Katherine's Diary

A link you may or may not be interested in reading

2010-02-03T05:21:00.000-08:00

Boring title, tweeny post, potentially fascinating paper.

UPDATE: ok, upon reflection that was an incredibly lame post with zero substance. Who am I to assume you'll just read anything I link without knowing hide nor hair of the matter? (to those of you who did read it, hope it cut the mustard...). The above link is to a report: "The First Ever Northern Territory Homelands/Outstations Policy". This report puts the recent government policy re Indigenous Community housing into historical perspective.

Old Ladies

2009-10-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

I have just been marveling on how old ladies can be so similar yet different. I volunteer at a book exchange which has occasionally brought me into the path of embittered old ladies (both volunteers and customers) who shake their heads and mutter at the state of Katherine Town: the litter, the graffiti, the antisocial behaviour. (More often than not, these comments develop a racial bent which prompts me to change the topic or flee)

Today I got chatting with an old aboriginal lady who hangs out under a tree near the book shop. As our conversation progressed, she shook her head and began to mutter about the state of Katherine Town: the litter, the graffiti, the antisocial behaviour. I thought to myself how in agreement all these ladies are. How dissatisfied with the youth of today, how disapproving. How in harmony their opinions.

Where is the big shady tree under which we can all sit to air and compare our grievances?

Show us your prefix!

2009-03-24T18:12:00.001-07:00

Have just returned from the wonderful nerd-up that was the Australian Languages Workshop 2009 held at the beautiful Kioloa - ANU's coastal Campus. To any budding linguist (whose cunning is yet to be discovered) it was real-life immersion in one's undergrad bibliography - and they say immersion is a great way to learn!

Topics and issues were from the fun and finicky (getting down and dirty with the nitty gritty of various grammatical, phonological, semantic question marks of particular languages) to the political hot potatoes (the bilingual debate, language ownership vs. linguistic thievery, and various other Governmental and just plain mental decisions which are wreaking havoc on the world's most endangered languages).

Of course, there were puns aplenty and jocular (but jovial) slinging matches between the longstanding linguistic heavy weights of Australian Linguistics. A section of the lingo-blogosphere was also present: Jangari, Sophie, Jane, Bulanjdjan (and any I have forgotten) it was great to see you in the flesh.

Well, word to the nerd! Hope to do it all again next year.

Ma.

stuff (and nonsense?)

2009-02-28T04:08:00.000-08:00

I hope I didn't offend my (myriad!) of fans with the title of my (unfortunately over two months ago :S) post. Anyone who clicked on the link would have found a book with the same title as my blog, but whose subtitle imitated (in the negative) the title of the previous post.

(I'm not sure whether I should apologise for all the brackets - it must be the mood I'm in, hopfully my ranting is still somewhat legible through all these curved wossnames)

Felt like I should write, as I haven't in ages, but not sure what about. But that hasn't stopped me before, so perhaps I should just plow on? I know at least one munanga (moo-nang-ah: Eastside Kriol for 'whitefella') who shares my pain of literary blockage.

I've recently had two amphibian visitors, photos of whom I won't post here because they can be found here.

I s'pose, in the grand scheme, many things have been afoot in the last two months. Many or you may know that I have changed jobs. I have just spent my first week at the new one, still getting a handle on things. I've also managed to contract Ross River Fever - which, apart from being an exotic tropical disease - hasn't got much going for it. Oh well, lots of rest, DVDs and mooching is on the cards for me. I'm already Bollywooded out.

Our (in)famous Taj household is also in a state of newness and change at the moment. On beloved friend, former colleague and most valued compadre, has left us for the humid climes of the Darwinian big smoke; while another soon-to-be-beloved friend, not-likely-ever-colleague, and all round great gal, will be moving in at the end of the week. The King and I plow through these changes in a festive and party-like manner -rekindling my love of rope-lights at every opportunity:

Well, I'm all posted out for now. Hope you guys are still kicken on in good fashion. Catch you soon. xxx

Bobo.

(Rembarrnga language for 'that's all')

Not the story of a transexual

2008-12-02T03:26:00.000-08:00

So I came across this in a bookshop today.

In other news I'll be in Melbourne next week. Apart from that, not much to report to you guys at this point. Only that I'm looking forward to catching you Melbourne crew when I'm down under in a couple of days' time (please not my fully sic apostrophe); I'm in one piece and intend to remain so for the foreseeable future; I'm enjoying being surrounded by geeks/nerds (never really could distinguish a meaningful difference, c'mon guys, help me out in the comments) this week.

Marntaj.

Hottober

2008-10-11T00:04:00.000-07:00

A month of increasing humidity and high thirties temperatures. We've had a few sporadic patches of rain, interspersed with sporadic parental visits: Mother and her man have been trekking through the desert. They graced us at the Taj with their presence before kidnapping me for a several day sight see of Litchfield before depositing me in Darwin for a weekend out on the town. They endured the sticky top end capital for a while, but ventured back down to drier (though still fairly sweltering) Katherine and have now embarked on the homeward stretch to the cooler climes of Southern Oz via Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

I, meanwhile, who have been slogging away at work, have somehow accumulated the busiest schedule in the history of the world for the hottest season of the year. My timetable as of the coming week includes: A week at Jilkminggan, three days in Batchelor to tutor, another week at Jilkminggan, a week in town (or possibly Ngukurr), a week in Jilkminggan, another three days in Batchelor, another week in Jilkminggan. Thankfully all this will be topped off with a visit to Sydney for Summerfest2008, and then on to Mtown for a brill xmas with family and friends.

Hope Mtown is keeping all you groovers satisfied with its bookshops, cafés, and whatnot.

Mayawa,

(Mangarrayi: that's all)

Waist Management

2008-09-02T00:09:00.000-07:00

So it turns out at the weather gets hotter I start craving sugar, chocolate bars and ice cold milk shakes. What makes this a particularly bad recipe is that as it gets hotter, I feel more and more slothful, only able to muster enough energy to sigh about how hot it's getting. Ok, well that's a slight exaggeration. But not for long; soon the buildup will be in full swing (it has been dubbed by meteorologists to have already started) and sweat will roll, heads will loll, and moans will escape parched lips.

So, apart from vague hopes of being able to sweat it all out, my cravings seem to be leading to an impractical layer of insulation around the middle. Oh well.... at least laps at the pool are more appealing (though the sweltering bike ride to and from may be something to be endured)... Lolling in the Taj pool is much more likely.

Well, haven't heard from any of you Melbourne mob in a while (perhaps it is because you have disowned me for gratuitous use of the word 'mob'?). Hope all well in the down under of down under.

xx Love from the North. xxx

Racism sucks

2008-08-16T19:56:00.001-07:00

I've just come from 2 hours' volunteering at the book exchange. Some days this involves being flooded with customers - mostly tourists, interspersed with some locals and occasionally friends who drop in to say hi and laugh at the 80s sewing patterns which are accumulating in the art and craft corner. Other days, it involves sitting with a book or a crossword (or, in today's case, a Sudoku) enjoying peace and quiet, not a customer in sight.

Today looked like it was going to be a 'no customer' day. After one and a half hours, a lovely old lady came in. Dissatisfied with her current Miss Marple, she perused the shelves for another murder mystery. She settled on another Agatha Christie which we both hoped to be better. She was traveling on the Ghan - the only way to do it: first class!; She enquired about my dreadlocks - Now that I'm up close to someone with them, I've always wanted to ask: how do you wash them? As she was leaving, she told me how disgusted she was with the amount of rubbish around the tourists information centre. Somehow, her disgruntlement at the litter escalated into sweeping generalisations that 'Aboriginals' were responsible for it, and that 'the white man' shouldn't be cleaning up after 'them'.

I grappled with self-composure while trying to dissuade her of her assumptions by pointing out that many Indigenous people are employed, work hard, don't throw rubbish around, while many white, highly educated tertiary students leave rubbish all over university grounds, and that you can't make statements about an entire race based on the behaviour of a couple of people you saw in a public place. She would not be moved. She continued 'us'-ing and 'them'-ing, and making irrational arguments about how well behaved 'they' were in Darwin (because there's less rubbish in Darwin - heaven forbid this has anything to do with our respective town councils' diligence in rubbish collection! No! It must be how 'they' behave themselves that accounts for Darwin's messlessness!).

This is not the first time I've encountered racism. Nor, unfortunately, will it be the last. Whether it's locals or visitors, I am always astounded (not to mention disgusted) that this attitude persists, almost unchecked.

When I complained in person to the local rag about a racist cartoon published last January, they told me to write a letter:

Thumbs down to [the local rag] for publishing such a distasteful, nasty and racist cartoon last week. With the theme 'Australia Day' no less! Are there no moral guidelines (let alone media guidelines) to prevent such a things from going to press?

Despite short letters being preferred, mine was never printed.

Racism is something that isn't talked about in this town. Redneck locals will knowingly confide to each other their opinions on 'their' alcoholism, unemployment, social dysfunction, domestic violence, packaging their prejudice neatly into one term: 'anti-social behaviour'.

Nothing could be more anti-social than racism.

P.S. Despite the misanthropic bent of this post, it ain't all bad; check out what I'm going to next weekend: Lipstick and Ochre.

Kath to ELQ

2008-08-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Guess where I went on the weekend?

If you guessed El Questro Wilderness Park then you are spot on. :) Different timezone: sunsets at 5:15pm and sunrises at 5:00am (as opposed to the 6:30am NT sunrises I which I happily sleep through). Temperate climes and fantabulous company (the King and the Legal Eagle). A total distance of 604km and about 7hrs' driving. Top it off with a swag under the stars, a photo shoot with yours truly the Hoochery, and some gorge-ous hikes. Ah, bliss!

Here's the rootin' tootin' route:

Punyu!

(Gurindji: awesome!)

Welcome to the Taj

2008-07-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Rules:

- 1. Anything can be recycled if you put your mind to it.

- 2. Learn Backgammon. Right now; off you go!

- 3. Keep the clutter off the bench.

- 4. There is no rule four.

- 5. Don't bump the gate. This includes the King!

Consumables:

- The Lord's Classic, or Roo'n'Salad (pron. 'Ruined Salad')

- Orgasms, aka The Best Coffee in the NT.

- I-can't-believe-it's-not-baked goodies.

- Champion's Breakfast

- Fridge Surprise

Delights:

- The King's "Good morning! Good morning!" sung in the wee hours.

- Noodlicious Pool Volley Ball.

- Charm.

Cardinal Sins:

- not refilling the ice-block tray.

- plugging country music at high volumes on Saturday mornings from neighbouring houses.

- lobbing petrol bombs into the yard.

- buying the product because the packaging will look cool when recycled.

Tajisms:

- Fresh as a lettuce (trans. bright eyed and bushy tailed)

- Fresh as a Woolies lettuce (trans. not so bright eyed and bushy tailed; often a descriptor of those who may have boogied at the Base the previous evening)

- Have you been eating clown shit? (trans. Who's a f***ing comedian!?)

- Captain Selfish (def. something created from uninhibited, free and conscious choice for the self and the self alone).

It is TIME

2008-06-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

So, I guess it's time for a new blog. Perhaps a not-so-cryptic one this time.

What's the haps?

I'm going to Barunga (pronounced Bar-oong-a) Festival tomorrow morning. This year we have a stall there, with all our languagey wares. Am looking forward to it, and hoping that manning stall won't interfere too much with participating in all the other festival activities, such as witnessing the spear throwing contest, or the road-safety song comp. V. excited about seeing Archie Roach, as found one of his albums in plastic bag of random tapes in back of previous house's linen-press and have grown quite fond of it.

In other news: I spent the first half of this week relearning what cold crisp air smells like: four days in Alice Springs for professional development was just what the doctor ordered. Though, two 16hr bus rides in one week is a little taxing, one has to admit! The trip resulted in a new ambition: to see the Todd River flowing through Alice. It only happens every couple of years, and it hasn't even rained in Alice for over a year.

Thanks to all concerned re my stressful situation. Things are still quite strange, though I am now in possession of the notion that things will be ok, the sun will rise tomorrow (and even tomorrow's tomorrow!), and, thank you Gloria Gaynor, I will survive. Truth be told, things are even becoming somewhat humorous as new an bewildering events unfold before my eyes.

Well yumob,

That's all for now. Please update me on what's your haps in the comments.

Ngulajuku
(Warlpiri: That's all)
(Pron: Ngoo-la-joo-goo)

The new coriander of the herban mob?

2008-05-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yes. You've found me out, readers: I am, in fact, blogging purely because I thought of a title idea and had to put it somewhere. I could have micro-blogged on Facebook, I s'pose, but this one felt too titlish: I just had to splash it out to the world at large. Please comment if you need further explanation. Interpretations welcome.

Addendum: Upon rereading this post, I feel I should provide at least some explanation (however, obscurity is still my object)

Most people who know me know how I feel about Coriander.
Herban is a hyper-correction.

This title is chiefly for Lol.

Again, I invite interpretations of the title...

[insert expletive of your choice]!

2008-05-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

Well well well. There's water in a well, and there's bullshit in corrupt, nepotistic, power-tripping maniacs. Especially when there's two of them.

But there's at least some entertainment value in 'evil stupidity' (as it has been dubbed - something like the antithesis to 'evil genius'). And one can only trust one's ideals that, some time soon, sanity will prevail (chuh!). Where's the good? Where's the rationality? Where's my union membership? (Ah, here it is! Phew!)

And besides, it's only because I have an attitude problem (or so the new king dick accuses!) that any of this is in the least difficult, uncomfortable, distressing or - let's face it - of questionable legality. And that's not to mention the lack of etiquette for the whole thing. Gosh. Unthinkably arseholic adventures are afoot. See you on the other side!

Blogging about blogging about blogging about blogging about blogging... for the sake of it

2008-05-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

Judging by the complete lack of response to my last post, perhaps I should presume only to blog when I have something in mind I wish to blog about, rather than blogging for the sake of it.

This brings me to by current dilema of whether I can justify blogging about not having anything to blog about. Is this enough of any excuse? Or is it as lame as blogging for the sake of it?

Well, I guess I'll let you readermob decide; and your silence (or lack thereof) will dictate whether I continue on in my ranty ways, or whether I defect and start writing some quality prose, not just blogging for the sake of it.

I s'pose, one thing I haven't considered here is that perhaps your silence is no slight against me; perhaps it is nothing to do with how 'for the sake of it'-bloggy the previous post was; it could be purely the product of youse guys busy in your busy lives, not having hours and hours of free time to scour the internet for trashy blogs written by people who just blog for the sake of it.

Well, I feel sufficiently themed to leave y'all now, in peace or in confusion. Perhaps one day I'll blog about something so uber-cool, that my stat counter (had I one) will explode from the strain. But not today, for I suspect even today, I've been blogging for the sake of it.

Humbuggery

2008-04-24T00:26:00.000-07:00

Ahoi hoi All!

I'm sitting in the office, it's close of day, and I'm about to go home. Day has seemed extra long, but somehow I made it through to the end of the day. Tomorrow, some of my friends and I are going to on an overnight hike to Sweetwater pool at Edith Falls. It's only a short hike, and there's a swimming hole at the end of it, so we're all looking forward to it.

What have you mob been up to? (You'll notice, I've adopted some Northern Territory-ese, but Dee, I'll try not to say 'thing')

Umm, Imo's friend Jess came over for tea, and then cooked us tea. There are about a gazillion linguists buzzing round the office at the moment - there are heaps of visiting linguists - Hello yumob! It's all very exciting, we had two of them over for tea on Tuesday night. S - my non-linguist housemate - made a swift exit while L, myself, and our two guests nerded it up discussing the origins of the word 'torte' and how to spell the sound [u]. What fun :)

Well, I have to toddle off and check my scrabulous scores before the 'Woolies run' for the camping trip.

Si Yumob.

What’s a good thing for a hangover?

2008-04-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

Drinking heavily the night before.

Well, here’s my most recent recipe:
Ingredients
1 Friday night
1 generous shot Benedictine over ice
1 boogie to local radio show hosts by boss and housemate
5 glasses red wine
Several pieces garlic damper
1 slice Tziki[sic – that’s how they spell it on the menu!] Pizza
1 shot Jägermeister
1 bottle lime flavoured beer (?!)
1 boogie to classics blaring from the local pub
1 pot unidentified alcoholic beverage bought by your mate (prob vodka/lemonade)
-1 Captain Selfish snack
Some water

Method (huh! there was no method to this madness!)
Take Friday night, preferably sapped of energy from the preceding week’s work. Add alcohol continuously (pausing for pizza) stirring occasionally with boogies from local radio, and pub classics. Return home, watch housemate cook and consume food. Note: do not consume food yourself, as this would undermine the spectacularity of your hangover. Drink token glasses of water, not too much, for same reason.

Cooking time: Allow to stew for 6hrs’ restless sleep, interspersed with several toilet breaks. Serve at 8am on the porcelain bus.

Marching out of March

2008-03-30T15:47:00.001-07:00

Here we are again at the end of another month. The chocolate festival has passed and we’re back to a full five day week. But don’t despair: choir is starting in two weeks; there’s a conference in Sydney coming up; and dry season has started (officially, as in, according to meteorologists and everything).

So, Easter: I spent the first two days recovering from a cold, lazing around the house and reading Gone with the Wind. I finally finished it on Easter Saturday night. Hurrah, hurroo! Sunday brought Erica and Dean from the South, and we have a fantabulous time ‘chilling’ in the pool, catching up on goss (oh, the goss!) and enjoying Katherine in all its glory. Post-Egg-Day Picnic at Low Level by the Katherine River; Erica Ordinary’s debut performance at one of the local taverns. And I do believe E&D even enjoyed themselves, despite the lack of the much hankered for last-night-in-town piss up.

We had a couple of showers last week – the knock-em-down rains. Many blades of spear grass, which was as tall as me, is standing crooked and forlorn, snapped by the weight of massive rain drops pelted from a great hight. These are the last rains of the wet, signalling the dry. We are now in for months of clear blue sky, days of 28~30°C, nights just crisp enough to warrant long legged pyjamas, and we might occasionally wear long pants, closed-toe shoes, or even socks!

Remind me to water the tomato plant…

It is a truth universally acknowledged...

2008-03-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

...that a single girl in possession of a large book collection must be in want of a life. But instead she opted to pay the book lovers’ society of her choice squillions of dollars and expanded her collection. After all, she lived in a small country town where exciting things were afoot every other weekend. The excitement of life seemed to seek her out, and she relished the stolen few minutes here and there when she would snatch a few more words, paragraphs, pages of a treasured tome. Why, just this morning she had left Scarlett Hamilton (nee O’Hara) toiling over the saintly Melanie’s labour pains……

But, I digress. Life in Katherine has been a whirlwind of visitors since last we spoke. The two solid weeks’ stay of work’s fabulous and newest recruit (delayed on her way to Ngukurr due to the inequitable levels of rivers to roads) was peppered with visits from people up from Kalkarindji, down from Darwin, people going down to Kalkarindji from Darwin, sleep overs from Jilkminggan, and Southern guests up for a taste of NT relaxation. In addition to this, a rogue Mexican has taken up residence for a couple of weeks; however, he makes excellent coffee, so he can stay till the weekend.

We were going to have an Irish guest for the St Paddy’s day weekend, but she got a better offer, so we’ll be indulging in a little ‘sog time’ – possibly in front of the BBC’s definitive Pride and Prejudice. Our systems are in need of purging after sitting through a whole 2hrs of Kira Knighly’s breastlessness and Judy Dench’s disappointing deBurgh. (Though Darcy did get a little more ruggedly handsome with a second viewing… *smoulder*)

It has rained a lot. The waters of the Katherine flowed around 4m last Saturday. By Sunday, less than 24hrs later, the watermark was lapping half way up 11. But be not alarmed compadres! No one starts worrying around these here parts till the water hits at least 16.

In the mean time, I’ve been recovering from a cold, exacerbating my insomnia with Gone with the Wind, and rescuing baby green tree frogs from my bedroom (I have no idea how they get in there, but they’re sooo cute!)

Anyway, bed and book are calling me, so I’ll bid you adieu with my latest Kira Knightly impression:

Ai kaan jinggabat neim blanga dijan poust

2008-02-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

I have had so many ideas for my ‘next post’ that I must have been too intimidated by myself to write any of them down, or, indeed, post anything. So here goes with a regular, start from scratch, no plans, post.

Umm…. And this is the part where I get tongue tied (or finger tied? Or whatever it is when you’re typing not talking!). So many things have transpired since last I wrote. It’s difficult to know where to start, especially since I’m writing this in a hotel room as a word document, so can’t even refer to my last post for a few pointers.

Well, hotel room’s not exactly right; but perhaps that’s a good place to start: I’m in some form of paid accommodation, about 200km North of the Taj (for photos of which, my dear friends, you’ll have to wait till Dee puts them on FB as I forgot to transfer them to my USB ere her southern bound return trip.. will see what I can do). I’m up here tutoring the Diploma of Interpreting at BIITE (google it; can’t be bothered expanding the acronym) in a town called Batchelor, till Wednesday. It’s rained near constantly since my arrival, and I left Katherine River at 7m and rising on Sunday afternoon (don’t worry, it has to get to over 18 before we really panic!). The turn off to Batchelor from the Stuart HWY is sporadically cut off throughout the day as the creek rises and recedes every couple of hours, so whether I can get back to the big K is another story altogether! Well, that’s an over dramaticalisation, but hey!

In other news, I travelled to Melbourne for xmas and New Year, spending a spectacular night on the beach watching an electrical storm out to see, meeting some cool new people, but mainly rekindling my love for all you, my dear readers, my old friends, my People. It was fantastic to catch up with each and every one of you. I’m sorry to any who I missed, and look forward to another whirlwind Melb tour some time mid year.

Upon my return to the big K, I plunged back into the madness of full-time-work-after-two-weeks’-leave, which was even more maddening as I had only three weeks in which to cram things before another two week holiday (woe betide the time-poor linguist who applies for holidays in the month of February!). Dee came for a visit which pacifically [sic] entailed two funfilled trips to Darwin, swimming at Umbrawarra Gorge, a sight seeing road trip to Timber Creek, scenic sunrise flying over Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) and Leliyn (Edith Falls), many dips in the body of water lying just west of the Taj, feeding Maru the cat, and lots of time with hot glue, drawing pins, interestingly stained giant foam, and egg cartons. Oh and caves, lots of caves. And a disturbingly friendly caveman. And don’t forget the backgammon!

Dee, I started missing you before you’d even left. And it was very strange not seeing you everyday – I’d grown accustomed to your face! I hope you have a great time, we had a great time hosting you, and you are welcome back when e’er you wish. ☺

Since then it’s been ‘back on the horse’ and ‘go go go!’, gee up Hooch, you’ve got interpreters to book and train, recordings to edit, and Kriol courses to run. Leisure time was filled on the weekend with the most frustrating, disappointing, let down of a Film Festival of my life. Indeed, I challenge anyone to compete with the incompetence and misfortune which betide the local cinema.

Beware: what ensues is a purging of frustrations. It may not be coherent, or even interesting; if you dare, dear reader, read on.
The first feature came to a climactic nadir when, in the midst of the action, just as the baddy was admitting all the glory of his badness, the film cut out and the lights came on. A minute later, after groans from the audience (who are not unfamiliar with such mishaps occurring in said cinema) the film came back on, and in silence, we could only lip read the end of the menacing monologue. Grr, mildly frustrating, turns out there was some stickytape on the film, oh well, let’s hope they keep and eye out and it won’t happen again. Not so, my friend, not so. The second film suffered the exact same cut out/lights on fiasco, though it failed to be quite as timely. The third (which you’d think could not be topped until you hear the fourth!) started to play upside down with no sound a bit after halfway through. We were told that the film canisters had been labelled wrongly, though our confidence in the projectionist’s abilities were wearing thin at thin point. Yet again, the following day, Katherine’s film fest frequenters, (oh the masochism!) decided to brave another ‘cinematic experience’. Collective and disheartened laughter rippled in disbelief across the audience as the short came on with no sound. In silent horror we watched as we contemplated leaving. For some bizarre reason most of us stayed. A belated apology from the festival host along the lines of ‘sorry, we’ll try to get some sound for the feature’, was met with more groans. We were at the end of our tether, or so we thought. In vain hope, we remained in our seats. The feature came, and – for a moment – all was well; there was sound and everything! From about 15minutes into the film, the sound kept cutting out. But the stubborn film goer clung to the subtitles (yay for foreign films!). We watched the better part of it in silence, a silence broken by someone answering their phone with ‘I’m at the movies and there’s no sound’, then broken by pop music pumping from the speakers, then by a crackly tapping as though someone was testing a mic. Suffice to say I did not stay for the second feature that evening. Alas for those who braved the inevitable. For it is just that, inevitable: our tropical wet season begat a town-wide power failure that not even the local cinema could withstand.

Not Property

2007-11-04T00:03:00.000-07:00

So. The news when last we spoke was that I didn't have to vacate my lovely home. Well. Three cheers for realestate arseholes, oops I mean, agents! Apparently she hadn't checked with the landlord before offering us a new lease, and when she checked, the landlord said no. Grr. To top it all off, I found this out the day after I had acquired a new housemate. Double grr.

Anyway, the realestate agent is _trying_ to look after us, so hopefully we'll find something soon. Getting information out of her is like getting blood out of a stone, though. And at least I now have someone to move out with, so I'm not on my own. My biggest drama is moving the piano, but whatever happens I think I'll come out of this ordeal relatively unscathed.

In other news, work dramas have finally somewhat sorted themselves.

Friday night we went out on the town, first to a colleague's son's 18th, then a cocktail party, then the Base (the only night club in town - and a pretty seedy one at that). It was great fun. At te cocktail party we started playing cards cs there were only four of us. But when some others turned up, we ran around and hid the cards so that we wouldn't taint our reputation as the coolest cats in town (sorry Wamut, your crazy cardplaying antics have been outed via blog!). We carved up the dancefloor at the Base till 4am then walked home.

Saturday was a bit of a fizzer, with the last Tick Market of the season being washed out. Then today my housemate had her "Sii Yoooo" party at the pool, cos she is moving to Darwin next week. We spent most of the time slipping and sliding over the inflatable 'Commando' course. Then the rain poured down and we sat under cover eating sausages and cooing over babies.

No other news really. The subtle admirer has made no further moves, nor has the stalker. So this is me in a nutshell:

Romance: nil
Home: soon to be nil
Work: was looking like nil, but prospects are much better now.

(no, wait, this is me in a nutshell: "help I'm in a nutshell!")

I've been on a bit of a whingey platform what with all this upheaval, I promise I'll have more interesting things to say when the house stuff is settled.

Well, farewell for now. Please comment. Kel, your updates and conversation have been awesome. Hope you are all well.

xx

P.S. Enjoy

Hot Property

2007-10-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it would appear my house isn't, as the sale fell through and now I don't have to move! YAY me. However my housemate is moving to Darwin and so I am looking for new housemates. I am meeting one on Monday night who might move in as early as sometime this week. We're going to check each other out on Monday to make sure we're not psychos.

But in regards to the title, apparently I am. I have accumulated a stalker and a subtle admirer (I think he's an admirer, but hey, let's hope I'm wrong :P ). And who wouldn't admire someone who looks like this:

The stalker seems to be leaving me alone now that I am ignoring his txts, but it got nasty for a while there. Giving me a whole new level of stress to add to my already undelightful work situation. But enough of that, I wont harp on about it here, I'll just let you know when it is all resolved - hopefully soon.

So. The main reason I'm writing is that it's been a while. Also, it's a request for comments, cos I would love to know what you guys are up to and I never have time enough to email everybody individually.

I really loved catching up with everybody in Melb. and those with whom I didn't, thanks for your txts and facebook comments - we'll do it next time; maybe over xmas.

Well, it's late and have a staff meeting tomorrow, so be safe, stay well, party on, and I'll try not to leave it too long till the next installment.

Adieu.

2007-10-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

Katherine Times and the headlines are cheesy.
Cane toads are jumping,
And river is high.
So the mango’s rich,
And the paper comes weekly.
No rush little baby,
It’s NT time.

One of these mornings,
Big mob of campers and caravans,
They’re gonna fill the streets
As the road trains drive by.
And from that moment,
Beneath the cloudless heavens,
You’ll finally notice,
You’ve come to the dry.

If I were a linguist, I'd know when to use subjunctive case

2007-09-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

Howdy, and welcome to another edition of 'Let's talk about me!'

Firstly, I'll update you all on the Piano:

This is my lovely ex-housemate Lyndoll and I being great female stereotypes in THE LAUNDRY (no, not the rocken bar in Johnston St, Fitzroy). But, rather than doing the washing, we are playing the ancient traditional tune: choppus-stickus. Yes that's right: the removalists thought they'd be able to get a Piano into an upstairs house with only two people. Hmph. I didn't witness the debacle, but apparently, their attempts were so nail-bitingly frightening that Catherine and Lyndal had to hide inside lest they witness the not-so-silent slapstick splat of Piano-falling-on-man.

They came around the next day, this time with four people, and all went according to plan. Urrah!

In other news: Work is quite stressful, but this week has also yielded some rewards and I feel like I've acheived something. Sigh. Next week is the second workshop for the Diploma of Interpreting. After that it's a drive to Alice, a flight to Adelaide, a linguist-nerd convention (I mean, conference), and a roadtrip to Melbourne.

I'm really hanging out to see the cats. Apparently Ferdinand is giving mum the silent treament since she got back from the beach. I hope I don't cop the same. Beatrix is a loveable as ever.

Well, catch you in less than a month!

xx

If I was a real Linguistics Nerd…

2007-09-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

I’d tell you all about how delighted I was to find a minimal pair for the retroflex and regular lateral in Mangarrayi.

I’d join the Facebook group ‘So, you’re a linguist, how many languages do you speak?’

I’d tell stories in eight languages with all my linguist nerd friends.

I’d make the punniest jokes.

Oh boy, if only I was a linguistics nerd….

Hang on a minute…… !!!

So anyway, what have I been doing in this fine Katherine Region since last we spoke?

Well, we had a staff meeting in Ngukurr and got to check out Wamut’s language centre. We were all blown away at the amazing work going on there. The journey was 4.5hrs each way. And we managed to get addicted to a card game called Liggretto which Betti, our German work experience girl, brought from OS. Here is the road we travelled:

Fathers’ Day passed fairly quietly with txt messages from Mum, Ned and Imo. Hope you guys are all doing well, miss you, love you etc. A cool thing Ned discovered through predictive txt was that ‘David’ and ‘Father’ share the same letters (well, up to the e anyway). So all our Farthers’ Day messages were unwitting txts of memorandum. Kind of cool.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have become addicted to Facebook. In fact, we three housemates sit in the house and, rather than talk to each other, we all sit at our computers and ‘poke’, ‘superpoke’ and ‘pokepro’ each other (not to mention, the bumperstickers, pirate/zombie games, and the newly discovered ‘Scrabulous’ – online
Scrabble). A quite (what I think) strange phenomenon to come from this FB experience, is that it seems to be taking over real life as well. Every time I go to a party, or sometimes in other casual conversations, FB comes up and we all start talking about the online events that have taken place. I am glad for the opportunity to join the groups ‘So you’re a linguist, how many languages do you speak?’ and ‘When I was your age, Pluto was a planet’. Much fun and tongue in cheek to be had, but one must escape back into reality sometimes. This is the place where things like Work and Social Life take place; I must convince myself!

In other, more exciting and more real news: I am getting a Piano (yes, that’s right AJ, a capital P and everything!) delivered on Thursday. Hazzah! (Although I do not relish the thought of discovering just how much technique I have lost since last I tickled the ivories.)

Well, I seem to have rabbited on quite enough. Please update me with all your news. Even if it’s in the comments, or a two line email. I’m really looking forward to seeing most of you in my trip down South next month – Erica, let me know if you’re in Adelaide when I am.

In the words of AJ,

Ciao for niao.

See you on FB! :P

Bloggers' Block

2007-08-11T23:39:00.001-07:00

Hmm… Long time between drinks. Few half backed excuses – the most recent being that I have had bloggers’ block, something which can only be overcome by writing about it.

Prior to suffering the blockage, first I was sick (I was out of commission for about two weeks with a flu/cold combo which left me energyless, exhausted and braindead). Luckily I had accrued enough flextime to get to work late and leave early. Am better now.

Then came the intervention. I had to organise interpreters for many of the community visits which was quite stressful, and filled with many hiccoughs. The stress left me functioning at a bare minimum when I got home, and it was all I could to do lift the remote, turn on the TV and vegetate. A pretty poor excuse for not keeping in touch as much as I’ve been meaning to, but I think I was still getting over the dregs of the cold. Anyway, that’s nearly all over now, and I’m learning all sorts of new and wonderful ways to cope with stress. I must be far down the road to superherodom in that regard (own horn: toot toot!).

If you are interested in reading first hand accounts of some community visits, Wamut and Jangari give their accounts at that Munanga Linguist and Matjin-nehen (the 'h' is pronounced as a glottal stop) respectively.

The most exciting thing happening now, is that I’ve finally been doing some linguistics. And I’ve started on the road to learning a language that has only two fluent speakers left – two sisters. Learning this language involves such wonderful outings as going fishing and recording stories and songs by the river. I have been instructed by the ladies that I must make recordings and listen to them on tape at home, as a previous anthropologist did. Aside from that, after this post I am going to stick posters up on my walls of all kinds of funky pronouns and grammar. You’ll know when I’m starting to feel more confident about it all when I change some of the headings of this blog to language headings, as Jangari has done.

At the moment I’m reading the Diary of Anne Frank. It’s amazing. Highly recommended to anyone with eyeballs.

Another thing I’ve been doing is volunteering at the Book Exchange. I sit in there for 2hrs on a Sunday morning, spending my ‘time of worship’ amongst the books – fitting, think not you? Sometimes it’s busy, sometimes hardly anyone comes through. But you never get bored because you’re surrounded by everything from Romance novels – titles include Indiscretions, Practise Makes Marriage, Husbands on Horseback – to spiritual healing books, children's books, history, geography, science books. I spent this morning reading Here Comes Snoopy – very cute, inflicting all kinds of nostalgia.

Oh, and I have been learning to be hospitable in my new environment – night before last, made a pavlova, and last night had ppl over for DVDs. Thanks Mum: the DVDs you sent up finally arrived this week.

SWOT that issue!

2007-07-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

Secretariat of SNAICC (National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care) has heaps of links to articles and discussion on the child abuse issue. It's also got links to articles which expose the Howard government's continued cuts to funding of projects which were combating the issues of child abuse. Here is an example.

Posting posting sorry to be so few and far between

2007-06-29T01:30:00.000-07:00

Any News or Scandal?

Sup dawgs? Things are just plodding along here. Pretty hectic actually; am looking after a friend’s dog for a month while she’s on holiday, and will be looking after Lauren’s wallabies while she’s out bush next week.

Tilly the dawg

Wobblies Isha and Willum

In other news, I have made my first MD recording: Now I'm a real live linguist and will be archived into the work library and everything!!! :)

So, that’s some of the good stuff that’s happening at the moment.

However, not all is as peachy as that. John Howard’s response to the inquiry into child abuse, Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle “Little Children are Sacred”, has left us quite devastated. He has proposed no solutions to the problem of child abuse, and is using this as an opportunity to take control of Aboriginal land. I hope none of you down south are buying into his bullshit. I wish I could be more eloquent about it, but at the moment, my brain is frozen up in horror from his unbelievable propositions. Please keep your ear to the ground about this issue.

And before I hear off, I'll leave you with some images of me under a pile of kids from next door:

Naughty Nangala!

2007-06-12T00:04:00.000-07:00

Firstly, sorry sorry sorry for not having posted in so long. Hopefully I’ve made it up to a few of you with some of the phonecalls. But, yes, I have been off the radar a bit and very busy to boot.

The main cause of my absence is my weekend exhaustion brought on by several weeks of travelling out of communities. I feel like I’m making it sound more full on than it is, but all the meeting new people, learning new surroundings and 4hr or 6hr bus trips really takes it out of you.

My ‘naughtly nangala’ title also refers to my neglect in taking a camera on any of these expeditions. I do, however, have some photos of my housemates, house warming party, house and new bike to make up for it:
Introducing my housemates Catherine and Lyndal!

From left: Lyndal(zebra), Roger(Colleen’s man), Rob (exhousemate), Me, Josh (tree), Colleen(faerie/linguist).

ButterflyBec. Wallaby wannabes, Enrique and Lauren.

Post party cleaning shenanigans
(recognise those pyjamas, Pa?)
New Bike/New House

New Digs

2007-05-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

This week finds me in my new abode. I’m loving it here – my house mate is lovely, my bed room spacious. The house is raised so the view from every window gives way to the lush tropical tops of trees.

The main thing I miss since moving here is making my morning and afternoon way to work over the rail bridge through Ryan’s Park. My way now, though a similar distance to work, leads me through the town centre, which has a completely different vibe. When I go through the park, I am greeted by the people sitting there, or I greet them, calling out ‘hello’, ‘good morning’ as I pass. Then recently changed, much to my amusement and delight, last week when one of the Warlpiri interpreters introduced me to a group of friends he was sitting with. Now every time I go through the park I am greeted with calls of ‘hello Nangala!’, ‘good morning Nangala!’, ‘hey, Nangala’ Such a welcoming atmosphere. Since moving, my way through town leads me past people who keep their heads down, not looking at me, let alone talking to me. Perhaps this will change in time…

This week I attended my first bush court at Barunga (supposed to be pronounced ‘Bar-ung-a’, but Katherinites usually say ‘Bar-ang-ga’). What’s that? you ask. Bush court is when the Legal Aid lawyers, magistrate, interpreters and correctional services make their way out to communities to conduct court there. Queenie (the interpreter) and myself spent a peaceful day sitting on the grass discussing stories, people, and problems with interpreters. There is another bush court next week
(Timber Creek), the week after (Lajamanu/Kalkarindji), and two weeks after that (Ngukurr). It’s great to be able to see the places and meet the people I have been hearing about. For some places I need to apply for permission to enter through the Northern or Central Land Councils – I have permission, I must carry a permit at all times while on Aboriginal land.

Well, even after my afternoon siesta, I am bushed (writing this Thursday night, though probably posting on Friday morning). Good night all.

Kriol phrase of the week: Maiti ai garra lenim yu lilbit dijan langgwuj.

Raging social scene

2007-05-05T20:05:00.001-07:00

Again apologies for the delay in posting.

Over the last two weeks, I have been busy conducting a Kriol Cultural Awareness Course (for whitefellas) and then an Interpreter Training Workshop (for blackfellas). Although I have been busy, strangely enough, I have not been 'stressed out' - or at least only mildly so. Katherine has done strange and wonderful things to me: I no longer frantically run around as I watch my plans and expectations crumble before my eyes; instead I calmly sit, or walk to the kitchen to make a cuppa, and watch as my plans and expectations crumble before my eyes. It's a much nicer way to do things, I assure you. The NT is seeping into my system - Not today, not tomorrow, not Tuesday, not Thursday, next time. NT.

Kriol course went well. It was my first time conducting the course, and I did so with much guidance from my fellow linguists, Lauren and Salome. We all presented
different aspects of Kriol language and Aboriginal culture in the Katherine region. Three Kriol speakers helped with pronunciation and facilitating conversation in Kriol.

The interpreter training course was coordinated by me, but the actual training was conducted by Michael Cooke, an expert in Aboriginal languages, and much experienced interpreter trainer. We also had several professionals come in and share their experiences and expectations of the interpreters they work with. The main problem with training was the poor turnout - with only one student for the first half of the last day! But on the plus side, it gives me an idea of which interpreters are reliable, and it was good to be able to see their different levels of skill.

The busy couple of weeks has been followed by an insane weekend. Starting on Thursday with my birthday:

Thursday May 3rd:
6:30am. Pancake breakfast at Damian&Aideen's (1)
--- work all day ---
7:30pmish. Impromptu birthday dinner at home - Rob cooked Roo Curry (2), had such famous Katherine faces as Lauren, Enrique and Salome, and Kim, our international guest for the evening.

Friday May 4th:
Back to the grind at work.
6:oopm. Couple of birthday glasses sparkling wine with Rob.
8:00pm. Arrive (fashionably?) late to own birthday drinks at Diggers Den Tavern (3)
11:00pm. Walk up to 24hr Servo for dessert which we ate standing out the front.

Saturday May 5th
10:30am. Coffee at Cafe Dieciocho (4)
2:30pm. Rob cooked fresh pasta for lunch.
3:00pm. Kriol Bible launch at 40th Katherine Christian Convention (5)
7:00pm. First Tick Market of the season (6)
9:00pm. Katherine Country Music Muster (7)

Sunday May 6th
Typing up blog post.
Tonight I will be making my way over to a Mexican dinner party.

Who knows what tomorrow has in store?

(1) Irish friends who moved up here about two weeks after Moi.
(2) He is famous for curry.
(3) Meant to be there 7:30
(4) Lauren&Enrique's house - they have a coffee machine.
(5) Yes, this was the most exciting part of my day - I bought 2 bibles, one for work, and one for me.
(6) Not Flea, Tick. haha, witty Katherine humour, haha! I bought some local honey and an impossible puzzle.
(7) Yep, this lived up to the country music stereotypes you know and love - girls were 'sweet as candy', 'drinking whiskey', we yeehaaed and all.

Catch yas all later!

2007-04-30T06:34:00.000-07:00

*Cough*

back to the bloggin' grind

2007-04-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well, life does get on top of one when one isn't looking if one is not careful, doesn't it?

As, I am too inept (and am not on my own computer, so am feeling even less like 'fiddling around') to draw my bike route from home to work onto this image, you'll just have to use your imagination:

The house I've been sitting in is roughly to the top left hand side of the page. I ride across the southern-most bridge (formerly a rail bridge) across that main road running south there - that's Victoria Hwy - through a big car park (grey patch almost mid left hand side of page), and down the street running parallel to Vic Hwy. My work is that pale blue roof just to the left of the G in Google in the bottom right corner.

I have now been almost a week returned from Sydney at the Critical Link 5 conference on interpreting and translating. I stayed with the lovely Robert, our coolppl Fanboy, who, along with his house mates made me feel quite at home. I hope I didn't intrude too much boys, but I have a great time and you're welcome to crash at mine whenever you find yourself in the big K (yes Steve, this seems most likely to be you, as you seem to get up here quite a bit).

Speaking of 'crashing at mine', this phrase will have a whole new referent in a couple of weeks when I move into my new, more permanent, abode. A couple are moving out of a sharehouse of three, so there's room for the Slomesmeister (Salome) and myself to set up house and home with our friend Catherine (currently famous for being one of the nicest people in Katherine, lending me her car, and starring in our roaming meditation series). All very exciting but no conrete details yet.

In other news, I puposely ran over a Cane Toad the other day. I even reversed to see if I had hit it, and then I felt bad when I saw it's guts popped out onto the road (too graphic? well, I could have included a photo! :P). They hop across the lawn at night, but thankfully the don't come inside so my slipperly little green latrine friends are safe.

Yours truly,

Me. x

Not today, not tomorrow, not Tuesday, not Thursday.

2007-04-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

I’m now entering my sixth week here. Still haven’t found a place, but Salome and I are looking at one on Monday. I’ve borrowed Catherine’s car for a few weeks while she is on holidays, which makes it heaps easier to go house hunting. But there are still hardly any places available. Not to worry. NT has a very stress free, ‘no worries’, vibe – see title.

Having posted as recently as Wednesday, I don’t really have much to say. So instead, I think I’ll share some photos of last Sunday at Edith Falls:

The pool in which we swam

Yours truly (yes Dee, I am wearing my ‘hideously bright’ bathers!)

At least the frogs are clean!

2007-03-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

I found fog footprints in my soap this morning. Most Likely put there by Pluggy, the Foot Prince:

Almost every morning, this guy is sitting on the other side of the ‘bars’ of the plughole, looking up at me. I bid him good morning and inform him I’m going to have a shower. He has a little shower of about ten seconds before he decides to go further down the drain and wait till I’ve finished. Almost every evening I find him in the bath, or somewhere in the bathroom, having climbed up through the bars. He’s such a little fatty; definitely one of my favourites.

This is Bowler, so called, not for his taste in headwear, but rather for his insufferable ability to prevent me from going to the loo in the middle of the night (when it’s pouring with rain outside!) by virtue of the fact that he is staring up at me from the bottom of the bowl.

But enough of my froggy distractions for now; what have I been up to this week?

Well, I’ve definitely been busy:

Friday was Harmony Day at the local high school. This was the first thing that I have had to organise in my role as Town Linguist. The day would have gone considerably better had we not been locked out of the library (where all our activities were based) for 30mins. However, we did get some kids in playing on our language computer games (Bilinarra, Dalabon, Kriol, Ngarinyman, Jaminjung and Ngaliwurru), and Colleen and I played a homemade game of Kriol ‘Twistim’ (‘pudim yu rait hen la bluwan’, ‘pudim yu lef fut la redwan’ [prizes to the first of you to translate that into English in the comments! – this is part one of Kriol distance ed. 101]).

On Saturday afternoon, I went to my first Auction and bought a box of books for $5 – Bargain! Another box I was looking at started to sky rocket beyond $25 dollars, so I let it go. That night saw me at the local high school again, this time for a fundraising trivial night for a heart monitor for Katherine District Hostpital. Apparently a heart monitor is around $5k, and we raised $15k. Huzzah!

Sunday, I planned to sit around, write up my post, and do other fairly non-eventful shenanigans such as dish washing and sweeping the floor (no vacuum – concrete slab). But instead, I was whisked away to Edith Falls with Salome and her housemate, Denis, where we snuck a swim in a secret spot. That night was roaming meditation (as I have taken to calling it). It had roamed to my house, where I served Tofu Stir-fry Thingy (official culinary title), followed by Chai and icecream with blue berries. We then lay on the floor and practised Yoga Nidra for 30mins, guided by one of the other roaming meditator’s tapes. It was a great night.

Monday, I was up earlier than normal (6:30am, instead of 7:15), and off to my 4WD training course at Charles Darwin University. It was heaps of fun, and I got to see a (insert appropriate collective noun here) of cycads and go down into some limestone caves. I failed to cover the vehicle in mud (a jocularly threatened ‘fail’ from my instructor), but did manage to avoid nearly getting bogged. Later, when we were trying to get bogged, we all failed. We had to park in the middle of a pond and winch ourselves. After returning the work car, I stopped by the local Civic Video and hired ‘Erik the Viking’ ($1 weeklies on a Monday – bargain!) for a spontaneous video night with Salome and Queenie (one of our Kriol interpreters).

So that leads me to today. This afternoon I was given a skin name. Now that I have an adopted skin, I can fit into the Aboriginal kinship system. It’s so cool – I have heaps of uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters and even potential husbands! My skin is Nangala, this is a Warlpiri skin. Sometimes it’s difficult to align different skin names from different language groups, so I’m not sure if Nangala means I’m Burlanjan or Gotjan (Burlanjan’s daughter) – these are from the East-side skin system more commonly used at work.

In other news:
- Today was Imo’s first day at her new Melbourne Path job. Go you good thing Imo. Go you big red fire engine!
- There’s an interpreting services conference coming up in Sydney that I may just get in on. Excitement. Will let you know more when I do.
- That’s all I can think of at the moment.

Dee, sorry I haven’t got round to photos of the house yet – I have not forgotten, I promise to put some in the next post.

Silent readers: Please comment, I love to hear what’s going on in Melbourne (or wherever you are *cough*Rob!*cough*).

Love you all. Catchya later. x

I actually found a four-leaf clover!

2007-03-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

Must have been a sign from St Patrick. It’s busy being pressed behind the photo that Krish gave me at the pirate party.

Which reminds me, I wanted to give Nat a special mention of thanks here, as, not only did she make the “Pirate of the High Teas” (little stick man with teabag for a head), but she made an hilarious profile to match, which I did not discover til my last minute packing the next day. I was going to post the profile on here, but can’t find it at present.

Other things happening this week: I have been actually doing stuff – contrary to the warning/advice I was given a couple of weeks ago when I started; I’ve been defining my role as town linguist; I’ve been meeting and greeting - professionally, I’ve been meeting the interpreters, and will soon be meeting people who use the interpreting service; socially, I’ve been getting to know people in town with weekly meditation and other gatherings. More of which will happen tomorrow in Pine Creek where a bunch of us are going to celebrate Colleen (another linguist)’s birthday. I’ve been attempting to make her a card today, but my useful box is at home – Or possibly in the rubbish, mum? – I’ll have to make do.

Last night I rode a bike to my friend’s house and back. It took a while to get going – read: I walked the bike a lot of the way there – but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. John, you would be so proud!

Have hardly been able to function today because of the heat. But I did manage to get a load of washing done. And I’ve been slowly reading through a book on Katherine and it’s recent history. It’s cooled down a bit now, quite pleasant actually. There is thunder rumbling around the horizon’s edge, but no rain – yet.

House hunting is not going particularly well. Salome (another linguist, out with whom I am planning to move) and I looked at a place last weekend, but they don’t allow dogs (Salome [pron. Sal-o-mee, stress on middle syllable] had a dog). Luckily neither of us are in dire straights re accommodation, so we are just cruising till the right place comes along.

Have discovered my iPod shuffle can plug into the amplifier here, so I haven’t been entirely forsaken by the likes of Ben Folds, The Strokes, Killers, George, Ani Di Franco or Björk. Huzzah!

Pa, I hope your predictive text is going well. I will try and text you some time this week.

Phil, look forward to catching up on all the goss from arts camp.

Dee, awesome chat on the phone the other night. Don’t forget how welcome you are to wander up the hill and say hi to mum/the cats. You can even try some twig tea if you’re really keen!

Imo, hope to hear from you on Monday about the job. Chookas.

All the rest of you, hope you’re keeping well, have loved catching up with those of you I’ve spoken to. Those of you up with whom I have not yet caught, hope you’re keeping safe and doing well. Send emails – even if I don’t reply, I still read them and enjoy hearing about all the Melbourne goings-on

PS. Anyone planning on coming up to the top end, please stop by and say hi.

Post the Second (with many firsts)

2007-03-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

This is what I look like after two weeks in Katherine (note: loss of neck, and other extremities, in favour of god-like rays of linguistic brilliance!):

So I’ve come to the end of my second week in Katherine (at the time of writing, it’s Friday night, though I’ll probably compose this over the weekend, hopefully getting it up on Monday). Since last you eyeballed my literary musings, I have had several firsts.

First first: I travelled out to Barunga community to help a colleague with some translation. Barunga is about 1hr out of Katherine, travelling at about 110-130kmph most of the way.

Second first: going to Barunga meant driving a Toyota troop carrier – so I’ve been driving one of those big beasties that makes Toorak-trucks look Micro-Machines™.

Third first: I participated in a group meditation session with a few of the new friends I have made up here. I’m not sure how enlightening it was, but it was great to sit and chat among new friends, find out about the people up here and what they’re all doing and how they found themselves here.

Fourth first: I think I’ll stop at four, though I’m sure there are more. My fourth first is the staff meeting I attended today. I got a little excited when I wrote “staff meeting” in my calendar earlier in the week. It ended up being a pretty casual affair with discussion of what everyone at the centre has been doing.

Fifth first: I know I said I’d stop at four, but then I remembered that I had a “linguists’ meeting” today as well as the staff meeting. It was great being in a room full of linguists, but I couldn’t contribute all that much to the conversation, as it revolved mainly around the diphthongs of the languages in the region, with which I am too unfamiliar to express an opinion yet.

I have also been doing a lot of reading this week: Peter Carey’s Theft (highly entertaining, unusual though captivating use of language, written from the perspectives of an alcoholic has-been painter and his autistic yet insightful brother), Norah Vincent’s Self Made Man (true story – woman went undercover as a man in different scenarios over about a year), and the Aboriginal language reader given to me by a uni lecturer before I left (oh gosh! You know how I get off on linguistics? Well, this IS my bag baby!).

Most intriguing thing learned this week: bound pronouns in Aboriginal languages are remnants of free pronouns in a Nominative-Accusative language system. *wait for it….wait for it…* BUT – most Aboriginal languages now have free pronouns with an Ergative-Absolutive system; the modern Erg-Abs free pronouns occur in conjunction with the bound pronouns of the past Nom-Acc system! That’s right boys and girls, that’s what Hooch has been getting off on this week!

On a less cheery note, the shine of ‘all things new’ is starting to wear off. I’m starting to crave familiarity, such as cats, pianos, Melbourne and of course you wonderful people, the readers of this blog: my friends and relations.

Sorry for not having emailed or replied emails. The internet is really slow up here and I only have access during work hours. Most of the time my emails fail to send or gmail/hotmail web pages don’t even open.

It’s raining steadily at the moment. I’m about to get picked up to go to a party. The rooster has been giving me the evil eye, and spurred me in the leg the other day (6th first – never been spurred by a rooster before). Last night there were four frogs in the toilet – 2 in the bowl (looking up at me with trepidation through the water), and 2 in the ridges of the corrugated tin wall behind the cistern (sooo cute, they only had their heads sticking out, and looked like they were vertically tucked up in bed).

Anyway, the CD has stopped: a sure sign that I’m due to hop off this thing before I get square eyes.

PS. I have done two more dreadlocks.

So here it is: my first blog from Katherine.

2007-03-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

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!