Suppurating Pustules 17th June 2009 The old body erupted - three boils, one after the other!One of the blasted devils was up my left nostril and I thought my face was going to explode!John's suggestion that a rearrangement might not be a bad idea, didn't go down too well at the time!I was convinced I had bubonic plague!It didn't help that I'd just finished reading a book about the plague (for anyone who's interested it's called 'Book of Wonders' by Geraldine ...

WINE AND WEEVILS 30th May 2009 It seemed a good idea.Phil had spent the day conducting a science workshop and Jake was having to go down to Madang on Saturday, so we invited them to supper.We bought some vinegarish wine and vaguely palatable mince and cobbled together some resemblance of a spaghetti bolognaise followed by a rice pudding, using the rice from Karamui, which we found too glutinous for savoury rice.Couldn't remember if we'd got enough spaghetti, ...

CHILD WITH BUSH KNIFE 8th May 2009 The little dot in the photo started howling, the reason I know not, as there didn't seem to be anyone else in sight.Then she saw me, stopped howling, turned her back and started to walk away.She then picked up a bush knife which had been left lying on the ground and started hacking away at the grass.I couldn't look anymore, it was too scarey! We are now in term2 week 3 and we are on timetable 13!Is it any wonder teachers don'...

G'DAY! 23rd April 2009 We liked Brisbane.It is a clean, modern city with lots of attractions.These include several spacious theatres, a museum, art gallery, numerous places to eat, a wide range of foods, a vast shopping centre and an interesting riverside aspect.The room was clean, cockroach free, with a carpet on the floor and we've never had so many showers in our lives - it was wonderful! Trains and buses ran on time and theatre performances started when...

A LET DOWN 2nd April 2009 Wanted to forward the rest of the photos from Karamui, which Off Exploring wouldn't allow last time, so this will be brief. We felt rather let down by the Department of Education (?!!) visitor.It was supposed to be 7 high powered officers, then it went down to 2 but only 1 young researcher actually arrived, who knew diddly squat about education.The trouble is, coastal people (these were from Port Moresby) are afraid of highland people...