Bound For The Beach in Costa Rica

I have been home almost a week and the letlag gets no better but at least i am in my own bed. my little girl is growing in leeps and bounds and is talking in concepts now which is a new thing, she can make amazing plans all while playing some conceptual electronic game in the park, this has to be a first, she was winning and losing lives like a game Avatar.

well today after making plans we are going to my favourite holiday destination, Cahuita on the Caribbean coastline. We have gone back to an old place we have been before and got the newest air conditioned cabin, i think i have gone soft after having A/C in Australia for 7 weeks, When I arrived back home i found i was sweating constantly and feeling hot all the time, here A/C is not common and it really isnt that hot all the time as last night it was even a little fresh, I had never noticed before how sweaty it is, well it is the tropics and it is around 25C or 75 F all year round but i had gotten used to it, but after 7 weeks in the lovely A/C I now find it HOT and SWEATY, it will take me a week or two to get used to it again. I have been eating my favourite foods, like fried plantains, you know those large banana things, taste like fried toffee if you get them ripe, we bought some from an old farmer last night, he looked like Popeye, huge muscular arms hanging out of a very tatty shirt, shaved head, huge bulging cheeks as he had no teeth and was chewing on something in his mouth, could have been spinach, could have been some local weed, and driving this ancient nissan pickup truck that was definately illegal. My wife was doing the negotiating and came away with 7 totally black and mouldy Plantains hanging in a bunch, they were soft and squishy, but once you fry them they are the closest thing to angels tears, and with smoked cured pork chops they have here also and with some garlic boiled rice , it is a meal fit for a king, a costa rican king anyway, i will blog all the 4 day holiday when i get back

Last Full Day in Karratha, outback Australia

Today is officially my last full day in Australia, I am leaving and i managed to resolve the last couple of problems that were plaguing me. I can leave with a clear conscience, tonight we are having a leaving party joint with a my working companion here, Mark who's birthday it is today. We are going to the Icon a brand new poncy place that is charging crazy prices and wine is a $40 tab. The prices for everything up here in this mining town, are just insane at the moment, there are too many people and too much money about and far too many operators who want to take your money away. There is such a boom up here in the mining industry they are paying big money and this makes folks leave there regular jobs and work in the mines and support industries. So shops and restaurants are having to close down as they have no-one to work for them. There is a restaurant that had 52 people work for them over 12 months and ended up closing as it could cope, houses are too expensive and almost nothing to do while here apart from nature things and boating around the islands, That is nice but you can only do that for so long before you go stir crazy. I am facing a 36 hour flight and a transit through the date line so i am going to be a time traveller, that is a bizarre thing to deal with landing before you take off. I am planning many thing but all is up in the air as who knows what work offers i may get over the next month, it will have a to be a good one to keep me away from having fun in the tropical paradise of Costa Rica with my beautiful wife and my little girl. Lets see what santa brings for me, i have done my time and deserve a little bit of luck with my next job.

Going to the Beach For Fish and Chips

Tomorrow will be our formal rotation day off, 1 every 14, it is the law so i belive, its OK as it breaks up the monotony of working 7 days a week, we are planning to go back to the beach where we can get the best fish and chips i have eaten in many a year. The restaurant is on a 2nd floor balcony and overlooks the small rocky bays that suround all the small islands that are dotted along the coastline here. it is openair and wonderfully bright and airy and there is always a sea breeze blwoing taking the hot out the air, making it only very nice.

Samson Beach from close to the Fish and Chip superb restaurant



The climate here at the moment is perfect, 26 C at breakfast and getting to 35 C in the afternoon, not unbareable but Ok. I am now also planning my return to my tropical paradise hoime, only 5 days left and me and my wife are planning things we are going to do and places we are going to go to. One thing is we are planning to go to see my sister in the UK and then on to Egypt to see and old work buddy who has this huge apartment in Cairo, he is actually ona holiday for a wedding in the UK, he did invite me and Jenny to go so I suppose he will be Ok with it. Not sure about when i want to get back to work, I amay even be moving to my spanish house for a while just to make a change, life is too short to not experience all the wonders fo the world, i like spanish food also, nice cheese and olives and ham, I have had a busy week replying to all the job offers, I have had one for Brunei and Chile and Iraq, Iraq is out of the question for the money they are offering, only $100 an hour. So i can take an easy life and see what the world brings to me, this summer and If Darwin comes along then i may take that one, the important thing is the balance between money and living conditions, I am thinking more of married status these days rather than all the money but that is an important part of the equation.

Amazing Sea Eagle

We are woirking 7 days a week and doing 12 hour days so i am not seeing or doing much other than eat, sleep and work. We went out for a meal sunday afternoon as the plants canteen was closed and we were driving along amongst the strange red rocky hills and around the bend we saw a kangaroos carcass on the road and to our amazement a White-Breasted Sea Eagle just swooping down to feed on it, we disturbed it and it never touched down but man oh man it was a huge bird and this fantastic pure white colour to its body, I have also to change the identification fo the cockatoos that we have around here, not being able to get a good look at them until a couple of days ago, they are not sulphur crested but little corallas, a large bird the same as the sulphur crested cockatoo but with a blue eye ring and a smaller white crest, I have seen large flocks of them here maybe 200 or more, in fact the farmers are allowed to shoot them as they regard them as a pest when they come raiding the crops in the wheat fields, and this is when there is a total ban on the export of wild birds from Australia and even though they fetch $1000 or more when sold abroad, but you have to draw the line somewhere in the animal export market and i agree with the ban , but not the shoooting of any birds

FLocks of these lovely birds are seen by the side of the road eating grass seeds



The huge raptor ( Not rapstar) was trying to eat roadkill Kangaroo

Swearing Like an Aussie

One thing i have really noticed here is that swering is a pretty acceptable way to pass the time, everyone swears constantly and after a while it feels like normal, I was watching breakfast TV and the presenter was chatting about being late for work and his phrase he used was " where the F*#K are Ya", on breakfast TV and with kids probably watching and nobody said anything to him, now this shows how engrained it has become in Australian culture, It doesn't bother me at all but i was still shocked to see it on TV, funny old game. I have been away from home over a month now and life is becoming a drag, the weather is nice and the countryside is wonderful but living in a hotel with not much happening and another two weeks to go is starting to drain me mentaly. i am thinking about taking a long long holiday this summer for about 4 months; I can go to England and see my sister and i have a friend who is now working in Egypt with a monster apartment in Cairo, close to the Pyramids, so i thought it was a great idea to go and see him and his lovely girlfriend and make full use of his paid for apartment. we will see how it all pans out but come July i will be back in Europe for the beer and the rain.

Australian Culture

I knew a bit about Australian culture before i arrived here and to be honest i am not surprised at all, the weather here most of the time is hot and when it is hot you do as a good man would do and that is pull out a few beers from the fridge, what i hadnt expected is the totally casual attire to be worn out every where, most guys have flip flops(Thongs, depending on what country your from) and shorts and a T-shirt, this is far more casual than what i had expected but as i have now experienced first hand the hot and humid conditions then i understand why people have as little on as possible, the amount of beer drunk is about what i would expect most guys would drink but i think it is the number fo days that they drink it, I would think most guys here would drink beer every day and hence most guys have a beer gut, but the weather is what could become oppressive if you spent everyday trying to keep your weight down without a beer or two. Eating out is also similar to the USA, as the weather is nice and you dont need to sit inside everynight trying to keep warm then you go out and have a few beers and meal, again this is terrible for the weight. Something i didnt expect was a large amount of guys who have traditional biker beards, some full and most the now almost compulsory long goatee, and these are the longest goatees beeards i have ever seen, some up to 12" long, most about 4-6", the smaller guys are trying to cash in on the view that you dont want to mess with a biker, but they are probably not bikers but just contractors trying to look frightening, which they do actually.

A typical older guy with large Goatee



A more typical biker look with a fuller beard



A big beard that is like some of the bushment about town

Crazy Looking Pigeon

The bird life here in northern Western Australia is very interesting if not much of it, the most numerous bird is the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, and another is the Yellow Fronted Minor, but the craziest looking one is the Crested Pigeon, it looks like it has a pointy cap on its head and as it bobs about looking for food the crest bounces about, i was laughing as I was telling my sister about it on the phone while i was looking through the window.

razy Pigeon



Yeloow Throated Minor



Cocky