bum pain 2

Yesterday, in an attempt to work off my Vietnam kilo's, Gina and I braved the brisk morning air and hiked our butts up Mt Nameless! In about 35 mins no less... all 1128m of it!

As if that wasn't enough adventure for the day, we then went out to Hammersley Gorge with her daughter, Hannah. It's the first time I've ever been to spa pool, and it was just beautiful. The small, enclosed 'spa' is constantly fed by a waterfall. As the water travels over heat soaked rocks before entering the pool, it's kinda warm! Who would have thought, a natural spa in the desert? Sitting in there with a cider, and some great company, was a blissful way to spend my Sunday:)

travel queen

I have to apologise for my laziest ever period of non-posting!! And I have so much to fill you in on!!

In 3 weeks, I managed to travel an easy (as in could easily bore you death!!) 2954km... by car! I was reminded yet again of how truly huge Australia is. We popped over to Karratha for 'work'. Here I managed to sneak in some time at Hearson's Cove (a beach of shells, no sand), cuddle up to the Red Dog Statue in Dampier and drive a manual on the hunt for some Aboriginal rock art... off road!! Kirsti and Binnie didn't let me stay in the driver's seat for long, I think we're all still happy to be alive!

I was then lucky enough to spend 2 weekends in a row in Coral Bay. Now I know I said Exmouth was heaven, but Coral Bay is literally an oasis on earth. And the pies!!! I enjoyed a lovely work retreat with my 'physio posse', and returned a week later with most of my 'mad holligan' friends. Gina, Jase, Hannah and I even camped on the road side on our way down... how I've changed:) I even pitched my tent in Coral Bay that weekend (after being offered a lovely, air-conned room)... and soon realised I was not made for camping. God, in the peak of summer, what was I thinking?!? That is the hottest I have ever been... and with the least airflow.... tents are FOUL!! And it's not like you can cool down in the showers... they are fancily supplied by an artesian bore and are always warm!

I went beach 4WD'ing, had some amazing meals at Fin's cafe, enjoyed many drinks around our campsite, swam in the bay with massive snapper around my ankles, snorkelled with 2 turtles and some sharks, enjoyed quite a few cauliflower cheese pies and I even got to catch up with Dr Sarah G. It really is the place to holiday!!

On returning to Tom Price I hosted book club. Yes, I am quite learned and highbrow... unlike the rest of this town, I don't spend my spare time nursing a beer... Who am I fooling?? Our book club is aptly named RED club... read, eat and drink. Probably in the reverse order of what we value most, and it's awesome!! It has turned into the night of nights... with the host often preparing a 3 course meal and offering a theme. I served a morrocan lamb tagine (thanks Denise) and we discussed Jo Nesbo's 'The Snowman'. Well, those who had read it that is... I'm sure some people are just in it for the wine:)

I also hosted my birthday party... 26, 'a slippery slope to 30'. I had a lovely night, with my 'mad hooligans'. We started with drinks and food in my backyard, and ended up at the golfie just over the dangerous ditch. We went to bed at around 4am so it must have been a cracker!!

Now, as if that wasn't enough... I also spent Easter in Vietnam with my Melbourne family! Am I on a perpetual holiday or what!? It was even better than I imagined. I'm still thinking about it! We travelled from North to South, via Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Cam Tho and Ho Chi Minh City.

My highlights were; noodles for breakfast lunch and dinner!! Bun Bo Hue is what dreams are made out of! Visitng King Minh Mang's temple... whoever said 500 wives was too many? Drinking snake wine (or was that cobra, scorpion and pelican wine?), more aptly named 'Vietnamese Viagra' by our guide. Holding a 20kg python named Tommy with the fam. Eating the most amazing pineapple at the floating markets. Killing our own prawns on a Vietnamese style BBQ (the kids were too traumatised to eat). Playing 'spotto' for 5 to a scooter. Visiting the Cu Chi tunnels and being amazed by the country's history. G&T's. 5 star luxury, with breakfast included!! 4 beers for $2.... the list could go on!! We also spent 4 lovely nights, staying at a mega mall (!) in Penang, for Denise's family reunion. To be honest, I'm glad we left... I would no doubt be broke otherwise:) It was a good way to end 2 truly great weeks, I had such a blast!

Happy Anniversary

Tonight I am celebrating 12 blissful months in Tom Price, with a lovely bottle of pinot! Shouldn't that read a xxxx stubbie? Honestly, who would have thought?

So what have I learnt?

1. A flat out no is the best way to ward off advances at the pub. (This does not however mean that the same man will not try again the following night. Points for determination I guess?)

2. A simple hat is the best way to ward off nits.

3. Eating world record sized insects helps to (marginally) reduce a fear of all bugs!

4. All snakes are bad snakes, even the common household variety.

5. Tears get me quite far (especially with telstra!), but give me an ugly face. Was this the actual reason for my 'allergic reaction/swollen face'?

6. Having a child before the age of 20 is always a terrible idea... all my patients are a glaring tribute to this!

7. The best way to make friends is to flash half a town!

8. I can do some pretty great things when I'm challenged... including climbing a 1235m mountain!

9. I like physio, and I'm not too shabby at it:)

10. I can survive by myself, in the middle of nowhere, with no support, and make the absolute best out of it!! That's my best ever lesson!

And what do I want to achieve this year...

1. ... some life direction... perhaps in the form of a five year plan?

I promise I'll get started tomorrow...

(Ps: This photo is taken at Tiger-eye pool, a local waterhole that fills up only after heavy rainfall. You need local knowledge and a good 4WD to get there... I guess that's me now... a local:)

Road trippin' with cyclone Iggy

On an impulse, I spent the weekend just been in Karratha... despite an imminent category 4 cyclone alert. I knew I'd made a great decision when my last patient for the day rocked up rolling drunk... and no, a mid-week public holiday is not a good enough excuse, surely you can still call to reschedule? This just confirmed what I already knew Tom Price to be... 'a drinking town with a mining problem'.

So, feeling sufficiently dirty and with nostril hairs singed from the smell of booze, I closed up shop and crashed Binnie and Ross' road trip to Karratha... but I can't say I was super happy about it. We drove via the unsealed access road... parts of which were flooded with water. I very bravely closed my eyes as water licked our bonnet, and truly felt glad to be alive when we arrived in k-town!

Needless to say, our holiday plans were rained out, thanks to cyclone Iggy. I even had trouble sleeping for fear our cabin would blow away! But it did make for some good relaxing, shopping (not that you can even call it that in the Pilbara), catching up with friends ands eating out.... to my great delight, they even had a McDonalds!!

2 wet days later, the cyclone forced us to drive the long way home, all 7 hours of it!! This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We headed up to Port Hedland, then travelled via Auski to Tom Price. Along the way we stopped at Point Samson, a beautiful, lazy beach side town, boasting the best fish and chips in the Pilbara. Sadly, the high heat, along with all the rain made for some wicked humidity... I couldn't un-fog my glasses, let alone my camera lens! Next stop was Cossack, for a real history lesson. It was built in the 1880's and was actually the first port in the north west, a centre of trade for the burgeoning pearling industry. My favourite part was the old courthouse, it still held records of the types of offences committed in the early 1880's! Who knew bathing out of hours was a punishable crime! We also strolled through the old cemetery, separated into Japanese and European sites (a lot less romantic than I made it sound...) The view atop the lookout was pretty amazing too! I was astounded by the leprosorium! We drove past Whim Creek, and the oldest pub in the Pilbara, on the way to Port Hedland. I can say with surprising ease that Port Hedland was not worth the visit, perhaps the biggest hole in the Pilbara?

So really, cyclone Iggy ended up making my weekend! I am so glad Binnie and Ross dragged a terrified me along!

wet and wild

Hello new year! I had an amazing (read hectic) 3 weeks in Perth and returned to blissful country life on the 8th of January... amid torrential rains and gale force winds!! We had to circle the tarmac about 20 times before we could land. Embarrassingly, a builder working on my units recognised me this week as the girl who was 'gripping the arm rests and gasping'... oops! To top matters off, collecting my bag from the outdoor 'baggage claim' was painful... I arrived home with a suitcase full of sopping clothes, what a welcome! The joys even continued the following morning. I woke up to 2 inside frogs and a house full of frog poo...

Since then, it actually hasn't stopped pouring. Tom Price even made it on to the map! Cyclone Heidi made a path directly for us... but sadly, she turned out to be a real fizzer. The rain we've had since has been much more extreme! I even almost got stuck in Paraburdoo. On my drive home, I came across a flowing floodway...I likened it to whitewater rapids:) I cautiously pulled over, considering my options. A man in a huge truck pulled up behind me and offered a stern warning; "I wouldn't take an i30 through there young lady. I've seen bigger cars get swept away over smaller floodways". Brilliant. I sat on the side of the road for 25 mins, on the brink of tears, pondering a night stuck in Paraburdon't! Thankfully, a rescue van arrived, and I bravely followed him through! It actually wasn't so bad, and I had to wonder if the truck driver was pulling my leg as revenge for speeding up and overtaking him 2km previously?

Unfortunately, this week of record-breaking rain was the week Curo came up for a summer visit. He'd kill me if I didn't mention that of our 4 scrabble tournaments, I didn't win a game. Despite this... we had a fantastic time. My highlights were watching Louise's daughters paint Curo's nails at her curry night, watching the Perth scorchers smash it at the Tom Price pub, Curo and I smashing it at the Tom Price pub, enjoying cheap beers and a delish meal at the $2 shop (Windawarri Lodge), some good romcoms and having a picnic at King's Lake (which was bright orange after all the rain!). But as usual... I'm missing him terribly now.

On a happier note, some may have worried Lionel didn't make over to my new place after the move. That crazy ta ta lizard who scared me half to death back in October, made a lovely home in my pot plants at number 14. SInce then, I have been moved (in to a brand spanking new unit, only 2 doors up) and I'd like to report that Lionel has moved too. AND, I seem to have a Lionel number 2! This was almost too much. They no longer wave me off.. rather sometimes wait for me on the doorstep... just what I love to come home to! I see them everyday... even in the rain! That's all I have to report for now... in Beth's absence, I am the (stressed out) senior physiotherapist... and I definitely need my beauty sleep.

The Bloody Slow Cup

Another weekend, another part of the Pilbara. It's all getting a bit boring now really:)

Gina and I headed over to Newman, for the 'bloody slow (beldisloe) cup', an annual rugby game (Aus v. NZ) paying tribute to the lives of 4 WA police officers who died in a plane crash in Newman in 2001. Thousands of people attend, and it's incredibly competitive!! Gina and I drove over on Saturday, and were perhaps the only vistors to Newman that weekend who didn't prebook accommodation... We ended up with a camp spot and the intention to sleep on the air-bed in the back of the truck... Pleasant... if only it wasn't 42 degrees!!

The game was brilliant, sadly the kiwi's won. Even sadder, I lost a bet and had to wear a Kiwi jumper! Afterwards, we headed over to Newman's nightclub! AMAZING! You had to signed into the club by a member... and all members were kiwi's! Now, if I hadn't mentioned it before... almost everyone in the Pilbara is from New Zealand... clever buggers. Taking all the big money back home:) It was so much fun... dancing, shots, karaoke... all the great things that seemed to banned at the Tom Price pub!! And... I saw my cousin Tom, for probably the first time in 12 years... of all the places:)

We left the next day... tired (the hot car was not our best idea:), covered in mossie bites, with some of the pub's pool balls (oops!) and most importantly, with some great memories of Newman!!

Flasher

Again, I have managed to flash half of the Pilbara...

Saturday the 5th of November was shaping up to be a great day. It was the annual breast cancer champagne breakfast in Tom Price, and I was heading out with a lovely group of girls. I woke up at 7:30am, stripped off, and sauntered (half asleep) out of my 2nd storey room towards the bathroom. Now my shower is directly opposite the guest bedroom, and the curtains are of course up.... it's a lot less gloomy and I can see the beautiful Pilbara countryside whilst showering... AND, I'm fairly safe on the 2nd floor. Or so I thought... After 5 minutes of very unsexy showering, I sensed some movement. I turned to look out the guest bedroom window only to be face to face with 2 workmen in a cherry picker, painting around the guest bedroom window. Their jaws were dropped, and we made eye contact! It was mortifying, and I STILL have to cover my face when I leave the house in the mornings. Funnily enough, since 'the incident', 3 workmen have introduced themselves to me....

Thank god it was a CHAMPAGNE breakfast... definitely eased the pain.