Work Experience

Sarabelle finished her work experience Friday. Tenth grade students spend one week trying out a job. There were hundreds to choose from, but Sarabelle knew exactly which one she wanted: the most sought after position of the bunch. First come, first served, so she turned her forms in the very next morning after they were handed out and made sure her application was marked number one. She got it.



She spent four of the five days -- one taken off to perform with the school's jazz band at the Eisteddford competition doing Joe Cocker's version of "The Letter" and coming in third place -- getting up early for the trip down to Port and working as a deck hand on a dive boat. And not just any dive boat, but the dive boat.



Here she is coming in from a long day out on the water.



Even though she got to go out in the submersible five times and saw a school of squid and a group of sea turtles sleeping on the bottom the first day alone, it wasn't all fun and games.



In spite of the weather, only a few people got seasick and Sarabelle was not among them. More fortunately, she did not have to do any deck swabbing.

Elle and I stayed down in town all day, fuel prices here being even worse than they are in Florida. What did we do to occupy ourselves? Well, we packed up her school books and a blanket and planned to get some work done, but instead after we dropped Grice off at school we had breakfast at our favorite cafes; went for a walk around Mossman Gorge, the most visited national park in Australia (partly because it's a local hangout) and where all the water in the district comes from...









...made several visits to the library where we read and played chess; window shopped; checked the mail; got ice cream; and played in the park.


We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Catch-up II

Next Jorge came for a nearly two-week visit. We all took a break from our routines and headed down to Dunk Island for a few days.

Just as we made it to the bottom of the southernmost range, about a three hour ride from our place, the clutch went out. Completely. And we also discovered the fan had somehow chopped the radiator hose to bits. We had three and one half hours to catch the last ferry to Dunk, and we were still nearly an hour away. But the Fates and a very helpful Toyota service manager smiled on us, and we went from this...



(That's actually Craig the manager under there. In the driveway. Doing the work himself. In his good shirt. When he found the only hose available would take several hours to be delivered, he cobbled one together from bits and pieces. A real MacGyver, that one is. If you're ever in Innisfail and your car falls apart, go see Craig at the Toyota dealership.)

...to this...



...and this...



...with 30 minutes to spare.

While on Dunk we enjoyed some of this...



...some of this...



...a little of this...



(You can only go without a television and Sponge Bob for so long, you know.)

...and a lot of this...



(the view from my semi-permanent lounge chair.)

After Jorge headed back to Florida, the girls and I once again participated in the local Trivia Night fundraiser. I thought we were pretty international last year, but this year's team included an American, New Zealander, and Australian (me, Bee's mom and step-dad) with the new additions of their neighbor, a Finnish retired nuclear physicist (a Manhattan Project contemporary) and his two WWOOFers, a Japanese girl and a French guy. We also had another Australian, a music teacher, to help overcome the language barrier and physical handicaps (a faulty hearing aid and two players who left their reading glasses at home.) I am happy to report we correctly answered all the American questions this time, including my being able to name Pablo Escobar as "Drug Czar." I am from South Florida, you know. This year we held our own tied for second and third mostly, until the end when we made a big move catching up to the top team, losing to them by only 1.5 points in the bonus round.

The girls were on their own team with Bee and some other schoolmates. They determined they couldn't win early on and decided to go for notoriety and place last instead by intentionally giving silly answers (Q: What Latin phrase associated with universities means "nurturing mother"?; A: Mama Mia.) They still beat one of the adult teams.


I've taken my fun where I've found it.

-- Rudyard Kipling (The Ladies)

Catch-up

Let's see... Since my last post, erm, last month, what's been going on?

Well, first there was ANZAC Day. Here is Sarabelle with a couple band friends pre-performance...



and Grice and Elle checking out the local pride on display at the Courthouse Hotel before the parade and memorial.



Lest we forget...



Afterward we stopped by our Witness friends' house for tea. M (aka Dr. Dolittle), has a kookaburra family she has hand-fed for years. I gave it a go, hoping I would not lose an eye in the process.





Horrible photos, I know, but in my haste to get the girls down to town I left my camera behind and was forced to purchase a disposable.

Then the rollinias came in.



We have two big Rollinia mucosa trees, just outside our door. Last year the landlords came and took them all, passing a few on to us. This year they left the harvest to us and we passed a few on to them. Not many though.



The fruit tastes like a lemony vanilla custard. They're beautiful when you pop them in the fridge for a bit, but even then they don't have a very long shelf life, 2-3 days tops. I think I will go have one right now, before they go off.

Here's what happens when you leave them on the tree too long.



We have been battling the birds ever since.

(That's not a little furry animal in there peeking out by the way, those are seeds left over. And yeah, time to trim those bangs.)




I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.

-- Abraham Lincoln