It’s been so wet and cold here of late, feels more like the Blue Mountais than a desert. Last week Alice Springs had its coldest day on record, didn’t get above 6 degrees all day. It all looks very beautiful and it is nice to snuggle around fires with hot drinks but I am getting a little bit tired of it all. It was especially not fun over the weekend as our toilet was blocked so if we wanted to go to the toilet it was either walking over to mum’s or going in the yard. Both much less appealing in the wet and freezing cold. It was especially bad timing for me as I am now going to the toilet what feels like every ten minutes. Che is taking up all the room now, so my bladder is significanlty smaller. I am very grateful it’s all fixed now. Nothing like going without to make you not take things for granted.

I have stopped working now although things have been pretty busy on the block. We had 12 people staying for a tour that mum and Keith did and then 20 for a tour that Peter and Sue are doing. Carney, our neighbour, also had five friends stay who are here for a conference and the kids are on school holidays so they are around a lot with all their cousins.

I feel very heavy and have a fair amount of back pain. Just over six weeks to go now and I am huge. It’s rather impossible to find comfortable positions especially when Che moves into bad positions. The other night I could hardly walk for a few hours. Thankfully she moved out of that postion fairly quickly. We’ve got our second antenatal class tonight. I have to say I didn’t really hear anything new in the first one so hopefully tonight will be more interesting.

I don’t have anything very intelligent to say about yesterday’s big political events. Kind of excited about the first female PM thing and I have always quite liked Julia but I’m a bit sad about the way it all happened and I don’t think it is really going to mean a change for the better on the things I am passionate about, especially better treatment of asylum seekers. Not to mention I have maintained a bit of a soft spot for Kevin. I was very excited when he got in and despite some of the massive disappointments there have also been some good things, most note worthy the apology to the stolen generation. I guess it may mean Labor is more likely to win the next election as she has a bit more of an ability to move on some of the unpopular policies but I’ll probably be voting for the Greens anyway.

A much less important event but significant to me none the less is today I turn 28. Not a very momentous birthday although I have been reflecting on the fact it is now 10 years since I turned 18 and left school. That seems kind of big. Not to mention this is my last birthday before I become a mother and from now on in her birthday’s will be far bigger events than mine I’m sure. Last night we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant. There were 23 lovelies to celebrate with so that was special. I also got a massage and a haircut to pamper myself a little. Carrying round all the extra weight sure works out the legs. It was a lovely night, apart from the fact that I managed to vomit up most of my dinner. I was a bit worried I was going to start feeling sick again but it seems it was just a one off. I may have been a bit adventurous in what I ordered.

As part of his job Martin works with farmers on a number of different farms around the Alice Springs region. One of the great perks of this is that we often get lots of free fruit and veges. Sometimes perhaps slightly too much that I am at loss what to do with it. Last winter I became an expert on potato salad, potato bake, potato soup as I tried to use up all the potatoes. Of late we have had grapefruits and lemons.

The farm at his work also has a number of orange trees on it. A few weeks ago we had a group of six pretty wild aboriginal children staying with us. In an effort to keep them entertained and thus not writing on walls etc etc we took them to pick oranges. We literally filled the whole back of Keith’s Hilux. We then drove around Alice for a bit dropping them off at various friend’s houses as well as the church got a whole stack and we still had heaps left over. Yesterday we bought a citrus juicer, one of those cool manual ones (that you see all through South America and Keith tells me Asia as well) that you don’t actually have to peel the fruit, you just cut it half and pull down on the lever. We figured it was a good investemnt given how much citrus fruit we get. We made so much yummy lemonade and orange juice. What a blessing to wake up to freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning especially when you have a flu stalking you that you are trying to manage.

There has certainly been a fair bit of World Cup in my life since Friday. I guess that is what happens when you are married to a football obsessed Latin American who has pretty much watched every game (yes including the 4am ones). I’ve assured him he now has no excuse not to get up at all hours to a crying baby. If he can do it for a football match he can do it for his child as well.

We had a World Cup BBQ on Friday night. In keeping with “the world game” it was a very multicultural affair – Colombians, an Argentinian, Dutch, Swiss, Philipino, Chinese, South African and of course the Australians and the Peruvian. I’m not sure how everyone squeezed into our lounge room but they did, the more the merrier I suppose. It was also a very noisy affair. Our friend from South Africa had his brother send 20 Vuvuzelas (those very noisy instruments you can hear at every game, they sound a bit like blowflies) and they are really loud but fun too.

I thought the opening ceremony was great. A low tech affair compared to many of these events but so colourful and upbeat and fun. Then there was kick off for the first game – South Africa vs Mexico. We were going for South Africa, so it was very exciting for us when South Africa scored (lots of vuvuzelas) not so much when Mexico did but a draw was pretty good really.

I also got up at 4am for the Australia vs Germany game which I am sure everyone knows was a humiliating 4 point defeat. Not that I particularly want Australia to win the World Cup, as mentioned I am going for South Africa at this stage and then after that Argentina. I know that is not very patriotic of me but I am of the view that Australians get enough sporting victories and that perhaps with football (soccer) we should let others have a go but I was sad for them. To go down by that much is very embarassing after you have worked so hard and Germany isn’t exactly an underdog.

Remember when you were at school and every year the teachers would go on and on about end of year marking and reports and paperwork and if you were like me you thought “get over it” it can’t be that bad” and “I just want my marks so hurry up”. Well let me tell you, it really is that bad. I am completely snowed under with marking. My desk is so filled with exams and paperwork I have no idea where to start. Hence the lack of love the blog has been getting of late. Anyway one more week to go and it is all over. The only problem is that I have no idea how I am going to get it all done.

28th May (yesterday) marked 3 months until my due date. Wow I have entered the third and final trimester. Things are good. She still moves around a lot and kicks and it makes me happy. Martin has felt her a few times and it makes him happy too.

I still feel well and have started an exercise routine for pregnant women. Pretty much just a light walk (the pool’s shut and they say I should stay off the bike due to the centre of gravity change) and then some strengthening exercises and stretches that are supposed to keep things in shape during pregnancy prepare all the right muscles for labour so here’s hoping all goes well.

I’ve also started to have that “nesting” thing going on. Last weekend we began painting the nursery and today we cleaned the garden all up. What I really want to do is go and buy things but I am trying to put that off as a friend here who just had a baby a week ago is moving to the Sates at the end of June and is going to be seeling almost all her baby stuff. She’s promised us first look at all so I figure that’s the cheapest, most sustainable way to get some really good stuff I just have keep my nesting desires at bay.

I continue to get bigger and heavier, although I read today that she weighs just over 1kg at this stage but is going to get to about 3kg so I still have a long way to go on that front. At night my legs are always pretty sore and I am very tired (although unfortunately sleeping is not the easiest thing) so I don’t imagine I’ll be able to keep up current levels of doing things for much longer but it’s good for now.

I think that’s pretty much it.

It’s so good to feel healthy again. This morning as I drank my tea and ate my toast I was overwhelmed with how wonderful it was to actually enjoy them. And then I had a quiche and lots of salads for lunch. Again I was overcome with how good it feels to be putting healthy food into my body and my baby. I guess being very sick for 3 months teaches us not to take anything for granted. And Leunig always helps too I have to say. The baby bonding books tell me that Che can hear my voice these days so I try to talk to her and sing to her (although she won’t enjoy that when she comes out) and I have started reading her Leunig. That’s not brainwashing is it?

Politics in this country has become very sad again. Not that I really know what I’m talking about but I thought the budget, apart from maybe the tax on super profit mining companies, was incredibly sad. A cut for social services, a cut for international aid, a cut for climate change and a massive investment in border protection. What a disappointment. It seems all Australians ever want is tax cuts and limited spending. “What’s it in for me?” was the question been asked over and over in the discussions about the budget. I don’t understand why people don’t want governments to spend money. I know we have a debt but it is relatively low in comparison to most other countries and if in the name of offering decent services to Australians and the world, especially those who need it most but can’t afford it, it takes a few more years to pay it off I don’t see the problem.

Also, I don’t understand the attack on Kevin Rudd’s little outburst on the 7.30 report. I mean it was hardly over the top really and I thought seeing some passion from the PM wasn’t a bad thing at all especially about climate change. Why has it become a bad thing for politicians to express emotion? Sometimes I find it hard to not just give up on people.

I just hope that those who are disappointed in Kevin Rudd and the government, for which I am one, although I do understand his point about been limited by the opposition (as well as the Australian people in my opinion) decide to vote for the Greens instead and not the Liberals. Tony Abbott scares me.

I wish I could put pictures on my blog because I would realyl like to put a picture of my office (well cubicle) and my classroom up. Not just because it is the thing to do but because I have given things an amzing clean up over the last fortnight. For the last year that I have been here you would not believe the chaos that I have worked in. Everything has just been everywhere and I have finally managed to organise it all. I also decorated my classroom. I have put up lots of welcoming as well as educational posters and sheets. It looks awesome if I do say so myself. Technically we are not really supposed to do that, just in case it ruins the paint job, but I after arguing with the campus administrator that as an educational institution we should be more concerned with educational benefits rather than paint jobs. He must have been somewhat convinced because he assured that if I were to put something up he would turn a blind eye to it.

So I blogged about three weeks ago that our car was having troubles. We had to decide whether to fix the radiator or not to find out if there was more problems. We did fix the radiator and $800 we found that the head gasket was also stuffed and it would cost us between $1000 and $2000 to fix that. The mechanic really didn’t think it was worth it. Thankfully, he said we are still able to drive it for probably a few more months before it completely dies, we just have to fill it it up with water every couple of days. This means that we have a little bit of time to try and find a new car and that when we find one we can give it to the neighbours, who don’t have a car at the moment, and they can drive it until it dies. Makes me feel like we didn’t completely waste our money.

So we have spent the last week or so looking for a new car. I don’t like shopping in general but I think car shopping is the worst kind of shopping. Alice Springs is also an especially bad place to look as the range is so limited compared to the big cities and everything is slightly more expensive too. It’s so stressfull because cars are expensive and it always feels like such a risk in that you never know what is going to happen. Not to mention used car sales people can be so off putting. Most of them were fine but when bargaining down the price of one car the woman assured us that we would get the best deal she could give us as her company aimed to take care of young families.

In the end we found a toyota carolla that we are going to buy. I have to say neither of us love it, it certainly isn’t the most attractive car, but I didn’t like Giles that much in the beginning either so hopefully it will grow on me. I think it’s the right decision though, it isn’t too expensive, has really low kilometres, our mechanic friend confirmed it was in good condition and you don’t get more reliable than a toyota carolla. It’s also a bit bigger than Giles so we can drive it comfortably to Sydney and back not to mention it’s the perfect size for prams and baby capsules and all that jazz. I have to say it’s probably the perfect family car which makes sense given we are about to become a family but there is something kind of depressing about buying a family car. It feels so conservative.

So Thursday is good bye Giles and hello family car day. I feel a bit sad. Giles has been such a good car to us and I have become rather attached to it but a new car is exciting too I suppose.