Work Related – troutish.net

At the end of each year, like many others I’ve always enjoyed looking back at the year that was and making predictions and plans for how what the next year will be. The end of 2013 was no exception, but I felt a strong need to finish writing and sorting photos for my post “Logging in WA’s South West” before I wrote this post.

For me, 2013 was a year of much personal and professional progress, but also a year of serious emotional ups and downs and mental health challenges like I had never experienced before. I started the year out on the streets of New York, inebriated by too much top-shelf alcohol consumed while watching comedy to bring in the new year at the Gotham Comedy Club. The hectic nature of New York city on New Years Eve was an accurate omen for how the rest of 2013 would play out, over-crowded and full-on.

My story for 2013 is one of a year not for the feint of heart. Continue reading A New Year – (2013, the year that was).

It’s been a very long time coming for me to start writing a personal blog again. I used to do it regularly, almost daily back in 2005-07. Even while I was studying at uni, working full time and the founder/editor in chief of collaboration blog about Iraq, written by Iraqis. But at some stage I became overwhelmed by it all and life took me on a different journey for a while.

Back then Gee (Georgia, my then girlfriend now soon to be wife) and I were in the process of finding and buying our first home, I was 20 at the time and she 21. I was 2 years into a journalism degree and had been working in a Bakery for 3 years as a trades assistant. I was good at my job and for the most part enjoyed it, but I was eager and wanted to earn some big bucks so I could pay the mortgage off quickly and go chase my dreams of becoming a journalist. So, like any West Australian youth would do, I decided it was a great idea to go work in the mining industry.

It worked, to some extent. Surely I found a bit of temporary work which paid well and I had enough contacts to survive the employment gaps in between. Gee and I both managed to progress in our employment and didn’t have to struggle to pay the bills, though we were both working long hours.

Eventually I settled into a role at Australian Pressure Testing Services as a Pressure Test Technician and was good at my job. I was there for a year and a half before they sent me on a 6 month stint on-site at Boddington Gold Mine where I was paid a top-rate wage, which I worked my ass off for. It went well and aside from a few arguments about weekend overtime, which was non-compulsory according to the site agreement, my bosses were both impressed with the quality and quantity of my work. But eventually as the job was nearing completion there was a call for voluntary redundancy from site.

Continue reading A long time coming