Day 33. August 10th
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JD- For the first time on the holidays I had to set an alarm, something I have religiously done at home for 25+ years and I haven't missed doing it this last 5 weeks. I had to drop the van off at Darwin RV Repairs first thing which is at East Arm, around 18km East of Darwin city centre. Navigation around Darwin is quite simple, the Stuart Hwy runs right into the city, East Arm is south off the Hwy.
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The proprietor of Darwin RV repairs is a guy by the name of Chris Kershaw. I met Chris, a couple of days earlier, on the way into Darwin when we called in to see about getting our job done. Chris is a particularly interesting fellow. He's covered in tattoos, rude, 6ft6inches tall, hard as nails I'd say and looks like he has had his teeth removed and replaced with PK chewing gum pieces placed edge wise evenly around his gums with 2mm gap between each piece. He could floss with a shoe lace. I took an instant liking to the bloke. In my experience these sort of characters know their stuff and as long as you don't expect good service you won't be disappointed.
Chris and his crew knew their stuff and as a result they had at least 3 months work in front of them. He didn't particularly want my job, and told me so in great length, but thankfully, after some discussion about what I do and where we were going, he agreed to sort it out. But he did stress that he would require cash....as he didn't have EFTPOS. Fine with me, I said, I wouldn't require a receipt as long as the job was done properly.
I dropped they van in and after a brief discussion with Chris regarding wether or not he needed a hand I rode my bike back into town. On arrival Nicole and the kids were in the pool as by 9.30am it is already 30degs here.
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We had decided that today would be a bit of a quieter day as we needed some time to plan and book the next few weeks and hoping to give the Agnew's in Tom Price fair warning of our arrival.
One job we did need to complete was to cut my hair. It had become unruly and was now showing lots of grey! For what ever reason my haircut was put to the Darcey democratic ballot. The unanimous outcome was that we would be better off purchasing a set of clippers rather than paying $30 for a barber. We would pay for the clippers in 1.5 haircuts.
The only issue was all we could find in Coles were clippers more suited to trimming a beard than tackling my hair. With much patience and trial and error, Nicole completed the task. The problem being they would only cut with the 1mm comb installed. I haven't got the most attractive head at the best of times but with 1mm of hair it doesn't improve. I have a scalp filled with scars. The result of an action filled youth and the odd one or two of "when I was talking and should have been listening" Regardless the job was done and I look ready to enlist.
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I made a quick call to "Tombstone Teeth" at RV repairs and set off for the hour ride to collect the van. On arrival to the yard the van was there, the keys were in the office right next to the EFTPOS terminal, all the doors were open, but there didn't seem to be a soul around. After strolling around for 10 or 15 minutes, checking out Chris' drag car in the shed. Then out to the van to check to see if the job was completed, I eventually found the boys way down the back of the shed having a quiet beer or three. In the corner of the room they were in, they had a cleverly constructed a cabinet made, unsurprisingly out of caravan insulation material which housed a beer barrel, refrigeration unit (cool right) and beer tap. True professionals. After a decent chat with the boys I handed over my hard earned, collected my keys, tied my bike on and set off back to the city.
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Good day all in all, liking Darwin more and more the longer we stay.
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ND- as a small aside....while JD tended to the van, the girls were relaxing literally pool side for most of the day (well it was 37 degrees) until we could put it off no longer and all retreated inside to a conglomerate of paperwork paraphernalia to attempt to do some much needed journal entries. I had bought a very small portable Selphy printer so we could print out photos and stick them in to journals daily however small it was, it was not as easy as it looked and after a wasted hour or so neither Grace nor I could get it to work and not much journaling had been done! Of course when JD returned he sorted it out but by that time we had to set off to the sunset Mindil markets, before we missed the sunset.
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It was Grace whom was most excited to go to the markets in the first place, great to see her excited about something in real time not after the event via Instagram. So off we went to be greeted by rowdy crowds of inebriated locals sitting at the entrance of both the beach and markets. Shouting loudly in an unknown dialect but their msg was fairly obvious that they weren't entirely happy. Didn't seem to deter the visiting tourist and other marketers. The beautiful beach was packed from one end to the other. I'm not talking hundreds but thousands of people, thick from the waters edge to the top of the dunes, waiting to capture the picture perfect shot of the enormous sun disappearing behind the ocean. I'd have loved a dollar for each iPhone on the beach! We were amongst them, cameras ready. As soon as the last of the golden sun disappeared we rushed into the market to get something to eat before the masses left their sandy posts. The girls were delighted with a twirling fried potato stick! James and I whom neither of us are particularly enamoured with markets quietly decided to feed the kids and move on. We wandered through the stalls and crowds for a bit longer. Grace doing some shopping, she bought a beautiful big black and white mandala sheet for her new bed. JD found some hotted up cars to amuse him for while and the little ones were amazed and bitterly disappointed we wouldn't line up for henna tattoos, so unfair but Grace promised to mandala up their arms with permanent texta back at the hotel.
Some of us had had enough and decided to move on! Some of us thought that leaving was particularly selfish and some behaviour deteriorated.
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We drove back into town and found a great deck bar and restaurant on the Esplanade where we had a bit of a tapas style snacks and listened to some live music. Love Darwin....Happy Days!
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Back at the apartment, said promised tattoos we delivered to half an eager audience and some photos printed before bed.