The last month hasn't been as good as l was hoping. Marty and l have been blueing a lot to the point where it has really impacted on our time here. I have been working heaps and l do feel for Marty as it has been really hot here. The temp has been over 35oC for the last month, having a week of high 30's and even into the mid 40's. He is sweltering out in the heat and in the elements with no relief. At least l get to go to work and have a little reprieve in the air conditioning, although not the best. So there has been a lot of tension, tears and words said, not good times liked l'd hoped.
On the flip side l have been getting heaps of work. The first fortnight l worked over 90 hours, so the credit card was paid off straight away after l was paid correctly. Of course nothing has changed in that department, pay office is still crap. The ED has welcomed me back with open arms and it has been nice to think l made a small impact with the little work l did there three months ago. I really have been made to feel like part of a team, which l suppose is one thing l miss in my career. Working casual and on pool in the hospitals means that you go from one area to another and never really feel like you belong. So l suppose that is a flip side to working only in the ED this time round. On the downside, it has been really hard with the presentations you see a lot of the time in ED. I really don't know how nurses can work here for long periods of time. There really does seem like theres no hope and that we only bandaid the situation without making a real difference. But as l am reminded of by the staff, at least they have somewhere they can go to get help, even if it is only a patch up. So with having the helplessness of work on my mind and Marty not being happy in Alice, it has been a little difficult, as he reminds me so much, it is me that wants to be here. I am feeling very pressured to make sure we come out of this with a substantial amount of money to make it worth it and just hope our relationship isn't too scared. I have turned to drinking a little too much to try and deal with it as well, which hasn't helped the situation with Marty at all. As when l have a bit too much l get more loud and crass with the language, one of Marty's pet hates!
On the flip side, the girls have been having a ball with Charlotte and Jake. They've also made friends with the Dan and Kaz Ellis's kids, Sam, Will and Zac plus Jordon and Riley, who are Ton and Cam's kids, another travelling family here to work. Boo has been progressing well with her school work and Marty is doing so well to get it done in the heat. Marty and the girls days are spent doing school in morning then play and swim in the arvo. Pretty boring l suppose, at least when l was in Darwin the girls and l could catch the bus and go to the water park for the day.
A special day was Halloween when all the families decided to let the kids dress up and Trick or Treat. Although it was stifling hot, Ton face painted those who wanted it. She does brilliant work, so creative! The kids all went as a group around to all the vans and got their treats. Amanda had even lined up with Mandy and Alan down at reception for the kids to go down and get some lollies we'd brought. the kids were all so excited and it was great fun watching them at the end sit down and fill up on sugar!!!

Our time in Alive was actually flying past and Marty and l hadn't really got out to do much really. Besides a quick drive out to see the old Telegraph station, which l refused to pay entry for so we just walked around looking at the old buildings behind the fence, we hadn't seen anything new. So l gathered everyone up and let them know that Marty and l were heading out for an arvo drive after work one day out to the 'Owen Springs Homestead' if they wanted to come. In the end, the Woods, Dan and Cam joined us. We headed out Larapinta Drive and turned off left out towards the Owen Springs Reserve. We were all keyed up and excited to be out and doing a 4WD track.....was so disappointed after an hour when we had driven up a dirt road and alongside a dried up creek. The write up about the Owens track sounded awesome, instead it ended up to be a long dirt road. We didn't even stop at the homestead, instead we kept driving as it didn't look too spectacular from the road! Luckily, nearing the end of the track Marty took a left turn onto a side track which lead us to a dried up river. Well Marty was looking for some adventure and laughs and he found it. He headed down the steep river entry and joined down the soft sandy river bed before driving back up the embankment. Everyone got out and had a laugh as Marty kept going up and downs this river bed, each time getting a little boggier. Eventually Mark had a go and totally loved it! Amanda nearly wet her pants with excitement as she went passenger in with Marty, said it was the best 4WD she'd ever done! Told her this was nothing, should have been up Cape York with us. Cam eventually got some balls and had a go, bit of a slow and steady approach compared to wild Marty, but non the less, still a go. After the laughs we set the portable has cookers up and cooked some snags for dinner while the kids went down to the river bed in search of dingo footprints. We watched an beautiful sunset then headed home. Overall, a wonderful afternoon with some good laughs with great mates!!! Exactly what the doc ordered....

So with our time halfway thru in Alice we planned a couple of days of fun with the Woods family. Unfortunately our planned activities had to be rearranged. We had planned on the going out to the West MacDonnell Ranges on the Thursday and the next day check out School of the Air and this local 4WD track past Flynn's Graveside. But when Marty woke up to get us all going he noticed hat our passenger side window had been smashed and all they took was a tin of coins and a $50 note! Marty was so s***ty! If the aboriginal people of Alice weren't in his good books already from flogging my $20 bike a few weeks before, they definitely weren't winning any prizes now. Am so proud that he didn't go buy a packet of smokes to deal with it though (yes that's right, Marty gave the smokes away just before we went to Bali!). So long story short, Marty was fuming and eventually, with the help of Mark Woods, we got our passenger window replaced and re-tinted for a mere $220 by mid arvo. The bloody police were called at 7am and by 12pm we ended up canceling them just so we could get the window fixed. What could they do anyway? We couldn't head out to the West Macs by this time, so after lunch we packed some snacks and went into town to check out School of Air. It was a great tour and made us realize that we are teaching the kids not too differently thru Distance Education. Charlotte thought it was awesome and all the kids took to listening and learning about this way of teaching. We even got to witness a classroom lesson happening which was really interesting and looked very interactive. The old two ways have been replaced with computers and webcams, which the the families don't pay a cent for, it costs the NT government $15,000 per family! The parents just pay the normal state school fees that everyone else in Australia does. We were in the School of Air for about an hour or so which was good to get away from the heat! After this we headed out on Larapinta drive and took a right at Flynns grave and started our two hour 4WD track. It was great and also to see Marty having some fun. The track took us up some hills to get an amazing south view of the West MacDonald Ranges stretching for miles. We could also see "the gap" (as known by the locals) which splits in the guts of the town and ranges. I got to take some awesome photos and was just an awesome view of the town, much more spectacular than up at Anzac Hill. We followed the road up small hills and thru big ruts in the stoney road. Marty had a ball! On one decent down a steep hill, Mark went into the rut which made him bottom out and later he told us he bent the side step a little. Eventually we made our way back to bitumen, having had the most surprisingly good day. We all had some laughs over the UHF and some decent obstacles to maneuver they in the Nissan. Just what the Beeson family needed!
The next day we woke early around 6:30am after a restless nights sleep, and l was silently praying that the car would be ok. Thank god, no damage, so relieved. Think Marty would have packed up and left if anything else had of happened. So by 7:30ish am the Woods and us were finally on our way to explore the West Macs! We had saved this part of Alice to look at until we met up with the Woods again. We decided to drive to the furtherest place we wanted to see then work our way back. We set off out Larapinta Drive and turned off onto Namatjira Drive and travelled the 200kms out to Tyler's Pass Lookout. Pity it was a tad hazy but the 360o views were still breathtaking. We had an amazing view of Gosse Bluff which was our next stop 40kms up the road. Gosse Bluff, or traditionally called Tnorala, is where an earth shattering comet impacted many years ago. The site is sacred to aboriginal mob and the story is a beautiful one. It's a Wesyern Arrernte story in the Dreaming where a group of women where dancing in the Milky Way and one woman grew tired and placed her baby in a wooden basket. As the woman continued to dance, the basket fell and plunged into the earth. The baby fell to the earth which forced the rock upwards which formed the circular mountain range. It is believed the baby's parents, the evening and morning star, still continue to search for their baby to this day! So amazing, right? A sad part of the history of this place was a tribal massacre that took place long time back...... Now that I've told you the cultural and scientific significance to the place, l'll tell you our experience. When we arrived we parked the cars and headed down one of the walking paths. Was quite unbelievable as when the walking path ends we realized that we were standing in he centre of the crater! On the walk it felt like we were just heading to a part of he crater, not to stand in the middle of it. It was magic! There was heaps of bush in bloom and trees scattered in the crater. The 360o view inside was sensational. We all had a chuckle when we realized we were in the middle of it. Definitely worth the drive here!
After a snack we headed off back east on our journey back to Alice with several stops to go. Luckily, although forecasted to be 40oC the day was quite overcast. So hopefully it stays like this so we can do our planned walks. We headed down the road to Redbank Gorge and set off on a walk down the the banks of the dried up river towards the gorge. I reckon we got half way down with not much to look at and all decided to turn around and walk back as we were all hot and had little water left. Marty and all the kids decided to walk down in the dry river, which in turn gave Mark, Amanda and l a peaceful journey back to the car!
We drove into Glenn Helen Gorge and just viewed it in the car, just as we did 10 years ago. We were a tad hot still from our last walk, and besides, just down the road was Ormiston Gorge where we were going to have lunch and a dip to cool off....we were all in need of this now. Luckily, Marty and Amanda had prepped days leading up to our day trip and so with all the chopped ingredients we sat and had delicious chicken and salad rolls, followed with gallons of water!!! So thirsty.... After being all fed and watered up, we decided to do the Ghost Gum lookout walk (well Amanda reluctantly agreed, lol). It took 20 minutes and OMG it was punishing! Not physically, but a little 4 year old didn't want to do the walk do cracked it half way up to the point where l could have hurled her off the cliffs edge! Think Marty and Amanda thought that that was my thought so kept an eye in me as l refused to let Meg walk with anyone else. If she was going to crack it then she got to walk with cranky mum! Thank god l cooled down once at the lookout point where we were agin greeted with spectacular views, even Amanda appreciated it after we had to listen to her whinge a little about the steps! The walk downward was much more pleasant with everyone happy the climb up was over with. When we reached the bottom we had a cool icy pole to refresh everyone. Then it was time to change into our batters and walk down for a dip. We all nearly ran to the water like we hadn't seen it for day's! We all jumped in and swam around, kids had a ball. It was so deep and icy cold in places too. Was great to relax, unwind and have some laughs. Amazingly, the place looked exactly the same as l remembered it from our last trip here. Sadly, we had to leave and continue our drive home. We were about half way thru.
Next stop, Ochre Pits. For generations the aboriginals in the area have used this place as a mine for ochre which they use for several different things, such as medicine, body paint, etc. the stunning rock formation almost looks like a painting with all the ochre couloirs spilling out of it. The ochre colors were brilliant, yellow, white, and red. This is also a sacred site so we had to tell the kids to put all the rocks back where they found it and not take them home!!
Last stop, as it was getting late, was Ellery Creek Big Hole. It wasn't a place that l was craving to see, but was mistaken when we arrived. Now this is why it is called the local watering hole! This place is so picturesque! You walk down to the water and you are greeted with these huge majestic red cliffs which has the waterhole and a sandy creek fringed by gums. Absolutely beautiful! There was me need to ask, we all got in with our noodles and boogy boards. It was a bit fresh but the views you got looking up floating thru the middle of the waterhole were well worth feeling a little cold at times. So glad we took our floatation devices too as it was a long swim.
After cooling off we fired up the BBQ abby had salad and kebabs. The kids thought this was great, and to be honest, the whole day was fantastic. So glad that we were able to organize ourselves to do it together with the Woods family. Such a great memory created, thankfully we have a few in Alice now.
After a big day we rocked back into the caravan park around 8pm, not bad really seeing we experienced so much oof the West Macs. Marty and l decided we would go see Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm another time before we leave. Wow, what a day......

Bell Xxx