Monday 10th January

Sunday 2 January
We started out on our fishing/boating day early.  John Richie (the boss) met us at the compound just before 7am where he picked up his boat (it is stored under a purpose built shed behind head office) and we followed him to the Yacht Club to launch off.  The boat is really nice.  Quite big but not huge.  So, off we went.  We sped across the harbour and out into the open ocean.  We passed an island called Barge Island (named because there is a barge stuck on the middle of it), past Fishermans Island (guess how it got its name - yes, that's right.  Fisherman live on it) and just headed on out into the blue yonder.  It was incredible.  After about an hour when we could only see vague shapes of the land nearby, we cruised to a halt to put out the big lines so that we could do some slow trawling and see if there was any fish biting today.  JR asked Monique if she wanted to drive, showed her how to read the map and what depth he wanted the boat to be at.  There is a heap of reef everywhere outside of the harbour of Port Moresby.  We trawled for ages, no bites, but it was just so lovely out there.  I did a bit of driving also and was totally crap at it.  We ended up losing the edge of the reef through my uselessness.  But it was all good until I felt a bit seasick.  Yuck.  So
up came the fishing lines and first we stopped when the reef was about 8 metres deep of water and jumped in for a swim as this is what will help with the sea sickness.  The current was so strong that we all grabbed the safety line and hauled ourselves back in and we headed off full speed to a little island called Haidana which is a tropical sand island in the middle  of the South Pacific that is stunning with white sand and clear blue water and a really colourful reef surrounding it.  We spent an hour there doing a bit of snorkling (which I couldn't see much of because I am as blind as a bat - I really need to look into getting a snorkly mask with my glasses prescription - and it has the added advantage of being a spare pair of glasses if I loose my usual ones - think Hugh Grant in Notting Hill - such a good look), ate a bit of lunch, Monique chased some gorgeous little crabs up and down the beach - didn't catch any but loved it.  We then headed out again back towards Fishermans Island.  On the way we saw a heap of birds circling.  So in the middle of nowhere, we saw a bait ball.  That is what happens when a heap of big fish eg tuna, circles a school of bait fish and then push them up to the surface.   The big fish from below eating and the birds above eating.  We stopped, threw out some lines and headed for the ball.  It dispursed very quickly but we spent some time looking around and following the birds.  We came across another one about 15 minutes afterwards that actually had a shark right in the middle of it.  What an incredible thing to witness. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  We didn't catch anything but it didn't matter.  We then headed for Fishermans Island where there were fantastic big starfish all over the ground in about 2 metres of water and out.  They were huge with big sharp looking spines on the top.  I picked one up to have a closed look and to give Monique a chance to touch one.  She freaked out at first but once she saw that it was safe to pick up on the edges, she had a go.  We spend time looking at them, and finding some little sea snails scooting along in the sand.  Very cool.  We stayed there about half an hour before heading home.  Incredibly after 7 hours out on the water in the sun, we were not very burnt because we had been rather vigilent with the sunscreen, hats and long sleeves.
But when I got home I discovered that I forgot to sunscreen the tops of my legs.  Yep.  Burnt.  Not so comfortable to sit down with but they are being creamed regularly to try and take most of the sting out.  But all up, it was a great day and one we hope to do again soon.  Steve has been looking into getting sailing lessons at the yacht club and maybe getting a little yacht to use.  maybe.  We'll see.  I never thought that I would enjoy going out to sea as much as I did because i nearly always get burnt no matter what I wear or how much sunscreen I put on.  But it was so good.  Definately worth another go.  We spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping and chilling. 

Monday 3 January
I had a restless night last night so slept in this morning.  When I finally got up, I had some fruit for breakkie and tidied up the house a bit, watered the orchids and my seedlings which are growing really well now.  Another couple of weeks and i will be able to transplant them into the gardens around the housewing to grow big.  Lovely.  When Monique woke up, we went to Vision City to get a few groceries and some phone credit.  It was very quiet in town this morning which makit it a peaceful run.  Steve came back to the house at around 10am to get some money to have lunch with a work fellow and customer.  He also mentioned that it looks like he might be doing 6 week stays at Lahir for a bit to get it running properly.  If that is the case, I'll probably spend a bit of time in Australia while he is away.  Port Moresby is not really a place to be as a lone female.  It can work but I'm not sure I'm willing to give it much of a go.  Cowardly of me, but there it is.  And Lahir is not a place for me to stay with Steve as it is a mining camp.  So what adventures the future holds is a bit of a mystery.  We'll see what happens. After lunch I cooked up some sticky date muffins for everyone at the head office and the Port Moresby branch office.  They were all eaten, the whole 70 of them.  Whoooo.... Monique and I hadn't been down into the branch before so we met a heap of new people and were guided through the warehouse out the back by a lovely fellow called Nathan to make sure that everyone got a muffin.  Once back at the house, I went up to the housewing with my ipod and egg speaker to listen to one of my audio books and do a bit of quilling.  By the time that Monique came up after 4pm, I had almost completed a quilled frog.  It is so cute.  We decided to have a bbq dinner up there, so we came back to the house and organised sausages and salad stuff and went back up to watch the end of a movie while waiting for Steve to finish up for the afternoon.  But we had to pack all the food up and put it into the fridge and go back into the house just after Steve finished as the fog men arrived.  Every two weeks a couple of men come into the compound and fog the whole place with something chemical to kill the mosquitos.  You have to be shut up in the house for the half hour as its not the best thing to be smelling.  Once that was done, we all went back up to bbq and eat dinner.  It started raining while we were up there, such heavy pouring rain.  It's such a beautiful thing to sit under a tin roof and watch and listen to the rain.  We ended
up turning off the lights in the housewing while eating because there were masses of flying ants everywhere and they were attracted to the lights.  Don't you just hate eating bugs with dinner.  We went to bed early as we were all tired.

Tuesday 4 January
It's 1.30am in the morning and I'm wide awake wishing I could be outside.  I'm sure it is safe enough to go outside in the middle of the night, but is it worth the risk.  Not really.  I went out last night about 9pm to give one of the guards some muffins and didn't see his dog in the dark.  It snarled and jumped at me which scared the heck out of me.  So I will be keeping a respectful distance from the night guards in the future.  I'm feeling a little hemmed in at the moment and will have to spend all of today out of the house I think.  I'm not sure what
Monique and I will do yet but we will have to find something.  Maybe go down to the Yacht Club and do the walk around it and then maybe read at one of the tables for a bit.  I'll think about it some more when I get up in the morning (that is if I go back to sleep again before daylight).  Not sure. I slept in until just after 8am this morning and potted around tidying up and watering the plants.  When Monique woke up we  drove to the Yacht Club to spend a couple of hours there just chilling.  Anything to get out of the compound for a bit.   Monique took her computer there and got stuck into her SIMS game where she is creating a number of families that do all of these daily chores and jobs etc.  It's pretty cool, but not something I would do.  I took one of my old books with me to see if there were any books that I wanted to exchange with and I found a great one by Elizabeth Strout called "Olive Kitteridge".  I am now enjoying reading it.  Just before 12pm, I called Steve to see if he wanted to have lunch with us.  He did.  So we drove to Fu Gui to have some lunch.  Steve hadn't been there so we were able to introduce him to this fantastic restaurant.  We had noodles, beef randeng with rice and roasted chicken with rice.  Everything was put in the middle of the table and we shared with little bowls and chopsticks.  We are getting much better at using chopsticks although Monique cheats towards the bottom of the bowl and uses a spoon to finish up.  Fun.  Robyn and Ian were lunching there also, and they came over after eating to say hello.
I haven't seen as much of Robyn this week as she is really busy packing up the rest of her house before she moves back to Brisbane mid next week.  After lunch we went quickly to Vision City to see if there was a broad brim hat for Monique as JR had asked if we wanted to go out on the boat on Saturday afternoon again.  Can't wait.  Brilliant times.  There were a group of young guys there who must have liked the look of Monique and started circling us making all sorts of suggestions and laughing.  I told Monqiue just to ignore them but to keep an
eye out as to where they were.  It was all good.  After a while, they left us alone.  Monique is getting a bit jumpy lately.  She had a bad night the other night again thinking she had heard some noises outside her door.  She called out for one of us to come in and check it out.  She hasn't been like this since the first week we were here.  I think that she is really looking forward to going back to Cairns.  Anyway, we got a new dvd "Marley and Me" and then headed home again.  I had a really bad headache from the last of a head cold, so I took some panafen and sudafed and headed up to the housewing to sit quietly reading and relaxing.  I spend a couple of hours doing this and dozing off a bit.  The chairs are not the best to be snoozing on, so after a while I headed back to the house to sit on the couch, but of course I was wide awake again.  Steve phoned not long after to see if I wanted to go
for a drive to the airport to pick up a fellow who had flown in from Brisbane heading to Lahir tomorrow.  I can't remember his name.  Anyway, we did go and pick him up and dropped him off at the Gateway Hotel which is near the Airways Hotel.  Steve had a really bad afternoon at work and was not very happy with some things happening.  So after work, we headed to the Yacht Club so that he could chill out and have a couple of beers.  One funny moment was when I asked one of the F & B attendents if I could have a basket of chips, and
he bought me a basket of chips - cold chips like Smiths.  We wanted hot chips but as I didn't specify that properly, it was my mistake.  But we laughed.  You really have to be very literal when asking for things here.  When we got home, I heated up the leftover stew from Saturday night and we ate that before watching a bit of tv and then going to bed.
 
Wednesday 5 January
I woke up just after 6am this morning and decided to go for a walk at the yacht club.  I'm definately feeling hemmed in and it was so good to just walk along the harbour listening to an audio book.  The sun was quite hot and I hadn't taken a hat, so I didn't walk as long as I wanted.  I'll have to remember to take a hat tomorrow.  When I got back home, I made myself a pot of green tea and sat outside on the back verandah reading and drinking tea.  So very relaxing.  Just after 8am, I headed to SVS Harbour City to get some fruit for
breakfast as we had none left.  Monique had made pancakes when I got back so i has some of them as well.  Yum.  Maggie had arrived while I was out and had some pancakes with Monique also.   She is teaching me how to speak pigeon english so that i can talk to the gardener.  I want some grass clippings and leaves put up on the gardens of the housewing so that I can plant my seedlings so I had to say to Tetkos (the gardener) "Me like grass.  Lay on gardens on housewing".  Pigeon English is very much like english and once you start hearing
and speaking it, it makes sense.  My favourite word is "Tasol" which means "that's all".  When you say tasol it actually sounds like that's all, so its cool.  Maggie also told me that the word for girl in her language is "mor-e-fa-su" so now I am yelling out that to Monique if I want her attention.  It's so funny.  I told Maggie that I want to learn more from her.  While out and about driving this morning, I noticed a couple of ladies cutting the grass by hand on the edge of the road with a machete type knife.  There are always people sweeping the gutters to keep all the dust and rubbish off the roads, but I hadn't noticed the cutting of the grass before.  I assumed that they just didn't have any whipper snippers but around the corner, there was a fellow with a whipper snippper having a lovely time cutting grass.  So I guess that it is another much needed job for someone by getting the grass cut by hand.  It's such a fascinating country.  I also headed towards Vision City to see if the newspaper boys were at the turnoff but they were on the opposite side of the road so I didn't get a newspaper.  Bugger.
I have been trying each day for over a week to see if the newspaper boys were at that turnoff but they haven't been.  I have made a decision to go up a bit further tomorrow morning and turn around so I can get one on the way back.   I can get a paper at the grocery stores but i love getting them from the newspaper boys at the lights.  When they aren't there, and on weekends, little boys about the age of 7 or 8 sit at the lights directing traffic with their hands.  They sit with their shirt on the ground in front of them, held down by rocks (the shirt is held down, not the boy) and stay there until someone gives them some money.  Once they have some money, they go somewhere ( I assume the shops, but it may not be - there are a lot of kids who are dropped off everyday in the city centre to direct cars and collect money, who have to give it all to the boss man in the afternoon, so I'm not sure what these other boys do) and are promptly replaced by another boy.  It's rather intriguing.  When I cut up my pineapple this morning, it was mostly rotten.  When I asked Maggie where to get good pineapples, she said the markets of course.  When I told her that I didn't know if it was safe to go to the markets she was talking about, she said that at lunch time she would ask her husband if he would take me.  So, I'll write here later about that adventure...... after lunch Michael (Maggie's husband) took me to one of the local markets.  These look scary
when you first get there because there is an area that has a heap of umbrellas and some tables, some stalls on the ground, and heaps of people everywhere.  But Michael assured me that it was safe enough.  So we parked and got out and walked all through the market.  It was very exhiliration and intimidating at the same time.  I was the only white person there but the fruit and veges were so fresh and lovely looking.  I got a pineapple, watermelon and heaps of ripe yummy bananas.  I didn't have anymore money on me or I would have got a heap of veges as well.  Next time.  I will probably go with Maggie next Wednesday morning when she comes to clean.  Monique has absolutely no interest in going there.  She just wants to go back to Australia where the shops are familiar.  I spent the afternoon up at the housewing, swimming, planting some seedlings into the garden and reading.  I convinced Mon to come up with me to get her out and about.  She did and then I got her into the pool as well.  Afterwards, we went the the yacht club so Steve could go to the gym and Mon and I walked around it.  It felt so very good to be out moving in the fresh air.  When we finished, we came home, showered and went back again for dinner.  Steve ordered the barramundi which he really enjoyed, Mon got beef in pajamas and I got a satay meat starter with garlic butter vegetables.  Yummo.  We spent ages talking to Tim (GM of the yachtie) and then
went home to bed.  Another good day.

Thursday 6 January
I woke up at around 6am but didn't go for a walk as i am feeling exhausted.  I ate breakfast on the verandah, went and watered my seedlings on the verandah and the ones in the housewing, and the orchids, came back inside and dozed off again.  I just can't seem to get the energy to move today.  As I have been cheating on bread this week, I'm wondering if it is that as I haven't been aching in my arm as usual so it may be a new symptom.  Don't know.  I think I'm going to go back to bed.............I made myself get up after a couple of hours
and went into town to get a heap of groceries.  I also went to Brian Bell and bought myself a sewing machine.   Just an el cheapo chinese import one but it has a heap of stitches so I'm going to have fun playing with it.  I can't sew very well but i have time to teach myself now.  I bought a pattern up with me from Brisbane for long pants but I don't know where I have put it.  The material here is so very bright and beautiful so I will find a way to use it and make some probable monstrosities.  The actual process of getting the sewing machine was a real process and another test of my new found lessons in patience.  There were no machines in the store, so I had to go to the customer service desk to get an invoice printed out.  Then to the cashier to pay, then back to the customer service desk to show the receipt and get a checkout form so that I could present it at the warehouse out the back.  So I got in my car and drove around the back of the building, knocked on the yellow door and handed in my paperwork.  Sat and waiting for some time before being told it was ready.  I had to sign the paper,
provide my rego number and then it was escorted to my car.  Interesting.  There is no use getting impatient here.  No one takes any notice, so you just have to go with the flow and carry a book around with you.  I got home with a stinking headache, so i took a heap of drugs and spent the afternoon chilling in the cool lounge.  In the evening, we briefly went to the yachty for a beer and then home for dinner.

Friday 7 January
When I woke up this morning, I had more energy and no headache which was good.  I spent some time reading, eating breakfast and watering plants before Monique got up.  When she did, I went into town to get some
fresh salad vegetables, prawns and ham so that we could have rice paper rolls for lunch.  I am having to make an effort not to eat bread again as the effects get me down.  So yesterday I found rice paper rolls and corn ruskit biscuits.  Lunch was soooo good.  I made a stork bird quilling in the afternoon, went to Airways Hotel to book a hair appointment for Monique for Tuesday, booked flights back to Australia for next Friday and watered plants, met another of Robyns friends, walked around the yacht club, then went for the usual friday dinner.
Everyone was drinking lots except for me (and Monique) cause I had started getting stomach cramps and having to run to the toilet very regularly.  Pizza was ordered to eat so I got a basket of hot chips to eat instead.  Not feeling very well at all.  Don't know if it was something I ate or drank.  Don't know.  Yuck. 

Saturday 8 January
Woke up this morning early feeling sick again.  Sat in the armchair and dozed for ages, and then went back to bed.  We were supposed to go out in the boat again this morning but I really wasn't feeling up to it.  I finally got out of bed at 11.30am, ate some brekkie, watered plants and took some more drugs.  I had missed a heap of calls and messages from Robyn asking me to walk early, and get a pedicure at lunch.  I had to message her to apologise about missing it all.  Sucks.  I'm trying to get up and out but it's not good.  I think I will spend
the afternoon up at the pool chilling.  Monique came up to the pool with me and we had a uno championship.  I lost big time.  Not good because I usually beat the pants off her, so she had a great time rubbing in my losing streak.  Steve came up to tell us it was time to go for a walk at the yacht club as we had made plans to go out to dinner with Robyn, Ian and a couple of their friends.  By this time, my stomach was feeling a little better so we were all looking forward to the evening.  The walk was quite hot as it was early in the afternoon when
we got there, so Mon and I did only 1 lap and then waited in the shade for Steve to finish at the gym.  We then went home and got ready to go out to dinner.  Dinner was at Maggy's Seafood Restaurant.  There were 8 of us eating and everyone except me wanted the crabs because we had heard they were brilliant.  Luckily Robyn had phoned ahead to make the booking and ask about the crabs because they only had 3 and had to go and find some more.  They ended up with 6 which was enough to feed the 7 seafood eaters.  They had some
salt and pepper squid first, then two plates of crab, cooked in two different ways.  I ordered some mongolian lamb which was so good.  It was a great evening which lots of chatting and laughing and some wine and beer.  It was great.  We will definately be going there again.

Sunday 9 January
I woke early again this morning (at 3am) due to my drinking a whole bottle of wine last night.  So at 5am, I got in the car and went to the yachty to do a couple of laps walking.  It was still dark when I got there so I got to see the light coming over the mountains, but as it was overcast, there was no sunrise.  I got back just after 6am and sat dozing a bit on the couch.  Steve woke me and Monique up just before 9am as we had made plans to go out sight seeing with Robyn and her family and Steve lock n load.  So off we went.  What an adventure.  First we went to one of the local universities that is run by one of the churches.  The grounds were spectacular and they had a market there with fresh picked food.  We gota heap of fruit and veges (so cheap and so fresh) and then kept going to stop at one of the lakes.  We fed what looked to be huge goldfish (about 40cm long) and laughed at the swimming birds that kept going underwater to get fish and then just popping up somewhere. So cute.  Afterwards we left the university grounds and went to Bamona which is the memorial and graves of all the soldiers who fought in the war along the kokoda trail.  It was a very beautiful and peaceful place but so very sad.  There was row after row after row of white headstones of all the way too young men who were killed in the war.  There were heaps that did not even have a name on them but said "Here lies a soldier who fought in the war".  So many
with no names.  It was a very moving way to spend an hour roaming around looking at the names and memorial statues and structures.  We really are so blessed that these incredible young men fought with their lives so that Australia is the free country it is today.  They have a dawn service there on Anzac Day each year, so we have decided that we will definately go to it.  Very sad, but I'm so glad we went to have a look. 
On our way home, Steve lock n load too us to Kenmaity Fried Chicken (KMC) to get an icecream.  He said they were so good, so we decided to go and try them.  He was right.  Very yummy and we will be going back again soon.  I had a banana and chocolate double scoop, Monique had mango, Steve had banana and caramel and Steve lock n load had vanilla and choc chip.  Steve also ordered a whole chicken there so we could take it home and check out what it was like.  It's a bit like KFC and McDonalds and Cold Rock all mixed into one shop.  Very nice.  Outside of the shop there was a fellow selling fresh picked ripe pineapples, so I got 2.  They smelt incredible.  When we got home, we had the chicken.  OMG, it was so good.  And I cut up some of the lemon grass, garlic, ginger, and chilli we got from the markets and added lemon juice, orange juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar and olive oil.  I then got some rump steak out and put it in to marinate for the afternoon.  It should be really good on the bbq tonight for dinner.  I also cut up one or the pineapples and boy was it as good
as it smelt.  Yummo.  We spent the afternoon watching tv and chilling as it was raining outside.  So nice just relaxing.  We had a bbq in the housewing for dinner.  The steaks were extremely good as was the eggplant and salad.  Yum.  Rereading over what I have written is making me a bit concerned that all I write about is food and yes, that would almost be correct.  I love food which is a pleasure and a problem.  Oh well, on we go.