Territory Nature

Darwin is a small city. From my residence to my office there is hardly any building. I drive through these expanses of wetlands and Northern Territory grasslands. The picture above (taken midway in between my house and my office) is very representative of the environment, at this time of the year, which is called "The Wet" (November to April). Green and Blue are two of the most common colours. It also sometimes is Green and Grey (when the clouds are heavy) or Green and Orange / Pink / Red when the sun rises or comes down. There are only two seasons "The Wet" and "The Dry" and I really wonder how it looks and feels like during "The Dry".

Cold wave

I continue to be fascinated by the cold wave that is hitting Europe. Flights delayed in Roissy and people stranded at the airport, school buses not operating, electricity production overheating and the list goes on and on. I will hopefully have a taste of this in a couple of weeks. Or hopefully not, since I realise it must be depressing after some days but I would not mind trying it for a few hours. I was actually thinking about this morning while I was cooling down in the swimming pool. Sorry for being sarcastic... I am just trying to be sincere. Erm...

Cold vs Heat

From the moment I woke up watching the French news to the time I checked my friends status on Facebook it was all about snow and record low temperatures. The status were reading "It's Siberia here" or even better "-10 C, my hot water pipes are frozen!". So let me send another view from my balcony bringing a bit of tropical heat. The clouds are heavy on the left, the night has started to fall. On your right, it is still daylight over Darwin. In the middle, a mini rainbow starts to form. Temperature 35 C. The colours are different every evening and I continue to be amazed. I wish I could see the sunset from the plains of Kakadu. It must be magical!

Finally!

I have been talking about the australian barbecue so many times that a picture of it had to be posted on these pages someday. The traditional one is usually composed of a thick piece of meat and some big fat sausages (snags). On our side we opted from some local and very nice prawns, some kangaroo skewers as well as some kanga bangas (kangaroo sausages). I was actually a bit disappointed by the later as they - luckily for our health - lack all the fat that makes the pork sausages so sweet and taste quite dry as a result. But the kangaroo skewers were absolutely stunning and the shrimps exquisite.

My life, my life, my life... in the sunshine!

This morning we headed to the countryside. It was so nice to have a tasty barbie at my sister's place. We then enjoyed a bicycle ride through the vineyards and came to rest at my mother's place. You can't help but notice it has been raining quite heavily over the past weeks / months as the nature is so green and lush. In my mum's garden there is a place with lavender. Not quite Provence but attracting enough for the bees to come and buzz. Feeling good. The soundtrack of those moments cannot be something else than Roy Ayers...

Voilà l'été!

As I had a good 9-hour sleep (I always do) in the plane I was up and ready to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous day ahead. If for me it was quite normal ad expected to have some nice weather at this time of the year, I believe the Parisians had suffered from a crappy month of June and were all happy and relieved to be under a sunny and 30ish degrees celcius day. And what a day! 21st of June. A Saturday, Summer day and 'La Fete de La Musique' (Music Day). Many reasons to celebrate. You could feel Paris filled with joy and happiness, crowded streets, groups of people dancing or singing, picnics in the parks, cafes and restaurants terraces overflowing. A perfect day. I could not have dreamt of a better day. And I fully kept it busy with two birthday parties, meeting old (and young) friends and an amazing Parillada at the 'El Palenque' Argentinian restaurant in Rue Montagne Sainte Geneviève.

(No better picture than the special public transport ticket issued for the occasion over the free CD handed out as I was too absorbed by the atmosphere to even consider taking my camera out - you should have seen the glowing beauty of the lights above the gathering crowds along the banks of the Seine!)