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Week 16 - Daily Diaries - Wednesday sees Simon start the day early

Edited BY


G P Kennedy


 6am - alarm goes off, kids and Espe all off on school holidays so I’m on my own. Toast and coffee for breakfast. Check emails, download some digital files I need for work and upload to the controller for the GPS I use. Print out a few hard copies of info for the 2 jobs I’m doing today. Load survey instruments into the Ute (pickup truck) and check I have all my materials etc. Make some salad for lunch and check I’ve got enough water.

 

Truck and GPS ready for the day ahead

 7.30am - leave the house and drive to work. First job is only 30 minutes away so not too bad, listen to local radio on the way and chill out while driving.

 

 8am - arrive on site and meet up with my Survey Assistant Graham. Work out how we are going to do the job and undertake a Take5 Risk Assessment so we are doing it safely. The first job is to install some Engineering Survey Control points for a new stage in a residential subdivision. This is pretty straightforward and we have to level the points so the Contractor can install their pipework to the correct levels and grades.

 

 10am - finish that job and head over the road to install final pegs on 2 completed residential lots. Cannot use GPS here, as it is not accurate enough so we use the Total Station, which can position a point to 1mm. Install 7 pegs to mark out the 2 lots and stamp the aluminum plates on top to show the lot numbers

 

Job's a good 'un

 12pm - a bit early but we have lunch. I look at the second job and work out how to do that one.

 

 12.30pm - arrive at the second job after a quick 5-minute drive. We have to use the level to conduct a closed level loop between a bunch of existing survey control points and some new ones that have a position but no level yet. This job takes about 90 minutes and goes without a problem.

 

 2pm - leave to go home and listen to some tunes on Spotify as I drive back.

2.30pm Get home. Say hi to Espe and the kids. Both kids are having sleepovers as its school holidays so we have 3 extra kids in the house for a grand total of 5. Work out what we are having for dinner and get 2 frozen bolognese sauces I have already made to make a lasagne later. Have a walk around the garden and say hi to the dogs and the chickens.

 

 3pm - download and process the two jobs from today. Ring up a couple of the managers from work and discuss what I’m doing tomorrow. Get on to our work server and download some information for tomorrow’s jobs and make sure I have everything ready. Put all the gear on charge so I’m all set for tomorrow.

 

 5pm - heat up the sauce, make some béchamel sauce for the topping and assemble the lasagne. Chuck that in the oven and make a quick salad to have as well.

 

Time to stop the kids talking and eat some dinner

6.30pm - sit down with all the kids and have dinner and remind them all to stop talking and eat about every 15 seconds!

 

 7pm - clean the kitchen up while the kids watch Teen Titans on Netflix. I was supposed to be playing an online role-playing game with a couple of mates tonight but one had to cancel so that’s the next 2 hours free all of a sudden.

 

 7.30-9pm - try and convince the kids to go to bed after sorting out where they are all going to sleep. Tell them to be quiet every 5 minutes.

 

 9pm - decide to go to bed and have an early night.

 

 9-11.30pm - get up about 10 times to tell the kids to be quiet and stop talking or they are never having sleepovers again! Finally the message gets across and I get to sleep ready to be up at 6.30am the next morning.

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