Vacation Bliss

So I finished my last day at my old job on Friday. I went out for lunch with my team and they presented me with a really nice book of Aboriginal artwork, and a mood calendar. There was to be a big afternoon "tea" at the office for the 5 of us that were leaving that day, but I had already taken the afternoon off to use up some overtime, so didn't attend. Instead I was at home with a friend, getting drunk. Isn't that what one does when they finish a job up? Heh heh. We went out to our favorite watering hole, Monte's Lounge to meet with other coworkers for after-work drinks, but only two people showed up. The rest either had plans or went to the Juicy Rump where the other after-work drinks were happening. Just as well. I headed home at 7pm and was in bed by 10 after an exhausting week. 

Mount Sonder

I had taken a week of vacation time at my old job for the following week and I have been enjoying it immensely. On Sunday I went camping at Glen Helen Gorge Resort (not a resort as you think of them) with my friend F and we did as little as possible! We went for a short drive to the Mount Sonda lookout, and the rest of the time we spent having some drinks, playing cribbage, and reading books. We both finished a book while out. It was blissful! The days were a bit warm, but not too bad, and although we both managed a bad sunburn, the trip was so very relaxing. I did get eaten alive by the mozzies, but it's partly my own fault for not putting any bug repellent on. I didn't see any mozzies or feel any mozzies, so didn't bother. Big mistake. 27+ bites later...

fresh green among the bushfire black

We saw some wildlife - lots of different birds of all sizes from Australian ringneck parrots to finches and herons, the waterhole drew them all. We also had a dingo visit our campsite both nights, but didn't get too close to us before he wandered on. There were ants galore, but such is the case in central Australia as my sister discovered during her visit here. The campground was not particularly busy the first night but the second night a couple dozen youths arrived on a bus for the group camping site across the gully from our site. They were noisy as teenagers can be, but settled down early in the night and by 10pm you didn't know they were there. The stars were out, nearly outdone by the nearly full moon. The moon shone so brightly we didn't need flashlights to get around at all. 

We stayed for a couple of nights and then packed up early like we pissed the bed and came back to Alice. I was happy to be back in my own bed again, and Dundee certainly missed me. A mauling was in order, and before long I was covered in fur. 

lots of burned ground from recent bushfires

beautiful mount Sonder

Today I had a lazy morning, puttering about the house, fooling around on the computer, reading the news of earthquakes and storms in Canada, thankful the weather here in Alice doesn't get too exciting. It has been pretty hot again now though, and at one point the thermometer in my car registered 43C...gross. This afternoon I headed out to the local university library at Charles Darwin University (CDU). It's a tiny library with just a handful of study carrels but it was good enough for me. Aside from some noisy women who nattered on at one of the tables, I was able to make some progress with my forensic psychology course from Athabasca. I just moved to the other side of the library away from them. One would think everyone understood that people go to libraries for the quiet, as well as the books. One would be wrong. I'm planning to go back each day this week so I can finally get caught up on my readings. I try to read at home but just like when I was in uni a decade ago, I can't study at home. I can write my papers well enough at home, but too many distractions to read and study at home. I used to go to the library at U Waterloo for hours and hours with a good friend of mine to study. We'd load up on Snapple and Pringles and who knows what else we could smuggle into the library, and leave when they kicked us out at 1am. Oh the days...

looking down the road

floodway metre stick and paddy melons

so many interesting rock formations

heading into Glen Helen Gorge Resort

our campsite

look at how tiny I am!

Other than the library, I have no real plans for the rest of the week other than enjoying being off at home for a change instead of my usual travel and GO GO GO vacations. I start my new job on Monday, but for now I am on vacation bliss time...

Changes Afoot

      My apologies to readers for my lack of posts in October. It has been a busy month! Not long ago I made the final decision to leave my government position once and for all. I had been pondering it for many months, due to my struggles with the current management, and then when they added yet another impossible manager, the writing on the wall was clear - quit or go down with a sinking ship - so I chose to quit. I was getting so frustrated with it all. I was dying a little inside every day and dreading going into work. My health was suffering, and I was sick and tired of going to work to fight about something every day.

NPY Women's Council members

     So off I go to an Non-Government Organization - NPY Women's Council and couldn't be happier about it. I begin on November 5th, and while it is quite a drop in pay, life is too short to work for a bitch who is determined to drag workers down and destroy their careers. Goodbye and good riddance I say. I was worried about my visa as it was sponsored by the NT government, but they have agreed to just let me go, as I have given them 19 months, and I had a note from my doctor in support of my leaving. Once they gave me the word, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders!

      NPY is a very strong support agency for women who live on the NPY lands, which spreads out over the southwest corner of the NT, northwest corner of SA and eastern central WA. I'll be out bush about 50% of the time which suits me just fine! I love going out to community. I'll be working as a case advocacy worker for domestic violence survivors, and some sexual assault survivors. I finish up at my current agency at the end of next week, and then I'm taking a week off to regroup and get into the mindset of working within a non mandated service. It will be my first social work position that is non-government and I am stoked! It will be a whole new perspective and I'm tickled to get a more in depth experience with the local Aboriginal culture. Australia has so much more to offer and I can't wait to experience it!

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

As the temperatures rise to the high thirties this weekend, I'll be slaving over a hot stove cooking Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, and baking for it on Saturday. I've asked over a group of friends for dinner, and while some of my closest friends here will be unable to make it, I'm looking forward to it. This year among other things, I am thankful for air conditioning. I've got the usual fare planned, shared with many different groups of people as I've moved around Canada, and last year I had my first Thanksgiving here. It was also the first for most of my friends as it isn't celebrated here in Australia. This year, more new faces as Alice Springs swirls people in and out of the group.

In a two weeks, several of this same group are going camping at Chamber's Pillar. It's another challenging 4WD track not far from here, similar to Palm Valley, but without the huge sandbar that I bogged in twice last year. My friend J. has bought some two-way hand held radios to keep in contact along the way. It's meant to be a very rocky track, with a lot of incline. We shall see! I think I just got a little whoopsy in my belly just now, thinking about it. I still need to talk up a local expert for some more tips to avoid disaster...so far his info has been very good and kept me out of trouble. These folks in central Australia that drive the tracks and off road all the time are a bundle of information about the area, and the fella I talk to uses both google earth, satellite, and paper topographical maps to plot his way and make sense of the country's vastness. I want to rent a satellite phone too as the campground is pretty remote and land phones are hours away, and mobile phone use several hours away on the other side of several mountain ranges. I can't wait!

So I also want to do a hike this weekend too, early morning if I can drag my sorry body out of bed early enough before the heat sets in for the day. My Canadian co-worker and friend just moved into a unit complex with a nice saltwater pool. I'll be visiting you V. You know it. Summer is already here in Alice. I wonder when it will rain next? It rained last week for the first time since March. It was awesome but short lived, with a bit of a thunderstorm. I want more.

Dundee continues to lizard hunt, both inside the flat and out in the courtyard. I don't mind too much as long as he doesn't destroy my stuff in the process. There's already a long tally of past damages. Love ya puss, but you frustrate me sometimes as my glass continues to shatter across the floors here. Once the lizard is down on the floor, he's fine. He just plays with it, carries it around in his mouth from room to room, then plops it on the floor and lays down next to it, wondering if it will jerk to life again for one last round. Sometimes they do. They all get eaten. Thank-you Dundee for not leaving lizard carcasses to rot under my sofa and bed. I think I'll keep you. I don't mind the lizards but I don't want them running across my bed or curling up in my hair. So once they come into the house, it's fair game for the cat. They have the whole desert to explore. I have a sign up for Dundee on the outside gate - beware attack cat...many lizards have lost.

Tomorrow is Friday. Can I just say, hooray.

Behold the Bush Trip

wild camels crossing the road

As part of my job, I regularly go on what they call "bush trips". This means that we head out to remote communities in an agency 4WD. Sometimes the vehicle is a Land Cruiser, and the old ones are referred to as 'Troopies" or "Troop Carrier" as some of them have bench seats along each side, and able to care 11 people. We also have a Land Cruiser Prado which is a sweet ride. I took one out bush for the first time this past week and it was amazing to drive, such a smooth ride, great control, and luxurious to ride in. We had the tunes going on my iPhone, and the scenery flew by outside. Then we also have Nissan Patrols, which are shit on the bush roads. They bounce all over the place, and you hardly feel like you have proper control. Thankfully they are replacing any of the old vehicles be it Troopie or Patrol, with Prados.

after the bushfire, the termite mounds survive

So when we go out bush, we like to leave quite early in the morning, about 6am, sometimes at 7am so we can get there early, have time to do all of our work, and still get back before dark. Some communities are 3-4 hours drive away or more. On occasion I've had to stay overnight because it is too far to go and come back in the same day if we have a lot of work to do in the community. Sometimes we visit 2-3 or more communities along the way.

there are a LOT of old dead cars on the side of the roads

This week I traveled to one I hadn't been to before, Utopia. Utopia not so much a community as an area. There are several outstation bores where there are 3-5 houses with folks living in them, along with several work buildings. Right in the middle of this land tract is a health clinic and several houses for the staff. One must drive from one of the bores to attend the clinic. Some of the bores have small schools, usually one building. There are a few little stores scattered around the land tract, with the largest one being at Arlparra.

The road signs for each bore and service is painted on the bonnets taken from old cars. Pretty cool looking as someone put some thought into each one. I'm trying to upload here but Blogger is being a bitch and rotating the photos so they only post sideways...not sure what that's about.

took a big rock to the windshield!

Going out bush on a road trip requires some preparation. We have to make sure our gas tank is full, which is a no brainer, but we also have to do other checks on the vehicle to make sure it's in good shape to travel, so we check the recovery gear, oil levels, battery levels, tires, etc. We also have to sign out a fuel book in case we need fuel, a satellite phone to check in with and an epirb, which is a device that we use to track our travel with online, but also to call for help when we need it. It uses satellite tracking so we don't need cell phone towers to send the signal. There is no cell phone service in the bulk of the communities we travel to. One must also pack emergency water, and then personal water. I like to take at least 3 litres for myself, and encourage my bush partner to do the same. Once I went with a guy who brought one 500ml bottle for the whole day. Nowhere's near enough. I also like to pack a little cooler (esky here in Australia) with some food, ice packs to keep it all chill, and some frozen water bottles for cold water later. Another must is to wear a light scarf around my neck to keep the seatbelt from chafing. When you drive on the 4WD tracks, the vehicle bounces and the seatbelt saws back and forth across my neck, what little neck I have.

sometimes we drive through bushfires

Preparation also includes calling the communities the day before to ensure the people we want to see are there. So we can call the health clinic, the police station, or the school to check, as most days one of those services would have seen the family we are looking for. These are also stopping places once we arrive in the community, often for a chat, or to use a clean bathroom.

wild donkey outside Areyonga

The bush roads to these communities are sometimes paved part of the way, but most are desert dirt, so red sand, dirt, and sometimes gravel. They can be a bit rough, with lots of corrugation along the way which can mean a bumpy ride if you have to drive slow. Keeping the speed up around 100kms/hour smooths most corrugation out. There isn't much to see along the way besides the landscape which doesn't change much for the most part. There are no coffee shops or restaurants along the way. There are occasional rest areas where you can pull over along the Stuart Highway, but nothing on the bush roads. So we usually just pull over in the shade of a big desert oak tree, or gum tree and take our own breaks. We usually see animals along the way, most often cows, but quite regularly we see wild horses, wild camels, sometimes wild donkeys, and a host of lizards, snakes, eagles, hawks, falcons, etc. Bush trips are my favorite part of my job here in central Australia. I truly enjoy getting out of town for the day and spend in the peaceful outback.

What's New at the Zoo Down Under

It has been a busy few weeks lately, with no time for blogging, so thought I would catch up this afternoon while I had the chance. Work has been busy and stressful, but I'm coping as best I can by balancing work with an active social life. We went camping this past weekend at Ellery Creek Big Hole, which is about an hour or so from Alice Springs. The waterhole is quite pretty and I thought a dip in the waterhole would be refreshing now that the temperatures are climbing up as we head into summer. It was frigid. Yes, coming from a Canadian who swims in the ocean, that is saying a lot. Two of the girls jumped straight in, and screamed with horror at how cold the water was and they couldn't feel their legs, so I attempted my usual in/out routine, and I just couldn't get past my waist, so gave up. The day was bright and clear, not too hot, so I was happy enough to sit in the shade and have a few drinks with the rest of the gang.

I was the only one sleeping in a tent this time as the others had swags. I haven't done that yet, but am considering it at some point, I just have to get past the whole spiders/bugs/snakes thing...we did have a dingo pass through our campsite, and once again, things were odd. I tried to get a look at him with my flashlight, which was nearly new and should have worked, but refused to turn on. By the time I had the lantern turned on and the tent flap zipped open, he was gone. I tried the flashlight again and it worked perfectly...bizarro. There is something about the dingos...can't photograph or shine my flashlight on. We also had some very strange animal nearby that made the weirdest sound, like an electronic hum - hmmmmm. hmmmmm. hmmmmm.hmmmmmm. The same length of noise, and same level/sound that went on for a few minutes. F. was afraid it was going to attack her in her swag...I told her considering the only thing to be feared in the desert were snakes and spiders and I was pretty sure they don't hum, there was nothing to be afraid of. It was likely some rodent. No one wanted to get out to look and see.

I've been applying for jobs, and have an interview this afternoon for a local agency, NPY Women's Council as a case manager for sexual assault and domestic violence victims. It sounds like a really interesting job, and NPY is very well known here in town and around the territory for being strong advocates for their client population. They cover a large geographic land area that crosses into Western Australia and South Australia. It will be so good to work for an NGO after all of these years in government. It's where I have wanted to be for a long time, but couldn't really afford to work there with my massive student loans. Now that they are trimming down fast, I thought it was time to go for it. It means far less money, but I'm hoping much more job satisfaction and a whole lot less government bullshit. I've been less and less happy working in my current job, and often I am rather embarrassed to say I work there due to so many unethical decisions being made by management, micromanagement, and the direction the department is heading. I'm done. I die a little each day I have to go into the office. I am not alone by a long stretch. Our union is signing up members fast and furious due to so many unhappy workers. Go team.

Now I just have to sort out my immigration status. I have been getting conflicting stories from HR and then from Immigration. Immigration says I can work anywhere now that I am a permanent resident, but HR is saying I need to give them 2 years on my PR, and I'm only 9 months in. I'm hoping I can simply transfer my sponsorship to my new employer should I be successful in obtaining other employment. HR also says that if a reasonable effort has been made, they can cancel the sponsorship, but I don't need it cancelled, I need it transferred. So we shall see. I have another job interview next week for a job in Melbourne - specialist case manager at the prison, so managing the worst of the worst in sex offenders. It's ironic how these two interviews are at each end of the spectrum, but I find both sides fascinating and any chance I have to be involved in the justice system is exciting, particularly when I can combine social work and the law.

The weather is heating up, with 37C today...pant pant pant, and it's not even summer. I was hoping we had another month or so before we saw those temperatures. Bugger it's hot...

Changing Tides

     Well, I don't know if there are tides in my future for sure, but a change is definitely on the way. I have made the decision to leave my current position. I haven't given notice yet, but I am actively seeking another job and am determined to leave as soon as I have an acceptable offer of employment. I've wanted to write about what has been going on, but when one is a public servant, there are limitations to discussing issues at the workplace in a public forum. Suffice it to say, I am simply looking for new challenges and a different mindset that doesn't compromise my social work ethics. I've put in 18 months in my current job, and here in Central Australia, that is considered long term. It's pretty transient here and I can't even count the number of people who have walked through the revolving door at my agency. Turnover like I have never seen in my life. There is always bound to be turnover in any child protection agency due to the fast paced high stress nature of the work. In any event, the stress this current situation is putting on my body is just not worth it anymore. Time to move on to new challenges. And it has nothing to do with the clients...
     I'm looking both locally and interstate in South Australia and Western Australia. I'm hoping to get something in a town the size of Alice, but closer to a major city. It's been so expensive to get out of Alice Springs to a major airport where fares are significantly cheaper to travel internationally. I'm only looking at oceanside agencies interstate. If I'm going to move out of the desert, I'm going for the ocean, not more desert. I'm keen to live in another part of Australia and explore what I can from there. Both states have breathtaking beaches, turquoise waters, and desirable climates for the most part. There will be more rain, but not an excessive amount like the top end, but not as rare as here in the desert. It hasn't rained in Alice Springs since March of this year. I don't like a lot of rain, but sometimes a little would be nice for a change to freshen things up.
     Staying local is my preference as I was hoping not to be moving anywhere this year for a change. For a variety of circumstances, I've moved every single year since 2004. I don't have near the amount of stuff I've had in most of my past moves, but there is enough. I'd rather not pack up. I like Alice Springs, like my current apartment, and my group of friends. I've enjoyed the climate and the work with the client population. The local positions I've applied for are for NGO's which will be a welcome change from being a public servant all these years. My social work practicum was at an NGO and I quite liked the intimacy of a private agency. The positions are a departure from child protection as well, so looking forward to that new challenge if it happens for me. Of course the salary is lower, but sometimes the sacrifice can be worth it.
   So there has been a lot of things going on these past few weeks since my return from San Francisco, which is why I haven't posted lately. I had so much going on that I couldn't write about that it occupied most of the space in my brain, which I resent every time it happens. I just want to be able to go to work and do my job, and do it well. So employers out there - hire me! I'm ready to hit the ground running. The jobs in SA and WA are mostly with government, but the odd job comes up for an NGO. I am still game to work for government if it is a different one, as one cannot tar them all with the same brush.

     Wish me luck, and I'll keep y'all posted as things progress. Onward to the next chapter of my life! In the meantime, local life lives on. The Bush Bands are over at the oval tonight, and I can sit in my courtyard and listen to them without having to deal with drunken crowds.

Rainbow Valley Revisited

 So after hearing some disappointing news at work today, I went to debrief a little with a friend, and we decided to hit the road for the afternoon and get out of town for some perspective. We drove to Rainbow Valley, which is about 70km south of Alice Springs, and another 22kms of bush road from the Stuart Highway into the site. T'was a gorgeous winter day out, with 29C of sunlight streaming down upon us. I just love the rock formation here, how it's eroded over time. It was super peaceful out there, with only the sounds of the crickets to break the silence.