13 September 2013

Big day yesterday! Lots to see and do.

At about 10 we walked up Giles St to see Peter and Pamela Yates, but as we neared the house we found Suzanne Bryce backing out in Pamela's car, which she was borrowing. She said the Yates were away 'til next week, She was the second Alice Springs local I met on my first trip up here in 1976. She's still working hard for Aboriginal people, for the NPY Women's Council, spends three quarters of her time out in bush communities.

Next we went to the Raft Gallery, where there is a fine collection of paintings from artists in the Western Desert - Docker River, Tjukurla etc. Quite a few of them had been worked on by more than one person, an increasingly common occurrence these days.

Next stop - the Edible Garden Centre, two doors down. This is a nursery and also a cafe, with nooks and crannies all over the place, a piano area, a poetry corner, Very inspired outback setting, very Alice Spriings. I commented to the owner that it was beaut and she replied that it was for sale and we could buy it if we were short of something to do. Part of the reason is that there is now a vast Bunnings store in town and the nursery business is going down the pan.

Edible Garden Centre

With some time to go before we met with Meredith Campbell (henceforth MC) for lunch we made the traditional pilgrimage up Anzac Hill. You have to go up Anzac Hill at least once on every trip to Alice. The 360 degree panorama from the top is astounding, with the town nestling in the valley and ringed on all sides by mountains.

Mount Gillen from Anzac Hill

I've lost count of the number of photos of Mount Gillen I've taken from Anzac Hill, let alone the views in other directions.

So then we went to Rendezvous with MC and lunch at the IAD cafe. (Institute for Aboriginal Development.) It is another excellent establishment.  As neither Meredith nor I were greatly hungry we decided on a sandwich. One that looked interesting had a sign saying 'Stir Fry Chicken' so we asked the chap behind the counter for that. He said 'What?' We pointed to it. He said 'No, that's satay chicken sandwich'. Turns out he employs a young Korean girl whose English is less than perfect and she had written the sign.

From lunch we went down to the Big Top to see the circus, part of the Festival. A good crowd there, of many nationalities and in particular lots of Aboriginal kids, The show was about an hour long, featuring a good representation of kids, from quite young to late teen-age performing circus routines of very good standard and clown comedy of a lesser standard. The highlight was a group of Aboriginal boys from Mutijulu community, down by Ayers Rock, doing a mix of tumbling, juggling and diabolo work. Having left my job at Yulara nearly nine years ago I didn't know any of the young boys, but did know Neil, who went to our school, Nyangatjatjara College, that I built. He was there as a carer and had two boys in the show!

Artistic shot of the big top

The trapeze artists had an excellent standard

Once again, not a great photo. Grand finale and curtain call.

From the circus to the shop to buy certain ingredients, then home to Davis Hotel where I started preparing my new signature dish, Morroccan Osso Buco. It took quite a while and then had to cook slowly in the oven for several hours.

While it was cooking Punj dropped in. Another old friend of many decades' standing, still working for Aboriginal mob, spends a lot of time way out west in the bush communities, an engineer by training, was a windmill specialist, now working on waste and rubbish recycling. Great idea. Another example of life writ large in the Centre. And he is large too. I am six foot four in the old weight, but he towers above me.

The osso buco was very well received. After which we watched the footy, with Geelong beating Port Power in the semi final, rats and knickers because Port is my team, but anyway they did really well this year.

Every day I spend here I feel my energy returning and my desire to do stuff growing, and I'm being influenced by the country and old friends and the massive energy of the Centre.

And so it  goes.

And so to bed.