Ozzie Culture

Although we only want to talk about Noah and see him, I suppose we'd better carry on with the blog too.(!)

We've been in Australia about 10 days now and hardly anyone here in Perth has bothered going to Darwin but we had a great time there and the first thing we noticed were the huge open spaces after coming from Kuta. As we landed after the flight from Bali we also learnt about the thwarted attempts to take liquid nitrogen on board flights to the US.

We arrived at Darwin during the opening weekend of their Arts festival and before we knew it we'd had 3 fine examples of Australian culture. The obnoxious guy at customs "Why bother going to Asia?", the bride at her wedding (the reception was being held at a bar we found) who finished her v short speech with the charming words "Let's getting f%#!ing p!ssed" and the marginalised Aborigines getting hammered in the Bicentennial Park (now there's irony for you).

The festival itself was very enjoyable and we had a great time strolling around the Botanical gardens show. I was a tad annoyed to find out I'd missed the talks on lawns (not being sarccy at all - I still look at the video footage on my mobile of my beautiful lawn) and safe chainsaw use! I loved the Northern Territory Uni stall with the totally outdoor house concept (3rd pic). In the evening we went to see an Aboriginal band, a Sudanese singer who now lives in Melbourne and a ska/punk/country band (that's how they were billed and they were a great mix who got the crowd moshing and dancing).

Despite only having 2 days in Darwin we also managed to fit in a visit to a casino, suggested by Bec, where I wore my swimming shorts (classy, I know) a far cry from Um being asked to tuck his shirt in or leave in Napoleons in Sheffield! A swim and sunset at the beach, a trip around a gallery showing diverse art ranging from cyanometric scenes to Indigenous paintings. They inspired me to take an arty shot of my shadow on the beach (complete with love handles). We also learnt that some Aborigine tribes in Northern Australia believe there are 6 seasons there, Bec has started to believe there are only 2 parts of the day - afternoon and evenings!