Things that make us smile

Max speed limit 130 - this was brought in recently, and it was derided by most Territorians as a blow to personal freedom.

The Red Hat Club, a world wide movement of women over 50 seeking to have fun with like minded older women who do not want to just sit at home, be reasonable and act their age. We became aware of the group on our first day in Darwin, outside Government House, which luckily for us, was open to the public for that one day of the year. The club is inspired by the Jenny Joseph's poem :

Warning

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

With a hat that does not go, and does not suit me

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick flowers in other people's gardens

And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go

Or only bread and pickles for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats and

things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends for dinner and read the papers.

But may be i ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Sleeping policemen are called "traffic calmers".

The miles and miles of beautiful sea shore and the sea breeze that makes the heat tolerable.

The omnipresent lizards and the comical way they seem to run on their back legs only.

The Big One

A vast chaotic, untamed wilderness - no, not Tony Abbott's brain but Kakadu National Park.
20 000 sq kilometers, 3 million Magpie Geese, 10 000 species of insects, but we located only two proper espresso machines, now, that's what we call remote!
We decided we better "do" Kakadu before the Wet closes in and our little hybrid car gets grounded. As it was, we decided to stick to the bitumen, and the attractions accessible without a 4wheel drive easily filled a week-end.
We climbed escarpments that gave us vistas into Arnhem Land, visited galleries with fascinating XRay type ochre paintings. May be it was that uranium in the rocks that gave the locals XRay vision.
A billabong cruise eased off the heat of the day and gave us the chance to watch hundred of bird species : sea eagles, jabiru, kites, Pygmy geese, magpie geese.
It as well got us to as close and personnel as we would ever want to be with crocs. By the way, that croc in the photo is not made of plastic, it dived in the water a couple of metres from our boat when it got tired of posing for us.
Did you know the magpie goose lives in a menage a trois : one male, one older female, one younger female, which raises all sorts of questions : what happens to the unattached males, do they hang around in bachelor groups, drink beer and tell dirty jokes (as most men who don't get any real sex do)? Who chooses who in the menage a trois? Does the older female get jealous of the younger, prettier one? When the older female dies, does the male choose a new young female and the old young one becomes the older female? Cecile REALLY wants an answer to these questions. David thinks it is a very reasonable domestic arrangement and the less questions asked the better.