SCN “Way Up North”

Seriously Cute Niece (SCN), number one model (errr, only model), and my primary getter of Nescafe Nespresso coffee pods, has gone and left me. She is thousands of kilometres away (I think, I haven’t actually measured it) doing work experience as part of her training to become a Civil Engineer. What’s more I am actually out of coffee pods and am having to drink INSTANT coffee at the moment. Seriously! I am not kidding. Instant coffee!

She is a brave little girl. Going way up there amongst all those burley men.

In one of her e-mails she was telling me about how there is 1,000+ people on site in the ‘village’ when she was kind of expecting for there to be maybe a hundred or so; maybe even less.

She was also saying how it is hard to boggle just how much food and how much variety is available in the mess hall for breakfasts and dinners. Here is that part of her e-mail just for you to read: “The food is unbelievable. So much choice, it’s like a super fancy Sizzler. They even cook you steak the way you want it if you ask. Last night we had roast beef with about every vegetable imaginable on offer, as well as soup, pasta, salad, fish and chicken if you wanted it. Breakfast is also amazing … there is a full cooked brekky everyday; I haven’t had it yet but i will soon. There is also cereal, toast, crumpets, porridge, fruit, fruit salad, about ten types of yoghurt, frozen berries … I could go on forever. At breakfast you also pack your lunch for the day. There are takeaway containers all set up which you just grab and go along the lunch bar filling up as many and as much as you want. There are salads, cold meats, rolls, leftover dinners that you can reheat on site, meat pies … it is honestly amazing I eat too much all the time just cos I get all confused and have bits of everything.”

I doubt if they have Sizzlers in the US. I am not even sure they have them on the east coast of Australia. Sizzlers is like a large open-space family budget restaurant and they have a huge variety of salads, vegetables, fruit, and sweats to choose from smorgasbord style. You can’t book for Sizzlers. You just turn up and hope they can seat you. You order your cooked meal (steak, fish, chicken, whatever) then load up with salads and stuff as many time as you like.

It is kind of hard to imagine SCN in her long sleeved bright orange cotton hi-visibility shirt and trousers with her steel toe-cap boots on. At least I assume she will be wearing bright orange. The general mining site standard seems to be bright orange for inducted people and highlighter-yellow for people who have not been fully inducted (visitors).

I guess she won’t get much of chance to wear heels . . .