Life in Darwin floats on by amidst the relentless humidity and thunderstorms. We are both now gainfully employed, Jen at the Darwin Convention Centre and me at Bunnings. Those of you who have known me a while may well chortle at the thought of me up to my arm pits in timber, bolt cutters, screw driver sets and garden furniture and given my previous incarnation as a city dwelling yuppie type I can well understand, but I'm really enjoying it. My official title is "morning fill crew member". Basically I pack shelves, and answer questions from unsuspecting customers needing helpful advice on how to unblock their dunny or what size screw they use to hang up their prized stuffed crocodile head. It's all pretty much common sense. It's no responsibility and after I leave every day I never give the place a single thought. It's a breath of fresh air really. Sure some of the women that work there are pretty rough, spit a lot and possibly drive rather large trucks, but apart from that everyone seems very friendly and helpful.
We are planning on staying here 'til at least April next year so we can travel into Kakadu just after the wet and see all the waterfalls and wildlife at their best. We both really enjoy Darwin. The place reminds us both a lot of South East Asia too, which we loved and because of the large Asian population the markets and food are divine and cheap. The laid back lifestyle, beautiful surrounds, fabulous Asian food, the heat and friendly locals are all fantastic panaceas to the jaded city life we have been living.
There is virtually no unemployment here, everywhere you go people are crying out for staff. In the paper today they had a report saying that KFC had to close its doors on Saturday because there was no staff. It's happened to quite a few businesses. So if you feel like change of scenery then why not give Darwin a go. It's a great place with endless opportunities. Oh and it costs $49 to fly to Bali and $79 to fly to Singapore.
