Rock vs Stick
I had a throughly awesome weekend with Deanne, who flew up from Melbourne for a holiday.
We started off at the pub on Friday night, discussing an important teaching of the Alice Springs ED: all assault weapons are either rocks or sticks. A stick is an object that the perpetrator holds onto whilst hitting their victim, whilst a rock is any projectile weapon. A tin of food and a TV are both rocks. A nulla-nulla is a stick, but so is a cooking pot. A children's tricycle could be either a rock or a stick. This expedites clinical handover; '28 year old man hit to the head with a stick;' and speaks volumes of the ridiculous amount of violence in this town.
Saturday morning we went to the Steiner School Fair. I admit to being fairly cynical about Steiner schools, particularly as there is apparently an outbreak of whooping cough at the Alice Springs Steiner school at the moment. (Insert disparaging comment about hippy parents and vaccine-preventable illnesses). But by the time I had eaten a delicious pancake for breakfast, bought some outdoor plants, a jar of homemade chutney and a gingerbread man, all in the idyllic school grounds at the foothills of the East MacDonnell ranges, they had nearly converted me to their Steiner ways!
We started off at the pub on Friday night, discussing an important teaching of the Alice Springs ED: all assault weapons are either rocks or sticks. A stick is an object that the perpetrator holds onto whilst hitting their victim, whilst a rock is any projectile weapon. A tin of food and a TV are both rocks. A nulla-nulla is a stick, but so is a cooking pot. A children's tricycle could be either a rock or a stick. This expedites clinical handover; '28 year old man hit to the head with a stick;' and speaks volumes of the ridiculous amount of violence in this town.
Saturday morning we went to the Steiner School Fair. I admit to being fairly cynical about Steiner schools, particularly as there is apparently an outbreak of whooping cough at the Alice Springs Steiner school at the moment. (Insert disparaging comment about hippy parents and vaccine-preventable illnesses). But by the time I had eaten a delicious pancake for breakfast, bought some outdoor plants, a jar of homemade chutney and a gingerbread man, all in the idyllic school grounds at the foothills of the East MacDonnell ranges, they had nearly converted me to their Steiner ways!
Then we picked up our hire car- a RAV4 so that we could take the Mereenie Loop to King's Canyon, and do some 4WD side trips on the way. As it happened, our car was brand-spanking-new: 23km on the odometer. Oh, what fun we had flogging it around the Mereenie Loop in our shiny white car! On the way we saw a caravan of camels, a drove of donkeys and a mob of brumbies.
The King's Canyon rim walk is probably the best short bushwalk I've ever done. We also visited Rainbow Valley, where I ran around maniacally on the claypan in front of the spectacular colourful cliffs. We made it part of the way to Palm Valley, but nearly got bogged in sand (a RAV4 isn't a real 4WD, after all!) and had to turn back.
Happy days.
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