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thursday, april 4
bliss is the mid-morning mail run. bliss (as a result of the mid-morning mail run) is also a letter from kath, the listener, lusciously lush lush products, a suitable boy, and leunig's short notes from the long history of happiness. ahhhhhhhhhh!
12:51 PM
tuesday, march 26
decided to change my room around. i was bored with the other one. only trouble is that it's damn near impossible to design my site from here. so i borrowed someone elses design. excuse the current mess. will clean up soon.
6:14 PM
monday, february 11
not really new. just figured i may as well put it here.
okay. Here it is. i have finally made time to do the big update thingee. i know i’m late but i am so busy. like really busy. like beyond busy. but a good kind-of busy. anyway i’m so busy that i’ve compiled a bunch of emails that I actually got round to sending out into a bridget’s life over the past four weeks kind of thing. none of it’s terribly exciting but that’s okay. you like me so you can read it anyway!
i hate flying. not the actual act of flying – that’s fun, especially when you hit extreme turbulence which i seem to do which alarming frequency. it’s just the mind-numbing boringness of sitting in a cramped little seat for hours on end watching really bad movies on tiny screens and squirming uncomfortably in your seat ‘cos you’ve got a thing about using the toilets on airplanes. well it’s actually more of a thing about being unable to ever find the toilet on planes and ending up wandering up and down the aisles pretending that you’re very diligent at doing your deep vein thrombosis exercises when you’re just to embarrassed to ask where the toilet door is ‘cos you’ve probably already passed the damn thing 23 times. And it’s not like I’m flying great distances – three and a half hours to sydney with a short interval followed by four and a half hours to darwin – chicken feed really. It’s also not the fear of flying into extremely tall objects although I was definitely on my guard when the arab man sat next to me, and I practically lept out of my skin when he taped me on the shoulder. I fully expected a sharpened toothbrush through the heart and was quite taken aback when he then proceeded to point out the divinely gorgeous sunset that was unfolding outside the window and which I was missing because I was doing my counter-terriost exercises. just shows you doesn’t it. I’m not sure what it shows you but i am sure it’s something important.
So anyway after all the hated flying was over and done with there I was in darwin at the airport with an excited wee puppy of a Thomas to meet be. talk about hyperdrive. he barely stopped for breath! i was so exhausted all i could say was hush now! We proceeded to spend the next four days in darwin staying in the hotel room, going to the movies, hanging out in air-conditioned shops – basically anything to keep us out of the lung destroying heat of the tropics. man it’s hot. Oh yeah we also went to the darwin aviation museum and saw a b-52 bomber which was really exciting. if i was a boy. or kathryn.
flew out of Darwin on the Tuesday in the herc by myself because thomas is now a commoner with no UN privileges and had to fly on the commercial flight. Arrived home to find lots of wonderfully tacky new decorating techniques that mama rinchi has added to the house. plastic flowers are apparently the latest in home accessories in timor this year! It was really good to see the family again, well it was until we did an inventory check on the house and found out how much stuff has gone missing while we’d been away, including expensive bath towels and the majority of our cutlery. unfortunately I didn’t discover this until after handing the presents I had bought in nz out – otherwise some timorese street kids would be enjoying their good fortune right about now. Oh yeah and then there was the addition to the family of a demonic rooster who crows like his voicebox has been ripped out, had a new set of speakers and a sub-woofer added and then shoved back in. he also doesn’t have a very good internal clock and crows at 12.15am, 1.23am, 1.36am, 2.01am, 2.04am, 2.56am, 3,15am and so on. Apart from all of this we have settled back into life in timor quite happily. Thomas is still looking for work and not having a very successful time of it. All of the un agencies are downsizing so are very reluctant to take on new staff. Hopefully he can find something soon because otherwise he is going to drive me crazy. We’ve got liam, a friend of thomas’s - from the first time he was in timor, staying and it’s really nice to have some extra company in the house. We’re all active little beavers and have two nights a week of portuguse lessons, two nights tetum lessons, penny whistle practice, 7am starts at the gym and lots of breakfasts, luches, dinners, morning teas, afternoon teas and suppers out at the various cafes and restaurants of dili.
Works going really well. I’ve just desined my first poster – ‘what happens if I am arrested’, not that I’m planning on being arrested, - and I am starting to feel more and more like a real designer. i mean i know i am a real designer but i just take a lot of convincing! The people I am working with are great and i am really lucky to be working with them, especially when i see the other dysfunctional little un offices full of miserable people. man i sound like one of those awful 'i love my life' people. heaven forbid! not sure what the future holds at this stage – maybe kosovo, but that’s just a thought that crossed my mind just that second and may never visit again. we’ll wait till May 31st and see what’s happening. Maybe there could be a coup in or a small amount of bloodshed in vanuatu, ireland or morroco – fingers crossed.
1:33 PM
monday, december 17
well the wheels are in motion. thomas was farewelled (with tear filled sunglasses) about an hour ago and the countdown to my departure is now in motion. just hanging out...writing to you lot... not that there's much to tell. ummmm got 4 hours here before heading off to darwin where i have another four hours and then i fly to sydney and have three hours. run around duty free to but gifts for all those people i've forgotten to buy gifts for and then HOMEWOOD BOUND. what more can i say but: see ya tomorrow.
2:35 PM
saturday, december 1
...I'm standing here outside your door, I hate to wake you up to say goodbye...
1:54 PM
friday, november 30
18 days till all my bags are packed, i'm ready to go...
8:39 AM
monday, november 12
the wet season's here!! it's so exciting. there's been a few pathetic showers on occasional afternoons over the past few weeks that have been largely disappointing. when all you've had weather wise for the last 6 months is blue sky and sunshine you really to start to hang out for a bit of good old bad weather. we certainly got that last night - it absolutely bucketed down. huge old fat rain too. combined with a power cut so candles and torches all round. found that such a distinct seasonal change produces very primal responses - thomas and i stood outside to admire the fact that wet cold stuff was falling from the sky and i felt very tempted to perform some sort of ritual to the rain gods. rest assured, i kept my clothes on, decided that jumping in puddles while laughing maniacally was ritualistic enough! still no water in our riveria unfortunately, but at least the roof is holding up (so far). other exciting event was having a giant rat run over my foot while i was eating dinner. this rat was more horse that rodent. in fact there was a small timorese man chasing it with a saddle! all in all an eventful day in east timor i think!
3:42 PM
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