Life

School holidays are upon us and time to relax in the morning, rather than the mad breakfast rush and shouting to clean teeth, put on school uniform and "where's your bag and drink bottle". We can stay in PJs for a little longer and catch our breath before deciding what to do for the day.

Hopefully we will be able to head out on a walk to town, with my eldest riding his bike and me pushing the other two in their double stroller. I manage to get out during some school days. It's not a difficult walk and we can manage to pick up some supplies at the shops and, if the kids are lucky, have a milkshake at the coffee shop.

We are also looking forward to a two-week holiday in Queensland at the end of the week. We will be visiting friends that my husband I used to work with in London 14 years ago. Those fun-filled days are a lifetime away. We all have three children now and how life has changed. We girls were on our must-do working holiday to Britain. We met at our new workplace in Fleet Street, London. We also met our prospective English husbands at our workplace. Days were spent working like the clappers at an arbitration here, a deposition there or a court hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice or some other minor court room. Then at night, time to relax and have a well-earned drink or two, or three, etc, before heading off on the train, to sleep it off, only to wake and start it all again.

I spent a wonderful 18 months doing this. I met lots of new friends and travelled to various places during court breaks or on weekends and it was a liberating time for me. I learned that I loved to live and work in new places and I found a new-found confidence in my stenographic abilities. I saw all sorts of possibilities, and it was probably that 18 months that gave me the confidence to leave Hansard and leap into the new world of captioning and then on to the UN and the ICTR in Tanzania.

But for now it's back to the dishes, clean the floor and get some sleep before the onslaught of nappies, tantrums and kiddy cuddles and kisses.

Surfari

I knew I would be crap at keeping up to date with this, and I am. But as a friend has nicely prompted me, I thought I'd update you today on some of the things we have done in the past month.

I've actually had a busy time lately, with both my parents visiting Tom Price for the first time (mum had been here briefly before when I came home with baby no. 3, but because it was for only 5 days, I don't count it as a real visit); I went off on my long-awaited "surfari" to Yallingup; and we all visited Karratha and Port Hedland. Not to mentioned the first-term school holidays have been on, so I've been busy making sure all three kids are occupied and happy.

So, first to my Surfari.




Late last year I had read an article in Scoop magazine about a surfing business in Yallingup (near Margaret River, WA) that was offering women-only surfing holidays. It involved getting a small group of friends together for a two-day break and taking them all down to Yallingup so we could try our hand at surfing.

Now I'm really not a person who is at one with the water, especially surf, so it was some feat to get on that board and even paddle into the waves. I was born in Kalgoorlie, WA, which is a mining town 600 km from Perth, and our nearest beach was Esperance, just under 400 km south of us. We would spend two weeks of summer at the beach in Esperance, but this was just for frolicking. Since then I have always loved the beach, but only when it is calm and very, very hot. So it was great to finally get up the courage to try my hand, albeit not so successfully, at surfing.

I recruited my sister and two friends and we drove down from Perth to Yallingup, of course, stopping at a winery for lunch before arriving at Smith's Beach Resort, a very new and upmarket accommodation option for Yallingup.

Above is the photo of our "shack". I didn't know shacks had dishwashers, outside hot water showers (you'll see that to the right of us and left of the window) and hairdryers!


Friday night we were welcomed by our hosts, Krystal Simpson, (what a great hippy surfer's name) and Lizzie Nun. They brought along wine and cheese and then, while telling us what they had in store for us that weekend, cooked us a great bbq dinner. We were told we would have to do nothing all weekend except be guided in our activities, which aside from the surfing, included walking, yoga and beach kayaking, and of course eating sumptous meals at various wonderful eateries in Dunsborough. I've got to say, the food was a highlight, and we didn't feel one bit guilty about it as we were so exhausted from all the physical activity.


As to the surfing - well, on the first day were were taken to Yallingup, a beach that has always intimidated me. All I have ever done there before is walk along the sand, but this day we were taken out on the reef and shown how to lay on the board and if we were able, to get up on our feet and be pushed onto waves. See, I told you we were well taken care of. We did have to paddle out to Lizzie, but once there she called us over and then waited while she held our board and pushed us into appropriate small waves.


I didn't get up on my feet that day, but Kaylene and my sister Judith both were quick to their feet and, dare I say, surfed. It was great to see and we had a great laugh. I only wish I'd been in better condition. I struggled with the paddling and was exhausted by the time I tried to get up. My excuse - a horrible flu I'd had for four weeks just before we went down had prevented me from getting into any training routine, which I had planned to do. But it was great fun. Together with a long walk that morning and sea kayaking that afternoon, we were all physically done-in that night. But we managed to drag ourselves out for a great meal at The Food Pharmacy, one of the best restaurants I've eaten at for a long time.

Next day we were all very sore and tired from Saturday's activities and I really thought I wouldn't be able to lift my head from the pillow. But up we got and that morning we surfed at Smith's Beach (pictured below) and I managed to get up on my board, very briefly. We had an early lunch at Bunker's Bay Cafe - another fabulous meal - and then, sadly, it was time to drive back to Perth.

The four of us are pictured below just before we drove back to Perth, after a fabulous weekend, one I'd love to do all over again.

The Year of Magical Thinking

Well, last Thursday we were treated to my kind of cultural experience. Tom Price may be 16,000 kms from the nearest city but because Rio Tinto is a big financial supporter of the Black Swan Theatre Company, based in Perth, we are occasionally visited by travelling productions from the city. This time it was Joan Didon's "The Year of Magical Thinking".

Now I'm the first to admit I had no idea who Joan Didion was before seeing the performance, but I was so impressed with the production that I did a bit of googling afterwards and learned a little more.

The play is a stage adaptation of Joan Didion's best-selling, Pulitzer prize-nominated memoir and is an exquisite chronicle of the terrible year during which she was forced to deal with her daughter's life-threatening illness and the sudden death of her husband, John Dunne. John died more or less instantly, and 18 months later, after making a partial recovery, Quintana, her daughter, died of acute pancreatitis, at the age of 39. They were a high-profile literary couple in the United States. Joan was a journalist, freelance writer and novelist and John, a novelist, screenwriter, and critic. His most notable films are "A Star is Born" and "True Confessions".

Helen Morse played the lead and only character. I could only remember seeing her before in the movie "Far East", but upon some more research discovered she appeared in "Caddie", "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and a few other films in the 70s an 80s. She was wonderful and had me fully enthralled for the entire 1 hour and 45 minutes.

She was accompanied on stage by a cellist, Melanie Robinson, who played the haunting music especially composed for this production.

It was a compelling performance and made me realise why I sometimes miss the big cities. I just love live performances of theatre, opera and dance. I know it's a cliche, but I wanted to be an actress when I was younger. I did a few productions at school and university, but really it was a dream that I didn't want enough. I saw how difficult a task it was when a friend from school did her drama course and appeared in only the odd advertisement or episode of a dreary Australian drama. But live performances are fabulous and the heady experience of entering the darkened theatre room and watching others perform in front of me is thrilling and 'magical'.

Thank you Black Swan and thank you Rio Tinto for making these things occasionally possible.

Swimming

At last the kids are well enough to use the pool, but I'm the one now with the flu. I have actually never heard of it, but I was told I had pharyngitis. All I know is it is a horribly painful sore throat; everytime I swallow it feels like I am swallowing razor blades. Coupled with the tiredness, I have had a slow week of it.


We have managed to get to playgroup twice this week. I've re-entered the fray and decided my 3-year-old needs some more stimulus than morning TV shows and the occasional play with friends. As it is, most of his friends have started kindegarten; he has to wait another 12 months to start because he was born after June 30. So we went to playgroup this week and he's having a great time. There was a special fun day on Thursday, with lots of slime, painting and sand play to get dirty with. More people than normal were there, so lots more children to play with too.


So it's the weekend again, and I've not managed another entry since last weekend. Hopefully something wonderful will happen this weekend and I'll have to jot it down for you to read. But for now it's back to "watching" the kids in the pool and, later, time for Friday night crime.

Tiger's Eye Pool

Tiger's Eye Pool

Have just returned from a short trip with the family out to Tiger's Eye Pool. We should have visited last week when we had just had lots of rain and when there would have been more water. Didn't stay too long as the march flies are out and they seem to make a beeline for me. They have a horrible bite and leave huge big sores on me. Fortunately, I'm not allergic to them like some in town. People have had to be hospitalised occasionally because their reactions are so severe. Who said we had to be worried about snakes and scorpions?

Speaking of which, thought I spotted a snake curled up in our eldest boy's bike helmet this week. We were on our way out to the shops and putting on our shoes out front and I looked down and spotted a small snake-like head poking out of the helmet. I bundled the kids back inside and called the local snake lady. She rushed around and after a little coaxing out of the hole, she uncovered only a legless lizard. Needless to say, I felt a little foolish but was also very glad it turned out to be harmless.

When we first moved into our new house, we also discovered a scorpion in the pool. Once again, fortunately it was dead, but it does remind me how very near nature we are and that it is their territory. I just hope we disturb them too much for them to come out when we're outside.

So I'm going to finish up and join the family in our pool now, which is pictured here. It's lovely, isn't it? The flame tree above it casts great shade and has recently been pruned so it doesn't make so much mess anymore in the water.

Little move, big break

Finally back online after so long. We moved house and who would have thought that to move a couple of streets would mean such a long delay in getting the telephone re-connected and internet back online. But it did and now it's all done, I'm happy to be back.

In the meantime, also, I have been down to Perth on two weekend breaks to visit the dentist and have another tooth capped. I think my dentist thinks I'm exaggerating, but I'm sure that soon I will have all my teeth capped and will be looking at false teeth in another ten years. It is a relief though to finally be able to chew food again.

There is so much to catch up on, but I did just want to post this little note to say I'm still going to persist with this and when I'm feeling a little bit more lyrical I'll be back.

Cyclone Dominic

Lightning over the Pilbara sky

Our middle boy and our neighbours' children having a play in the street before the rain.

Rain clouds brewing. The colours are so vivid.

Well, so much for good intentions. I did hope to get around to jotting down a couple of lines and including a few pictures of in and around TP before now, but to no avail. So now I have to catch up on the few things that have happened over the past couple of weeks.

Our big news this week is Cyclone Dominic, which passed by the coast at Onslow and dumped four days of lovely rain on our town over the Australia Day long weekend. It meant that we spent a lot of time indoors, but when the rain abated the kids were at least able to play a little outdoors, including running madly around in a downpour the other day. It also cooled the temperatures down considerably and I was able to turn the air-con off and open windows and let in the fresh air.

We are lucky in TP because we usually benefit from the passing cyclones without the resultant damage caused by the high winds. We often pray for cyclones just so we get a great downpour. The temperatures lower and a lot of the local swimming pools and creeks fill up, not to mention the lush new growth in the bush.

In our first summer here, four cyclones passed by and we had the best rains. Since then, there have been as many cyclones, but not as much rain as that first year. Last year, Cyclone George was headed straight for TP after passing the coast above Port Hedland as a category 5 (we even went into Red alert and were confined indoors for the duraion) but then it slowed down and abated as it continued further inland. Tragically three people, living near Port Hedland, died as a result, including two unfortunate workers at a local fly-in, fly-out mining camp. So one can never unestimate the almighty power of these climatic bursts.

In the lead up and aftermath to cyclone Dominic, there were some terrific thunderstorms. We lost power during some of that time, but the lightning shows were compensation. I just love a good thunderstorm. It reminds me of the awesome storms we used to have in Arusha. As long as I'm safely inside and dry, I love them. The picture above was taken by a good friend who was out on the weekend at Mt Sheila (another magic place here in the Pilbara).

So now the clouds are clearing and the temperature is rising, and we're looking forward to the next cyclonic event before the summer is over.

Welcome to the Pilbara

Welcome to my very first post and to the news of a family of five living in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

I'd like to think through this blog I'll be able to keep family and friends from all over the world up to date with our news, given I have become a very poor correspondent. I hope that others enjoy reading it too.

As time goes on, I'll reveal more about our family and circumstances, but for now I'll keep this short. The children are currently destroying their bedroom as they pull every pillow and cushion off every bed in the house and making a huge "cake", and topping it off with every stuffed toy they own. We have a very small house, so I imagine that by the time I finish this, there will not be an inch of bare floor anywhere. The box of costumes has already been dumped in the kitchen and I'm presently surrounded by blocks and toys.

So until next time, goodbye from Tom Price, the Top Town of WA.