End of an Era

I still remember vividly where I got this watch (an old Formula 1 series Tag Heuer). It was at the HourGlass shop at Marina Square. I had been eyeing this watch for a while and decided to get it after much deliberation (well it was the cheapest one of the Tag range I could afford). Think I paid $200 plus for it then. But in those days, when you're at Poly and not earning a wage, it was a lot to spend. No complains here but after a good 12-13 years of service its finally had it.
Tags are suppose to be waterproof but as I was kayaking up Katherine Gorge I noticed water had gotten in. Too late to do anything, not before long, it was gone. Guess after so many years, the seals would have been stuffed. Am a bit reluctant to throw it away though.

Lesson on Survival

Waking up at 7am to get into a 4WD with 3 Aboriginal health workers for a 3 day Aboriginal Mens Camp doesnt really sound like my normal work week does it.. An hour later, we were bashing through the Aussie outback where I could hardly see any road trails. These guys sure know where they are going. Anyway, without going into too much detail, Aboriginal people have a dramatically lower health status as compared to the rest of Australia. During white colonisation, many were centralised into camps and gradually lost their skills of being a hunter gatherer. The camp was organised for us health professionals to discuss issues of smoking, alcohol abuse, sexual health and of course, nutrition. But it was also for the Aborginal Elder to teach the younger ones the ways of hunting (and being physically fit).


Heres the billabong where our main source of water is. Me, after going through the National Service, you'd think would be more survival savvy. But I got told off when I was asked to get water. Well, I take pail, go river, grab water; how hard could that be.
Apprantly, I had to tie a rope to the pail and stand behind the tree to do it. Why????
Cos the locals have seen a 4m croc lurking in these water!!!!


Task 2: Shooting a flying target, namely duck of geese with a double barrelled shot gun.

A: "So Gerard, have you ever shot a gun?" (I think they were expecting never as the answer)
Me: "Yes, I did"
A: "Woa, you should be pretty good at this then. What gun have you shot before?"
Me: "Urrr...just the M16" (Hey trust me, I was being humble here, at least I didnt give the full list of M203, section assualt rifle, GPMG, bazooka)
A: "What the?!? we got a terrorist here! Are you serious?"

Heres a pict of the boys waiting for geese to fly overhead.
The Boys with the kill.And heres lunch within 1hr. Freshly shot from the sky, plucked and cooked over wood fire.

Well, as for me, I did not get one. And needless to say, heres the joke of the camp. "Hey Jerry, you didnt get any! You just missing your M16 right"

Next Task: Fishing.

All these kids have is just a reel and a rubber fish bait. When they lost the bait, they just tied a small piece of plastic bag to it and were still reeling them in!

Heres another task which I failed terribly. Theres only these words to descibe it.

Outclassed, Outcast and Outlast. For something so simple, you would not think that there would be any technique involved. But hey, you gotta pull the line in at such a speed whereby it reassembles a fish swimming?!?

Outcast: By the time I had cast and pulled the bait in 2 times, I reckon the Aboriginal kid beside me had already cast his forth or fifth time.

Outlast: Its Australia. The sun is FREAKING HOT. Even with suntan lotion, I'm not standing under the hot sun just to hook a barra!

Think in the end, they taught me more about survival than I did with them on nutrition.

Great Outdoors: Part 2

Me and the boys (Hao, Rocky and Ravi).

The view at the Ubirr plains

Sunset at Ubirr over the Nardab flood plains.

The Great Outdoors

One of the joys of being in Australia; the Great Outdoors. The ability to just pack up and go camping for the weekend. There's nothing like sleeping under a blanket of stars, waking up to the scent of fresh morning air and having bread toasted over a wood fire . Here's one of the trips where I went Kakadu National Park.

Darwin only has 2 seasons. The Wet and the Dry. The wet starts from around Novemeber to March whereby the temperature starts to rise to the low-mid 30's and humidity is at an all time high. As the name suggests, the season comes with wet tropical downpours with freakish thunderstorms (not a good time to visit unless you are one of those camera fanatics who love to capture lighting strikes). I must say, even though coming from Singapore, where lightning is a common occurance that the 'lightning' show is pretty amazing. Maybe its because of the lack of high rise that you see the full extent of its beauty here.
The Dry on the other hand (April to Oct) is characterised by cool 'winter' night in the teens and daytime temp of 20's with low humidity. Perfect weather for camping.

Our campsite for the first night.


Rocky, Joyce and me.

The group .
Yellow water billabong.

And here's why you dun go swimming in a billabong (notice the croc? I was told its a good 3m and not to stick your head out of the boat cos they can JUMP)

Misery

It was great spending the past 2 weeks with family back home. But all good things have to come to an end and I had to hop onto the flight back to Darwin. Arrived at 2.30am. Got home by 4am, slept till 7am to go to work at 8am. Think I pretty much survived on caffeine till the end of the day. Would I do it any different? Didnt think so. If I had all that free time at home, think I'd feel pretty miserable... No niece and nephew to play with. I actually have to do housework again. What to cook for dinner??
Workmates were telling me how they missed the fragrant smell of my cooked lunches heating up in the microwave. I just tell them; "you wouldnt know what I was missing out on till you came to Singapore". To them my lunches of stir fried noodles with ginger, vegetables and soysauce seasoned pork seemed exotic as compared to the cold cut sandwiches, salads or bought sushi they were having. But compared to the 3-4 home cooked dishes + daily soup and freshly cut fruits I had been having back home, it is pretty miserable I'd say.
What to cook tomorrow??