A Little Teaching, Falling Apart, Mindil Beach Markets.

Dear All,

I hope you are intrigued by my title this week. My titles are mostly detrmined by what pictures I have taken during the week. There are many other things of course, for which there are no pictures!

First, a couple of interesting little pictures taken on the foreshore at Nightcliff. I could see no sign of the wreck, but there was a ship sailing into Darwin. They will both enlarge further with clicks.

Life settled a little this week, but promises to be 'tricky' to manage next week with a several gatherings during the visit of Cardinal Pell to launch the Cathedral Renewal fund. I will participate in several events. Perhaps I'll have some photos next week. The first event (for me) is a Mass in the Cathedral on Monday evening at 7.30 pm followed by supper over at the Bishop's house. Before that (I have decided I won't go to this) we (the Sisters) are belatedly invited (someone noticed we weren't on the list) to the book launch at Parliament House of the History of St Mary's Primary School here (with finger food).

On Tuesday, Cardinal Pell is visiting Nungalinya, but I don't think that will be a 'bells & whistles' visit because the Pricinpal has just mentioned it with no details. It think that is 1.30 pm so he will probably just walk around and see things and chat to people - like the Chief Minister did last Tuesday.

On Friday morning Cardinal Pell is saying the 6.30 am Mass for all the Religious and Clergy in the area followed by breakfast (catered, thank God) in our courtyard. It think I will definitely be at that! Then, on Saturday (which is the Feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the 150th year of the adopting of that title) he is saying the 11.30 am Mass as a Youth Mass and it is right out of our hands, but it won't be a Mass of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The Associates will come and afterwards join us for lunch as usual - Very non-weight-watcher food! Party pies etc etc. Sigh!! Life defeats me every now and again - like every day.

During the last couple of weeks, when possible, I have been giving a hand in the FACS class which is mostly working on literacy. I think this group of people is from Mullingimbi and they would speak language at home (Yolgnu), so English is like a second language in every way and they need intensive work to get up to scratch on all their English skills, so they come in for this intensive literacy as part of the FACS course. You can see them getting individual and group tuition and help. I would be in the photo except I was behind the camera - but not sitting on the floor! I am not skilled at that! If you look carefully in some of the photos, you will see evidence of ipods in ears and mobile phones lying about They are not backward with modern technology, these young (and older) people!

1) I am not sure who the helper in pink is - perhaps one of the ladies training for being a teacher aide? She is a lovely-looking girl.

2) That's Helen (Milmindjaark) helping Lawrence at the table and there is one of the FACS Teachers on the floor at the back (legs) with a student. In between you can see Gamarritj with another student.

3) You have father and son here: Robert (Dad) and son Desmond. Robert is an excellent guitarist and leads morning Chapel songs. Desmond plays the keyboard/sythesizer that I was gazing at the other day and couldn't fathom. But he showed me what to press to get various sounds. They are both very musical and he plays very well himself. He is shy, but very keen. Dad is very proud of him - you can even see that in the photo.

4) I don't know the names of these two girls and the older lady but the one working with them is a staff member, Helen, lately arrived from Sydney. She is the coordinator of Cross-Cultural-Awareness which starts in June and will also teach some Theology. She is a Uniting Church Minister as well.

5) I don't know this good-looking young man's name, but it is a lovely photo of him, for which he willingly posed.

6) The Chief Minister of the NT - Hon. Paul Henderson - dropped by to see what was happening at Nungalinya and here he is talking with a couple of the students and staff. I had forgotten he was coming so it was just good luck I had the camera there, in action, for the event. The Principal was very impressed with the way that Paul Henderson related to the young people.

I only stayed for a short while at this class and helped Lawrence with a form.

Part of my 'falling apart" this week was my glasses, as I cleaned them in the morning on Tuesday - they broke in halves across the nose! Very hard to use in two pieces. Luckily I still have my previous pair, although they were made on a earlier script. I managed to get a 2 pm appointment at OPSM so had to head off to that. All is fixed up and the new glasses will arrive in 7-10 days. I might get so used to the old script that I will have trouble with the new ones by them! I have gone a bit more modern with these - metal frames and little supports on the nose. Same price - $0 for Pensioners as long as you are able to get an Orange Card. I had to do a lot of running round to get one, but was successful. There is a limited choice of frames, but - do I care?

The other way in which I 'fell apart' this week was with a tooth (No. 15, I believe! - fifth from the centre at the right top) which succumbed to a Vita Wheat Biscuit and the entire front fell off. Two days later most of the large filling - a bit like a volcanic cone - came adrift in two pieces as I munched on something else. Luckily it wasn't aching or tender, and I was able to get an emergency appointment at the Dental Clinic (Public) so the tooth is no longer a gaping hole. It instead is now back in one piece - at least temporarily, because the white filling may not last! We'll see.

On Thursday evening I whipped down to Mindil Beach Market to have a quick look and pick up a takeaway. As expected, it was a milling throng walking through multiple aisles of a wide variey of stalls. I took a few pics, so I will see if they download.

1) Hope the unknown man in the foreground does not mind having this close-up on my blog!

(2) I could hear this rhythmic drum beating as I arrived and htis is what caused it.

(3) A typical aisle between stalls.

(4) There are some lovely objects on display at some of the stalls.

(5) I have no idea what price the didgeridoos were - but there was interest there.

(6) There is a picnic area on the grass - I think poeple might bring their own chairs. Others go down onto the beach to watch the sunset. It was fairly early when I walked down, so the crowd was only just beginning to build up. Kath and John, keep your Thursday night free for this - very relaxing place.

Work is fairly constant but there have been interruptions. On Friday we had a visit from a chap who was instrumental in founding the place - when they just lived in tents and tried to bring forth their vision. He is elderly now, but a fine fellow. We had lengthy discussions with him - mostly memories and stories. I can't remember one at the minute, but he was very interesting.

The dry is well and truly here and this morning I gave the car I use its first wash! It did not die immediately, but I had a good look at all its 'scars' - mostly from shopping centres I would think. I am not aware of having added to them - yet! But, anything can happen when you park your car and go away!!!!!

I must sign off for this week. I said I would write blogs for 6 months so this one won't keep going forever. I think when the pressure of work gets going I will find it hard to squeeze in the time to do them. However, I've discovered the secret of downloading the photos in a reasonable time. I view them in My Pictures and go to Edit. There is a facility there for re-sizing and I reduce them to 40%. That seems to do the trick and they don't look much different on the blog. Madness has been averted for another week.

God bless you all. Love from Rita