Darwin (Thursday)

So much for the boys big night, they were all back by 2! Even so, I'm glad I didn't go out, I was tired enough this morning a it was. Larry cooked us all bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast- by the time I get home I doubt I'll ever want to see bacon and eggs again! I went to get the pancake sauce out of the car only to find the milk had explode through the esky! I got that out of the car and emptied it and gave it a rinse. I was washing it out properly with detergent and turned the hose on a bit far, resulting in my second shower in an hour! Whoops! Anyway, I got that all cleaned up, threw out everything in the esky except the cider, since that was sealed off in glass bottles. It was a pretty awful mess... I won't make that mistake again...
I got a bit of a scare last night... Got up to go to the bathroom and thought I had a rat after me! Turned out it was just a cane toad jumping out of the shadows. First one I've seen since I was working at Theodore.
After the farrier came to check the horses, we grabbed some lunch and headed down to the Darwin Waterfront. There were so many people there considering its the middle of winter. The boys had come up with a brilliant plan, to get a cute young backpacker to help out with the horses in exchange for food and accommodation, so between swimming and sunbathing, they were talking to people answering the ad they put up on gumtree. We found one with promise, so I went for a quick swim (there was no way I was leaving without a swim after taping up my feet!) and we went off to meet Beth. We took her back to Jonno's to see if she could ride. Beth's from England, and has always ridden, but only English, mostly track work, so western was a bit different for her, but she passed. I think it was the strangest job interview ever conducted! Basically she spent ten minutes on the horse, and the afternoon drinking beers with the boys! She did get the job. So our strange rowdy clan now includes a pom! Tomorrow we'll introduce her to her first rodeo.
We were all heading into the rodeo grounds at 7.30 for the boys to run some steers out before the rodeo, so I started dinner early. We hit a bit of a snag when the BBQ had no gas, but after a run to the shops, we were cooking with gas (sorry). Brock and I cooked up scotch fillet, chips, Greek salad and possibly the best mushroom sauce I've ever made.
After tea the boys headed into the grounds and Beth and I headed back to the backpackers to pick up her stuff, then we went to the grounds too. We were only there about ten minutes and someone got sick of the drunken idiots and turned all the lights off, so we headed home. To more beer, and Larry's guitar playing. And childhood memories.
That's it for today.

Beth and Bully

Waterfront

Dinner

Darwin waterfront