LindyBear

…..founded by the late Steve Irwin and to be fair to him, it’s a fantastic zoo.  The enclosures are as natural as they possibly could be and the animals have a lot of room to roam free. We saw more scary crocs, although after being in the Northern Terrirtory so long, the novelty has worn off a little. We were more interested in the otters, turtles, koalas, tasmanian devils, kangeroos and tigers. The koalas are pretty much as you would imagine, lethargic stoned little feckers but you can pet them and their fur is really thick so maybe that’s why they move soooo s-l-o-w-l-y!! Na just kidding, they are pretty cute though in fairness……

We wandered up to see the elephants and the tigers who are always pretty interesting I think….

We saw a little girl about 2ft old who was scared to get her picture taken because she didn’t understand that the tigers couldn’t come through the glass. Awwwww it was really sweet, oh dear god, I must be going soft!!

We had seen a few kangeroos whilst driving but we had to take a look at them up close. To be honest they are pretty lazy too, they were all just lying around. We had expected that they would be hopping around. The signs we saw asking people NOT TO CHASE THE KANGEROOS suddenly made sense. Still though at least I finally got to ask “What’s that Skip? Sonny’s fallen down a hole?” 🙂

Funnily enough, he didn’t answer like in the tv show…… 🙂 I also finally got a picture of a Komodo dragon (remember my camera broke in Indonesia), these were the guys wandering around Komodo and Rince islands all those months ago…..

Off to Brisbane we headed afterwards and believe it or not we went to the dentist, Kate out of necessity, me out of addiction – I’m probably the only person in the world who loves going to the dentist. He gave out to me for brushing the enamel off my teeth and caught him by the collar and said JUST CLEAN THEM – okay, okay, I didn’t really but if it had came to it, well……. Ahem! We stayed with Kate’s brother, Andrew who kindly cooked us dinner. It was nice to chat with someone from home and get a home cooked meal – thanks Andrew!

Next was Surfer’s Paradise, another compulsory stop on the east coast trail. I was kinda expecting it to be like Cairns but in a small surfer town setting. Was I wrong, it’s a really big place with high rise buildings and a strip of bars and clubs. It kinda reminded us of Santa Ponsa or Ibiza, masses of people navel gazing on the beach, cheap eats and drinks & a lot bars and clubs. It’s the kinda place you have fun in but there’s nothing distinctive or memorable about it. Still though we headed out with the masses and had a good night out…..

We also met a fellow Irishman, Stephen, who we had great craic with. Somehow I don’t think white hair suits me though?!

I have to say, it did feel a bit more Christmassy in the likes of the bigger places like Brisbane and Surfer’s, the shops are busy and they have nice street decorations. Anyhoo that was the last stop in Queensland and the rest of the roadtrip will continue in New South Wales.

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157611390443456/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157611318752137/

The first thing I said to Kate when we rolled into Noosa was… isn’t this fierce like Killarney??

Only short the horse & carts!!!! It has the same kinda touristy feel to it and a lovely atmosphere. The perfect town to stroll around in. I have to mention the hostel we stayed at in Noosa, it’s a long standing YHA and it’s probably nicer than a lot of hostels we’ve stayed at but the reason I really loved it was these steps…..

…..you can see how worn down they are and I love the thought of all the (bare) feet that climbed these steps with their backpacks. We also got a great laugh out of this campervan we spotted in the car park when we were leaving the following day…

I’m not really sure who has the time and effort to do this but it certainly made us smile 🙂

After exercising some self restraint window shopping in Noosa (by the way if you’re a shopoholic and on a budget, avoid Noosa like the plague – it’s really not a good place for backpackers!!), we headed off to drive down the Sunshine Coast. Ah the Sunshine Coast is just lovely and we were so jealous of the people who lived with this beach as their view…..

Nice for some, huh? Still though, to be fair, we are lucky enough to have seen it. We breezed through Coolum Beach, Marcoola, Mudjimba Beach, Maroochydore, Mooloolahba (which we loved saying over and over) and stopped in Caloundra for the evening to find that everything there closed at 9pm! Doh!

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157611390379796/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157611390409034/

After our surfing we left The Town of 1770 and headed for Harvey Bay which is the main jumping off spot for Frazer Island – another big hit on the east coast aussie list.

Most people camp on Frazer Island for 2 nights/3 days or something like that but we had a blow out with the Whitsundays trip so we had to limit ourselves to a day trip.. Frazer Island is amazing, rainforest in some places…….

….

………then massive expanses of woodlands with beautiful ferns and deep-grooved trees……..

…….and then huge highways of beaches. 

We started our tour with a visit to Central Station which is where all the industries and the school were before the island was given World Heritage Site status. We were warned about spikey pine cones that could fall from the tall trees overhead, the cones are hard, have sharp spikes, grow to the size of footballs and weigh 3kg – so I reckon if you’re hit with one, you’re a gonner!

We headed out on the sandy highway (aka 75 mile beach), which is actually the main motorway and landing strip on Frazer Island. The rest of the island is accessed by uneven sandy tracks which have to be levelled every other day and you need a 4wd to navigate them. Anyway, I digress, we hit the highway and saw The Maheno Wreck which is pretty impressive…..

…. and then on to the Pinnacles, you can see all the different coloured sands and it’s just so striking and like a different world to the rainforest and thick forests only a couple of kilometres away inland.

We had a paddle in Eli Creek which has an amazing sand bed, swirls of white and black sand. The water comes straight from the rainforest and is just gorgeous.

After a spot of lunch we drove our huge 4wd bus over the sandy tracks (a rocky ride, reminded me of several bus journeys in Asia 🙂 ) to Lake McKensie, although it does look like the beach and has that incredible white sand, it is actually a rainwater lake on Frazer Island. The water was just perfect and we chilled out and soaked it all in.

We had a good day but we didn’t get to spend much time in each place. My guidebook said that the company we booked with ran small tours so you moved around quickly to get in as much as possible in throughout the day. There was about 40 people(!) on the bus which was a pain, because you’re always waiting for someone. I definitely would have liked to have seen more of Frazer but hey, them’s the breaks, right? 🙂

Back in Harvey Bay we decided to hit the tiles…….

…….which we don’t actually get to do a lot of due to all the driving. We had a good old night out. It’s just dawned on me, if you’ve been checking out my photos, you’ll probably notice that we almost always go out on the town in shorts – I would NEVER wear shorts at home. Further realisation……. I’m wearing “short-shorts” (like the song……) OH NO!!!!!!!! Work people will know what I’m talking about 😀 

The following day we drove over to Rainbow Beach and lay on the beach to banish the demons. Rainbow Beach, as the name suggests, has the same multi-coloured sand…….

…..and it’s such a nice backdrop for chilling out (and recovering!) for a few hours before hitting the road again. The time is just flying now and Sydney is literally around the corner. It doesn’t feel Christmassy here at all, YES because it’s sunny, it’s just too weird. We even bought a Christmas CD for the car to try and get us in the festive spirit but it’s not really working. Maybe when we hit the bigger spots like Brisbane and Sydney but before that we off to……..Noosa and the Sunshine Coast.

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157611321600976/ and  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157611321516060/

Okay, okay, okay I’ve seen some beautiful place in my life but sailing around The Whitsunday Islands was just breath-taking. I can honestly say that Whitehaven Beach is the beautiful beach I’ve EVER seen. We strolled up to the look out and it was AMAZING!!!!! Perfect white sand, torquoise and navy striped water, just beautiful. The photos don’t even do it justice really. The only slight downer was that we had to wear stinger suits because it’s stinger jelly fish season here in summer. The suits provided good entertainment value though.

Anyway we after messing around in the suits we swam here…….

You see, I wasn’t exaggerating, it is just beautiful. It’s supposed to be one of the top ten beaches in the world. Now for the science bit…… 🙂 There’s a really high silica content in the sand which makes it soooo white, so much so that it’s not even hot to walk on. It’s also really fine and soft, amazing!! So we chilled out there for a while and took some funny trick photos like this one……

Sorry, me thinks this blog is going to have a lot of photos…

We decided to choose a diving boat, Kiana, so we headed off to the outer reef on the promise of some great diving and it didn’t disappoint. We saw some amazing coral, tons of fish, including a few Nemos…..

……..turtles and white tip sharks. I did four dives in total and the last one, a shark came really close. No worries though, as the white tip shark has a mouth about the same size as a human’s so you could totally fight back 🙂

It was such a treat sailing around for a few days, lots of early starts because of the diving and the crew were great fun. I’d highly recommend it. As The Whitsunday Islands are part of a World Heritage site, we were told to take nothing (unlike someone who allegedly stole a bag of sand(!) and got fined $10,000 or the guy who carved his name into a turtle – who does that!!!) but memories and photographs and leave nothing but your footprints, so that’s exactly what I did 🙂

DO YOU SEE HOW SOFT THE SAND IS???????? Well satisfied, we headed back to Airlie Beach to get a good night’s sleep before our 9 hour drive (which we were dreading) to the twin towns of Agnes Water and The Town of 1770.

The drive wasn’t too bad at all actually, we swap around every couple of hours so it’s all good really. The Town of 1770 is very small but extremely chilled out, a real surfer town. It was a great place to stop after a long drive. We had a good night out in the pub and the following morning we signed up for a surfing lesson. Now I kinda thought, oh I have to try this but it’s not really going to be my kind of thing. Well, I just LOVED IT!!!! Only stood up a handful of times but I think I’m addicted already…..

Sooooooo have to try again and again and again!!!!!! I was just full of energy and on a high after it 🙂

Please check out loads of great photos from the Whitsundays, including some great underwater ones (they really are worth a look) on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157610926707351/ and the Town of 1770 is on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157611321653272/

Back to civilisation and we put our dancing flip flops on 🙂 to check out what the night life in Townsville had to offer. I heard that Townsville is really disappointing and only worth going to to get to Magnetic Island. In fairness though, I really liked it, it’s pretty big, I think the biggest city in Northern Queensland. There’s a real home style, almost cowboy saloon feel to some of the buildings, which I don’t really have pictures of as we had a really big night out…………

………and the brain/body were barely functioning the following day. Still though we’d good craic there, even though we were evacuated from the pub just after buying drink, due to a fire in the hotel adjacent. Anyhoo we headed off to the Mad Cow nightclub where it’s all happening. Well actually I think that’s where all the damage was done. We popped outside just after 3am. Queensland has a weird lock down rule so if you literally put a toe on the street, you can’t get back in. Disaster, although the state of us the following day was bad enough without another couple of hours there.

After a very slow and pretty early check out from our hostel, we eventually(!) set off on the ferry for Magnetic Island. It’s a gorgeous place.

I know, I know, I say every place is lovely but this is just perfect. We could have rented a 4-wheel drive and trekked around the island but as we are doing so much driving, we opted for a couple of days lazing on the beach, which was just lovely. I’ve decided that I don’t mind lazing by the pool or the beach during the day if I have my ipod. It’s at night I start climb the walls. I think it’s because I don’t have the attention span for tv, movies or books and there’s only so much internet you can handle. I think I must have driven Kate demented as all I did was research the Lonely Planet and find more and more things we could do.

Anyway we have almost booked everything down the coast so it’s kinda scary because it feels like our roadtrip will be over really soon. That said though, then we’ll be in Sydney for Christmas and that will be fantastic too. So it’s Sunday night and we arrived in Airlie Beach a few hours ago. Heading off on a boat to sail the Whitsunday Islands tomorrow. We are going on a dive boat and might even squeeze in a scary shark-filled night dive. I’ve also bought a book which I’m going to attempt to read on board. I may even be relaxed coming back, who knows?

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157610847406936/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157610780340239/

CAAAAANNNNNNNNEEEEESSSSSS is what the locals call it and it lives up to it’s reputation. We drove around the town (or is it a city?) and had a short stroll on the esplanade………

………..before heading out for the night. It’s a town built for backpackers, there are hostels everywhere so we were ready for action. Have to mention that we got a beer and a HUGE dinner in our hostel for the bargain price of $8!!!! You see, it really is a haven for backpackers.

So with our stomachs full, off we headed to P.J. O’Briens and were disappointed to find that it was pretty quiet but then it was a Monday night so I suppose we couldn’t expect it to be manic. Then we headed on to the Wool Shed which is a compulsory backpacker venue, complete with obligatory dancing on the tables and a Mr. and Miss Backpacker competition!!!

I kid you not! This is the Ibiza of Australia people and that’s all good in it’s own right, it’s also pretty entertaining 🙂 I think we possibly felt our age here more than anywhere else and the proof of that was when the Mr. Backpacker contestants were dancing on the tables and swinging off the roof beams, Kate turned to me and said “god, imagine if he fell”. These are the things you don’t even consider if you’re at the average Cairns backpacker age of about 21!!! So the place was heaving and it was a good laugh but it felt forced to me in a way, i.e. you HAVE to drink piles of shots, you HAVE to get wasted drunk and you HAVE to dance on the tables. I hate that, I’ll have too many drinks and dance on the tables with the best of them but it can’t be forced and should be somewhat spontaneous I reckon.

The following day we left Cairns and stopped at the Crystal Cascades, just outside town. It’s beautiful there, the scenery reminded me of Mossman Gorge up north, perhaps not as stark or bold or spectacular but lovely all the same. Had a nice stroll and a swim. The water was sooooo good. There was piles of fish in the water which turned off our Kate a little, I plunged in regardless, although I didn’t like the look of a rather large eel and a big black fish with whiskers!!! Oh dear! At least I only saw them afterwards 🙂

We drove on to our destination for the night, which was Mission Beach. A really beautiful beach in one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been. It’s a real sleepy town where you HAVE to relax. So I tried, I really did. We went for a walk on the beach and then for a swim in the enclosures (we’re still in Stinger territory). The temperature of the water is just amazing, so, so warm. Even though the enclosures kinda take away from the view, it’s still really lovely. This is Mission Beach with Dunk Island in the background. Sweet 🙂

We strolled back through the “town” and the sun wasn’t even setting and the panic set in. I cannot relax, I need constant distraction or I start climbing the walls!!!!! We ate our dinner and watched them start to close up the pub around 9pm!! Right around then even Kate started to get a little agitated too, so at least there were two of us climbing the walls. I can’t tell you how lovely it is here but it possibly was just a little too quiet for us. We’ll probably be crying out for a spot like this in a couple of weeks time but hey, them’s the breaks. On the plus side, the humidity is back down so we’re not sweating like we were in the 85% humidity that Port Douglas offered! After a swim and a laze on the beach, it was back into our White Toyota Corolla to make the 4 hour journey on to Townsville……

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157610575443605/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157610779999611/

P.S. Did I mention that the Mozzie War is back on??? Thw two of us have got eaten since Port Douglas – boo to it 🙁

Well we had another overnight journey, our flight was at 5am from Darwin and after arriving in Cairns, we picked up our rental car (yippeeeee) and made the 90 minute scenic drive to Port Douglas. Port Douglas is a really chilled out spot. Don’t think I could have worked here as it is a little too quiet but it’s a great spot to rest and relax.

There was no rest for us though as we did our open water course here, where the Great Barrier Reef is supposed to be much more unspoilt. I’ve always loved, loved, loved the water, especially being under the water but over the last couple of months for one reason or two I’ve developed a fear of it. In particular getting out of my depth. I bought some googles and I’ve been working on it over the last couple of months. So I was a little apprehensive about the diving. Off to the pool we went, and a little apprehension developed into a full scale wobbler. Got really, really panicked and I honestly thought I’d have to back out. Took a while to calm me down, I must have guzzled half a tank of air in the process 🙂 Anyhoo the second day in the pool was much better and once we had our medicals (how on earth??) and exams passed, it was off on the boat, on which we got to see some of the reef, check out the colour of the water people…..

Apart from a few problems with my ears, i.e. at first I found it really difficult to equalise, the diving went really well. We went to Tongue Reef on our first day. I’ve snorkelled a fair bit and diving, of course is much better as you get to go much deeper, but I think I’ve to be convinced that the Great Barrier Reef is one of best places to dive in the world.  Now to be fair it was much better the second day, we saw loads and I think we were more relaxed so probably enjoyed it better. Having said that I’m still a little disappointed in the Great Barrier Reef. Think we might try to fit in another day of diving on our way down the coast, maybe there are better spots. I’m so glad that I’ve finally got my licence, it’s been on my list for a while and we had good fun even though it was an exhausting week.

Feeling tired (and sick in my case – blah) since leaving Darwin, we also drove up to see Cape Tribulation, which is just spectacular. If you ever come to this part of the world, please come to see it!!! It’s described as something out of Jurassic Park in the Lonely Planet and it really does have that spooky, deserted rainforest feel to it……

…..and then suddenly the trees clear and you’re standing on a deserted beach with perfect sand and turquoise warm water……..

…….which we could only dip our toes in because of stinger jelly fish at this time of the year. We were really tempted to risk it but since the vinegar had run out, we didn’t really fancy peeing on each other if we did get stung 🙂 No swim – boooooo!!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT????? It literally is the warmest water I’ve ever (kind of) been in – even warmer than the indian ocean and that’s saying something!! It is really so, so, so beautiful and it struck me while the two of us were driving along, how lucky we are to have the opportunity to do this 🙂 We spent the day alone on perfect beaches, walking rainforest trails, going to look-outs for some great views…..

…….and of course sampling locally made ice-cream made by the Daintree Ice-cream Company (funnily enough) which I actually didn’t really like – sorry 🙁

Daintree rainforest, Cow Bay, Myall Beach, Noah Beach and Alexandrea Bay are some of the spots worth going to see. Soooooooo beautiful 🙂

We also visited Mossman Gorge which is unlike anything I’ve seen before. I went for a cold, cold swim, as we had arrived there kinda late and the sun had left us. It’s also has stunning and unusual scenery.

And now that I’m officially a mermaid or at least a licenced diver, we’re heading south and our first stop is Cairns or as the locals call it CAAAAAAANNNNNNNSSS. You kinda have to hear but it’s really funny.

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157610489119678/?photo_deleted=3069974963 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157610169944080/

….as we are set to leave Darwin. We arrived here on the 9th August prepared to work our asses off and that we have. It’s been tough on very little sleep and treats but we knew we’d have to put our heads down for this time. It’ll be worth it too because we shouldn’t have to work for the remainder of the journey so it’s six months straight backpacking from here on out. I know it’s going to go all too quickly. This month I left home six months ago, so I’m almost half way through and there has been a few reminders of how fast the time is going. For instance it kinda surprised us when we heard the Bank Holiday Jazz weekend in Cork was happening and the clocks going back was a bit of a milestone. I know that when the clocks go forward again at home that my time will nearly be out. I think Christmas will be another big occasion where we’ll be thinking of home but I’m also pretty excited about spending a Christmas on the beach!! 

We finished work last wednesday and basically we’ve been partying ever since!!! Finally we’re social beings again!!!!! Had some really fun nights out.

Including the most fantastic dinner in Lewinskys (where Kate worked) Myself, Kate and Janz (our chef in the hotel) were treated to tasting plates so we basically got to try the whole menu!!!

So we’re now leaving Darwin after it being home for four months. I don’t think I ever really considered it home though to be honest. In fact one day when Kate was leaving work and said “see you at home” I was kinda thinking “home? huh? I really don’t consider this home” Darwin is nice and small but is really a jumping off spot for National Parks like Kakadu and Litchfield. It’s served it’s purpose for us as there isn’t a whole lot to do so we didn’t really feel like we were missing out while working all the time, which is a good thing. So will I miss Darwin? Well someone told me it would surprise me and I’ll end up missing it and now the night before I leave, there are things and particularly people that I will miss, of course there are. We spent so much time here.

Things I won’t miss though are getting up at 4.30am and meeting people going home after a night out at 5am when I’m on the way to work!! Goodbye and good riddance to greasy hair and skin which had to be scrubbed within an inch of it’s life everyday. No more deep fryer, grill, steam or oil burns. (Presumably the hair on my arms will grow back in time). No more swollen legs and aching knees and generally feeling about 80 years old!!!!

No more bacon, eggs, sausages, omelettes, beans, mushrooms, scones, pies, sausage rolls, soup, scones, fruit platters (awwww) or Janz shafting me by getting me to do the vegetarian option 🙂 No more retarded mop buckets that take two feet to squeeze out the mop. No more washing and wearing uniforms and horrible men’s chef pants that are waaay to short (permanent list pet hate!!!) Back to wearing flip flops again, incidentally these are our work shoes, like us, they barely made it!!  

We’ve almost forgotten what’s it’s like to wear our own clothes besides pj’s. And finally NO MORE 70 HOUR WEEKS. We’re through, done, finished and in a couple of days we’ll be back on the road. Woooooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooooo. Can’t wait!!!!!!

What I will miss though is the fun Janz, Kate and I had in the kitchen, messing about the savages we have to feed. Me putting him on a butter ration (it’s still a bit of a novelty for him as the quality of butter is really poor in the Phillipinnes) of 20 kilos or so a week!! Also trying to stop him eating pork belly to reduce his risk of heart attack. Me slapping his hand like a little kid, when he tries to steal something I’ve just made and trying in vain to get him to make a healthy option.

I will also miss having a washing machine and clothes line (it’s the little things people), a power shower (useful for scrubbing off bacon fat – mmmmmmm) and I’m sure in another couple of months I will be getting tired of not being able to unpack and carrying all my wordly possessions in a 16 kilo backpack (hmmmmm it’s more like 20 kilos these days so I’ll have to streamline when we get to sydney)

I will also miss the craic I had with the customers in the Italian restaurant. I basically played a cross between a demented leprechaun and Mrs. Doyle from Father Ted, really just for my own amusement to get me through the hours but they lapped it up I can tell you!! When I collect people’s dishes I say things like “ah you didn’t finish your dinner, what’s wrong with ya?” You can get away with murder when you’ve an Irish accent. (although it’s also got me into trouble, particularly one night when a very elderly enebriated gentleman took a shine to me – much to the amusement of my boss and the rest of the staff). I will also miss getting to try the chef, Frankie’s, new specials – yum!!

And we’ve made some friends here, we will miss them too. Hopefully we’ll meet up with some of them in Sydney for Christmas. I’ll also miss our house mates, especially Shane when he’s making his two minute noodles!!! 🙂

And now as the weather builds up and the rains are about to begin, we’re leaving Darwin and not a moment too soon, remember people this is a year of summer – no rain allowed!!!!

On that note, we’re outta here………

P.S. I know it sounds crazy but I’m also a little scared to stop work because over the last few years I’ve no attention span and need to be occupied constantly. I can’t even concentrate on a half hour tv show. So a 65/70 hour week did distract me enough, although I used to be climbing the walls on my time off. Anyway now I have to learn how to relax I think, wish me luck……..

Language has always interested me and so this blog is kinda devoted to aussie words and sayings. First off is No Worries, EVERYBODY says no worries when you say thank you to them and often it is no worries, mate – very australian don’t you think? The funny thing is I think I’ve started to say it too. Well not the “mate part but certainly no worries!! It’s really weird to hear women calling you mate – will never get used to that. Hmmmm myself and Kate have also started saying bucks instead of dollars, it’s weird now I say things like we can get this for 50 bucks, it still feels a little strange after I’ve said it.

The very first classic aussie saying I heard was in the airport and someone actually said “Flaming Galah” I honestly though only people in Home and Away or shows like that said these things!!! You have all the obvious sayings like G’day, mate, bloke, barbie (BBQ), cossie/bathers, crikey, do you reckon? or I reckon (which I also say but I think I might have said that at home too, hmmmm I’m not sure now) etc, etc.

Another really common expression is “too easy”. Like if they are paying for something and have the correct change it’s “too easy”. People also say “oh that’s heaps/I’ve had heaps” when you’ve poured them enough drink or they’ve eaten enough. Instead of saying he arrived or he didn’t get here until 6, they say “he didn’t rock up til 6” I kinda like that one I must say. There are also expressions like ferrell – which means disgusting and so many more that won’t come to me now but I guess these are the main ones that entertain me the most 🙂

Moving away from language for a minute, did you know that Burger King is called Hungry Jacks over here? Weird huh? Tastes the same though. They also call (bell) peppers capsicums over here, myself and Kate are having none of that though and still call them peppers 🙂

Anyway I digress (who me??? Never!!!) The saying that intrigues me the most though, is Fair Dinkum. Now I always thought that is was derived from “Fair Income” meaning ah fair dues or fair enough, which to my pedantic mind makes perfect sense. Actually though, Fair Dinkum means, or rather Dinkum means honest or genuine. So I still think my sense of it isn’t completely out, as “to be fair now/in fairness/fair enough. To me it’s kinda the same but I’m told that I’ve got it all wrong. So I’m not sure whether the aussies or me are being the pedantic ones……

In other news this week (just because I’m not doing a separate blog), we have just less than a week of work to go!!!!!! Set to finish on the 19th and it can’t end quick enough now. We’ll have a few days recovery and then fly to Cairns on the 25th. I’ve allowed myself to get excited too soon so now the days are crawling. We are dying to get to the end of it and have few celebratory nights out. Still heading out once a week at the moment but you can see how tired we look in this photo,

we’re just shattered, but it’s just around the corner now 🙂 and soon, hopefully we’ll look like our eyes are open and be healthy bunnies before too long.

More pics (well not too many actually) on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157608619184953/

Okay, alright I haven’t blogged in a while but honestly it feels like groundhog day around here. I don’t really have much interesting news but I’ll do my best…….. Still totally on the work buzz and swinging between really hating it and laughing through it. Still though it isn’t for that much longer and then we’re back on the road, thank god because doing nothing is an absolute killer for me. I’ve been climbing the walls this week. I think I probably have Kate driven demented! So apologies to Kate and thanks missus for putting up with me 🙂 We’re leaving Darwin towards the end of November and flying to Cairns where our road trip all the way to Sydney begins. We’re renting a car and will drive about 2800 kilometres(!) in just under a month. We’re planning to roll into Sydney just before Christmas.

In the meantime, we try to come up with things to break up the weeks and the first was Kate’s 30th birthday.

We had good fun that night and followed it up on her actual birthday with a lovely dinner in a funky jazz club restaurant called Nirvana where I got to eat noodly, peanuty Pad Thai again – yum!! It had been in Thailand the last time I had it. We’re usually off on a sunday so we head out after work on saturday night and we’ve have some good nights, including one with Kate’s work crew.

We also headed to Katherine Gorge last week and it was just lovely. We went on a 2 hour cruise and got a swim in too which was great.

 Some of the scenery is just out of this world. Here’s something you don’t get to see every day….

Other than that there isn’t a whole lot else to report. I’m still working in the hotel restaurant cooking. I’m working with an executive chef from the Phillipines who is a great laugh and we have a lot of fun working together. The restaurant does “$5 dollar Friday” which means you can load up your plate all for the bargain price of $5. I tried to warn Janz that the “savages” (oh and they are believe me!!) come in their droves on a friday and basically decimate the place. I don’t think he took me seriously the first week but the second week he said “okay NOW I’m ready for the savages!!!” Honestly these people are lunatics. We serve buffet and have 8 options at any one time and they can clear it in ten minutes!!! We usually serve 28 trays of food or the equivalent of 400 normal sized dinners (to roughly 250 people!) on a friday!!!! Some people (and it’s the same culprits every week) try to come back for seconds even though you are meant to pay per plate. They also get pretty picky and say things like “and where’s the fish?” or “I’m going to get my money’s worth here” OF COURSE YOU’RE GOING TO GET YOUR MONEY’S WORTH – IT’S $5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In general though, I can’t get over how much they eat, we get people who eat a full hot breakfast, yogurt & fruit, pastries and then cereal and toast. Now I have a hefty appetite but dear god I could never eat all of that in one go!!! WHERE DO THEY PUT IT????? Probably in their pockets or something 🙂

So for the last few days we have this one particular woman in for lunch and I’ve NEVER seen so much food being consumed by one person in one sitting. Her plate was stacked really tall and then she puts napkins on her tray for her salad because it won’t fit on the plate. Honestly we’ve all been mesmerised by her. By the end of it she’s sweating and wiping her forehead. The first day Janz had a “tree” made out of a celery stick – as a garnish on the tray of food – and yes you guessed it, she ate it!!!! I took a picture of her plate today but she arrived late and must of been off form because this is only about two thirds of her usual portion. No kidding!!!

The plate is usually waaaay more stacked, it literally takes her ten minutes to load up! It’s been a very busy week with the “savages”, particularly for breakfast. On a separate note, we had Mark Cagney from TV3’s Ireland AM this week for breakfast, they must be filming a piece on the Northern Territory we reckon.

It’s fun cooking though for the most part, my latest obsession is the breakfast fruit platter, so if you ever wish to make a fruit turtle, this is how you do it. First get a watermelon or a turtle 🙂 , take off his skin and give him legs and a tail…..

Then put his head on and make him pretty….

Okay maybe he’s not massively turtle-like but use your imagination!!!!!!

Anyway I promised myself I wouldn’t write about work but there you go. I guess it’s pretty much all we do. The blogs will hopefully get somewhat more interesting when we get on the move again.

More photos as usual on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157607874219426/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157608501167406/

P.S. I know I wrote way too much again, need to get back on the wagon 🙂