A QUICK CHEMISTRY LESSON...

I have now finished my first week of work at Ecka Granules in GeorgeTown near Launceston. I lost count of the number of times that the word "explosion" was mentioned in the orientation. There have been several aluminium powder plants, and this is the only one to have not blown up. Unreacted powdered aluminium is phenomenally lethal. Combined with water it reacts violently in an initial explosion as Al2O3 is formed, leaving Hydrogen gas from the water, which ignites in a secondary explosion. So there's a massive potential violent explosion - but the risk with the safety systems in place is now negligible. It's one of those things where people have put a phenomenal amount of work into creating a safe working environment.

So I've been flat out working on projects, cataloguing blast vents, being inducted and getting up at ridiculous times of day - 6:30 every morning. So, it's also been pretty exhausting.

And my blogging has suffered. I think I'm going to resort to only weekend blogging cos I don't have internet access afterhours.

Last night was a really good night - the Balderdash game was great fun - but I've never finished a game. Anyway, gotta get cracking.