Hello, long time no blogging! I have been busy working over 100 hours this past fortnight (unfortunately no overtime due to how my roster falls). It will all be worth it in a couple of days though, as Reece arrives and I will have four whole days off to spend time with him while he is up :D I am currently on my fourth of four night shifts (my first set), and so far surviving. Will be good to sleep at night again though!
Despite being busy working I have still managed to get out and have some fun. Went camping again, this time on Friday Island with the two girls I went with to Horn and another enrolled nurse. We left Thursday Island on Thursday September 18 and stayed the night in a beautiful little spot under some trees and away from the beach. We subsequently left Friday Island on Friday September 19 (see what I did there :P). We hired a charter boat, which was $250 for the 4 of us return, so not the cheapest holidays, especially as it took less then half an hour to get to our destination, but was great to get a way for a little while.
We didn't actually do a lot on Friday Island, but it was nice to just relax. Went swimming multiple times, collected shells, built a fire, slept a lot, was a great time. Our fire was very successful and we toasted marshmellows and I made the best damper. I reckon it would have been a great contender in the GABBF damper cook-off (If you've ever been on the GABBF, you'll know what I'm talking about!)
Not content with just one fire, we decided to light another one. Earlier in the day we had found a drift wood tree washed up on the beach. The roots provided the perfect kindling. So we dragged a large log from the campfire and took it 200m up the beach to the tree. Then we had two fires. Our campfire died overnight, but the tree and log were still going the next morning (who knows how much of the tree is burnt now!) so we relit our campfire and had toast for breakfast :)
Upon our return to TI we learnt that a crocodile had been swimming outside the hospital - lucky we didn't come across any on Friday Island!!
Our campsite
View from the campsite
Beautiful white and beach
Sunset over the water
View towards the north-east
Sunset from the campsite
Tree fire! And the log from the campfire :p
It's hard work all this camping
Lots of cargo ships making their way through the Torres Strait
So I got a pretty awesome package delivered to the hospital the other day - my uniforms! Now I have 5 days worth of clothes to wear to work instead of 2. That means less washing! Which is the best part of having a uniform by far. And it's also pretty good not having to think about what to wear, and feeling like I actually now work for Queensland Health :D Although I still don't have an ID card, something to do with the new template not being available since Torres and Northern Peninsula Hospital and Health Service amalgamated with Cape York HHS to become the Torres-Cape HHS.
Pinafore and blouse
Culottes, so comfortable. Remind me of
primary school!
Tuesday 9 September - Friday 12th was the Torres Straight cultural festival, named the Winds of Zenadth. Don't ask me what Zenadth is... a google search has not helped me :/ The Winds of Zenadth only occurs every two years, alternating with the music festival on TI, so I was pretty lucky to be here just at the right time. I worked the opening night, but managed to just have enough time to walk down and get some dinner - I had to wait in line for about 20mins! I had my dinner break at 6ish, and even though it was suppose to start at 4pm, not much was happening! That night I had a bean curry, which was kind of like chili con carne, and very tasty :)
After work I came home and some of the other girls from Groupshare had brought me some turtle and vegetables to try. Yes that says turtle and I had a little bit. The turtle and veg were cooked underground, and had this horrible smoky taste that I didn't like one bit. So I didn't eat much. The vegetables were cooked in the same manner and had the same smokiness as an after taste. Even though they were in a coconut milk sauce, which was nice, the smokiness came out and I couldn't eat that either!
Turtle. The dark greenish stuff on the bottom left piece is fat :/
I had Wednesday and Thursday off work, but didn't get to see much of the singing and dancing until Thursday because on Wednesday I had dinner with some of the other nurses. We all brought a plate of food and had a great feast :) The next night I was invited to another dinner, but declined as Thursday would be my last chance to experience the cultural fest, as I was working Friday afternoon/evening. That night I went and watched some of the dancing and singing, and bought myself some local art :)
Cutest turtle - would have loved to have bought him, but he's
too big :( Check out the artists website for how he makes them: www.ninosabatino.com.au
The mini ones didn't look quite as cute
Dancing and singing :)
My dinner - Seemur Chicken. ALL the stalls were selling it,
so I decided it must be the thing to eat. Was quite nice -
chicken in a soy sauce with vermicelli noodles and rice
The first time I've had ice-cream in about 6 weeks!
Some more singing and dancing :)
Bought the bowl to put my shells in that I got from
Goods Island - plan to collect some more
Dugongs - from the same guy who made
the turtles
Turtles :)
Friday morning before work I rode up with a friend to watch the parade. Locals from each of the different islands had decorated their cars with weaved palm leaves and flowers, and were singing as they walked along. For lunch I had a meat pie and lamington (very cultural - haha!). And then it was off to work for public holiday rates ;)
Well I have managed to get my picture in the paper after less then two months on TI! The picture was from the Wongai Ball (see previous post). I suppose when you live on such a small island the chances of being in the paper are higher - just like your chances of running into someone you know are much higher. Happens all the time :P
On Sunday 31st August I went with a group of friends to Goods Island. One of those friends has a boat! And was nice enough to take an early trip over and back just so I could get to work on time (I started at 1pm that arvo). Goods Island is about 20 mins away by boat, west of TI. We had a bit of free time to relax and explore the beach, while more people were picked up from TI and then we went for a walk up to the light house. This was followed by a walk down a very steep rail track and then a bush walk back up another hill to some war shelters. It was then a rush back to the boat and back to TI, where I got home at 12.30 - just enough time to have a shower and gobble down some food before starting work fairly exhausted especially after a late night from the Wongai Ball. But I had a great time. Would have loved to have had a swim after our walk as the water was so amazing, but I will have to save that for next time.
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