So I'm not coming home for Christmas...
It got rediculously expensive.
And my car's still out of action.
I'm going to spend it with some other Christmas orphans in Darwin. I've stayed a night already at the house where Christmas will be - and they're lovely folk. And there's a pool. A recipe for a happy Cazz.

I had a lovely weekend in Melbourne a month ago. Michelle and Brad's wedding was a great excuse for a flying visit home. And it turned out to be the last weekend before Liz and Joleen flew out to the mid-West for a snowy white Christmas. I enjoyed a bit of shopping under pressure to find an outfit for the wedding. I always work best under pressure and in my usual style took it right to the line. 2 yummy breakfasts melbourne stylie with some special folk (dear to my heart kinda special) topped off a short but sweet weekend in the homelands.

The car saga...
On the way back I spent another day and night in Darwin, having the car serviced, staying with a new OT friend and enjoying the sights and sounds of Darwin museum (stuffed snakes and cyclone Tracey footage were highlights). Unfortunately on the same day as getting the thumbs up from the car service, I drove back to Katherine and got as far as 15kms from Katherine, when the engine failed. The car overheated so quickly that I cooked the engine of my second hand car in minutes apparently and at the moment its going nowhere without a new engine - ouch! Apparently when you lose the coolant that quickly, its possible that the temperature guage barely registers the temperature rise before it has no hot coolant to register and a then registers cool. That may or may not have been what happened. But the water pump definitely failed, it was dark and I was driving in the rain and I certainly didn't see any warnings. I'm told its just really really bad luck. No kidding! The car is under the dealer's 3 month warranty but the initial response from them was that they would happily repair the 'defect' - the water pump, but not the damage caused by that defect - the engine. I'm fighting them and now have the local women's legal service arguing for me that I was not negligent. We'll see how it goes. Spent the last month back on the bike, which isn't such a bad thing.

There's been almost daily rain the last two weeks. Its cooled things down a bit and I haven't been sleeping with the air con on. Today I found it super muggy and its back on!

Happy Christmas everyone - I miss you and home. Perhaps a trip home in a few months when I find a cheapish deal - keep your eyes peeled for me heh.