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Published: September 23rd 2009
Hillary’s birthday
Why settle for just one cake?As August was coming to an end, things were getting even busier. John had taken the Monday off as a Rec day, but when Tuesday came along he was too sick to come in to work. Turned out he had caught a pretty bad bug, and wasn’t able to come in the rest of the week! Hill and I must have had just gotten a bit of it too, because neither of us were at 100% the week after John’s birthday either. I worked the full week alone though. Any job needing two people, I scheduled for the following week. This was a bit different from earlier in the month (when John had taken a week’s holidays) because it wasn’t scheduled, so it was a bit more of a challenge. But I’m happy to say that things went pretty smoothly. Funny that this was my second last week of work, and I was finally getting the job down pat.
Hillary’s birthday was the Tuesday of that week. We decided to go down to the city and treat ourselves to another dinner out. We went to Outback Jacks where Hillary could have a nice piece of Australian steak. Good stuff. Back
Moon
Me having a bit of trouble trying to get a steady shot. Looks cool though. at home we enjoyed our dessert, a mix of strawberry cheesecake and white chocolate mudcake. The day before I was having trouble deciding which of the two cakes to buy, so I played it safe and bought half of each. lol
Thursday we went to the Mindil Beach Sunset Markets one last time. Hillary was taken with the spray paintings that a local artist was making right at the markets and as it was our last time at the markets, she needed to buy one. She chose a painting of a beautiful sunset over Uluru, and she picked one that she saw the artist make right in front of us. There’s something about seeing a thing being created right in front of you that gives you that little insight to how an artist works and thinks.
Friday, Hillary and I went to see Inglorious Basterds. Originally this was going to be the main event for Hillary’s birthday, but the movie times clashed with our dinner plans, so it needed to be postponed. But Friday finally came, and the movie was awesome! In fact, Hillary absolutely loved it! Most people seem to complain about the violence, but neither of
Sunset Markets - 1
Hillary jealous of the people in the distance with their sail boats. us were bothered by it. The most memorable scenes for us were all dialogue related, especially that first sequence. That was sweet.
When we had originally moved to Karama, Hill and I had made a list of the things we wanted to see/do before having to leave Darwin. One of those was to check out the Casuarina Beach. Admittedly, during our time in Darwin we hadn’t spent very much time at the beach. A few reasons would be: crocs, box jellyfish and work. There had been a couple of crocodile sightings in swimming areas, and that was enough to make us (especially Hillary) think twice about heading to the beach. Also, box jellyfish are a real possibility in Darwin, with November to May the no-swim time of the year. The rest of the year is supposed to be safe, but even locals tend to be wary. And then comes the fact that with me working Mon-Fri, and Hillary often getting shifts on weekends, we didn’t have much time for the two of us spend at the beach together. Now that we were soon leaving Darwin, it was time to MAKE time. Haha So that Saturday we found a few
Sunset Markets - 2
With the tide out, there was plenty of room to play around. hours to take the bus over to the University, walk through some bush tracks and found our way to the beach. And a nice beach at that. We walked along it for a bit, and soaked up some sun. We still didn’t feel comfortable about swimming, but no harm in just getting our feet wet. Lol We got a good ways down and headed back to Casaurina Shopping Centre to catch a bus back to Karama.
Monday was my birthday, and it looked like I wouldn’t be alone when I got into work that morning. We had tea that morning, and to my surprise there were tons of cakes with candles. No one had mentioned anything to me, so for a split second I wondered if they were all for me. Haha Luckily I didn’t say anything, because it turned out half the people in the office had birthdays around that time! There was plenty of food, and since it was around 11am, no need for lunch that day. Lol For dinner, Hillary took me out for a special treat, sushi! Coming up to our birthdays, we were trying to think of what to do for each other, and
Baked Potato
A baked potato too big for even Hillary to finish! Hillary came up with the idea for sushi (since I love it). Funny thing was that after she had figured it all out, I flatly asked her one day if we could go for sushi on my bday (thinking I was helping her out). Well, that ruined the first surprise. That’s right, I ruined more than one that day. The day before, I had gone to do laundry and bought myself a Nintendo Magazine to keep busy while at the laundromat (Hillary was working). Turns out she had bought the exact same magazine after work that day for my birthday! Unfortunately I screwed up Hillary’s plans, but at least we know her ideas were right on the mark. Lol To finish off the night we went and saw G.I.Joe. The movie was a bit ridiculous, but non-stop action from beginning to end made for a fun little action flick.
Now in regards to work, this was my last week (Hill’s too). I had really enjoyed my time at the university, and knew most of the ins and outs. Unfortunately I wouldn’t be seeing much of the guy who was a big reason I was there. John (being sick) had
Sunset - 1
Crowded as usual on the beach for the sunset. made it in on my birthday, but was still not feeling great and would be taking the next two weeks off. If this was my last week, and John would not be back for two weeks, there’d be a week long gap where no custodians would be in. Not good. So Wednesday to Friday I’d be training a temp worker (like myself) as much as I could so that he could handle a week by himself. Well, for the most part, things worked out. The new guy, John (John and John, lol) was a quick learner and seemed to have a good idea of how to handle everything. Any computer work (along with scheduling) would be handed off to our supervisor for the week and John would just get it done. Simple.
As for the rest of the week, Thursday we had pizza brought into the office for lunch! And this time the occasion was just for me. Haha It was a really nice gesture, and I appreciated it. Good pizza too. Unfortunately I ruined the surprise for myself again! Kelly (one of my coworkers) had sent around an email about the pizza, and deliberately left me off the
Sunset - 2
Got to love the colours. mailing list to keep me out of the loop. But the thing was, I didn’t have my own email address at the university. I had been sharing access to John’s as a custodian! When I dropped by to ask her a question about it, she was confused about how I knew about it and realized mid sentence my email situation. Haha The thought was there though.
Then came my last day of work. What a coincidence that my final day would be by far my busiest, and longest for my four months at CDU! There were several functions scheduled for that afternoon, which meant none of the work could be rescheduled to Monday. John and I were running around all day, and by 4:20pm (end of day), were still not finished. We finally finished the grunt work by 4:45pm, but there was still computer work to get done, and I was finally out of the office by 5:30pm. I don’t mind working late, but it was a shame that I didn’t really get to say goodbye to anyone in the office since most people are out the door by 4:21pm.
But as tradition goes in Darwin, work hard,
Casuarina Beach - 1
Me on a low cliff edge over looking the beach. drink hard. Hillary and I after work went over to the pub to meet John and Tania as a last dinner together. We had a good time, and a few drinks. Both Hillary and Tania had work the next day, so they called it a night at 10pm, but John and I dropped by Stewy’s (John’s good friend) to keep the party going. I finally got home at 3am, and let’s just say I didn’t have much trouble getting to sleep.
Saturday was our last day in Karama. Hillary had spent Friday packing her stuff up, and I now needed to do the same. Once packed, I was really surprised by how little we actually added to our bags while living in one place. I was expecting to have a real battle trying to fit everything away, but this wasn’t the case. Impressive. Lucy then offered me a ride into the city, which I gladly accepted since public busses are never an ideal situation when carrying tons of luggage. And that was it, our last time in Karama. Hill and I had really enjoyed our time living in the small suburb. It really did feel like home for a
Casuarina Beach - 2
Hillary wondering how to get down. short time.
After checking into a hostel downtown, we still had one last order of business that night. John’s team, the University Sharks had made it into the Grand Final (championship game of the local Darwin rugby league), and we made sure to attend. Unfortunately the game was a little lopsided, and they lost to the Brothers 44 to 10, but we still had a good time. John and Tania even got me a Sharkies shirt! After the game, Hill and I said our last goodbyes to the Hounslow family and darted off back to the city. We had to get to bed early if we wanted to be well rested for our big trip to Kakadu the next morning!
Kevin
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