, hot and dry, not a cloud in the sky, and Cable Beach is a fantastic place to watch the sunset from! Its nice to have something I can consider a summer- after two winters in a row, one in Canberra and one in Odawara, sunshine is a lovely change!
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