Waterbombs, Cockroaches and MICE!

Late on Wednesday afternoon last week we had an insect hunt. Primary C went around the playground with little containers looking for those lovely six legged creepy crawlies we all love to hate, yet outnumber the human race by some staggering number. Despite them been so plentiful, only a few were captured and the students were therefore allowed to take the containers home and find their own delightful bugs. Thursday morning saw moths, flies, beetles, crickets and a grasshopper coming into the classroom and all were placed in a lovely aquarium that Jim found and turned into a cool housing unit for all the things we find. Of course, when Sharelle returned to class in the middle of a literacy group after a quick drink clutching a cockroach by the antennae, my enthusiasm about the new arrival cannot be described as sky high. What did make me happy though was how into the topic they are all getting; Jenny sure did hit the jackpot deciding to do insects this term!

Having keenly been watching the weather forecast over the past week in the hope of seeing some rain, I was very excited when on Thursday morning there was an 87.5% chance of rain (statistics courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology, thank you for making me such a budding meteorologist). I shared my anticipation of precipitation with Henry, who responded with ‘I like those odds’. Of course, he was laughing at how disappointed I was when at 7pm that night; there had still been no water falling from the sky. How sure I had been, and how disappointing for the odds to be wrong. But only an hour later cyclonic winds had developed outside, thunder was so loud it was shaking the house and lightning was lighting up the night sky every two seconds. It was stunning. The wind was so intense that a massive dust storm had enveloped the community and it looked exactly like rain. My excitement was short lived when I figured it out moments later. Just as our dinner guests for the night were about to leave, a pitter patter on the tin roof led me to exclaim one of our favourite family sayings from a TV add that was on when I was younger; ‘Marge, the rains are here!’ And boy, were the rains finally here! It absolutely bucketed and I awoke to a wintery, windy and miserable looking Friday morning; just what I love about Perth weather! Every so often Balgo feels like home and when it’s cold enough to even contemplate putting a jumper on, Perth seems less far away.

The miserable conditions during the day certainly did not stop Anthony going ahead with a planned waterfight/capture the flag competition later that night. The boys had spent two hours debating the rules and guidelines at the dinner table the night before and had eventually finalized an idea conjured up on the long trip home from Alice Springs during the holidays. Promoted as a ‘team building’ activity, it was hoped that most of the staff would be keen to play in the cold and in the dark on one of three teams protecting their own flags while trying to get the flag of another team, using water bombs as ammunition. Our own battle (we referred to it as ‘war’) was quite ironically played on the same night that American troops were pulled out of Iraq. Just a fun fact I thought I’d throw in there, seeing as for once I’m actually on top of a current affairs!

At 7.30pm that night a decent sized crowd gathered in the staffroom, some more geared up for getting wet (Maggie in her raincoat), some more geared up for camouflaging (me, completely in black with the cool commando lines on my face drawn smartly with waterproof mascara) and then just plain old what the hell; of course, Henry in yet another of his whacked up costumes.

Excuse the dirty mirror, and the lame photo.

We split into our teams, were given a tour of the boundaries, potential hazards and bases and had a few minutes to strategies before the game began. I was with Maggie, Brother Rick, Ralph (Jenny’s visiting relation) and Ale. Our base was quite good; many easy places to defend it and a good view of who was coming where. We didn’t think anyone capturing the flag would be a problem but were quite a distance away from the two other bases so while Maggie stayed to defend, the rest set off. I was quite awful in the game; the first balloon I popped on someone was myself, and then I copped one to the stomach from only a meter away by Brother Rick who didn’t realise it was me when I was coming back to base. That hurt, a lot! The first game ended rather quickly with Team A capturing the flag of Team B. With many balloons still left, we continued on.

It was decided to switch bases to make it fair and the game certainly was made more interesting as strategies changed depending on the position of the team. Many players had personal interests during the game; I’m pretty sure Brother Rick was keener on water bombing Anthony than actually capturing the flag, but he made for an interesting player and the game was made a lot more humorous with his personal motivations keeping us entertained. When all our balloons had gone and all that was left was a bucket of cold water, he goaded me into helping him carry it over to Anthony’s base and saturate him. The only problem was that Anthony and Darren had the same idea so we all ended up absolutely soaked but grinning nonetheless. It was a great night and we’re keen on another game as soon as some more water balloons get posted up because we were very much rationed this time around.

The after party was held at Anthony’s and I made myself comfortable in his ‘shed’, as I usually do. I was just chilling on the couch when of all things, a cockroach just casually climbed over me. Of course, I jumped a mile, screamed so loud Perth could have heard me and ran the house jumping up and down and all around making sure it was off me. Just my luck, that happened twice more and things only got worse when Anthony went to change iPod’s in his dock and discovered another rodent mushed in between the iPod and speakers. Not cool. I was worrying his house was infested and he really needed to get it fumigated as I opened a half eaten box of crackers and tipped them onto a plate. Only crumbs were coming out so I gave it a shake and to my extreme horror a MOUSE flew out of the box, onto my hand and down my body into the next room. I screamed and screamed and SCREAMED (not that I’m too terrified of mice but it was kind of a shock), much to the entertainment of Anthony, Darren and Brother Rick who had all witnessed what had happened and were in stitches. It was absolutely awful and I spent the rest of the night expecting another awful insect or animal to release its horror on me. Luckily nothing came but it definitely wasn’t my night. As you can see in the below picture though, they're sneaky little beings.

Yesterday morning I woke to the constant grumbling of thunder over the house, the pitter patter of rain on the roof and a cool wind blowing outside. The thing I love about Balgo is that the thunderstorms never really go away. They can hang around for hours, thunder shaking the house and lightning blinding everything. It was a lovely way to start the day; curled up in bed with coffee and pancakes listening to the wintery climate outside. I could have stayed like that all day but unfortunately the weather changed, the sun came out (I know I should be happy about that but I’m such an un-sunny person; bring on the cloud and rain!) and work had to be done. After Mirli Mirli-ing (the parish newsletter which I compile every week), a lovely chat with Father Mac who was intent on watching the horse races and scoffing down a bite to eat, I headed over to see Jim and begin a new project; painting! Now of course, this wasn’t like creative painting and all that arty farty stuff. I failed Year 6 art and never really recovered so there was no way I was going to put whatever artistic skills I have left in full display. No, this was painting houses! Jim had been telling me about all the painting he has to do and asked if I wouldn’t mind helping him, which of course I didn’t. Because in some weird way, I find painting therapeutic and relaxing and the busy person I am, enjoy doing things that relax me AND keep me busy at the same time. There’s a lot of work to be done and it’s going to take a while but it’ll keep me out of mischief for most of the time I have left and it’s in better conditions than the last time I painted something; painting the back fence with Mum in the middle of Summer was fun but very uncomfortable in 40°C heat! Most of it is inside with working air-conditioners, so jackpot!

I had a scary moment yesterday. I was walking home from school in the dark because once again, I had lost track of time and before I knew it, it was dark. I had just stepped outside of the school when I smelt something familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was until I realised; it was the camel! It’s scary when you can smell her, but can’t see her. As you can imagine, that was a nervous walk home but fortunately I never came across good old Jellybean/Lucy/Camel/Noonerghay/Whatever she’s called these days. I don’t mind her when she’s in a good mood, you just can never really tell when that is!