Thanks to Sally, l have had another great week in Darwin!!! If l hadnt found Sal to hang with, l think l would have gone bonkers. Marty has been working all week, and after l finish school with Boo, theres not much else to do in the day. She has been the best company, had great laughs and its great to talk to someone who understands your frustrations with travelling and doing distance education with the kids. We did a few trips into Palmerston on the bus to do groceries, which has ended up being great as l dont have to do them after work or at night when Marty gets home, it also helps pass a few hours in the arvo. The kids love it to and l think its great for them to learn about the bus system so they wont end up scared of it in later life like l did. One downside to the Palmerston grocery run is the exhausting lugging of the shopping back to the vans. The bus trip is no probs, but the walk from the last bus stop to the van is excrutiating!! I think l have lost feeling in my fingers a few times, and the kids whinging about the walk back in the heat while carrying a light bag of food is nearly intolerable! But like us strong women in the world, Sal and l soldiered through it!! Lol.

Boo's schooling has been gradually getting a little frustrating, especially when it comes to her creative writing exercises, so l went through with one of my threats and phoned Mrs Fowler up when she started carrying on one day. Wish l had of done it sooner as after the conversation with her, Boo has improved ever since!! She made a deal with her only to do creative writing once a week and that she is not allowed to whinge about it anymore, or else she would have to go back to doing it daily. So glad
Mrs Fowler (Gayle) was happy to help with the situation because l had run out of ideas. I also got to have a chat with Gayle and was reassured that Boo is doing fantastic with her reading and writing and is at an impressive level. Makes me feel that we are doing a great job with our teaching methods also....Not long now and she will be having a break from school anyway when Uncle Boof and Aunty Ninny come up for a visit. Boo has done a great job with all the work she has done this term, an excellent effort indeed!!

Since it was coming up to an end for the Perkins staying in Darwin, we decided to head down to the trivia night at the Free Spirit bar one night. The girls were all so excited and got there best clothes and makeup on, with also a bit of bling from their jewellery. Was really cute actually, the lipstick was brilliant!! So we headed down and had the chicken snitzels, which were surprisingly better than l was expecting, then it was game on. Aaron got his competive game face on and ended up winning the warm up game, free entry to Crocodylus Cove!! He and Sal were chuffed as it was on their to do list when her mum comes to visit. Then the trivia questions started and l was amazed at how serious it all got with us, the kids had no idea what had happened to their parents l reckon. We lost the first round, which was ok. Then there was one question that was a pissa in the second round. "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?", well all the kids screamed out "Louise" who is the kids club chick!! So we wrote down the answer as that with not another thought, then when the answers where read out, we were astonished to find the answer was Spongebob!! The kids all looked mortified and we questioned the answer, the lady rang Louise, and ended up giving us the point as Louise told the lady she had been telling the kids that thats were she lived. Such a pissa, however l did feel sorry for Holly as l think she was nearly in tears, l think she truely thought Louise lived in a pineapple under the sea!! With the last round starting, we had all had a few drinks, and were pumped to win. We were astonished to find that when the round finished, we had in fact won!! We were chuffed, we ended up winning a free family pass for both families to Aquascene. A great night out with the treat of rewards as well. The lady running the trivia night also gave us a special giveaway of a free fishing charter, one adult free with one paying, which we ended giving back as we had no time and didnt want to spend another $130 on a failed fishing expedition like the boys on Fathers Day. Nice gesture though!! There is hope for Free Spirit after all..... Which is probably a subject l havent touched on much as didnt want to focus on the negatives of our stay too much in the blogs. But since lve mentioned it ld better explain. This park is probably the worst run and customer focussed on satisfaction that we have ever stayed at. For one, the amenities are always dirty and out of paper. The area where we are is overtaken with grotty backpackers who think they own the place, taking over the kitchen and amenity area with all their laptops and food and rubbish. The noise at night from their drunken games and music gets tiring, and no matter how much you complain, nothing really gets done about it. Lastly the girls in the office are very defensive and hastly towards any critisism or questioning about anything, and get on the attck very quickly. Sorry about the vent, but had to put it out there.....

Unfortunately my shift got cancelled on Saturday, so we ended up ticking some touristy things off the list. We lounged around in the morning, catching up on a few jobs, then headed into Darwin after lunch. We drove out to East Point, purely for me to take some photos ld been wanting to take. Then we headed into Fanny Bay and took a quick tour of the Gaol. It was gold coin donation for entry and it was so interesting. Marty and l had been there when we last were in Darwin, ten years ago, and they have actually improved the site. It is so much more informative and better set out than when we last visited. Was interesting seeing photos of how it looked after Cyclone Tracy and also how they used to take the prisoners across the road to bath in the ocean and empty their toilet buckets out. Meg was painful and whinged all the time, saying it was too hot. Boo had her moments but was impressed that she stopped and read some of the info about the gaol. They had a gallows set up and it took a little time to explain the way it worked and why people where hung for punishment back in the old day, but l think she understood. Dont know if it was right to tell her all the info, but it is a part of history. After the gaol, we headed into Stokes Wharf to meet the Perkins to have a fish off the wharf. They had just gone to pick up Sals mum from the airport, they were all very excited to see her. We all baited up the hooks and cast our lines out, a few little bites happened, after which Marty caught a medium sized fish, which he had to throw back in. Aaron got cometitive, but couldnt catch one. Marty baited up the line for Meg and cast it out. Meg thought she felt a nip so wound it up and yelled "l caught a fish!", she was so certain of it, pity it was just the pilcher Marty had put on as bait. Well if that wasnt funny enough, it happened another two times, and there was no way we could tell her that she hadnt caught the fish, she was certain she had! Total crack up, and funny still, the fish was hooked on its tail, not through its mouth....lol After fishing, the we decided we would have a splurge for dinner and walked down to the end of the wharf to the "Crustaceans Restaraunt", apparrantly its number 2 restuarant in town. It was very ritzy looking but the prices seemed reasonable, and better still, kids ate free with any adult meal purchased. We enjoyed a beautiful meal overlooking the ocean and magnificant sunset. Had a few drinks which added to the atmosphere and the kids enjoyed having a meal out l think, rather than the usual cooked meals we were dishing out. All in all, a great day out that was very spontaneous. As l say, things happen for a reason, and l wasnt meant to work on Saturday,.

Well on Sunday l wasnt meant to work either, again l got cancelled. Bit of bad luck, but oh well, we decided to take it as a positive and make another day of being a tourist. First we went and used our Aquascene free family pass and did the fish feeding thng at Doctors Gully. The kids loved it, and it was amazing to see how many big fish there were. After an hour or so, we headed off to the Aviation Museum to check out the B52 bomber plane. Now l wasnt too excited with this but Marty had been keen to go ever since arriving in Darwin. Well it ended up being a great surprise that l was truly fascinated at this beast of an aircraft. It was huge, it took up all the space in the hanger. It is also the only one on display in the Southern Hemisphere. What a brilliant piece of machinery, it astounds me that pilots have the balls to fly this aircraft, it was bloody huge! Boo was a bit ratty and spoilt the time a tad, so l just put her in a corner whilst we continued to look at all the history on display. After a while l went and got her and her mood improved thank god! We had some lunch back at the caravan park and packed the car and did a road trip out to Berry Springs. This would be our second time here and most likely our last. We had a brilliant afternoon of floating up and down the four pools, girls remembered their goggles this time, so enjoyed hunting for fish! Down the end of the forth pool there was a tree swing and Boo was eager to give it a go, so we gave her the nod and off she went. She did a great job andou could tell she had a blast. So l thought, why not? I had never had a go on a tree swing before and if my 6 year old daughter could do it, why not me. So up l went, l grabbed the rope and within a second l lost grip and plunged into the water. I would have looked like an idiot, but l was sure l could do this. So up l climbed on the rocks again and gave it another go. I nailed it! I was so chuffed with myself, another tick off 'the first list'. Then Marty must have seen how much fun we had and gave it a go too. somuch fun, was a great afternoon with us all together by ourselves. An unexpected wonderful weekend of play and fun, the days we love!!

Bell Xxx