Nath&Joyce

Nath&Joyce
Originally uploaded by nathpng.

Joyce Pinia - superstar new accounts clerk who we've been training up in the office. Joyce always shows up for the extra trainings and stuff. If something had happened to her in that post about 5-8 posts ago... hmmm... anyways, staff are a little like family over here!

Nath&SimonMichael

Nath&SimonMichael
Originally uploaded by nathpng.

Simon is the day security guard - I've posted about him before. He's a very good guy. Security guards up here make around K90 per fortnight. At 10hrs per day, and 14 days a fortnight, that's 0.64t - or approx. 30cents Australian an hour. Have become quite close to Simon, poro bilong me. Every single day of the week, he's outside or around - playing with the kids or chatting with the lads around the place. Taught me a good whack of my (halting) pigen also. Met the family and hopefully get to see his village if/when I get to Goroka for a final Jase/Eden go-finish soiree later in August.

(PS - that's the other side of my house/compound you can see in the background...)

back to it...

Entering into the last few months is proving more difficult than getting through the previous 5. Little bit of lack of sleep via Cairns and Airlines PNG, but really to do with having reconnected “into” Melbourne – and it’s relationships, friends, family and lack of potholes - now psyching up for more busy-ness.

Plus it always s*cks a bit coming back from a holiday with a beautiful girl.

It’s the last lap – at least for 2007’s overseas jaunts. With 2 months or so left in the job and with people all around – lots of questions, and only some answers. These questions seem to apply equally (most times) to some work decisions coming up, and also to some other decisions en route to Melbourne again. But mostly I agonized quite a bit about coming back to Oz – based on some of these.

[Paraphrased from a little Edward Craig book]
Should you do “A” or not? Well… what will the consequences be if you do? What are the consequences for friends, family, and others, as well as those for yourself? And what if you don’t? How do the consequences compare? Alternatively, never mind the consequences for a moment, can you do “A” consistently with your own view of yourself – would it involve betraying ideals that till then you had valued and tried to live up to? How will you feel about having done it? Or again, however pleasant the consequences may be, would it run contrary to some duty, or some obligation you have incurred? Obligation to whom? – and might you be in breach of other obligations if you don’t do it? Do obligations towards friends and family take precedence over duties towards the State or vice versa? And if you have a religion, what might it say about the choice?

Luckily the Q&A’s about catching up with good friends for a beer back in Lae aren’t complicated! Best drop the think’in for a bit and get onto that now...