Sunny Winter Days Down Under

     Nursing a bit of a cold this past week so was rather low key. Took a couple of days off work and vegged out on the sofa with Dundee, the super cat. He is quite a nice kitty, and still very much a kitten when he gets wound up, racing around the flat. Good thing the floors are tiled concrete - can't hear him run much, and he certainly gets up some speed. He is a very snuggly kitty, so nice to curl up with him. He has settled down at night too, a few flicks in the nose seemed to have sorted that out. Now if I can just keep him off the counter top...
     I had some friends over for my first real dinner party last night - roast pork, mashed potatoes, green salad, corn on the cob, and burnt garlic toast were on the menu, with peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for dessert, including take-away bags for all (of cookies). Who knew the cookies would be the biggest chore? I went to the local IGA just down the street for some shortening as the recipe I use calls for it, and could only find a small one cup block in the cooler, so I bought it, assuming it would be the same. Um, no. It was more like the consistency of paraffin wax. I left it out for a bit, hoping it would soften like regular Canadian shortening, but no dice. I had to chisel at it to break it apart, and even then it failed to soften, so I ended up having to melt it, now that it was chiseled into pieces covered in peanut butter that was already in the bowl...nice peanut butter soup is what it turned into. I warmed it up and it melted quite quickly, so I took it off and left the last bits of shortening to melt in the heat already stored in the melted shortening, and then poured it over the peanut butter in the bowl...yup, soupy. So then I put in the white and brown sugar...thick soup. Great, what will happen when I chuck in the flour and eggs? And me with out an electric mixer...brought a whole bunch of shit from Canada that doesn't work in these plug ins even with adapters. And then surprisingly, the dough worked its issues out, and I was able to roll the mixture into balls just like I ought to and they baked just fine, and tasted just like they always did. Wonders never cease...
     After supper we retired to the courtyard for some drinks and stories, trying ever so hard to steer the conversation away from work talk since we all work for the same employer, and were successful in doing so which was GREAT! Plans are in the works for my friend F. and I to head to Cambodia in October, which will be fabulous. We have both filed out Aussie tax returns with healthy refunds so WHY NOT? Has to be some benefits to losing so much on our paychecks to the taxman.

     Sunday was a lazy morning before heading out to Desert Park again, this time with my friend K. who hadn't been there yet. The birds were in fine form, as were the kangaroos, which she really wanted to see and touch...she touched the leg of one and he jumped. I had the camera ready just in case he kicked her...that would have been cool for the camera, not so cook for K. I touched his tail and he jumped then too, but neither of us got a kick...the parrots tried to be elusive but I was able to find most of them this time. The weather was of course, gorgeous...blue skies and 25C with the faintest breath of wind. I even managed to get some Christmas shopping done at the gift shop. As I was leaving the park my sister called from Canada and we chatted (via Bluetooth) until I got home, after which we played Canasta online for several hours...I won some, and I let her win some...heh heh...and now the weekend is drawing to a close and it's back to work again tomorrow...

Bushfire

this one is taken right next to my work building

Well, it's bushfire season...and with all the extra grass around here, they don't take much to start and most are started on purpose by locals who want to see what they can burn in a day. Some of them just burn out, no harm done, but some pick up speed and take off like this one did yesterday. I took these photos from downtown Alice Springs as I went from my office building to the main DCF office. Lotsa smoke for sure, nearly blanking out the sun. As devastating as fires are, there is also something beautiful about the smoke and how it interacts with the sun. The sunset last night was amazing, as it was again tonight, though I didn't go out for photos. The smokey air was hard to breathe for an asthmatic with a rotten cold like me.
     The grass is particularly long this year due to a very wet summer last December and January. There's grass around here that hasn't been seen in some parts in decades, and now with the dry season these past many winter months, it has become very dry and brittle, perfect for a bushfire. One of the gals at my office said her friend nearly lost her house yesterday but for their preparation for bushfire season - they had cleared their yard of all grass, bush, and debris (twigs, dead trees, etc) and the fire only got to the edge of the yard and ran out of fuel so went off in another direction. Lucky people. It could have been oh so much worse, and I know first hand how devastating a housefire can be.
     There are a lot of months before the rains come again, if they come...there have already been hundreds of bushfires, but there is oh so much grass left to burn yet. It's gonna be a hot and smoky spring and summer I reckon. Spring begins next month and runs into summer which starts in December through to February. Rain can either make it worse or better - more rain means more grass again next year...less rain means things remain brittle and burn easier...mother nature, please find some balance between the two.

Sunday Camel Riding

 I've been wanting to go camel riding since I first found out they have camels in Australia. There are actually thousands of wild camels in Australia and the ones we rode were caught and tamed. The one that I rode was caught in the Simpson Desert, southeast of Alice Springs. Her name is Trillion. She is the lead camel and the camels all know this. Damon was our guide, and being on the lead camel, we were able to ask him questions all through the ride. It was just for an hour and my assbones sure knew it by the time we returned. It was a terrific ride, and the camels were well behaved. Apparently they do NOT spit, that is llama's that spit. They didn't smell too bad, though the camel behind me that my friend K. was riding had terrible breath and a breathing problem, causing him to sound like either Darth Vader or Hannibal Lector...and did you know that it was camels that provided the voice for Chewbacca in Star Wars?
     The weather was beautiful, the sunset was lovely, and we had a great time. Australia rocks.

Darwin Delights

 Well, it has been a great weekend in Darwin visiting my friend R. and her kids. She just emigrated from Canada to Australia, arriving last Saturday evening. I've enjoyed the time we spent together, even though the heat has been hard on me. I do not like the humidity and am glad I chose to move to Alice Springs where it is simply not an issue.
     We kept ourselves busy as well. We went to the Parap Market on Saturday morning, the Mindl Market on Sunday night, a hike at Fogg Dam past Humpty Doo on the Arnhem Highway, house hunting on Sunday morning, for a drive tonight in Fannie Bay where she lives, and some plain old hanging out together, catching up. It was good to see her and the kids, and the sunsets were to die for, but I am so looking forward to the cooler weather of Alice Springs, and the cold nights. I did buy a few things at the markets (of course). I bought a tie dyed skirt and dress, a silk table runner, and a woolen blanket. My friend also gave me a painting by a local artist that I really like.
     I head out in the morning to head home and hope to pick up a hitchhiker or two again to help pass the time along that long Stuart Highway. Man it is a boring drive for the most part and I don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon. The landscape doesn't change much once you're a few hundred kms outside of Alice Springs, and there is a whole lotta NOTHING. So we shall see...

Aboriginal musicians at the Mindl Market

I love the didgeridoo!

big damn spider

Fannie Bay coast

another gorgeous sunset in Darwin

another big damn spider

And then I melted...seriously. It is friggin hot here in the daytime and the humidity is cruel. I am so very glad I did not take a job in Darwin or I would have been well past ready to go home by now.