This week Nick questions whether playing on your smartphone is really being anti-social? Shares his experience of taking a musical instrument to a FIFO camp and why some people can endure working many more years in FIFO than others.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
– I think it’s a great thing to have especially the way the You can change that. You do have the power to change it.
– Good day, I’m Jason and welcome back to this week’s episode of fit for FIFO where we have Nick back for part 2 of his interview. He shares some of the simple things that get him through each day whilst working on a long FIFO roster. And when the pair of choice can become crucial in FIFO. Here it is.
– For me, it’s just been my guitar these days
– [Jason] Your guitar, yeah.
– Play some tunes, you know, I don’t really watch TV. After work, I don’t watch movies.
– And a few blokes do that in camp.
– From what I know, just one other bloke I work with sometimes I’ll do a jam with him, which is cool. It’s good to do. I guess, socialize and bond over something like that and have a couple of beers. That is a bit of an escape.
– Yeah, that’s nice. Do you ever get harassed by your neighbors, or anything, for playing too loud?
– I try and play it quietly. I use to play with a pick, but I’ve changed to just playing with my thumb so it’s a bit quieter. I think as cliche as it sounds, your smartphone is an awesome tool. You can be in such close contact with your friends and family. I guess other people would look at smartphones in a bad way. “People are always on there phone” , you know? “They’re not socializing.” But that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re on the phone; you’re talking to people. I think it’s a great thing to have. Especially the way that it’ll let us know a little different Applications and things, you know, you look at photos, what people are doing. People will send you snap chats and you can almost feel like you’re there, I guess. Not really interested.
– Oh really?
– I mean, I love people. I’ve been talking about it lately and I’ll spark up a conversation with you talk about the next job but I almost feel rude cause I’m not really interested in the going on the next one. I’m not saying that I’d wanna stop working FIFO or anything like that; I’m just ready for a break. After this job, I’ve always planned to go on a bit of a journey. There’s a lot of things, and it’s usually the small things, I think. Just from a simple meal; like fucking finish work and have a good meal and I’m happy. Sometimes you come to the mess and you’ve got it’s just fucking shit, you know? You know yourself how it would be. That can put you down. I think even the aesthetics of the camps.
One thing for me; I like scenery, landscapes, to be surrounded by beautiful things I guess. Yeah, when you’ve got concrete and fences and the rooms you’ll be staying in are gray all around, it’s not very enlightening, I guess. It’s quite depressing, actually. So I’d like to have good scenery, good food, events, shows a bit of community of the camp. If they have, you know, light music, that sort of thing that might have golf days or anything like that, that can help build moral, you know. I think that’s good to have. I guess family would be a big one. I’ve never had my own family. I’ve got family, you know; mom, dad, siblings. I find I can get through my days more easy if I was thinking of things which I’ll enjoy.
– Don’t you work with checking the damage net on certain things, because they’re still caught up in FIFO?
– I’d say they definitely fall into a routine. It kind of becomes their lifestyle, I guess. Well it definitely does become their lifestyle. They’re gonna get caught up in it a bit, and kind of not pay as much attention to things they should be, such as their family. You see a lot of blokes here that kind of; they’ll work all day, they’ll knock off, and go straight into the bath, and there to a bedtime. I’m not tryna speak for them, but how close is it to contact with their families ? Difficult one to answer for me. It depends on a lot of things, I believe. If the job’s enjoyable, if you’re having a good time, then you can stay for a long time, I reckon. If you’re not enjoying it, you’re not having a good time, obviously, you’re not gonna wanna hang around. Which is a pretty straightforward, basic answer. I feel if you’ve got things in place you’ll like things way better like the previous questions. If you’ve got a hard morale, work. If you’ve got extracurricular activities you can do.
If you’re keeping stimulated in your work as well as after work, on the weekends and stuff, I think you could stick it out for a long time. Someone like me, doesn’t have family or a family to go home to. I’m not screaming to go home every time. A lot of the times I’ll just go somewhere else. I’ll go traveling or something like that as opposed to going home to a family like a lot of blokes do. I guess I’m not tied down in that way. If you’re not coping, mate, leave. If you’re in a bad situation and you can change that. You do have the power to change it. I think you should. There’s no point tryna stick out a bad situation. I guess, if you’re stuck financially, maybe you might have to, but there’s no point. You know, just sitting in a hole, and just thinking you’re gonna come out of it, I guess. I’ve never really been in that position, so I guess it’s difficult for me to answer, a little bit. Gotta be more of us. You’ve got the power to change any situation that you want to. Yeah, that’d be wonderful.
– On next weeks episode we got the old sea dog, Steve, from WA who’s a plumber that’s worked for the last 15 years in FIFO as an instrument tube fitter. So tune in for a laugh and don’t forget to leave comments, feedback and suggestions in the comments box below. Share, like, and subscribe. Here’s a preview.
– You gotta prove that you’re not just another dickhead that’s just, out to get something for yourself and not willing to give back as well. It’s expensive, couple grand, you know. But it’s one of those things where you gotta have it for them to even look at ya.
– On next weeks episode we got On next weeks episode we got the alt, oh fuck.