Moving to Sydney soon! & asking for advice

[GlennSprigg]

I hear what you are saying Dave, and understand. And I don't think you are referring to me when talking about young yuppies !! 
I guess 'we' (a lot of Aussies) are/have-been 'spoilt' in places like Adelaide.  As a tech in Adelaide for many years, and at times being "On Call" for 24-hr breakdowns in the City, I would often travel in a Work Car between 15 & 30 mins to attend a site. I can't even IMAGINE how a 'tech' would travel say 1 & 1/2 hours to go to a call after hours??  Obviously people would have to be rostered on & stay in the City??? 

Actually, my BEST (easiest) job was living in a house owned by the company, right next to the factory!!  (10 mins from the City!!).
I was paying $26 / week for a 3-bedroom house on a large block. Back gate to go to work, & home for 'Smoko/Lunch' 

How about 3-4 hours to a country town?

You get there, & you're completely shattered after finishing your normal day, loading the van, driving there, lugging heavy gear out of the van, then getting into it!
That was life working for Telecom Australia's Broadcast Service Centre, back in the late '70s & the1980s.

If we were going a very long way, we usually flew & picked up a hire car on the other end, but on one memorable occasion, we drove overnight, non-stop Perth---Carnarvon.
Glad we had a Holden wagon--- the dear old Hi-Ace would have "got a bit old" on that run.

Lots of 'roos on the road at "stupid o'clock" in the morning in the last few 100s of km!

Ha!!... yep...   In Adelaide, from Happy-Valley to Yatala Labor Prison, (Sth of Adel. to Nth of Adel), was well over an HOUR ( ) for call outs. Once, someone in the main control room simply had a book leaning on the PRTSC (print-screen) button on one of the workstation keyboards. It sent thousands of commands to the MainFrame, (interfaced with multiple terminals & countless field control systems), and it shit itself and locked up!! Nothing could be operated!! (The 'terminals' had Colour-Graphics to operate & report everything). I fudged the report documentation to keep the guards job! and hung around for another hour out of goodwill.

My longest prison travel was to calls, (other than regular maintenance) to Mobilong Prison at Murray Bridge. (About 150 kms). Once for a 10-sec fix!!  (Always tried to guide them over the phone first!). Paid 4 hrs overtime, plus travel time/fuel each way. Sometimes would travel to the RiverLand, and stay overnight. Embarrassingly, (not for me!), after re-calibrating/testing their entire system there, I found controllers never set up, and Modutrol Motors either never connected, or hysteresis/logic totally reversed, from when 1st supposedly commissioned!! I went through agony deciding what to report back to my boss, as others would be in the shit!

P.S.  The head warden at Yatala put me in handcuffs once!!  I told him he was too old now & retire to go fishing. (In fun!). He told me to come at him with fists raised etc, and NOT to hold back. I did, and 2 secs later he had one cuff on, & was holding me down with 2 fingers only, on my wrist, as he paused. I said, "Ok, what if I do this!" (thinking I could 'whip' the cuffs around as a weapon). Another 2 secs later he had the other cuff on, and had me prone on the floor in a lot of pain!!      He says he misses the old days when they could take someone behind the shed & teach them a few manners!!  Haha... Now, there are NO guns allowed inside of the Prisons, (even Police delivering people!), except for rifles in the boundary towers, and a pump action shotgun on the wall in the main control room as a LAST RESORT if anyone got that far!

Sorry about this 'thread'. Was just rememberin'