Sunday, 25 November 2012

Half-blindness, bobbing dragons and life-envy in Alice Springs


It was stinking hot again as we headed back to Alice Springs. We still didn’t have air-conditioning in the car so the windows were down as we sped along the highway. This is a minor point of difference within the family – I like to have windows down with the wind creating crazy hairstyles for all of us, whereas Bill prefers the coolness of air-con with windows sealed. But we both agree that air-con rules when driving slowly around towns in 40+ degree weather or waiting in the car while the other runs errands… So we were heading back to Alice to get the air-con fixed - and for doctors appointments and to catch up with old friends who live there. We arrived early enough to check into the fancy pants Big 4 caravan park - complete with sparkling kitchen and jumping pillow. 

Next morning, I awoke with a seriously sore eye that did not allow for contact lens use – and so spent the morning half-blind and uncoordinated. So we visited the Alice Springs hospital (not for the first time but that is another story for a different day) and then a local optometrist who prescribed antibiotic drops every half an hour and a rest from lenses for 4 days. Fortunately the drops seemed to clear up the infection but made me super sensitive to the sun for a few days... Still, we managed to check out the town’s reptile park where I watched one-eyed as the kids draped pythons around themselves and posed for the cameras. Zara was intensely taken with the bearded dragons with their bobbing heads and grinning faces. The rest of our day – and indeed the next one – was spent half-blind and waiting for boring things like the car to be fixed and the washing to be done. All sorts of sightseeing plans were put off due to the hot weather and eye problems – we were disappointed that we didn’t make it to the Desert Park which is supposed to be very cool, or to the School of the Air which would be interesting for us.

Still, we did manage to have a meal with old friends Sasha and Mike, who moved to Alice 7 years ago and have since produced two extremely cute red-haired and cheeky faced boys, Pasco and Mishka. They have recently bought a house on a huge block and we gazed enviously as the kids hooned around their amazing backyard space – filled with chickens, trees to climb and even a home-made pirate ship tree-house. We were interested and tempted by their descriptions of life in Alice – where their kids enjoy a type of running-around-outside-all-day-every-day and camping-every-weekend freedom that ours could only dream of and where Sash and Mike can both work part-time in interesting and challenging jobs. Mike works in a program that implements sustainable energy in developing communities around the world, whilst Sasha works for an Aboriginal women’s group. The kids got along like a house on fire whilst we chatted. What shame we only had the one evening – we could have talked to them all night, but the kids had to go to bed and we moved on the next day.

Kate was dreaming of a life in Alice Springs – freedom, warmth, swimming in Big Ellery Rockhole, a big back yard, hanging out with Sash and Mike, camping every weekend, interesting work… Bobbing bearded dragons in the backyard would have clinched it for Zara. Bill, of course, had already lived in Alice as a kid and so we drove past his old house and school and the kids tried hard to imagine a cheeky-faced 10 year old Bill hooning around the streets on his BMX… 


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