You should apply for this role, it will be a piece of cake my friend said. Haha, I was conned all right! I will admit that I worried at one point that my job as project manager for Qld Health in Torres and Cape, TCHHS, was going to kill me, the stress was like nothing I had experienced in my entire life, and I thought I would be really annoyed if it did!
The idyllic photos I took while on TI, Thursday Island for non Aussies, do not reflect the horrendously hectic time my team and I went through that week. But like always, some good always comes out of every challenge. And that was the teamwork and bond we forged to get ourselves over this ‘hurdle’! We worked until midnight that week and too many times for another couple of weeks after that. But we had wonderful laughs too!
Leaving Horn Island where we land from Cairns to go to Thursday Island
TI hospital where we were based for a week – pretty amazing spot!
TI hospital helicopter pad on the left
Managed a walk up to Green Hill Fort on Thursday Island with my colleagues after work
Went from TI to Bamaga for the day – it’s quite a long boat ride
Leaving beautiful TI for the last time – for now…
Our flight to Cooktown
Being in Cairns had some unexpected bonuses such as catching up with a few special people – my sister who had made Cairns one of their destinations on their Aussie trip, biking friends who returned home in Cairns, an artist friend and discovering some of Cairns’ beauty and wilderness spots with my love over a couple of week ends.
Great distraction seeing my sister Diane in Cairns
Babinda Boulders
Saw our first cassowaries, a male with its chick, at Etty Bay
Another male cassowary at Etty Bay
Loved Etty Bay
Enjoyed some amazing walks around Lake Eascham
We saw some magnificient trees in Crater Lakes National Park
Bananas in pyjamas!
Met Anne in Cairns – amazingly we grew up in the same little town in Northern France – we just met 50 years later!
I am typing this at 11,200m on my Virgin flight back to Brisbane. It will take a bit of time to recover and unwind and I can’t wait to be back with Anthony. I would not have managed to keep with this job without his support. Anthony kept me sane and distracted when he came up to Cairns and did everything at home, yes, even all the cooking – he now makes the best ever apple and rubbard crumble! And he did all the planning for our upcoming trip.
I will remember my time on this project, both while in Brisbane and then in Cairns, fondly because, as always, life is about the people and I worked with 2 amazing teams. I could not have achieved what I did without the amazing support of the most awesome teams. I will miss them but it’s time for some family time now. Thanks the memories Cairns and TCHHS, it really has been awesome.
Bye-bye Cairns, the building marked with the arrow is where I lived for 3.5 months
Bye-bye Torres & Cape, we’ll be back
Chat to you all again soon. Next stop Abu Dhabi!
2slowspeeds 