Bankstown in the afternoon sun (pre-traffic jam)

B'Town palazzo in the afternoon sun

"On Bankstown Heels"

Me'n'my clinic court shoes, coming soon to a Health Service near you. Well, not near, but a podcast's commute away. Yes.

Anyone know what font that script is? It's so Katies-in-the-Eighties jaunty!

Big bush hair

Subtitle: Jess, you're the best with the tress'!

"Think Big" Bench - Sml lady w/ Lrg Coffee

Wyld Brumbies Carjackin'/Mystical Intervention

One Point One and then some

My Girls are watching out for me

My Pa & my 'mazing Sister too.

Waffest of Beach Bags "Made by Olga Munro" (a.k.a. the 'mazing Dr. Sarah Blakesmith). You bet I'll be toting it to the BHill Slides tomorrow night. Hello Photoshoot with my new suicide prevention, "Are you okay?" graffiti print one-piece cossie! Thanks Dimmey's Bargain Store! Thanks Olga Munro!

Dad, Sass, I couldn't be out here if I didn't have you keeping the home fries fryin'. With BBQ sauce of course. Love and miss you. Awwww. I'm getting real sentimental out here in the scrub. Damn pesky red dirt in my eye. Got some in my eye on Monday two when an entire class of Year 1 kids gave me a group hug. And my favourite client (not that I have them) said, "Goodbye mademoiselle" - which has been my nickname for her all prac. They all have nicknames. Some very unfit to print!

In another early birthday present, I've passed my placement peoples! This Paediatric Clinician has just been deemed Entry-Level. Well, bar the paperwork sign off... Pfffft, formalities. And then 6 weeks of Adult Clinical Placement Left. Stay tuned for "On Bankstown Heels" - G goes to the slightly less far west.

Will be out of range all day in Wilcannia tomorrow (yessss tuckshop lunch! yessss miss barrett's bits'n'bobs general store!), but missing all you mob on my Mature Lady Age birthday.

xoxo

Ca$haoke Carryover Champion

Just quietly, I won the Ca$haoke Ca$h Prize (50 clams!) on Wednesday night with a rather terrifying and tri-polar* rendition of Satchmo's "What a Wonderful World". I actually lucked out pulling that song out of the bucket. One song later and I would have had to sing, "My Heart Will Go On." Ouch.

The winnings have been wisely invested already - invested in the town's Regional Aquatic Centre. I've hired the Waterslide for an hour of power next Wednesday night. Will ride the slide before attempting to defend my Ca$haoke Crown.

*part Tom Waits, part Lisa Mitchell, part Judy Garland - all sober!

St. Pat's Snaps

A week of sunset cycling

Exceedingly Decent people

These chums of bitchez pretty much made my week last week.

The Heaps Decent Executive (Levins, Boz, Charliechux & KLP) were in and out of town on their way to Wilcannia where they were running hip-hop & music production workshops at the Drop-In Centre, Preschool & Highschool. Amazing to see and hear what they did with the kids. Rhyme awareness, phonological awareness, initial-sound, macro & micro text-type structures - they cover all the good shit that us nerdy speechie's been working on and get to do it all under the guise of rap. Enough to make an ex-lady-rapper pick up the mic again and pass it to the fine ladies of Wilcannia Central School. "The girls with the flavour and the girls with the curls." Damn fine lyricists they iz too (with a bit of help from KLP - aka Kristy Jolie aka International Roast).

Heaps Decent just got community approval (and sumkindagovtphunding) to come back to Wilcannia every term for next few years. Brings tears it does. Even if they're not a Circus crew. There was some miscommunication & when they arrived the school was under the misapprehension that Levins et al. were were Circus performers coming to run clowning workshops. Kinda...

Anyway, waf* times in the booth and the bush with these major babes. Oh yeah, and Levins won the "Minor Prize" on the Skilltester that night and it was Warheads & Sherbies all round.

Bigger than a Gaytime it's...

POTATO TORNADO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gettink heaps done-ed (and more to come-ed)

It's been a week of misplacement (whoa, freudianautocorrect!) that should read mid-placement assessments, late nights at the hospital, household "lock ins" & lock outs, hanging with Exceedingly Decent peoples and listening to a lot The Fugees - BHill Anthem Album.

The week that was:

Thelma & Louise (aka BabyG'n'Nush) hired a car ('lectric blue Lancer) - drove to Silverton - the Hollywood of the Outback. Silverton Tearooms - split an "Outback Snack" 'n' scones, then Quandong Icecream Cones. Mad Max 2 Museum - wild! Adrian & his good woman and their commitment to memorabilia should be applauded. He saw Mad Max 2 - Road Warrior as a kid and it changed his life. So much so he dedicated his life to setting up the museum in Silverton. Sadly you can't take snaps in the museum - but belieb me, the walls were covered with the most incredible polaroids from behind the scenes of the film. Emil "Feral Kid" Minty - I need to know where he is now, NOW! Next stop, Silverton Hotel for postcard writing and XXXX Middy Shandies in the outback "ghost town lounge." The Silverton Hotel "Test" aced and we became lifetime members of the Hotel. Brief detour to Mundi Mundi plains for some plein-air dancing, then 150kms to Menindee... with the promise of Afternoon Tea in a converted Train Cafe run by the high school's Year Nine Homescience Schtudents. And a dip in the French Riviera of the Bush. Yessssss.

TBC (after I finish my progress notes, session plans, reports)... til then, some happy snaps from Silverton and a taste of the next instalment. (scuse the whack layout below - been a while since I spoke the international language of html.)

Much love from my bush (nope, still funny),

x Aunty G.

The Greatest Love of All - Menindee remembers Whitney.

Silverton Tearooms "Old Wares"

Child under glass - Silverton Tearooms. Don't ask.

Mad Max 2 Vs. Thelma & Lou

Bustin' moves at ca$haoke

Oh you know, just droppin' a chorus of Bust A Move at Ca$haoke at the Southern Cross Hotel last night.

And I won a free bevy for my "energy".

PS:

My new housie pronounces Roibos Tea as "Ruby Boss" Tea. So this post goes out to The One and Only Ruby Boss - even though she decrees that Roibos tastes like "licking stamps".

Will-i-am-ia at daybreak tomorrow. Cannot wait. It'll be our first real working day out there since the floods cut us off.

Finally

It only took two and a half weeks but I finally

tracked down real actual bonafide Sturt's Desert Pea.

Like flames outta the blue rubble it was.

Home is the sailor, home from the sea.

Feral sunflowers - my nineties' self would have been in fits of Frente loving fervour.

Sunset homestead of the eve:

Sunset Homestead Stroll

Broken Hill gardens are chockas with roses. Not just any roses- big, fat, fragrant roses in full bloom. Who knew? So many succulents in all the gardens too. Must find out if succulents and roses are good companion plants. They do suit each other so.

This is my favourite median strip on Cummins Schtreet (you gotta say "schtreet" and "schtudent" - it's local parlance.)

Having a quiet night of filing and leftovers tonight. It was a rather large satdy night on the Town last night. Mexican Cook Up at the Casa del Speechies for a mob of OT & med schtudents. The OTs (ave. age 19) attempted to instigate post-dinner drinking games that seemed to revolve around yelling numbers, phrases like "Big Booty" and names of vegetables. Moving on. Then a maxi-taxi to the Muso's Club for First Saturday o' the Month Karaoke. Amazing function venue. Big stage, mic stands. Tiny screen. A lot of Adele. A lot of songs from The Commitments. Some emo talent in the room. One of our Med boys has an impressive voice and belted out Braithwaite, "Wild Horses." For those that need to ask, of course I sang. Tina Turner, "What's love got to do with it." Seemed apt for a Mad Max loving town. Managed to avoid shredding my vocal folds too much by incorporating a lot of spoken word into the song. The bouffant hostess said I had "personality." It was getting on in the night. Looking pretty ruff by that stage.

I do remember joining most of the venue/town on the dance floor at the end of the night for a rousing Mambo Number 5.

Ahhhh Bega.

No, Vega, but still.

Then on to the infamous end-of-the-night venue, "The Night Train". Actually reminded me a lot of The Cambridge in Newie or The Old Bar (??) in Hornsby. Highlights - Doing "the Broken Robot" with my housie (see Sonik for a demo this move). Doin' "the drop" with my housie (see any Missy Elliot music video for a demo of this move). Doin' the body wave with my housie (Mel Rat for this one). Okay, so all the highlights revolved around dusting off some ancient League dance moves with my housie. Nothing like a pair of fresh eyes, and fresh limbs. It was 3am, we were surrounded by lasers and low-lying fog.

Woke up this morning with a bruised palm. Couldn't think why.

You can take the girl outta Sydney...

Lunch Lady Land

The road from Brokeback to Will-i-am-ia is still cut off by the floods today so it's a designated study day at the Rural Health Dept here. This means I can amble down to the Hospy cafeteria at lunch time for scone the size of my face. The lunch ladies are mighty slow and shaky (and kinda dangerous with a pair o' tongs - casualty one tuna pattie), but boy oh boy can they bake. Bless their hair nets.

x

Land cruising

Thanks to Brokeback's dry heat, our smoke alarm is oversensitive to humidity and decided to go off like Mulga Hill Tavern (aka The Vulga) on a Friday night. Hello 3am and 4am wake up calls. And noise induced deafness. A horrid night sleep, made for a pretty tiring day of working with the kids at one of our prac's many partner schools (upholding Speech Pathology Australia's Ethical Principles over here so no real names).

Highlights:

Taught a 6 year old lass the meaning of the word "not" and "don't". Powerful word that one. Wait til I hit her with the double negatives rule.

Played "Buckaroo" with another fella, let's call him "Cody". Kid only has about three consonants to his sound-system so is completely and devastatingly undecipherable. He also only uses the stressed syllables in words. Oh, and doesn't use any of those three consonants if they appear in the middle of words. But, boy can he say "Lego!" BYO blocks next week.

When they talk about flash-flooding out here, they mean it. The water just buckets down for about thirty seconds then stops. Was in the middle of the playground conferencing with two parents, then downpour. Drenched. So I had to sit sopping wet through a special school assembly. The kids were being inducted into privileged positions on School Council. Library Monitor - yessss. The Principal played lead guitar on Advance Australia Fair. A touch of the David Brent going on there. And the school song - which was sung in a key that only dogs can hear. It was great ceremony actually, the proud parents of the new Student Council reps weren't just spectators they were invited to pin the school badges on their kids. Such a brilliant touch. Some parents were adorably formal and shook their children's hands. Others just went the full mum-hug. A couple of forehead kisses. One parent went in for the hug and was met by the hand. Awkward.

I was driving around in the Hospital's land cruiser today. Good thing it's got massive roo bars. Don't even recognise myself out here. Who am I? Land Cruisers, joggers, dress shorts, white polo, backpack, baseball cap. I look like a lady golfer. Photos to come.

Meanwhile, what nimrod decided that white polo tees would be a good daily uniform for working in remote and rural schools??? Yesterday's stains: ice-block, highlighter, whiteboard marker, beetroot, red dust & suncream. And that was before I hit the streets and the schools. This is why white I don't wear white after Australia Day.

"Study Day" tomorrow because Wilcannia is at flood risk. So off to the oppies only open between 10 & 2 monday to friday - which just doesn't work for me. They better not disappoint.

x Grotty G.

Anna and "The Cob"

Ms. Kovacs, 1. Self-contained dippin' unit, 0.

Mum'o'cino at the famous Bell's Milk Bar, South Brokeback

Nb: Bushman's beard in background, stage left

I'm OK You're OK

The Oxide Street Cake Shop that never ever ever opens has the greatest, fadedest trinkets in its windows. Sigh.

Afternoon delight

The view from my beloved Oxide St.

I hate Mondays

Joe Keenan Lookout

We went to the lookout at sunset, only to realise that it's the sunrise lookout.

The next day, I cycled to Pro Hart Sculpture Park at sunrise, only to realise that a fence and trees obscured the view. The pick of sunset spots apparently. Not sure what's going on with my sense of direction. Broken Hill definitely has me "spinned" around (sic).

In local news I met THE Joe Keenan's grand-daughter-law. She explained the Broken Hill grading system for locals and blow-ins. Blow-ins are known as "Away". People who weren't born in the Hill are B-Graders. People born in the Hill are A-Graders. A+-Graders are locals who've lost family members in the mines. Joe Keenan's grand-daughter-in-law = A++

I'm so far away, I'm practically Out Of Office.

Timecapsule plaque reads, "Not to be opened until 2087."

My fellow "Steechies": Stef, Meeral, and Anna aka "Nushi"

I'm the one with the netball legs.

Today I got asked...

"Do you play netball?"

Best "come on" ever.

May have also had something to do with these:

Bruised like a Broken Hill Peach!

The Unofficial Flag of Broken Hill

Broken Hill - neither metropolitan, nor remote.