So... About The Job

As you know the job I was planning to have when we came back to the hills fell through. Meanwhile I was trying to recruit staff at my old job and, more specificially, trying to recruit someone to take over my role. As it became clear that my role would be left empty my boss asked me if I'd be interested in some contract work with them. The conversation went a little like this:

Boss: You know how a while ago you were joking around and said you'd keep doing the Team Leader role up here as a fly in-fly out kind of thing?

Me: Mmmm?

Boss: So... you wanna?

Me: Mmmm?

So I have a contract for the next three months to continue in my role leading my team up there, from down here, and flitting up and down as needed. I'll only be up there three or four times in that time (which is less travelling than I was doing while I lived there!) and it should only be overnight each time.

So... guess where I'm going on Monday? Yep, Red Dirt Central.

I get to see my team, finish off some projects we have on the go and plan some new projects. I also get to have dinner with three of my favourite people (Hi F, R and Nomes, see you soon!).

Funnily enough, and yes somewhat strangely, I'm kind of excited.

Poor, Neglected Blog

And, it goes without saying, poor, neglected readers. Okay, I know I don't actually have that many people who read my blog but to those who do... sorry. I didn't forget you. As you can imagine I have been extraordinarily busy in the lead up to the move and, as it wont to happen in our lives, things have not exactly been going to plan so some days are rather more hard work than they should be and I can't be bothered trying to put a 'nice spin' on it. Again, sorry.

So without dwelling on the negatives too much

We found out today that the employee from the moving company who booked our move forgot to tell anyone else in the company about it. Luckily Hubby was in need of some boxes to pack up some stuff from work and got in touch with them today and this has now been remedied. We're being packed on Monday, uplifted on Tuesday and plan to drive out of here next Wednesday.

Our tenants have refused to let us break the lease agreement (as is their right, Bugger!) on our house but after much sweating, a bit of crying and many many phone calls we have finally managed to find a short term rental in the same area. We have an application in and have our fingers, toes and everything else anatomically possible, crossed that it will be accepted. We'll find out by the end of the week - otherwise it's spare-room city at the in-laws for the next 3 months. I love my in-laws (aka Grandma and Grandpa) lots but who wants to live in some-one else's spare room with two kids for three months?

The job that had been in the pipeline has been kyboshed (ie, is dead in the water!) as the school has a new principal and he doesn't want to do things that way so the position no longer exists. This one's a big bummer. Okay, it wasn't my dream job but it took a fair bit of pressure off knowing that I probably had a job to go to. Now I have to add job-hunting to the rapidly growing to-do list.

But...

We had a fantastic farewell party on Saturday night. We had 60 or so people in the backyard, loud music, lots of champagne (well for me anyway) and some simple but yummy food. It was great that so many people turned out and it really meant a lot to Hubby and I that they all came. I kept the food very simple - I wanted to enjoy the party not spend the night in the kitchen - big platters of dips, olives, vege sticks, cracker biscuits, etc and stuffed (also known as twice-baked) potatoes along with roast beef and gravy rolls for dinner. I cooked three huge pot roasts in the slow cooker in the couple of days before the party and then just had it all sliced and kept warm in one slow cooker with the gravy in another on the night. It worked out great, was nice and filling and I'd definitely do it again. We'd told people not to bring anything but lots of them bought a plate or two (or in the case of my friend, R, several!) and that was lovely too - we had everything from fairy-bread for the kids to delicious pinwheels and a huge platter of fruit for after.

I also made my last trip to Port Red Dirt last week. After all the rain following Cyclone Pancho there was lots of water on the road and it made the trip a little scary a couple of times, especially when I was driving back in the late afternoon and feeling a little weary, but it was nice to do one last trip.

Well, our time in Red Dirt Central is rapidly drawing to a close and my feelings are quite mixed. I bawled my eyes out writing good-bye cards for a couple of girlfriends today but am also looking forward to going 'home'. I'm pretty sure the mixed-up-ed-ness will only get worse over the next few days.

Well, I Never!

I just did something I never thought I'd do up here in Red Dirt Central. After nearly two years, and just two weeks before we leave, I made Hubby bring the dryer out of the shed and set it up for me!

It has rained here since Tuesday night. Sure it's stopped for an hour or so, here and there, but it has been grey, gloomy (reasonably, unseasonably and fabulously cool) and wet for five long days. In fact, we've had over 100ml in the last 24 hours alone. We have the tiniest of back patios that gets soaked with every shower and nowhere to dry clothes. We do have a line strung up in the shed but that only goes so far and, with no breeze in there, anything on it takes ages to dry. After five days of putting off the washing because, "the rain can't last too much longer" we had hit desperation point. The toilet-training toddler had no underwear and was most displeased, the school-going lad had no uniforms and was becoming quite anxious and the parents-who-work-to-feed-clothe-and-keep-the-offspring-well-shod were in dire need of appropriate apparel. Hence the cry to Hubby.

Now I have a couple of loads of clean washing, each person in the house has been appeased, and the best bit (which I'd forgotten)... after they've been in the dryer, there's no need for ironing!

The rivers around here aren't the only water bodies in danger of flooding. Here's a picture of the pool this morning. The water level usually sits just under the top section.

We have had a rather hectic few days so took the opportunity today to venture out on Hubby's new toy.

We bought the boat a few months ago and, up until now Hubby and Offspring #1 have been the only one to use it. We didn't have a lifejacket for #2 and, quite frankly, boats just aren't my thing. It's kind of a combination of deep water + drowning, muliplied by sharks + death by being eaten. To say that I have thrown any number of hurdles in Hubby's way would be an understatement but he managed to overcome all of them this weekend.

He found a teeny-sized life jacket just right for #2

The weather was beautiful - warm but not stinking hot and the water was calm and still.

And we didn't venture too far, just to one of the many islands right near the coast where the kids played, the grown-ups relaxed and we all enjoyed a picnic lunch.

The boys even managed a quick spot of fishing.

There are very few nice beaches in this part of the world. Mostly we have tidal mud-flats. But that all changes when you head for the islands where you can find any number of lovely little bays with soft white sand.

Offspring #1 loves being on the boat with his Dad, as you can probably tell by this photo.

And #2 had a great time too. She ran along the beach, jumped in the water, dug holes, built sand castles, threw the frisbee, fell over, and ended up so exhausted that she fell asleep on her little chair in the boat on the way back. Now that's tired!

You know, if he promises not to go too far or too fast I might even give it another go!

More Red Dirt

First off I have to say that I'm being tactful when I say that the terms "aesthetically pleasing" and "Port Hedland" should not be ever be in the same sentence. But, I am told by several reliable sources, the people who live there are lovely and it has a real sense of community which I'm sure you will agree is a quality sadly lacking in many areas these days.

Here are some pics of the industy in the town.

A big (okay, HUGE) pile of crushed iron ore, ready to be loaded and transported.

A bigger picture of the vastness of what is being mined.




Very unattractive fuel tanks, or so we believe (that they are fuel tanks that is - I think you'll all agree with the 'unattractive' bit.)

An ore carrier waiting to be loaded. It is loaded until all the bottom part of the ship, the red bit, is in the water.

And some pics of the country side between here and Port Hedland.

The view for two-and-a-half hours. Mostly flat, with some green scrub and the odd set of hills.

Some cows on one of the cattle stations between the towns.



Hope you like the photos of some the area surrounding our patch of Red Dirt.

There's A Skink...

In my sink!

These tiny little geckoes are really common around here. We usually see them on the outside of the windows at night while they are chasing mosquitoes and bugs. But this adventurous little soul found his way into my kitchen sink and then couldn't get himself out again. I'm sure that if we had left him to it he would have sorted himself out but I had rice to drain and I didn't really want him in there any more. I do admit to yelping in suprise (okay, possibly shrieking like a great big girl!) when I moved a cup and found him at the bottom of the sink but Hubby rescued him and returned him to the garden so all was well with the world again.

This little guy looks pretty well fed!

Timid, woosy Offspring #1 freaked out and was convinced that the gecko was going to attack me. "Look out Mum, the animal will eat you" he yelled, cowering on the other side of the room! To help alleviate his fears we took photos until Hubby arrived on his white horse!

Yes, as you may have noticed, we are back from our quick holiday (AKA the big journey, as it was christened by the aforementioned overly-dramatic offspring). We had a great time and also managed to spring a terrific surprise on the kids. I'll be back with stories and pics tomorrow.

And The Heavens Opened

We just had our first rain for the season! Considering how long it is since we have seen rain it was pretty exciting. We got 10ml of rain the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees, then it got humid and steamy. Aaahhh, the wet season in Red Dirt Central. You've gotta love it.

Before the thunderstorm we had the grey skies roll in and this beauty in the sky. If you look carefully you can see the second rainbow too.

It's Getting Hot!

It is really starting to heat up here in sub-tropical Red Dirt Central. Over the weekend it was in the low 40's (about 108˚F) but has been a bit cooler the last couple of days hovering around 35˚C or 95˚F. The wet season officially begins at the beginning of November and the town Cyclone Clean-up is underway. Rubbish is being laid out on the verge for the street collection, a ncessary part of living here but not terribley attractive! Meanwhile the mercury continues to climb and it just gets hotter and hotter. It's not even really hot yet but I am certainly noticing it.

Last time we lived up this way (pre-offspring) I worked full-time so was in air-conditioning all day at work and then Hubby would flit home to switch the air-con on, thereby cooling the house for my arrival an hour or so later. He would then return to work and arrive home for dinner. All nicely organised and making the most of our ability to keep cool. As a stay-at-home-mummy this time round I am noticing the heat a lot more (please don't say it's because I'm 10 years older and more likely to be affected by heat and other such middle-aged issues!) . Anyway, Hubby decided it was time to bite the bullet and set up the pool. It's one of those cheapie round blow-up things but it is a decent size (about 10' from memory) and has a filter so the water stays good. We are onto our third year with it so the $99 was definitely worth it. We have put it around the side of the house as this section is out of the way and already mostly fenced, we just need to add a gate and will have that done by the weekend (no, the Offspring are not currently allowed out the back unsupervised). We have put up a shade sail so the pool is pretty much shaded and now we just need to pretty-up that section of the yard a bit - pull some weeds and maybe put down some pavers as a pathway as the blue-metal ground cover is HARD and hurts your feet.

Here it is in all it's glory. The clam shells at the base of the pool are a complicated system (devised by Offspring #1 and Hubby) for ensuring that feet are clean upon entry of the pool and allowing for drying off in relative cleanliness upon leaving!

And some pics of the offspring frolicking!

And Some More Pictures From Our Holiday

This is Nikki's Restaurant on the foreshore at Onslow.

Hubby had dinner here when he attended a regional meeting at Onslow recently and raved about the food. I'm not sure that it wasn't just being in a restaurant, eating food prepared by someone else, without kids, that made it such a pleasant experience LOL. Anyway, he said we had to have dinner there while on our trip. We shared Garlic Prawns and the Dip Trio with Turkish Bread as an entree. I'm not a big fan of seafood but the prawns were delicious - they were in a creamy garlic sauce that was to die for!! The dips were pretty darn good too, especially the sundried tomato one. Offspring #1 was most impressed with both entrees and matched up bite for bite. Offspring #2 had eaten before we left for the restaurant and I had crackers for her but she also snacked on the Turkish bread and made her current favourite sound (beside high-pitched squealing - is that a girl thing??) mmmmm...mmmm to signify her approval.

We both chose the fish and chips for main course, this came with a salad bar type-affair and we ordered just salad bar for #1 knowing that he would eat half of my dinner (all of which was suggested by our very down-to-earth waitress). The fish was freshly caught (as you would expect in a fishing town!) and it was nice but I kind of wished I had chosed the sirloin - if only because nice meat is really hard to get in Red Dirt Central. Offspring #1 ate his body weight in chips, tried some of the salad and then declared he was too full for the fish. Funnily enough when my dessert arrived he suddenly had enough room for "just a leeeeeetle taste". The cheesecake was very obviously made in-house. Good in one way - not one of those boxed cheesecakes that look great but don't taste nearly as nice, but it was very similar to a cheesecake that I make so wasn't quite the treat I was anticipating. Still a nice way to finish a meal though.

And here are some pics of the beach and the foreshore itself.

That is pretty much it for the Onslow pics so tomorrow I will actually have to come up with something to write about. Yikes!

More Pics (as promised)

While we were at Onslow we went to visit "old" Onslow. The original townsite was pretty much destroyed by a cyclone in about 1918 (not too sure on the date as I can't remember and can't find the tourist info sheet) and the whole town was moved to where it is now, right on the coast. The old townsite was quite a way from the new site and was about 4 miles away from the river. It is kind of eerie out there now - there are only a couple of buildings left standing and although there has been some work done signposting points of interest the whole place is just bits of left over stuff in the middle of the scrub. I was really interested to learn that the town was much older than I had thought - most of the north-west towns are quite young because they sprang up around mineral deposit discoveries in the the sixties and seventies. Onslow as a town started in about the 1880's.

These are the building that are left - the police station/court house/accomodation for the police, magistrate (who was also the town's doctor) and their families.

And the old gaol, complete with broken glass embedded into the cement on the roof to stop those inside from getting out. Crude but effective! You can just see it on the closest wall.

This is all that remains of the telegraph station.

And the blacksmith shop...

The cemetery was really sad. There are about 10 or so gravestones that can be easily seen and they are inside an old wire fence in the middle of absolutely nothing. When we were at the cemetery the wind dropped and it was just stinkingly hot and still - really quite spooky.

We're back!

Sorry, I did mean to tell you we were heading off on our break but things got a bit crazy here and we were an hour away before I smacked myself on the forehead and let out a great big Homer Simpson-like "DOH!" But... now we are back. With lots of lovely photos! Does that sort of make up for not letting you know?

We headed off to Onslow for a few days - Hubby is on holidays and we thought it would be nice to get out of town for a while, have a break from the house and the usual hum-drum and have a change of scenery. Onslow is on the coast, about 300km's from Red Dirt Central and has a population of (and I quote the lady from the tourist centre) 600-800, depending on the season and what's happening in town. I found it really interesting that such a tiny town exists on the coast - it has one shop, one pub, one restaurant (it's really really good!) two petrol stations (odd, I thought) and not much else. It is a pearling, prawning and fishing town and has a recent salt mine too. We stayed in a cabin at one of the caravan parks - we were going to take the caravan but decided it was getting too hot and we would book a cabin with air-conditioning instead. A wise move!! It's one of those towns that you kind of look at and just ask "why?" I'm really glad we went and enjoyed the break and getting to see somewhere I hadn't been before but I don't feel a need to go back.

The area around Onslow is apparently quite famous for it's ant hills. There are hundreds (probably thousands) of them and they are really quite fascinating. Here we are parked on the side of the road - you can see the ant hills, red mounds of dirt, all around.

And here is a close up of one that was right next to the road. Offspring #1 is standing next to it to give an indication of the size of these things.

Here are a couple of shots of the landscape driving home today. This is what it looks like for 3 hours! Flat, flat, flat and then a bit of hilly range then flat, flat, flat.

I have never seen it look so green up here - I was amazed by the colour and lushness. My overrriding memories of living up this way 10 years ago are the extreme redness and the sparseness of the landscape. But 6 cyclones at the beginning of the year, and the resulting rain, has turned the great redness of "up North" into something diffferent altogether. For me it isn't really 'beautiful' the way that rolling green hills or thick treed bushland are but it has an amazing splendour that is so hard to describe. It's just huge and open and there is nothing for as far as you can see for hours and hours.

Well, that's it for today. I'm off for a cup of tea and a piece of cake then it's time for bed. Holidaying is very tiring LOL. I have lots more photos so guess what you'll be getting this week?

Anyone for golf?

Here is a photo of the local golf course. You can see some of the fairway and the 'green' (more on that later) and the track around the golf course for buggies. It is in much better condition that it was when we lived here 10 years ago. The fairways are actually grass now whereas they used to be mown spinifex, ie spinifex that had been mown 'flat' . They were really rough and your golf ball didn't exactly glide across them! The course does still have it's sand 'greens' though. You know how in a normal golf course the green would be smooth, perfectly level, perfectly manicured turf? Yeah, that's not gonna happen here. Instead we have sand for the 'green' that has to be smoothed before you take your shot and then raked when you have finished. It's all very technical (NOT!). In this picture you can see where Red Dirt Central takes it's name. The sand is not the normal white beach-type sand one would expect, it is dirt. Red dirt. The redder, the better!

A Splash of Colour

Our backyard is bare. Barren. An empty wasteland.

Okay, it's not quite that bad. The house that Hubby's work has rented for us is on a small suburban-type block with a small rather bare yard. It has some, very patchy, lawn, one bottle brush, one nice big tree (unusual for up here and very much appreciated), a clothesline and a couple of sparse shrub type things along the back fence. Nothing will grow under the nice big tree so that is just bare red dirt that the kids think is their sandpit. The harder they play, the more the 'sandpit' encroaches on the patchy lawn. Now that we live here the yard has a trampoline, a swing set, assorted bikes and cars to ride in/on along with a multitude of balls, toy lawnmowers and general outdoor toys.

The fence itself is interesting. It is made of wire, interlocked, very strong and sturdy. To afford the occupants some privacy there are lengths of timber woven into the wire (hmmm, probably the wire is woven around the timber... dunno!) . If the timber was in good condition it would be semi-private as there are gaps of about an inch between each board. As is our case, the timber is rotting and falling down so there are great bigs gaps where you can see straight into the neighbours yard.

But... with time, patience and little coaxing we are getting somewhere. I have potted up some herbs - cannot live without my herb garden! I have basil, mint, rosemary, dill, coriander (not doing too well), oregano, chives, garlic and marjoram. They are coming along nicely and I should be able to start using them in another month or so. The lawn is getting a regular watering and fertiliser and when we haven't mowed it, it almost looks decent. When it is mowed it still looks patchy and pretty horrible. The showpiece at the moment is the splash of colour along the back fence. I didn't really notice the shrub-type plant initially but as my pots of herbs sit along the back fence I started giving this plant a drink when I watered my herbs. What a difference a bit of water makes.

Apparently it is a native bouganvillea (according to those in the know up here). It certainly has the bouganvillea-type flower but doesn't appear to creep and take over like all the bouganvillea bushes I have seen. Here is a close up of the flower cluster.

I am going to chop off some of the dead-looking bits towards the ends of the branches and see if we can get the whole thing to green up a bit and produce some more colour.

A Day At The Fair

Well, okay an hour at the Fair. Hmmm... an hour at the school fete? One of the local primary schools had their Fair today but to be honest, it didn't really meet what I would think of as "Fair" standards, even calling it a school fete would be being kind. There were a few stalls - maybe 8 or so local ladies who sell one thing or another through party plan, you know: Tupperware and jewellery and wooden toys/puzzles - a couple of school run stalls like one with over-priced plants and a sponge throw stall and a bouncy castle. That was about it. Oh, I almost forgot, there were some food stalls out the back but to be honest they didn't do alot for me - no bain maries to keep food warm, no fridges to keep it cool and I had a few issues with the general hygiene too. It's going to be about 35˚C here today and I wouldn't be choosing to eat the food being served. It's a bit sad really - there isn't a whole lot to do at Red Dirt Central and with a little forethought, planning and some decent organisation this could have been a terrific money spinner for the school. The last school fete (for one of the other schools) was not long after we arrived in town and I swear the entire town turned out for it. That one was well run, well organised and a really enjoyable event. Oh well, at least the kids and I got out and had a wander round for an hour or so before it got too hot today.

Offspring #1 on the bouncy castle

#1 has been so tired lately. He doesn't have a daytime sleep anymore but he tends to need just a little bit more than he gets at night. He goes to bed around 7.15/7.30pm and wakes up around 6am. I have been trying to get him to have a nap for about a week but no luck so after this mornings efforts when he refused to get off the bouncy castle and came home in disgrace I told him he would be having a sleep after lunch no arguments! Funnily enough after the usual "I don't wanna have a sleep" he toddled off and I haven't heard from him since. When I peeked in a while ago he was sound asleep, even with #2 awake and tearing around the place like a madwoman! I admit that I cheated and gave him lunch a bit early at 11.30 in an effort to have him awake again at a reasonable hour so that we might get him to back to bed at a semi-decent hour tonight. It's all Catch-22 really. No extra sleep and he's a grumpy little monster, sneak in a nap and he'll be bouncing off the walls till all hours. When it cools down later we might have to take the dog up to the park and throw some tennis balls around to wear everyone out.

I'm A Kindy Mum!

Not much time today. I was kindy mum this morning and choppped up the fruit for morning tea then helped the kids make crabs out of paper plates and some photocopied legs and eyes that they had painted horrific and garish colours. I ended up with glue everywhere but it was fun and Offspring #1 loved me being there. He kept telling the other kids "That's my Mum" and when I called the name of the kid who I was going to work with next he'd tell them "You need to go to my Mum now, she'll help you." So sweet. Most of the kids were very sweet and we had lovely chats about glueing and painting and crabs and being at the beach BUT a couple are right little monsters. I'll be ever-so-gently steering #1 away from them LOL.

Here is a photo of Red Dirt Central taken from the originally-named Radio Hill - it's the highest point in town where the big dishes are to catch the tv and radio reception. You can see one section of the town, then the mud flats and beyond that the ocean.

Question Of The Day: What is your favourite part of helping out at your child's school/kindy/day-care centre?