Work/Life Balance

I am sure we are all becoming more acutely aware of the importance of achieving the correct work/life balance, as I seem to get decidedly testy these days when I skew too much toward the work side of this seemingly simple equation! As we approach the mountain bike race that I have been training for all year (the Flight Centre Epic) I seem to be doing less and less riding and more and more flying. Sitting in this pressurised tube for days on end is not conducive to training....or anything much for that matter. It is leaving me feeling rather flat despite the sometimes breathtaking views.

Norman Greenbaum-Spirit in the Sky

Not long after this, once I was safely ensconced in my hotel room, in another country, I learnt that my 5 year old son had broken his left arm.

The balance was looking decidedly Work/Life at that point. The poor little bloke was pretty worn out from the ordeal by all accounts. A definite down side to this job is not being around when people need you. Although, I am only assuming they needed me there, as I was assured that everything was under control. Hard to get over the guilt though....

It was good to see our rugged northwest coastline the next day from 38 000 feet. The mining industry is busily digging it up as fast as they can and shipping it to China, thereby lead lining (or Iron Cladding) our bottoms from the crisis that has hammered most of the developed world since late 2008. I think I am happy about that as my industry is very sensitive to economic potholes in any shape or form.

Karratha at it's most interesting!

Back into Oz via an all night flight and the worst time of any redeye is when the sun sneaks up over the horizon. Why are we never heading WEST at this time of the morning?

This one takes 20 seconds to get going. Hang in there!

Hothouse Flowers

Still more Australia for a few more days of the work sponsored junket and among various exciting locations, we finished it off with a visit to Mackay in central QLD. Now Mackay is famous for............er...it's coal loading port? And er...lots of interesting things, no really, I like Mackay!

As it says.

As it should be.

Props....for boats?

Home now for a few days. Some serious sleeping is in order, then some riding, and yet more snoozing, then another ride or two and some fun with the kids..............ahh life!