Friday, October 31

Goodbye October

Today is the last day of October, which obviously makes tomorrow the first day of November. 

Cue slight panic attack with mild heart palpitations. 

For the first day of November is also the first day of NaNoWrimo. A month long expedition where writers (or perhaps more aptly wannabe writers) the world over try frantically to pump out a mere fifty thousand words.

I have spent the last few weeks toying with the idea of whether or not I would join the throws and give it a go. I was not going to bother on account of being on the adventure and all but when I saw that Jess was going to give it a go I thought that maybe I should too. The fact that I don’t have any idea as to what story I might actually write is only a minor detail.

Most other years I have attempted to Nano I have had little idea as to what I would write about as well. I have never been one to plot or plan in any shape or form. Which is quite possibly why I have had limited success in completing the challenge.

Sigh.

A few years ago I had the brilliant idea of trying a slightly different take on the challenge and write a piece of flash fiction of at least 1500 words each day with prompts kindly provided by my readers. Ingenious idea really. Sadly I didn’t get too far past making a lovely table with all the prompts. 

Even more sadly I don’t currently have a copy of it to use again for this year. 

Double sigh.

I do however have the post where the suggestions were made so I can make a new table. You know when I have nothing else to do. Which could be now since we are all just chilling in the TV room not doing a whole lot. 

Murphy’s Law says though the moment I start to engross myself in it the girls will become bored and in need of attention. Because that is always the way when you are a mother.

Thankfully though today there are already a few activities in the pipeline. 

Last night another camper who has two girls who my girls had befriended, came and asked if we wanted to collaborate in a few Halloween activities with them. As a rule I am not all that into Halloween, however Zany was a little sad in missing the annual Halloween school disco so I had said a few weeks ago that we would do something. Of course at the time I had no idea what something was and may have secretly hoped she would forget about it all. Naturally she hasn’t though.

The best bit about this collaboration is that the other mother has all the ideas.

We will make some skeleton costumes out black garbage bags and white paint. Which let’s face it in theory is a brilliant idea. I have my doubts about the practise. In all fairness though the doubts are based mainly on the knowledge of my crafty (or lack there of) ability. 


Then we will warn the neighbours of the impending trick or treaters and at the same time supply them with a few chocolates to hand out to the kiddies. Pure and simple brilliance really.

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Wednesday, October 29

Wordless Wednesday - Birds

Last Wednesday I was going to share some photos of a few of the birds I have encountered on #ouradventureofalifetime only I decided to go with flowers instead. So guess what you get today?


This little fellow was spotted on the De Grey River. I had to careful zoom in between some branches. Hence the frames on the corner


This black swan was also on the De Grey River. Seeing it made my day. I love black swans


Hence why there is another photo of one.


Kookaburras are also on my favourite bird list.



This red capped robin was seen at our campsite at Karijini National Park. He was pretty much the only bird we saw there.


And a few galahs for good luck



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Tuesday, October 28

Oh the sighing


I have sat here all morning trying to think of what I could write about today. 

Well that sounds a bit dramatic really, it has probably really only been a little over and hour, hour and a half tops I suppose, but when the temperature has already reached thirty two degrees and it is not yet half past eight an hour or so can feel like all morning.

To help with my inspiration I have trawled through my Facebook feed countless times and read a few blog posts that popped up along the way. Sadly all that did was make me feel like the world was full of writers with much better ideas than I. Which I guess at the moment is exactly the case.

Sigh.

In a few short days the end of the month will have passed and November will begin. November. The month when wanna be writers the world over put their finger tips to keyboards and bang out fifty thousand words towards the novel of their dreams.

Double sigh.

I have lamented greatly as to whether I would bother this year or not. I vaguely remember what it felt like all those years ago when I actually managed to complete the challenge. Seems like a lifetime ago now mind you. A distant memory faded by all the following years of failure.

Cue even more sighing.

At the moment I feel like the mayor of Struggletown. Anything and everything is more effort than what I can muster. It is ‘all’ just too hard. 

Only when I stop and think what this ‘all’ is that I am referring to I feel the over whelming need to berate myself for such ridiculous thoughts. Considering that at the moment we are on #ouradventureofalifetime. Even if it is temporarily on hold I am still free from the normal day to day living that most have to endure. 

Or at least to some extent I am. There are no toilets to clean or floors to wash any more. Nor is there a morning school rush to be late for. There are however still mouths to feed (continually I might add), clothes to be washed (more frequently because we have less to wear) and school lessons for me to give.

Oh the sighing.

All in forty degree heat I might add.

All I keep trying to remember is my old mantra of complain I will not, because blessed it what I am

Because deep down I do know that blessed is what I am. It’s just easier to complain about everything. And by everything I think actually just mean not having a phone

Which really is all kinds of ridiculous. What kind of spoilt cry baby do I think I am?



It's Tuesday and I have blogged. 
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Monday, October 27

Not the celebration I was hoping for

Wow! One hundred days just like that. Crazy really to think how time flies. 

I wish that I could say we did something incredibly exciting to mark the event, but we didn’t. 

Both the little girls had a terrible night’s sleep last night. Which means I too experienced minimal rest.

Zany woke up just after midnight and proclaimed her desire to puke. Thankfully she was able to wait until I was able to locate a container to catch the contents of her stomach. After a drink of water she laid back down and drifted off to sleep. I cautiously returned to my bed and tried to do the same.

Between the poor little boy screaming a few van spaces over and a yapping dog down the road somewhere sleep felt rather elusive. It must have come at some point though because the next thing I knew I was moving at the speed of light (or at least as close to it as one can be when still half asleep) to help Teapot find the spew bowl that Zany was cradling. Luckily they share the same bed and Teapot had managed to locate it herself.

After another dash outside to empty the bowl and wash it out, along with another drink of water and a difficult search in the dark for tissues to wipe her mouth with I decided to squeeze myself in the double bed with the girls just in case there was another wake up call.

By this stage I realised that both the child and dog noise from earlier had stopped. Which I found rather comforting. Unfortunately it was short lived and once again I tried to head to the land of nod with my pillow over my head  in a bid to block it all out.

Once again I somehow managed to doze off for a while.

Once again it was all rather short lived and before I knew it the dreaded sound of a child vomiting was all I could here. Sadly this time her aim for the spew bowl was not as good and I was now faced with a small mess on the sheets that needed cleaning.

It was about this time that Zany woke and preceded to tell me not to worry about it all I could just put the spew bowl over the spew and we could all just go back to sleep because she was now feeling much better and wouldn’t be spewing any more tonight.

Uhm how about thanks but no thanks?

From here I sent Zany to my bed and Teapot and I head outside to lay in one of the reclining camp chairs that I was suddenly incredibly thankful to have. 

Though sadly the woes did not end here. However I will refrain from going into too much more detail.

Let’s just say it involved cups of water being worn rather than drunk and over active imaginations thinking that a tree trunk in the distance was actually someone hiding. Eventually all was sorted and sleep was found by everyone. Though given I was outside in a chair with a child on top of me it was not exactly a rejuvenating kind of sleep.

Needless to say today was one filled with tired grumpy people. Which is just perfect for a 40 degree heat day.

The girls spent most of the morning inside watching screens while I baked some cupcakes for the kind lady who had the girls for a few hours yesterday and some egg and bacon pies for us for lunch. Teapot managed to score a few hours sleep and woke five seconds after I lay down to do the same. From there the rest of the day was spent in the air conditioned rec room playing Uno. 

Which was not really as enjoyable as it sounds due to the over tired Zany having a melt down every time she got card she didn’t like.

Bedtime could not come quick enough.

Happy one hundred days!
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Friday, October 24

Things I Know About Mobile Phones and Not Having One.

It has been some ten days since I was last able to hold a working phone in my hot little hands. 

How I have survived this long I know not. How I am supposed to survive any longer seems almost unimaginable.

For some fifteen years I have been the proud owner of a mobile phone. 

Fifteen years I tell you is a blooming long time to become attached to something. I have seen first hand how the mobile phone transformed from a heavy brick needing it’s own bag to the slip in your top pocket, hold the world in the palm of your hand that it is today.

I had a mobile well before I even had anyone else I could call with a mobile phone. Having a job selling them meant that it was pretty much expected I buy one for myself. Back then I remember going to telecommunication conferences where companies promised that before long our trusty mobiles would become part and parcel of everyday life. They would have the capacity to take photos, store countless contact details and even quite possibly connect to the world wide web. (Which back then was what the internet was more commonly referred to.) I was equally parts dubious about such possibilities as I was in awe. As if video calls will ever be anything more than part of a science fiction movie?

Yet here I am, all those years later. Mourning the death of my very own little piece of science fiction. If only the whole waterproof qualities had been adequately developed by now.

I know that the first few days without my beloved device were much easier than the last few.

I know that public phone boxes are not as easy to locate as what they once where. I wonder if Superman struggles with this as well?

I know that some would say I should embrace this opportunity to live in the moment a little more. 

I know that sometimes having a phone actually helps you survive the moment a little easier. Take today for example. Bather shopping with a teenager. I was forced to sit outside the change room for what felt like hours staring at the blank walls while she tried on endless pairs of bikinis. Having a phone would have eased my burden no end.

I know that in the absence of my phone my beloved followers have missed some of the most mundane moments of my life and I wonder how the will survive. 

I know (or at least like to think) that sharing my relentless battles with motherhood via social media is bound to make at least one person’s day.

I know that sharing my relentless motherhood battles on social media somehow makes it all seem a little less of a battle.

I know I have checked the status repair some seven hundred times in the last few days.

I know the waiting for the return of a new device is driving me insane.


I know that the thought of carrying on into the distant future without a mobile device is unfathomable and impossible to comprehend. It really is a case of life as we know it ceasing to exist.

I know that I love being able to share my woes with the likes of Ann and Grace and their awesome link ups, makes up for some of the attention I have missed out on via social media.

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Wednesday, October 22

Flowers for Miss Cinders

If you are anything like me you have probably had a Facebook friend or two share a post of a photo of a flower. The general gist is that they want to fill Facebook feeds with beautiful blooms rather than the too frequent doom and gloom.

One of my dear friends, who also happens to be the super cool blogger known as Miss Cinders did this just the other day. 

Never one to be an over achiever when an easy opportunity presents I thought I would take it one step further and do a post full of beautiful flowers I have come across lately.














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Tuesday, October 21

Windjana Gorge

Aug 20 - Day 32
Windjana Gorge is what is known as a Devonian Reef and consider a rather special landmark. As such it is part of a National Park. It is located off the Gibb River Road which essentially is a gravel road with varying degrees of corrugation. So far we have found it not to be too terrible but I worry about pushing our luck on it. So many people have horror stories of busted springs and blown tyres from travelling on this road. I do not want to be one of them.



Rather than do the entire length in one hit we drove the first bit from Kununurra to Home Valley Station, then popped in from Fitzroy Crossing and now heading in from the other end at Derby. From what we can gathered we have managed to see a lot of the gorges found on the road. Though we did miss Bell Gorge and Mitchell Plateau. Always good to save something for another time though.

My highlight for today, at least so far is finally catching up with the journal entries. I know I have mentioned before how writing everyday proved to be more difficult than I anticipated and I know that in some ways it really doesn’t matter but to me it does. I am hoping that now I am all up to date I will be able to stay that way. Mind you some of the entries at this stage are only one sentence long to remind me where we were and what we did but at least it is better than nothing.

There are two campgrounds at Windjana Gorge. One which allows generators and one that doesn’t. As with most of the places we have been to so far the generator side is considerably less populated and where we decided to stay. 

Aug 21 - Day 33
Surprisingly we did not wake up with much of a headache this morning. I say surprisingly because we sat up drinking and chatting away with our neighbours till who knows what time. 

Since alcohol has been in short supply of late we were forced to tuck into our Kununurra Hoochery supplies.  A bright green aniseed liqueur to be exact. Which was quite perfect to sip around a campfire while trying to stay warm. The nights are still feeling incredibly freezing to poor little Territorians.

Our neighbours, who leave today, are a lovely couple from Perth who have taken three months off to take the kids (Boy 10, Girl 8) up to Darwin and then down the centre on an adventure of their own. It was so lovely to hang out with people our own age. As lovely as all the Grey Nomads that we have met are they are not really interested in late night shenanigans by the campfire.

It was also lovely for the kidlets to have someone to play with. My heart swelled listening to them run around in the dark playing spotlight. I love it when they play the same games that I did as a child. Especially when they think they came up with it all by themselves.

While we had the torches out we took a quick trip down to the start of the gorge to go croc spotting. Windjana Gorge is one of the most densely populated fresh water crocodile homes. Shinning the spotlight out across the water unveiled hundreds of little glowing dots of the crocodiles eyes. 

It was one of my proud mummy moments because I knew that the girls had their brave big girl knickers on to walk down there in the dark. I was even more proud when Lovely nearly stepped on a little snake and handled it all in a reasonably calm manner.

Even though we had arrived with plenty of time to head down there yesterday we never quite made it in day light hours. Which in many ways turned out to be a good thing because walking between the enormous gorge walls by torchlight made for a rather impressive first impression. All I could think was how I wished I knew how to capture it on film. I am still struggling with night settings on my camera.

Aug 22 - Day 34

Most people do Windjana Gorge as a day trip. Some stay over night and head to Tunnel Creek while they are in the area. As my parents continually told me, and as I keep telling the girls, we are not like most people.

When we went to Tunnel Creek the other week, we made the short drive (about 30 minutes) to Windjana Gorge to decide if we thought it would be worth coming back to camp at. Without even getting out the car I knew the moment we pulled into the car park it was a place I wanted to spend a few days at. 

There was just something breathtakingly magical about the place that instantly drew me in. Even after spending two nights here I still can’t explain what it is that I love. I just know that I love being here. A lot.

Other than walking down to the gorge and doing some crocodile counting there is not really a great deal to do here. Having said that though I really enjoy sitting around watching the colours of the rock walls change as the sun passes over them throughout the day.


After walking through the gorge this morning we were all feeling a little hot and bothered. Mr Awesome and I contemplated taking a dip with the crocs but the colour of the water put us off a little. As they are only freshwater crocodiles they are more afraid of us than we are them so going for a quick dip could have been a possibility if the water was a little less green.

Instead we decided to head back to Tunnel Creek and have a swim there. Since staying here and chatting with the camp host we have heard that there are some rock paintings to look for there so checking it out again seemed like a great idea. Plus it was so much fun walking through there before everyone was more than happy to do it all again.

We were only able to find one of the paintings. It was on the outside of the Tunnel at the end. The other was supposedly inside the tunnel which made it rather difficult to locate. The rains of the last few seasons have been particularly heavy raising the water level quite a bit. Which means that the walls have been coated with mud and quite possibly covered up the painting.
Aug 23 - Day 35
Sadly last night was our last here. I still can’t explain why I love being here so much I just do. I can understand why this place has significance to the Aboriginals.

I guess in terms of campgrounds though this is a best of both worlds. There is no electricity, though you are allowed generators in on of the grounds. Mind you few people seem to actually do so. There are however flushable toilets with a tap outside for hand washing. The real icing on the cake though is the solar hot water showers. Mind you it is best to shower when no one else is as the water pressure is a little low but I am by no means complaining.

While there is running water for showering it is recommended to boil the water before drinking as it is not treated in anyway. We have 60 litres of water in jerry cans and a further 80 litres in Edna so we are pretty sorted. Still it was great to have water for washing dishes (and ourselves) easily on hand.

Other than whistling kites and bowerbirds we have not seen a great deal of birds. Not that it has mattered too much because the amount of kites is quite large and are rather interesting to watch as they circle round looking for food. The bower birds also provide great entertainment as they hop all over the place looking for treasures.

When we arrived the girls watched some other kids feeding scraps to the kites and pleaded with us ever since to be able to do the same. Mr Awesome and I agreed that they could give them a little bit of food just before we left. We were concerned that if we fed them they would scavenge through our sight when we weren't around. These birds were far from shy.

Watching thirty odd kites swoop around as the girls threw them bits of ham was all kinds of impressive. They are such a proud and majestic bird.



joining in with Jess for IBOT
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Monday, October 20

Yes another photo of a galah that has no relevance at all to what I am talking about

It’s funny how the inspiration or inclination to write seems to always come at the most inopportune times. Like now, I should be doing the dishes or folding the washing or even starting dinner preparations. But yet here I am. Finger tips rapidly trying to tap letters out in the hope that comprehendible words and sentences will magically form.

Today is Mr Awesome’s birthday.

Not that we got to spend it with him on account of him needing to go to work. Which is not something I really understand. Working and birthdays just doesn’t seem right to me. I suspect that the fact that my mother never made me go to school on my birthday probably has something to do with it. But anyway.

Since we are hanging out in sunny Karratha for the next six weeks. Well actually five weeks now as one week has already passed, I have been treating ourselves to a few little luxuries in the electrical department. 

Though when I say ourselves I basically mean me because by little luxuries in the electrical department I mean things to help me in the kitchen. Like a slow cooker and a little oven. None of which I can show you right now because my phone is still out of action. Which I might add is a never ending source of frustration. I mean surely if I sent it off for repairs on Friday it should be on it’s way back to me by now shouldn’t it?

But I digress.

While Mr Awesome has been busy off working on his birthday I have been slaving away baking up a storm in the cute new little oven. Which is both lovely and not so lovely. Lovely because baking is a lovely way to relax and not so lovely because baking also creates a horrible mess.

The upside to the mess though is hosing off dirty dishes is way more enjoyable than washing them by hand. I am constantly torn by the pros and cons of this gypsy life we are leading.
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Sunday, October 19

Snapshots of Us - Weeks 41 & 42

It wasn't a conscious move. Or planned in anyway. It is just the way things seemed to have panned out. Snapshots of Us seems to have moved to a fortnightly instalment.

Selfie time.
Though this fortnight we are a little on the light side of images to share on account of this.


Poor old Patty had to go to the mechanic and it took forever (well a week) for him to come back.

Thankfully though before he went off we got the chance to go up to Dampier and say hi to Red Dog. Or at least Red Dog's statue.




While Mr Awesome made the most of watching the NRL grand final I took the opportunity to go for a bit of a run. Or at least that was the plan. In the end I clamber up to the top of Stove Hill which while left me feeling rather awesome didn't not involve too much running till the way down.


Other than that we have pretty much just been lazing around hanging out with the birds. Some of which are visitors


and one of which is part of the family



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