Tuesday 24 January 2012

FIFO

In August last year husbandito and I decided we would take the plunge and try our luck at becoming a Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) family.
Now lets go right back to the start....... I must admit when we first got together over 4 years ago and he told me that it was his dream to work in a mine in the middle of nowhere, I was a little like 'yeah right that will never happen on my watch' about the whole thing....ok ok i was a lot like that!  But after 4 years of hearing about it, and weight up the hundreds of pro's next the hundreds of con's I finally one day cracked. It was not long after husbandito had had ankle surgery and was on light duties at his work, hating life, and complaining about wanting more from his job, and more for our financial security. Our conversation went something a long the lines like this.
HUSBAND: blah blah blah I wish I could go and work in the mines and make better money blah blah
ME: GOD shut up about it and do something about it then and apply for some jobs.
And just like that ours lives changed!...Within a week for him putting a profile up on seek, he had over 10 calls of interest and 3 job offers...and 4 weeks later we were having a very teary and emotional farewell at the airport.    
4 months on, I can really see it has been one of the greatest decisions we have made for our family, and so far it is going really well. I'm not going to tell you all that it easy and wonderful, because it is dam hard at times. But it is definitely going to be worthwhile for us in long run.  We spend 2 weeks apart and then a week together. We have many phone calls and Skype chats while he is away, and towards the end of his swing (shift) there is usually some tears from me and a few 'i can't wait for you to be able to change her nappy' comments thrown into our conversations.  At the moment he has taken a whole swing off which means we get to have a whole month off together...which is just bliss.
It's still early days for us in our FIFO life, and i guess time will tell just how great it all really is.

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