Happy New Year!

2011 is here! Yay! Hurray! Woot!

On NYE Kristy, Logan (son) and I celebrated at the Outback Pioneer Hotel (the Outie). It was sooo good, the music was great and there wasn’t a mega wait at the bar. Unfortunately, as we were walking to the Outie, a bug flew into Kristy’s eye and then, just for the fun of it, decided to sting her on the eyeball (because clearly it had to do something while it was there buzzing in her eye), so poor Kristy spent much of the night rubbing her eye and then pulling down the lower lid saying, “Is it still in there? Can you see it?”

Talking of strange injuries, I worked with Beck the other night (on the 2nd job) and she told me that her sister recently had a 3rd degree meatball burn. Yes, you heard (read) it right, it does say a “meatball” burn. Apparently Beck’s sister works at Subway and she accidently dropped a tray of meatballs down her leg. Ouch! But on the bright side, what a fun story to tell when people ask about the scar!

The night I worked with Beck was New Years Day. We arrive at the sunset viewing area at about 5.45pm and it was fully hot hot hot. I don’t mean just the usual Rock hot, I mean it was a stinker, and there was only the faintest whisper of a breeze. I set up as much as I could, which means I put up tables, cover them with heavy white table clothes, arrange the champagne flutes and the orange juice glasses in a nice way (which changes depending on the number of people I will be serving). I don’t pour the sparkling wine or OJ until I get the call that the bus is on it’s way (which, by the way, is via radio as we have no phone reception out there, and yes, I do get to say “Copy that.”). The group arrived just after 7pm, and it was still stifling hot, and I had been out in the full sun from 5.45 by that time). About 10 minutes into the guests eating the canapés and drinking the sparkling wine, a thunder storm sweeps in and soaks us all to the skin! Some of the tourists got back on the coach, but most of them stayed in the rain, continued to eat and I continued to pour them beers and sparkling wine, all, of course, with a smile! I was saturated, and I wish I had worn a better bra because my shirt was very wet and sticking to me and you could see the outline of my crappo bra through it. It could have been worse I suppose. At least I was wearing a bra.

Do any of you remember the recipe for Beer Bread that I posted on one of the blogs? Well... my friend Rachel actually made it! And she said it is the best and easiest bread to make! She said that her husband, Wazza, said that now they have no need to buy bread anymore, because this Beer Bread is so easy, and so cheap! So you must give it a try!

Rachel is at the Rock at the moment, with her two chitlens – Oscar and Lily (she is taking advantage of the discount on accommodation!). She came swimming with us today (kids stayed in hotel room and watched TV – ahhh, teenagers!) Then we all went to the Residents Club for the $10 roast meal (which was roast turkey – apparently there is an over abundance of turkey in Yulara at the moment due to over-ordering at Christmas). It is so nice to have a friend from Melbourne here, and it’s fun to show her and the kids around.

I sent an email to my friend Mandy a few days ago. She sent us a Christmas present (which we LOVE you for Mandy – you’re the best!). I sent Mandy the text to say thankyou, and so the text was MEANT to go something like,

“Hey Mandy, thanks so much for the Christmas present, we love it. Linda and Kristy xxxx oooo”

However, predictive text on my phone jumped in just as I hit the ‘send’ button, so the text arrived to Mandy saying,

“Hey Mandy, thanks so much for the Christmas present, we love it. Linda and Kristy xxxx Poop”

POOP!!!!! How does my phone even know the word POOP??????

On a completely different subject to poop (or is it?????) I am back at the Spa this week. I have had some time off from the Spa recently but I am very much looking forward to going back there and working with the girls again. I wish Erin was still working with us, but I am sure to see her again (when we travel to QLD). PS: Hi Erin and welcome to my blog!

Logan is having a good time here in Yulara. He really enjoys his handyman job at Sails in the Desert, and is apparently quite good at it. Everyday Logan tells me what he had for lunch. When you work here, you are provided with one meal a day when you are working. Logan totally LOVES his free daily free meal. One day he had a plate of Oysters Kilpatrick and Hotdogs with onion (on the same plate). Weird combo, but as there is no Macca’s or KFC I guess that we adjust.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the Van. Kristy backed our van into a tree and shattered the back window. Yes, she really does have her H endorsement licence. The tree didn’t completely smash the window as the window had been tinted (cost us about $80 before we left Melbourne to tint that window, sigh), but the tint kinda held the shattered glass in place. Anyhoo, we had to get this fixed, because it was only a matter of time before the glass did smash. So, we needed to go to Alice Springs to get this fixed. We decided to stay a couple of days in Alice, to also do some shopping. The petrol to Alice and back cost us about $180. The accommodation (cheapest I could find) was $100 for the 2 nights. The back window, with new tinting, cost us $495. So really, all up, smashing that back window ended up totalling about $775. Sheesh!! However, it was good to get a load of shopping done (mainly alcohol, because the booze is way too expensive in Yulara). We also got to eat Thai food, and Chinese food, which tasted fabulous, but unfortunately our bodies are no longer accustom to this food and we both had a bit of a Bali belly for a day or so. Even so, despite the $775 and the sore tummies, we drove back to Yulara feeling like we had achieved something good (except that Kristy’s road kill probably did not feel good about us being on the road – Kristy managed to hit 1 goanna, 1 lizard, 3 small birds, a wasp and a butterfly).

We pulled into Yulara at about 4.30pm on 24th December, after being away for two nights, and discovered that the van no longer has reverse gear or 5th gear. I am serious, we do not have these gears. And it was now Christmas. And everything was going to be shut for the xmas, new year period. We can live without 5th gear for a while (top speed here is 40kms), however having no reverse gear is proving very interesting. Often I have to get out and PUSH the van (and sometimes that bullbar is damn hot!), if Kristy has stopped somewhere and she needs to back up. I am feeling very “Little Miss Sunshine” (remember how they couldn’t get 1st or 2nd gear and they had to always push their van and then run to get into it). Kristy always tries to stop or park where no reverse is needed, but this is not always possible. So, we are now back from having the van fixed, and it needs more fixing. And I think the Air Conditioning also needs re-gassing. It doesn't matter, we love our van and it is serving us well, all cars (like people) have their mini meltdowns at some time or another.

For my metaphysical friends – I think that the Universe is using the van to materialise to me that there is no going back, that I can't go backwards at the moment, and that I also need to go forward in a slow manner.

Christmas is over for another year and I was very spoilt by Kristy. Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards and Christmas presents. It can be a bit lonely being so far away from everyone, so receiving word from home is always so lovely. Kristy and I are always very excited when we go to the Post Office and they say we have mail. Hugs to everyone who sent us Christmas cards, we put them all up in our little unit. And special thanks to my Mumma, Mel and Mick, Anita and Mark, Sarah and Mick, Sharon and Shadow, Mandy and Helen who sent Chrissy presents all the way to the Red Centre. xxxx Poop.

Some of you know that the end of 2010 has been a bit of a tough one for me, so I am very excited to be starting up a fresh, new year (Jake, thank you for your support and for always checking on me).


Tanoshindene! (enjoy/have fun).

PS: The big meteorite shower that I mentioned in the last blog was a bust. A group of us walked 15 minutes into the desert to find a sand dune with minimal light pollution. It was a cloudy night, however I was SURE the clouds were going to clear. We set ourselves up at 1.30am, laying on towels, esky close by,looking up at the sky. The clouds didn't clear, but the rain did come. A lot of rain. We packed up and went home, quite bedraggled and feeling a bit sad that all the meteorite action happened but we were unable to see it. We can do lots of things in this world, even fly to the moon, yet we are still at the mercy of mother nature. Well... not that I can actually fly to the moon, although I have heard you can feel like you are going to the moon when ingesting certain fungi or cactus-type plants!