MalAndChip on the Road: Kalgoorlie one week on

Well the week flew by - work has been great, everyone is so friendly and helpful and the various doctors I have met so far have been great too. I have had one birth (ironically a Maori NZ couple) and met quite a few other kiwis (both patients and staff) already. We had a mad busy day on Friday, but that's maternity in a nut shell, usually feast or famine!

Working with aboriginal woman has been very interesting, I am quickly learning the various things you have to take in to consideration which have never dawned on me before. I am sure this experience will set me up nicely for any further work in WA or the Northern Territory.

We are still getting used to the time difference here, though having set up our satellite dish for TV reception as there is no aerial on the flat, and having that still set to Eastern Australian time (2 hours behind) doesn't help. We find ourselves watching the 6pm news at 4pm, so by 8pm we are already heading to bed!! Hopefully I can get our access changed to Western Australian viewing.

Mal has been very busy pounding the pavement looking for work. It seems the fantasy about jobs being easy to get here isn't reality, even for a qualified sparky. Various mines around the place have actually been laying off truck drivers, though others are busy hiring, so that might even itself out. Even so just about every job advertised in the mines, wants mining experience! He has registered with many employment agencies and we are busy sending off job applications online as they come up - surely something must be just around the corner. Meantime he has been kept busy settling us in to the flat, doing the regular run back to the caravan to get something else that we need, helping Chip settle in, and generally being the 'flat bitch' - I am going to miss that when he finds full time employment!

We went out for dinner on Friday night expecting to see a wild and busy night life scene in Kalgoorlie – well we were bitterly disappointed. Okay we did head out before midnight so that was probably the first thing we did wrong, but it hardly lived up to our expectations after watching Kalgoorlie Cops! We even drove around for a while trying to find some excitement – not even one cop in sight. We headed to the Boulder fair on Sunday which was pretty busy but more set up for kids entertainment, though we were treated to an 'eye full' of mature aged (and very cuddly) belly dancers....today we headed to the Kalgoorlie Museum which was very interesting - here are some photos - click on them to read the writing