BBQ/ barbie – in Australia is (1) the unit on which food is cooked, (wood or gas fired, (2) the method of cooking food, and (3) the meal/event at which food cooked outside over a fire is eaten. Try this – “Please come over tomorrow for a BBQ around 6 in the evening. Mike will BBQ stuff on the barbie (BBQ)” American readers note – in each case here ‘BBQ’ is totally interchangeable with ‘Grill’; and to Aussies the American cuisine known as ‘barbeque’ – delicious, with its distinct regional variations in flavourings and sauces, is a bewildering series of processes, best summed up by ‘Ribs’.
Our Tent Period Mike’s an exploration geologist, and in 1977 he took a job searching for uranium in the Northern Territory, based in Darwin NT. The field season, runs from April when The Dry has begun, to November, when The Wet starts to come in. In the Wet the country becomes impassable, so in The Dry people out in the bush work long hours every day, and no one takes time off unless in emergency. With Mike going out to lead an exploration team, the family had a choice to stay in Darwin and have him come for a visit every 4-6 weeks for a day or two, or go bush with him. As the kids were 4 and babe in arms, it was a no brainer – we all went bush, living in tents, with long-drop loos/toilets, bucket showers using water pumped up from the creek; a generator ran 18-20 hours a day to keep the fridges and freezer cold and provide light at night. We did have a washing machine out on the river flats under the trees, so that was fabulous luxury. There were morning and afternoon radio schedules with base in Darwin, and everyone knew how to operate the radio, tune into the Aerial Medical service ( like the Flying Doctor) and what to do in an emergency. I was the only woman in camp, and suffered culture shock for a couple of weeks until I got used to our totally different situation, being on my own in camp between when the guys drove out for the day at 8am, until they rolled back in about 6pm. There was no other woman within about 2 hours’ drive, and eventually I realised this was actually a blessing. People say I should write a book about that time, maybe, but Mrs Anneas Gunn’s “We of The Never Never”has already been written … thankfully, though, the worst injury anyone suffered out there was a broken ankle. We spent two field seasons, one at Bora Springs and the other at one of the Katherine Farms, living an experience I will never forget and always value. Believe me, the characters in the movie ‘Crocodile Dundee’ are no exaggeration.
Buffalo or ‘buffs’ as they are referred to locally. The buffalo was introduced to the Northern Territory in C19. The mud wallowing habit of these now feral animals has resulted in destruction of vast areas of natural wetlands, and I’m not sure of all the legal facts around this, but despite being feral and regarded as vermin able to be hunted under some conditions, they are also the iconic mascot of the NT, and many a home and office has a pair of buff horns mounted as decoration or trophy, the longer/wider the pair, the better. Red Faced Buffalo This in fact means beef. I tried to dig into the legality of the claim that at that time Aboriginal people’s hunting and fishing rights entitled them to shoot wild animals, including any unbranded ones, for their own consumption. Legally there was a great deal changing vis a vis Australian Aboriginal people and federal and state laws at that time of our Tent Period 1975-6, and trying to check that, I found there’s so much to wade through let me just say go right ahead yourself, and good luck with that! ‘Everyone’ knew that was the case on some level of legality or acceptance, and when Ted’n’Ray brought it into camp, Mike, (the camp boss) just had to make himself scarce for a few hours to give the boys time to butcher the meat into manageable pieces, and pack it all away in the big freezer.
Motel 6 a chain of very basic, bare bones, budget motels across the US and Canada.
Munmalary Station – was out on the plains between the Alligator Rivers – in what is now Kakadu National Park, established in stages around 1979, after our time out in that area. In Australia, stations are the large rural properties on which are grazed cattle or sheep for meat production. In North America these are ranches, and in South America estancias.
English speaking book club here in Montevideo Here in Montevideo I belong to an english speaking book club, which is really best described as a private lending library with social benefits. Half Uruguay nationals and half expats, everyone speaks and reads english. Begun 40+ years ago with a few bookworm expats bringing books back after home leave, in time it became the properly constituted group it is today. We order online from UK and USA several times a year, paying for books and their cartage with subscription funds. Of course times have changed, which has changed the group, too. Middle aged Uruguay women these days tend to be all working, looking after family businesses and/or grandchildren, and perhaps all three, so the average age of that part of the membership tends to increase a little every year. Twenty years ago there was a waiting list to get into this club, at a time when expats sent here by companies or governments brought accompanying wives and families, and while the kids were in school wives often had to work at keeping themselves amused. In addition to joining this book club or another similar one, other options for accompanying wives included tennis, golf and bridge, joining gardening clubs, volunteering to help at their kids schools or the British hospital, doing charity work or studying something locally if their language was up to that. Expat wives these days still find their way though these involvements, but now quite a few continue working jobs remotely; and some embassies find places employ spouses part time. I’ve known a few who have started up their own service-oriented businesses to fill a niche here, though to properly set up one in Uruguay is a pretty daunting exercise through red tape. I’ve known a number of trailing spouses who are studying a degree course online while they’re here. And, of course, these days trailing spouses are sometimes male. I met a young man just this week whose husband will be joining him shortly as he takes up his new job here. It’s not always easy being a trailing spouse, but looking back, I think in some ways it’s never been easier.
Our 300+ books are in several categories; romance, thrillers and mysteries, contemporary literature including a volume or two of poetry and some short stories, ‘general interest’ non-fiction, and biography. We pay an annual fee, from which we pay for newly published books in english to come from UK and USA several times a year. We cover them in plastic, place a card in each, and group them in wooden boxes which, when up ended onto their sides form book cases. The books are moved between members’ homes monthly, and while they’re in each home, that member puts on two morning teas at which time we take along our books to exchange them, chat over tea, coffee and some nice eats, and catch up with other members over a couple of hours. This book group preamble is going to lead to something foody, I promise.