Photos from the past 2 weeks...

Hi again all,

Here's a link to our facebook album from the past couple of weeks worth of stuff:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=249810&id=694951048&l=e145fbb93f

Plus of course, the Independence Day celebrations from today. PNG was Australia's only colony, and gained peaceful independence 35 years ago today. Exactly how well the country has fared since then is questioned even by a lot of PNG citizens, but nevertheless they are very proud of their independence. 

Biscuit started the day off in the spirit of things by demonstrating her independence.

It's a bit of a story. Our place came with a welcome/info folder, that told us we have 2 internally lockable "panic rooms" in case of intruders. Both these rooms have a standard door handle with lock plus 2 deadbolts. One of them is Niamh's room. As soon as we got here, Dan asked me to head down to reception and get the keys to these doors, as we weren't provided with them. When I got there, they told us that they didn't have them - the company installed those locks, not the hotel, so they had none of the keys. When I told Dan, he said "oh, I'd better get the keys from work asap then, in case Biscuit locks herself in her room. I practically snorted with skepticism. "Dan, there's no way she'll do that. I'm always with her during the day, and at night she can't get out of her kinder kot."

The kinder kot is our portable cot/tent thingy that Biscuit's been sleeping in while we wait for our freight to arrive. Here's a link to the website so you can see what it looks like. Anyway, it's on the ground, and a zippable flyscreen always kept her well contained.... until now.

This morning, we awoke to the usual "mamma! MAMMA!! Mummadadda" coming from her room and the baby monitor. However, it soon stopped, and we assumed she'd gone back to sleep, and so we did the same. A minute or so later, a different sound came from the hallway. A banging, clunking sound. I got up to investigate.

Biscuit had deadbolted herself into her bedroom. At 6am on a public holiday.

Fortunately, Dan had ignored my previous snorts of derision, and obtained the keys from work, so all ended well. It may be a little trickier to keep her in bed from now on though!

For the rest of the day, we joined in the traditional dance celebrations at PNG University. It was about as crowded as the Adelaide Show, but we were one of only 2 groups of whities that we saw. I think this is generally a good sign, like when you go to a Chinese restaurant... The traditional shows were fantastic, but unfortunately it was searingly hot, and I felt too bad for Biscuit to stay long. Dan and I got burnt, but Niamh was luckily protected by her pram burka.

Anyway, that's all from us tonight. Hepi 35 Independens!!!!