Internet is not working at our place. I guess that is the price you pay to live out of town I suppose but it is very annoying. Especially as I have so many post running around in my head. But as I am paying $1 per 15 mins for internet I am not going to be able to do them any justice but here is a quick version.

I am still here in Alice. I am working for a cafe and going to do so until the right teaching job comes up. It is going okay really and it still leaves me with much time for being, waiting, listening and what John calls “sitting down” which I think incorporates all those things. I am trying to live something of a monastic life with three daily prayer or meditation as well as reading time. I don’t always succeed but we are not supposed to beat ourselves up about these things. I am also going to try and go up to the hut each month for 24 hours for what Sue calls “postinia”. Basically means going away in solitude to pray. Plan the first one for the weekend of 20/21 (Jo’s wedding). Let’s see how I go.

My other little task has been to try and rid our property of cats. Magrita, our neighbours daughter broungt some home and now they have about 10. It is a problem for the natives so we all agreed to take them to the RSPCA. On the arranged day though when i showed up they weren’t there. I saw one cat though so I took it and thought well I’ll at least take one. Unfortunately when I got there, after a fairly long drive of cat continuously escaping teh basket I brought to put him, the cat jumpedout of my arms and ran. I tried to chase after it but I was too slow especially as it was trying to escape the dogs. Since then I have been fairly disheartened as my attempt to make sure teh cat didn’t go feral actually assured that it would.

Martin’s job is going really well though. He says it is challenging but not overwhelminly so. he really likes the people too.

We went camping on the weekend to the Finke Desert race. That’s a Motorbike race for those who don’t know. Not that I am that into motorbike racing but it was cool. They race on a dirt track from Alice to Finke and back. 500km all up and bumpy as. We watched from a small hill which many of them were jumping at very dangerous speeds. One of the things about the NT is there is a lot less OHandS to worry about. The fireworks been let off was certainly testament to that. It was a pretty wild crowd though so we didn’t get much sleep.

I also saw Terminator Salvation with Martin on Friday. It annoyed me how they make out throughout the movie that if they win this battle the war is over and then at the end they say that it is not. I also thought John Connor was annoying. Everytime he ended his radio broadcasts with “Im John Connor” I thought lame. In saying that I didn’t hate it. I am not a huge action movie person but I have always got into the terminator ones. Maybe becasue they started when I was a teenageer and I have been following sincethen. We also had a nice dinner. Our first restaurant meal here just the two of us.