The Pilbara Periodical

After talking about it for what seemed like an age, we finally made the move to Port Hedland in Wah Wah. So it was bye-bye to Bolan Street house and our lovely neighbourhood, bye-bye to Balmoral High and bye-bye to friends and familiar faces, sounds and smells. And hello to the balmy evening air of Port Hedland (International Airport!). That balmy evening air doesn't get any cooler, either. Actually, it's quite a relief from the desert heat of the day and quite pleasant with the breeze ( or cyclonic wind, depending on the month of the year). Life in Heddy (we live in South Hedland, 12km inland) is really quite nice for us, at the moment. I'm on long service leave (how adult I feel being able to say that!), Mikey works enough hours for two people I'm sure, Magnus is finishing off the school year in school-based Kindy (uniform and all!) and Mikko is without his big brother for the first time at a local child care centre two days a week. All of our stuff arrived, including Sally and the big green bus, and we've even aquired two house-mates along the way - a lovely couple Jason and Sarah (distinguished by their Kiwi and Yankee accents respectively). And a pool! Kmart does a roaring trade here, I tell you!

Mikey and I have realised how city-fied (do I say urbanised?) we have become in our general thinking and expecations of things. Rules and regualtions, for instance. City-thinking is: roads are for driving on, drive on the road to get to your destination. Yes, yes, yes. But when the streets of the town are designed to be like petals of a rose (ie circular patterns that challenge your sense of direction big time) and you can see the place you want to get to, but the road gently curves away from it, you just jump the gutter and drive through the creek bed/spare block/ bit of desert bush to get there. General crowds is another example. Beautiful Saturday morning (as is every morning here), we'll head down to the beach and I'm thinking "there'll be heaps of people here this morning for sure". Nup. Two cars, two people and a couple of dogs. Where is everybody? There's always a car park at the shopping centre and the playgrounds are pretty much empty (except for some tall lady with fly-away hair and her two rambunctious boys). It's a boiling hot afternoon and there's 10 people at the local pool. I feel a bit like I'm in the Twilight Zone.......

Some other observations:

· Pilbara prices. This region may as well have its own currency as it is running its own economy, I tell you. $104 a day for child care. Real estate prices make Sydney look like a bargain. Honestly.

· When you see a road sign for The Great Northern, it's NOT directing you to the pub in Byron Bay. Damn.

· Is it sand or is it dirt? Is it bush or is it desert? This landscape definitely challenges your mind as well as your body. As Magnus said when we were choosing appropriate postcards, "Are there any of just red?"

· Bush flies. So many of them and they stick to you like glue. Walking along you'll see the person in front of you wearing what looks like a randomly spotted t-shirt. Until a few spots fly away. Then you realise what YOUR back must look like and begin swooshing your hand for little effect.

· The desert keeps reclaiming. A patch of red sand one day gradually becomes a small sand blow.

· When cycling through said small sand blows, HIT IT WITH SPEED!

Merry Christmas everybody. I hope you can viewethe little film showing bits of our life here. We'll be cherishing the cool climate of Tassie for a few weeks in January, in our new house! So stay tuned for a visual feast of the southern parts of this truly vast land.