A day in the Caravan

Friday 24th July 2009
Andrea has come down with the flu overnight and had a temperature of 39.3°C this morning. I went to the Palmerston shopping centre to get some more medicine and we decided to spend the day at the caravan giving Andrea a chance to recover. By lunchtime Ilse was also laid up in bed with similar symptoms and we weren't going anywhere.
This morning I discovered that when I buy the Melbourne Newspaper "The Age" they charge $2 freight which raises the price from $1.50 to $3.50 and that's for yesterdays issue! The local paper "Northern Territory News" is a bit like our Albury Wodonga paper (Border Mail) but costs only $1.20 in Darwin and $1.40 in the Country.
The local paper has a fishing section were people can email their brag pictures and stories so everyone knows what everyone else has caught. Today's paper carries the headline story "What A Bunch Of Clowns" referring to the Council which has waived the site rent for a circus in exchange for tickets - I suppose the core issues are the same no matter where you go in this country. People with their snout in the trough trying to get more than their fair share and diddling the honest rate/tax payer in the process.
It is however interesting to note that for a comparatively small city with a population of only 120,000 Darwin records more than 4 assaults every day and has many alcohol related issues. The place is still a bit of a pioneer outpost and now that we have experienced the best time of the year, I can understand why it hasn't progressed much from an outpost.
Now is the coldest and driest Darwin has to offer and it's not very nice as far as I'm concerned. The overnight temperature dropped to 22°C and 92% humidity. Yesterday we put a cushion out to dry in the sun but didn't bring it in until a couple of hours after sunset - it was soaking wet from the humidity. There is heavy condensation on everything and with this much moisture around things get smelly and will not dry unless exposed to direct sunlight during the heat of he day. Today was 34°C and although the humidity dropped to 30% it was still very oppressing and activities would have to be restricted to swimming pool and other air conditioned venues.
If this is the best/driest time of the year I hate to imagine what the wet season is like.
Today we finally unpacked the little DVD player to keep the kids entertained while staying in the caravan. Unfortunately our site doesn't have any shade during the day so we've gotta keep the aircon going to keep the inside temperature down to 27°C during the daytime.
After a day of rest and nursing Andrea and Ilse, Alexander and I went to Dave's sister Joan for a BBQ. Joan's house is in Nightcliff, right on the beach opposite the boat ramp and without a fence the house is virtually part of the local park - what a great place. A wood fired BBQ provided some warmth for the others who thought that 25°C was quite cold - they were obviously real Darwinians!
Joan told us how the house was destroyed by cyclone Tracey in 1974 and how the house lies in the cyclone tidal range and how they are not allowed to stay in the house should a cyclone approach Darwin.
After a very nice night at Joan's place Alexander and I went back home to see how the flu victims were getting on and to get a good nights sleep after a rather hot day in Darwin.