Seems payroll in Darwin have blithely ignored our shift penalty entitlements since January.
Seeing as there's nothing new in our contracts, or working hours, or shift work, one suspects their just planning to withhold it and hope nobody notices.
I sure didn't. I can't make head nor tail of my pay slip, but a colleague has nutted it out, rung up, complained, and will be reimbursed a very large sum!

I just assumed my sliding-backwards-financially state was due to the pay-cut in coming here, and paying more in rent, and the usual helpless profligacy. Glad to know it will end soon!

You know how Powerpoint says it's autosaving?

IT LIES! IT LIES!

F8ck you Microsoft and all your products.

Emergency Departments described in a journal article as 'macabre casinos with no windows'.

4 days without internet. 4 days without mobile phone coverage.

4 days of waterfalls and wetlands, crocodiles, egrets, eagles, mosquitoes, wallabies, ancient rock art, stars and sky. Some terrific swimming in a few safe spots. Some overpriced meals. Some surprisingly good tourist spots, and some surprisingly lame ones.

Now I'm back in Darwin. My plans for the next day or so include fish (barramundi, of course) and chips on the beach watching the sunset, lolling in the pool with a drink with a little umbrella in it, and the beach markets tomorrow night. This is now officially The Relaxing Bit of the holiday, after driving around, hiking far and wide, coming too close to crocs and bush fires, and seeing way too much beautiful stuffs.

Will post more when not in an internet cafe.

Well, here we are in Darwin. Less scorchio! and more squelchio! The humidity is impressive, despite it now being the Dry. I can only imagine what it's like here in the Wet.

Had a terrific meal last night at the Moorish Cafe, complete with large jug of icy cod sangria. Nice. Then we ambled about, stopping off at Monsoon for a drink before heading back to our nice cheap hotel to crash. Today we're off to Litchfield after Dave deals with a large chunk of unexpected work that was dumped in his lap late yesterday. I have found me a nice new telephoto lens after much searching, ready for wildlife spotting when we get to Yellow Water on Tuesday.

I'm liking the Territory, and can't imagine winter. I'm now struggling to remember the last time I saw rain.

Mmmm, sunshiney days and warm balmy nights.

You Are An Exclamation Point

You are a bundle of... well, something. You're often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama. You're loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it. Definitely not the quiet type, you really don't keep a lot to yourself. You're lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy. (But they do secretly worry that you'll spill their secrets without even realizing it.) You excel in: Public speaking You get along best with: the Dash

At least I'm not part of the bowel...

Today was a day off work. We hopped in the car and drove north. Big, flat empty land once you're 20km north of Alice. We went just a little further than the Tropic of Capricorn, then decided today was not the day to go to Ti Tree or Artlunga (is it ever the day to go to Artlunga?), so went back home again.

Now I may nap. Damn brain waking me up early this morning.

The retrieval doctor had an exciting time of it last night.

He went to a remote part of WA to pick up a patient having a heart attack, as WA was unable to provide a plane for 12 hours. Whilst at the clinic, ringing the DMO to confirm details, plans etc, someone came into the room and said "We'll have to leave immediately, there's a car outside, on fire, about to blow up". And then opened the curtains to demonstrate the proof.

They rush to the airstrip, the plane takes off, and as it does they hear a great 'phoom' as the car does indeed explode.

Where's the camera crew when all the good stuff happens?

It's gone from scorchio to brrr in a very short time.

Night shifts are still woefully understaffed and overworked. This morning I lost the will to live around 6am and slumped on the couch in the tea room, contemplating pizza left out from the night before, and the ghastly pap that is pre-dawn Rage.

This morning I have gin. Mmmm, gin.

Yesterday I wandered past Dymocks, and found not only did they have the DVD of Eurovision 2006, which I've been unable to hunt down for love nor money, but it was in the reduced bin out the front. Lordi! FTW.

And so to bed.

It's Friday night in Alice.

I'm working night shifts this weekend.

That means CUPCAKES!

Tonight, we have some fantastic banana walnut cupcakes, with cream cheese icing.
Yesterday I attempted zebra363's choc chip cookie recipe, but have failed to cope with the fact that I have a very hot fast oven, so they are crispy rather than crunchy : (

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_k_/collections/72157604244489057/

My Swancon photos - Masquerade, Awards Ceremony, right up until my battery went flat.

265 photos from TnT's wedding up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_k_/sets/72157604300727971/
(some repeats which have had some alterations).

Moved back to Alice Springs.

That's enough for one day.

Congratulations to tommmo and originalnilson on their awesometacular wedding of fabulousness today.

I am too tired to sort through all the hundreds of photos I took, but here's a teaser: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_k_/sets/72157604300727971/

the set will grow in the next few days.

Lindor balls are full of chocolatey goodness. Molten chocolatey goodness. That spreads a remarkable distance when you have a half eaten one in your hand and have to leap up to answer the phone without dropping laptop, external hard drive and camera.

bardiegrub, I'm sorry I dripped chocolate all over your chair. Um, I'll clean it when I get back to Perth in July....

Wow - what a busy holiday! I'm looking forward to going back home tomorrow so I can get a rest! 8 hours sleep, some routine, some quiet time...

I spent a little time relaxing out in Bullsbrook with L and EP, drove out to Baker's Hill to see Zebra363 and her herds, had a terrific lunch at Mash Brewery in the Swan Valley (conveniently just down the road from Bullsbrook, and fantastic weekday $15 lunch specials), drove home through yet another fire (which should yield some terrific photos once stragedave gets them out of his camera), caught up with my family last night (and brother!), strangedave's family this morning, J&T last night at the Cap S for a KK's Karaoke reunion (terrible acronym), now off to a wedding this evening....

It's been fun, but a little tiring. Tomorrow I'm going to appreciate the 'extra hour' I get in the morning, as I can use it for packing before going out to Lizzy's for morning tea on my way to the airport. Phew!

Remove the fluff from the face of a grey kitten, and it would look an awful lot like a Grey Alien....

(and yes, this all fits in with sleep paralysis and other bizarre sleep phenomena as being involved with alien abductions)

The subject of food movies came up last night, so I thought I'd ask the lazyweb to help me list great food movies.

I'll start with Tampopo and Babette's Feast. What are your favourite foodie films?

Can everyone just shut up about the knitting now? Or maybe go discuss it over in the swancon group.

I don't knit. I know some of you do, and that is cool. Some people knit cool things. I for one love the crocheted coral reef (even if that's crochet, not knitting).
Some of my best friends knit.
I choose not to knit. This is not because of its perceived value as a traditional female or old people craft. I just can't abide the sensation of wool vs knitting needle, no matter how soft and fine the wool, no matter what the needle is made of. It's like fingernails down a blackboard for me. So can you all just shut up about the fucking knitting!!!

I bake. I sew. I know for a fact that the panelists at the controversial 'No knitting please, we're geeks' panel also make cool stuff using textiles, and bake, and do whatever craft they choose!! One of them made damn fine cupcakes for me when I was moving house recently.

To me, feminism implies getting choices over what you want to do. I choose not to knit, as do many others. Get over it.

Shameless self promotion - my photos of the Sculptures By the Sea. One morning I made it down at dawn, the next time I got down there was mid-morning the day it was being packed up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctor_k_/sets/72157604244308895/

See if you can spot interstate travellers!