Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A very Territory Christmas.

Baked beans have become a rare commodity in Darwin. With the threat of Cyclone Grant bearing down on Christmas morning Territorians flock to the supermarkets to stock up their emergency supply kits


Bread, Long life Milk, Tuna, BBQ Gas, Baked Beans. The shelves are emptied & lines at the supermarket are out the door.
Its the first warning of the season!
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One of Darwin's most historic events Cyclone Tracy in 1974 hit the then small town on Christmas day and descimated the area leaving thousands homeless and killing many. So the thought of being struck again on Christmas day left a chill in many locals hearts.

As Grant got lost and refused to ask for directions (typical male) christmas was saved and the threat delayed for two more days. So it was to be a typical tropical Christmas with sun, beer & family.


Only in the Territory I guess you wake up to a crocodile rummaging around in your bedroom having made its escape from its home in the fishtank, falling 2 metres to the ground than going for a wander ending up down the hallway in the little sisters room.

My family & I have a tradition where we get together for breakfast, open presents, drink mimosa's and just hang out. This year my sister brought Little Dude with her who is a Central Bearded Dragon a placid lizard native to the Northern Territory. Mum & I had given him to her the year before as a Christmas present. This year he strolled around the living room crawling over the presents and batting his eyelids at anyone who wanted to give him attention.




For lunch I went to a Couchsurfing Orphans Christmas with two of my surfers and had a great time just relaxing and chatting to people from around the world (where 80% were german) The day ended on my balcony eating leftovers and drinking beers. Probably to much beer it seems as I was passed out before midnight. Grant passed us by hitting further out, he did do a good job of closing the stuart highway which in turn cut us off by road from the rest of Australia.. guess those baked beans come in handy now hey?

Sunday, December 18, 2011

I’m coming home

There is really nothing I like better than the return of one of my more awesome couch surfers and finally after a year Dominik returned. We had some interesting times the previous year which included a bunch of reckless events from me although I guess I wouldn't be me without almost killing a bunch of surfers in a late night 4WD adventure, I can see the newspaper headline now. "7 foreigners killed in single hilux rollover" Why there were 7 people in the Hilux remains for another day and story.

But there was also the insane camping trip (literally insane but some things aren't for public viewing). We ran out of water on the second day, jumped off cliffs, went trekking through the bush at night. All in the name of we were so fuct everything was awesome

Dominik explains it well

Anyway so he returned and I took him out for my work christmas party where we were so drunk, he doesn't remember a lot but a phone call to Ilona in germany resulted. There were a lot of shots, I kept picking up random guys at the bar one of which was a snake catcher, I almost started a bar fight in monsoons & abused several bouncers for making me pay money. Everyone came back to my house and we drank & smoked until the early hours.

Dominik commented how Darwin felt like coming home and that was worth a hug. My newly adopted european brother is home for christmas. Can you imagine a world where I missed out on meeting these amazing people?

My life is only better for knowing them.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Its a high life

Smoking a J sitting on my balcony talking about past surfers to my present surfers. very. very. High :D

This story had us in fits on laughter for some reason. Cue Mr Tall. Mr Tall rocks up at my house with no money as he had lost his card in an ATM in asia. Between me and my family we lent him about $200 to get him through. All the money was repaid in full (that is kind of unrelated!).

After staying at our house for 10 days doing not much at all he decides to repay the hospitality by cooking us dinner. He makes us a tomato based pasta dish. It was pretty gross I think he just used tomoto paste & pasta. There wasn't any garlic. I asked him why he didn't use any garlic, his response was "too expensive" Garlic in Darwin is about $20 a kilo that means about $1 for one bulb... You stay at someones house for free for 10 days and $1 to buy garlic is too expensive?

Sometimes I just dont understand people like that!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Credit where credit is due.


Paul Arnold is an amazing local bush photographer who has captured some beautiful shots of what makes the NT so special. The shot above is a recent lightning storm in Darwin city.

Head over to his website for even more amazing photographs of the place I love to call home and you'll realise how intensely raw and magical the Northern Territory is.