Farstad Life... life in an office and on board...

My journey with Farstad Shipping begins in February 2008 when I first joined the company in Southbank, Melbourne AU. It was the first ever shipping company I've ever worked for after years of working in manufacturing and electronics environment. Coming from Asia and business background, it was always accounts, planning, forecast, budgets and reports from my department. This time I was in Purchasing department and I have 4 ships to look after.
There are no forecasting or analyzing reports as i was doing previously for production floor.

My first ever trip out from Victoria is to Perth and Karratha to visit our major suppliers, clients and vessels. It was a bit of culture shock when i first arrived into Karratha International Airport. It was small, crampy and stinking hot in the month of April! I nearly died when I went into our providore's warehouse and 38 degrees! I told myself I need to visit the Red Dog statue which was made famous from the movie. Indeed the Red Dog statue was erected at Dampier and near to the LPG Gas and Oil area. Weather was hot and dry ...

As for the 2nd time to Darwin and Broome, I went to see the vessels and clients but one week later I came back contracting chronic urticaria and disgestive problems for a year. It was a torture for me thinking Darwin is a tourist destination for its Uluru & Kakadu National Park, Broome famous for its pearls industry & Cable Beach (which doesn't impress me at all). After all the thorough tests, admission to ER & hospitals, finally the allergist told me to stay off peanuts and yeast for a while.
From there my health starts to improve with fresh food and no preserved food/junk food. Phew! The horror and nightmare I went through at the year end of 2013.

For the 3rd time, I went back visiting Perth & Karratha in 2014- in the month of July. Weather was pleasant in Karratha (23-24 degrees) with clear blue skies, Perth was windy and cold all the time as it was winter season. Among some of the famous restaurants in Perth are Red Herring and Coco's. Red Herring is pretty as it sits in the river side while Coco's is situated across the Perth skyline. At night both have good sceneries but food wise is so-so compared to Melbourne pallete.

Among all the vessels I've seen, I find Far Starling vessel is very new (1 year old ship) and unique with its new little friend on board. The owlie is fixed on the top deck with its main job to scare off the seagulls from pooping on the rails. But the Captain told us the owlie was not doing its job. One of the guys fixed him and 1 hour later, they found seagulls sitting beside him and bcame 'friends' with him. Oh dear!  Owlie has not carried out his job well.... and we bought him for nearly $60.00!