My revenge

Finally the day of my sweet revenge, the fact that i had to work on my birthday when i entered a new decade in my life.
A decade of the start of discovering grey hears, finding out that the body sometimes argues with the mind and who knows what more.

So my dear readers, i`m off to celebrate the start of this new period in my life, also known by people as the more mature time in a humans life.
I will be back in touch in two weeks.
Revenge is mine!

Canteen Creek

Back from a job in an aboriginal community. I spend a week in Canteen Creek. It`s a little dry settlement , i figure around 30 living souls, somewhere in the dessert. With "dry" i mean , no alcohol permitted on the premises. By law you commit an offence when you have an alcohol beverage over there. So after a week you feel really dry. It`s a 632 k drive with the fourby. Imagine going to work , spend an 8 hour drive, start working for a few days, and have another 8 hour drive back home. Only possible in Australia. I`m telling this story to give you, my few returning readers, a bit more details about a bushjob. The job that we had to do, was replacing a gen-set to a newer one. I have also more photo`s, i `m finally a proud owner of a digital camera.

We left dear Alice at 600 am with a fully loaded fourby. It`s a 400 k`s bitumen up north before you really disappear in the red centre. From there another 200 k`s dirt road is waiting direction east. The only living souls you encounter before entering the community is a cattle station with a property bigger then Belgium and around a million cattle, just 40 k`s from the Stuart highway. So we cruising alone , once a while changing from seat between the sleeping and the one with the steer. Everything went fine till we got on the dirt track. A 20 k on the rocky road was to much for the tyre. The rubber was ripped in pieces, time to have a break, normally with some alcohol beverages, but not this time, we were heading to a "dry" town, so technical there was no alcohol in the surroundings. We replaced the wheel , and off we went again, with only one spare left. That's why people who drive a lot into the bush have more then one spare on the car. You always have to get back and some aren`t that lucky. The weekend before a Canadian tourist got killed on the same dirt track , by loosing his wheel , roll over, felt out the car, and the car landed on him.

We arrived at Canteen Creek safely, went to the house where we should stay for a few days, nothing special. A four room house with common shower and kitchen. Cardboard windows , 10 mm of red dust on the floor and some mattresses who are inhabit by who knows what kind of species. Good thing we have our own bed with us, our precious swag. We start unloading the car , look to the job , cook a meal, and dive into our swag.

The work went pretty well, its always a bit creative, because the only tools and materials you have , are the one you brought with you. The next tool or workshop is 300 k`s further in Tennant Creek. So to be inventive is the word. We installed the new genset, made up a new exhaust and all the things you have to do with it. Penetration into the wall, re-sheting, repainting , etc.

Canteen Creek is not new for me, been there five times now, i had the chance to see my old friend again. Rilly, named after our boss. He is one of the 100 dogs that are gathered around the camp. The most miserable one, but nowadays, he looks pretty good. There is a lot of coming and going of tradesman the last two years, and clever as he is, he always stayed around the house and being feed well. It`s also the place where i met the flying sheet. I can say that the place has a special place in my heart.

Job well done, lets get the hell out of here. First say goodbye to the locals, some donkey`s who are scrolling in the camp, and Rilly. Give him the rest of the food we brought with us, and off we go, back again to a "wet" town.

Another eight hours of driving before i can get my first beer.

True Blue

Damned, winter in the dessert. Its almost that i was back in Belgium. Freezing temperatures at night and in the day, no shorts, no singlets and no thongs. Together with my 40 years midlife crises and the weather i felt almost depress. It`s a good thing alcohol can keep you warm.

The days are filled, waiting for the post, my passport would arrive soon. And it did. I`m now the proud owner of 2 passports, 2 Belgium ones, the new one for another 5 years and the old one with my permanent visum inside. Mmmh,? No, they couldn`t put the visum in the new one. That's another department who deals them out. So, that means , paperwork !, and because the lost month, i start specializing in this kind of business, maybe a career movement, who knows.

But we getting there. I did the citizen test. And i`m proud to say i`m a true blue. Twenty questions, and twenty correct answers. But i didn`t had my passport, so i have to go back, not to do the test, but to show that i`m really Hans Hertsens. After that , it takes a couple of months before they invite me for the ceremony, where i `ll become an Australian citizen. But for certain reasons i think, a not official true blue test will follow .

I went for the first time to an Australian court. Yep, quite amazing, two years in Australia, and already a hearing. It`s was pure sci-fi in the middle of the dessert. We entered the courtroom, a lot of people seems to wanna have a divorce nowedays. Sitting with about 11 people in an oval room against the wall, a big tele screen in the front and a web cam. Waiting till the judge appears on the screen, and then suddenly start talking to you. Damned , he has a web cam too. Mr Hertsens would you be so kind to approach the bench? It talks too. Are you Mr Hertsens? Are you Mr Hertsens ? Again. You can speak in the micro if you please! Damned, Yes, I am, your honour. He can hear me too. I didn`t felt anymore in the middle of the dessert, where i cook my meals in the camp oven, and heat my billy above the campfire. The divorce was granted, so officially, i will be divorced after one month and one day.