The next years are a bit fuzzy, timelines and details have all become blurred, I continued to work for the electrical contractors - during the times that they had lots of work there were lots of people working there, in lean times it went down to six of us in the office plus a core group of around 10 electricians. When the big projects were happening there were over 12 in the office and 100 on the payroll, as electricians or TA's . This company was well known in the contracting game especially in mining, it had contacts. They expanded and grew and moved locations to Fremantle, went into commercial jobs in the city and seemed to be going in the right direction. It was however, a family business... then along came Siemens... they decided that this company would be their chance to get into the electrical field in WA. In many respects they were right - but join a small family "cowboy" company to a large multinational with a "german" mentality then things were really bound to go wrong. I ofcourse, was super happy with this development.
I had started an MBA, thinking that I really could not see myself staying in the highs and lows of the family business - sometimes things were very precarious, often we weren't sure if there would be enough for the payroll - this wasn't my problem to deal with - but you were always aware of the situation.
So with Siemens came the inevitable clash of wills and ways of doing things. I also met one of my closest friends Narelle, she came over to teach me how to do the payroll in the Siemens system... little did we know where we would end up in 15 years time. At the same time it did not help that things weren't going the right way in the head office in Melbourne, so as a result of problems within the big company and the clashes with the small... the company in WA was no more. I, however, survived.... maybe I was a sellout... maybe I was just pragmatic and realised the way things were heading and knew who was paying my salary. Anyway, I ended up in a small space in the Siemens office in another suburb, cleaning up the rest of the projects and generally spending time on my studies.
Then, came the moment when I realised that I am not an island and was not really happy with being in a corner basically doing nothing for my pay other than doing my assignments for Uni. So, I put a bit of pressure on the powers that be in Melbourne, they took me over for a month and were not really sure what to do with me. The new head of the department whom I had met a couple of times in Perth lent me to a guy that was there from Germany to assist with a job in "controlling" - this was a job that was all about having an overview of all the projects and sub sections within the department - semi business analysis. This was my big break.... I was sent back to Perth, but within a few short months I was offered a transfer to Melbourne to work as the controller... Yippee!!!!
The new boss was to become one of the most important people in my life - he and his wife are my best friends - they have had such a huge impact on my life - and as usual I have probably not shown enough gratitude or returned the favours.... Again, on reflection I can only say that I have been truly blessed in my life with the things that have happened - at the time both good and bad - that have all resulted in me getting to know the nicest of people that would remain true friends forever.
So... for the first time in my life removalists came in and packed up all my worldly goods to send them off to Melbourne... I left heaps of things in the house and found someone to rent it - not a good idea to handle your own rental arrangements - yep despite the fact that they got a fridge and furniture and a great house with a pool for a great price - they still didn't pay the rent and went under the cover of darkness - with the fridge and the furniture - but hey... Karma has probably taken care of them.
So as I was heading off to Melbourne - my bestest friend Tracy was coming back to Perth - such is life.... My sister and family had moved out of the street and up to Roleystone - in the hills where they were back in the natural environment that they loved... This was the right thing to do and at the right time.
During those "fuzzy" years my nephew came over from Iceland and stayed with me and saw a lot of Australia - we became friends, mum also came and was there for a year. Cousins came from Iceland and I celebrated my 30th birthday... Friends got married, some had kids, others separated, some had "marriage difficulties" and I remained single.
So next... the Melbourne years.
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