Hello.

We were going to update the blog last Friday but the car failed it's safety inspection (MOT) so Kev spent the whole day running round local garages to try and get the problems sorted. It ended up taking until this morning but it passed it's safety inspection and then we went to get the registration renewed. That's basically the Aussie equivalent of road tax.

The problem with this is that registering a car in Australia when you don't live in the state the car was registered in, is ridiculously complicated. It took 3 trips to the department, 4 forms were filled in (2 unecessarily as it turned out), and after a bit of haggling they agreed to give us one extra month and no more. Because we're not residents of the Northern Territory officially, we were lucky to get that as it happens.

So whatever we do next, the car will have to be sold by the end of September, but that's OK because it just gives us a handy deadline to get off this little island they call Australia.

We haven't been up to much else other than work but despite an expensive and stressful few days, we're in good spirits. We just visited Lake Alexander for lunch and tonight we're off to see the John Butler Trio in Darwin. Flights home will be booked just as soon as we get some money transferred to our English accounts, because our Aussie bank cards can't be used to buy things online, believe it or not.

There isn't much photography to show you from the last 6 weeks or so but...

This is how close the Darwin show was a few weeks back:


The one photo from the rodeo we got before it became too dark:


Just a few hours ago at Lake Alexander. Beer was the only drink we had in the car (honest!):

Brrr...

Hello.

Cold day in Darwin today. It must have dropped below 30 degrees and since yesterday morning the skies have been cloudy. Last night it even rained! Sort of.

Don't worry though, we survived the downpour. We also survived being attacked by a gang of fierce kittens during the night which were playing round our tent. They hang around the campsite but we dunno if they're wild or not but being little and cute they're not struggling to get food, that's for sure.

As a break from the usual routine of work-shower-eat-sleep we went out last Saturday with the crew from work and got a little drunk in the city. In one of the bars we went to the Darwinians with us complained that it was ridiculously busy and it was dangerous to have that many people in one bar. We explained that in England it's pretty rare to find a city bar that doesn't have a queue 3 people deep.

There's a Rodeo (that's pronounced ro-day-oh, not ro-dee-oh) tonight in Darwin and that's something we've been meaning to do since we found out they have them in Australia. A man in the city shouted Yee-Haw at us and handed us a flier, so we'll be off to see what it's all about.

That's about all our news. It's our day off today and we'll be using it to find out about our journey home and possibly book it, if we can afford it. Going home. A scary thought...

Ta ta.

Talkin' bout the carwash

Hello.

Not a lot of news to report here in sunny Darwin. The weather is 30 degrees and sunny, and because there are only two seasons here, there's no chance of it being anything other than 30 degrees and sunny. The weather forecasters have the easiest job in the world.

Our future plans are beginning to take shape. We've had one of our tax refunds which was as much as we hoped, so the other one should be the same. Charlotte's been ruthlessly in control of our cashflow. She's very good at that sort of thing so we're saving up much quicker than we'd anticipated, and we'll soon be in a position to buy our tickets home.

Work is good. It's nice and relaxed and the time passes extremely quickly so that helps. We went out with our workmates the other night down to the wharf here in Darwin and had a bit of food and then went to the cinema, and on Saturday there will be a few quiet drinks in the city. That'll be the first time we've been out for a drink in Darwin, believe it or not, although with work on Sunday morning we'll be trying to restrain ourselves. Trying.

Not much else to report. We've started thinking about selling our beloved car now so we'll be making moves about that in the next week or so. It'll be a sad goodbye but the money will allow us to get home quite comfortably.

We're off to Mindil sunset markets tonight as Charlotte has unsuccessfully spent most of the day (we've got today off) trying to find a new top to wear at the weekend.

Hope everyone is well back home. Looks like we'll be seeing you all in a few months!