Back in Oz – embracing wet season in Darwin

I’m back in Oz and there’s not much to report.

The flight back was uneventful and after a big night before leaving Siem Reap, I was looking forward to a couple of hours sleep on one of the flights, but I got no joy with that.
On the second flight – Singapore to Darwin – I happened to sit next to a Cambodian woman, who lives in Darwin and has been here for several years. This young woman left Cambodia to live in Vietnam for a few years then moved to Australia. The reason I mention this, is after spending 18 months in Cambodia and building in the countryside where education is limited, it shows me what can be achieved with some schooling and a little drive. She owns a business as well as a house in Darwin and was returning to Darwin after buying another property in Vietnam.
Now, all this talk about education and hard work got me thinking about having a beer, so I did.
I’ve been back here about a month and I’ve gotta say the price of beer has severely hampered my intake so far. As soon as I can get myself some wheels and get some work, I may treat myself to a slab or two (before the Journo gets here).
My biggest reason for coming back was to have a crack at a tagged barramundi that’s supposedly swimming around in the Northern Territory. It’s worth $1 million. At this stage, it seems the million dollar barra is still swimming around — it certainly hasn’t been claimed — unless the crocs have got it. But as yet, I’ve only been able to get out for a fish twice, which is really frustrating.
I’m starting to think the fishing gods hate me but I haven’t really been bothering them too much with my ability at the moment. I did have some success on one trip and I’ll tell you more about that soon.
It’s wet season here in Darwin at Australia’s Top End.

We’ve had a few storm pockets come through Humpty Doo but nothing too bad since I’ve been here – although the wind, rain and lightning put on a very nice show one evening, which set my sister’s dog off his nut.
I think he’s the only dog I know of that wants to catch a storm and kill it as most others want to hide under the bed.
I’m sure Boof won’t mind me telling everyone that he went into the vet for an infection and left two stone lighter. I think I would be far angrier than he is after losing my crown jewels. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all but I have noticed that he does get some paw slip from not enough traction over the rear end on a couple of occasions.

Now the big unit only weighs about 65 kilos and the vet has told my sister he needs to go on a diet, which has been on for a while now. But it’s so sad to see his face at dinner time when he looks down at his bowl and the cow-sized portion he used to eat is no longer on the menu.
I’m gonna sign off here as all this thinking of food makes me wanna go wake my sister up and get her to make me breakfast – and waking her probably isn’t a good idea if you know what’s good for you.

Happy New Year to all our followers. May the fishing gods shine on you (and definitely me) in 2017.

The Joker