Tomorrow it will be three weeks since my last day in Melbourne. On that day, true to my reputation of 'working best under pressure', I was madly doing a bit of everything: defrosting my fridge whilst watching Emma Snowsill win the women's triathlon in Beijing (go Emma!); talking to the glazier as he put a new pane of glass in my kitchen and on my bathroom cupboards (something I had wanted to do for at least 2 years), and calling the body corporate again (!) to "Please fix the sewrage leak that is spewing all over the walkway to our flats. I'm in the middle of moving and I'd rather not have to tip toe through it all as I carry boxes to and from my car! It would be great if it could get done in the next few hours before my new tenants come round tonight to pick up the keys!!!".
Of course, it all got done - even the things I didn't need and should never have attempted to do on my last day! And I will be eternally grateful for Liz' calmness, patience and sense of humour, when she arrived at 7pm to a stressed Cazzy, not quite as ready as I'd hoped to be by then. We were still laughing at the ridiculousness and predictableness of my 'last minute style' somewhere around 2.30am the next morning, over a cup of tea and the final packing of my bags.
2 flights, a night in Darwin and a bus ride later, I was in Katherine eating a toasted sandwich in 33 degree heat, feeling a long way away from all that pre-departure craziness and finally getting a taste of my life in Katherine....
Now, a few days of touring with my folks and 2 weeks of work later, I feel like I'm getting the hang of living and working in the heat of the Top End and can honestly say that it has already surpassed the expectations I had for new experiences and challenges. Let me try and describe a few things....
The odd cockroach and gecko are a normal sight in the house. And sleeping under a fan +/- the airconditioner is a must after the 35 degree plus days. I'm living with a physio from Melbourne called Candice. But she heads back to Melbourne this week after 4 months here and I'll then be on my own in a 2 bedroom flat (a 5 min bike ride from work and the main street). She's introduced me to a few people who have similarly moved interstate to work here. One is a local journalist, one manages the local Nursing Home and another is an Environmental Engineer. It's easier to get jobs here that would take a lot more experience to get back home and consequently a lot of these guys are all in their early 20's and I'm quite the 'Nana' amongst them! We went camping together this weekend (Candice's last) to Edith Falls (photo of me up above taken yesterday) - a beautiful place to swim, just 40 minutes drive away.
Work so far has quite literally been an adventure, as I was off 'out bush' on day 2 of the job to a remote Aboriginal community called 'Lajamanu', 6 hours drive away. After more than 10 years of mostly working in aged care, I found myself on Friday making hand splints for an 18month old boy. Luckily I didn't know I'd need to do that till half an hour before I started making them or I'd have been stressed for days at the prospect of doing something seemingly so far out of my skill range. My colleague reckons our work t-shirts should say on the back, "I can do everything" and underneath that "BADLY!" and I think that about sums it up. One is called upon to be the specialist here in many areas that one knows not a whole lot about. In Melbourne when I determine that someone needs a ramp, I call in an architect to draw up the plan before passing it onto the builder for a quote. Here, it's built based on my drawings - aagh! In melbourne I send someone to the continence nurse or clinic for specialist continence advice. Here there is one community nurse for the whole of Katherine and they aint got time to give much specialist advice on continence aids. Apparently that's my job too!
My initial impressions of Katherine seem to be pretty correct. There's nothing fake or showy about it or the top end. What you see is what you get. It's flat, hot, tough and beautiful at the same time. And it seems to be a crossroads for white and Aboriginal Australia, the good, bad and the ugly. As someone who has experienced very little of Aboriginal Australia, there's a lot to learn.
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