Week Five

What a bender...

As you can tell my latest post is an unreasonably one day late (gasp!). My only excuse for such a complete lack of dedication and respect for my lovely friends who care enough to read these weekly rantings is that quite franky I was too boozed up in Darwin to type.

To begin...

On Friday 20th May at precisely 2.30pm a charter plane picked up the teachers of Warruwi to go into Darwin to celebrate a significant birthday. For fear of imposing on the lovely lady I will avoid telling you figure, but shall just hint that it was definitely worth a huge celebration. After a flight of about 1.5 hours, where I spent most of the time trying to not let the contents of my stomach escape we landed in Darwin. For those of you who haven't travelled significant distances in a lightweight plane, you are missing out on nothing. It's uncomfortable, cramped, loud and you can see over the pilot's shoulder as she looks at a map to seeing we she's taking us. Plus, you have the highly unnerving experience of being weighed before getting onto the plane. They need to work out where you are going to sit for even weight distribution throughout the cabin. I also take it that if you are too fat you simply can't travel as the plane won't get off the ground.

After a quick pick up Jen and I were dropped off at our accommodation 'The Cav' right in the centre of Darwin. The Cav was semi-backpackers, semi-motel and a whole lot of pub. In the end the atmosphere was lovely and so was the pool. I would recommend The Cav to anyone visiting Darwin.

The party was to begin with a sunset cruise at 5.30pm. The cruise we'll say was the 'official party' and with official parties comes official themes. Of course this theme was purple and as anyone who knows me knows purple is a horrendous colour for someone of my colouring to wear. Needless to say I didn't own anything purple, nor did I bring up anything to NT nice enough to wear at such a formal outing. The same went for Jen. So we did the dash to the main Smith Street Mall where I managed to pick up a dress, cardi, necklace and shoes within 10 minutes. Don't know how but I'm not going to question it.

However unfortunately Jen had a little less luck. So due to our strict timings, I had to abandon Jen and run back to The Cav to have a quick shower and get dressed. I was completely dressed and ready and Jen hadn't even arrived back yet! And it was 5.10pm! We should have left by now!!! (Remember we were going on a boat and boats sail on time with or without you!)

Luckily Jen just came through the door, her hands weighed down by bags. She still had to have a shower and get dressed. She was unconcerned, however I was unnerved. Darwin is like Gosford, there are only a few taxis and our trip to the boat was going to take at least 10 minutes! I tried not to pace.

Within 10 minutes she was ready. However like I had predicted there were no taxis. We ran throughout Darwin and literally around the block. Jen trailing me in ridiculously high heeled shoes. As we were running Jen received a phone call from the teacher and she said we had to be there in 5 minutes or the boat would take off without us. The pressure was building, when low and behold a taxi pulled into a side street in front of us. We were in.

However as whenever you are in a hurry the traffic was pathetic. We got stuck behind one shitty bright purple (ironic?) ute that was intent on going 49km in a 60km zone.

Luckily the torment was almost over. We reached the wharf, ran down the jetty and jumped onto the boat. The captain turned on the engine just as I stepped on board.

This boat was pretty spectacular. If you remember the movie 'Australia' think back to the part where Hugh Jackman and his mate are rescuing all those Indigenous boys from a Japanese infiltrated island. They used a white yacht to sail the boys from the island, through the thick fog onto Darwin wharf. Well the party was on that yacht. A lovely boat that created a strong party and possibly romantic atmosphere. Jen's high shoes came off pretty quickly.

Now, I didn't realise how much I missed drinking until I stopped. Discovering you are an alcoholic is never good, but worse is when you're an undiscovered alcoholic who has not had a drink in five weeks. But worse again is when you're an undiscovered alcoholic who has not had a drink in five weeks who suddenly finds themself on a cruise with free drinks. Opps.

I remember the cruise, with a spectacular orangey-red sunset and tear-jerking sentimental speeches and an awesome purple birthday cake. However by disembarking the world was fuzzy. I vaguely remember going back to the teacher's apartment where we dropped off leftover booze and food. I then vaguely remember drinking and then walking for ages to get to the arguably best club in Darwin monsoons. I remember being carded and the bouncer saying that 'he had to watch out for those Gosford girls.' (On a side note, it's pretty intense that the Central Coast's hard-partying reputation has been spread as far as Darwin). I then remember seeing some girls who I thought were strippers but apparently were just out on a hen's night.

I then woke up at 7am back at The Cav. Jen had only just come in.

For this reason I assume that Friday night was awesome and that Darwin's nightlife is amazing. I could have just been a lonely, sad person drinking my sorrows away and admitting to my newly found alcoholism, yet Jen told me I had fun. Apparently I was dancing on the stage, downing tequila and even sambucca- I don't even like sambucca.

Saturday was a day that wasn't worth remembering. In the evening however we met everyone for a birthday dinner at an Irish pub. I had bruscetta and then tried to eat lamb shanks. I could not. I was home again, in bed, asleep, by 10.30pm.

Sunday was a much happier affair. I woke up at a reasonable time, went for a swim at the lovely pool, ate a big vegetarian omlette and read the Sunday Territorian. Lovely. Jen and I then had to check out at 10am. As I did not have the opportunity the day before to explore Darwin fully so I went a walking. I found a lovely little coffee shop where I had a traditional peppermint tea and spoke to Nan, Mum, Matt and Tom. I especially appreciated speaking to Nan and Tom as I hadn't spoken to either in ages. Actually since I had left.

Then I sunbaked the day away at Darwin waterfront. Going into the wave pool or the lagoon as necessary to cool off. I know how to live.

At 4pm however we all had to meet again at a pub for one last round before going onto the plane and back to Warruwi. Now it's difficult enough to me to get on this plane, but then one teacher starts informing me that she's concerned that the charter plane company has left our take-off too late. Turns out unless for a medical evacuation planes are not supposed to set down at Warruwi after dark. Our plane was to take off at 5.30pm and last light is 6.41pm. Hardy then did not have us take off until 5.44pm. Now my palms were sweaty with nerves, especially when the cabin did not have lights and I couldn't read anymore. Well we all know the ending. We landed fine in the dark otherwise I would not have been able to write about my experience in this post. I have though added another reason why not to fly in small planes- flight landings can be inflexible.

Well also I have realised that I am yet to explain a typical day in Warruwi to you. So here's our timetable:

7am: Wake up. Breakfast and pack up beds.
7.30am: Teachers arrive in classroom and I do preparation
8am: Morning sport
8.30am: Weet Bix breakfast for students
8.45am: Teethbrushing for students
8.50am: In class
9am: One-on-one reading with student number one (We read a text together, then I ask questions measuring and testing their level of understanding of the text, then we do word attack games where they learn simple words like 'can,' 'was' and 'fish' off by heart, and then I am working with the students to write their own story)
9.30am: Another student
10am: Another student
10.30am: Recess
10.50am: Maths class
12.30pm: Lunch
1pm: Usually a cultural lesson, or research projects, or reading
2.10pm: School is over
2.30pm: Back into our classroom to do more preparation or other things that may need to be done
5.15pm: Afternoon sport with the teachers. This could be a bike ride, walk, swim etc.
6.30pm: Back for dinner
10pm (Usually!): Bedtime

And now evening sport is about to begin. So that's brought you all up to date. I should also mention that the Boy who passed away was buried yesterday while we were gone. Another funeral is expected to begin this Friday.