More flora from the jungle

Before and after...

 

 

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Rain rain go away

it has been raining for 24 hours. It needs to stop now. Every part of my body feels swollen, like I am a piece of stale bread left in the rain. My bones ache. My joints aren't moving as they should. I feel borderline ill. I am sure I smell of that horrid pungency associated with humid environments: sodden clothes stuck to damp skin. I am a piece of rotting vegetation.

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The beast

A few weeks ago, Management announced that Digicel, our internet provider, was to bring a shipment of new equipment to Tabubil via a Hercules aircraft. Yesterday and today were the dates for 2 flights into the town. Yesterday was a Sunday, so we walked down the hill to the airport at the designated time and waited, searching the sky for black dots and bright lights. After an hour of straining our eyes, the logistics representative came to tell us that the plane had not yet loaded at Port Moresby! So we struggled back up the hill in the intense heat of a midday sun and eventually arrived home with sweat-wet clothes and red faces. It took a shower and several hours before our faces looked like they might not explode. At midday today, a Monday, we tried again. When the plane was 5 minutes away, the logistics representative informed us of its impending landing. Since our office is close to the airport, we dashed across the road and got into position as close to the runway as possible, my ipad's camera and video at the ready. We squealed when we saw headlights in the sky because they were clearly attached to a plane much bigger than a Dash 8. I pressed my video button and followed the monster along the runway until it engaged all of its braking mechanisms. As it pulled alongside my viewing position, I got so excited that I forgot about the video altogether. Screaming through the noise at nothing in particular, it was several moments before I became aware of the ipad hanging limply in my hands, still videoing the pebbles at my feet. We stayed another 2 hours to watch the unloading and the plane's departure before returning to the office. I replayed the video several times that afternoon and it never failed to amuse me...

 

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Greed or food efficiency?

It is standard practice to bring as much food as you can back to Tabubil whenever you have a chance to fly out. For the last 10 months we have brought in 60kg of food every trip. The food ranges from meat, cheese and chocolate (in a freezer pack) to oats, flakes, relishes and nuts. All of these items are either unavailable at Tabubil, unreliably available or prohibitively expensive. So, now that we have resigned and only have 57 days left (including a 14 day rostered off period), we are faced with running this food down as efficiently as we can. This means avoiding simple meals such as eggs on toast and eating proper meals instead. It also means making lots of a meal so that we can eat leftovers for lunches instead of buying more sandwich fillers. I will keep you posted as we go...and provide more photos as the stock slowly runs down...

 

 

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Clouded in

Today we were clouded in from dawn to dusk except for a 2 hour respite in the middle of the day. When I got dressed this morning, my mine clothes had been cold and damp and my socks felt like they had been worn by a sweaty footballer. The mountains that usually surround us were unable to be found. I could have walked off the edge of the plateau and fallen 100 metres to my death. I got wet just walking through the mist. As I write, rain sits suspended in white air.

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Dangerous passenger

When I flew from Brisbane to Tabubil on Sunday, I brought my knitting with me. I had decided that the 10 hours travel time might go a little faster if I was able to have two distractions rather than the usual one. It made sense to read, knit, read, knit rather than just read. So I packed my cabin baggage with the usual detritus: earphones (to drown out the noise of the Dash 8), ipad, book and added my knitting. I achieved a successful transition through the xray and dust machines at Brisbane Domestic Airport and again at the Cairns International Airport. In the departure lounge, I settled into a hard and stained airport seat and delved into my bag to reveal a 50gram ball of purple Cleckheaton Country 85% pure wool and a set of 80cm circular needles, I was quickly in position for a few hours of relaxing craft. Halfway along my first row, a small elderly lady stopped in front of me. "I didn't know you could bring knitting needles on a plane! If I had known, I would have brought my own"! I told her that it simply had not occurred to me that knitting needles might be confiscated...but it appeared that they hadn't been this time. "Just enjoy it, love", she said, and moved on. As I watched her walk away, panic seized me and I couldn't finish my row fast enough! I thrust my knitting into my bag as quickly as I could, having realised that any particularly observant customs employee on his way to the toilet might yet confiscate my precious work...

 

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Freedom

Today, for the second time in 6 weeks, we resigned. It feels great!!! Our "Freedom Flight" will take off from Tabubil airport in 8 weeks. Here's a sneak preview of the view from the Tabubil airport lounge...

 

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The day of the ants

I recently agreed to swap our fridge with my sister's sewing machine and overlocker. I spent a dedicated two hours scrubbing out the fridge then placed a saucer of coffee grains inside it to remove any persistent odours. With my part of the deal done and the fridge ready for delivery, it was with great joy that I awaited the arrival of my 'new' sewing machine and overlocker. Unfortunately, I got more than I had bargained for. Along with my machines, I was delivered of approximately 100,000 dead ants. It appears that the sewing machine had been a perfect nesting place for Toowoomba's ant population. When my sister had taken it down from its storage space above the roof beams in the shed, the ants had oozed out of the box like one of those old horror movies where ants take over the world. Luckily, my father had the presence of mind to put the entire thing into a large plastic bag, spray copious amounts of bug killer into the bag and close it tight. Equals fumigation chamber. On arrival at my house, the ants had been well and truly gassed but I still had the job of cleaning them out...a job which took a good two hours and involved spanners, screwdrivers, brooms, cloths and toothbrushes...

 

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Troubles and dreams

An inspirational plaque that I purchased this week at Highfields near Toowoomba. This little sign will travel to Italy with us in a few months time and hang in our garden thereafter...

 

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No food in the house

In the days before I return to PNG, I always challenge myself to minimise food wastage. I did very well this time. Twelve hours before I am due to fly out (tomorrow morning at 7am) I enjoyed a delicious homemade sanga consisting of a quarter of a roast chicken and leftover avocado, tomato, fetta cheese and aioli. I am proud to say that the only food remaining in the house now are 2 bananas, which will be my breakfast in the morning!

 

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A love of small people

I love gnomes. I never thought i would say that...but, quite simply, they make me happy.

 

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A taste of Italy

We had a taste of Italy today at the Preston Peak Winery near Toowoomba. A good time was had by all.

 

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Scrolls

Today I made cinnamon scrolls (without the cinnamon...unavailable here...)! So I guess I made brown sugar scrolls really or caramel scrolls or something like that. Anyway, they were delicious.

 

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Our Daily Challenge

There are many challenges for us living in the dense interior of PNG...but the single biggest challenge must surely be the lack of plugs. Yes, plugs. We cannot find a plug to fit our kitchen sink. Neither in PNG nor Australia. This means that washing dishes becomes a race against time, as we watch our precious hot and soapy water leak past our ill-fitting plug. Often we leave the dishes to catch some breaking news on the TV, only to return to a sink full of still-dirty dishes, soggy cloths and a plug covered in food detritus. If stu wants me to look at something or to give me a hug, I tell him to WAIT! lest my dishwater disappears...

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At "home" in the fog

Our home in Papua New Guinea, is located just a few feet away from a deep drop down to a river. Shortly after the river passes by us, it meets another river and becomes a stoney water space stretched across a wide valley. Our home is one of about 24 townhouses which share a single street. Off this single street run several small gravel tracks from which 4 houses at a time are accessed. Here is our track. Our home is on the left closest to the camera. Because of our proximity to the edge of the plateau, we are frequently enveloped by mist and cloud.

 

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Rain, rain, go away...

We're well and truly into the rainy season here now. Last night it rained without stopping and continued well into the morning. We had a short respite in the middle of the day before it came back with a vengeance. As we sit in our lounge room struggling to hear the evening news it falls and falls and falls. Our bed is damp. Our throats are sore. Our spirits are heavy.

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As promised...

As promised, here are the flowers that I photographed yesterday. The first one looks positively alien...almost alive!

 

 

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Lazy Sundays - Hot Stuff and Strange Activity

We've had a lazy Sunday. What a statement! That makes it sound like it's actually possible to have busy Sundays here. But the truth is that there are only lazy Sundays to be had...which of course is special in its own way. So I've been taking photos around the house. I have more flowers to show you tomorrow. This morning we bought a pretty little arrangement of chillis from the local market which was worth posting immediately. This afternoon we heard nationals with sling shots over the fence and spent some time peering at them from the observation tower (our upstairs bedroom). They were hunting for something high up in the trees, unseen to us. Five men crept through the area just outside the compound fence and glanced over at us several times as if our attention worried them. We can only assume that they should not have been hunting there, that the use of a sling shot is illegal or that whatever they were hunting is protected. Ahh...ignorance is bliss...

 

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A good sleep AND a good feed

Ahh...a peaceful night for an exhausted body...a breakfast full of goodness...followed by a lunch of incredibly successful pizza!

 

 

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Sleepless

We had a sleepless night last night. Remember a few days ago I told you how special the noises of the jungle are? Well, I think I've changed my mind. Maybe we moved into a different season or something...but the spooks were certainly out in the dark foggy hours of last night. Sometimes we were woken by screeches, other times by chirps. There were also beeps, clunks, plops and bangs. At 3am we were both woken at once by a foreign object moving in the roof, then by another falling on the roof! Have I explained that we live on the edge of a precipice that falls two hundred feet to a wild river? Mmm... There are three threats to us here: trees falling on roofs, earthquakes and landslides. Last night "trees falling on roof" featured strongly. However, I must say that some of my "best" nightmares feature suffocation under mud.

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