Never a dull moment

Never did I think I'd be saying this, but its true; there's never a dull moment in Katherine! Over the last couple of weeks I've featured in the Katherine Times several times, competed in the Grand Final of Katherine Idol, visited the Gorge, Edith falls, been to a mango party an hour out of town and done some hard-core 4WDing in and out of a remote community!

For those who haven't heard, after two weeks in town, I made the hat-trick in the local paper. Two photos and a mention in the katherine times. This paper's claim to fame is that it has the most social pages. Social pages consist of photos of anyone that stepped outside their front door sometime on the weekend while one of the 2 journos happened to be lurking. After bragging around town about instant social success, I realised there was another 'Lauren' mentioned in the paper under the 'Adult Entertainment' section of the Classifieds! Aaah! I swear its not me!

The next big event was none other than...Katherine Idol! Yep, I know you're all impressed, and yet probably not surprised to hear it was little more than a kareoke competition. The 'little more' would probably refer to me jumping up after 3 solid hours of very serious kareoke and singing a couple of capoeira songs and getting the crowd clapping along. While I did score a couple of 0's and 2's for my efforts, I was later accosted by a fan outside, telling me I had "the biggest balls in Katherine". I think it was a complement.

Two weekends ago a friend from Darwin and I went on a boat tour of Katherine Gorge. Not too many witty tales, but for those who haven't been there, its beautiful and well worth coming up here (and visiting me!) to see it.

The highlight of last weekend was an annual mango party, held just out of Pine Creek. There were dacquaris all night, mango eating competitions and a great bunch of people. Late in the night a big storm hit, which was just spectacular. Lightning all night and solid rain for several hours. The temparature might even have dropped under 30! maybe...

My last episode to brag about is the adventure in and out of Pigeon Hole, one of the communities I visit for work. The first drops of rain fell as we drove (my companion being the old Bilinarra lady I work with). not a good sign. The country music i'd been enduring was stopped and we both creased our brows at the clouds. On arrival at the turn off to Pigon Hole it looked alright, a little damp. Half an hour into the drive, I was fish-tailing about the road, sploshing through big boggy puddles and sliding off the road at regular intervals! My kindly companion pointed out the various spots where linguists had gotten bogged in the past. As we vowed never to come back at this time of year again, the community came into sight. The only appreciative audience I got for my driving tales were the other two government ladies who'd come in before us.

So it doesn't sound like I'll be going out bush too much in the near future.

Well, I hope the action-packed days in Katherine continue and I'll give you another update soon.