I will admit from the outset that this postcard is not going to be as funny as I originally planned. In town, on a road sign near the pub, someone has graffittied the motif "piss off slack jawed yokels". I thought that it would make a funny photo.

So I set out from my motel room to walk down the street to bag the shot. The problem however is as soon as you step on to the street you fall under the distrustful gaze of a local, and then as soon as he's finished watching you, there is another, leaning over a fence or peering out from the bonnet of a ute watching you. This continues as you walk down the street, being watched by local after local, and is slightly disconcerting in a Deliverance sort of way.

Anyway, I don't have a photo, because I felt quite uncomfortable taking a photo of something the locals probably don't find that funny, while being watched by 3 or 4 of them on the verandah of the pub.

I do have a postcard though, while not funny at all really, is quite worth a look. This time of year out here you get big whirly whirlies, which look almost like tornadoes as they whip the dust in a spiral motion high in the air. Here is a photo of one ripping through the mulga scrub.

It's a pity I am only going to be here for a week, because I am going to miss the Eromanga rodeo. I am not interested so much in seeing bucking horses, but seeing the headline act of the evenings entertainment, Steve Forde and the Flange.

I am not making that title up. Click the link if you don't believe me. I will by a beer for anyone who can read his website without laughing out loud.

Today's postcard is a reflection of the hour of morning that I get up here. Bear in mind there is no daylight saving here and I still managed to get this photo at dawn.



a lonely beam pump

Eromanga is a tiny little town in South West Queensland. It's primary reason for existence is because it is amongst oil fields, and it has one dubious claim to fame, that being that is the town in Australia that is furthest away from any coast. Ironically, I am here working for a company called Beach Petroleum - as far away from the beach as it is possible to be in Australia.

But where exactly is Eromanga? I hear you ask. This photo says it all.

Exciting developments on the baby front, with Karen now reporting that she can feel the baby moving. From Karen's perspective this has been both exciting and uncomfortable at the same time, apparently the sensation is something a kin to the baby scratching to get out.

We made a minor concession of defeat on the Aldinga property, and have now listed the property with a real estate agent. We actually got a pretty good "no sell, no pay, all advertising included" type deal, thanks to a company called Vendorep. This is a new business that doesn't have a website that I can link to as yet, but they basically are a real estate agent broker.

While on the topic of roofs over our head, we moved the first couple of trailer loads of our stuff back to the Magill house this week. It was pretty exciting walking back through the front door of our real home let me tell you.

I am spending the next week working in a small, South West Queensland town called Eromangah. Stay tuned this week as I bring you all a series called "Postcards from Eromangah".

So passes the 16th week of Karen's first pregnancy, the week when we attended the Parent's, Baby's and Children's expo.

Nothing quite prepares a man for the shock of walking into a room the size of the Jubilee Pavilion full of pregnant women and babies for the first time. The sight of isle after isle of baby products was one of those less than gentle reminders about the slippery slope to parenthood that I find myself on these days.

Once the culture shock subsided, it was a lot of fun. I wore a t-shirt that Karen bought me for Christmas bearing the motif "I'm the Daddy!" which proved to be a massive hit with the ladies. I am not exaggerating, more than 15 women came up to me to ask about it. I am sure the manufacturers of said shirt intended it to be an overtly misogynist reference to the phrase "who's yo daddy?" but who am I to tell people how to interpret what's on my chest?

As you can imagine, there was all manner of products, from the sublime to the ridiculous, and yet, unbelievably, only one manufacturer of breast feeding aids used the pun "simply the breast" in their marketing literature. We managed to pick up a fair swag of free stuff, and my t shirt probably played a small part in the fact that we got a couple of free dummies, bibs and packs of baby wipes.

Karen bought herself on of these handy gadgets, and after much research, we put a down payment on a pram - the Valco Runabout DELUXE. Mag wheels, electric blue and featuring the Dura-glide (tm) swivel system, it's everything you could want in a pram and more!

We also attended a couple of parties on Saturday night that are worth mentioning. The first was to celebrate Karen's cousin Matthew's engagement to the lovely Kristy. It was an outdoor gig, and was a remarkably cold night for mid February in Adelaide.

Long ago in a past life, I had an engagement party around the same time of year and on a night featuring around the same chilly temperature. I won't say too much more, but let's hope that Matthew and Kristy's engagement works out better than that one did. I predict from this photo though they won't have too much bother.



The other party we found ourselves at was Heather's boot party. Steve pretty much covered the event on his blog, but I would like to also submit the following photos as evidence.


Here's to Heather, she's true blue.....


One half of my wedding party plus one heckling