9th May - rain - Indonesian Rally

Thursday 9^th May

So this was the view from the deck of 2XS yesterday.  I also took a photo of my new waterproof ocean-going beanbag, which is valiantly trying to turn into a big fat swimming pool…but I think I prefer this rain-on-the-water one, more evocative…

There is no problem with the rain; it is still quite warm, and although I have got very drenched, one way and the other, trotting from laundry to boat, I can also get warm and dry again very quickly. My only problem was when we got very wet while getting on a bus, after dropping off our little hire car.  And the bus had its aircon turned up to ARCTIC!!  BRRRR!!

So here is another pretty flower to brighten the page...

Local ABC Radio is our friend, all the way up the coast.  We seem to be able to get connected and to listen to the news, and AM.  I at least have been listening to AM ever since it first started – early 70s? – so it is very comforting, to hear the news analysed and broken down into sensible little segments.

I have just been listening to a debate about people with disabilities, and their need to find meaningful work.  Years ago I talked to a nice person at a conference, Gwen.  She worked in a program in a small country town in NSW which organised jobs for precisely this group of people.  The local supermarket provided jobs ferrying the trolleys around the car park, and a few of her clients, with Downs Syndrome, did this very happily and capably.  They were employed from 10-3 every day.  Gwen would visit regularly, to make sure all was well.  But sometimes she would go to the supermarket after work, at 6pm, to find these industrious workers still wheeling the trolleys hither and yon.  She would say, “But you were supposed to finish work at 3.00!” and they would look at her, brow furrowed and say, “But there are still more trolleys to put away!  We haven’t finished!”

This is what we are looking looking looking at, very intently…

Sail Indonesia 2013 will leave from Darwin on Saturday July 27 at 11 am and during the following three months all participants are invited to participate in a linked series of Events and Cultural Festivals at the different stopovers across the country on the islands of Timor, Banda, Lembata, Wakatobi, Flores, Sulawesi, Bali, Java, Borneo, Belitung and finally on to Batam or Bintan just south of Singapore.

Looks good, EH, as they say in far Northern Queensland…

Well it WOULD look good, if the map showed up...