19 May 08 Broome - Marion has arrived from Darwin to stay with us for 5 days and to help Margo celebrate at birthday time! Absolutely fab to have her here, she laughs out loud and is a really lovely person. She even enjoys watching Desperate House Wives with me !!!!! We took her to Matso's Brewery across the road for a few bevvies, that's Chris Lane and Clint behind the bar - lovely lads.
I have started to learn how to carve boab nuts and am having a go - lotsafun - you can see the lone boab below - that's my work; and my indigenous friends have been teaching me the tricks of the trade!!!! I trade stuff with them, and you can see hanging by gold ribbon is my current collection from them. The pic below right is that of the blackfellas I meet with in the early mornings when walking Tilly, and you know what, every day at the wee small hours of the morning, I laugh out loud with them, they are very kind to me, they don't make rude fun of you, nor are they nasty, and they never do me harm. It seems I have learnt a fair bit here in the Kimberley - having begun this big adventure being very frightened of the indigenous folk in the streets, and now.......in the photo, on the very left is Monica and Paul Cox (bush name of Oonjoong)- Paul sells his art work in the galleries around town and is very talented, he was born here in Broome and went to school at Beagle Bay with the Nuns, when he finished school at 14 years, his first job was to whitewash the Beagle Bay Church and paint the roof with silver paint. He is of the Yaru tribe. The front two on the right are Mathew Charles (left) and Gilbert in his Russian hat. Mathew is of the Bardi tribe and he was born at Derby and lived at One Arm Point, (up near Cape Leveque) he also is a very good artist and sells his work around town. The two men are cousins and Monica is married to Paul (Oonjoong) by "kangaroo marriage". All are of different tribes, therefore they can only do certain types of artwork. They live in houses on the other side of town and every morning way before 6:00 am have started walking and head to town to sit under a tree on the grass somewhere nice where they can talk and laugh and while away the day, then do a bit of fishing, a bit of art work and so on goes their day.........
My indigenous friends have taught me a word to be wary of........munjoo.........that is the word used when a blackfella tells a whitefella a fib, by way of trying to please the whitefella (aka gudiya), or not understanding the whitefella's question, or just to make the whitefella go away, so you whitefellas out there, watch out for munjoo's !!!!!
The beautiful yellow crysanthemums are my Mother's Day present from Tilly, lovely aren't they. Next is my vase of 41 peacock feathers (plus 3 white ones) from Humpty Doo.
You like Margo's new pushbike. Pete found it at the rubbish tip and brought it home for me, purple and all - just gotta give it a bit of an overhaul, thanks Pete, luv my bike!!!!!
Mother of Pearl Shell - it sparkles away, you can see rainbows in them, these 12 are bits and pieces I found on the pindan and sand tracks at Cygnet Bay, DB's boss said it was ok to keep them, so I headed around the corner from our "Broome Residence" and offered to buy two 'panels' from Clipper Pearls. Just wait till they are hanging up on our pool feature wall at Port Douglas......very lovely I should think!!!!
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Aha - here is the day I went to Court for the Boss. He was stuck in Perth for a trial, and told me to phone all the solicitors in Broome and see if they could appear for him in the Magistrate's Court. I phoned everyone and no one could do it, they were all busy or all in Court. Bob told me to fax the Courthouse and ask if I could stand in his stead, sign the fax and then head to Court on the next day. Well, blow me down, it happened, and there I was heels and file and all, heading in to the Courthouse to do my stuff - we had thought the defendant wasn't going to turn up, and he didn't, so it was adjourned, I did the talk and headed back to the office, swapped shoes, patted the dog and smiled all day !!!!!!! Wow, how cool was that.............
Riddell Beach - DB and dog and Margo headed down yet another pindan road (just out of Broome) and grabbed takeaway coffee and croissants to take to Riddell Beach to check it out for the first time. It is so many colours, bright red pindan cliffs, white white sand and very aqua ocean. What a lovely place to while away a Sunday, and those lumpy rocks are beautiful colours, the photo's don't really do it justice, but we are blessed to be seeing this part of the world, thank you.