Working here is like being in this ongoing game where you are not allowed, ever, to show that a student has 'got' to you. 

If someone swears at you, don't react.

If they threaten to punch you, or hit you, or throw a chair at you, don't react.

If they lock you in your caravan, so that you have to wait 45 minutes until Mum comes to call you for dinner, don't react.

If they yell 'Snake! Snake!' while you're swimming, don't react.

But today, when we had gardening and one of the students came at me with a live cane toad wiggling in his hand, I did react.  I couldn't help it.

I hate cane toads.

I think that Territorians like to mess with your head, really.  They have weird signs around the place.

For example, on arriving at Kakadu, we pay for a camp site and are directed to a grassy area, on which are many trees, most of them adorned with a neat sign that says 'No Camping'.  Okay ...

Or the swimming hole with the notice about crocodiles inhabiting the water and causing death, followed by a another sign advising caution - beware of hidden rocks! - when swimming.

Or the sign, conveniently located at the boat ramp, which prohibits vessels, announcing a $1400 fine, right next to the information about which fish may be legally caught and kept.

Or Mum's conversation at the furniture store yesterday:
'Hi, I'm after a flat pack book case.'
'Sorry, we don't do flat packs.'
(Confused) - 'But I called yesterday ... '
(Without blinking an eyelid) - 'Oh right.  Over there by the far wall then.'

Or when I called the doctor clinic this morning, after noting from their add in the Yellow Pages that appointments were necessary, only to be told that they didn't do appointments, it was a walk-in clinic only.

My favourite, though, was a little sign in Kakadu showing a picture of a tap, with a line through it, thoughtfully placed on a small pole with - yes- a tap on it.  We stopped and stared and laughed at that one.

Holidays began yesterday at Woolaning and now the school is quiet and empty.  I have devoted today to pottering and odd jobs, before heading into town tomorrow to pick up Tim (HURRAH!).

I must say, school is full of surprises.  Monday morning at staff meeting, someone says, 'We need to drive the students to the Student Centre for music lessons today.'  (The Student Centre is only 500 metres down the road, but whatever.)  'Liz, you can take the bus for the Level Ones, Emily you can drive the Level Twos.  Okay then, that's sorted.'

Liz and I look at each other - neither of us have ever driven a bus before - so it's out to do a couple of laps of the school before classes begin. Yep, that should cover it.  School policy does not allow a Teacher Aide to be in a classroom with the students by herself - a qualified teacher MUST be present at all times - but apparently driving a bus full of kids, alone, in a vehicle you don't have a licence for, is not a problem.

I must say, it was quite fun, despite the overwhelming vote of no confidence from my passengers: 'You got licence Miss?  You gonna crash us!  We gonna die - leave that door open Miss ...' - and so on.  I was looking forward to going for my Light Rigid licence on Wednesday, but the police officer/driving tester was a no show.

Another unexpected event in my life this week was a quick trip to Darwin, on Thursday night, to drop the town kids off.  Lucas, Reg and I left at 4pm, with a full bus, to drive to town, drive all around town, and then drive home again.  This took almost five and a half hours of straight travel - no stops, breaks, refreshments or other conveniences.  It was interesting to see where all the kids lived (or at least, were staying for the break).  Our first drop off was to 15 Mile, an indigenous community in Palmerston, which is a satellite city to Darwin.  I have spent many a happy hour in Palmerston's Target store, with side-trips to Gloria Jean's, completely unaware of the little village so near by.  Down an unmarked dirt red road is a collection of derelict buildings, whose condition is echoed by the people sitting on their verandahs.  I have been to slums in India and Cambodia, and orphanages in China, but I have never before felt such poverty and hopelessness.  It was so bleak.  It felt strange to let "our" kids off there, to send them to that home.  And so close to the rest of Palmerston's pleasant suburbs!

In other news, I had a fantastic swim at Florence Falls yesterday after school.  Tom, Richard and I dived under the water again and again to see the fish swimming about, pushing against the current to reach rocks, balancing upon them before throwing ourselves back into the depths.  We saw little rock wallabies on the way down to the Falls and crossed flooded creeks on the way back.  Burgers and beer at Monsoon ... so good.

Well I'm here in the sunny Northern Territory, where you can drive fast and the news is big. 

Headline news, from Friday's paper:

Woman finds Snake Skin in Chip Packet (apparently a big deal, it put her off potato chips completely).

And from yesterday:

Flying Car UFO over Darwin - they even had a photo. 

Other than that, I'm at the school, I'll be starting to help out in the classroom as of tomorrow.  Went swimming today.  Good to see Mum again, can only hear about 60% of what she says, but that's okay.  We manage.

Sitting at Island, writing studies for Mayfield in a last-minute-ish kind of way ...  Marina is back from Melbourne, as is Will, Andy comes in for his flat white, Scott drops in to chat with Dane, David-who-wears-no-shoes walks past ...

Ah, so familiar.

I'm not saying that gift giving is my primary love language, but I do like a good Christmas and I can't help feeling sorry for those people who describe their holiday as 'low-key'.  Especially when it comes to presents.

I asked Tim what he got for Christmas.  'A cookbook,' he said.  'What else?' I asked.  Nothing else, apparently.  I was so surprised that Tim later wrote me a entire email to clarify how contented he was with that one gift.  I still side with Mum, who asked innocently, 'Doesn't he have a family?'

My work mate Kat told me happily how her Christmas presents consisted of fifty dollars, five boxes of chocolate and a pair of socks.  I felt a bit sad.

Dave Jolly only got one present this year.  It was a labeller.



 

There is a certain pathos in reading these letters, because of course things change and people move on, move away, aren't there anymore.  Like when Nan first begins to find it hard to say what she means, and thinks that maybe she should move to a nursing home, and says to Mum (quite indignantly): "I'm a very sick woman you know.  I'm not just a feather flying over the house."

Mostly, though, they are just funny.

 David has been home for a week now and I am not  longer even slightly amazed at the amount he spends on groceries each week (about $60) – in fact I wonder how come it's not more.  He eats non-stop all day.  The other night Nan was watching the amount he put away at dinner and asked him what he had for dinner at home.  Apparently he always has the same: a price of fish or chicken and three cups of vegetables, then a can of baked beans, then an orange, then weet-bix, then a fish finger sandwich before bed!

 (Mum's confidence in her kids comes through:)

I went to school for parent teacher interviews today and they all said nice things about the boys (Paul and Ben) – no trouble, hard workers, etc.  Mr Hayes even said he really appreciated Ben's maturity, which I found a bit hard to swallow.

 (On the other hand, Nan did favour Ben.)

 Yesterday was ANZAC day and Ben had to march with all the other army cadets.  Nan and I went down to watch the parade ... Nan couldn't really see Ben among all the other boys – she kept saying “Which one's Ben?  Which one's Ben?” but that didn't stop her coming home and telling everyone how handsome Ben had looked and how well he'd marched and how he stood out from the crowd!  Ben came into the bedroom later clutching a five dollar note.  “Why did you get that?” I asked (as if I didn't know).  “For marching in the parade and making my Nanny proud of me,” he grinned.  Talk about spoilt.

 (from 4/8/97)

 David really liked those big beer-mug type glasses that Dad bought at Eco-Salve.  He must have told me ten times how good they were and how much he liked them, till I said, “They were only two dollars each at Eco-Salve” and he dropped it like poison.  “Do you mean I've been drinking from glasses that come from the tip? You don't know where they've been.”  He jumped up and raced out of the room.  I don't know where he was going but I think he was racing off to disinfect his mouth!

 (And how nothing changes ...)

 David has got his bike fixed and bought a new helmet and glasses so he's getting back into riding which will be good for him.  Now if only I can get Paul to do some regular exercise I'll be right.

 (The happy little hunter returns ...)

 While we were shopping we came to the confectionary and were standing near the chocolates while Nan looked for something when Paul came up behind me, gave a sigh of pleasure and murmurred, “Ah, home at last” with such feeling that I couldn't help laughing.

 (1997, Good Friday)

 Paul and I went to the Gemboree this morning – it was a nationwide rock and mineral display at the Silverdome and it was really interesting.  Paul fell in love with a 30cm clear crystal.  He reckoned it looked like the type of thing you'd use in a science fiction movie to save the world.

 In other news of the era:

 -         David applies for a Bachelor of Applied Science in Aquaculture because he thinks there might be money in sea horses.

-         Nan is devastated that Liberal won the 98 election.

-         Mum writes rashly “Maybe one day I'll go and teach in the NT”. 

-         The family play cards often, but David is so slow at making decisions that Ben brings a book to fill in time while he's waiting.

-         David's birthday party is postponed (again) due to lack of organisation on his part.

-         Ben writes me a long letter, explaining that “I'm writing a long letter now because I'm not allowed to send too many letters because Mum can't afford all the stamps”.

-         David writes another English essay, Mum re-writes it (and then worries that it's not ethical). 

-         Ben shows the first sign of fungal disease, on his left hand.  (Little does he know he how many years of this he has ahead of him.)

(About nothing at all - I admire Mum's ability to write letters about the smallest things.)

We badly need some fly screens in this place: the few windows that have them have ones with more holes than screen.  Whisky has stuck his nose through the lounge room one so often it's more hole than screen now.

Followed by this action packed paragraph:

From my window I can see the garden tap and there's a little bird who regularly comes and sits on it so that he can put his beak up the tap and drink the drops of water.

(From another letter:)

Ben was funny the other day - I usually say goodbye to them at the door but this time I was eating breakfast so I just said goodbye from where I was.  Obviously this wasn't up to scratch because when Ben got to the door I heard him say "Goodbye imaginary Mummy who's standing at the door".

Some other things I had forgotten:

- whenever the phone rang at Normanstone Road, chances were it was for Bruce Stevenson Toyota, not us.
- David used to do cool things like attend speed reading courses and ask for "Teach Yourself French" courses for Christmas.
- Mum insisted on writing our address as being in Sandhill, despite the fact that no one else had ever heard of, or recognised, this suburb.
- 75% of letter space was devoted to telling me about Paul.

I need to start packing up my stuff, so I'll probably start with opening and re-reading every letter I ever got.  Here are some extracts from letters that Mum sent me while I was at uni:

(About Father's Day)

All of you kids went together and bought Dad a tracksuit because he said he wanted one.  We had a very nice dinner ... only everything was slightly overdone because they went out the video shop at 5:45 and didn't come back until 7pm!  When I asked what took so long Paul said that David was trying to reverse park.

(I love Quinn family shopping - you always find out what you got for someone after they do.)

I took Paul into town on Thursday to buy some shoes because his were wearing out and they had some on special for Father's Day.  As we were going home I bought him a packet of six donuts for $1.  As we got into the car to drive home I heard him mumble to himself "...and the happy little hunter sat down to eat six donuts ..."  That boy is very strange.

(from 17/11/97)

David is studying for a science exam tomorrow but he seems to spend more time getting around to doing something than actually doing it ... David has another driving test tomorrow so I hope he passes.  It's $20 each time you have a try!

Yesterday Nan and Ben and I went out to the garden and did some serious planting.  Ben's bed is now full with strawberries, corn and tomatoes.

(I also love it that you were such a gardener back in the day, Benny.)

I'm very confused.

I just went to the newsagent and asked for 15 stamps.

The girl charged me $8.25, which seemed about right (Paul - is it?) and then gave me two books of ten stamps and four loose ones, so 24 in all.

I can't figure out why - even if she assumed that each book had only five stamps in it, why give me 4 extra?

I think I got too many for what I paid, but I wasn't sure enough to say anything.