Things have slowed a little this week, with the tropical winter bringing low cloud and pouring rain for the last two days. At least the temperature is still in the high 20s. Two days running now, despite getting up early (which is hard for me), I've ended up sitting around in the city office until mid morning, then being told the entire day is cancelled.

On the positive side, this has meant I'm able to return to my little burrow instead of hanging around the office, and I have also been able to wander around the town and take some photos.


Here's the lagoon in Cairns - an artificial beach with smooth pool sides on one side, and a shallow sandy slope on the other.



And here's why they have it: the actual beach in Cairns at low tide:

I have somehow found myself in July, with only one post to account for the entire first half of this year.

The first half was productive, getting all my study done, which now means that I shouldnt have to do any more of those exams. This leaves me free for my new job, which is back in Queensland again, and back in the air again! Cairns is lovely at this time of the year, because up here, they think a cold day is 25 degrees. It's not quite as hot as Broome, but considerably more humid.

I've been here just over a week now, and as I write, my housemate has just set fire to something in the kitchen, and the smoke alarm is loud enough to wake up children three blocks away. He is very friendly, but seems to be a little lost in terms of domestic skills since his girlfriend has gone away on holidays for three weeks.

The company here have surprised me greatly by committing to all sorts of things in writing, so I am confident of actually being paid what they said they'd pay me. This makes a change in this particular industry - and hopefully a sign of things to come. The downside is the training program, which is a mere two days off being complete, is dependent on both the weather, and the availability of a certain person - so it looks like later this week. In the meantime, I am being allowed to play with two very nice turboprop aircraft, considerably larger than things I have driven before, and I am indeed enjoying that. The company has two bases, with a third recently purchased, or so I am told, and I'm up in Cairns for the first month to get all my training out of the way and be ready to run the new base from August. Like everything in aviation, I'm not going to get too excited until it actually happens, but my expectation with this company is a little higher than it was with certain other operators.