A Busy Week

This was an Outreach week.  I went to Cairns this time and Levi stayed upstairs again.  I am grateful that I don't have to do this again for six more months, not because I don't like going but because it is always an incredibly long hard week and for Levi as much as for me.  It started with difficulty and continued in that vein!

First off, it rained!  Of course!  It seems that it is my lot this year to fight the elements to get to Outreach.  It rained and it rained and as the weathermen predicted cyclones and 75% of New South Wales went underwater, our causeway quickly failed and by morning was well underwater.  Levi had the day off and happily built a Pyramid, several in fact!  He settled in with the dog and my sister and created.  I walked.  After putting all my luggage in big plastic bags and the sensitive medical stuff in several plastic bags, I walked.  Jo and I walked out to the road through the deluge.  I called our Office Manager and said; "If you can, please bring the car and meet me partially down Lawson road."  She asked if that was the end of our street and I said that no, instead two random bedraggled humans were going to just appear out of the bush.  That is exactly what happened.  Jo and I appeared out of the bush and she picked me up.  Jo walked back down the hill and I got in, for the drive to the airport.  I will have to say that her thoughtfulness was heartwarming.  As I got into the car, pouring water, mud speckled and shivering, she turned around and passed me a mug of steaming tea, saying;

"I knew you would be cold and wet, so I made you a cup of tea."

You know that is why I love working with the people that I work with.  For all that we are all caring and thoughtful with the clients and their families, it is that and more so within the office itself!  She then drove me to the airport.

This is Levi (and Jane's) finished product.  The pyramids.  He was very proud of them!

It was a very eventful Cairns trip as well!  I will show you!

Mt Isa

 Yesterday, for something completely different, I got up really early and flew away on Outreach.  What was, in fact, different, was that we got back on the plane that night and flew home.  For those of you who don't know, Mt Isa is a mining town, about as far away from a major metropolis as you can get in Australia.  It is just beautiful.  Well, this time of year and for about another month or so.  After that it will get so hot that your eyebrows melt if you walk outside. 

It makes for a hard day and a long day, but it works out to be worth it all in the end.  These photos were taken with my dodgy iphone.  Then it failed .... again!  It is now coping with about 2 hours of operation before it dies completely.  A big pity in Mt Isa, because I was using the Koi Pond app with the little boy we were seeing and it failed before he was done.  I still have a bunch of time on my contract (about 5 months) so it will be a couple of months at least before I am able to get a new one!  I guess I should just break down and buy a new battery.

 Mt Isa was incredibly peaceful.  It was hard to imagine that just on the other side of the world, London was burning with riots; Italy and Greece are fragile and the economy of USA was failing.  We were in the middle of the Outback, looking across hills that people 10 000 years ago were also watching over.  Little has changed in that outlook.  

Rocks out there are red.  The ground is red.  The sand is red.  The trees and spinifex are a grey green, and you never see the vibrant verdant green of Samford.  In a very different way the area is just so alive. 

The flight out was interesting.  We flew on a 737, one of two round trips that plane will take each day.  The flight toward the Isa, was chock a block.  There was not an empty seat on the plane.  Of the people on the plane, Pam and I were two of a very few women on that plane.  The outback of Australia, esp the mining outback is still very very male dominated. 

 The flight back was nearly empty.

Today was hard, only because yesterday was so long.  I was over it.  I was over work.  I was just done.  It is Tuesday.  Lord help anyone, who needs anything, by Friday!



Outreach

I am about to spend a week in Townsville on Outreach.  It will be busy.  It will be punishingly busy but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  It will be six months before I have to go again.  After this week, I have four days and then I have from the 15th April until the 3rd May off.  In an odd calender mishap, there are actually 4 Public holidays in that time.  It must be a rare year that this happens, so I am making the most of it.  Levi is off from the 15th but has 3 days of school in there.  I will be one of those 'real' Mums.  One of those mums that can drop their kids off at school and pick them up in the same day.  I am so excited!!!  That and I'm excited about 3 days of free non-kid guilt-free time. 

In Townsville, I have no internet, but I do have the iphone.  So I'll keep up on Facebook, but won't be able to access this blog.  Now I'm going to go and pack!