We’ve had frost in the morning for the last two days. I had to pour water on my windscreen to drive Renee to school. Kind of cool but freezing.

This last week Martin and I are getting in some early practice at parenthood. We are minding our friend’s eight year old foster daughter, Renee for ten days while she is in East Timor. We are having a good time making school lunches, playing card games, reading before bed etc etc. On Monday it was a public holiday here in the Territory. Picnic Day (how cute is that) so we went for a picnic with Renee as well as the neighbours kids and their cousins. Rolls and cakes were eaten, cricket and hide and seek was played. It was good fun.

In saying that it is hard work. She certainly gets restless and makes it known to us. Not to mention I was sick one day and just wanted to stay in bed but had that realisation I couldn’t as I was responsible for another human being. Welcome to motherhood I suppose.

Not sure if anyone saw the four corners episode about the murder of a young indigenous man, Kwementyaye (when someone dies aboriginal people do not speak their name so this is the name they use instead) Ryder, by five white locals last week. It is a devastating story and certainly highlights how racism is alive and well in Alice Springs today. However, the story of the Ryder family in the face of the injustice is inspiring. Despite being very angry their call for calm at the time, when many people were calling for “payback” was truly was profound and made a huge difference. The mother, Therese mentions her Catholic faith as influencing this. I was very moved by this as it’s certainly not always the case. God’s grace is something that is much needed in this town, in this world.

Yay tax returns done. And we’re getting some money back rather than paying this year. Woo hoo.

I’ve come back to work for two weeks to induct my replacement. My work has cause me a lot of worry and anxiety over the last few weeks. I have been unsure about if they were going to find someone to replace me and then if they did what that person would be like and if I would be given the opportunity to train that person or if they would be stuck just having to feel their way and then what if s/he would be willing to share the job with me when I wanted to return next semeseter. So I am very grateful to say that they have hired someone and he seems like he will be good and they are paying me to spend two weeks inducting him into the position and he is happy to share the position on my return. God again has shown me that I do not need to fear or worry.

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.