Last night we had our first gecko in the house! It happened to be in Beaux's bedroom and looked orange when we first saw it, but quickly changed to a muted gray/brown mottle to escape on the carpet...fruitlessly, of course when we have a veteran lizard catcher in our midst!! Trent caught it in the air when it jumped off the bedside table. We put it in a container for a few minutes and had a good look before letting it go outside near our porch light to feast! It had splayed "fingers" with little round grippys and the start of a new tail, so must have recently had another dangerous run-in. We have heard that if you let them live inside, they can make a bit of a mess down the walls and on the furniture. Don't mind them outside though!
Saturday we tried some of the local lawn sales, but have to say we were not impressed. Each house had only a few items for sale, nothing was priced, and the hours were very strange! We didn't even get to a couple of the sales in the paper because they were only open from 7:30-9:30 am. Crazy!
Then it was pool time in the afternoon, so spent a few hours at the Aquatic Centre in town. This time the kids got to try the waterslides, which was very fun, but they shut them down after only 20 minutes or so due to staffing issues. Sigh. We still had fun, but they wished and wished to waterslide.
Sunday was church at Alice Springs Baptist Church, which was very nice again and we got to talk to lots of people. They have a coffee/tea time after church in the Hall, and they are quite friendly and make us feel at home. We even found a couple that was from Idaho/Ohio! The kids went to Sunday School (which is during 'Big Church') for the first time, and I think they had a good time. The boys went with Beaux, but we found out afterward that they have a class for their age so next time they'll try that one. One of the ladies was telling me that at Christmas, you can buy artificial lit trees from Kmart or Target, and that people decorate with snowmen and winter-type decor, even though it is the middle of hot, hot summer! I am glad they sell trees of some kind, because we didn't bring one. Can hardly imagine blow-up snowglobes on lawns when it is 115 degrees outside, though!
Then in the afternoon there was a Newcomers Welcome at a very nice home, for all the new employees and their families. They had a patch of grass (real grass!) for all the kids to play on so it was fun to see our kids jump right in and play games and run around with about 20 other kids for a while. We talked to lots of people who are all in similar situations to ourselves, living on bare bones for a while waiting for the surface shipment of household goods to arrive. It was interesting to see what other people have been doing with their time so far...mostly day trips or weekend trips to the interesting sites in the area. I guess there are accomodations in hotels, dorm style housing, caravan (trailers) or tent camping at many of the popular tourist sites, so people are able to stay overnight at some of these places even before household goods arrive if they are willing to pay to stay in the hotel or dorm style. We did hear about a few waterholes to hike to and swim in, so we may try that soon.
Next Saturday we will be heading to Ruby Gap on an adventure, 4-wheel driving and hiking around a bit with some of Trent's friends from work. We will have to pack water and food with us as it is quite a drive, so will be an all day trek! We missed not doing any "Australia" outings this weekend, so looking forward to next!
Have I already mentioned that in traffic, "Give Way" signs mean yield? Also, the speed limit signs are white with the number of speed limit with a red circle around it. It looks very much like our highway number signs in the US. "Conserve" is jam, and Black Current and Plum are very popular in flavor. "Capsicum" is red pepper. "The tap" is the faucet or spigot. We are finding that Australian foods are much lower in salt than our American tongues are used to, so we have to salt everything here!
Love to all,
Hilary
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