A Saturday in Goroka…

A restful day but not without a small dose of the unexpected!

- Dentist appointment 1st thing down at Goroka General Hospital. A clean and a quasi check-up. No major probs… beauty!!

- Into West to buy some school clothes for young Eli-Pora (Uncle Joel's daughter) who is going back to school next week. Eli-Pora came back from the village with us last weekend and will be going back to Kau-basis tomorrow or Monday.

- On the way back from West a quick stopover at Steamships Hardware to see what they had in the “kennels”. Gelo (the dog) is “up the stick” and I wanted to get her a little “haus” for when she gives birth – going by the size of her tummie – not far off. Who's the Dad? Bloody Jumbo-Jet from next door… still haven't seen any form of bride price!! Anyway, found an old wooden box that was lying in the Steamship's yard and the boss sold it to me for a couple of kina (AU60c). Put it out to dry and will do some “giaman” (bullshit) carpentry tomorrow and turn it into a poor man's kennel.

- Had a breakthrough with Linux! I can now synchronise my Evolution contacts with the old I-Mate (Pocket PC). Yep! the old beast is till going. Geeez!! Did it take some work! Like with most things Linux : a lot of fiddling but in the end it seems to be working OK! Have I ever compared Linux to an old british motorcycle? You got to be a mechanic to “ride” it! But the joy of getting it running like the ants pants is beyond words!!.

- Watched Manam (the cat) catch another mouse! He (Manam) averages one mouse/rat day. The one he caught today was a wee baby mouse and I could hear it go peep-peep-peep as Manam played her to death! I almost forgot! There's a turd in the bath that needs to be cleaned up – the cleaning up of cat excrement inside the house – happens to be a choir that (for some unknown reason) has been delegated to me. Technique? Let it dry first before removing!!

- Eli was pick-pocketed today! 1st time ever she reckons!! About K50
stolen from her bilum as she was getting of the PMV at the main markets. Bastards!! She cried when she got home – so I made her a coffee (Rob's special) and tried to cheer her up. I think it worked… I can hear her laughing right now!

- Another magic dinner prepared by Eli! Chicken, vegies and brown rice. Cooked in fresh coconut milk – scraped by yours truly! Coconut meat is scraped out of husk with a special sit on “gizmo” – the meat then soaks in water for a bit and a cloth is used to squeeze out the milk. Delicious!!

Bout it folks… hope you are all having a relaxing weekend.

R