3200 Qantas Frequent Flyer Points in 24 hours

Just a little update - I'm working in Western Australia now; on a gold-mine expansion project 2hrs drive SSE from Perth. It's in the middle of nowhere, and gets quite cold at nights - as cold as -3 degrees!


I fly back to Melbourne every 4th weekend for R&R. This weekend just passed was my July R&R, and so, for those who are wondering why I'm still in Melb... my last few days looked like this:

• Thu 24/07/2008 11:30pm (WST) - scheduled departure from PER airport

• Fri 25/07/2008 12:00am - actual departure
• Fri 25/07/2008 5:00am (EST) - arrival at MEL airport, took chauffeured taxi home
• Fri 25/07/2008 6:00am - arrived home, went to sleep
• Fri 25/07/2008 10:00am - watched "Children of the Silk Road" with Mum (great movie!)

• Sat 26/07/2008 - went to church, celebrated my 25th... woo!

• Sun 27/07/2008 - brunch, lunch - heaps of catch ups, dinner with Steph's family
  

• Mon 28/07/2008 10:00am – chauffeured taxi to airport
• Mon 28/07/2008 12:30pm - departed for Perth
• Mon 28/07/2008 2:30pm (WST) - arrived in Perth.... now get this: 3 voicemails on my phone. They wanted me in the Melb office urgently to do some work for a couple of weeks
  
• Mon 28/07/2008 4:00pm - arrived in Perth office, got the admin assistant to organise a hotel room for the night and flight back the next day (I need rest - no way I was flying immediately!)
• Mon 28/07/2008 5:30pm - hotel and flights confirmed
• Mon 28/07/2008 6:30pm - checked into hotel
• Mon 28/07/2008 8:30pm - dinner with Andrew, Vianny, Like, Daniel
• Mon 28/07/2008 10:30pm - back to hotel, heaps of email, sleep

• Tue 29/07/2008 4:30am - woke up, got ready, went to PER airport
• Tue 29/07/2008 5:15am - got to the check in desk, found that the travel agent booked, but did not issue the ticket!
• Tue 29/07/2008 5:45am - called the travel agent's emergency number, got the ticket issued, checked in
• Tue 29/07/2008 6:10am - scheduled departure from PER airport
• Tue 29/07/2008 7:30am - actual departure
• Tue 29/07/2008 12:30pm (EST) - arrived at MEL airport
• Tue 29/07/2008 1:30pm - arrived at Melb office (hehe - got a hire car), got briefed on what to do, got a workstation organised, started working, etc.

Nice.

Death in a blink

Because of a 4-week secondment, I now make a 70min journey towards Melbourne's western suburbs. On the way to work just last Friday (8th June), I witnessed the most tragic of accidents. This happened on Research-Warrandyte Road, similar to the road shown below.

At 7:05am, just before sunrise, I was travelling in a group of cars. The second vehicle in front of me was a white ute who for some reason drifted onto the opposite lane. Mind you, the road was windy and had single-lanes for each direction. When the ute drifted over, I noticed an object that flew around the bend on the opposite side. In that split-second moment, I knew a crash was imminent - that was how far the ute drifted across.

BANG!!

Plenty of smoke, and fragments flew everywhere. The ute hit its brakes but its momentum carried it over the edge of the road and disappeared down a short cliff-face. What I saw next shocked me the most.

I noticed the wreckage of half a motorbike on the side of the road.

That was what the object was. Fair enough if it was a car.... but to witness a head-on collision involving a motorbike ... Next I noticed a leather boot on the road-side, a glove on the other side of the road... and then the helmet-visor lying on the centre of the road. One motorist who also stopped to helped out yelled out:

"Where the h--l is the rider??"

It took us what seemed like 10 minutes to locate the body. It was some 8 metres from where the bike lay, below road-level and twisted amongst some shrubs. He didn't make it. His body was lying faced-down and legs were snapped into a contorted position.

The driver of the ute came from where his vehicle went over the edge, apparently unharmed. But his face said it all:

"Oh my goodness, what have I done??"

Emergency personnel shortly arrived and the police took my statement. The ambulance came and left just as quickly, discovering there was nothing they could do. A hearse appeared a few minutes later.

Death in a blink. We never know when it happens to us. But one thing is certain: each day is to be treasured. You only have one chance to live out each day.