Well week two of Alice Springs has been great..... Settling in and getting our routine happening, boos school in morning and play in the arvo. We had a great Easter and had an awesome time at some local events..
Finally got work organised!!! Have done some shifts over Easter. First shift was in Emergency and l was very excited, nervous and overwhelmed all in one. I think they presumed l was an ED nurse, as they sort of left me to my own devices. Luckily l'm not backward in being forward and asked plenty of questions when l needed. The staff are awesome, supportive and friendly, everyone seems to have just started or been there for under a year. Feels good to be in the same boat all together. Anyway, after my first three shifts down, two being in the comfort of surgical ward, l feel more comfortable and less overwhelmed. However, l am so surprised that majority of patients are aboriginal. Obviously hadn't thought about it too much before starting, how dumb am l?? Loving looking after them after l got over the fact that they weren't looking at me like l was going to offend them. Have learnt that they are very funny, very strong and that they say 'yes' to everything so l have to make sure we both understand each other. Overall, think l am going to love working here. The pay is good, the work is challenging and the staff are awesome!! We have also decided that seeing the money is great for me, Marty will look for part time work and be the main teacher for boo. Think we both like the role reversal, see how we go!!
On the Saturday after l finished work we all went in for the Footy Carnival. I was very eager to watch some barefoot bush footy. We arrived, and as expected, there were alot of aboriginals that had come into town to watch the footy. They love their footy!! We got to see the local NT thunder team take on South Port, sadly they lost but it was a great game, well contested. At half time the girls jumped over the fence and ran around with all three kids, who were having marking contests. The girls also got very excited over the Thunder mascot, chasing him for a high five. Was great to see some footy from some bush teams, although a bit disappointed they had footy boots on!! Lol.. We stayed for about three hours, had a ball and the girls loved it, wanting to come and watch done more footy next week!!!
Easter day was very exciting for the girls as they thought Easter bunny wouldn't find them in the middle of Australia!!! Boo woke up at the crack of dawn, which ended with Meg waking. So like most parents, early rise for Easter. We had an egg hunt in the annex, Boo and Meg nearly made themselves sick eating to much chocie before breakfast. Was also pancake Sunday, so was able to fill up on that too!! We had a great breakfast morning with our next door neighbours, David, Tanya and two girls Sienna and Kara. The girls have latched onto them and it is great to see them all playing so well. It's also great for us to have an adult conversation with someone other than each other!! The pancake breakfast seemed to be more busy than last week. Because we're at the permanent end of the park, we forget how busy the other end of the park is and it felt like they just kept appearing... Anyway, after breaky we got ourselves organised as we were heading out to a little town 130km up north called Aileron where a rodeo was happening over the weekend. We headed off and arrived a few hours later, totally excited!! We headed into town and were greeted with these huge sculptures of a man and another one, a woman with child and lizard. They were so tall, taller than a house!! We headed up the dusty red dirt track and arrived at the rodeo, cowboys and cowgirls walking around. Felt like we were in another state, bit different from Alice Springs. It was so what l wanted to see....outback people having fun. The rodeo was in full swing, the bulls were loaded in the race, the cowboys were getting comfy on their bulls, next minute the race opens and bucking bull starts and then the cowboy hits the dirt! The girls were full of questions and excitement....loved it. Then Easter bunny made an appearance and all the kids headed into the arena and were told to tackle Easter bunny for the Easter eggs....Boo didn't know what to do, held back in the back whilst all these country kids jumped onto Easter bunny bringing him down to the ground and scrounging around collecting the eggs. Great country fun!! For the next few hours whilst baking in the bloody hot sun, we saw some awesome bull rides and also ship cracking bucking horse rides. The crowd were a mixture of visitors, overseas and Australian, bush aboriginals, and country folk. Great mixture who all loved the spectacle of the rodeo. The girls had a ball... There were a few big falls with the cowboys getting up a bit stiff. There were a few angry bulls too, some getting their blunt horns to the cowboy butts. In the intervals there were a few funny games. One being 'put the plunger into the dunny roll'. The boys had their dunny rolls inbetween their legs facing backwards and the girls had to walk over with the plugger inbetween their legs and poke the dunny roll onto it and walk back. You get the mental picture, total crack up!! Anyway, after our fun day we headed back to Alice, so glad that we made the trek out to Aileron. Boo said it was the best Easter she has ever had....well worth it just for that response!!
So our second week has been great. Work is sorted, school is getting caught up, have met some great people and had some great times at the local events, all in the hot heat of 36-39oC heat. Will like the cool change coming next week.....
Bell Xxx