Sweet sweat

This bold fellow came down to drink at the river, then flew into the tree directly above my head to party on seeds.

I like to go camping on the weekend of my birthday. The weather is perfect at this time of year - nights cool enough to enjoy the campfire and days hot enough to enjoy a swim in the river, which is after all partially fed by hot springs. If the morning is a little chilly, well then you can always loll in the really hot springs. This year we had a 'big wet'. Thanks to late cyclones there's still much more water around than usual. I took this photo of the river where I camped.

Here are few more photos taken during Mikey's visit (one of the ballet crowd for you HR Mommy). The ballet was an evening event, so I only got pics while they were warming up, before it got dark.

First the apology. I just received a REFUND CHEQUE from Optus for the overpaid amount on my closed mobile account. Couldn't believe my eyes. They must be more principled than I thought! Woo hoo - $23.05 to spend!

I'm trying blogger image upload here. It seems very slow, but I'm not sure whether I've ever tried it before, so thought I'd give it a go as it saves going to another website.

Mikey and I had a great time. These photos are only a sample. Requests for others will be honoured - snakes, crocodiles, markets, more waterfalls, outdoor ballet, more Mindil Beach sunsets, wetlands with birds, rodeo ...

I'm waiting to pick up mikey from the airport. I've just looked at the arrivals on the website and it tells me his plane is going to get in at 12.15am instead of 11.40pm; just a little more waiting.

I'm very excited - just looking forward to bringing him home with me.

Mikey is eleven years younger than I and while he's a perfectly grown up man now, maybe there will always be something of the mother-son in our relationship. You see I got married very young, when Mikey was only 6. Our mum worked, so, while I was home looking after my baby, it was me who went to all Mikey's school open days and had him over during school holidays. Even further back, my girlfriends and I used to dress him up when he was a baby and take him for walks - he was like our own live doll.

As the years went on, every house I lived in and every important person in my life got to know Mikey. It's been very strange that Mikey has never, until tonight, set foot in my home of 6 years. Hopefully, while he's here he'll get to meet the new people in my life, see where I work and catch up on the life I live now. It will be a validation in a way.

Even last year when I lived in Canberra for 3 months, Mikey was one of my first visitors, met my Canberra friends, caught up with a Sydney friend of mine and just made himself part of it. That's Mikey.

Often we don't speak for months on end. He lives a very busy life and doesn't have a lot of time for chatting to me on the phone but somehow I always know he's there -know that if I ever needed him he'd drop everything and fly to me.

And it's not just me. He looks after our aged mother as well; visiting her every week, taking care of her shopping and banking and a myriad of other small and thankless chores. He does it all with gusto and enjoyment and makes people around him feel good.

Michael was a late addition to our family but I always think of him as a gift from God - what would we do without Mikey.

On another note it was my other brother's birthday today. Ken is 2 years younger than me and is a bit of a lost soul - drinks too much, doesn't keep in touch with his lovely children or grandchildren, is alone now after ending relationships with two nice women and we never even hear from him - even mum. It's so sad. Two brothers, the antithesis of each other. Why?

I remarked today to a girl called Libby that I really liked her name, which set us to discussing the dimutives of Elizabeth (her given name). As well as Libby, we came up with Liz, Lizzie, Eliza, Liza, Liss or Lissa, Beth, Bess most of which we agreed were good names. We also agreed that she was lucky she wasn't born to an earlier generation where she might easily have been called Bette or Betty. It's interesting to think how many diminutives there are for people's names and I wonder, does a person grow into their name or does the name influence the person. Would thoughtful and gentle Libby be the same person if she'd insisted on Elizabeth into adulthood or adopted the much harsher Liz?

A book I've just read talked about names and quoted someone who'd said "if you want to ensure your son is strong caring and gentle with people, call him John." - hmmm, maybe there is something in this name business.

Years ago I read a theory that names choose people. That a spirit is wandering around waiting for a body to be born into and it suggests its name somehow to the prospective parents. I know the name of one of my sons came to me out of the blue. It was not a name under consideration, but one morning I woke up thinking that name and remarkably it was agreeable too to the child's father - when we'd been unable to agree on any other name - and so, without real discussion or forethought, that's what he became from that moment on.

A friend was pregnant (this is back in the dark ages when we couldn't choose to find out whether we were having a boy or a girl). She went to the markets and came home with a plaque bearing the name Joshua - and that was that - Joshua he was.

Most recently, a colleague had a baby about 2 months ago. When she was 7 months pregnant she was in a vehicle rollover and from the moment she and the baby walked away intact, we all started calling him "Lucky". Oh she's given him a flash first Christian name, but he's still got "Lucky" as his second name and we are all still calling him Lucky. Wonder what kind of a person Lucky will grow up to be?

Back in April, I had a big spit on the blog about Optus mobile and their inept book-keeping and customer service . Well I meant to tell you the postscript.

In May I received another bill from them which I screwed into a ball, chewed into small pieces and spat down the toilet - after jumping on it. I can't remember now how much this account was for but suspect it might have been for $21.94, because in June I received another account. This one told me I had a previous account of $21.94, had paid $8.99, had a $40 'goodwill credit' leaving me a total account of $23.05 CREDIT!

If you and I kept demanding money from people and refunding it so capriciously, we'd probably be in jail!

Guess now I've closed the account there's not much chance of me ever getting my credit back in cold hard cash is there?

In an excess of emotion last night when I wrote the previous post, I somehow managed to forget that I have had one other member of my family come to visit. About 2 years ago my favourite - well ok only and favourite - nephew came to Darwin and stayed with his gorgeous wife and baby for a couple of days. I was over the moon at their visit as well and we had a great time. Why did I forget this? Well it seems the older you get, the more easily you remember things that happened at a further remove - my other friends visited 6 and 4 years ago but Tristo mate, I guess 2 years ago must fall into the short-term memory - well almost, I did remember this morning and feel very bad about it. Not that I think Tristo actually reads my blog, but well, I really enjoyed their visit and I just felt bad to think I'd been raving on and had temporarily forgotten about it.

My short-term memory is in fact increasingly awful. It's never been great, especially for things I read (and surprisingly I read all the time!). I'm sure it was at least 8 years ago that book-shop son told me he could see an advantage to my condition - "Soon mum, you'll be able to just have one book that you really love and read it over and over again." I've always remembered this comment at least and find it both amusing and comforting but you know what... I've got a horrible feeling I might have told you about it some time quite recently. Now the thought of writing the same thing over and over... that's really scary!

We'll swim in this pool!

MY BROTHER IS COMING TO VISIT! I can't tell you how excited I am. In the 6 1/2 years I've lived in Darwin not one of my immediate family has visited me. I trail the 3,000 kilometres to see them three times a year, regular as clockwork, but not once has one of them visited me. My dearest, oldest friend came for a month a few years ago. My former sister-in-law and her new partner came for about 6 weeks, in 2000. Apart from that, my only visitors have been a few work colleagues.

But on Friday night, Mikey and Marty are coming to visit - only for 6 days, but I'm so looking forward to it.

It's kind of weird living in a place for so long and having none of your family know anything about where you live or how you live.

So, when Mikey and Marty come I'm going to immerse them in my life - share with them the day to day pleasures that make me love this place. We won't do anything flash, just go to the markets and eat the delicious range of Asian foods on offer, take a day trip to the waterfalls of Litchfield, eat dinner under a palm tree at the Trailer Boat Club, visit the Museum and Art Gallery to take in the fabulous array of Aboriginal art, the cyclone Tracey exhibition and the maritime display featuring the tiny wooden craft from Indonesia (to wonder at the bravery, desperation or foolishness that would make people undertake such a voyage in such flimsy craft). On Wednesday night we'll go to the free performance of the Australian Ballet in the Botanic Gardens and see Giselle under the tropical stars and somewhere in there we might fit in a swim in the warm Berry Springs, where you can swim along a creek from one deep pool to another in water so clear you can see fish darting around your feet, watching rainbow bee eaters dive from a clear blue sky and a 5 foot goanna rustle through the underbrush to disappear under water chasing a tasty morsel for dinner.

Man are we gonna have fun!

...and when they go home, I'll know, that at least one member of my family can picture my home and my life, and somehow I'll find that comforting.

I loved the contrast of the rust-orange boats and the glorious blues of the sky and sea, and the way the colours melded in the shadows.