Christmas in Darwin and Beyond.

While everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is busy building snowmen, snuggling up with layers of blankets or jumpers and generally doing their best to keep warm during the next few months, we here in Darwin are as usual sweltering under a hot and sticky sun. At least we can celebrate the season on the beach with a sandman instead. :) The humidity this time of year is at its worst as the wet season is just beginning. I sit here and watch the storms roll in over the bay, thunder rumbles all around while sheets of lightning flash across the horizon. As the storm approaches the sky darkens and the monsoonal rain begins to pelt down. I find myself wanting to hide under the table or better yet under the covers of the safety of my bed. I am home alone and feel somewhat vulnerable. Memories of our years in Thailand during monsoons come flooding back.

My babies were only one, four and seven years old when we first experienced the frightening effects of a tropical storm. The electricity in the house we lived in was not grounded and every time a storm came through not only did the power go out, we had a build up of water pool in the light shade over the dining room table.Doesn't sound so bad? But the table was on the bottom floor of a two storey house, I could never figure out where all the water was coming from? I asked the resident Thai maintenance man if he could please fix the problem. His solution....."Mai pen lai madame" (not a problem madame) and he promptly deposited a bucket onto the middle of my dining room table, problem solved! He smiled and left.

My dear husband resolved to fix the problem and had a fellow from work arrive to install a circuit breaker on our wall just inside our front door. Problem solved? Ah no! The next storm that came through the circuit breaker blew up and flames flew up my wall. Hubby arrived home late from work to find the house pitch black,  a burnt smell as he entered and myself and three little boys sitting upstairs in the middle of our bed reading by torchlight.

So now when I experience the storms here in Darwin some twenty years later, all alone while hubby is at work, the boys all grown up and no longer at home with me to give mum support, I can't help but wonder what will go wrong  here?

So far so good. But I have heard some people say we are due for another big wet season and even another big cyclone. It has been 40 years this Christmas Eve since Santa didn't make it into Darwin when Cyclone Tracey struck and to top it off I believe Tracey crossed the coast right here at Cullen Bay where I am living! Fills one with a lot of confidence!

So I'll trim the tree and cook the traditional roast. I'll wrap all the presents and send out all my Christmas cards and I'll look forward to spending Christmas with all my wonderful family and friends down south and say a silent prayer for everyone here in Darwin that they stay safe while I am away. Last but not least I'll pray that a cyclone doesn't hit and devastate families anywhere in Australia this season, Queensland, Western Australia or the Northern Territory. Then I'll return early in the New Year to watch the storms build up across the bay once more.

As a Christmas special i am offering a two for one deal on Gingerbread Aliens. So while you cook gingerbread this festive season you can read with the family a different kind of gingerbread story. What better gift at Christmas than sharing the gift of time, laughter and imagination with your kids and being able to give that gift to another family as well.

http://sandrabennettauthor.com/gingerbread-aliens/

I'm on Foot......Again!

Here we go again! Three weeks into living in the tropics and no physical means of transport except my own two feet! I can generally walk a fair distance and it certainly is much flatter here than the hills back home, but the humidity makes me feel like I've hit a brick wall generally halfway to wherever I am going. So I decided it was time to consider buying a car. There is no point transporting my car from home up here as I will need it there on my return visits.

Now we find out the true meaning of NT in Northern Territory. Every car I considered was not available to drive away, as they say, Not Today, Not Tomorrow, Not Tuesday, Not Thursday, Next truck or maybe Next Train. You see everything you want in the Northern Territory has to be shipped up by road train  or rail from down south and it appears that is always months away. The waiting begins!

It reminds me of rubber time in Thailand where nothing ever happened in a hurry, everything was either "mai pen lai" never mind, or "mai me" no have. A shrug of the shoulders and all would be good.....eventually.

I persisted with walking or using baht buses for a while in Thailand, it seemed easy enough, or so I initially thought. For the uninitiated a baht bus is kind of like an old blue ute with a roof over the back with two long seats either side that you climb into and hang onto for dear life.  One is expected to barter with the local currency, Thai baht, for the fare to wherever you want to go.  This was fine during the wet season or the really sticky humid season, but didn't work out so well during the tourist season.

Off peak season I knew exactly what my fair should have been to take me from our expat compound down to the main street of Pattaya to shop, then return, 20 baht each way, fair enough I could agree to that. However once peak tourist season hit the baht bus drivers get greedy and suddenly want 100 baht, I don't think so! There are three prices in Thailand, Thai, expat and tourist price. I'm not a tourist, I'm here for the long haul!

One day I refused to pay their asking price, I bartered in my best Thai, but baht bus after bus continually drove off, they could pick up the tourist dollar and make a lot more. I was getting anxious, the school bus was due home any moment, I needed to be home for my boys. A Thai on a baht bike had been observing the interactions and stepped forward to offer me a lift home. 5 baht on the back of his motor bike and I would be home in 5 minutes.

My husband had always warned me never to get on the back of a baht bike. Far too dangerous, he always said. They weave their way in and out of the traffic with no concern for the passenger. I stood their considering my options for a split second, hubby didn't need to know and I was desperate to get home. Like a rebel I reluctantly agreed, he smiled and helped me onto the back of his bike, reached around to pull my arms tight around his waist, it was obvious how nervous I was, and we were off. I took a deep breath and didn't know whether to close my eyes but the driver was to my surprise slow and careful.

It took a few weeks but eventually the guilt inside me rose and I confessed to my husband. Within the next week I had a car and a driver. A friend for the rest of our stay in Thailand, someone I not only trusted my life with on the roads but my children as well.

My husband knows me well enough after all these years that when I say I need transport, he had better do something about it. So the car is ordered, we now play the waiting game, come on August and we'll see if the car actually arrives here in Darwin NT.