Darwin's Dry Season Has Begun!
Trip Start
Sep 20, 2010
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32
45
Trip End
Ongoing
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Last week Darwin welcomed the long awaited dry season. This means no more tropical downpours that come without any warning and leave us sopping wet in the middle of the Darwin CBD. It also means there is lots more going on in Darwin.
Our house in Stuart Park is now full, Rashid moved out after about a week in our house - apparently he had a wife he forgot to mention, and she moved up to Darwin so they moved in together. Two other guys have since moved in (unlucky for me as I really wanted another girl to move in). Bobby from Sydney who works on the ferrys that travel between Darwin, Tiwi and Mandora and Andre a PHD student from Melbourne who is taking a break from work and study.
We are both still working for Serco and the great thing about working in Darwin is that every day feels like holiday - even work days. It looks like our work is ongoing and we are planning on staying another 8 weeks and then move on to do some fruit picking.
So what have we been up to? We are saving for a car and should be able to buy it in the next couple of weeks. Thankfully our housemate Dan knows a lot about cars and is going to help us out because we don't have a clue! I have made a friend at work, Bridey from Queensland and we have been going out for drinks, to the cinema and the night market. Ali has also been enjoying going to the pub to watch late night football matches with Dan our house mate.
We have both enrolled in language courses too. It was a regret that when in South East Asia we didn't really learn any of the languages and Darwin is such a multicultural place that it seemed a waste not to. I am learning Indonesian and Ali (never one to take the easy option) has enrolled in Mandarin. I am really enjoying my classes although definitley do not have a flair for languages. Ali is doing really well though and can already write, count and say a few phrases.
My favourite thing so far about the dry season has been the Mindil Beach night markets. The food there is absolutely delicious and they sell fruit, cakes, ice cream, smoothies and Chinese, Mexican, Indian, Indonesian, Italian and Ozzie cuisine. I went on Thursday night, whilst Ali was at his language class, with Kate (a girl I met in the Youth Shack hostel). We watched a didgeridoo player and all of the local Aboriginal people were up and dancing, absolutely loving the music. It felt very Australian!
The Deck Chair outdoor cinema has now opened in Darwin. We planned to go the other night but the path to get there was blocked and we were running late so we went to the pub instead! We will definitely be going though more than once. We have also discovered Parap outdoor swimming pool and have now decided that Tuesday night will be swimming night. Its a good way to cool down after a hard day at work. In two weeks time there is NT's biggest music festival - Bass in the Grass. We still need to get our tickets but we have been craving to go to a music festival since we arrived in Oz so are pretty excited.
So thats about all there is to update, time to go in the pool!
Comments
Great entry this Sarah - sounds like you are both having a wonderful time. I'm still amazed that the two of you are coping so well with the sub-tropical climate. still Ali's respective Grandfathers managed to fight the Bosch whilst enduring the heat of North and South Africa (respectively) for a couple of years in the 1940s - so maybe Anglo Saxons aren't so soft after all. I suspect son number one was pretty unbearable last Saturday night after the game. We were all pretty made up over here in Blighty. First bit of good news in a long time. Keep posting your blogs they are really good. Remind Ali that Lynne Featherstone also works for Serco - what a small world this is (or is Serco that big?)
Love
The Cawood contingent