What’s keeping me amused in Darwin

What’s keeping me amused in Darwin? Well, the frogs are quieter now (mating over?), but bug problems again. The crawling things in the jar of dried basil rather surprised me yesterday. I opened the jar and am I glad I looked inside first. I’m learning. Surveillance is very necessary in the Territory before making a foray into the unknown. Anyway, thought it was a little dark in there for dried basil, should have been green not brown, and still, not moving, and yes I had my glasses on. After a double blink I realised I was looking at a cockroach nursery and creche! Fortunately that lot found their way into the bin rather than my lentil soup bubbling on the gas burner.

And what else is fun up here? Well tracking progress on the Australian Open down south is an excelelnt diversion. Tennis is fantastic to watch – the drama, the tension – as long as you haven’t listened to the news and know the score of the match in progress. Being an hour and a half behind eastern states’ time clocks is a bugger. But, I’m blessed with the internet and a big TV screen, so the excitement is there. Kim Clijsters has gone (how did that happen?), the pocket rocket Justine Henin goes with amazing surety, Roger Federer is the master and breath-taking-ly excellent, and Andy Roddick, the boy next door, still with the baseball cap, still in there. Oh I miss playing tennis and my lessons with excellent coach and fun classmates. Do you think the knee is up to it, Carol?

And what else is keeping me out of mischief? The rain – I love it when it buckets down. You know it will be cooler. You know it doesn’t matter if you get wet. It’s just that mobile phone in the pocket that’s is a nuisance – don’t want that wet, so RUN! Get out of the rain. Damn -there goes another pair of sandals, they’ll be rotting soon.

Sleepless in Darwin

Well that was a sleepless night! And I say that as I squash ants that crawl across my trusty Mac laptop, writing my journal. It wasn’t the heat or the rain that kept me awake last night, or dreams of crocodiles (which happened the night before), no it was the frogs carrying on all night in the backyard. They are quiet now of course, now that the day is here and I am supposed to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed leaping out of bed for work.

But on the positive side, I think I have won the battle with the ants and giant cockroaches that partied in my pantry while I was away for a month. Had to throw out half the contents of the cupboard. Everything that wasn’t in a really really really tightly sealed plastic container went into the bin. Those cockroaches, I tell you, they lean on the sides of a jar of mango chutney or a tin of beetroot, their arrogant wavy feelers pointing at me, and say, well, what you going to do about me, eh? They even crunched holes in some of the plastic bags to find what they wanted. So out it all went: rice, cornflour, cereal, chips, biscuits, pasta. You name it, they munched it, pooed in it or bred in it. There are still some cockroaches and a colony of Daddy Long Legs in the bathroom to be dealt with, but they can wait.

The mildew removal is another matter. I have four pairs of shoes to either clean up or send to the tip: they are no good as they are, all furry with green organisms. And I had to throw out one mildew coatedpillow from the bedroom, the other three remaining ones will probably be okay with a turn in the washing machine. Two survived the process last night anyway; let’s see if the third makes it today. (Go AWAY ants. . . creeping over my screen while I type . . . they are a real nuisance . . there’s no food in there, only zeros and ones – 0101010101010101010101000001111.) Ah well, off to work in my thongs, through the puddles . . .