THURSDAY 21 APRIL     PUNGALINA

Today was daughter’s birthday – 33. No way of contacting her, though – not the sort of thing I felt comfortable asking O to use the house sat phone for. As yet, there was no computer access either as we felt not welcome to use the office computer access point. The fax machine was hooked up in there, but O had, to date, made it clear that he would fax anything needed, like the weekly order to the supermarket for the mail plane. Guess it was a way of keeping check on what was going on.

Usual routine jobs. I went up to the house with John and helped him with the watering, so he could do some other work in the vegie garden – preparing beds, tying up the beans in the teepee structure, and the like. That used up the morning.

O let me use the phone and I found out that a remote areas lending service was provided by a library in Humpty Doo, of all places! I phoned the Taminmin Library. They would send me a box of books via the mail plane. They choose what to send, based on what I tell them of my taste in genres. When the books have been read, I send the box back and get another. The postage would all be paid by them! What a great service.

I gave O a sizeable  order for the truck from Mt Isa, due in a couple of weeks. There had been some confusion about dates, here. Initially, O said it was due in three weeks and the order should be in by next week. Then, he must have double checked and found it was all a week earlier than he’d thought. So I’d quickly prepared lists of what I wanted, from Woolworth’s, the greengrocer, and Medley’s, the bulk goods supplier. Some of the Woolworth’s order was meat other than beef, as I didn’t feel we could exist without some variety!

Then O came back with the information that we had missed the deadline for Woolworth’s orders – by a day. I was a bit cross about the inefficiency and casualness, but couldn’t say anything. I know O had lots of things on his mind, and he was accustomed to cobbling together any old thing to eat, but feeding camp guests well was clearly a priority for the owners, so it was important for me! John phoned Woolworths and tried to talk them into taking a late order, but with no success. I was able to fill some of the gaps by adding to the Medley’s order and the rest we would have to manage without.

In the afternoon I pottered about the camp, doing bits and pieces.

After work, wrote my letter to the Taminmin Library, with my details and generalized requests, to go out in tomorrow’s mailbag. I wondered when I would receive my first lot of reading matter? It was already becoming evident that, unless camp bookings pick up, I was going to have some time to read!