So here it is: my first blog from Katherine.

I’m sitting at a friend’s place where I am house sitting for a month. Van Morrisson’s ‘Astral Weeks’ flooding out of the speakers, my skirt is hitched up into my undies to cope with the heat (but I’m still covered in a sheen of sweat, almost sparkly), and I’ve probably got pasta sauce on my face left over from dinner. The rain is pouring down outside, as we’re at the tail end of the wet season.

When I left Melbourne, Mum was looking pretty stressed out, I was kinda flustered, but in all pretty calm about the whole thing. On the way to the airport I told Sheila that I was starting to feel nervous – she laughed, probably thinking that it was about time, and that it was a bit late for second thoughts.

After a debacle at the gate – I had forgotten that my leatherman was in my hand luggage, and, as it was a going away present, I could hardly leave it behind to be thrown away – to which John gallantly came to the rescue, things went pretty smoothly; we waited at gate 5 and then onto the plane I went.

Nothing prepared me for the elation I felt as the plane took off. I could not keep the smile off my face as Melbourne sank below me and the sun sank below the horizon. Excitement took me over and I gleefully sat, staring out the window. (Jude you’ll be pleased to know, I’m now listening to Leonard Cohen).

I touched down in Darwin where I caught about 6hrs’ sleep before heading in to Katherine on the Greyhound bus.

I’ve been in Katherine for 5 days now. The most exciting thing, apart from the fact that I’m house sitting and don’t have to look for a place of my own for a month (well, I really should start looking before then, but this week’s Katherine Times’ Classifieds section is looking pretty bare!), is that I have a work laptop (on which I am typing right this moment). So even though I don’t have internet access at the house, I can still type posts without having to spend millions of dollars at an internet café.

The most bizarre thing I have encountered at work at the moment, is that they have told me not to expect to get anything done in the first month or so. Everyone’s quite relaxed about it, but I hope to have something to show for myself by that time. However, I have been spending this week getting my bearings, finding out about the office, the people, and Katherine in general.

Things I have found out so far: there is a choir (which I am planning on joining once is gets up and running for this year); I may be able to get my hands on a piano (the principal of one of the local schools told me there may be a spare piano there); everything in within walking distance of everything else (well, almost).

Well, that’s me signing off for now. I think I’ll be quite busy in the upcoming week, but I’ll endeavour to get another one of these up ere long.

xxx

P.S. I am going to have to start riding a bike. Eek! (Imo, you know what this means!)
P.P.S. I discovered this morning that there is a frog living in the toilet: every time you flush, you can see it's little legs wiggle as it scrambles to get back up into the cistern!