Karratha: At The End

November 2015

Its my final weeks in Karratha. Hurray! I thought I would never get here. I still had 4 weeks left until I leave but I started to make plans. I went to the doctors at the start of November to get my vaccinations done for Asia. I thought it would be best to get this out of the way even though I had 2 months left in Australia. The injections made both arms hurt but the worst was the Cholera which has to be dissolved in water and drunk. I've never tasted something so disgusting in all my life. To make it worse you must drink the second one a week later knowing how disgusting the first one was.

Byes

The security team was replaced for a cheaper company at the start of the month. Everyone was in agreement that this is a bad idea as Willie, Ray and Aaron know all the locals really well. To have new staff come in from Perth with their city thinking was not going to go down too well and it didn't. There were a few incidents over my remaining weekends. The security team's final day was on the Melbourne Cup which was a very busy day. I put bets on without really knowing what I was doing so obviously I won nothing.

There were some other changes too. Alice finally left and I'm happy for her that she didn't decide to stay any longer. She needed to leave for her own sake. There was a new manager too, Naomi. She's Dutch but has been in Australia for 10 years. She soon found out what she'd signed up to when Danny overrode her decision to cut someone off. He decided to give the man a drink to stop the "situation from escalating". Biggest management and basic bartending fail I have ever heard of!

Made a new sign

After the Melbourne Cup I had to wipe the sign off and make a new one for Christmas. Not that I'll be here for that. Mwahahaaa.

Picture of a camera

My new camera arrived and I was very pleased with it. I gave it a test run when we went out Mariee Pool again. We took some beers with us this time.

Ollie and Megan

Going for a swing

Vicky rocking the flynet

We weren't the only people there and after a while a bus load of kids turned up. They took the rope swinging to the extreme by jumping from the tree!

Extreme rope swing

Flying

I had fun playing with my camera trying to get some cool shots. I got an eagle with my super zoom!

Big bird

Beers in the river

It was a really fun afternoon. I was trying my best to enjoy these last few days as it would be the last time for a while and that I would be able to hang out with some good friends.

A place to say goodbye

For months Megan, Kate and I had planned to have our last night on the same night and we thought that ours would be the next leaving party but we were wrong. Beki dropped a bombshell when she said she would be leaving before us. Hayden, her boyfriend, had left at the start of the month and they had initially decided to go there separate ways at least for a little while. Then Beki decided she wanted to go with him and handed in her notice.

Pool Party

We had a party that weekend around at Corbett. A lot of people came and most people jumped in the pool after a while. Someone decided it would be good to jump off the roof into the pool and a few people copied including myself. That was fun. There were still a few of us in the pool when the sun came up. At that point the flies woke up and brought all of their mates and everyone left.

Drunken night swim

I worked at a wine tasting night in the function room one evening and I had a lot of fun. I don't really know why but everything was funny. I think its because a few of us would be leaving soon and the care factor had reached -1000. It was like we were being naughty school kids, laughing when we shouldn't etc. We got in the local paper, famous!

Would you like some wine

The final week! I can almost relive the excitement whilst I write this but also the anger. Naomi only gave me 30 hours for the last week which is a massive slap in the face. I wanted to confront her about it but I didn't see her for 3 days and when I did see her I decided its not worth it. She's the one that's staying. Sarah gave me a few extra hours to set up the function room for a Christmas party so I got to decorate a Christmas tree. I didn't expect to be doing that this year.

Perfect Christmas decorations

Close but not quite

One of things I was looking forward to when I left was rain! For most of November there were storms over by the hills. You could always see them. Sometimes closer, sometimes further away but never overhead. I would have to wait longer for a bit of the wet stuff.

FINISHED!!!

I'm done. Its over. Look how happy we are. Me, Kate and Megan were all finished at the Tambrey. Shelly was also there to photobomb our excitement. Eric gave us a nasty shot but we appreciated it all the same. That night we went out to Evos and had the best night!

Happy Happy Happy

Our actual leaving party was on the Sunday despite being hungover. We had a Sunday session where I had a parmi. I asked Vicky and Paul if they could cook me a New Yorker parmi instead of the regular. Vicky said she couldn't but then surprised me with it. People slowly joined me, Megan, Kate and Ollie throughout the day as they finished work. Then at the end, when the bar was closed we were given cards and gifts. Megan and Kate got a bottle of Cafe Patron and I got cash which would be more useful for me. Then we went back to Corbett for a party.

Another pool party

Despite everything I began to hate about the job at least we were all in it together. We all shared the good and bad experiences working at the Tambrey and living in Karratha. I made some true friendships that I hope to continue. I said in the first of the Karratha blogs that I would focus on the positives but I guess a few stories slipped through the net but it wasn't all bad. I had some awesome times here too and I'll never forget my time in the Pilbara. My car was all packed and I was ready to, once again, hit the road!

Goodbye Karratha from me an Trevor!