Frenetic Dry Season antics

(An old post left in draft for 18 months)

Not sure where to start with this post. I'm so out of practice with writing, reflecting etc....

Maybe a follow up from the previous one... now that the dust of the past week at work begins to settle.

I haven't calculated hours worked yet but it's well into triple time! What a buzz! I am certainly not complaining, nobody makes me do it, I actually like these crazy extremes! For one week a year the mob I work for holds it's AGM, actually I work for a religious institution so they give it another name. My official employment description is Administration Officer... although I have been given the title Office Manager, but to be honest a more accurate description of my role is Man Friday. (There are actually two of us) We arrange travel for about 40 people from all over remote areas in the NT, S.A and the Kimberley of W.A, after innumerable re-scheduling of tickets etc... if we've done our job well we have achieved 80% success in getting people to Darwin for the meeting of the year. This year we had extras, most of them made it. Exactly what we do can't be defined but people coming from remote communities have a lot of needs, family to visit, medical appointments etc... At the end of meeting time each day our real work begins! Up at 6am we head to the dining room to eat and receive orders for the day, tea breaks and lunch time are opportunities to get to the bank, shops, hospital etc... back and forth we go, frantically trying to get people back into the the meetings, rounding up strays assisting those who have mobility issues and so on. After dinner there's a mass exodus as people try to catch up with family all over town, we usually get back to camp at around midnight, linger for a little while and then head home... sometimes it's later. On the final day my mate and I started at 4:30am transporting people to the airport for the early flight to Gove, having hit the sack at 1:30am that morning, by the time I returned the bus to it's owners I'd hit the wall.

Certificate in Theology Graduants

The meetings ended a week ago but people have been lingering and my work is still not complete.

Darwin is an Australian City which lies well within the tropic of Capricorn. The first people know many seasons... I think there are eight... most non indigenous people know three. 'The Wet', 'The Dry' and 'The Buildup'.

July is bang smack in the middle of the Dry Season. The Dry Season sees Darwin turned from a sweltering tropical city into a crazy tourist haven full endless days of sunshine and festivals etc... It's exciting but it's frigging crazy! By now there have already been so many events that most peoples heads are spinning. As I sit here physically and emotionally exhausted, yet again, a dripping nose and head numb with hay-fever I won't bother listing every activity we've engaged, there's been plenty and some quite unusual.