Return of the Jedi, (or, On the Road, Again)

Well its been an interesting few weeks or so since we last spoke.

We got told we were doing everything wrong in our jobs and basically were bringing down the enrire Northern Territory education system with our arrogance and rudeness and incompetence so we said "hows this for rude?" and quit.

It amazing how quickly your entire life can be packed up and shoved into the back of a car when you need to.

So we received our glowing assessment on the afternoon of Friday the 16th, and by 2pm Saturday we were on the road. Incredibly sad but we had to do it.

So we took exactly 7 days to travel about 2400km, listened to exactly 381 songs (thanks ipod), and saw all sorts of neat things, in particular sand and flatness.

For example,

this is Jo on the edge of a real live meteor crater. Cool.

these are the views out the back and out the front of the car in total nothing land

a huge dog - the head is a whole car. Neat.

WOW!!

Now we are back in Melbourne and being 'in between jobs' have loads of time but finite dollars. But I have an interview at Wangaratta College next week for starting next term (mid July). Wangaratta, for those of you unlucky souls who havent been there, (and I think that includes me, but i cant be sure) is a lovely (hopefully) rural town in the north east of Victoria. Near the mountains so we'll be able to have a proper winter time of it, assuming my interview technique is charming enough.

While I'm bringing home the bacon (or, indeed, bringing home unsalted pork delights with which to create said bacon) Jo will be doing relief/emergency teaching and being a domestic goddess. (cakes and the such) And working on plans for other stuff. I think.

So our heads have come right i think after the battering our emotions took and we can look back with excellent memories of the kids and the community and hope that something extremely painful befalls the idiots who couldnt see how good we are.
Dickheads.


Thanks for tuning in.


Ooooooh - nearly forgot. I bought a new watch about 6 weeks ago. Its a SOLAR POWERED g-shock. No more batteries ever. If you own shares in duracell or energiser, sell now. Keep everyready though, they're still good. Its a bit like having a grandfather clock on my slender wrist but by golly it makes me look rugged.

I read about a watch on the weekend that costs $530,000 but it is waterproof to a depth of 1km. Stupid. But awesome.
And, they say it will survive a nuclear explosion, which IS actually useful. In case cockroaches need the time of course.

So much cool stuff. Its a crazy world.



p.s. If you are a boss, don't be mean.

school hols

Everybody loves school holidays, and no-one more so than Jo and I.

So last week we hopped in our car and drove up to Darwin and back. Its about a 3500km round trip. Took us 7 days and heeeeeeeeeaps of petrol.

We saw lots of stuff, like

cockatoos...

frogs... heaps of frogs, and lizards too. This one was out at night, thats why its dark. Hope you can see him.

There were crocodiles, some big...

some not so big... And I tell you what, when there is a sign saying 'crocodiles may inhabit these waters', it takes the excitment (read fear) of swimming in deep, unknown lakes to a whole new level...

we saw goats...

cows (I think)...

a brontosaurus and, look away now if you're squeamish,... seriously

a dead horse on fire. How about that? Odd, especially at 8am on a Saturday morning miles from anywhere. It had been dead on the side of the road for at least 4 weeks so we can't work out if it suddenly decided to spontaneously combust or someone thought it would be fun to burn it. Odd.

We also saw millions of termite mounds/structures/castles/edifices/monuments/buildings everywhere... we saw cooler ones but mostly from the car and at 130km/hr you havent got long to take a quick snap.

this one is bigger than most... the termite mound i mean...

as a tragic aside, this is one of the last photos featuring my trusty brown jandals (thongs if you're fair dinkum). They finally died in the Causarina shopping mall in Darwin. The strap busted off the sole. Luckily i was virtually outside that beacon of quality and style, k-mart so i popped in and spent $7 on a new pair. Needless to say the next day in Katherine I forked out $20 for another pair as the k-mart jobs had already worn down and were basically crap. IN ONE DAY. So i now sport a dull green pair of havianas. They really are quite good. Excellent even. Recommended.

Anyhoo, the highlight of the trip was water. There are some stunning swimming holes, waterfalls, rivers etc. Heres a sample.

here's a picture of a 'willy-willy'. Saw lots of those too but this one was cool cos it sort of grew on the road in front of us.
the best thing on the road between here and up there is the Devils Marbles. Heaps of huge rocks scattered and piled up. We camped there the last night before we go home.

and finally , a beautiful photo of Jo sitting at Devils Marbles.

lovely.

And that was our holiday.

Dusty

So we were at camp last week. We had told our kids to be at school at 7.30 tuesday morning ready to go. At 7.30 there was not a soul to be seen. At 7.45 a few dogs trotted past. At 7.50 we saw one of our girls sitting across the 'street' and she said that she was coming, just waiting for her brother to have a shower. At 8 o'clock 3 girls turned up, and by 8.30 we had most kids. But they arrive a bit differently from city kids. A few turned up with nothing. Not a thing. Just the shorts and t-shirt they were wearing. Nice. Thats casual.
Camp was fun. I got to sleep out side with the other men folk while Jo and the girlies slept inside. Except all the boys slept inside on the last night cos they were convinced the dingoes and the boogie man were going to get them. Weird. They even asked me to leave the light on in their bunkhouse. 40,000 years of Aboriginal evolution and they're seriously scared of the dark. Even some of the men wouldn't leave the campfire to go to the toilet without a small posse. Needless to say I looked pretty tough sleeping outside.
But it was so nice to get home for a good old wash cos living outside in the dust for 4 days is a bit drying.
We went for a picnic today up in the local river bed. We drove up the road (pictured) for a few k's then drove through the scrub and found some shady trees (also pictured) and had lunch. Nice.
And followed that with an absolutely cracking roast chicken tonight.
Winter feels like its on its way too - cold at night, down to about 10 degrees and only just hitting 30 in the day. So its long sleeves in the morning.
Hope autumn/spring is looking pretty at your place. It all looks much the same here.

Quod erat demonstratum

A spectacular success.
I feel, in a very small way, like the late Sir Edmund Hilary must have when he and Tenzing Norgay conquered Mt Everest. We certainly knocked the bastard off. It looked good, it tasted good, it smelt good, indeed, it WAS good.
And there's plenty more left. Excellent. We shared some of it with our wee friend (pictured) and he loved it too.

We had a super weekend due to the presence of water. So nice. We went to a spot called Ellery Big Hole that is one of 6 permanent water holes along the West McDonnell Ranges. Its about 100km west of Alice. The water is damn cold at first but beautifully fresh. Its a deep pond sort of thing, about 40m in diameter, nestled in a crack in the range. Very pretty.

Now we're off to camp for the next 4 days with our students. Could be interesting.


See you next weekend.

hippity hop

its easter time!! woohoo!!!!
bacon update day 4 (don't panic if you think you missed day 3, you didn't, nothing happened): hardly any liquid coming out. Definite firming. Colour deepening. My concern is that we are scampering off to go camping straight after school tomorrow and really the bacon needs another day of care to be ready. I'm going to call it early, take half with us and leave the other half doing its thing. Slightly nervous, but i haven't many options. Could freeze it but that may hinder flavour development. Am I really cut out for the stresses of this industry? Doubts creeping in. Must stay focussed.
On more positive note here is a (photo) gift from our kitchen. My latest batch of hot cross buns, just in time for your (vicarious) easter feasting!
Also included here is one of our rather large easter bunny-looking neighbours, and a snap of Jo and I at the southern tip of the Andes, from early January.
long weekend!!!!!!!!

Bacon

Here we have the bacon after 1 day (top) and after 2 days.

It certainly feels a bit firmer today, doesn't look a great deal different, but as you can see has leeched a fair bot of liquid - which is the aim. The dryer looking photo (after 1 day) actually had more liquid than after 2 days but I drained it off before taking the photo.

I'm happy with the progress, and am expecting to see more firming and drying as the days progress.

The black things you can see are juniper berries, I'm hoping they impart something special.

It certainly is an exciting time.

domestic concerns

So we had a bit of excitement on our way back from Alice last evening – lightning, rain on the horizon, and a spectacular sunset. Then today there were clouds (!!!) and the definite sniff of rain…

The real focus of our excitement though should, as always, be focussed on meat. Specifically, in this case, bacon. I’m making my own.

Here’s a photo of progress day one -

Stay tuned throughout the week for daily updates. Should be ready for eating on Friday.

Good Friday indeed. Hot cross bacon. Yummo.

Next week, pate.

I’m hoping for sausages and perhaps salami come winter. It’s too warm here at the moment to be able to hang them at all.

And, after a bit of technical wizadry, here are some more Antarctic photos.

Thats the boat, with the little wee zodiacs alondside.

Penguins, with a whale backbone.

A touching family scene. Check out the nests made of stones. They spend their whole time stealing other penguins stones and defending their own little pile. Funny.

Right, well i had intended on a few more than that, but The Glitches have returned. Oh well. Better check the bacon.

ta ra.