This is my ninth article from the outback.
In November (2023), the Shavings, the acapella choir I sing with put on a free concert for the town which was held in the grounds of the Totem Theatre. The songs sung mostly comprised of sea shanties which I’m sure you would agree is very interesting choice considering that we live in the arid zone. We even got interviewed by ABC Radio and sang ‘Leave her Johnny’ live on air a week prior to our concert. Whilst most people who have never been to Alice Springs would think that it’s a weird choice of genre to sing in the red centre, Alice Springs does have some very quirky seafaring events. We have an annual boat race which is held only when the Todd River is dry (it’s dry most of the year), we have a canoe polo club and a surf rock band. So if you think about it, it’s not so farfetched that songs about the ocean are being sung as a concert in this arid landscape. We had over 70 people attend the event. We only had two practices for this event and the hardest part was
remembering to make a list of the songs we were going to sing which was only done on the morning of the concert. Whilst our performance was exceptionally good there were several instances of shambolic comedy which added a nice twist to the performance keeping our audience laughing throughout the whole evening. We ended up finishing the concert by thanking everyone for coming to listen to the ‘Shambolic Shavings’. Whilst our concert was focussed on sea shanties, we decided to expand the repertoire to a more nautical theme instead so that we could sing songs known publicly so that our audience could sing along. We did sing several pirate songs and we all dressed up as pirates. We also decorated the venue with objects one would normally see on ships. We also had Ted Egan, the former Administrator of the Northern Territory and a musician in his own right join us a guest artist for a few songs. The Shavings were also invited to sing at the Alice Springs Town Council Christmas show and at a Folk Club opening night both of which went very well.
I got asked to teach the dance moves for two classes to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shivers’ (hardest line dancing song we currently dance to) and Cole Swindell’s ‘Heads Carolina’ at my weekly line dancing class in December. It was very tiring trying to simultaneously provide instructions while thinking of the next move and actually doing the dance, but I enjoyed teaching. In the second week, being more confident, I managed to get the whole class to dance in sync to both songs which made me very happy.
As planned my parents arrived in Alice Springs in mid-December. On the 16th my mum and I had a joint birthday with lots of food and drinks. My landlady, Karin, made two cakes for the occasion and all my friends attended including their dogs. It was wonderful way to spend my 29th birthday surrounded by family and friends and enjoying eating a variety of delicious food. The only one that jumped into the pool was Cricket, one of my friend’s puppy, who accidently got pushed in. We ended the night by Eleni hosting a trivia competition which my mum won. While my parents were here we attended two trivia competitions at our usual pub though we didn’t win. I drove my parents around (mostly my mum) to do her usual shopping spree and we also took Matapa (landlord's dog) to the dog wash. I also took my dad to the car wash so that he could enjoy using the high pressure hose and soap broom to wash my car which he thoroughly enjoyed and it had nothing to with free labour.
A few days prior to Christmas, we flew down to Adelaide to spend Christmas with my brother. We went to listen to Handel’s Messiah at the St. Peter’s Cathedral and it ended up being more eventful than I expected it to be. A lady in her mid-70s collapsed during the start of the performance and myself as an Emergency Services Volunteer and a Scottish doctor had to treat her till the paramedics arrived. She ended up having an anaemic condition which was exacerbated by the very hot weather resulting in dehydration leading to a drop in her blood pressure. In my experience as an Emergency Services Volunteer, doctors are usually the worst people to have in such a situation as they are like a fish out of water when they are taken out of a hospital setting. I think God was very merciful to me
that day as this doctor was very calm and relaxed that it gave me the opportunity to leave the patient with him while I went to ensure that the paramedics could access the patient with ease. I had to manage one individual in addition to what I was trying to achieve as he was more concerned about having to stop the performance momentarily rather than helping the casualty. Luckily for all concerned we didn’t have to stop the performance and the paramedics brought in a specialised stretcher which was more like a chair which you could roll and extracted the patient from the church. I missed most of the first half of the performance, but I was glad it ended well. There was a second casualty shortly after this, but this time it was in the loft of the cathedral. The patient had collapsed due to heat exhaustion as the loft does get very hot especially in summer. Unfortunately, the patient was unable to be extracted as the stairway to the loft was very narrow and winding and could not accommodate a stretcher to manoeuvre the patient to the ground floor. This was out of
my scope of expertise so I was unable to assist on this occasion. The fire brigade had to be called in to winch the patient (who was now on a stretcher) from the loft to the ground floor before being extracted from the church.
I had a glorious Christmas and New Year in Adelaide. On Christmas Day we had lunch with a few family friends and we played Christmas trivia. On Boxing Day I got a phone call from our house sitter in Alice Springs that there had been an attempted break-in at my property, but that Matapa had chased them away so they had only been able to take a few bottles of alcohol from the outdoor fridge. It was very disturbing, but I was grateful that no one was hurt and there was no damage done to the house or the vehicles. Fortunately there were no further incidences over the Christmas break. My brother flew to England on a three week choir tour just after Christmas. Since he had a car this time, I had a ball driving around Adelaide including one trip to Henley Beach for a swim on a nice sunny summer day. I also went for a swing dancing event at an old pub in the city with my swing dancing teacher, Rachael, from Alice Springs who was also in Adelaide for the summer. We had a wonderful night of dancing to music played by two very good bands. It was wonderful to have my parents over and not have to cook for 3 weeks as my mum fed me all the dishes I loved. I returned to Alice Springs on the evening of New Year’s Day. Matapa was very excited
to see me and we had a very pleasant night sleeping on the sofa. It was hard to return to cooking for myself after 3 weeks of getting spoilt by mum.
On the Australia Day long weekend I went on my maiden trip to Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park to see Ayers Rock with my friend, Edith. It was a wonderful drive which took about 5 hours. It was very impressive to see this large monolith (one single piece of rock) against the beautiful landscape. Edith and I mostly drove around the rock as it was very hot, so we kept our walking to a minimum to reduce the risk of heat exhaustion. It was very evident from the infrastructure around the area that a lot of funding was being poured into the National with the rock itself fenced to stop people from approaching the rock and preventing climbing since this had been banned a few years ago. To me as a Conservationist I was disappointed to see that despite all this funding, most of the effort was being utilised to manage people rather than to undertake conservation work in the region. This was evident by the number of rangers deployed to manage visitors. This has been a long issue with most National Parks which are tourist hotspots where funding is prioritised to ensure visitors have a good
experience and enjoy the landscape rather than undertaking activities to promote population increases of native fauna and flora which is the primary purpose of a national park. We were lucky to get a two bedroom cabin at Yulara (20km from the Rock) at the Ayers Rock Campground for a good price as it was not in the tourist peak season. It was very hot as expected in January so we checked into our accommodation and I went for a swim, though the water in the pool was very warm too. We went to watch the sun set over the rock and were very fortunate to see the colour changes of the rock as the sun set. The next day we drove to see the Olgas which is a group of protruding boulders made of the same rock type as Ayers Rock. Prior to us leaving for Alice Springs we dropped in to see the Yulara airport. It was a cosy airport with the terminal being slightly smaller than the one at Alice Springs airport.
In early January we were fortunate to have Ryan, a former winner of the quiz show, The Chase, join our trivia team. Ryan is a teacher who teaches youth at the juvenile detention centre in Alice Springs. We won the quiz very easily with Ryan stating at the end of the night that the questions were very easy much to our amusement. Unfortunately Ryan has not made an appearance since leading us to victory and we have yet to win or even get placed this year, though we try hard weekly. I joined the Alice Springs badminton club and am enjoying playing my favourite sport (which I have played most of my life) every Sunday evening. We have a few Chinese players who are exceptionally good and it’s always fun to play doubles with them especially when you are paired with them as you are more likely to win. I haven’t played badminton for about 2 years and it took me a little while to get back in form. I am enjoying playing all my signature shots again since I have a few tricks up my sleeve which I learnt throughout my amateur badminton career.
My weekly line dancing class resumed in February and it’s good to be dancing again. My
volunteering with the Northern Territory Emergency Services also resumed in the same month, although due to politics, the 4 officers in the unit stepped down from their role. This has resulted in the unit going through a re-building phase which has considerably slowed down our operating capacity. It is going to take a lot of work for the new Unit Officer (leader of the unit) who is yet to be appointed to re-build and get the unit operational again. I intend to continue serving and help when required on operations.
One of our church parishioners, Jose Petrick turned 100 on Valentine’s Day. Jose, originally from England came to Australia to work as a governess at a central Australian cattle station. Thereafter she became and nurse and then a journalist in her 50s and later a historian. She published a history book about Alice Springs called ‘The History of Alice Springs through Landmarks and Street Names’ and has received an Order of Australia Medal for her work in Central Australia. She is also a talented pianist. The Shavings Choir were invited to sing for her birthday celebration which was held at the Anglican Church. The church has excellent acoustics which is vital when singing acapella. We sang ‘Adoramus’ (a Gregorian chant sung in Latin), ‘Full Force Gail’ (Christian Anthem) and ‘Caravan of Love’ by the Housemartins. Jose started to sing the words in Latin for ‘Adoramus’ which was amazing, but not surprising since she is a talented musician herself. We sounded exceptionally good and I enjoyed singing and conducting the group for the first time. Despite I being the organist, this was the first time I had sung with a choir in the church since I moved to the outback 4 years ago and I was very happy it was well received.
I still continue to play the organ weekly at the church. However, I am doing things differently this year, where I attend another church each month to learn their liturgy style and to listen to the music which I hope to use during my organ tenure if I find it takes to my liking. I have been to the Catholic, Uniting, Lutheran and Baptist churches thus far. I was fortunate to have the Catholic Bishop of Darwin present when I attended the Catholic church and found the service very rewarding. The last church I need to visit is the Pentecostal church, which being a traditional Anglican my whole life I’m certain will be an interesting experience.
I will heading home to Sri Lanka in late April to spend 3 weeks with my parents. While I am there I will also be handing in my documents to retain my Sri Lankan citizenship so that I can apply for my Australian citizenship in September which is very exciting. I will be spending a weekend in Melbourne before I fly home which will give me the opportunity to catch up with all friends there as I haven’t been to Melbourne since I left in early 2020 to start my outback adventure in Alice Springs.
Life is full of twist and turns while some bring joy and others sorrow. I wonder when my next grand adventure will come up. Since my last article I continue to undertake all my social activities with a few extras this year and am making the best of it during these uncertain times. I am single again which in my book is not ideal, but it certainly has given me the opportunity to re-focus my life and enjoy spending more time with my friends and doing more of the things I like and trying out new things. I know God will answer my prayers and provide for my heart’s desires, but for now his answer is a big sign that reads ‘WAIT’. Therefore my plan is to keep making Tequila as more lemons keep being thrown my way till my next grand adventure reveals itself.
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