American Champagne

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It was minus 4 in Canberra when I left last Monday morning but that did not worry me as I was heading for Darwin where I would be spending the week. The weather report was showing a ‘cool’ 30 degrees, was I looking forward to that?

Caroline dropped me off at the airport early so that she could head straight to the office, and I had a couple of hours to kill, so grabbed a coffee and sat in the lounge, with newspaper.

It truly was a beautiful day in Canberra, really sunny but to bl**dy cold for me, I do like the warmth in my bones. My flight was called, I had checked in the day before so I knew where I was sitting, by the window where I like to be.

The flight time to Darwin is 5 hours 11 minutes, with my Ipod and book to hand, the latter I have been trying to finish for ages and what I was most looking forward to was that the mobile phone would not be ringing, blissful.

As we climbed in to the cloudless Sky, I settled back in to my seat, my thoughts as always turned to Caroline as I wondered what type of day she was having, her second full week back at work and I know her workload was already mounting.

The seat between me and the isle was vacant and so we had a little bit of room, the girl sitting by the aisle, introduced herself to me, she said, “hi I’m Gillian.”

We started chatting and Gillian said that she was in Darwin on business, as she organised “Community Cabinet” which is where the current cabinet has community meetings with people who want to have a “chat” with the government of Australia and Julia Gillard along with other Cabinet members were going to be in attendance.

We had both had a good weekend, and we both know we have been a bit slow on the blog recently as we really did feel like we have not had anything to write about.
Saturday night we were out to dinner with friends and we intended to go out on a bike ride on Sunday, but it was just too cold, I was still getting over my man flu so I was happy that we bailed.

I don’t think we have written about my new bike, Oops! Back in August last year, just after I had been dispatched to Christmas Island, for the first time, Caroline went and purchased her bike and every time we have been cycling around Lake Burly Griffin, I have hired a bike.

It was about April when we went and chose a bike for me and the great thing was Lonsdale Cyclery in Braddon are happy for you to test as many bikes as you wish before you make your final choice.

After much deliberating I was sure a wanted the Cannondale and said I would collect it at the end of May, but do to this sand that, which Included Caroline being ill, it was nearly the end of June when we finally collected it.

So back to the Qantas flight, it was a direct flight Canberra to Darwin and we would be flying over the centre of Australia just to the right of Alice Springs, then North on to Darwin.

As I goggled out of the Window and looked down I was fascinated by the terrain there was nothing, no civilisation, just wild outback Australia. Smoke plumes were evident from the ground where bush fires were burning as we got closer to Darwin, and soon it was “Cabin crew prepare the Cabin for landing.”

As I got out the airport it was the first time I could tell how warm it was and it was beautiful, so warm and a million miles away from the temperature in Canberra. However I went straight to work and put in a few hours then took a cab back to my Hotel, which was the Mantra on Esplanade.

By the time, I got to my hotel, it was fairly late, I was tired so I had a quick meal in the restaurant and went to bed.

I love going to work in shorts and short sleeved shirts, and was suitably attired when I went to work the following day.

Darwin was buzzing with back packers and tourists, it was great to be back, I was first here in February, but Caroline and I had spent 6-8 weeks up in the Territories when we were both here about this time is 2009 and we loved it.

The news on the TV at the end of Tuesday night which was good for the Territories as a 12 Billion Dollar gas deal was signed today, and work is hoping to commence early next year.

I realise that this is a political manoeuvre as the Prime Minister and the cabinet are here tomorrow, so It looks good for them, but it is good news for the top end, though I am not sure where they are going to find the people to do the work though, the unemployment figure in Darwin stands at 2%.

On Wednesday morning, I was waiting for my taxi to take me to work, and there were outback trucks and 4x4’s waiting to collect people and take them bush, I was standing looking at a 200 landcruiser that just seemed to gleam.

We are having our winch fitted on Monday 4th July and we (I) am so excited, the winch we have chosen in a Warn XDC, 9500Ib unit which will be mounted in the front of the bull bar.

Now you have got to picture this, the landcruiser I was just talking about had a warn XDC installed so I was standing in front of this truck just having a look.

I heard a voice behind me say, “can I help you” and without turning around I said, “no mate , I am having one of these winches fitted to our cruiser on Monday” and as I turned around I was being looked at by a guy, who was wearing a security ear piece and it turned out to be one of the Prime ministers body guards.

I have to say, this fella did tell me their truck was only 5 days old, no wonder it was it good condition. My Taxi came and I just slid away, feeling such a goose.

Thursday the same thing sort of happened, I was waiting for my ride to work, standing outside, again the two 200 series landcruiser were again waiting. The Secret Service men were sitting around drinking coffees and generally trying to look inconspicuous. I had been told that the Australian Prime Minister was staying at the same hotel as me.

A white Car, which I think was a Holden Fairlane, turned up and parked directly outside the entrance, and as I was still standing there, this fella started to talk to me.

I would guess he was 65-70 years old with a Scottish accent and he said he was part of the prime ministers entourage and he drove the minibus who takes some of Julia’s aids around. This fella asked me if I was a tourist and said I was not, he asked me what I was doing up in Darwin and I explained who I worked for.

Isn’t it a small world, this guy asked me if I had ever been to Christmas Island, which I had and asked me if I knew the fella who owned the pub called Tracks Tavern, which I did, and he said when you see him next tell him Noddy was asking after him.

Just as we finished talking the Prime Minister walked out of the hotel and got into her waiting white Limousine, I was standing about 4 feet away, and I thought how excellent it was to be that close.

I went to work and got back about 6.00pm, I had a quick shower and some dinner as I needed to go and do a night walk around at another of our installations at 9.00, which I did and was back in the car at 10.15pm

On the way home I was 50 Meters behind a ute that was just crossing over traffic lights that were on Green, and from nowhere a Honda Civic appeared and T-Boned the ute.

I pulled over to make sure no one was injured, the driver of the Ute was OK and so were the five occupants of the Civic, though their car was seriously smashed up.
I asked the driver of the ute, if he wanted me to be a witness and he said that would be great he had phoned the police and they were on their way.

This is not an exaggeration, the police took 35 minutes to arrive, the chap from the Ute said oh well this is NT (Not today. Not tomorrow, Not Tuesday, Not Thursday) but really stands for Northern Territories.

The police eventually came and took a statement from me and I was back in my hotel about 11.30pm.

Friday was another beautiful day and I was travelling home this afternoon, and I needed to be at the airport at around 2.00pm. I was disappointed to be leaving Darwin as its glorious, but home is Canberra and I was looking forward to seeing Caroline.

I was sitting in the Qantas lounge and I must have nodded off to sleep, I awake to being shaken by a lady, and I wake with a start. The lady asked if I was on the flight to Adelaide, as they were calling missing passengers, I thought she had woken me as I had been snoring or something.

Again had checked in online so I was sitting in the same seat as before A8, and bang on time was sitting in my seat, thundering down the runway.

As the flight gets underway, the customer service manager pushes the trolley past and asks what I would like to drink, I have already had a couple of beers in the Qantas lounge, so opted for a Coke, I asked the customer services manager for a coke and he said “Ah, American Champagne.”

It was a good flight and I arrived back at 8.30, Caroline was waiting in the arrivals lounge and it was great to see her. Caroline asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner and it had to be pizza and beer so we drove straight round to Dominos.

We were looking forward to our weekend together.
Caroline has a fantastic blog she is just typing up called Shooting Wombats, which we will share with you all as soon as it is ready.

That’s all for now folks, sorry for the long periods in between the blogs, but if there is nothing exciting to say then it wont be worth the read.

Andy

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Photos

Outback Bus
One of the very swanky out back buses that the tour companies run, taking people to Kakadu and the Bungle Bungles

Decked out
There is plenty of correctly prepared vehicles in the Top End