It was great to have a short break from everything, but it is time to get back to work. In fact, this could be considered the real beginning of our adventures. Everything that precedes this point is testing, and after this it's for real (whatever the hell that means).
We camped in the main camping area of Warrumbungle National Park with easy access to the major hiking trails. There is excellent mobile reception and coverage, and there are kangaroos all over the place.
We drove out to Gulargambone for a half day and arranged some work for later in the week, and set up a meeting to discuss some more possible work.
We managed to leave one day spare for a decent hike, 6 hours round trip, and some spectacular views. On the way up we came across a red bellied black snake (nasty) and on the way down we managed to spot a small number of spotted pardolates (pretty).
After that, it was time for another trip to Gulargambone to do the jobs we'd lined up, and to talk to the shakers & movers in town. At the meeting they expressed an interest in us presenting some training classes, so armed with their suggestions we headed to the (more remote) southern end of Warrumbungle NP, and spent two days preparing class outlines and a timetable. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "home office".
We sent them off, and they were accepted. Now we have a week to prepare a week's worth of training classes.
The new laptop won. Barely a month old, and the CD drive has shit itself. Now we have to figure out how to get it back to Sydney. At least with the DELL, they come to us when it dies.
The DELL has not been entirely problem free. I trashed my second Windows partition, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get any version of Windows to install on it. I finally gave up and used my Linux install to copy the first partition onto the third. Now I have two identical installations of ME. Not exactly what I wanted, but it'll do for now.
We headed north to Baradine for a job there and to catch up with the friends we made there last time. After a couple of days camping in the Piliga, we headed back to Gulargambone to do another couple of small jobs that had come up.
With the deadline for our training classes drawing near, we "rented" a house on a property near town, and began work on the classes. The weather is perfect, and there are heaps of really nice birds hanging around the house, but we're stuck inside working. (Well, not quite perfect. If it doesn't rain up here soon, there won't be anything left of the wheat crop.)
Add to that, a couple more jobs have been offered to us, and things are really turning hectic on us. Gulargambone it seems, is a really switched on town.
We held the classes in the local RTC, which has a few computers that share a single dialup. Performance is a major problem, and so are connection dropouts. We added our laptops for the large classes, and one ran as a mail server during the email class.
The classes have been well received, and we have a lot of happy students. We had lots of fun teaching the classes, too.
With the classes out of the way, we've caught up with the other jobs that have come up. Before we head out of town, we've taken a short break to experience a few of the things country life has to offer and enjoy some great country hospitality. (especially Sandra - Thanks!)
