Christmas at Alice Springs

 After a two-day drive from Tanunda with an overnight stop at Coober Pedy, we arrived at The Alice with the sole purpose of spending Christmas with our small family.

December is, as expected, hot. This year was no exception - it's still hot as I write and will be hot for a lot longer. Mornings are coolish and very pleasant but the heat creeps up during the day and eventually, an airconditioned spot is better than being outside.

When we lived here and were much younger, we could cope better with the heat and low humidity; we've always been hot, low-humidity people, but after six years of living in the Barossa, we're now acclimatised to cooler weather.

Many more people die from cold weather than hot weather as the UK and parts of Europe will attest to this winter, but the Barossa never gets cold enough to impact our health. Our beloved planet is entering a cooling phase, but when it's 42 C at Alice Springs, it seems that cooling is a figment of someone's imagination.

Then you read the reports: "90% of Mongolia is under snow, China breaks all-time cold records, and Guatemala has its lowest emperater in 39 years".

When we are hot, we wish for some cooler weather; when cold, warm weather.

Forget about the weather for now at least.

It was great to spend time with our kids and to catch up with a couple of long-term friends. Christina had several coffee catch-ups with her midwifery colleagues and we chatted with a few shopkeepers we know, one couple of whom we had as neighbours in 1992.

Alice Springs is a sad sight deteriorating monthly and the crime continues largely unabated as no one at government level seems capable of finding a solution although they can import 860 Palestinians from Gaza which no other country wants. It's perhaps easier than resolving local challenges. 

Dale's car had two windows smashed a week ago. Last trip, it was Tory's ute window that got smashed. Everywhere you go you see vehicles with plastic covering windows that have yet to be replaced.

Meredith, friend Rob and I replaced Meredith's patio decking the timber of which had become ugly, splintered and dangerous to walk on. Merbau decking from Bunnings has saved the day.

Christmas was very quiet at home with some roast lamb, ham, and a variety of roasted vegetables. We actually won the ham at an RSL raffle before we drove up which was convenient.

Now we need to see what 2024 will bring us. That's anyone's guess.

About time for an update

Robin's recent selfie

The last two years have been the least travelled of our lives (I think), if not, certainly of our later lives during which we have done a great deal of travel.

We have been keeping a low profile and neither of us has had the annoying and disruptive C19 bug but during the last couple of weeks we have had annoying coughs that have been harder than usual to shake off. Maybe it's something to do with age and the depleted immunity one suffers as one ages. 

We've both had four C19 innoculations and our annual Flu shot, but the cough still persists. Such is life.

Otherwise, Christina is heavily involved in craft and keeps busy travelling to and from this or that craft spot. I can never recall if it's embroidery, quilting, knitting, or something else. She's also treasurer of the Tanunda RSL sub-branch which provides a half day or so of financial processing most weeks. Then there are the barbecues and fundraising activities in which we are both involved, so it's not that we get bored - I often wonder how I had time to work - but we spend too much time at home and locally and not out and about our beautiful country.

My life is less busy but I do attend a Men's Shed Thursdays where I turn beautiful pieces of timber into ... other things, sometimes less beautiful. But I am improving. As you'd expect from an ex-training and education guru, I'm teaching myself to do stuff with wood using all the new tools that were never part of my existence all those decades ago when I welded underground machinery together at Peko Mine. And of course, I employ competency-based training methodologies. (Yes, my memory is still intact)

When I watch Anika on YouTube or read her Anikasdiylife blog and see what she's capable of, I wonder why it takes me 12 attempts to join two pieces of pine together with the same degree of accuracy she achieves. What makes it even more frightening is that she is a qualified electrical engineer, the farthest thing you could imagine from a wood butcher worker. She's brilliant.

Then there is the very attractive Korean girl Yang who, without saying a word, produces lovely pieces while incidentally displaying her stunning figure and providing a little entertainment. She's a true artisan and I hope she's a qualified tradesperson, otherwise she's a much more gifted amateur than you know who,

Other than the woodwork, I'm also heavily involved with the RSL Tanunda Sub-Branch as a committee member responsible for membership, grant applications and management, running the internet, being a barman, and doing a range of other things from picking up our Friday evening meals to vacuuming the floors of our hut. It's the usual 80/20 situation; 80% of members do nothing and the rest do everything.

Having said that however, Christina and I are among the younger people in the group. We have a WWII Founding Member of the sub-branch turning 100 years old in August 22. Many others are in their mid-late 80s or 90s, so we can't expect them to do too much of the heavy lifting. Our youngest veteran is 58 and has just retired from the Australian Army.

Unfortunately, younger veterans from the Middle East wars aren't joining the RSL so eventually our organisation looks like it will fizzle out.

As was to be expected with the Sun currently in one of its very low activity cycles - Solar Cycle 25, it is a colder than usual winter here in South Australia and we've also had an inordinate amount of rain on a too regular schedule. One positive is that we've been able to pull out some pullovers and jackets we've had for decades but never needed.  I think we are beginning to climatize after four years plus in the Barossa Valley.

Next year we have two Princess Cruises scheduled which are replacements for the 2020 trip we had planned up the Alaskan Passage that was cancelled when C19 became a pandemic. Before then, we'll probably take a trip to Alice Springs in November for grandson Tory's 21st birthday and may do a few trips to some local places just for three or four days.

Son Dale is commencing a new job at the Alice Springs Hospital in late August and is taking two weeks off, so we hope he'll visit us for the first time since we moved here. He's getting a second Cochlear implant sometime either late this year or next year but due to the C19 demands on the Darwin Hospital, elective surgery has been put on hold.

Meredith and Tory both seem okay and we hear from the former several times per week with updates on what is happening in their lives.

To conclude, we are all well and living the dream and forever mindful of the fact that despite the many people trying to destroy our history and corrupt our civilisation, Australia is still a great place to be.

Stay well.

Robin

Western Australia or Bust!

As we heading north from Alice Springs my mind returned to 1957 - the first time I had traversed the Stuart Highway between The Alice and Tennant Creek.

Then, the remote Northern Territory was much more remote. The “highway” was slightly wider than a large vehicle and trees, shrubs and spinifex lined each side providing a high potential for road surprises - that instant when a kangaroo or cow walks onto the road in front of you. Many a vehicle had arrived at its destination with damage resulting from an animal strike. The worst cases were, of course, towed in or transported home on the backs of trucks. On rare occasions, there would be a fatality - no seat belts in 1957.

When two vehicles approached, both had to put their outside wheels off the bitumen so they could pass. This presented an additional hazard given that much of the road edge was badly broken and pot-holed. However, I can recall occasions when we had done the then eight hour trip from Tennant Creek to The Alice and never pass another vehicle.

Today was much different. Although there is always the potential for a road surprise, the Stuart Highway is now a real highway with wide cleared edges, defined lanes and with a general speed limit of 130 km/hr. In some places the speed limit is unrestricted - drivers can drive as fast as they wish, and many brave souls do.

With two tonnes of caravan behind my car, I chose to drive at a steady 100 km/hr along that stretch I had travelled perhaps hundreds of times. Although the scenery is very ordinary, there is a meditative aspect to sitting looking out the front window for hours on end. There are many more fellow travellers on the road today too, which provides at least some intermittent break from the tedium.

We stopped at Prowse Gap rest stop overnight as it has toilets and ample parking space for larger caravans. After a busy few weeks and under the clear, sparkling Central Australian sky, we had the best night’s sleep for weeks. As I dozed off, I thought of my long lost parents and brother and the good times we had had living here when it was like Australia’s Wild West.

Robin

Driving East from Central Australia to Mount Isa

Underground Hospital at Mt Isa

After a late departure we headed north along the Stuart Highway towards Tennant Creek which is 500 km from The Alice. Named after explorer, John McDowell Stuart, the highway runs south to Adelaide, South Australia and north to what we call The Top End of the Territory … Darwin.

It was on the Stuart Highway outside Barrow Creek that my brother was born on 13 December 1961. It was a hot and uncomfortable summer event for my mother and the midwife assisting and led to my brother’s name, Kendall Stuart; Kendall after the midwife and Stuart after the highway near which he was born. Unfortunately, my brother died in 1976 and never got to revisit his birthplace. Every time I drive past Barrow Creek, I think of my mother and Kendall as I did on this occasion.

We hadn’t intended to travel as far as Tennant Creek, but wanted to free camp overnight at the Devil’s Marbles. But, times change and now while camping is allowed, caravan parking overnight isn’t allowed. On we drove to a nicely presented road-side stop at Bonney Well where we stayed overnight before heading to Tennant Creek to the north and then branching east towards Mount Isa on day two.

The trip across the Barkly Highway is long and tedious, but we cruised along at 90 km/hr seeing dozens of other caravaners heading in both directions. At this time of year, many people from southern states head north to warmer climates.

Near Camooweal, about 180 km from Mount Isa, we stopped at the edge of the Georgina River where there were large numbers of birds including brolgas, living in proximity to a few pools of water left over from the last rain. The next morning, we drove the final leg to the Silver City, Mount Isa. As we had lived at Mount Isa for four years from July, 1984, it’s a little like coming home when we visit.

We stayed for two nights giving us time to visit some friends, have dinner at the local Irish Club, and check out some of the changes eg, the underground hospital, is now open to the public (see photos).

Towards the entrance door

When I visited Mount Isa enroute to Charters Towers during my high school years, I had heard of the underground hospital that was built during WWII in anticipation of the Japanese advancing south from Darwin. As Mount Isa is a lead and copper producer and produced raw material for ammunition, military planners had considered it may have been a target had our enemy been able to get so far south. As history tells us, this didn’t happen and patients from the Mount Isa hospital never had to be moved into the underground hospital to keep safe during a Japanese aerial bombardment.

We departed on the second morning and headed east to Richmond.

Robin

While it Rains in Central Australia, Coastal Australia Swelters

As I write, it has been drizzling in Central Australia for several days on and off and it's raining heavier than a drizzle at present. It's very nice and has driven down the usual high temperatures we get at this time of year.

I have the front doors and rear door of our house open allowing a cool breeze to move through the house keeping it pleasantly cool ... no air-conditioning here thank you.

It's a very different story throughout most of coastal Australia where bush fires have devastated large areas of land and destroyed dozens of houses and live stock. A handful of people has died from heat exhaustion and the ambulance service tells us their paramedics have dealt with numbers of individuals whose hearts have literally stopped working ... cardiac arrests, through heat stress.

Today we are lucky to be in Central Australia. Last month we had our share of temperatures in the high 40s (Celsius), but we are accustomed to high temperatures and have houses with evaporative or split level airconditioning which is not always available in southern houses. We know how to live with heat.

The claim that climate change is a myth is a difficult one to support with the evidence. However, Australia is always hot in Summer and we have a long history of heat-induced bush fires. Some degree of climate change has been with us always so it's hard to gauge whether it's part of a natural cycle in nature or, as some say, caused by our presence and activities here on Mother Earth.

Cutting down trees, driving motor vehicles and running coal-fired electricity plants probably do contribute to climate, so it's a thin argument to claim that humankind doesn't contribute. But when I visited Rabaul in Papua New Guinea in April last year and saw the resident volcano puffing out millions of cubic metres of smoke, I realised that we aren't the only culprits.

As I enjoy the cool weather for as long as it lasts, I can't help but think that while climate change caused by global warming may be of long term detriment to us, there are other issues more likely to have a dramatic impact on life on earth than climate change. One that comes to mind is religious intolerance.

Hope you are enjoying your new year.

Robin

Alice Springs National Transport Hall of Fame

Having visitors occasionally is good, because you get out of the house and take them to local venues that you would not normally visit. Like the National Transport Hall of Fame. 

According to the home page on the Internet site:
"The Road Transport Historical Society is a volunteer based project dedicated to the preservation and presentation of Australia's unique road transport heritage. It does this through its magnificant Shell Rimula Hall of Fame in Alice Springs, the traditional birthplace of the roadtrain.The charter is not only to remember the great trucks, buses and vehicles of the past, but recognise the contribution of the men and women who drove and lived with these great machines of the past."
It must be 15 years since I have visited the Hall of Fame. Since then it has expanded greatly and improved it's stock of old trucks and equipment. What surprised me most is that many of the vehicles in the Kenworth Museum are straight off the production line. They must be worth millions and the Kenworth company still owns them, but stores them at the museum.
There are dozens of photos of people, places and transport from the early days in the Northern Territory as well as the obligatory cafe and tourist shop. Adjoining the NTH of Fame is the Ghan Railway Museum, which we didn't visit today.
If you ever get an opportunity to visit Alice Springs and you are interested in transport you must visit the National Transport Hall of Fame.

Robin

PS: Double click on the photo strip at left to enlarge the images.

Walking In Wonderland

Well, Wonderland may be hyperbole, but it is rather pleasant walking in the hills that surround our street.


This morning a little after 5:30 am I left our house (see the faint yellow sign), turned right (heading left on the photo)  and up on the hill following the white spotted, black line.

There is a couple of spots with moderately steep upgrades that get the heart pumping. It's a pleasant walk that takes about 30 minutes ... all the exercise an old dog (and even some young dogs!) needs.

From the surrounding hills, you can see The Gap south of Alice Springs through which the old Afghan camel trains used to pass. Nowdays of course, our trains and motor vehicles pass heading south to Ayres Rock (Uluru) and into South Australia or heading north to Alice Springs and beyond. You can also get a good view of the rest of the MacDonnel Ranges, the result of upheavals of an inland sea billions of years ago that later dried, vegetated and left such an impressive mark on the landscape.

As a boy, I collected various types of trilobite fossils from the countryside around Tennant Creek, 500km north of Alice Springs. They are somewhere between 250 and 500 million years old, which is an inconceivable number of years when compared with the minuscule 70 or 80 we spend here.

The weather this morning was very comfortable and I never ran into anyone walking their dogs as I often do.

While walking I took several photos of the surrounds and one of my house, which I have posted on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=119326&id=557304789&l=a2141c74f7 
Usually kangaroos, some of which hop into our backyard, or around our house at sunrise or sunset appear whtn you walk this track, but I didn't see any today. When you walk close to them they are either lying down in the shade and, startled by your presence take to flight or they are grazing and move a few more metres out of your way.

This is not the only route one can walk. Tory and I took off on an unknown track a few months back and took 2.5h to get back home. Even Tory was stuffed when we got back, which was a good sign.

Robin

Ewaninga Rock Carvings and Crocodile Burgers

Diane and Gerry had a busy day on Friday. We took them to the Ewaninga Rock Carvings south of Alice Springs, Emily Gap to the south east and then went for dinner at the Overlander Steakhouse, one of Alice Springs' most popular restaurants.

The first photo is of the girls at the entrance to the Ewaninga Rock Carvings Reserve inspecting the route map. It's a very pleasant walk with a salt pan and several collections of petroyglyphs that

were carved by Aborigines using hard stones, probably quartzite of which the region has numerous outcrops.

The second photo shows some of the petroglyphs although they aren't all that visible with full sunlight on them. The circle in Aboriginal useage usually refers to a community or group of people. Some of the other shapes are figures of people and kangaroos.

On our way back to town, we detoured off the Stuart Highway towards Ross River where we visited Emily Gap.

Emily Gap has numerous ochre paintings that have to do with three caterpillars, although I have no idea how the photo of the vertical lines at left relates to caterpillars.

There's nothing at the site that looks like a caterpillar, although much of Aboriginal art is based on their Dreamtime or religious mythology and isn't always clear.

There was a cold wind developing at Emily Gap and it seemed to be flowing through the gap, so we didn't bother to stay long enough to debate what we were looking at. I took a few photos and headed back to the warmth of the car.

On the way home we decided to detour to the Overlander Steakhouse as our visitors wanted to try some local cuisine such as emu, kangaroo, camel or crocodile. They decided on the crocodile burgers, but neither really enjoyed it and said they'd probably not eat it again.

We'd called into the Bojangles Saloon for lunch earlier in the day, but had arrived too late for the lunch menu ... the kitchen was closed!

Diane tried an Australian beer (as did I, even though I've had 45 years practice ;-)) so, without lunch, by the time we'd walked about Ewaninga and Emily Gap, we were all pretty hungry.

This morning we arose at 5:30 am and put our visitors on a bus for a two day tour of Ayres Rock and Kings Canyon. They go to one of the destinations the first day, return to Erldunda which is about 200 km east of Ayres Rock where they stay overnight. The next day the head off to the second destination.

It's the same trip that friends Michael and Linda Fairhart and Sofie and Maureen did earlier this year and all reports are that it's a good trip.

I'm off to Darwin for the week on Monday and our visitors fly out to Perth on Tuesday.

Robin

Visitors from Sydney

We love having visitors and were delighted to have Maureen and Sofie stay for several days recently.

Both are nursing professionals from Sydney. Maureen works for the NSW Air Ambulance (a high flyer no less) and Sofie at a local hospital accident and emergency department. We've known Sofie since we were all young, single people in Hobart, partying every weekend as though there was no tomorrow, so it was extra special seeing her and we were delighted to make a new friend of Maureen.

For a while Robin had to cope with not one, but three nurses in the house.

I took this photo of Maureen and Sofie on ANZAC Hill overlooking Alice Springs. Almost everyone who visits The Alice drives up the only lookout in an almost flat landscape (excluding the MacDonnell Ranges seen in the background) and gets a great 360 degrees view of the township.

For anyone who considers themselves to be a mountain climber, you can get a better view from the MacDonnells, but they are steep and it's a hard slog climbing to the top. The only vehicle access is on a private road owned by telecommunications company, Telstra which leads to the communications towers at the top of the ranges. Unfortunately, travelling on that road is prohibited, so it's climb or nothing.

While here the ladies followed in the footsteps of Mike and Linda Fairhart and went on an Emu Run Tour of Ayres Rock and Kings Canyon to the west of Alice Springs. They appeared to have had a good time visiting.

After leaving here they flew to Darwin and planned to fly back to Sydney after a short stay.

Our next visitors are due in early July; Diane and Gerry from Al Ain Women's College will also be doing the Emu Run Tour (hopefully the tour company will send me a carton of booze for all the business I've been passing their way ... oh yeah, that's right).

Robin

Our Canadian Visitors

This week, Michael and Linda Fairhart visited us at Alice Springs enroute from the United Arab Emirates to Canada, arriving Thursday afternoon.

On their second morning we drafted them into an early morning walking race with the Alice Springs Walking and Running Club. I had expected they'd resist my offer, however, they didn't bat an eyelid and lined up as keen athletes like the rest of us.

Here they are all numbered-up (and hopefully limbered-up for the race)

Those keen enough, ran the 4 km around the Central Business District. The rest of us, the more sensible people, walked. At the end, everyone received a numbered ticket and had a chance at winning prizes donated by the owner of Centralian Sports shop. The top prize was a Panasonic television set. Other prizes consisted of a heart-rate monitor, pairs of socks, T shirts and water bottles.

I managed to better my time by about three minutes from the last race a fortnight earlier, so I was pleased with myself. Here I am with Linda.

Friday night we had a scrumptious meal at the Juicy Rump restaurant which is part of the famous Lassiter's Casino and after dinner helped the casino make a profit for the 2007-08 fiscal year.

Saturday we spent idling about ... you know the dictum, "All work and no play ....".

On Sunday we visited the Standley Chasm which is 45 km west of Alice Springs and dropped in at Simpson's Gap which is on the same Larapinta Highway, but a bit closer to town.

As flies were plentiful, the ladies each bought a fly net. Mike commented that they were looking like Emirati women. One of the photos following shows Christina and Linda wearing their fly nets.
Another is of Michael at the entrance to Standley Chasm and finally, a photo of the Chasm.

According to the publicity, Standley Chasm was gouged into tough sandstone by floods that surged down a narrow tributary of the Finke River over untold millions of years.

The Chasm is at its best around noon on a sunny day when the sheer walls glow from reflected sunlight to create a breathtaking display of stark form and rich colour.

There are also many lush plants, even some cycad palms that have survived from wetter ages millenia ago.
Early this morning Linda and Mike drove off in a bus for a tour of Ayres Rock and Kings Canyon.

We are going to meet up with them at Erldunda Road House 200 km south of Alice Springs tomorrow evening and on Wednesday drive off to Coober Pedy to visit the opal fields and then to a cabin we timeshare in the Snowy Mountains area of Victoria.

We did tell them not to get too excited about the snow, it's not the right time of year for that here.

Robin


























Standley Chasm (Chris in distance)

Surfing the Todd River!

I never thought I'd see someone surfin' the Todd, home of the Henley-On-Todd Regatta and as dry as firewood for most days of most years. But yesterday when I went to take a look, there he was ... the "Todd River Surfer" doing his thing.

We've had some lovely rainfall during the past week which has brought the temperatures down and is greening The Alice.

Take a look at the photos here and you'll get a sense of the excitement that follows a few billion litres of rain.

Some enterprising people even set up a small tent to sit and watch their kids and enjoy the moment.

There are three causeways and a couple of high level bridges at Alice Springs. So, when the Todd flows, the causeways are blocked off and we can get from side to side using the high level bridges.

It's not often that the high level bridges are flooded, but it has happened on one or two occasions. When that happens, part of the business centre go under too.

Our friends at Al Ain will be envious of our rain fall since Al Ain is even drier than Central Australia.

Robin

PS: Look at the lovely old ghost gum at the right hand side of the last photo. It's probably several hundred years old.

Weather to Die For Hits The Alice

November, normally a warm to hot month, has brought unusually cool weather to Alice Springs this year.

Starting with thunder storms in late October that demolished trees, fences, and a few roofs, November has been wonderful.

We've had some excellent rainfall and cooler days. The mornings and evenings have been perfect and now that the rain has cleared, the stark blue skies I love are back.

We have numerous native trees and plants in our garden and get many different birds visiting us. This is something I missed in Al Ain where, despite the greater access to water, the birdlife is much scarcer than at The Alice where birdlife is plentiful.

This honeyeater I captured feeding in our Grevillea (shown in next two photos). We have several different types of Grevillea around our house and they are all popular with native birds.

Our intention in revegetating our garden is to include as many native species as possible to reduce the water need and increase native wildlife.

Although there is no water shortage in Central Australia, (unlike our capital cities excluding Darwin) there is said to be around 400 years supply in our aquifer, it's expensive to buy and most of our residents treat it with the respect it deserves apart from the expense aspect.


While I find all our native plants attractive, my favourite for as long as I remember has been the Sturt Desert Pea (red and black).

Named after Indian born, British explorer, Charles Sturt, I first saw the flowers spreading for 10 or 15 metres across the top of a red sand dune in 1960 several hundred kilometres west of Tennant Creek.

At the time, I was on school holidays working with the Exploration Department of Peko Mine and Tennant Creek.

I recall thinking what a waste it was for such a beautiful display to be so isolated that only the odd geological team, like ours, would ever see it. Perhaps no other human being would ever see it. I was so impressed with their beauty they have been my favourites ever since.

Unfortunately, they are very temperamental and seem to grow only where they feel like it. I've planted seeds in different places and then, unexpectedly, they'll pop up and proliferate somewhere else as though they have a mind of their own.

Despite their temperament, the Alice Springs Town Council horticultural team seems to be able to place them in our median strips and they grow like fury.

Maybe I should ask them the secret.

Robin

Todd Mall Sunday Markets

Todd Street was the first main street in The Alice and turned into a mall in the Seventies. Now it's home for the Todd Mall Markets held every second Sunday during the cooler months operating between 9 am and 2 pm. Several evening markets are held on special occasions during the summer.

Tourists from all over the world flock to the markets mainly to try the variety of Asian, German, Indian and other foods on offer and to buy cheaper dot paintings and local crafts.

It's a great place to people watch ... the variety of hats, dresses, adornments etc is always interesting and usually colourful. A few tourists get kitted out in what they see as the Aussie bushie style with cowboy boots and Akubra brand hats. Trouble is, you never see a real bushie with a clean, crisp new hat and boots ... for some reason they always look weather worn and work beaten. (Is there an art to that .... hmmmmm?)

If people watching isn't your thing (what are you strange or something?), the Mall also has some great al fresco cafes and restaurants so you can enjoy breakfast, lunch or just a cup of coffee.

Chris and I usually have breakfast or lunch and this visit tried the QA Restaurant, which is new since we were last at home. We always run into people we know and have a chat and it's a good opportunity to meet local stall keepers whom we don't know and to chat with some of those visiting town.

The photos show a small part of the whole. (Double click the strip for a larger view)

Best wishes

Robin

PS: Our container is being processed by Customs in Adelaide. Provided they don't find my cache of drugs, guns and smuggled women, it should be here this coming week or next.

Still in holiday mode

Although we have been home for 17 days, I still feel as though I'm in holiday mode. I've been sleeping unusually well, going to bed around 11 pm and not waking until about 6-6:30 am, which is very unusual for me.

The cold weather, plus the fact that we have a roller blind in our bedroom that blackens the room completely and the lack of free singing from mosques, is responsible. I guess I'm also relaxed about being home and back in my own bed. No place like home eh?

We wake up for a leisurely breakfast of rolled oats or toast with marmalade or vegemite and then sit and decide what we are going to tackle for the day. Today we tackled our ensuite cleaning it from top to bottom and shortly I am to return to the garage to repack my trunk, the contents of which I pulled out last night finding stuff I never knew I had.

Yesterday I pumped up the tyres of my beloved bike and relocated a couple of bookshelves.

Tory's bedroom has become my office. Most mornings I go there, shut the door and turn on one of our small heaters and work on the computer until Chris gets up an hour or so later. When the sun rises around 7 am, it shines through the window making it a glorious place to be while the rest of the house is cold.

Friday we have a guy coming to discuss installation of two new split-level, reverse cycle airconditioners that will make heating the place a bit easier. They will also be handy for the hot weather when it hits in the next couple of months.

Tomorrow Christina is off to the hospital to complete all the paperwork for her return to work on 21 August and I'm off to Meredith's place to install some blinds. It's all go here.

We won't be really settled in our house until our container arrives on 13 August with our lounge and spare chairs and some additional clothing.

Before we know it it will be Christmas.

Stay well and if you are on holidays from the UAE, enjoy the rest of your leave and have a safe return journey.

Robin

PS: We found out recently that there is a Northern Territory election on 9 August, so we are having to get up to date with local political issues so we can cast our votes for the best candidate.

Wonderful Homecoming, but Cold!

After an interesting three weeks at Durban, Stellenbosch and Cape Town in South Africa, it was good to feel the wheels hit the Alice Springs Airport runway at 4 pm last Saturday.

As we approached from the west, it occurred to me that Australia is so large, with most of the land being inhospitable and not much good for anything but flying over. Thousands of kilometres of nothing.

At one stage I imagined how we could move Israel to some part of outback Western Australia and let the Israelis live peacefully in our centre. Unfortunately, the religious artifacts that are part of their problem with Palestine and their extensive history couldn't be moved, so it's not likely to happen real soon. And maybe they wouldn't want to come here.

I also solved the problem South African whites have in not wanting to live in a country where the infrastructure and systems are declining and crime is increasing rapidly; they could leave the country to the blacks by moving all whites to Australia (anyone with criminal records, no useful job prospects etc excluded, we have enough fools of our own). There's not very many of them and we'd pick up some excellent talent and some really good people whose culture is similar to ours.

As a trade-off, we would give each of our 300,000 Aborigines a million dollars and send them to South Africa where they could be surrounded by their close relatives and live a life of luxury free of the scourge of the white man (The AUD buys 7.? SA Rand, so we could even reduce the million substantially).

That way, the problems of Aboriginal society and the huge, ongoing burden to Australian taxpayers would be eliminated. Australia could truly "Advance Australia Fair".

Of course, all dreams come to an end and when I came back to reality, I realised how ridiculous these ideas were. Probably no less ridiculous than the Australian Government's recent claim that it needs to set up yet another government department to administer indigenous affairs. Ho hum, I can recall at least four in the last 20 years that were said to have failed miserably, two of which I spent 15 years of my working life with.

Alice Springs Airport from the air is unimpressive with flat, sandy country with stunted (arid land) vegetation. Despite that, it's a nice township with generally friendly, good natured people and it's a nice place to live and bring up kids.

Our kids, now 33 and 30 respectively and our grandson Tory met us at the airport and we travelled home for the first time in two years finding our house, four wheel drive and other stuff much the same as we had left it.

We have much to do to resettle, but we've made the first step and all we have to do now is cope with another couple of months of freezing weather (after the 50 degrees of Al Ain) and we'll be fine. Actually it's only freezing at morning and evening ... the days are sunny and warm.

Robin

Counting Down - Two Days to Go

Well, we are almost at the end of our tour of the UAE.

Our "Permanent" Residence Visas have been cancelled and I have only two days to go to work and on Friday, we fly out to Johannesburg.

Last night we had a Last Supper for what has become affectionately known as the "Group of Eight" ... four married couples who spent lots of time together, visited Syria and other places in and out of the UAE together.

Christina and I are leaving, so the group will now be six. Maybe they'll find a replacement for us, who knows.

It's sad to be leaving our dear friends and colleagues, but nobody is permanent here as an expat. Some day we all have to leave. No job, no visa.

In our case, we have other things to do, places to see and after three years away, need to spend time with our kids and grandson.

In the future, I will place some photos of our South African tour and eventually will write about some of the great sights of Central Australia.

Hoping to keep in touch with you.

Robin

What to do on return to Australia?

Not that we are counting or anything, but I've noticed that there are only six weeks to pass before we leave the UAE via the Abu Dhabi Airport. We fly out just after midday on 20 June 08 and head for Johannesburg and a three week holiday in South Africa.

We arrive at Alice Springs via Perth and Ayres Rock arriving late afternoon on 12 July 08. It will possibly be somewhat of a shock to be surrounded by people who are mostly white and speak a language we understand. We'll have to familiarize ourselves with the currency again and I can imagine that every time we buy something for the first few days we'll convert it into Dirhams to see how much it really is.

Hopefully, Meredith or Dale will meet us at the airport and we can drive home, shower and sit back with a coldie while we contemplate what to have for dinner and what we'll do in the immediate future.

It will be winter in Australia while our Northern Hemisphere friends head off for their "summer" holidays but we will have time to acclimatise in South Africa. By the time we reach Alice Springs, we should be weather hardened and be able to take the relatively colder climate.

Christina hopes to return to work at the Alice Springs Hospital but admitted under my cross examination that her passion for midwifery has faded somewhat after 30 odd years. It's just a job now and she'll do it because she's good at it and doesn't have to worry too much about what to do, when and how. On top of which, it's the one job at which she can earn the most money.

There will be some "settling-in" things to do like some gardening, house maintenance and unpacking and storing our container load of goods that will arrive a few weeks after we do. Meredith has bought a nice house for her and Tory, so we will also have to help them move just a couple of kilometres west of our place.

I'm going to continue work on my online business and hopefully fine tune some things that aren't working as well as they should be. I'm also hoping to do some short term consulting/contracting in a range of areas for which I have the ability. Yesterday I began sending out messages to business acquaintances advising them that I'm going to be available from August 2008.

Before then, we still have a few things to do here before we fly out.

Stay well and some of you we'll see soon.

Robin

PS: Our lovely young friend and ex-officio grandson Onat Ustun turned 2 yesterday and I took this photo of him with Christina. Ain't he a cutie?

Getting Ready to Leave ... The Highs and Lows

The first sign that we are leaving Al Ain soon is the advertisements we have placed on the Higher Colleges of Technology and University of UAE public email boards. They've been fairly successful, we've sold most of the big stuff we wanted to sell. We do have a refrigerator to go, but feel confident that will move as the weather hots up. Selling the cars shouldn't be a problem either.

When we arrived here, with only a half dozen boxes of memorabilia from home so we wouldn't forget our roots, we got 30,000 Dirhams to set ourselves up. That's just under $9,000 AUD. We had no idea how far it would go or how much anything cost here so we bought some cheap stuff we later replaced. We never really used all of the allocation, but some day we'd be sitting back and I'd say to Christina something like, "Have we got a can opener?" "No", she'd say, "we need to get one". Sometimes when it was urgent we'd walk off to Al Ain Mall immediately and buy what it was we needed.

We had to buy a stack of curtains for the unit which has very high ceilings and consequently, long curtains, a stove, washing machine and everything, nothing is provided here other than the house.

For the first few months we didn't have a car, so we walked to the Al Ain Mall to do our grocery shopping and wheel it back in a shopping trolley. The roadways in our housing complex are paved with concrete pavers, so the trolley would bump, bump, bump all the way to A25 which just happens to be the farthest away from the mall.

Sometimes we'd use a taxi of which there are millions here and they are so cheap I don't know how they manage to pay for fuel, even though it's also cheap. I fill the 60L tank on our Nissan for about 75 Dirhams or $21 AUD. I'll get a shock when I fill up at home since our diesel Toyota has a 110L tank ... probably have to take out a loan on the house.

We are looking forward to ending our tour and getting back to Australia, our kids and friends, but the downside is that we will leave behind some of the loveliest people we have met who come from Canada, England, Scotland, Turkey, the US and even Australia.

We will also miss some aspects of the way of life. Al Ain is a lovely city with a mainly pleasant climate. We have lived very comfortably here where there is no tax on salary and everything is very cheap, especially food, although in the time we have been here, prices have risen quite a bit.

We have a lovely Indian lady, Rosie, comes once a week to vacuum and mop the floors and iron our clothes and a Sri Lankan fellow, Bubblo, who washes both cars every Friday morning and waters our garden every day. For these services we pay a pittance by our standards although when the Dirhams are converted to Rupees, the value for them is much greater than it would be for us in AUD.

Guess who will do the housework, water the garden and wash the car when we get home?

Our experience here has been one of the highlights of our lives and one that I recommend to anyone fortunate enough to have the opportunity.

Robin