A Long Day at the Office

 

 

I got to go with Dave on his regular Thursday run this week.

We left Katherine at 2:30am, yes, I did say a.m. As in, the morning!

We were towing 3 trailers and had a long way to go.

 

 

When we arrived at the Roper Bar Store, after many

stops and drop offs along the way,

we were informed that the road to Ngukkur was

closed to heavy vehicles. This is the same road

Dave had gotten bogged on last week, among countless

other trucks, plus a roll over of a petrol tanker.

 

So, we ended up having to stay overnight at Roper

to wait for people from Ngukkur to come and pick up

their freight.  By this time we were pretty tired and

glad that we would be able to sleep instead of turning

around and driving home that night.

 

Roper Bar Store is a store out in the middle of nowhere

that services the communities around.

It sells everything you can imagine,  at exorbitant prices,

take away food and home cooked meals.

 

It also has a 'motel' that consists of air conditioned

dongas, toilet/shower blocks, bbq area (which surprisingly,

if you stand in exactly the right spot, you can get

mobile phone reception), a pool, a payphone (I suppose it works),

a kitchenette and dining room with tv (conveniently

propped up by 2 milk crates and a paint tin as the shelf is

obviously not up to the task)

 

 

So, Dave and I were well looked after and got a nice

home cooked meal for tea, bacon and egg roll and coffee

for brekky, and even a packed lunch when we left, plus cold drinks.

Not too mention a decent nights sleep of 8 hours!!

That's a whole lot more than usual at home!

 

Here's a couple of shots of interest.

 

Taking a fully assembled chemical shed off the trailer

 

 

Dave dropping off the mail at a station along the way.

We laugh about doing the mail run in a triple road train.

But, he actually does do the mail run like this.

 

 

Dry season is approaching and the dust covers everything.

The trees take on a whole new colour scheme.

 

 

Anyway, we arrived home in Katherine, back at the depo at

4:30 pm on Friday. The girls had the house all spic and span

and hadn't missed us at all :)

I missed my piano though. Had to fit a fair bit of playing

in to unwind from the long trip.

 

And that my friends, is a very shortened version

of another day in Dave's office!

(minus the long waits, frustrations, manoeuvrings

of a road train in small spaces, heat and dust,

air con not working etc etc)

 

 

 

Interesting side note:

 

Did you know that the Roper River has bull

sharks, crocodiles, sting rays and a rare swordfish

swimming around in it? True, Dave and I actually saw

a shark flopping around on the bank that some locals

had just caught. They swim 140km in from the coast.

 

Another reason why NOT to swim in the Territory!

If the crocs don't get ya, the sharks will ! Go figure??

 

So, if you're ever up our way, and you want

an outback Territory experience,

Dave will take you with him for the day.

Just make sure you go prepared for anything!

 

 

 

Here is a video of me playing.

I am still trying to figure out how to get

the sound to work better as it's a bit tinny.

Hopefully, it gives you an idea of how

beautiful my piano sounds.

 

Please disregard all mistakes

as it just so happens, that as soon

as a camera is aimed at me, I mess up!

That and the fact that, I mess up anyway!

 

Oh, and on another note,

Dave had a big 21 hour day yesterday

and here's a couple of pictures of some of his day:)

Prime mover and both trailers bogged.

Grader came to the rescue and

pulled him out!

There was some other excitement too, but

this is enough for one day:)

Never a dull moment in the Territory.

 

 

 

Here is the promised video

Hope to upload a video

of playing soon, so

stay tuned.......

 

 

 

 

MY PIANO HAS

FINALLY ARRIVED!!

 

 

Yes, my piano has finally come,

 after 3 long months of waiting.

Yamaha UX 1, and only 30 years old,

but you'd never know it!

Unbelievably beautiful in every way!

It has the most amazing sound

and looks classy too!

 

Needless to say, I haven't been doing much

else today but playing the piano.

Dave and Cam were able to move it in

yesterday afternoon,

so, today, the neighbours

 have been serenaded all day!

Whether they liked it or not~

 

I have made a video of the move up the stairs,

but unfortunately, I can't seem to upload it?

Hopefully, I'll get it sorted tomorrow and be

able to upload with a video of playing

so you can hear the wonderful sounds.

 

Until then, you'll have to enjoy the pictures.

 

Be back soon.................

 

 

 

\

 

 

 

 

 



 

PHOTOS FROM LAUREN'S BIRTHDAY!!

 

Well, after going crazy in the party section of

Spotlight in Darwin, we were all armed

with crazy headgear, leggings, face paint,

gloves, tiaras etc.

 

So, back in Katherine,

 in fine style we made our way into town

and tried to make a statement.

I don't know what kind of statement,

but that's not the point.

 

Unfortunately, there wasn't as many

people in town that particular day,

but we still got some 'looks' and laughs.

 

Here are the girls checking the mail

 

 

And Maddy with her very yellow and large glasses

 

 

And Abbi talking to her workmates at Brumby's

 

 

Her boss was so kind as to give us all come
 chocolate éclairs to devour while we shopped.
Yum.

 

 

Shopping in style!

 

Self Explanatory :)
 

 

Emilee with her Joey in tow.

 

 

Goofing off on an old train in Katherine

 

 

 

All dressed up for church

 

 

Before we dropped the girls off in Darwin,

we went to the Wave Lagoon down

on the esplanade. Great fun!

 

 

Just like a real beach, but without the

Northern Territory Crocs!

 

 

 

 And that will about do it for now.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.

 

And a HUGE thanks for Linet, Jasmin and India

for coming and making Lauren's birthday so

special and adding another 3 females

to our household to add to the bedlam

already present here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An update on the weather

 

The water level ended up reaching

just over 13m so we've had our

rain excitement for the year now.

 

 

 

 

 

MORE JOEY CUTENESS!

 

 

I have so many pictures I'd like to post as so much has been

going on lately, so I'll start with some of 'Star'.

 

Sometimes, she 'helps out' with Emilee's Maths!

She needs to use the calculator tho.

 

 

Other times, she just likes to look cute.

Seeing she really is going to be a Star,

(she's on Facebook and is soon to be in

Jo's new recipe book),

she's working on melting everyone's heart.

Apart from the times when she's scratching you with

her deadly paws because she wants to get down.

Yes, she can hop now!

 

And, much to Emilee's horror (when she finds out I've

posted this picture), here is a lovely photo

taken by Linet when she was here.

 

 

 

On to other things.......

 

I was able to go with Dave out to Timber Creek last week

on a routine run that turned out pretty exciting.

We got stopped at a creek waiting for it to go down,

for 2 hours, along with a bunch of others.

 Trucks, locals, tourists and yes.....idiots!! 

 

The picture below made it to the Northern Territory News.

I took a video of this idiot crossing the flooded bridge

and nearly getting swept away in the process.

 

 

 

We were able to get across once it was down to just under a metre.

Along the way we saw some beautiful scenery.

There were some awesome red cliffs with waterfalls

cascading over them. Wow!

 

At the roadhouse at Timber Creek, the owner made us

a burger with the lot for our long journey home.

 

We went through a lot of water on the way home

and some torrential rain, but it was great.

I only took just over 400 photos!

 

 

 

Enough about the weather, and onto

Lauren's 18th Birthday!

 

With 3 extra teenagers in the house, and girls at that,

life was very crazy, noisy, and giggly for a week!

 

Our girls often sit on the end of our bed

(or on it) to chat to us at night, but now there was a crowd!

 

 

Dave didn't mind so much as he now had 3 extra slaves!

Vegemite toast and a glass of water was ordered.

Well.....that meant a few cups of water and

toast cut into tiny pieces, each on their own

little piece of paper towel!

 

 

And this was only the beginning of craziness. All in all, we had

a great time as you will see with my next post,

when I sort out the 600+ photos took of Lauren's Bday week!

DON'T GO AWAY!

WATCH THIS SPACE!

MUCH MORE CRAZINESS

TO COME SOON!

 

Oh, and this is too cute to miss

 

 

Amen!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Rain  Rain  Rain

 

 

We've had some rain lately and the river has come up.

The picture below was taken when we first moved here.

 

 

 

 

This second picture was taken 2 days ago.

The big flood of 1998 reached 20.4m, so

we are nowhere near that mark. It is sitting at 9m

in this photo. It has been a relatively dry wet season,

for the third year in a row.

All the same, the girls and I have been watching the

rising with great interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 DOWN, 1 MORE TO GO!

 

Birthdays, that is.

It was Emilee's birthday yesterday

and because she loves lollies so much,

her cake was easy.

Mix some ice cream up with nerds

 and chocolate chips

and M & M's. Pile it up with lollies

 and popping candy

and presto! We're done!!

 

 

Who needs candles when you have lollipops?

Yep, there's 14 of them.

 

Ok, yes, this cake didn't take as long as the others,

but hey, the ice cream was melting

(even at 10:30 at night,

which was when we were arranging

 it as Dave has just gotten home).

And yes, it popped in your mouth

 and crunched enjoyably.

 

Actually, did you know when you sprinkle

popping candy onto ice cream it actually

pops up and shoots you in the face?

Well, it does. Makes awesome sounds too.

 

 

 

 

 

And, keeping with the theme.........

 

 

 



How to Weigh your Joey Accurately

 

 

Use the scales on your Thermomix, of course!!

 What could be better?

 

 

And here's a photo for cuteness!

 

 

And this is for all the people out there

that have this same problem

(myself included :)

 



 

 

LOOK OUT AUSTRALIA!

 

THE HOLMES GIRLS

 

 ARE ON THE ROAD!

 

 

Lauren now has her P Plates (as of the 9th January)

and Abbi now has her Learners (as of an hour ago)

 

So, if you see a 60 series Land Cruiser coming towards

you, just take a second look for the NT license plate

and head for the side cut!!

 

Oh, and in Lauren's case, it's a white Ford Falcon Sedan.

 

 

And in honour of Abbi's birthday today.......

 

 

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!