Yeah, yeah, I know. I was hoping to slip an extra post in before the end of February to keep up the illusion that I’m not completely neglecting my blog, but … I didn’t. And you know what? I’m okay with that. After the disaster film that was the start to my year, I think I’ve had more than my fair share of events sufficiently noteworthy to warrant their own blog posts. It’s not that nothing at all has happened over the last few weeks, but more that I’ve been bustling about keeping up with a series of completely normal stuff.

Oh, I’ve also been travelling a bit again. It’s not quite been an intercontinental odyssey, but in many ways it has been just as eye opening and in some cases, better accommodated. Work has been sending me out to work with staff at remote branches all over the top end. I’ve just come back from a week in Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) and the week before that I was in Galiwin’ku (Elcho Island). In the past month or so I’ve also visited Numbulwar, Maningrida, Milingimbi and Ngukurr.

If you haven’t heard of any of these places, it’s because they don’t often make the news, and they certainly don’t feature in too many top ten tourist destination lists. They’re all Aboriginal communities located in Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park, and are among some the most remote settlements on the planet. This time of year, the only way to get out to some of these places is by light aircraft, since the only roads in are all cut off by monsoonal flood waters. Go and Google map them if you don’t believe me.

It’s made for a nice change of pace. Okay, Palmerston might not be a thriving or bustling metropolis, but it’s hard to think of a more peaceful way to end a day of providing the only banking service for several hundred kilometres than by sitting on a rock watching the sunset over the ocean, eating a hamburger and listening to the sound of the local kids playing AFL on the sand behind you somewhere. It sure beats the hell out of sitting at a desk, pretending to type stuff.

I’m back in the office this week and everything’s back to its usual pace. Actually it’s faster than it has been since I’m now re-equipped with a new and improved Ford Focus. The new model’s a step up form the old, Voyager grey instead of TARDIS blue, a hatch instead of a sedan and has fancy wheels and cruise control. I haven’t decided whether or not GSS Tarrdis mk2 is really an appropriate name for a car that isn’t blue. I’m open to suggestions on that, but as usual I fully expect that there will be absolutely no comments on this post.

Shove it

Garry with 2 Rs

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