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)

My Alien Diversion - A Learning Experience

When I've been sitting on my bum for a few hours in front of my computer, I look forward to the occasional diversion; I usually go mow the lawn, do some housework, get a coffee or go for a walk. But this morning's diversion was a new learning experience as I became aware of Aliens among us.



When Tory, my seven year old grandson sidled up to me and said, "Pop, can you help me birth an Alien?" I had no idea what he was talking about and a little worried about what might come next, given the state of television and some of the topics that are discussed in prime time.

I said, "Tell me more."

He handed me a plastic cylinder six inches tall with a white cocoon inside and a sheet of paper with directions. Here was his new Alien. All I had to do was remove the top transport stopper and pour water into it and bingo, an Alien would appear with a flashing light. "Yeah, that's right", I thought and helped him pour water into the top.

Within minutes, the water had dissolved the cocoon and there in front of me, safely contained within the cylinder was an Alien creature with a flashing light on it's forehead. Not only that, the light could change colour.

The light was orange, which meant it needed "food". From a silver packet included with the kit, we poured some Alien food into 125ml of water and the light changed from orange to green ... a good health signal.

When I took Tory to school as I do on Tuesday mornings, I ensured him the Alien creature would be fine at home alone all day and that he could feed it again tomorrow.

Never before in my long years had I seen such a kid's toy. We both learnt something that morning.

There must be a group of engineers and scientists out there who do nothing else at work, but design toys for kids. They'll never be out of a job and their work becomes more and more technologically advanced.

So, this morning's diversion was a welcome, if unusual diversion. But, I'll have to go now, I'm off to KMart to buy an Alien Creature of my own.

Robin




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Australia Day 2009

This Australia Day we went the whole hog and had not one, but two celebratory events; first on Saturday, 24 Jan at the work premises of T&T Power Generation in the industrial area and the second, a brunch at our house in the leafy suburbs of Araluen.

Tori and Trevor, owners of T&T Power Generation provided a wonderful dinner of king prawns (shrimp for those of you from North America) followed by a barbecued steak with a variety of salads and dressings, all washed down with a variety of spirits, beer and wines.

A large number of people attended even a few kids, these ones at left being aptly outfitted and a good indicator that our traditions will be carried forward by the coming generations. I might add that the little fellow was drinking soft drink ... we want our kids to

follow our traditions, but some of them we don't want adopted too soon or too vigorously.

We took our photo record early so we could get it out of the way and focus on the real events of the evening. Here is a photo of you-know-who in our Australia Day paraphernalia ... not the sort of stuff you'd wear on any "normal" day.

A bit over the top eh?

We managed to have a wonderful evening of eating, drinking and socialising renewing friendships with a couple of people whom we had not seen for years and made a few new friends.

As has been our family tradition for as long as I can remember, we had a brunch at our house for family and a few friends.

My father's birthday was on Australia Day and he had me convinced for at least a few years that the National holiday was in honour of his birthday.

By the time I'd turned 25 I realised that he'd been pulling my leg for all those years. If he was still alive, he would have

turned 91, which is far too old for anyone, even my father.

We set up outside in our covered area which was pleasantly warm with a gentle breeze. Excellent weather for Australia Day.

Chris, the master of the kitchen, slapped together some waffles for the first course, served with boysenberries, treacle, cream, or strawberry topping, whatever one preferred.

I made a flask or two of coffee, a cooler flask of cordial, and cranked up our barbecue for the traditional sausages, bacon, eggs on toast, tomato and mushrooms. The last photo is one of our son Dale finishing off the mushrooms.

If you'd like to see more photos of our Australia Day celebrations, you can find them here

Robin and Christina