just keep smiling..

On friday there was a peace rally for refugee rights in Darwin. Pretty stupid since being good friday everything was pretty much closed so we protested to like five people still it was kind of symbolic and the media was there video & article here you can see me at 00:30 in the video in a black and white striped shirt. It was broadcast across australia my sister text me from Sydney to inform me that she saw me on the news.

After the rally I headed down to Wickham point again for my second visit. The guards had decided to change the rules and we were to have one on one visits instead of the group that we had last time. but I guess something went wrong and we ended up with everybody not only that we got an extra half an hour visiting time. So there were a couple of new people I hadn't met and a few I had seen the week before. I am starting to get a hang of the names now and talking to them I get to hear their stories and really start to find out how much they have gone through to try and have a better life. As I find myself getting more involved with their stories I find my focus in life is drastically being affected and I just want to be able to do more.

& I just said romance was dead..

My newest couchsurfers a couple from France have already gotten my approval and I haven't even met them yet :)

Dancin' by Myself

So what does a self-confessed CS junky do when she has a four day weekend, no plans & an entire house to herself?

Why she accepts every CS request that comes her way and next thing you know there is a party going on the balcony of awesome.

Despite my addiction to the CS world I am also a gamer geek and often the two worlds intertwine forcing me to make the hard choices of being social over playing video games. This weekend could have gone that way and I guess there is a chance it still will. I've had a shockingly intense week at work which a bunch of issues well over my pay grade that I was forced to resolve on my own despite being uneducated on the situations. My superior has been away and I took on all the workload. This four day weekend is well deserved I tell you.

One of my incoming surfers is a polish guy who I accepted purely for the fact he was polish. I have hosted one other polish person and I love to host from different places around the world

So if you would have a little time to meet, or a small place for sleeping, would be nice. Im actually a newbie on CS, and because im still on moving (ex. visiting a new city first i walk at the day, and than wait till night - i love to take pictures at night and to enjoy some romantic places-like parks, if its possible :) ), and had no time to complete my profile.

So hilarious though that his request tells me he wants to go to a romantic park. I think its just bad english translation but whatever I still accepted him. Maybe we can go for a moonlight walk in the Botanic Gardens. I can look for some frogs and he can take photos of the moon. Now frog hunting is romantic to me! What if I ever said that in one of my couch requests.

Hi I love romantic frog hunting expeditions, I especially love catching snakes. The reptile kind...I know what you were thinking.

Romance is dead.

yesterday I beat an Iraqi at chess

I know the object of this blog is generally adventure or misadventures through CS. A lighthearted selling point to come and visit me in the best city in Australia. It goes without saying as I am having a few months off CS whilst the Kitchen gets redone that the adventures seem to dwindle and my political side runs a little rampant.

Once again you'll find me on the topic of aslyum seekers I have focused more on the aslyum issues with my spare time just recantly. Spare time... thats a joke. Sunday was my first day off in two weeks after working 12hour days slotting in University in between, volleyball & more work. But CS takes a lot of my time as well so as I am not hosting I do have a spare hour now and then inbetween jobs.

So what do I do on my first day off in weeks I joined two other ladies to head out to Darwin's newest Detention centre Wickham Point for my first ever unofficial - official visit.

You can sit there and preach that aslyum seekers are all good people but reality is I still had that nervous apprehension of actually meeting some of them. The term "detention" does its job of creating an undeserved stigma to the "detainees" You instantly think they are criminals when in fact they haven't done anything illegal.

Its. not. illegal. to. seek. aslyum. in. Australia.

Entering the compound I had heard horror stories about the SERCO guards and how the rules changed as their moods on the day but we were greeted with a smile and a hello from the gate guard a happy guy from New York who had met a Darwin girl over the internet, had a baby with her and had been living in the NT for five years. Thankfully it seemed we had arrived on a good day.

The compound had huge electric fences doubled up with barbed wire on the top and all the gates needed buzzes and guards to escort you. As we were signed in the three guards at the desk smiled and chatted to us letting us in with relative ease. We headed over to the visitors room which had another guard to watch over. We were to meet 13 detainees all up however we were a little late they had all left so we waited for a short while and three guys from Iraq showed up. Their english was so minimal it was hard to determine if they understood me or not. We chatted and they smiled and nodded saying yes evey now and then. Two of them were brothers the other guy had met them on the boat. It all seemed a little awkward trying to have a conversation with people who didn't understand me but they were so nice and helpful I was taken aback. One of the ladies I was visiting with had brought a whole lot of food for them she handed it over telling them to eat yet they took the plate around making sure we ate first. As we moved from outside into the airconditioned room they picked up all the chairs not letting us help at all. Making sure we were all seated and comfortable before they themselves were.

Another Iraqi turned up whoose english was amazing and he soon started to translate for us things became a little more comfortable and before you know it another five detainees arrived a mixture of Iraqis & Iranians. We sat around in a circle showing pictures & talking. Previous to the visit we were informed of the racial tension between Iraqis & Iranians but as we all sat in that room I never noticed anything they all seemed so grateful that we were there visiting them. I really believe that whatever issues they may have had in their country need to be corrected if they are to become Australia citizens and what better way to do it but when they are all forced into manadatory detention. Maybe something good can come out of detention.

Out comes the games so I started up a game of chess with the Iraqi whoose english was awesome he had a pretty sarcastic sense of humour I thought he would fit right into Australian way. I can't remember their names as we all know I am horrible with accents and difficult names one guy told me I could call him Ali but it turns out 90% of them had Ali as the start so I wonder if they mind if I create Aussie nicknames for them. I'm not going to lie I was wondering if I should play my best chess because I felt guilty if I was going to win at chess when they were trapped in detention but surely they wouldn't want me to throw the game? I am a little bit of a guru at chess I warned them. Hell when I was 12 I was champion of my school and competed in a Territory wide school tournament. Granted I am now 30 so my 12 year old accomplishments probably don't hold up so well... but I am good at chess.

I decided not to throw the game I feel sympathy is not always the best approach. I think if I was in detention I wouldnt want people to let me win because they feel sorry for me. I ended up "wiping the floor" with my opponent quite quickly. Perhaps too quickly another Iraqi who was some kind of backgammon champion said next visit he wanted to play me at chess.

As we were forced to leave early due to a shift changeover I wanted to leave some board games I had accumulated from Lawn Sales the morning before. The guy who was watching over us informed me that I wasn't allowed. So this was when defensive Amanda almost caused an full blown argument with the guys who have some of the highest security clearance in the NT.

"Why not, on the Immigration website it says they are perfectly acceptable gifts"
"No you can't leave them"
"Well what can I do I want to leave them what do I need to do"
"They need to go through clearance"
"Where can I put them through clearance the guys at the door let them all through"
"You can't do this today"

It was very much a case of 6pm Sunday afternoon I want to get the fuck out of here so I am not going to get involved with clearing some board games.

Despite the fact they had been through the scanners it appeared that that day the guard had decided they weren't allowed to have gifts. Perhaps he had woken up on the wrong side of the bed or his wife had used teeth on his morning blowjob who knows but he was a jerk and I had to step back in case I was written up as a security threat by my arguments. Stepping back from an ignorant argument drives me insane in fact its Monday morning and I am still angry!

Despite that the guy who wanted to vs me at chess had a packet of dominoes I had donated and managed to talk another guard into letting him keep it. With a grin and wink at me he walked off to his room his prize in hand.

As we left all the men said goodbye to us shaking our hands thanking us for coming. One man who I had not managed to talk with with came up and spoke to me in good english.

"Its so good that you come and visit us we appreciate you."
He placed his other hand over mine as he shook and his eyes expressed such intense gratitude it was then everything really hit home and I felt this kind of purpose thats been a little missing from my life recantly. This man had barely spoken to any of us arriving late and we had to leave early (heaven forbid we hold up the serco guards!) but he was so happy to have that short time with the outside world.

I couldn't believe my experience. I was so nervous and apprehensive wondering if I was going to be in a room with violent depressed people the stories that had been beaten into your head from the media & politicians. Not going to lie even the people on the detainees side stories had scared me a little. Yet instead I was greeted with some of the nicest people I have ever met, with such easy going calm personalities. Some of them with awesome sarcastic sense of humour. Normal people who just wanted a chance that I was born with. People I would much prefer to be surrounded by then some of those I see every day living sheltered lives around me. Granted they hadn't been in detention as long as some of the other people some only a couple of months perhaps their moods would change as time goes on. But maybe with my visits I can help keep them from falling into that depression. I left Wickhams Point that day my brain going over a million times my experience. I just wish all those bogan ignorant Aussies would take an hour out of their day and meet some of the people. Maybe we could change more minds.

I have another visit with the same two ladies for Good Friday after the Rally I will proudly march in.

Until we are all free none of us are free.

Three Days off work? Helloooo Asia!

What's awesome about living in Darwin o besides the weather, the outdoors, the reptiles, the storms, the national parks, the markets, the small city convieniance?

The fact that Asia is a mere 1.5 hours plane ride away & a weekend journey to Bali costs me less than $200 return. When reality becomes overwhelming I can just take a weekend off and hop on over without disrupting my normal schedule. And Bali has what Darwin doesn't! Surf, Sun, swimmable beaches! Crazy no rules clubs. Monkeys. Who doesn't want monkeys?

Have I mentioned my friend Dominik well when he left I was on the last days of my no alcohol month and therefore we never quite got the Darwin send-off I love to provide. Yet fate would bring us together again as cheap flights to the sunny destination came up and next thing you know I had booked a six day weekend to Bali Paradise! Then last week five suspected terroists who had been planning several attacks in Bali were shot and killed and the security threat for travel to the location increased. But whatever, well the terroists aim for the tourist hot-spots as a couchsurfer I frequent the tourist not-so-much spots and with my previous surfer RohDiana to greet me at the airport the hidden gems of my sister country will be revealed!

Arriving late Wednesday night I have a couple of days to chill in Denpasar area, a big night out Friday & then its off to Padang Bai to get my diving on. Since November when I became SSI certified in vietnam my brain has been ticking over with possible dive locations and I love that some of the most beautful locations are basically just a short boat ride away!

With Weekends like this you need to wonder why Darwin gets voted one of the most unlivable cities in the world! Oh perhaps its because of the extortionate house & petrol prices! Crappy health care & opportunistic crime sprees!

Getting my 4WD on.

I was thinking about my recant love of 4WDing and why it took me so long to appreciate it. You see I've been an automatic driver my whole life even in Canada my Jeep was an auto. But really in North America most cars are automatic.

When I arrived home in Australia with no money, no car I had to borrow my sisters & my mums to get around for the first few months, both manual(Standard) it was a bit of a learning curve. I had the basics down pat having learnt originally many years ago in a manual car but without the practice I rode the clutch too hard & stalled at the lights many times. I brought my first ever standard car a Mazda3 and sicne then have gradually improved my skills.

I borrowed the work car today to do some errands it was a beast of a Nissan 4WD with some pretty crazy power behind it and six speed. As I was in winnellie I had to do a three point turn I slipped into reverse and BAM stalled. So Im sitting in this road in the busy industrial section of Darwin the middle of the day my car is horizontal across the road and I can't for the life of me work out how to get into reverse every time I try it just goes straight into sixth gear and I stall. Cursing myself I end up driving forward over the nature strip to make my turn. Luckily for me nobody tried to come in or out of the street during my little misdemeanour.

Parking the car I had to call my boss who just happens to be awesome at everything asking him how the fuck do I put the car in reverse. Silly question you think? perhaps. But if I couldn't get the car reversed I was going to have to drive through a few buildings to get back to work. I am fairly certain the shop owners would not have taken kindly to that. It turned out that you press down on the gear stick and slide across to get into reverse. Once I had that awesome bit of information under my belt I was good to go.

My 4Wding is rampant with mistakes. I drive to fast, I make stupid decisions everything is a seriously learning curve. Like making sure Heather has her seatbelt on when I go offroad to avoid headbutting the roof. Going off-road in the wetlands is definitely one of the stupidest decision ever. Mud + Car = GG. I nearly rolled the car once when I slipped over a small ledge balancing precariously on two wheels. Another time I decided to go through "the hard part" when I was so fresh to the experience I got stuck. It was as simple as switching to LOW from HiGH 4WD. Now as I take each bit of advice to heart my skills have improved, I learn best from doing rather than reading.

Now as I look at my little Mazda3 I feel inadequete and jealous of the high clearance beasty 4WDs around me. I need to win the lottery and upgrade. I wonder if I can borrow the work car?

A Taste of the Dry

If you look back at some of my living in Canada entries my love for Spring shines out across the pages. Spring in the rockies is something magical. Temperatures are in the low positives, the sun is out & the days are longer. More importantly warmer conditions bring large amount of fresh white powder with bluebird ski hill days that are hard to match.

Darwin doesn't have seasons, you get hot & wet or hot & dry. Both seasons have their positives and negatives but the dry season is when you really fall in love with the natural landscape of my home territory.

Hot & Wet season stretches from about October to May. Temperatures rarely drop below 30C even in the middle of the night the pressing heat weighs on you. The storms are incredible with more lightning strikes recorded in the world. I've spoken of my love for a Territory Thunderstorm time & time again. Sleeping into a Sunday morning as the sky stays dark around you is something few really appreciate.

This Sunday morning as I awoke I stretched out on my bed yawning, eyes opened to a gorgeous sunny blue day. The air around me was almost cold around 23C (23C is cold to me ok). It was something hard to comprehend being mid-march I should have woken in a pool of sweat instead it felt like the middle of June. Dry season already? Having my morning coffee watching the birds outside reality dawned on me the wet season was nearly over. I won't lie Inside a little part of me jumped excitedly. That day the weather was a taste of our dry much like a short burst of spring can break a winters cold. in a week monsoons would be back but over the next few months the air would lose its 90% humidity and eternal sunshine would return.

Even though I have a passion for the wet the dry holds just as much excitement for me. The dry is all about the outdoors. I can leave the safe haven of my living room to stretch out and explore the abundant beauty of the Northern Territory. Already my camping interests have been piqued as I ponder what beautiful places await me to visit this year. Sitting round a campfire stars twinkling in the sky, beer in hand & awesome people around me.

If you do ever plan to visit Darwin make it for May - September find out the magic that's my backyard. Experience the REAL outback Australia for yourself.