The last time I wrote was over a week ago, and it's been a loooong week. First of all, just an apology about the delay, I just haven't had the computer that much, and I've been pretty tired and busy after work, so it's just been supermarket, home, sleep. I'll try and update you about the last week or so, since many things have happened, good and bad.
Last weekend, March 9th, we went to the Blue Mountains National Park, after which we ended up in the ER until 10:30 pm. But we'll come back to that. The first thing that happened was that our bus was late, well, actually we don't know if it ever came. An elderly Australian man that walked by thought we were silly for expecting the bus to come at all, since the driver had probably come back late from the pub and was sleeping it off. When we couldn't wait any more, we called a cab. Our tour bus was also late, about 20 minutes, so I was starting to wonder if we had missed it, so I looked around and there was a girl, standing there also looking nervous. We started talking, she was also on our bus, and it turns out that she works for Arup, the engineering company...! She does fire engineering, so how will buildings best stay up during a fire. We talked about the World Trade Center buildings, and she said that they were so horribly designed that it was shocking. She described it basically as a square log cabin, where in the corners you have four columns, where the beams overlap and create the log cabin effect, so that when one of the columns, just one, collapses, the whole structure is compromised. As far as I could understand, she said that there should be many more columns around the perimeter of the building, and more inside the perimeter, maybe four or so. Then she said that there should be units, so that the same columns for floors 1-10 aren't the same columns for floors 11-20. It was all very interesting, and she has done placements with Arup in China, and seen all the buildings they're doing there for the Olympics. She said that she thought nursing was the wrong profession for me. And Mom, we also talked about affordable emergency housing, including tents. She was totally interesting to talk to. Anyways, moving on. The bus finally came and then it turned out that the company had overbooked, so somebody had to get off again. Charlotte, the Arup person, got off and took another bus behind us, so that was the end of her. On our way to the Blue Mtns, we stopped by the Olympic grounds, and saw the Olympic stadium, where hopefully I'll be able to catch a rugby game before I leave again. Back on the bus, we were given lots of facts and info about Australia and Sydney, including a little local info about a radio station that organized a breakfast to get as many nationalities together. They managed to get 163 people, all different nationalities. That gives you an idea of how diverse Australia is. After years in Denmark, I'm shocked again to see so many different types of people living and working together. Half the time you have to use sign language to communicate with the Chinese cab driver, or the African waitress. The Australians are very accepting of this and don't complain about it at all. Very different from Denmark. Onwards again, we got to the national park and got off at a camping site, where we were able to get some pictures of kangaroos. The air was very crisp and the forest was primarily eucalyptus trees, which I think smell great. There are also all kinds of great things about eucalyptus trees, including that their bark can protect the core of the trunk from fire, so they survive forest fires. Some of them are also dependent on fires to regenerate, and their seed pods, if I'm remembering correctly, open during a fire. But they also produce a lot of oil, which fuels fires, so... The bark on many of the trees was peeling off in large strips, which sometimes were curled tightly by the time they fell off the tree. It looks beautiful when they shed their bark, underneath they are smooth and pale. There are also apparently many, many different types of eucalyptus, so while some tolerate scorching heat, some have adapted to below freezing winters up in the mountains. Afterwards we were driven to a look-out point, where we hiked down to some falls. The whole thing was okay, but it was just tour bus after tour bus dropped off mass amounts of people. There was nothing wild or natural about it. We got to another look-out, the Three Sisters, where we were supposed to walk down 1000 steps, and then take a cable car up. We started down the path, got about 200 meters down the steps and next thing I know, Bettina is rolling by me. She sprained her ankle, missed the step, rolled down and couldn't move. Our tour guide being really helpful, decided to head down into the canyon anyways, leaving me and Bettina to get her back up the 200 meters. Bettina had surgery on the foot a couple of years ago, and had spent all Saturday saying that as long as her ankle was okay, she'd be happy. Long story short, we got her up, in a wheel chair, and down the canyon and up again by cable car. I had Bettina's leg across my lap the whole 2-hour bus ride home, but thankfully we got the bus to take a detour and drop us off at the ER at RPA (our hospital). We sat there for three hours, just waiting, but at least we saw where Jeanet is in praktik every day. Nothing broken, we were finally released and very exhausted we made our way home. We all had to be up by 6 am the next morning, which brings us to this week's nightmare.
Sunday night we were thoroughly knackered, as the Australians say. It was so hot here that night, easily in the 30's, even at 11 pm. We had been in the hot sun, in a hot bus, all day. We went to bed, and all fell asleep right away. It lasted only two hours. Suddenly at 1 am I'm jolted away by the sound of people outside my door thumping up and down the hallway, drunk and laughing. I managed to fall asleep again, as they moved down the hallway. Then again at 2.30 am I heard the girls, back in my hallway, still shouting and singing. Again at 4 am, at which time I'm starting to really get irritated, since my alarm is set for 5.5o, and when it finally goes off, I feel as if I hadn't even slept. I went to work and overlapped with Gill, one of the girls, who I complained to about the noise. Maybe because I was tired I was feeling bitchier than normal, so I came home and talked to Bettina and Jeanet about it. Bettina complained that she couldn't sleep at all, so we together wrote a short, informal email to our contact person, "Betty", to report it. Most of the girls in our hall either didn't sleep at all, or were woken several times that night. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but we wanted a general reinforcement of the rules for the entire floor, not just these girls. Apparently, simultaneously, Betty is receiving other complaints about the same girls from Friday and Saturday night. All together I think there were about eight complaints, but I can't be sure. Since I work with Gill, I wanted to be kept anonymous, and I certainly didn't want anything drastic to happen to Gill, just a general reminder of the quiet rules after 11 pm. Next thing I know, I'm being called to HR on Tuesday to tell Betty about our complaint, which I quickly withdraw since I can sense that it's getting a little out of hand. No matter, she says, they have other complaints. Tuesday afternoon the girls are called in to a meeting, and told they have individual interviews with Betty Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon Betty shows up here, asking to speak to me in front of 15 girls, who quickly put 2 and 2 together. Bettina and I deny the whole thing because we think we can, but on Wednesday, after their interviews and their evictions from the housing, I realize this has gotten way out of hand. A lot of letter writing and meetings and whatnot later, the girls and I are good, the girls are staying and I am much wiser. It's funny how you grow up more in 5 days than you do the rest of the year's 360 days. You learn about management, loyalty, owning up to your actions, sucking it up and apologizing, and all the rest of it. More than anything, I'm glad Gill and I are good again. I was called to the office of the Executive Director of Nursing in NSW who told me that Betty is being given other job functions, and was basically apologized to for everything getting so out of control. EXHALE. Gill is amazing, and I'm not stupid enough to think that everybody would be that sweet about this, but it was good to learn.
More later, time to get ready for a concert this afternoon at Centennial Park, Jack Johnson, straight from Hawaii!
And finally, me under the water, displaying enormous faith in glass.
Here is the Opera Bar, with everyone packed in under the umbrellas. The SOH is a really gorgeous building, much nicer in real life than in pictures. The last picture is of the time and the temperature. Still warm enough to keep me happy!
