Thursday 3rd February
It was a tense 2 days waiting to hear that both my girls were ok and the rest of our families in the Cairns to Townsville area with Cyclone Yasi looming. It was said to be the worst cyclone in many years to hit the area. Waiting at Dad's place in Gympie until this morning when we heard from both Sylvia (which is where Monique was staying) and Tiarna in Townsville was so awful. But they are all ok, were a little scared during the night but all good. Thank goodness. This is one very relieved mother, let me tell you.
Dad and I headed to Bundaberg yesterday to spend some time with my grandparents as Grandma is not very well. She is refusing to eat anything and has lost so much weight. I just wanted to gather her up and feed her, but you can't force feed anyone. It was great to see them both and we wandered around the gardens for ages.
Today I am on the train to Brisbane and then through to Varsity Lakes at the Gold Coast to spend a couple of days with my sister Tamara and her family. I saw them in November at Yolanders wedding but haven't really spent too much time with them for ages so I am really looking forward to the next couple of days. Samantha and Dillon are growing up really fast. Isn't it scary how fast the years go. I was just thinking yesterday about how Tiarna is turning 20 this year and I can still remember when I fell pregnant with her and it certainly doesn't seem that long ago. Monique has only three more years of school left and I'm sure that will fly also. Where has it all gone. But it has been an incredible journey to get here. Lots of laughs and good times which I am ever so grateful about. When you start looking back over how your life has gone, its wonderful to remember such great times.
Yes there has been some shocking and sad times also but once they are done, and you get on with life, they fade away. After all the years of working hard, Steve and I are on a fantastic adventure for the next couple of years in a fascinating place. I can't wait to get back and continue exploring the incredible county and people.
Friday 4th Feb - Wednesday 16th Feb
Well I had 2 fantastic days with Tam, Steve, Sam and Dillon. Laughed lots, wandered around the shops and watched incredible movies. Tam and I found a really fabulous little shop called "That Shop" on a corner at Coolangatta. Gorgeous old fashioned 50's type dresses, skirts and togs. So very cute. But not cheap, so I am going to go back and get something next time when I have saved up a bit. Sam and Dillon are delightful, very energetic, kids who drove their mother mad (which is the case for all children and mothers - I know mine
did and still do) and it was great to see them both for a bit. Yolander and Mark came and picked me up on Sunday to go back to their place and I spent 2 days there, going for walks and getting lost, but eventually finding my way back home. It was good to spend time with Yo, especially as last time she was getting ready to be married and getting married, so it was calmer and lovely to catch up. I still can't believe how much Yo has grown up into a really lovely woman. I guess I was still thinking she was the little girl that I used to look after. Not anymore. As Yo and Mark both work, I had to get a taxi and then a train to the airport this time to fly back to Cairns which in itself was an adventure. It certainly takes ages to fly anywhere. I left Yo's house at 9.30am and arrived in Cairns at 4.30pm. Long waits between transports, but still good. I had a book and my ipod with me so I read or slept most of the way. I also had a stow away travelling with me.
Mark's stuffed animal "Barry Quokka" had decided that he wanted to go to PNG and have a look around. I wonder what interesting adventures he will get up to. I spent the next four days catching up with Syl, Brenton, Keetah and Jamie again. There was lots of rain in the cyclone aftermat but it was nice. And so very hot and sticky. Yuck. On Friday 11th Feb, we picked Monique up in the afternoon from school, and then picked up Steve from the airport, eventually. His flight was delayed three times and he wasn't sure if it would be fully cancelled until the next day or not, but it wasn't and at 9.30pm, he finally arrived for a 4 day R & R. I had booked him in on the Saturday morning to get a new tattoo that I had designed especially for him. He got that done and really liked it, thank goodness. There would be nothing worse than getting a permanent tattoo and not liking it. The guy who designed it was like "so man, it's all good" and told Steve that "your wife is so excited for you" in a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure tone of voice. Very funny but he was brilliant at his work.
On Sunday we drove Syl's car (Syl told us to take it so that she had an excuse not to work - they had called her in everyday for about a week already and still wanted her to work the next two days as well) to Townsville to see Tiarna briefly. We found her new place though sheer blind luck because as Steve says, getting directions from one Pomroy through another Pomroy is asking to be lost. Oh well, we did find it eventually. Tiarna's new roomy is a 25 year old drama teacher named Todd. He was lovely and as he
enjoys cooking, he makes sure that Tiarna eats better than what she has been doing previously. I really think that her mood swings were all about the crap food she consumed everyday.
But, I can only nag (as I am known to do on a regular basis to Tiarna and Monique) and hope that she eats better. Anyway, we booked into a motel for the night and then met up with Tiarna and her new boyfriend Malachi and went to a lovely French restaurant for dinner. Steve wanted to try the snails, so he ordered that while the rest of us ordered not so scary meals. Tiarna and I tasted the snail meal and it wasn't bad. It was cooked in a vol - o - vont (is that spelt correct) with mushrooms and gravy, so it wasn't like eating it out of the shell which i may not have tried. We had a great time and laughed heaps. Malachi is lovely and it was good to see Tiarna happy. She was on stress leave from her job while we were there and soon after, she ended up resigning from the job to look for something else where hopefully the boss won't be so nasty. We picked up our car from the repaireres the next morning. The front end was looking very nice and shiny and they had done a great job. The gear box still needs doing but it does drive in the meanwhile, so we will wait a bit to get that fixed. We drove the car back to Cairns on the Monday and then had a couple of days to chill out before flying back on the Wednesday morning. Monique was allowed to
come out of school on Tuesday afternoon for the night so that we could spend time with her before leaving. We won't see her again until the April holidays now. And so the next part
of the adventure begins........
Wednesday 16th Feb - Wednesday 2nd March
Well, we arrived in Port Moresby without any delays which is unusual but nice, on a very small plane which I wasn't sure I wanted to get on. Steve tells me that some of the planes that go to the other places in PNG are smaller so I am not looking forward to that (even though I really want to go and visit other places - I wonder if I can row a little boat?????). The "Govnour" (Warren) picked us up from the airport and drove us back to the compound. We walked into our new house (the other one has to get the floors fixed so that we don't fall through any more) and I burst into tears. I was so tired from not sleeping well the night before, overwhelmed about having to unpack everything again, missing the girls and also relieved
to be back in my own space after a month travelling. So after Steve calmed me down and told me to just unpack as I felt like it, I started to enjoy being back. As it was a Wednesday, we went to the Yacht Club for the key draw, dinner and drinks. I ordered the vege balls with a spicy sauce. They were yummy but not a good choice for me as they were coated in bread crumbs. Not a good start. I baked my first loaf of bread using Dad's recipe and instruction the next day and guess what. I have bread that looks and smells good, doesn't fall apart and is really yummy. So toast every morning now is not a battle, deciding whether to put up with aching body or not. I can now have my toast and eat it........ha ha ha.
Gettimg back into the swing of things was slow. Lealah (I was spelling it wrong before) is great and we spend lots of time out exploring things, watching movies and swimming. I have asked Maggie (our house mary) if she can come on Tuesdays also and we do some cooking - she teaches me and I teach her, I show her how to do beading and she shows me how to make a billum bag (which is so bloody frustrating and hard but not hard at all for her). Maggie takes Lealah and I to the local markets to get fresh produce and I take Maggie tothe supermarkets and we have icecream cones. It's all good fun and interesting. Maggie is also slowly teaching me how to speak pigeon english. It is difficult to remember but I am getting there slowly.
Here's a recipe that Maggie taught me.
Ingredients
4 bananas - make sure they are really solid bananas - just ripe or they will fall apart
4 white sweet potatoes (called kai kai)
local greens - whatever you like eg spinach, bok choy etc - up here we use pumpkin vine ends - so interesting
4 - 8 chicken pieces on bone
coconut milk - fresh if you can get it
onions
garlic
salt
Method
Peel the potatoes and cut them in half (you need big pieces as this is cooked for a long time). Put them in a large pot. Peel the bananas and add to the pot.
Sprinkle in diced onion and garlic. Wash the greens and put them on top of the potato and bananas. Place the chicken pieces on top of the greens.
Pour in enough coconut milk to come up about 3cm in the pot (If you use coconut cream - mix it with water to make it a bit diluted). Season with salt.
Place the pot on the stove and put it on medium to low heat for about 2 hours or until everything is cooked nicely. Place a potato, banana, greens and chicken
on a plate and pour a bit of the coconut milk over for moisture.
I found this recipe to be very much back to basics. All the ingredients are what can be found locally or can be grown. I also found the tastes to be very mild which was interesting,
especially as I like my food to have a bit of a punch to it using herbs and spices. Both Steve and I liked this meal, but if I did it again, I would probably add herbs / spices / curry paste
to it. See what you think...................
On Monday 21st Feb, I called Ali who is the contact for Buk Bilong Pikinini - which translates to Book Belong to Children - and organised a trip with her to visit two of the libraries they had set up in a couple of the villages around Port Moresby. Ali is the Director of the organisation and is an incredible woman doing an amazing job. When she started working with the organisation in 2008, there were about 3 libraries set up. There are now 7 and they have local teachers in each, teaching those children who can't afford to go to school, how to read and write. It is so very inspiring. We went to the Koki library which is a permanent 2 story building beside a local market. It has been completely renovated by a big company,
is fully fenced, and landscaped to be a pleasant place for the local children to go and read, and access books that they wouldn't have the opportunity to do otherwise. I had a great chat with the assistant teacher who was telling me that the local schools don't have libraries in them, so the children lucky enough to go to these innovative libraries are very lucky.
At the Koki library, there were two groups of kids, the younger lot sitting on mats under the trees outside and listening to a story being read by the teacher, and the older lot in the upstairs room playing with playdough to make numbers and letters. There were about 70 kids all up and the head teacher said that they can get up to 80 kids there. What an incredible opportunity for those young minds. Ali had also brought along the head teacher librarian from the Goroko region who had flown in for the week to see what was happening in POM. He has an incredible 365 children at his library and was thrilled to see what the teachers here were doing. I find this so encouraging to see young children reading and so willing
to learn new things. I had made a committment to Ali to become involved in this group doing whatever they need me to do. I was supposed to go on a trip with another lady Yvonne to the 6 mile library yesterday but had to cancel due to another commitment. Next week, they are having a committee meeting, so I will go along and get started. I intend to contact libraries and school in Australia and get old books donated and sent up as there is so much need for it here. Ali wants to branch out the libraries so that adults can also borrow books to take home and read eventually, so there is that also. Luckily, one of the huge transport companies up here gives the organisation free transport of books and Hastings Deering have put up a shed with an aircon in it on our compound for the books to be stored before being sorted and distributed. Lots to do.
Lealah and I went to our first All Nations Womens Group meeting yesterday. It is an group set up for women from every country, living in POM to get together and raise money to donate to local charities and such like. It is also a great way to meet other women up here. It is so important to get to know others as it can be rather isolating not getting out and about. I was able to get an activities list at the meeting and now plan to do all sorts of activities to meet others. It should be good.
The workmen have arrived today to start fixing the floor in our house. I hope that they finish fairly quickly as I miss my back verandah. The house we are in now is good but not the same. I shifted Steve's orchids to the front verandah and they are not doing as well because of the morning sun. It is too hot. But I have planted more seeds and they are coming up nicely. I also bought some herb plants from the markets on the weekend, and they are sitting on my front steps until we can organise a vege garden. The senior accountant is moving his family into the big house in the compound - where Robyn used to live - because one of their neighbours where they live now was held up and it scared Lisa, so they are moving here. Mark likes a vege garden too so we are able to get him to build a really big one so that we can all put in veges. Lealah and I had a lovely time the other day looking at all the vege seeds at Brian Bell. We had to go there and get a heap of stuff for the haus wing (I have been spelling that wrong too) so that we can keep it clean.
The last two weeks has been an emotional roller coaster. I am enjoying the time Steve and I spend together, but miss the kids. I am enjoying the freedom to do what I want during the day, but find myself getting a bit down at times. Overall though, it is a good experience. I have to say that the exception to that is PNG belly which I have gotten again. And it hurts. I have been told to expect that from time to time, so that's life.
Thursday 3rd March - Friday 11th March
The workmen have been working from 8am to 4pm everyday. Constant noise, hammering and sawing etc. But the first part of the floor is almost done. Tiling to go down and the bathroom door to be fixed and then we can move back into our house. But in the meanwhile, it has been good in this house. I have put all of our gear out so that it feels like home here. All the houses in the compound are being painted on the outsides, so there are other workmen here now doing that. It's a busy little place at the moment.
The last two weeks has had some exciting things happening.
I have been to the markets with Maggie most weeks. This has been a good experience since the first time going and I am feeling more comfortable here in POM now. I have been a bit more adventurous while making sure that I am taking all safety precautions.
I have finally succeeded in doing the first part of the billum bag. This is only after much time doing the necessary rolling of the wool, having it pulled apart, then starting again. It is alot harder than I thought it was going to be, but I am determined to do one bag. I don't know if i will do another one after that, but I know that I will finish this one eventually.
I have done three trips to help out Buk Bilong Pikinini and am enjoying that. Two trips were to libraries and the third was for a book sort. I think i have been roped into being one of the supervisors for the book sort but will find out more when I go to my first committee meeting. The book sort is being shifted to our compound so this will be much easier to do from here. The second library trip was on Tuesday, and as Tiarna was here, we both went. It was a little container room on the police grounds at 6 Mile. The day we went there were about 90 children stuffed in like sardines into the container and they were singing away very enthusiastically when we arrived. They were separated into two groups,one of which was sent outside, so Tiarna and I sat down on the tarp under the tree and read to the kids. Well, it was actually more like watching them elbow and push each other out the road trying to get close to us while pretending to listen to the books that we were reading from. They were so cute and were so happy to have access to great books. Everytime we asked for another book to read, 10 - 15 books were thrust into our faces. It was such an interesting morning.
I joined a craft group on friday mornings and have started my first quilt. It is actually more rewarding than I thought it was going to be and I have been busy quilting most nights. I am also meeting a heap of new friends, all of whom are very interesting and have a wonderfully exotic lifestyle that we are slowly becoming accustomed to. Everyone here flying in and out of the country regularly, and it's not uncommon to hear that "so and so are out of country". All the groups that you join have different people at them each time you go because of this really transient lifestyle. I love it.
I won K21,500 at the Yacht Club in the weekly key draw. It was totally unexpected but such a blessing. Apparently it hasn't been won in almost a year, so I was totally shocked to hear my name drawn out. So much fun, but boy did I pay for the next two days afterwards. I really shouldn't drink so much when celebrating. I plan to save some of it, but also am going to plan some trips up to the islands and highlands so that Steve and I can see the rest of the country. So very exciting.
I went with Claudie to her family home which is one of the houses that sits over the water in the bay. It was rather scary getting there because the board walk out to the house is rather wobbly and some of the boards were missing, but what an amazing experience. Her family were there and we were introduced to them all, had to shake hands with everyone and sat down on the lino in a circle to talk. The house was the last one in the row, facing out into the harbour, gorgeous view, really cool air. It was quite small, with the main room being the lounge / kitchen / etc room. I think there were two small bedrooms, and a little verandah which is where all the cooking is done. There were at least 20 people living in it. It's such an eye opening to see how lucky we really are. Steve and I live in a three bedroom house for just the two of us, and Claudie's family all live in that tiny house together. They do have electricity which surprised me, and there was a television in the room, but I don't think they have beds to sleep on. Everyone sleeps on the floor on a mat. I would love to go back and cook and eat with everyone, but I have to find out from Claudie whether this is possible. Michael (Claudie's husband) has invited us to go and visit when they have to change one of the logs that hold up the house. Apparently it is a big event and worth seeing it happen.
Tiarna has been here for a week and it's been great spending heaps of time with her and showing her around my new stomping ground. She has been having fun experiencing the different way of life and I must admit that I have been spoiling her a bit. We went to the spa today and she had a pedicure spa done while I had a manicure. It is the ultimate in luxury.
Life is incredibly busy but I am thoroughly enjoying it. Tiarna flys back to Cairns tomorrow and Steve flies to Lahir on Tuesday for a couple of weeks again, so I am going to be on my own for a bit. I plan to keep busy during the day and have my quilt to do at night to stay occupied. I will also be going canoeing twice a week which is something Steve and I tried out on Tuesday and just loved. We went out in a 6 person canoe, right out into the harbour, past huge container ships. There was a water spout twirly thing just in front of us which looked spectacular, and there was a storm hanging around so the wind was wild and the waves were rough but it was so very exhilirating.
We went to the Australia Week concert last night at the Lamana Hotel which was put on by the Australian High Commission and because Hastings Deering was one of the major sponsors for the show, we got front row seats. The music was INCREDIBLE. There were Aboriginal dancers, PNG singers and bands and an Australian band. What a great night.
Stay tuned for the next edition which will be stories of my time alone here in Port Moresby.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday 1st Febuary 2011
Tuesday 1st February
Monique is at school now and has been for about a week. She seems to be settling in and enjoying herself. There are two new Year 10 girls in her room so she is able to be the one showing them around this year, instead of being the newbee. I think she enjoys that. We dropped her off at school on the Sunday afternoon and then she went to Sylvia's again on Tuesday afternoon because of Australia Day holiday the next day. So it was a short week for her. The week before we had to go to the school and get uniforms for her because nowthat she is in Year 10, her uniform changes. Boy, I thought that uniforms were expensive before, I am now having to revise my opinion on all uniforms bought previously as the ones for this year were excessively expensive. OMG. I could have almost made a mortgage payment with the amount it cost. Anyway, she is outfitted and settled down. And then, news of Cyclone Yasi which is expected to hit Cairns on Wednesday night. Sylvia received a phone call asking her to pick up Monique as only those boarding students who have no one to go to will be staying at the school during the cyclone. So her week is interrupted again. She is very happy about these events.
I headed off on the plane to Brisbane on the 25th of January and spent 5 days with Esther, Jed, Josh and Suzie who are now living at Sunrise Beach in a gorgeous two story house that is only 5 minutes walk to the beach. So great. We went to every market in the area, had a massimo's icecream (which is the best icecream ever and must be had on every trip to the sunshine coast), breakfast on the beach on Australia Day, walks to the beach every afternoon with the dogs (most of the walks ended up being in the dark as we were
a bit slow getting started - but they were spectacular - especially on the last night when the wind was blowing a gale, it was wild and wooley and brilliant). We went to the local farmers markets and Eumundi and Peregian markets, had lunch at a cafe on Hastings Street, window shopped all day in gorgeous little stores all over the coast. Esther and I talked and talked and talked catching up on everything as we hadn't seen each other since the end of October. I met her friend Chrissy who is lovely. She came along on some of
our excursions and we all had such fun. Jed started school at the local Steiner school which he is thoroughly enjoying. Josh finally found some work while I was there and was happy to be working again. I had met Suzie briefly in Mount Isa before leaving so it was great to catch up with her again also. She had headed to Cairns but it didn't work out so she is now living with Esther, looking for work and enjoying the spectacular lifestyle of living so close to the beach.
On Sunday afternoon, Dad and Rhonda picked me up and I'm now spending a couple of days with them. Yesterday we headed down to a forestry nursery near Beerwah to sort out 260 bags of green pine cones weighing approx 20kg each. We had to get them out off the truck, sorted into groups of pine types and then laid out on trays to dry out ready to be put into the kiln, then tossed so that all the seeds are extracted. It was hot sweaty work heavy work but not too bad, although Dad reckons I whinged the whole time but i don't remember that (lucky that I have short term memory, hey). Dad has started his own business doing this type of work and it was the first trial run of what had to be done. Pretty cool, but I will admit that I am glad that I won't be here when the next lot come in. I am definately a lazy person. Today, Dad is going to show me how he cooks his bread. I have had a couple of pieces and they are really good. So hopefully with the time spent with Sylvia experimenting with bread and time with Dad, my bread when I get back to Port Moresby will be good. Here's hoping anyway. I am heading to Bundaberg tomorrow to spend a couple of hours with my grandparents, and they going on the train to see my sister Tam and her family on Thursday at the Gold Coast. Then a couple of days with my sister Yolander, before flying back to Cairns on Tuesday. I am then hoping that my car will be fixed (Brenton had a bit of a crash in it about a week after we went to PNG) so I will go to Townsville for a couple of days with Tiarna. Steve is flying in on Friday 11th of Febuary for 4 1/2 days, and then we are both flying out
on the 16th of February.
I was going to catch the train in Cairns and head to Brisbane, stopping off at a heap of towns on the way to see a heap of people but it was so expensive, so I flew to Brisbane instead. Maybe another time a train trip can be done, as I haven't really travelled by train, so I was really looking forward to the experience. They have tickets that last 3 months and you are able to get on and off the train anywhere in Queensland as many times as you like. That sounds great......
Well the bread turned out really nice and I am confident that I can now go back to PNG and make my own successfully. Yum. We ended up having a heap for lunch with salad. YUM YUM YUM. This afternoon has been busy organising for Tiarna's car (that we had fixed and road worthied just at the end of November and is now not going) to be towed to her new place. She was doing some shifting of some of her gear and it stopped working. I'll get it checked out next week when (hopefully) I am down there to pick up my car. As she left the car on the side of the road near her old unit, I had the police call this morning asking about it. They asked that we remove it, so I had to get a tow truck organised. And I also had to make sure she was safe with the big cyclone coming in. It looks as though it is going to hit nearer Cairns which doesn't make me feel any better as that is where Monique and Syl and her family are. Crossing all fingers that it down grades before hitting. When I spoke to Monique this afternoon, she said that she was a Sylvia's place and the school had closed for the rest of the week. They are in the process of batting down everything and checking where the best place in the house will be. I'll keep this updated.
Monique is at school now and has been for about a week. She seems to be settling in and enjoying herself. There are two new Year 10 girls in her room so she is able to be the one showing them around this year, instead of being the newbee. I think she enjoys that. We dropped her off at school on the Sunday afternoon and then she went to Sylvia's again on Tuesday afternoon because of Australia Day holiday the next day. So it was a short week for her. The week before we had to go to the school and get uniforms for her because nowthat she is in Year 10, her uniform changes. Boy, I thought that uniforms were expensive before, I am now having to revise my opinion on all uniforms bought previously as the ones for this year were excessively expensive. OMG. I could have almost made a mortgage payment with the amount it cost. Anyway, she is outfitted and settled down. And then, news of Cyclone Yasi which is expected to hit Cairns on Wednesday night. Sylvia received a phone call asking her to pick up Monique as only those boarding students who have no one to go to will be staying at the school during the cyclone. So her week is interrupted again. She is very happy about these events.
I headed off on the plane to Brisbane on the 25th of January and spent 5 days with Esther, Jed, Josh and Suzie who are now living at Sunrise Beach in a gorgeous two story house that is only 5 minutes walk to the beach. So great. We went to every market in the area, had a massimo's icecream (which is the best icecream ever and must be had on every trip to the sunshine coast), breakfast on the beach on Australia Day, walks to the beach every afternoon with the dogs (most of the walks ended up being in the dark as we were
a bit slow getting started - but they were spectacular - especially on the last night when the wind was blowing a gale, it was wild and wooley and brilliant). We went to the local farmers markets and Eumundi and Peregian markets, had lunch at a cafe on Hastings Street, window shopped all day in gorgeous little stores all over the coast. Esther and I talked and talked and talked catching up on everything as we hadn't seen each other since the end of October. I met her friend Chrissy who is lovely. She came along on some of
our excursions and we all had such fun. Jed started school at the local Steiner school which he is thoroughly enjoying. Josh finally found some work while I was there and was happy to be working again. I had met Suzie briefly in Mount Isa before leaving so it was great to catch up with her again also. She had headed to Cairns but it didn't work out so she is now living with Esther, looking for work and enjoying the spectacular lifestyle of living so close to the beach.
On Sunday afternoon, Dad and Rhonda picked me up and I'm now spending a couple of days with them. Yesterday we headed down to a forestry nursery near Beerwah to sort out 260 bags of green pine cones weighing approx 20kg each. We had to get them out off the truck, sorted into groups of pine types and then laid out on trays to dry out ready to be put into the kiln, then tossed so that all the seeds are extracted. It was hot sweaty work heavy work but not too bad, although Dad reckons I whinged the whole time but i don't remember that (lucky that I have short term memory, hey). Dad has started his own business doing this type of work and it was the first trial run of what had to be done. Pretty cool, but I will admit that I am glad that I won't be here when the next lot come in. I am definately a lazy person. Today, Dad is going to show me how he cooks his bread. I have had a couple of pieces and they are really good. So hopefully with the time spent with Sylvia experimenting with bread and time with Dad, my bread when I get back to Port Moresby will be good. Here's hoping anyway. I am heading to Bundaberg tomorrow to spend a couple of hours with my grandparents, and they going on the train to see my sister Tam and her family on Thursday at the Gold Coast. Then a couple of days with my sister Yolander, before flying back to Cairns on Tuesday. I am then hoping that my car will be fixed (Brenton had a bit of a crash in it about a week after we went to PNG) so I will go to Townsville for a couple of days with Tiarna. Steve is flying in on Friday 11th of Febuary for 4 1/2 days, and then we are both flying out
on the 16th of February.
I was going to catch the train in Cairns and head to Brisbane, stopping off at a heap of towns on the way to see a heap of people but it was so expensive, so I flew to Brisbane instead. Maybe another time a train trip can be done, as I haven't really travelled by train, so I was really looking forward to the experience. They have tickets that last 3 months and you are able to get on and off the train anywhere in Queensland as many times as you like. That sounds great......
Well the bread turned out really nice and I am confident that I can now go back to PNG and make my own successfully. Yum. We ended up having a heap for lunch with salad. YUM YUM YUM. This afternoon has been busy organising for Tiarna's car (that we had fixed and road worthied just at the end of November and is now not going) to be towed to her new place. She was doing some shifting of some of her gear and it stopped working. I'll get it checked out next week when (hopefully) I am down there to pick up my car. As she left the car on the side of the road near her old unit, I had the police call this morning asking about it. They asked that we remove it, so I had to get a tow truck organised. And I also had to make sure she was safe with the big cyclone coming in. It looks as though it is going to hit nearer Cairns which doesn't make me feel any better as that is where Monique and Syl and her family are. Crossing all fingers that it down grades before hitting. When I spoke to Monique this afternoon, she said that she was a Sylvia's place and the school had closed for the rest of the week. They are in the process of batting down everything and checking where the best place in the house will be. I'll keep this updated.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday 18 January
Monday 10 January
I slept in this morning until after 9am, It is still raining which has made the temp come down and is so lovely to hear the drip drip dripping while lying in bed. I didn't get out for a walk because of the rain so I hope that it clears up enough this afternoon to go. After breakfast Monique and I went out to the Crown Plaza to look at the bird of paradise rings at the jewellery store there. She found one there that she liked and we also found one for Tiarna to take back with us on Friday. The undercover carpark at the Plaza was chocca so we had squeezed into one and I had to crawl out the passenger door to get in and out. So funny, then of course it took a 20 point turn to get the car out of the tight spot. With all the rain about, there was heaps of traffic through the city centre and it took ages to get through and you really have to be a rude pushy driver to get through but as I am becoming that most days, I was able to manouver through ok. We headed to Vision City to get a watering can, a shower rack and some milk and bread. We parked out in the open and walked through the rain to the shops as neither Monique or I feel comfortable going into the undercover carpark there. There are just two many people around. It feels safer to park beside one of the guard umbrellas in the open space. We often buy some buns or twisties for the guards, so they are happy for us to park near them. I have been noticing that each time we park in this one particular place, if there is only one guard there, by the time we get back after shopping there is two or three guards. I think they are recognising the car and the fact that we give out snacks sometimes. Robyn told us that we will be looked after if we do that on occasion. So its great. On another offshoot, the twisties here fantastic and gluten free. They have 4 or 5 different flavours and they are all yum. And a small packet costs about 80 toya which works out at about 30 cents. We got back home just after 11am. I put my seedlings out in the rain and watered the orchids. Steve came home not long after that because he wasn't feeling well at all. He has the stomach crap problem also. He spent some time dozing on the couch. After lunch, Steve went back to work and we just chilled for the afternoon. When Steve came home, we went to the yacht club for the gym and a walk and then back home. I had cooked some savoury mince wrapped in some huge leaf veges that we got at the markets yesterday. They turned out great although a little bit of rice with them would have made them a bit lighter. As it was, it was incredibly rich but really good. After dinner I went up to the house wing to have a glass of wine with Robyn. She was up cooking hamburgers for her family for dinner. She asked me about my glass beads and how I went about selling them. I said that I hadn't sold much because I had never had the packaging right, so she brainstormed a few ideas and I am now thinking about how to do some nice packaging. We'll see. Anyway, many wines later, I went back down to the house and went to bed.
Tuesday 11 January
Hungover. Yuck. Red wine just is not good for me. Monique had an appointment for a haircut at 10am and I had booked a pedicure spa at 11am, so we had breakfast and I watered the plants and we went to Airways Hotel for the morning. I had my eyebrows waxed while Monique had her haircut. It looked good (the haircut I mean). We went into the deli for a milkshake and biscuit and then down to the Spa to get the pedicure. OMG. What an amazing experience. We were pampered for an hour and 20 minutes. So lovely. I will be taking all visitors to Port Moresby there for a treat. In a daze of pleasure, we came home for lunch. Robyn came over in the afternoon to tell us about the flooding in Toowoomba and Brisbane as we hadn't watched the news. She was supposed to fly out tomorrow to go back to live in Australia, but as their temporary accomodation at Kangaroo Point has been evacuated, they cancelled the flight and will probably go out on Monday. She is terribly depressed about it. We headed to the yacht club for noodle night dinner which was lovely, but Monique had been vomiting in the afternoon and was still feeling off, we came home early. We spoke to our families to check they were ok. They were not flooded out, but Dad was in hospital with a heart scare. Not serious and will probably be out tomorrow.
Wednesday 12 January
I had a really great sleep last night and woke up about 7.30am. I went out to water my seedling and discovered them all dead. I had put them outside in the rain but forgotten to bring them in out of the sun. All gone. Except for the ones in the house garden. Oh well. I will have to try again when I get back from Australia in a month. So I watered the house garden seedlings and Steve's orchids, and then went up to Robyn to see how she was. She was thoroughly depressed because she couldn't fly out this morning. She had to go shopping for groceries for the next couple of days as she had given away all her food in anticipation. I went for a drive with her and Tyler to Boroko. We got what we had to get and I waited
outside the door for Robyn with one of the guards who was insistent on taking my trolley to the car for me. His name was Simon and he was a lovely young man. I got home and started the awful job of taking our belongings to the house next door. It is difficult because of Steve lock n load still being in there as Robyn's house is still occupied. And we are flying out on Friday so I has to be done today and tomorrow. So we put everything in the spare room which is where it will mostly stay until I get back in a month and Steve gets back from Lahir. We anticipate being in that house for 3 or 4 months while the floor in this house is pulled up and redone. The fellows came today to have a look and it is completely water damaged and they said we are lucky to have only 1 hole so far. But there are so many dips in the floor I am surprised that we haven't fallen through more. The front verandah on the house next door is nearly completely rotten also, so that is being fixed while we are away. Such a pain in the butt, but needs doing soon. I have moved most things but will have to leave some stuff for Steve to do on the weekend as he will need them before he goes. Maggie is here today cleaning and she is brilliant. I love how she just comes in and does what she has to do. I am getting so lazy. We went to lunch with Steve to the Crown Plaza. It was mostly very nice and the chocolate cake was devine. I have read about a chocolate cake called "Death by Chocolate" and I reckon I tasted it today. So yum. I am very full now and will be making a light soup for dinner tonight after our gym/walk. We expect to have a quiet one as we went for dinner last night at the yacht club instead of going tonight. All good. One more day before we fly out. My plans of taking a bus/train and visiting everyone along the east coast is not looking so promising with the flooding everywhere, but we'll see. Packing of the suitcases tomorrow. And a bit more moving gear. Monique has been sick for most of today. I hope she is feeling better tomorrow.
Thursday 13 January
We packed our suitcases today and put the rest of our gear in the house next door. There is only a small amount for Steve to shift on the weekend. The day was fairly quiet. Mon and I had a Uno competition again up in the housewing which she won again. I am getting some very bad cards OR she is getting much better at playing now. Not good. Robyn came up briefly to say goodbye as we were leaving fairly early in the morning. We went to the Yacht club for an early dinner. I had steak and veges. Very good. Steve had bangers and mash and Mon had chicken in pajamas. She really likes that and it is her meal of choice mostly. She is still not feeling well and has been throwing up tonight. We went to bed early.
Friday 14 January
Monique was up most of the night being sick. I am really glad we are flying out today because I think her body is not coping with the water or food or something. She is normally such a healthy girl but on and off for the whole 6 weeks we have been in PNG she has had stomach aches and the runs. And is now throwing up everything she eats. We are heading to the airport at 7am and flying at 9.30am. Hopefully she will be better soon.............. Well we are in Cairns now. Mon had a hard time on the plane feeling sick and headachy but after some asprin she felt a bit better. Lucky the flight is only just over an hour. Sylvia and Jamie met us at the airport and we are now enconsed in their house while we get Monique ready for school. It is so hot here. Much hotter than PNG, although it's not so much the heat as it is the humidity. I have sweat poring out everywhere. I am completely soaked. Yuck. Monique had a bit of a freaky event just before we took off in Port Moresby. We were waiting for ages to get onboard the plane, so I told her to stay with the bags and I would go and get something to eat from the cafe/bakery which was about 10 metres away from where we were sitting. I was gone probably 5 minutes and when I got back, Monique told me never to leave her alone
again. As soon as I walked away, this airport guy came over and was questioning her about where she was going and did she had a job. She ignored him and he finally left but she was a bit freaked out about it. I couldn't believe that he waited until I had walked away. I didn't know anything about it and he was gone before I started walking back. You really live and learn. I will make sure to take her with me next time to keep her safe. Anyway, we are now safely in Cairns and Monique has been feeling well since we arrived.
Monday 17 January
We had a great weekend catching up with Sylvia, Brenton and Jamie. I went for a heap of walks around town. Amazing how nice it is to be able to walk the streets again. I didn't realise how much I am now aware of my surroundings and what could possibly happen. I was in Sylvia's car yesterday waiting while she went up to her work to give them some paperwork. These three drunk guys came down the street and sat right in front of the car and continued drinking. I was so skiddish that i got out and locked up the car and went
into the building to find Sylvia. I wouldn't have even looked twice at them before spending that time in Port Moresby. I'm not sure what that means that I was a little scared and if it's a good thing to not be as oblivious as I used to be. I kind of miss that but I don't think I will ever be like that again. Is that part of growing up? On one of my walks I went into the bush on a marked cement trail but spent the whole time looking around me and being a little jumpy also. And when I saw some guys loitering, I turned around and went back. I can't work out whether I am now a scaredy cat or am just really aware of what can go wrong.
I slept in this morning until after 9am, It is still raining which has made the temp come down and is so lovely to hear the drip drip dripping while lying in bed. I didn't get out for a walk because of the rain so I hope that it clears up enough this afternoon to go. After breakfast Monique and I went out to the Crown Plaza to look at the bird of paradise rings at the jewellery store there. She found one there that she liked and we also found one for Tiarna to take back with us on Friday. The undercover carpark at the Plaza was chocca so we had squeezed into one and I had to crawl out the passenger door to get in and out. So funny, then of course it took a 20 point turn to get the car out of the tight spot. With all the rain about, there was heaps of traffic through the city centre and it took ages to get through and you really have to be a rude pushy driver to get through but as I am becoming that most days, I was able to manouver through ok. We headed to Vision City to get a watering can, a shower rack and some milk and bread. We parked out in the open and walked through the rain to the shops as neither Monique or I feel comfortable going into the undercover carpark there. There are just two many people around. It feels safer to park beside one of the guard umbrellas in the open space. We often buy some buns or twisties for the guards, so they are happy for us to park near them. I have been noticing that each time we park in this one particular place, if there is only one guard there, by the time we get back after shopping there is two or three guards. I think they are recognising the car and the fact that we give out snacks sometimes. Robyn told us that we will be looked after if we do that on occasion. So its great. On another offshoot, the twisties here fantastic and gluten free. They have 4 or 5 different flavours and they are all yum. And a small packet costs about 80 toya which works out at about 30 cents. We got back home just after 11am. I put my seedlings out in the rain and watered the orchids. Steve came home not long after that because he wasn't feeling well at all. He has the stomach crap problem also. He spent some time dozing on the couch. After lunch, Steve went back to work and we just chilled for the afternoon. When Steve came home, we went to the yacht club for the gym and a walk and then back home. I had cooked some savoury mince wrapped in some huge leaf veges that we got at the markets yesterday. They turned out great although a little bit of rice with them would have made them a bit lighter. As it was, it was incredibly rich but really good. After dinner I went up to the house wing to have a glass of wine with Robyn. She was up cooking hamburgers for her family for dinner. She asked me about my glass beads and how I went about selling them. I said that I hadn't sold much because I had never had the packaging right, so she brainstormed a few ideas and I am now thinking about how to do some nice packaging. We'll see. Anyway, many wines later, I went back down to the house and went to bed.
Tuesday 11 January
Hungover. Yuck. Red wine just is not good for me. Monique had an appointment for a haircut at 10am and I had booked a pedicure spa at 11am, so we had breakfast and I watered the plants and we went to Airways Hotel for the morning. I had my eyebrows waxed while Monique had her haircut. It looked good (the haircut I mean). We went into the deli for a milkshake and biscuit and then down to the Spa to get the pedicure. OMG. What an amazing experience. We were pampered for an hour and 20 minutes. So lovely. I will be taking all visitors to Port Moresby there for a treat. In a daze of pleasure, we came home for lunch. Robyn came over in the afternoon to tell us about the flooding in Toowoomba and Brisbane as we hadn't watched the news. She was supposed to fly out tomorrow to go back to live in Australia, but as their temporary accomodation at Kangaroo Point has been evacuated, they cancelled the flight and will probably go out on Monday. She is terribly depressed about it. We headed to the yacht club for noodle night dinner which was lovely, but Monique had been vomiting in the afternoon and was still feeling off, we came home early. We spoke to our families to check they were ok. They were not flooded out, but Dad was in hospital with a heart scare. Not serious and will probably be out tomorrow.
Wednesday 12 January
I had a really great sleep last night and woke up about 7.30am. I went out to water my seedling and discovered them all dead. I had put them outside in the rain but forgotten to bring them in out of the sun. All gone. Except for the ones in the house garden. Oh well. I will have to try again when I get back from Australia in a month. So I watered the house garden seedlings and Steve's orchids, and then went up to Robyn to see how she was. She was thoroughly depressed because she couldn't fly out this morning. She had to go shopping for groceries for the next couple of days as she had given away all her food in anticipation. I went for a drive with her and Tyler to Boroko. We got what we had to get and I waited
outside the door for Robyn with one of the guards who was insistent on taking my trolley to the car for me. His name was Simon and he was a lovely young man. I got home and started the awful job of taking our belongings to the house next door. It is difficult because of Steve lock n load still being in there as Robyn's house is still occupied. And we are flying out on Friday so I has to be done today and tomorrow. So we put everything in the spare room which is where it will mostly stay until I get back in a month and Steve gets back from Lahir. We anticipate being in that house for 3 or 4 months while the floor in this house is pulled up and redone. The fellows came today to have a look and it is completely water damaged and they said we are lucky to have only 1 hole so far. But there are so many dips in the floor I am surprised that we haven't fallen through more. The front verandah on the house next door is nearly completely rotten also, so that is being fixed while we are away. Such a pain in the butt, but needs doing soon. I have moved most things but will have to leave some stuff for Steve to do on the weekend as he will need them before he goes. Maggie is here today cleaning and she is brilliant. I love how she just comes in and does what she has to do. I am getting so lazy. We went to lunch with Steve to the Crown Plaza. It was mostly very nice and the chocolate cake was devine. I have read about a chocolate cake called "Death by Chocolate" and I reckon I tasted it today. So yum. I am very full now and will be making a light soup for dinner tonight after our gym/walk. We expect to have a quiet one as we went for dinner last night at the yacht club instead of going tonight. All good. One more day before we fly out. My plans of taking a bus/train and visiting everyone along the east coast is not looking so promising with the flooding everywhere, but we'll see. Packing of the suitcases tomorrow. And a bit more moving gear. Monique has been sick for most of today. I hope she is feeling better tomorrow.
Thursday 13 January
We packed our suitcases today and put the rest of our gear in the house next door. There is only a small amount for Steve to shift on the weekend. The day was fairly quiet. Mon and I had a Uno competition again up in the housewing which she won again. I am getting some very bad cards OR she is getting much better at playing now. Not good. Robyn came up briefly to say goodbye as we were leaving fairly early in the morning. We went to the Yacht club for an early dinner. I had steak and veges. Very good. Steve had bangers and mash and Mon had chicken in pajamas. She really likes that and it is her meal of choice mostly. She is still not feeling well and has been throwing up tonight. We went to bed early.
Friday 14 January
Monique was up most of the night being sick. I am really glad we are flying out today because I think her body is not coping with the water or food or something. She is normally such a healthy girl but on and off for the whole 6 weeks we have been in PNG she has had stomach aches and the runs. And is now throwing up everything she eats. We are heading to the airport at 7am and flying at 9.30am. Hopefully she will be better soon.............. Well we are in Cairns now. Mon had a hard time on the plane feeling sick and headachy but after some asprin she felt a bit better. Lucky the flight is only just over an hour. Sylvia and Jamie met us at the airport and we are now enconsed in their house while we get Monique ready for school. It is so hot here. Much hotter than PNG, although it's not so much the heat as it is the humidity. I have sweat poring out everywhere. I am completely soaked. Yuck. Monique had a bit of a freaky event just before we took off in Port Moresby. We were waiting for ages to get onboard the plane, so I told her to stay with the bags and I would go and get something to eat from the cafe/bakery which was about 10 metres away from where we were sitting. I was gone probably 5 minutes and when I got back, Monique told me never to leave her alone
again. As soon as I walked away, this airport guy came over and was questioning her about where she was going and did she had a job. She ignored him and he finally left but she was a bit freaked out about it. I couldn't believe that he waited until I had walked away. I didn't know anything about it and he was gone before I started walking back. You really live and learn. I will make sure to take her with me next time to keep her safe. Anyway, we are now safely in Cairns and Monique has been feeling well since we arrived.
Monday 17 January
We had a great weekend catching up with Sylvia, Brenton and Jamie. I went for a heap of walks around town. Amazing how nice it is to be able to walk the streets again. I didn't realise how much I am now aware of my surroundings and what could possibly happen. I was in Sylvia's car yesterday waiting while she went up to her work to give them some paperwork. These three drunk guys came down the street and sat right in front of the car and continued drinking. I was so skiddish that i got out and locked up the car and went
into the building to find Sylvia. I wouldn't have even looked twice at them before spending that time in Port Moresby. I'm not sure what that means that I was a little scared and if it's a good thing to not be as oblivious as I used to be. I kind of miss that but I don't think I will ever be like that again. Is that part of growing up? On one of my walks I went into the bush on a marked cement trail but spent the whole time looking around me and being a little jumpy also. And when I saw some guys loitering, I turned around and went back. I can't work out whether I am now a scaredy cat or am just really aware of what can go wrong.
Monday, January 10, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Sunday 2nd January 2011
Sunday 26 December
OMG & STC....you really know that you exist when you have a hangover and an infected ear all in the one night/morning. We ended up going up to the house wing (this is what everyone around us calls the bbq pool area so I have decided to get with the flow) for a christmas party dinner. Way too much food and definately way too much wine. There were a heap of people there that we hadn't met before and it was great. One fellow is the owner of Big Rooster and also is introducing Donut King and Brumbies Bread into Vision City next year. I asked him if they could make gluten free bread. He said yes, but we'll see. I had another attempt at bread today and it was ok. The best so far. Anyway, it was a great party and we had a heap of fun, until I woke up at 3am feeling very ordinary. YOu know when you have had too much to drink, and McDonalds breakfast is the way to
go. Well we don't have that here. So I pulled some bacon out of the freezer and got some bread (yes, cheating but I was very hungover) and made bacon sandwiches. And drank heaps of water. At about 6am, I took some panadol and went back to bed for a couple of hours. When I emerged from the darkened cocoon, Steve was watching movies and Moniquewas playing SIM again on her computer. I'm starting to see a pattern here and will have to put some sort of stop to it soon. I went up to the house wing and cleaned it up - someone had already washed up so I just put everything away and tidied up a bit. Then we went to Harbour City store for some junk food and juice to try and combat feeling like s#%t. We spent the afternoon just chilling which was so what was needed. It started raining on Christmas day and hasn't stopped much except for here and there. So it's lovely and almost cool. I can't say completely cool because its not. It's still very humid. Good for leaving dough outside for rising though. Steve is flying to Lahir tomorrow morning very early, so I did a load of washing and made sure that he had some uniforms ironed, ready to go. He will only be away for 1 night before flying back. It will be our first night up here with Steve away so we'll see how we go. I must say that it is really safe in our compound and there is heaps of security on the doors and windows of the house, so it should be ok. I'll let you know.
Monday 27 December
By the time I woke up this morning, Steve had left for Lahir. It was a public holiday here but I'd forgotten that, so I was surprised to see Ian up at the pool with his two little ones. It was lovely to see him interacting with his kids. I got all my little seed holders and seeds that I had bought last week and planted a heap of veges and herbs in them. I am planning to plant them into the housewing gardens when they are bigger. It will be fantastic to have all sorts of herbs, tomatoes and lettuce right beside where we have our bbq's. It was a very quiet day as there wasn't anyone about. I think I am starting to feel isolated in here. I know I have said before that we have a lovely compound but when you don't see anyone for days, its very confining. So just to get out of the house, I took my book and some beads up to the housewing and started making a necklace. Robyn and the kids were up
there so we had a good chat. I think I was starting to get a bit depressed about not knowing too many people. Robyn has been very good and introduced us to a heap of lovely people but I haven't really clicked with anyone yet. I guess it takes time. Also it's just that time of the year when everyone has flown home or new people have come in, so it's hard to meet at the moment. Robyn was feeling a bit depressed herself as she is waiting to leave and it seems to take forever when you are just waiting. It's like when we were living out of our suitcases
for months waiting for the visas to be approved, so I was able to sympathise. I'm so glad that Robyn hasn't left yet though as she has been so incredible about showing us things and spending time with us and I really like her humour. I'll really miss her when she does go. We ended up having dinner at the housewing with Robyn, Ian and family and Steve lock n load. It was a great evening and a nice way to spend our first night with Steve away.
Steve told us all about his family in USA and boy have they had a rough trot. No matter how daunting life is sometimes, we are so very fortunate to be mostly healthy and walking on our own two feet. It really makes you aware of how lucky we really are and thankful to wake up each day. And it opens your eyes about not being so depressed about being in the compound. Just go out there and get on with it. So here goes.
Tuesday 28 December
I finished making the necklace this morning and have decided to give it to Robyn. It turned out really nice. My head is feeling really fuzzy today and my ear is still blocked up. It is not the best. I stayed at home all day and just chilled. I don't remember watching this much tv ever. It's got to stop. I went outside a bit to water all of Steve's orchids and my seed pots. I can't remember if I told you about the orchids. Monique and I got one for Steve for christmas which he didn't find until we showed him on Christmas day, and Robyn gave us three from her verandah that were a bit dead looking through lack of water, so I put them in the back verandah and have been watering them twice a day. They are really looking great. I also went up to the housewing for a bit on my own and just sat there reading. It's so peaceful. A really nice place to relax and mellow out. Other than that, I did nothing else all day. So lazy, but well needed. I wish this head cold would go away. I think I really need some drugs to combat it. Or maybe a couple of bottles of wine to pickle it out of my system. I tried to make some bread again today. Not very nice again. I am considering writing to Jamie Oliver to get him to come to PNG and teach me. Does anyone know his email address? Or maybe pay for a really good pastry chef to come up and spend a week with me. Anything. I have even considered going out and buying a freezer and bringing some
back with me from Australia. But I don't know if they will get through customs. It's not good. I have all sorts of mad ideas running through my head trying to get some good gluten free bread.
Wednesday 29 December
Well, I cheated on bread again. I couldn't help it. I had two pieces for breakfast and two for lunch. It's becoming a bit of an obsession. I think when we are back in Aus for holidays I'll be having bread at every meal. I wonder if there is a bread group that I can go to for sympathy like AA. It's almost as bad as trying to give up smoking or drinking. It's just not going to happen or be easy. Robyn took us to the yacht club this morning as she wanted to get the kids out and about for the morning. They have a little kids play area and a big cement area
underneath for the kids to ride their bikes. It was lovely and cool, although I was starting to feel really bad again because of my head. Monique and I went to the Crown Plaza to get some money out of their ATM and to check out the restaurant while we were there. It's an italian one and supposed to be good. We will try it out one day. They had a cute little jewellery store there also and Monique and I both fell in love with these gorgeous bird of paradise rings. We have decided to go back soon and get one each if they fit. After that we went to Vision city to get some strong drugs (Panafen and sudafed) so that I can knock myself out for the afternoon and try and kill this bug. We also got a heap of food as we were almost out. Steve was at home for lunch by the time we got back. He is feeling a little overwhelmed with the work load and what has to be done, so is a little stressed. I am trying to make home life as easy as possible for him so that he doesn't have to think about anything at home. I cooked prawns for Steve and Monique last night and made a seafood cocktail sauce (thank goodness for google - I found 3 recipes) which Steve said was ok but could I try another recipe next time as it wasn't the best. After they had eaten the prawns, I boiled the shells in the water until it had reduced as I have plans to do a seafood risotto with the stock. It's at an experimental stage so I'll let you know how that goes. I do know that it's not a good idea to cook down prawn shells in an aircon house that has no ventilation. The whole place stunk of prawns and it wasn't pretty. I had to open all the doors and windows and light up the oil burner for a couple of hours to get rid of the smell. I have no idea what I am going to cook for dinner tonight as I haven't thought about it. I think there is only mince left so it may be a quick savoury rice or something. Actually, I just remembered that I don't need to cook. We are going out. Wednesday night at the Yachty. Yeah!! Hey, guess what???
My seedlings have started coming up already. So exciting to see these little tiny bits of green pushing the soil away to come out and say hello. So very cool. Monique wasn't as excited as me but she doesn't have my good taste in things worth getting excited about. I took 2 panafen and 2 sudafed a couple of hours ago and I'm feeling very good right about now. It probably didn't help that I also went and had a beer in the housewing with Robyn. So funny. Goodness knows how I'll be floating when I've had a few wines at the Yacht club tonight. But here's hoping that my yucky throat and sore ear will be all gone tomorrow. Is that wishful thinking? We went to Theodist this afternoon to get some coloured paper to do a bit of quilling. I have so many books on so many things, that I can do what I want, when I want. Love that. It also keeps me busy which is a good thing. I am in the process of making a little finger puppet out of paper. Very cute, but my first time at quilling so we'll see. Hopefully I'll remember to take a photo of the end result to post on here. Well, must go as we are heading out to the Yacht club now. Wonder what's on the menu tonight. Stay tuned.
Thursday 30 December
I was woken at 5.20am this morning by Steve as I had a date with Robyn to go walking around the yacht club. So I got up to get dressed and promptly fell through the floor. I mean there is now this big hole in the floor and I can see the ground. Scary and painful but hey, isn't that one of those experiences we are here for. Ok, maybe not to fall through floors but it was pretty funny (after Steve pulled me back out). For the next hour or so, Steve and I giggled everytime we looked at each other. So now I have a bruised hip and legs, a fuzzy head and sore ear; and a huge hole in the bedroom floor. I knew there were dips in the floor right from the time we moved in but I thought there was solid timber underneath. Nope. Just a really thin piece of pineboard which to be frank, isn't going to hold my not so tiny body up for long. So in actual fact, I'm utterly amazed and flabagasted that it lasted as long as it did, because I tripped into that particular dip three or four times a day for most of a month. The other sobering fact is that there are a heap of other dips in the bedroom and the lounge, so we really need to get that dealt with asap. Anyway, enough of that. The walk we went on was stunning. On either side of the yacht club building, the ground has been built up to create long walks out into the harbour. It's very peaceful and very beautiful to look at the calm water, all the huge ships in the harbour, the little fish swimming everywhere, the mountains that are lovely and green at the moment, the little houses that are perched over the water etc. So very nice. It took about half an hour to walk both sides at my slowish pace, but i think that I will endeavour to walk there regularly to get a bit of exercise. Afterwards, we went back home to have breakfast. Steve had shown the boss the photo of me with my legs in the hole in the bedroom floor and it has been decided that we are moving into the house next door while they redo the whole floor of our house. We were given the option of moving next door permanently, but we really like out back verandah so we will move back when it is done. Hopefully it won't take forever. Monique and I went to the Crown Plaza for lunch to check out what the food was like there. The views from the cafe area are spectacular and the pasta that Monique had was really good, but my salad was very disappointing. The actual salad, except for the olives,was very fresh and should have been great, but the dressing was dismal. So my conclusion about eating out up here is not to have Thai anything and no salads unless I make them myself. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get Steve's yacht club membership paid. First he hadn't filled out the form completely so i came back. Then I had forgotten to take the Visa card to pay for it, so I gave up and decided to try again tomorrow. PS. I had vegetable lasagne last night and it was really good.
Friday 31 December
Monique and I went to the grocery stores today to get all the stuff for the weekend. We have plans to go to a beach on Saturday and out of the boss's boat on Sunday, so we had to organise meals that are easy to take in the esky. After we got back, Robyn asked if i wanted to go out with her to get some bits and pieces. Since I still needed to get some more beer for Steve and a couple of bottles of wine (the bottle shops hadn't opened while we were out earlier) I went out with her. Monique stayed at home. She is really hating going out to the shops. They don't feel safe to her and she always rushes me, which I struggle with as I like to dawdle and look at everything. She does like Vision City as it is new and modern and has heaps of guards everywhere so she feels safe. So we often go there. But they don't have everything we want/need. Maggie, our cleaner, had been sick earlier in the week so had turned up today to do the house. So it was all good for Monique to stay on her own here. Actually, she has stayed before on her own with the doors locked and she stays inside and she is happy to do that. Anyhoo, Robyn is a whirlwind. She almost runs everywhere. I lost her a couple of times in the supermarket but eventually caught up. She was cooking for the new years eve party on her verandah. Lobster tails, prawns, chicken, rib eye steak and pork ribs. Yum. So for about a hour and a half, we raced all over town getting what she needed and then came home just after noon. Steve was waiting for me, as we had planned to go to lunch at Daikoku Japanese restaurant to have some sushi. But as I still needed to get to the yacht club to pay the membership, we decided to go there for lunch. We had the buffet which was soup (ok but not great), salad bar (fantastic) and hot food bar (Steve had some and it was really nice. Monique and I were too full to have more). It was a great lunch. So many people have told me that the meals at the yacht club aren't that great but we have been lucky so far and had great luck. When we got back, Robyn took me to the doctor to get my ear checked out. As it was New Years Eve, most of them were closed due to not having a doctor in the clinic but one of the private hospitals had one, so we went there. Really interesting process. We went in and kept walking for quite a bit before getting to the reception. We asked if there was a doctor available and were told there was. So I filled out a form, was given a card and told to go to the cashier to pay for the consult first. Then I took the card back to the reception who took the card, checked the receipt (the cashier is right beside the reception and they knew we had paid, but still checked the receipt) and then placed the card on the counter in front of the doctors name. We were told to take a seat. Three minutes passed and the receptionist called out that the doctor was ready, could I get my card and go to the door around the corner. So I did. The doctor went to check my ears with her ear machine and the batteries were dead, so she had to call to get some more batteries. Once she had them, she checked and confirmed that I had a build up of hardened wax in my ears and I have to continue putting ear drops in for a couple of days and then go back on Tuesday if I still can't hear. The ear drops soften the wax. So we'll see. I didn't have to get any medication so there were no additional fees. If I needed medicine, the doctor writes on the card, you go and pay for it, then take the receipt and card to the pharmacy. It was very quick seeing the doctor today as there was no one else waiting. Normally, there would be a much longer wait. And it is expensive. So all is good. And you have to remember your patient number for next time. They don't fine alphabically by surname, they file by number.
I remember when we came up for a look see, Karen took me to that hospital with her and she had her number wrong and it took half an hour for them to find her card. And without your card, you can't see the doctor. When we got back, I made some prawn risotto out of the prawn stock I made on Wednesday. I had Monique taste it and she said it was good. Excellent. I also made some scones with a recipe that Rhonda (Dad's partner) gave me out of flour, lemonade and cream. They turned out really good and Monique and I had a couple to test them with strawberry jam and cream. Yum. I had to put some white wine in the risotto and as it was a pity to have a half empty bottle sitting in the fridge, I finished the bottle off and then had a nanny nap. Steve came home at 5pm to find me asleep on the couch. We were to be up at Robyn's place after 6.30pm for dinner so we chilled for a bit before heading up for a feast. There was 9 of
us for the feast. Robyn, Ian & Tyler, Clayton and Jourdana, Steve, Monique and myself, and Steve lock n load. The food was magnificent and the conversation was sparkling. Clayton who is bringing Brumbies and Donut King to PNG grew up in Port Moresby so he had some fantastic stories to tell. Jourdana told us about her two brothers who are trying to start a company up in India and how hard it was for them there. And of course everyone else had stories to tell and jokes to make. It was such a great evening. Jourdana disappeared about 11pm to have a sleep on the couch and we left at 11.30pm to come home feeling very merry and a little drunk. We watched a bit of tv while having some water to ward off hangover, and then went to bed. We could hear the fireworks going off after midnight but couldn't see them.
Saturday 1 Januray 2011
Happy New Year. I spent most of the early morning hours sitting in the loungechair snoozing. I had to take some panadol and water to get rid of a headache, but woke at about 7am feeling great. Steve and I wandered outside and had a cup of tea on the verandah, watered the orchids and my seedlings, and found a ripe pawpaw on the tree outside our front door which we had for breakfast. So very good. It brought back memories of my childhood and having mum cut huge bowls of fresh pawpaws with a squeeze of orange juice or passionfruit on it. Yum, yum, yum. If you ever get a chance to have a pawpaw that has ripened on the tree, go for it because it is one of the best tastes in the world. Completely different from the ones you get from the shops. Monique popped her head out of the bedroom and went to the toilet at about 8am but then went promptly back to bed for hours. Steve lock n load came over about 9.30am to spend heaps of time with Steve looking at all his stones that he plans to cut into lovely sparkles (yeah. more bling. lovely). Robyn phoned to say the beach trip was off due to cranky kids and the fact that the beach would be packed. So we are going to spend time around the pool and sleeping and relaxing etc. We wandered out for a drive after lunch to get some meat for dinner. I had somehow volunteered my services into cooking dinner that night for everyone, so I decided a stew would be the way to go. I spent the afternoon cooking the stew, a quiche and some potato salad ready for our boat trip tomorrow and then went up to the housewing for some quiet with a book. Not going to happen. Robyn, Ian and the kids came up, so we ended up having a great time chatting and drinking a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne (which let me say now is pretty average, so I'm not sure why anyone would pay $125AUD for one bottle when you can get something similar for about $8AUD) that Robyn and Ian had been given for Christmas. The afternoon progressed into the night with the stew and rice, and then scones, jam and cream. Monique had made some mini apple pies, so she brought them up and we all had to try them. I have been cheating on wheat so much over the last couple of days and I really have to stop. I'm thinking rice paper rolls may be the way to go. On a last note for today, after a day and a bit of being very vigilent in putting ear drops in, the wax has given out and I can hear in the right ear for the first time in about 2 weeks. Yahoo buckaroo. Thanks goodness. I can go swimming tomorrow now when we are out and about the lovely Port Moresby harbour and surrounds in the boss's boat. Bring it on.
OMG & STC....you really know that you exist when you have a hangover and an infected ear all in the one night/morning. We ended up going up to the house wing (this is what everyone around us calls the bbq pool area so I have decided to get with the flow) for a christmas party dinner. Way too much food and definately way too much wine. There were a heap of people there that we hadn't met before and it was great. One fellow is the owner of Big Rooster and also is introducing Donut King and Brumbies Bread into Vision City next year. I asked him if they could make gluten free bread. He said yes, but we'll see. I had another attempt at bread today and it was ok. The best so far. Anyway, it was a great party and we had a heap of fun, until I woke up at 3am feeling very ordinary. YOu know when you have had too much to drink, and McDonalds breakfast is the way to
go. Well we don't have that here. So I pulled some bacon out of the freezer and got some bread (yes, cheating but I was very hungover) and made bacon sandwiches. And drank heaps of water. At about 6am, I took some panadol and went back to bed for a couple of hours. When I emerged from the darkened cocoon, Steve was watching movies and Moniquewas playing SIM again on her computer. I'm starting to see a pattern here and will have to put some sort of stop to it soon. I went up to the house wing and cleaned it up - someone had already washed up so I just put everything away and tidied up a bit. Then we went to Harbour City store for some junk food and juice to try and combat feeling like s#%t. We spent the afternoon just chilling which was so what was needed. It started raining on Christmas day and hasn't stopped much except for here and there. So it's lovely and almost cool. I can't say completely cool because its not. It's still very humid. Good for leaving dough outside for rising though. Steve is flying to Lahir tomorrow morning very early, so I did a load of washing and made sure that he had some uniforms ironed, ready to go. He will only be away for 1 night before flying back. It will be our first night up here with Steve away so we'll see how we go. I must say that it is really safe in our compound and there is heaps of security on the doors and windows of the house, so it should be ok. I'll let you know.
Monday 27 December
By the time I woke up this morning, Steve had left for Lahir. It was a public holiday here but I'd forgotten that, so I was surprised to see Ian up at the pool with his two little ones. It was lovely to see him interacting with his kids. I got all my little seed holders and seeds that I had bought last week and planted a heap of veges and herbs in them. I am planning to plant them into the housewing gardens when they are bigger. It will be fantastic to have all sorts of herbs, tomatoes and lettuce right beside where we have our bbq's. It was a very quiet day as there wasn't anyone about. I think I am starting to feel isolated in here. I know I have said before that we have a lovely compound but when you don't see anyone for days, its very confining. So just to get out of the house, I took my book and some beads up to the housewing and started making a necklace. Robyn and the kids were up
there so we had a good chat. I think I was starting to get a bit depressed about not knowing too many people. Robyn has been very good and introduced us to a heap of lovely people but I haven't really clicked with anyone yet. I guess it takes time. Also it's just that time of the year when everyone has flown home or new people have come in, so it's hard to meet at the moment. Robyn was feeling a bit depressed herself as she is waiting to leave and it seems to take forever when you are just waiting. It's like when we were living out of our suitcases
for months waiting for the visas to be approved, so I was able to sympathise. I'm so glad that Robyn hasn't left yet though as she has been so incredible about showing us things and spending time with us and I really like her humour. I'll really miss her when she does go. We ended up having dinner at the housewing with Robyn, Ian and family and Steve lock n load. It was a great evening and a nice way to spend our first night with Steve away.
Steve told us all about his family in USA and boy have they had a rough trot. No matter how daunting life is sometimes, we are so very fortunate to be mostly healthy and walking on our own two feet. It really makes you aware of how lucky we really are and thankful to wake up each day. And it opens your eyes about not being so depressed about being in the compound. Just go out there and get on with it. So here goes.
Tuesday 28 December
I finished making the necklace this morning and have decided to give it to Robyn. It turned out really nice. My head is feeling really fuzzy today and my ear is still blocked up. It is not the best. I stayed at home all day and just chilled. I don't remember watching this much tv ever. It's got to stop. I went outside a bit to water all of Steve's orchids and my seed pots. I can't remember if I told you about the orchids. Monique and I got one for Steve for christmas which he didn't find until we showed him on Christmas day, and Robyn gave us three from her verandah that were a bit dead looking through lack of water, so I put them in the back verandah and have been watering them twice a day. They are really looking great. I also went up to the housewing for a bit on my own and just sat there reading. It's so peaceful. A really nice place to relax and mellow out. Other than that, I did nothing else all day. So lazy, but well needed. I wish this head cold would go away. I think I really need some drugs to combat it. Or maybe a couple of bottles of wine to pickle it out of my system. I tried to make some bread again today. Not very nice again. I am considering writing to Jamie Oliver to get him to come to PNG and teach me. Does anyone know his email address? Or maybe pay for a really good pastry chef to come up and spend a week with me. Anything. I have even considered going out and buying a freezer and bringing some
back with me from Australia. But I don't know if they will get through customs. It's not good. I have all sorts of mad ideas running through my head trying to get some good gluten free bread.
Wednesday 29 December
Well, I cheated on bread again. I couldn't help it. I had two pieces for breakfast and two for lunch. It's becoming a bit of an obsession. I think when we are back in Aus for holidays I'll be having bread at every meal. I wonder if there is a bread group that I can go to for sympathy like AA. It's almost as bad as trying to give up smoking or drinking. It's just not going to happen or be easy. Robyn took us to the yacht club this morning as she wanted to get the kids out and about for the morning. They have a little kids play area and a big cement area
underneath for the kids to ride their bikes. It was lovely and cool, although I was starting to feel really bad again because of my head. Monique and I went to the Crown Plaza to get some money out of their ATM and to check out the restaurant while we were there. It's an italian one and supposed to be good. We will try it out one day. They had a cute little jewellery store there also and Monique and I both fell in love with these gorgeous bird of paradise rings. We have decided to go back soon and get one each if they fit. After that we went to Vision city to get some strong drugs (Panafen and sudafed) so that I can knock myself out for the afternoon and try and kill this bug. We also got a heap of food as we were almost out. Steve was at home for lunch by the time we got back. He is feeling a little overwhelmed with the work load and what has to be done, so is a little stressed. I am trying to make home life as easy as possible for him so that he doesn't have to think about anything at home. I cooked prawns for Steve and Monique last night and made a seafood cocktail sauce (thank goodness for google - I found 3 recipes) which Steve said was ok but could I try another recipe next time as it wasn't the best. After they had eaten the prawns, I boiled the shells in the water until it had reduced as I have plans to do a seafood risotto with the stock. It's at an experimental stage so I'll let you know how that goes. I do know that it's not a good idea to cook down prawn shells in an aircon house that has no ventilation. The whole place stunk of prawns and it wasn't pretty. I had to open all the doors and windows and light up the oil burner for a couple of hours to get rid of the smell. I have no idea what I am going to cook for dinner tonight as I haven't thought about it. I think there is only mince left so it may be a quick savoury rice or something. Actually, I just remembered that I don't need to cook. We are going out. Wednesday night at the Yachty. Yeah!! Hey, guess what???
My seedlings have started coming up already. So exciting to see these little tiny bits of green pushing the soil away to come out and say hello. So very cool. Monique wasn't as excited as me but she doesn't have my good taste in things worth getting excited about. I took 2 panafen and 2 sudafed a couple of hours ago and I'm feeling very good right about now. It probably didn't help that I also went and had a beer in the housewing with Robyn. So funny. Goodness knows how I'll be floating when I've had a few wines at the Yacht club tonight. But here's hoping that my yucky throat and sore ear will be all gone tomorrow. Is that wishful thinking? We went to Theodist this afternoon to get some coloured paper to do a bit of quilling. I have so many books on so many things, that I can do what I want, when I want. Love that. It also keeps me busy which is a good thing. I am in the process of making a little finger puppet out of paper. Very cute, but my first time at quilling so we'll see. Hopefully I'll remember to take a photo of the end result to post on here. Well, must go as we are heading out to the Yacht club now. Wonder what's on the menu tonight. Stay tuned.
Thursday 30 December
I was woken at 5.20am this morning by Steve as I had a date with Robyn to go walking around the yacht club. So I got up to get dressed and promptly fell through the floor. I mean there is now this big hole in the floor and I can see the ground. Scary and painful but hey, isn't that one of those experiences we are here for. Ok, maybe not to fall through floors but it was pretty funny (after Steve pulled me back out). For the next hour or so, Steve and I giggled everytime we looked at each other. So now I have a bruised hip and legs, a fuzzy head and sore ear; and a huge hole in the bedroom floor. I knew there were dips in the floor right from the time we moved in but I thought there was solid timber underneath. Nope. Just a really thin piece of pineboard which to be frank, isn't going to hold my not so tiny body up for long. So in actual fact, I'm utterly amazed and flabagasted that it lasted as long as it did, because I tripped into that particular dip three or four times a day for most of a month. The other sobering fact is that there are a heap of other dips in the bedroom and the lounge, so we really need to get that dealt with asap. Anyway, enough of that. The walk we went on was stunning. On either side of the yacht club building, the ground has been built up to create long walks out into the harbour. It's very peaceful and very beautiful to look at the calm water, all the huge ships in the harbour, the little fish swimming everywhere, the mountains that are lovely and green at the moment, the little houses that are perched over the water etc. So very nice. It took about half an hour to walk both sides at my slowish pace, but i think that I will endeavour to walk there regularly to get a bit of exercise. Afterwards, we went back home to have breakfast. Steve had shown the boss the photo of me with my legs in the hole in the bedroom floor and it has been decided that we are moving into the house next door while they redo the whole floor of our house. We were given the option of moving next door permanently, but we really like out back verandah so we will move back when it is done. Hopefully it won't take forever. Monique and I went to the Crown Plaza for lunch to check out what the food was like there. The views from the cafe area are spectacular and the pasta that Monique had was really good, but my salad was very disappointing. The actual salad, except for the olives,was very fresh and should have been great, but the dressing was dismal. So my conclusion about eating out up here is not to have Thai anything and no salads unless I make them myself. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get Steve's yacht club membership paid. First he hadn't filled out the form completely so i came back. Then I had forgotten to take the Visa card to pay for it, so I gave up and decided to try again tomorrow. PS. I had vegetable lasagne last night and it was really good.
Friday 31 December
Monique and I went to the grocery stores today to get all the stuff for the weekend. We have plans to go to a beach on Saturday and out of the boss's boat on Sunday, so we had to organise meals that are easy to take in the esky. After we got back, Robyn asked if i wanted to go out with her to get some bits and pieces. Since I still needed to get some more beer for Steve and a couple of bottles of wine (the bottle shops hadn't opened while we were out earlier) I went out with her. Monique stayed at home. She is really hating going out to the shops. They don't feel safe to her and she always rushes me, which I struggle with as I like to dawdle and look at everything. She does like Vision City as it is new and modern and has heaps of guards everywhere so she feels safe. So we often go there. But they don't have everything we want/need. Maggie, our cleaner, had been sick earlier in the week so had turned up today to do the house. So it was all good for Monique to stay on her own here. Actually, she has stayed before on her own with the doors locked and she stays inside and she is happy to do that. Anyhoo, Robyn is a whirlwind. She almost runs everywhere. I lost her a couple of times in the supermarket but eventually caught up. She was cooking for the new years eve party on her verandah. Lobster tails, prawns, chicken, rib eye steak and pork ribs. Yum. So for about a hour and a half, we raced all over town getting what she needed and then came home just after noon. Steve was waiting for me, as we had planned to go to lunch at Daikoku Japanese restaurant to have some sushi. But as I still needed to get to the yacht club to pay the membership, we decided to go there for lunch. We had the buffet which was soup (ok but not great), salad bar (fantastic) and hot food bar (Steve had some and it was really nice. Monique and I were too full to have more). It was a great lunch. So many people have told me that the meals at the yacht club aren't that great but we have been lucky so far and had great luck. When we got back, Robyn took me to the doctor to get my ear checked out. As it was New Years Eve, most of them were closed due to not having a doctor in the clinic but one of the private hospitals had one, so we went there. Really interesting process. We went in and kept walking for quite a bit before getting to the reception. We asked if there was a doctor available and were told there was. So I filled out a form, was given a card and told to go to the cashier to pay for the consult first. Then I took the card back to the reception who took the card, checked the receipt (the cashier is right beside the reception and they knew we had paid, but still checked the receipt) and then placed the card on the counter in front of the doctors name. We were told to take a seat. Three minutes passed and the receptionist called out that the doctor was ready, could I get my card and go to the door around the corner. So I did. The doctor went to check my ears with her ear machine and the batteries were dead, so she had to call to get some more batteries. Once she had them, she checked and confirmed that I had a build up of hardened wax in my ears and I have to continue putting ear drops in for a couple of days and then go back on Tuesday if I still can't hear. The ear drops soften the wax. So we'll see. I didn't have to get any medication so there were no additional fees. If I needed medicine, the doctor writes on the card, you go and pay for it, then take the receipt and card to the pharmacy. It was very quick seeing the doctor today as there was no one else waiting. Normally, there would be a much longer wait. And it is expensive. So all is good. And you have to remember your patient number for next time. They don't fine alphabically by surname, they file by number.
I remember when we came up for a look see, Karen took me to that hospital with her and she had her number wrong and it took half an hour for them to find her card. And without your card, you can't see the doctor. When we got back, I made some prawn risotto out of the prawn stock I made on Wednesday. I had Monique taste it and she said it was good. Excellent. I also made some scones with a recipe that Rhonda (Dad's partner) gave me out of flour, lemonade and cream. They turned out really good and Monique and I had a couple to test them with strawberry jam and cream. Yum. I had to put some white wine in the risotto and as it was a pity to have a half empty bottle sitting in the fridge, I finished the bottle off and then had a nanny nap. Steve came home at 5pm to find me asleep on the couch. We were to be up at Robyn's place after 6.30pm for dinner so we chilled for a bit before heading up for a feast. There was 9 of
us for the feast. Robyn, Ian & Tyler, Clayton and Jourdana, Steve, Monique and myself, and Steve lock n load. The food was magnificent and the conversation was sparkling. Clayton who is bringing Brumbies and Donut King to PNG grew up in Port Moresby so he had some fantastic stories to tell. Jourdana told us about her two brothers who are trying to start a company up in India and how hard it was for them there. And of course everyone else had stories to tell and jokes to make. It was such a great evening. Jourdana disappeared about 11pm to have a sleep on the couch and we left at 11.30pm to come home feeling very merry and a little drunk. We watched a bit of tv while having some water to ward off hangover, and then went to bed. We could hear the fireworks going off after midnight but couldn't see them.
Saturday 1 Januray 2011
Happy New Year. I spent most of the early morning hours sitting in the loungechair snoozing. I had to take some panadol and water to get rid of a headache, but woke at about 7am feeling great. Steve and I wandered outside and had a cup of tea on the verandah, watered the orchids and my seedlings, and found a ripe pawpaw on the tree outside our front door which we had for breakfast. So very good. It brought back memories of my childhood and having mum cut huge bowls of fresh pawpaws with a squeeze of orange juice or passionfruit on it. Yum, yum, yum. If you ever get a chance to have a pawpaw that has ripened on the tree, go for it because it is one of the best tastes in the world. Completely different from the ones you get from the shops. Monique popped her head out of the bedroom and went to the toilet at about 8am but then went promptly back to bed for hours. Steve lock n load came over about 9.30am to spend heaps of time with Steve looking at all his stones that he plans to cut into lovely sparkles (yeah. more bling. lovely). Robyn phoned to say the beach trip was off due to cranky kids and the fact that the beach would be packed. So we are going to spend time around the pool and sleeping and relaxing etc. We wandered out for a drive after lunch to get some meat for dinner. I had somehow volunteered my services into cooking dinner that night for everyone, so I decided a stew would be the way to go. I spent the afternoon cooking the stew, a quiche and some potato salad ready for our boat trip tomorrow and then went up to the housewing for some quiet with a book. Not going to happen. Robyn, Ian and the kids came up, so we ended up having a great time chatting and drinking a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne (which let me say now is pretty average, so I'm not sure why anyone would pay $125AUD for one bottle when you can get something similar for about $8AUD) that Robyn and Ian had been given for Christmas. The afternoon progressed into the night with the stew and rice, and then scones, jam and cream. Monique had made some mini apple pies, so she brought them up and we all had to try them. I have been cheating on wheat so much over the last couple of days and I really have to stop. I'm thinking rice paper rolls may be the way to go. On a last note for today, after a day and a bit of being very vigilent in putting ear drops in, the wax has given out and I can hear in the right ear for the first time in about 2 weeks. Yahoo buckaroo. Thanks goodness. I can go swimming tomorrow now when we are out and about the lovely Port Moresby harbour and surrounds in the boss's boat. Bring it on.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas Day 2010
Sunday 19 December
We slept in this morning after our lovely night out for dinner last night. We had to take Jenny to the airport at 10.30am . We had lined up with Steve next door to use his car to take Jenny because our car doesn't have the security clearance to go right to the door of the airport. Funny huh, that you need prearranged security checks to get your car past the airport building. Anyway, after that we visited Vision City for a few things and went home for lunch and a nap. At 1pm we were going to go to the Airways Hotel for a drink and to have a look around. It was great. There were these two musicians who were incredible. One played the guitar and the other played the saxophone. The guy playing the sax also picked up a long seed pod on occasion and used it like a tamborine. So clever. I want to find a seed pod now and have a go. This little tiny boy wandered up to the band and stood there tapping his feet and occasionally getting down with his while body. Very cute. We left after a drink and went to the yacht club. It is very peaceful on a Sunday afternoon. We sat in the lounge part and had another drink and some chips, I did a book swap (the choices are not good - I have to ask if there is another book exchange around somewhere) as I have no more books
left to read. :( Sad. We went to Harbour city grocery store and got a few bits and pieces and then home to make lobster mornay. I am learning how to cook seafood for Steve and Monique. I am allergic, so have never cooked it. They both loved what I did and I had a plate of cheese and fruit for dinner. Nice.
Monday 20 December
My mission today was to find some herbs to plant in the garden. I spent the first part of the morning doing the washing, cleaning up and ironing. Then I went to the store for some bits and pieces and then to Brian Bell Plant store to check out what they had. Wow, wow, wow..... what gorgeous orchid plants. Steve had commented on Saturday at the botanical gardens that he wanted to collect a few orchids for the verandah so that we could enjoy the flowers, so I bought a gorgeous purple orchid for Steve for Christmas. I have hidden it out on the back verandah and am actively going to keep Steve from going out there this week. He doesn't usually go out the back during the week as he works long hours and chills when he gets home, so here's hoping that we can keep it a secret for the week. I also got a heap of herb, tomato and lettuce seeds, some seed pots and dirt so that I can grow them and put them in the gardens surrounding our house. Eventually I hope to be able to get all my herbs from here instead of buying them. How nice. I planted my basil this morning in the front garden. I have to catch up with Tetkos the gardener to show him so that he doesn't weed it out. He hasn't been around for a week or so. I think he is working at the other end of the
compound. I came home and started cooking chocolate chip muffins for everyone in the head office. It took awhile but I took them out at just after 3pm and they were all gone 15 minutes later. Lovely. I walked back to our house and make another batch of gluten free chocolate chip muffins to keep here for us. Lovely.
This afternoon, Tyler and Robyn came over to play the xbox with Monique. They got on the Sonic game and had a blast. They said they would have to come over again tomorrow because there was no way that the game was beating them. Afterwards I put on a pot of salty water to boil to cook some crabs and prawns for Steve and Monique for dinner. I remember when I was little, Mum cooking some chinese chilli crab and people raved over it. Unfortunately, my cook books have still not arrived (another story to mention shortly) so I didn't have the recipe she used to use to do that for them. Next time. About our stuff still not being here. Steve spent the morning on the phone getting up the people who have our stuff. They are just not cooperating. They have now been paid as Steve phoned the company in Cairns to make sure they were paid, but still can't get our stuff. Hopefully soon. I can't wait to have all my beads and books. I am serving the crab and prawns with some garlic butter and a salad so I will let you know tomorrow how Steve and Monique liked them.
Tuesday 21 December
Well lets just start by saying that I do not know how to cook crab. But I have been googling since and have worked out that I didn't cook it long enough. I always thought that when the shell went red, it was cooked. Not so in crabs apparently. So Steve and Monique had the prawns and then a cheese and tomato and onion toasted sandwich. I went to Vision City this morning to buy ingredients for my new Thai and South East Asia Cookbook. I also had to get some stuff for christmas which I realised is this Saturday. I spent
heaps but my pantry is now stocked for most of the recipes. There is 2 new shops in the Vision City Shopping Centre. A cafe and a chemist. It is looking great. Actually, it is looking like they do in Australia mostly. It is very nice. While I was shopping, Steve phoned to say we had to go down to the transport company and pay a little bit more kena to have all our stuff released. When the Australian company paid the bill, the exchange rate was incorrect according to their records (it probably went into someone's christmas pocket - but thats ok) and they would not deliver our stuff until it was paid. We went and paid it. And while Monique and I were out to lunch with Robyn and her friend at the Holiday Inn, our stuff was delivered. Yeah!!!!!!! Monique and I spend the rest of the afternoon bringing in all the boxes and unpacking them. When Steve finished work, he helped unpack some more. The place is chaos at the moment but it is great to have all our bits and pieces. Maggie (our cleaner) is in tomorrow and I know she is going to have a conniption (is that spelt correctly or even the right word? I don't have a dictionary here). Oh well.
I cooked Chilli and Ginger Fish fillets with mushroom rice for dinner from my new cookbook. I probably should have soaked the shitake mushrooms longer but it was getting late and I had to do something. I think I should get some tinned mushrooms for times like that. Fresh mushrooms here are like hens teeth. Really really hard to find and very expensive. Anyway its all good. And dinner was very tasty. I just remembered. After bringing in all the boxes from outside, Monique and I went up to the pool and just jumped in clothes and all. It was so nice. But when we got back inside and stripped off, out fell my phone from my bra. Dead. Great. I pulled it apart and left it to dry but not a success. Luckily, and hopefully I was able to get the SIM card out and when I buy another phone tomorrow, I'll see if it works.
Wednesday 22 December
Three days until christmas now. I have to go out this morning to get the last bits and pieces for the weekend (mostly alcohol). Robyn picked us up and we drove to Boroko. She said that at this late stage of the week before christmas, it is better to go in a group. We got a heap of meat and alcohol and a new phone to replace my wet one and then came home. Maggie is incredible. We were gone for about an hour and a half and the house looks and smells great. I could definately get used to this. Monique cooked Spag bol for lunch today. Yum. I am sitting here on the floor typing into the laptop and sniffing the incredible aroma of frying garlic and onion. The laptop is on a small coffee table near the tv because the cord for the internet is short and this is the only place to put it and we sit on the floor in the corner to use it. Uncomfortable but ok. The tv is on and we are sort of watching the movie "Four Christmases with Reece Witherspoon. It's an ok movie. I know that I said we got our stuff yesterday and have started unpacking, but did I tell you that there are books. Lots and lots. And my gorgeous painting that my lovely friend Sonja painted. It so feels like our home now. We went for dinner at the Yacht club where I had bangers and mash. Yep. Sausages and mash potato. It was delicious. Simple food is so often the best. On the way home we encountered a large truck that had a container on it. Now after living in Mount Isa for 10 years and driving on the road with the three trailered road trains, you would think that one trailered truck would be ok. But we forgot to take into account the lax road rules. It was swaying all over the road and had its hazzard light flashing. Scary. Anyway, we safety finally moved around it and got home. The flashing of hazzard lights is
a regular occurance here. Often cars have them flashing for no reason that we can see and the nearly always keep driving.
Thursday 23 December
When I woke up this morning, I started making my third attempt at bread. The first two were total disasters, so I followed a recipe exactly and put the dough outside to rise for an hour. I pounded on it some more and after putting it in the cooking tin, put it outside for another half hour to rise again before cooking it. Then it went into the oven to cook. It looked all golden brown on the top when I pulled it out and sounded hollow when I tapped it on th bottom so good. But when I cut into it, it fell apart and didn't quite have the
right consistency. I packed a packet of xanthum gum in one of our boxes before they were collected for transporting but I still haven't found it. Xanthum gum is a great ingredient to add to gluten free flour to get the sticking together effect. I will have to continue unpacking the boxes and find it to attempt my next go at bread. By the end of our time here in PNG, my bread making skills are going to be superb. Hopefully.
I had decided to buy Maggie a christmas present yesterday and was thinking that a kettle and toaster would be great. But when i queried her as to her home and if she had one already, I discovered that she doesn't have electricity in her little one room home. Stupid of me for assuming that she did. I then asked her what she would like for christmas. She wanted a big pot to cook with. So Monique and I went to Vision City to get a pot and a heap of cooking utensils as well as some lamb shanks for our dinner. I have been watching
Jamie Oliver on tv and as I have 5 of his cookbooks, I looked in one of them and found the recipe for Spicy Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks and Creamy Mash Potato. Yum. So I am going to cook that for dinner tonight. Steve Lock n Load is coming to dinner. He lives in the house next door by himself and doesn't cook much, so I figured that a home cooked meal would be something he would enjoy. His wife lives in America with their dog and although they both want her to come and live here with him, she can't leave her dog. So she is there. When we got home from the store getting the bits and pieces, we washed up the pot and utensils and then dried and wrapped them in some lovely christmas paper for Maggie. She was cleaning Mike's house today, so we knocked on his door and gave her the gift. We went back to our house where I put the lamb shanks in the oven to cook for hours, and Monique made a chocolate self saucing pudding for dessert. For some reason, the aircon guys turned up to have a look at our main aircon. It had been freezing up since the maintenance guys had been but I kept turning it off for a time here and there and it was working ok. I don't know who told them to come but here they were. Isn't it funny how when you really need someone to look at something, you can't get them but when all is ok, there they are. So they dismantled the aircon off the wall and took it outside to do whatever (can you tell that I am not an electrical engineer???) and then about an hour later, brought it back in, hooked it up and left. So efficient. I spent the time sorting through my beads. I have so many, stacks in fact. I have been going through them for the last two days, putting the ones I don't really want into bags to give to Maggie. She will either use them or sell them. I think that she will probably use them, because she came over later in the afternoon to say thank you for the pot and to tell us not to trust the aircon guys and stay in the house while they were here, and asked if I had a book or something with instructions on what to do with the beads. Now as you are probably aware, I am a book person. So of course I have books/magazines (about 100 of them) on how to use beads. So I promised her that over the weekend, I would put a couple of them together for her with some fishing line and bits to start. About 4pm, Robyn stuck her head through the verandah door and asked if we wanted to come up to the pool for Thursday afternoon drinks. Who am I to say no to drinks? So we got in our togs and went up with a bottle of wine (and a pineapple fanta for Monique - have I told you about the soft drinks here? They make coke and fanta here and they are good. The coke is much more syrupy but not as gassy and the pineapple fanta is really good. You can't get it in Australia. It is now Monique's drink of choice). Robyn had her two friends Kylie and Jackie there with their and nannys. It was great to see Kylie again (we met her at lunch on Tuesday), and meet Jackie. They are lovely ladies and we spent a couple of hours chatting. Then all the husbands arrived, so I went back to the house and finished up dinner for my Steve and next door Steve. The dinner was fantastic. Yum yum yum. By the time dinner was finished, I was pretty sloshed, so I watched a bit of tv and went to bed. What a great day.
Friday 24 December
Why do I drink? I woke up at 3.30am because I had to have some water. Dehydrated again. And then of course I couldn't sleep again. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Anyway, I'm not going to say that I won't drink again, because that is just lying. I went back to be at 5am and slept through until 8.30am when Steve came back from the office to ask if I had seen his glasses. Yes he had lost them. No I hadn't seen them and yes I was not awake. I got on the internet to my sister Sylvia in Cairns and asked her to call the optometrist in Mt Isa to get Steve's glasses script and then organise a new pair to be sent up asap. In the meanwhile, I had to work out how to get them sent up quickly. Not going to happen. The easiest and fastest way to get anything into PNG is to get someone to bring it in by hand while flying in. As we didn't know anyone coming in from Cairns this was going to be a problem. Luckily Steve went into another fellows office and found his glasses on the chair, and we will continue to organise a second pair to be ready for when we are in Cairns mid next month for a spare pair. Steve did have his safety glasses which have the correct glass in them but they are just funky looking and not something you want to wear all the time (am I being vain on his behalf?) So all sorted and thanks to Sylvia for getting the process started. Other than that, Monique and I spent the morning at home fiddling around. Monique had decided that she wanted to make apple pies for the guards for christmas and made them. Boy is she a good baker. Her apple pies were so yummy. Steve finished work early so we went with Steve Lock n load to the yacht club for lunch and a few drinks before coming home to relax for the evening. I haven't been feeling well lately. The pool up here is quite warm and the bacteria breeds well in it. So I think I have an infected ear and my throat is also becoming flemmy. Yuck. So I may have to try the hospital out next week to get some anti-biotics. Currently I am battling with panadol and ear drops. We'll see. In the afternoon, Mon and I walked down to the guards hut and gave them 2 apple pies each, and then again that night, we wandered down and gave more pies out. They were all very excited to get them. We watched movies and just chilled the rest of the night.
Saturday 25 December
Christmas Day. I woke early with a headache and earache, which woke Steve, so we got up. Steve couldn't wait for Mon to wake up so he did it by saying that Santa had come and taken all the presents away. She got up so fast her eyes were still closed for about 10 minutes afterwards. So funny. So we opened the presents. Steve and I had got Mon a laptop for Christmas so that she would have one to take to school next year. Tiarna had bought her 3 SIM City game thingys. So for the rest of the day Monique played on her new computer. We cut some lovely ham and fryed it and cooked a mediterrain scrambled eggs to go with it (olives, feta cheese etc added to the eggs) and ate out on the verandah to get out of the aircon for awhile. It was really lovely. Steve really liked his orchid that we had kept hidden on the verandah all week. Robyn had given us three more from her place as they had
been quite neglected. So we have the start of a lovely collection. Very nice. After breakfast, I took some panadol and went back to bed to hopefully sleep some of the sore head and ears off. I woke just before 11am and was feeling much better. I cut up some fruit, made a salad and cut some more ham and we headed up to the pool with a bottle of champagne and some beers, softdrink and scotch to have a chrissy lunch. Steve lock n load joined us as he is on his own this christmas. It was lovely. We stayed for about 2 and a half hours before coming back to the house so that Steve could set up his faceting machine. He is anxious to get back into cutting stones. He was so excited as he was pulling out all his stones to see what he had again. Isn't it funny how when you move and it's like getting new parcels while opening up and unpacking. So he spent the rest of the afternoon in the third room
playing with his machine and rocks. And is as happy as a pig in shit (don't you love that saying?). Monique was still on her computer playing SIMS. I read for the afternoon as that is my thing. It is quite cool today with a heap of rain and thunder around. Very nice. The little kitten came out while we were having lunch up at the pool so I threw some ham out for him/her to eat. He/She is getting more used to us because he/she came right up to the table. I don't know if I mentioned in an earlier section or not, but Robyn was saying that a lot of the cats and dogs here have AIDS, so I am not so anxious to make the cat into a pet. I am definately happy to feed it though as I think it must have a hard life. We are heading up to the pool area again for dinner tonight. Robyn and Ian have invited a heap of their friends to have a bbq, and have invited us to join them. We need to meet new people so we will go up for a few hours. It's been a good day so far.
We slept in this morning after our lovely night out for dinner last night. We had to take Jenny to the airport at 10.30am . We had lined up with Steve next door to use his car to take Jenny because our car doesn't have the security clearance to go right to the door of the airport. Funny huh, that you need prearranged security checks to get your car past the airport building. Anyway, after that we visited Vision City for a few things and went home for lunch and a nap. At 1pm we were going to go to the Airways Hotel for a drink and to have a look around. It was great. There were these two musicians who were incredible. One played the guitar and the other played the saxophone. The guy playing the sax also picked up a long seed pod on occasion and used it like a tamborine. So clever. I want to find a seed pod now and have a go. This little tiny boy wandered up to the band and stood there tapping his feet and occasionally getting down with his while body. Very cute. We left after a drink and went to the yacht club. It is very peaceful on a Sunday afternoon. We sat in the lounge part and had another drink and some chips, I did a book swap (the choices are not good - I have to ask if there is another book exchange around somewhere) as I have no more books
left to read. :( Sad. We went to Harbour city grocery store and got a few bits and pieces and then home to make lobster mornay. I am learning how to cook seafood for Steve and Monique. I am allergic, so have never cooked it. They both loved what I did and I had a plate of cheese and fruit for dinner. Nice.
Monday 20 December
My mission today was to find some herbs to plant in the garden. I spent the first part of the morning doing the washing, cleaning up and ironing. Then I went to the store for some bits and pieces and then to Brian Bell Plant store to check out what they had. Wow, wow, wow..... what gorgeous orchid plants. Steve had commented on Saturday at the botanical gardens that he wanted to collect a few orchids for the verandah so that we could enjoy the flowers, so I bought a gorgeous purple orchid for Steve for Christmas. I have hidden it out on the back verandah and am actively going to keep Steve from going out there this week. He doesn't usually go out the back during the week as he works long hours and chills when he gets home, so here's hoping that we can keep it a secret for the week. I also got a heap of herb, tomato and lettuce seeds, some seed pots and dirt so that I can grow them and put them in the gardens surrounding our house. Eventually I hope to be able to get all my herbs from here instead of buying them. How nice. I planted my basil this morning in the front garden. I have to catch up with Tetkos the gardener to show him so that he doesn't weed it out. He hasn't been around for a week or so. I think he is working at the other end of the
compound. I came home and started cooking chocolate chip muffins for everyone in the head office. It took awhile but I took them out at just after 3pm and they were all gone 15 minutes later. Lovely. I walked back to our house and make another batch of gluten free chocolate chip muffins to keep here for us. Lovely.
This afternoon, Tyler and Robyn came over to play the xbox with Monique. They got on the Sonic game and had a blast. They said they would have to come over again tomorrow because there was no way that the game was beating them. Afterwards I put on a pot of salty water to boil to cook some crabs and prawns for Steve and Monique for dinner. I remember when I was little, Mum cooking some chinese chilli crab and people raved over it. Unfortunately, my cook books have still not arrived (another story to mention shortly) so I didn't have the recipe she used to use to do that for them. Next time. About our stuff still not being here. Steve spent the morning on the phone getting up the people who have our stuff. They are just not cooperating. They have now been paid as Steve phoned the company in Cairns to make sure they were paid, but still can't get our stuff. Hopefully soon. I can't wait to have all my beads and books. I am serving the crab and prawns with some garlic butter and a salad so I will let you know tomorrow how Steve and Monique liked them.
Tuesday 21 December
Well lets just start by saying that I do not know how to cook crab. But I have been googling since and have worked out that I didn't cook it long enough. I always thought that when the shell went red, it was cooked. Not so in crabs apparently. So Steve and Monique had the prawns and then a cheese and tomato and onion toasted sandwich. I went to Vision City this morning to buy ingredients for my new Thai and South East Asia Cookbook. I also had to get some stuff for christmas which I realised is this Saturday. I spent
heaps but my pantry is now stocked for most of the recipes. There is 2 new shops in the Vision City Shopping Centre. A cafe and a chemist. It is looking great. Actually, it is looking like they do in Australia mostly. It is very nice. While I was shopping, Steve phoned to say we had to go down to the transport company and pay a little bit more kena to have all our stuff released. When the Australian company paid the bill, the exchange rate was incorrect according to their records (it probably went into someone's christmas pocket - but thats ok) and they would not deliver our stuff until it was paid. We went and paid it. And while Monique and I were out to lunch with Robyn and her friend at the Holiday Inn, our stuff was delivered. Yeah!!!!!!! Monique and I spend the rest of the afternoon bringing in all the boxes and unpacking them. When Steve finished work, he helped unpack some more. The place is chaos at the moment but it is great to have all our bits and pieces. Maggie (our cleaner) is in tomorrow and I know she is going to have a conniption (is that spelt correctly or even the right word? I don't have a dictionary here). Oh well.
I cooked Chilli and Ginger Fish fillets with mushroom rice for dinner from my new cookbook. I probably should have soaked the shitake mushrooms longer but it was getting late and I had to do something. I think I should get some tinned mushrooms for times like that. Fresh mushrooms here are like hens teeth. Really really hard to find and very expensive. Anyway its all good. And dinner was very tasty. I just remembered. After bringing in all the boxes from outside, Monique and I went up to the pool and just jumped in clothes and all. It was so nice. But when we got back inside and stripped off, out fell my phone from my bra. Dead. Great. I pulled it apart and left it to dry but not a success. Luckily, and hopefully I was able to get the SIM card out and when I buy another phone tomorrow, I'll see if it works.
Wednesday 22 December
Three days until christmas now. I have to go out this morning to get the last bits and pieces for the weekend (mostly alcohol). Robyn picked us up and we drove to Boroko. She said that at this late stage of the week before christmas, it is better to go in a group. We got a heap of meat and alcohol and a new phone to replace my wet one and then came home. Maggie is incredible. We were gone for about an hour and a half and the house looks and smells great. I could definately get used to this. Monique cooked Spag bol for lunch today. Yum. I am sitting here on the floor typing into the laptop and sniffing the incredible aroma of frying garlic and onion. The laptop is on a small coffee table near the tv because the cord for the internet is short and this is the only place to put it and we sit on the floor in the corner to use it. Uncomfortable but ok. The tv is on and we are sort of watching the movie "Four Christmases with Reece Witherspoon. It's an ok movie. I know that I said we got our stuff yesterday and have started unpacking, but did I tell you that there are books. Lots and lots. And my gorgeous painting that my lovely friend Sonja painted. It so feels like our home now. We went for dinner at the Yacht club where I had bangers and mash. Yep. Sausages and mash potato. It was delicious. Simple food is so often the best. On the way home we encountered a large truck that had a container on it. Now after living in Mount Isa for 10 years and driving on the road with the three trailered road trains, you would think that one trailered truck would be ok. But we forgot to take into account the lax road rules. It was swaying all over the road and had its hazzard light flashing. Scary. Anyway, we safety finally moved around it and got home. The flashing of hazzard lights is
a regular occurance here. Often cars have them flashing for no reason that we can see and the nearly always keep driving.
Thursday 23 December
When I woke up this morning, I started making my third attempt at bread. The first two were total disasters, so I followed a recipe exactly and put the dough outside to rise for an hour. I pounded on it some more and after putting it in the cooking tin, put it outside for another half hour to rise again before cooking it. Then it went into the oven to cook. It looked all golden brown on the top when I pulled it out and sounded hollow when I tapped it on th bottom so good. But when I cut into it, it fell apart and didn't quite have the
right consistency. I packed a packet of xanthum gum in one of our boxes before they were collected for transporting but I still haven't found it. Xanthum gum is a great ingredient to add to gluten free flour to get the sticking together effect. I will have to continue unpacking the boxes and find it to attempt my next go at bread. By the end of our time here in PNG, my bread making skills are going to be superb. Hopefully.
I had decided to buy Maggie a christmas present yesterday and was thinking that a kettle and toaster would be great. But when i queried her as to her home and if she had one already, I discovered that she doesn't have electricity in her little one room home. Stupid of me for assuming that she did. I then asked her what she would like for christmas. She wanted a big pot to cook with. So Monique and I went to Vision City to get a pot and a heap of cooking utensils as well as some lamb shanks for our dinner. I have been watching
Jamie Oliver on tv and as I have 5 of his cookbooks, I looked in one of them and found the recipe for Spicy Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks and Creamy Mash Potato. Yum. So I am going to cook that for dinner tonight. Steve Lock n Load is coming to dinner. He lives in the house next door by himself and doesn't cook much, so I figured that a home cooked meal would be something he would enjoy. His wife lives in America with their dog and although they both want her to come and live here with him, she can't leave her dog. So she is there. When we got home from the store getting the bits and pieces, we washed up the pot and utensils and then dried and wrapped them in some lovely christmas paper for Maggie. She was cleaning Mike's house today, so we knocked on his door and gave her the gift. We went back to our house where I put the lamb shanks in the oven to cook for hours, and Monique made a chocolate self saucing pudding for dessert. For some reason, the aircon guys turned up to have a look at our main aircon. It had been freezing up since the maintenance guys had been but I kept turning it off for a time here and there and it was working ok. I don't know who told them to come but here they were. Isn't it funny how when you really need someone to look at something, you can't get them but when all is ok, there they are. So they dismantled the aircon off the wall and took it outside to do whatever (can you tell that I am not an electrical engineer???) and then about an hour later, brought it back in, hooked it up and left. So efficient. I spent the time sorting through my beads. I have so many, stacks in fact. I have been going through them for the last two days, putting the ones I don't really want into bags to give to Maggie. She will either use them or sell them. I think that she will probably use them, because she came over later in the afternoon to say thank you for the pot and to tell us not to trust the aircon guys and stay in the house while they were here, and asked if I had a book or something with instructions on what to do with the beads. Now as you are probably aware, I am a book person. So of course I have books/magazines (about 100 of them) on how to use beads. So I promised her that over the weekend, I would put a couple of them together for her with some fishing line and bits to start. About 4pm, Robyn stuck her head through the verandah door and asked if we wanted to come up to the pool for Thursday afternoon drinks. Who am I to say no to drinks? So we got in our togs and went up with a bottle of wine (and a pineapple fanta for Monique - have I told you about the soft drinks here? They make coke and fanta here and they are good. The coke is much more syrupy but not as gassy and the pineapple fanta is really good. You can't get it in Australia. It is now Monique's drink of choice). Robyn had her two friends Kylie and Jackie there with their and nannys. It was great to see Kylie again (we met her at lunch on Tuesday), and meet Jackie. They are lovely ladies and we spent a couple of hours chatting. Then all the husbands arrived, so I went back to the house and finished up dinner for my Steve and next door Steve. The dinner was fantastic. Yum yum yum. By the time dinner was finished, I was pretty sloshed, so I watched a bit of tv and went to bed. What a great day.
Friday 24 December
Why do I drink? I woke up at 3.30am because I had to have some water. Dehydrated again. And then of course I couldn't sleep again. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Anyway, I'm not going to say that I won't drink again, because that is just lying. I went back to be at 5am and slept through until 8.30am when Steve came back from the office to ask if I had seen his glasses. Yes he had lost them. No I hadn't seen them and yes I was not awake. I got on the internet to my sister Sylvia in Cairns and asked her to call the optometrist in Mt Isa to get Steve's glasses script and then organise a new pair to be sent up asap. In the meanwhile, I had to work out how to get them sent up quickly. Not going to happen. The easiest and fastest way to get anything into PNG is to get someone to bring it in by hand while flying in. As we didn't know anyone coming in from Cairns this was going to be a problem. Luckily Steve went into another fellows office and found his glasses on the chair, and we will continue to organise a second pair to be ready for when we are in Cairns mid next month for a spare pair. Steve did have his safety glasses which have the correct glass in them but they are just funky looking and not something you want to wear all the time (am I being vain on his behalf?) So all sorted and thanks to Sylvia for getting the process started. Other than that, Monique and I spent the morning at home fiddling around. Monique had decided that she wanted to make apple pies for the guards for christmas and made them. Boy is she a good baker. Her apple pies were so yummy. Steve finished work early so we went with Steve Lock n load to the yacht club for lunch and a few drinks before coming home to relax for the evening. I haven't been feeling well lately. The pool up here is quite warm and the bacteria breeds well in it. So I think I have an infected ear and my throat is also becoming flemmy. Yuck. So I may have to try the hospital out next week to get some anti-biotics. Currently I am battling with panadol and ear drops. We'll see. In the afternoon, Mon and I walked down to the guards hut and gave them 2 apple pies each, and then again that night, we wandered down and gave more pies out. They were all very excited to get them. We watched movies and just chilled the rest of the night.
Saturday 25 December
Christmas Day. I woke early with a headache and earache, which woke Steve, so we got up. Steve couldn't wait for Mon to wake up so he did it by saying that Santa had come and taken all the presents away. She got up so fast her eyes were still closed for about 10 minutes afterwards. So funny. So we opened the presents. Steve and I had got Mon a laptop for Christmas so that she would have one to take to school next year. Tiarna had bought her 3 SIM City game thingys. So for the rest of the day Monique played on her new computer. We cut some lovely ham and fryed it and cooked a mediterrain scrambled eggs to go with it (olives, feta cheese etc added to the eggs) and ate out on the verandah to get out of the aircon for awhile. It was really lovely. Steve really liked his orchid that we had kept hidden on the verandah all week. Robyn had given us three more from her place as they had
been quite neglected. So we have the start of a lovely collection. Very nice. After breakfast, I took some panadol and went back to bed to hopefully sleep some of the sore head and ears off. I woke just before 11am and was feeling much better. I cut up some fruit, made a salad and cut some more ham and we headed up to the pool with a bottle of champagne and some beers, softdrink and scotch to have a chrissy lunch. Steve lock n load joined us as he is on his own this christmas. It was lovely. We stayed for about 2 and a half hours before coming back to the house so that Steve could set up his faceting machine. He is anxious to get back into cutting stones. He was so excited as he was pulling out all his stones to see what he had again. Isn't it funny how when you move and it's like getting new parcels while opening up and unpacking. So he spent the rest of the afternoon in the third room
playing with his machine and rocks. And is as happy as a pig in shit (don't you love that saying?). Monique was still on her computer playing SIMS. I read for the afternoon as that is my thing. It is quite cool today with a heap of rain and thunder around. Very nice. The little kitten came out while we were having lunch up at the pool so I threw some ham out for him/her to eat. He/She is getting more used to us because he/she came right up to the table. I don't know if I mentioned in an earlier section or not, but Robyn was saying that a lot of the cats and dogs here have AIDS, so I am not so anxious to make the cat into a pet. I am definately happy to feed it though as I think it must have a hard life. We are heading up to the pool area again for dinner tonight. Robyn and Ian have invited a heap of their friends to have a bbq, and have invited us to join them. We need to meet new people so we will go up for a few hours. It's been a good day so far.
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