I was hired as a geologist for a gold mine in the west australian desert, my second one fresh out of uni
more money than I deserved. when I started, I genuinely feared, "fuck, this might be a job where I may have to do some work for a change". But three events conspired so I didn't.

First off the bat, a passing cyclone flooded a river for 13 weeks, blocking the only access to the mine and with it the supply of diesel. This stopped all but essential work, and eventually they grew tired of us boozing all day and flew us home for the last 6 weeks on full pay.

After this they brought in 4 new drill rigs and assigned us geos one each to manage, shit work if ever there was such. The second day driving to work on it, I could see a column of black smoke and eventually my drill rig, on fire. They fucked around for two weeks trying to repair it and retrieve their buried drill string, before deciding it was beyond hope, while I stayed in my cabin smoking cones and watching ski videos.

The drilling company said they werent going to replace the broken rig. It was at this time my boss announced that after 20 years, he was taking all his 6 months long service leave. As I had no rig, he gave me one assignment, and a pretty hurried and piss-poor one at that. They had all these old exploration leases that were expiring, patches of ground throughout the desert that had been pecked over before, and he wanted me to give them one final look before they expired. and then he left. For six months I had a free licence to roam around the desert, swagging out under the stars with roos and passing camels for company. I did a lot of acid in this period, so much so that I haven't felt like doing it again for 13 years. About two weeks before he was due to return, I realised I hadn't done any work to show for my 6 months. So I went to a barren outcrop, took about 1000 identical samples. then marked them on my maps as if Id been all over the shot, working. of course they all came back from the lab with zero gold, but that was expected anyway. The gods of slack smiled upon me in that job
( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Thu 9 Sep 2010, 17:44, 3 replies)

must be an ozzie thing
reminds me of one of your countrymen, a nice bloke who seems to have found his dream job; 5 minutes of hyperbaric welding, 28 days in a decompression chamber, reading philosophy, two weeks in the tropics living like a rock star until the next job comes in...

Awesome.
(pounana Slept well, and dreamed of large women, on, Fri 10 Sep 2010, 2:12, closed)

Could have turned out different
Just imagine what would have happened if that barren outcrop turned out to have some gold in it...
(What Could Possibly Go Wrong? ..., Fri 10 Sep 2010, 7:38, closed)

it could of happened to me. i was never that good a geo

( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Fri 10 Sep 2010, 15:31, closed)