My life seems busy lately. After that 4-day Easter weekend chock full of activities (and I forgot to mention playing soccer in the park), last weekend was also eventful.

Saturday: morning trip out to the Fruit & Veg Market (it's not a farmers market, but a wholesaler that also retails), a languorous afternoon of swimming and talking at W & P's place on the knob (AKA 'the pool on the hill').

In the evening: the first Katherine Tick Market of the season (kinda like a flea market or swap meet): tables of people selling used books, handicrafts, some info tables, and several food stalls, including the ubiquitous sausage sizzle, but also including--yay!--Thai or at least Thai-ish food made by authentic means (a mortar and pestle were in use). R, M, and I all got green pawpaw (papaya) salad, 'medium' hot which turned out to be a couple of notches hotter than comfortable, but was incredibly yummy and fresh. I went back for plain white rice (to cool my mouth) and a fruit smoothie (which turned out to have more ice cream than fruit, but whatever, I wasn't complaining).

Oh yeah, I also got to HOLD a baby wallaby! It nibbled on the buttons of my dress.

Next, we headed to thebase, Katherine's only nightclub (I went there for the first time fairly recently; I think I forgot to blog about it) to see Cat Empire, a wholly unexpectedly cool act to be appearing in Katherine. To read a short description of them, check out the world cafe site. To see some photos and read an interview, check this out. They're a great live band, eclectic and energetic, and most of us danced our little hearts out.

Sunday: I attended two writing workshops led by a playwright down from Darwin. The morning was poetry, the afternoon short stories. Very short and not too in-depth, but inspiring nevertheless. I also met a few new people.

One attendee was a grandmother from South Africa, of Indian descent, who is living out in a small community with her son who is a teacher there. She has written a book about herbal remedies, and another book about the history of the Indian population in the area of South Africa where she lived. She's now interested in writing about similarities she sees between Aboriginal traditional practices and Indian ones.

Another attendee is part of the local Katherine lore, being I think the third generation from an important ranching family of the area. It was interesting to meet her and hear a little bit about her family.

Overall, quite a stimulating weekend!

To top that off, I started working a few hours at the language centre, trying to help tame the beast that is their library. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, about 3 hours each.

I've also had some interesting (good) encounters with indigenous people who sit on the path where I walk every morning. I'll have to tell more about that another time!