One of the girls that I have been tutoring at the high schoool decided to drop out three weeks before the exams start.  I have to confess I feel a bit disappointed.  I certainly spent a lot of time and effort with her.  However, my time and effort are really irrelevant here and probably just about ego anyway.  Mostly I feel a bit sad for her. Not that I believe having a SACE (the equivalent of the HSC here in the Territory) is everything but it sure does make things easier not to mention gives people a sense of satisfaction to finish.  And she was so close but could no longer take the pressure, she didn’t believe that she could do it.  I really wish that there wasn’t so much pressure put on young people at this time.  I know mostly teachers, parents etc are just trying to encourage them, I am too, but so often it comes across as simply pressure. 

Yesterday I was listening to the radio and there was a piece about the fact that Alice Springs town camps are getting letter boxes for the first time.  Until now they have had to pick up mail from the council and there were lots of cases of unclaimed mail or people geting mail too late and missing appointments, dates of payments because of it and then having to deal with the consequences.  I guess this is just another example of Aboriginal people not getting basic services that the rest of us take for granted.

QandA was live from Darwin last night.  As a Territorian myself these days I was rather interested in the program.  It was okay although I don’t think they really got into enough depth on the really important topics and perhaps more depth than necessary on some of the less important issues.

Rosalie Kunoth Monks was extraordinary.  Hearing her comment on how it felt to have the government people just roll into town in their luxury 4WD and just land them with intervention literally over night was powerful.  I also thought the guy from the Cattleman’s Association was interesting, even if I didn’t agree with him on most things and Stuart Blanch from the NT Environment Centre was very knowledgable and explained things well.  As usual the politicians were irritating.  David Tollner was particularly infuriating with his constant trying to bait the Chief Minister into a debate and I don’t think he thought about anything he said before it came out of his mouth.  My favourite line was from Tony when he referred to his wife as girl Tony just said something like, “I actually call her a woman”.

I was pleased to see a lot of the Twitter comments saying how good it was to actually hear about what goes on for people in the Territory.  Issues such as the Intervention get talked about a lot without any imput from those really affected by it.

Australian politics is rather embarassing.  Both Labor and Liberal want off shore processing of asylum seekers but because of their politcal games they have actually ended up with on shore processing.  They both want to blame the other party but any one with half a brain can see that they are entirely equally to blame.  I guess the shame is that they are both saying that the other should compromise as well as the Australian public and media are saying that but if they do they will be attacked mercilessly for being weak.  As Bono would say “compromise is not a dirty word.”

I am though very pleased with the result of their childish behavoiur for this particular issue.  What a victory for those of us who actually believe in the compassionate and fair treatment of asylum seekers.  I am very pleased that claims for asylum will be processed on shore rather than off and that may mean more people are able to live in communities while this is happening rather than cruelly detained.

On Tuesday night we decided to go camping.  Drew is visiting from Sydney so it was a good excuse.  However, the whole thing became a bit of a disaster and ended up with us at home eating beans.  It was an adventure none the less.

I can’t really say there weren’t warning signs.  It was raining a bit on Tuesday morning but the weather forecast assured us it would be clear in the afternoon and we decided to trust it.  I guess here in Alice we aren’t used to things being ruined by rain and at 5pm when we picked up Ryan from work it was fine.  Five was leaving things a bit late but our destination was just over an hour away so that gave us about almost an hour of light to set up. However, our first problem struck.  The other car coming with us got a flat tyre. By the time the spare was on it was actually 6pm that we headed off realising that we’d be setting up tents in the dark.  I guess not so bad on its own.

Then the second problem struck.  As we drove the storm began.  It started with some pretty cool lightening, then some crashing thunder and finally the rain hit.  We drove for about 45 minutes hoping it would get better but it just kept getting worse.  With a heavy heart Martin and I decided that we couldn’t really put Nina through that but maybe Drew who was in our car could go with the others in the other car.   So we turned around expecting to meet the other car in about 5 minutes.  Ten minutes later when we still hadn’t passed them I realised our third drama was upon us.

Finally, after driving for 25 minutes of stressfull driving we found them on the side of the road in the rain.  The spare had exploded and they were waiting for a tow truck to come.  It was such a blessing it had happened under a little hill where they could get enough mobile coverage to call.  And I was totally grateful as well that we had decided to come back.  They were carrying all our sleeping stuff including Nina’s.  If we had got to the spot, set up camp in the rain and dark and then they hadn’t arrived it would’ve been a lot worse.

So none of us ended up the camping but the beans, the shelter of a home on a stormy night and the one good decision to turn back before arriving are things I am grateful for.

There are fires everywhere around Central Australia at the moment.  It’s so bad that the sky has gone all grey from the smoke.  It’s pretty awful and I have a sore throat for a week.  There is one burning close to our house too.  It’s a bit scary although driving home from work at night and seeing a fire burning up a mountain is pretty cool.  Keith and the neighbours have spent the last few days out fighting them as we can’t seem to get any interest from the fire services who keep saying that it is someone elses responsibilities.  I  am hoping we won’t have to evacuate but  you never know.

Nina made me very happy today. We were listening to a bit Trace together and having a bit of a dance and during the bit in “talkin about a revolution” that goes, “don’t you know you better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run,” Nina started singing along. I have to say her runs sounded more like “uns” but it was pretty close. She’s definitely mummy’s girl today.

I watched Q&A last night. It had been awhile. It’s the kind of show that you really need a break from. The political spin over and over can get pretty exhausting. Not to mention I have been trying to get to bed at around 10pm But last night’s show was predominantly about religion which I’m interested in and I was trying to organise some photos on out computer so I thought I’d give it a watch. I was nervous that it was going to be terrible, that there would be a whole bunch of Chritians saying bigoted and embarassing things. There was some of that but a lot less than I thought and the representative atheist said some pretty bigoted things of her own to even it out. Surprisingly, I found myself agreeing with almost everything Kristeena Keneally said. I wouldn’t have called myself a huge fan when she was the NSW Premier but last night she was great. Good Christian arguments in support of asylum seekers, gay marriage as well as religion’s role in politics.

Nina seems to have a worked a lot of important things out. When you say “hi five” she puts her hands up for hi five; when you say clapping she claps; when you say boo she covers her face (well not much but she tries) and says boo and my favourite is when you say kisses she leans in for a little kiss. I think she also understands “uh uh” but has also learned to ignore it. When we say it she stops what she is doing eg, pulling DVD’s off the shelf, looks at us, gives a cheeky grin and then keeps going. It is extraordinary how quickly they learn.

A new phrase she has added to her vocabularly of mum, dad and nanna is “oh dear”. This addition has me worried about how often I must say that. She can also say “oh oh oh” which she does on cue every time Beyonce’s “all the single ladies” starts playing. Martin is appalled that teh first song she learned to sing along to is Beyonce but it’s pretty cute.

This blog really needs some love. I have logged on a few times thinking maybe inspiration will come but nothing comes to me so I log out again.

I think I’m a bit void of inspiration in life in general. I realised it’s probably mostly due to the fact I don’t really get enough quiet time these days for any spiritual input eg reading the Bible or other books on spirituality, prayer and meditation, writing and journaling. With that realisation after we put Nina down to bed last night I walked down to the river sat and read for awhile and tried to meditate a little. It wasn’t long before it got too dark and cold but it was something and I feel infinitely better. I just have to try to do it more often. But the pressures of life and tiredness are not easy to overcome.

Anyway, I am thinking about grace. Not really fully able to articulate the thoughts fully of yet but I really am grateul for all the grace I receieve in my life. I need to give it more. The world needs more of it too.