Beyond NT - part one

When we left Uluru we said goodbye to our travelling friends with the plan to do our last two weeks solo. After some teary and melodramatic goodbyes we only spent one night apart before ending up back together at Coober Pedy.

Coober Pedy was one of the parts of the trip that I was really looking forward to. I have fond memories of visiting there when I was a little girl. I have a vague recollection of walking down the street holding my mums hand and then bending over and picking up a rock that had a vein of opal in it. Coober Pedy hasnt changed much. My children were delighted to find rocks with opal in them. They spent a good two hours going through rocks finding opals and fossils. They had a brilliant time!

We explored an old mine and visited one of the underground houses. Simply amazing!! The house we visited had been dug out by hand by a single lady who had also dug herself a swimming pool in her living room. Of course all my kids decided that they wanted to move to Coober Pedy to live in a cave, including Ben who said he would quit his job and move there in a heartbeat. But no, I put my foot down and said I wasnt moving.

As we had met up with the others again in Coober Pedy we had to have another farewell dinner followed by a million goodbyes the next morning. We were off to do the Oodnadatta track (dirt road) while the others had chosen a more civilised route home via bitumen roads.

Off we set, along a dirt track into the Tirari Desert. The desert in SA is way more harsh than the desert in the NT. There is just 100's of kilometres of absolutely nothing. Actually, that's a lie... there are lots of flies!! If it wasn't for my new found appreciation for desert eco systems and interest in fossils and rocks I would have been bored shitless on our extremely long and bumpy drive. I have included a few photos of the nothingness that we saw out our windows.

We arrived in William Creek, a town who boasts a population of 7, and I headed into the local pub to enquire about permits (my real intention was to enquire about whether they sold ice creams). Who should I meet in the pub in the middle of no where???? My very own mother!!! The same mother I had said a tearful goodbye to a few hours, and couple of hundred kilometres ago. Mum was doing a scenic flight over Lake Eyre and the pilot had landed here to take his passengers to the pub. Thankfully there were no more teary goodbyes because my mum bought me an ice cream, which was enough to distract me while we headed off.

We decided to stay in a place called Coward Springs. Arriving there later in the afternoon I was very surprised to see this little patch of vibrant greenery in the middle of the desert. The water coming up in the spring brought to life hundreds of trees in an area about the size of a football field. It was a lovely place to camp. Probably my favourite place so far. (I wil add a pic of it below)

There was a spa in the campground, which was really just a hole where the water was bubbling up from the ground. Some thoughtful person had put railway sleepers around the edges and you really did feel like you were in a spa. The water was flowing in at such a rapid rate that it massaged you. All 6 of us soaked in there for ages - it wad perfect!!

After a yummy dinner we all sat around the campfire talking and toasting marshmallows. I think I saw about 5 shooting stars. A wonderful end to a lovely day!!

Oops, I almost forgot to mention. we had a picnic lunch in the middle of a claypan. It was delicious chicken and salad followed by an hour of hunting for fossils and rocks.

Will write more soon. I have just been to see Lake Eyre and have lots to tell you but typing on my phone while driving on a bumpy road is making me feel ill.

xx

Beyond NT - Lake Eyre

One of the benefits of doing the Oodnadatta track is that we would get to see Lake Eyre with water in it. Considering I had not seen it without water I was not desperate to see it with water. But Ben was ovely excited about it so I feigned enthusiasm for his sake.

When we got there you could vaguely make out some blue water on the horizon in front of about a kilometre of mud. Thankfully I was able to use Didabell as an excuse not to tramp through the mud with the others to put my feet in the water. I happily stayed at the car while the other 4 set off.

Diddy and I quickly retreated to the caravan because the flies were completely insane. I think I saw more flies yesterday than I have seen in my entire life. I can only guess there are so many of them in the desert because they have no natural predators here... although... what on earth do they eat???? Unsuspecting tourists?

I happily played with Diddy in the caravan and watched the others splashing around in the Lake Eyre water. For a brief moment I worried that I had made the wrong decision. Leaving the van Didabell and I got about 1 metre into the mud before making a hasty retreat back to the van.

As Ben and the kids were heading back, I began to hear the kids all whinging and they were absolutely covered in mud and flies. My elation at being inside and clean was marred by the knowledge that some of my offspring were outside and uncomfortable. Lake Eyre its extremely salty and the salty mud was stinging the kids legs. Being in the desert, where water is precious, we didn't really have anything to clean them up with.

It took Ben about 15 minutes to clean Rohan up to my standards, so he would be permitted to enter my haven. As ben passed him through the door about 20 flies came with him - they seemed to have taken up permanent residence on him, especially just under his nose, which was all snotty from crying.

I then spent a good 10 minutes frantically squashing flies. The exercise was repeated when Jazzy was passed in, followed by Kylah.

Having to leave the van to enter the car was torturous. I don't think I can adequately explain how many flies there were. It was awful!!!

And there weren't just flies either - as I found when I hopped in the car and got bitten by a wasp on my lower back (about 2 inches above my bum). He bit me three times!!!! The yelling I did was way worse than anything the kids had been doing. Infact, my screams were enough to stun the older 3 into complete silence - their own discomfort temporarily forgotten.

After putting an ice pack on my stings we headed off to look for a free campsite.

It its kind of fun travelling on our own. I love travelling with a group, but being able to do whatever you want and go where ever you want is kind of cool. Ben and I had no idea where we were going to stay last night until we got there. It ended up being this remote rest area with no toilets, showers or even water.

The stars were amazing... again!!!

This morning we got up at our leisure and slowly got ready to leave. It wasnt until we were well on our way that we decided it would be nice to go to Port Augusta and stay somewhere nice (we are all in desperate need of a long shower).

We are slowly making our way to mildura to visit a friend of Bens. Then we will head home from there.

The friend of Bens we are visiting is named Rohan. Yes, Ben named our son after one of his old mates!! Actually, what really happened is that Ben and I were having trouble picking a name for our baby boy and we were fastly approaching the cut off date for having our baby named (for me that is 7 months pregnant). We had reduced our list of names to 5 mutually agreeable names and I had devised an elaborate voting system to determine the name. After both Ben and I had cast our vote the result came out that our baby boy would be named Josh. But then Ben said 'I'm not sure....'. Feeling frustrated I threw the baby book at him and screeched 'PICK A BLOODY NAME THEN!!!!.' Ben opened the book and looked at the first page the book fell open to. He said to me "what about Rohan? I used to have a mate named Rohan and he was a good bloke". "Fine" I responded grumpily (because I hated the name but just wanted one picked) "we'll call him Rohan James".

And that is how Rohan got his name!!!!

(Ben has just informed me that it was the dried salt flakes making the kids skin sting. He said it was awesome and I sound have come and that the salt was a natural exfoliant. My response was "Ben, do I look like someone who exfoliates??? And I can assure you if I ever had the urge to exfoliate it would be in a day spa - not in Lake Eyre!!!')

My achievement - not climbing Uluru

The decision not to climb Uluru was not an easy one to make. Everyone else in our group was going to do it and my husband and kids were all geared up to do it - me being the sheep that I am had also planed to do it. I had posted my intentions on FB and no one had objected. I was ready, at the base with my phone in my pocket (so I could boast about my achievement on Fb from the top of the rock) to climb. Unfortunately, or in my case fortunately, the rock was temporarily closed due to high winds. So off I set on a base walk instead.

Having the time to walk around the base and read the information placed there by the local indigenous tribe gave me time to reflect on my decision. The indigenous Australians have the worlds oldest continuing culture. I have seen for myself that it is an endangered culture with so many in the NT on a dangerous path to self destruction. Uluru is a sacred place that is a part of their creation stories. They do not climb Uluru and they do not want people to climb it (the Aust tourism industry won't let them forbid it because they think it will affect tourism). People climbing the rock is causing erosion on the path and the constant urination of the climbers is polluting the surrounding environment. I felt like climbing the rock would contribute to the destruction of the indigenous peoples beliefs.

I thought to myself - how can I be proud of doing something that is causing hurt to people. If I climbed it I felt like I would be saying to the traditional owners 'stuff your beliefs... I'm doing it anyway'. I would not do that to any sacred site that belonged to any culture or religion. I would follow their wishes - out of respect.

Since the rock was closed we all traipsed over to the olgas to do the climbs there that you have the blessing of the local tribe to do. They were difficult and breathtaking. A truly spiritual place to be.

I thoroughly enjoyed my hike and even did it with Didabell strapped to my back. I have noticed a serious decline in my fitness levels this trip. Too much sitting on my bum has led me to pork up quite a bit. I'm not really worried too much about that though, I am more worried about how unfit I will be when I finally get back to the gym. Luckily my flash dance pants have a bit of give in them!!!

Apart from Uluru and the Olgas (i think their traditional name is Kata Tjuka.... although I really can't be bothered getting off my porky arse to look it up) there is absolutely nothing else to do there. They are pretty much in the middle of sweet nowhere. There are a ton of over priced tours and dinners... but nothing really for the budget conscious.

Ben and I had a triple date with Kris and James + Con and Karen at one of the over priced restaurants in Ayres Rock Resort. It was nice to have a night out and a yummy meal.

Our second day at Uluru bought with it perfect weather conditions for climbing so everyone shot off. I remained back at camp with the babies and little kids.

I don't begrudge anyone elses decision to climb. I could just see no personal gain from doing it. I would not feel triumphant but ashamed. Also, I have already tramped all over it when I was 8 years old. I made it to the top of the chain back then so I have already had the opportunity to clamber all over the rock.

There really is something about Uluru that gets to you. Ben constantly pointed out to me that it is just a rock... but I feel it was more than that.

Oh dear... I am getting a bit sentimental. I think that's my que to sign off!

xx

Alice Springs

Alice wasn't too bad. I definitely wouldn't rate it as one of the top towns we visited. There are lots of things to do around Alice though.

The town itself, while boasting quite a few shops, wasnt much to look at. We stayed a fair way out of town away from all the problems... or so we thought! We had an issue on our final night that resulted in me frantically dialling 000 while trying not to wet my pants with worry.

Some idiot had been mucking around with explosives in the Todd river (which is presently just a river bed) and there was a massive explosion, which I felt though my entire body, followed by a decent sized fire. This all happened about 75m from our caravan!!! The police seemed none too surprised, or worried, when I rang them... apparently this isn't an isolated or unusual event.

I started off my time in Alice Springs hanging out in the hospital emergency room. It was absolutely packed. Little Diddy is being quite pesty and removing her mask in her sleep. We have been given strict instructions that she can not sleep without it and if there are any issues then we are to take her straight to hospital. I tried wrapping her up in a muslin wrap but little houdini wriggled out of that within seconds.

The nurse at the hospital was not helpful at all. Even though I had a letter from Diddy's respiratory specialist she did not seem interested. She reluctantly gave me some splints before sending me on my way. The splints are supposed to go on Diddy's arms while she sleeps so she can't get to her face but the nurse hadn't measured Diddy's arms so they were the wrong size. Rather than go back into that germ infested hospital room I decided to embark on a mission to find some kind of wrapping device in Alice Springs that would stop Didabell from tearing her mask off. Two hours and a million shops later, I stumbled across a second hand shop that had just the right thing - thank goodness!!

While in Alice we visited the most amazing place. It is called Palm Valley and it is this strip in between a gorge with the most beautiful, vibrant yellow and green palms. The gorge itself is bright red and the contrast makes for a simply magical place. You can only access it via 4wd and even then you need a proper 4wd. Toy ones don't cut it. There were a few prados in our group that scraped underneath. I will include some pics of it below. (although they really don't do it justice!!!)

We also took the kids to the Desert Park and on a sunset camel ride through the Mcdonnell ranges. They are such lucky kiddies!!! The desert park was amazing. It really gave me a new understanding and appreciation for the desert ecosystem. I had no idea it was so complex and full of life. I always imagined deserts to be hot, lifeless places with nothing much of interest in them.

The sunset camel ride was also another brilliant experience I would recommend (although I didn't get to experience it myself - somehow I always end up minding the younger two while Ben does these things with the older ones). If you do it in Alice Springs then you pay about half the price of what it costs at Uluru (and the MacDonnel ranges are equally as impressive).

My fossil collection has continued to grow with new purchases being made in Alice. I am also collecting cloth badges for the kids from everywhere we go so that I (and when I say 'I' I mean 'mum') can sew them on a blanket for the kids. These badges cost approx $5 each so it had worked out to be quite an expensive collection. I have bought them one from almost every town we have stayed in!

Anyway that is just about all I have to say about Alice. Must move on now because I still have Uluru to do!

xx

a bit behind!!!

we are heading to uluru today. so much to write about alice springs and the devils marbles. will hopefully get on to that in the next few days.

Tennant Creek

As I mentioned in yesterdays post, Ben used to live in Tennant Creek and has been very excited about the prospect of showing me around his much loved town. He had talked it up so much that I was expecting a quaint, little friendly town with a real community feel.

As we drove in to TC the absolute shock and horror set in. It was dirty and dusty and there was graffiti EVERYWHERE. People were loitering all over the place, occupying most gutters and footpaths asking tourists for smokes or money. We drove to the local caravan park and I went in to pay. I walked in to the office and was hit by the worst BO smell I have ever encountered. I could hardly breathe. Walking back outside I decided that this was not the place for us to stay.

Luckily, I found a place to stay 8kms out of town. It was called Juno's horse centre. Just like the rest of TC, it was dusty but it had a nice atmosphere. There were horses roaming freely around the camp grounds and the owner seemed very nice. He only charged $6 per adult per night and kids are free.  After unhooking our van, Ben and I decided to go for a drive and I sent a message to the rest of our group explaining where we were.

The problem with being the one who makes the decisions is that you are also the one who has to cop the brunt of the bitching and moaning when the rest of the group don't approve of the facilities. The bitching and moaning was put fourth in a good humoured manner but you can't help but feel guilty. How was I supposed to know that there was a dead rat in the mens rooms? (to be fair to the owner of Juno, we have since found out that they were the 'retired' toilets and that there was a newer block... not that I think you can expect too much for $6 a night).

On our trip around town Ben showed me the dodgy old donger that he used to live in - which he claimed had been done up since he lived there, the airport, the pub... all the important places!!

I had no idea why Ben loved the town so much. To me it seemed like an awful place to live. But then I started to talk to different locals and realised how friendly everyone was. The bloke who owned the horse farm couldn't do enough for you. Ben and I paid him $12 and for that we got to camp there and use the amenities, he gave all the kids horse rides and he GAVE Ben a whole heap of stuff so Ben could make a mud guard for the back of our car.

The lady in the newsagentgave me a discount and a free bag when she found out that Ben had previously lived there! Such lovely people!! I don't think you will find a friendlier town anywhere.

Con and Kristy will tell a different story though. Kristy said Tennant Creeks only redeeming feature was that it had mobile reception and Con said that it wasn't too bad if you compare it to a prison in thailand. Apparently they witnessed a big fight in the main street which shocked them a bit.

After spending a morning lounging around the TC dam we headed off to the devils marbles. They were spectacular!! We camped there over night and watched the sunset over them lady night and then the sunrise over them this morning.

We are now en route to Alice Springs and I want to share with you something I just heard Ben talking about with a truckie. Sometimes Ben has a chat with the truckies on our uhf radio and asked this particular one about whether he hits many animals (we had already established that he drives back and fourth between Darwin and Alice). He said to Ben (just for the record I am completely HORRIFIED by this) "yea a few. I hit a black fella once. He was asleep on the road... thought he was a kangaroo". Ben pressed him for details and he said he went to the police and made a report but never heard anything more about it. He then added "oh it happens all the time" before launching into a description of some accidents he had witnessed.

I am so upsett. The indigenous Australians have such a rich and ancient culture and to hear them being compared by truckies to road kill is horrific. It is so sad. There are so many indigenous australians in the NT who are living such a sad existence. Something needs to be done to help them. I wish I had a solution.

On that sad note I am going to sign off. We are almost at Alice and I have to take Diddy into the hospital to get splints on her arms. I will have to write about it next time.
xx

Race around Australia

That is what it feels like we are doing at the moment. Such huge distances to cover in as short a period as possible. There is nothing for 100's of kilometres, and we really don't want to hang around in the middle of nowhere. So hence we have spent yesterday and today driving humongous distances and spending hours in the car. This morning we left at 7:30am, after arriving at camp last night at 7:30pm. At 7:46am Rohan asked 'are we there yet?' quickly followed by 'I'm hungry'. If I hear 'are we there yet?' or 'how much longer?' one more time I may just go insane. I shouldn't complain too much, they have been so good considering.

Litchfield was wonderful!!! In fact I would go as far as to say it's better than Kakadu. If you are ever in the situation where you have the opportunity to visit either Kakadu or Litchfield then I would definitely say Kakadon't. Hehehe! I wish I could claim that joke as my own but I can't. I heard it from Kristy, who heard it from her friend Kelly, who heard it from her husband....

Anyway, Litchfield is so welcoming. The swimming opportunities are magnificent. So many plunge pools, water holes, water falls to swim in. All full of refreshing clear water that is safe from crocs and nasties. So far Litchfield has been the highlight of my trip, and I can't see that changing. There are so many fascinating places to visit and 4wd tracks to follow.

We spent one day 4wding and Kristy lost one of her personalised number plates in a croc infested river (there are crocs in the rivers but rangers work hard to make sure there are none in the water holes - unlike kakadu where they don't like you to swim anywhere. I had been so traumatised from all the croc warning signs that I didn't even feel safe in the caravan park pool at kakadu).

Back to my story... apparently, although I did not have the good fortune of witnessing it, James decided to wade into the river to retrieve the number plate. We had been told, by a local, not to put even so much as a toe in this river so James going in was complete stupidity. Nevertheless, with Kris and Con on croc watch James delicately went across the river, picked up the number plate and started back. On his way back his foot brushed something that gave him such a fright that he fell over in the water. According to Con, who rates this as the funniest thing he has ever seen, James was so scared that he lost control over his arms and legs, both flailing everywhere while he tried to both swim and run through the water screaming and yelling. I am so disappointed that Ben and I didn't hang back to witness it!!!

At the moment we are some where between Katherine and Tennant Creek. I have no idea where. Kylah just asked Ben how much longer till we get to Tennant Creek and he said 'one and a half hours'. Kylah replied 'oh good, that's not too long'.

I have nothing too interesting to report. Everyone in the group has been getting along well. So far there has been no sub divisions or mutinies. Most of the power rests firmly on my shoulders as I seem to be the one organising our days and everyone else just seems happy to follow. I spend most of my nights going from one campsite to the next trying to sort out what everyone wants to do, which invariably ends up being what Ben and I had planned to do.

You would think that by 3 weeks in to the trip we would have the set up/pack up routine down pat but alas, it is still completely chaotic. It isn't so much sorting out the caravan, it is more the issue of sorting out the large amount of children Ben and I have. Someone will need a toilet, or food, or a bandaid, or won't be able to find their drink bottle/hat/shoes, or need a breastfeed (only Diddy requires the breastfeeding just for the record). Just getting everyone into the car and buckled up takes a good fifteen minutes. Putting Diddy in and fitting the mask + turning on the machine takes about 10 of those 15 mins. She hates it and has worked out that she can self remove quite easily. So I have to hold her little arms down till she goes to sleep or have whoever is sitting next to her pin her arms down.

Tonight Ben is taking me out to dinner in Tennant Creek. He has promised to buy me some oysters at the local pub. Considering the distance the oysters would have to travel to reach the Tennant Creek Pub, I am highly surprised that they are a speciality there and am questioning their freshness. Tennant Creek is one of the furthest places from the coast in Australia.

Ben used to live in Tennant Creek and is keen to show me around. Anyway I had better go, Ben is insisting that I look at the view out the window (personally I think it looks the same as the view from 100kms ago... and I suspect I am about to have a lesson on the subtle differences!!!)

xx

Darwin

Yay!!! Yay!!! Yay!!! I finally have a computer to type on. I can write soooo much more crap when I am typing 60 words a minute than I can when I am trying to type on my phone, averaging about 3 words a minute.

At the moment we are in Darwin, and there really isn't a lot to do here, but I am having a FABULOUS time. I think because we are camped on - GRASS!!!! Also, the caravan park has a lovely pool and very clean bathrooms. Happy faces all round!!! Kristy and I also wasted no time bee lining the local shops and stocking up on yogo's for when we have our 'Big Bang Theory' nights in the caravan. Ben and James can't understand why we bother going on holidays when all we want to do is go shopping, swim in a pool and sit in the air conditioned caravan watching Big Bang Theory and eating yogo's. All things we can do at home!!!!! I have now decided to make it my mission to travel around and slob everywhere I go!!

We went to Fannie Bay Gaol yesterday and something very funny / hugely embarrassing happened. Fannie Bay Gaol is old and has been closed since 1979 and is used as a tourist attraction. I remember going there when I was 8 years old. Not much has changed in the last 24 years as it is still exactly how I remember it. The only thing different is that they have changed one of the rooms into an art gallery and use it to display art work that the inmates in Darwin prison have done. Kylah is quite taken with aboriginal art at the moment and has been looking with interest at the various dot paintings and rock art that we have come across. She thinks it is beautiful and I have been trying to teach her about aboriginal culture. At the gaol, Kylah spent a great deal of time studying the paintings of the inmates, which were mostly aboriginal art, and talking about which ones she liked. As we were leaving a group of indigenous students were coming into the gaol on an excursion. Kylah said in a very loud voice "Look!! There are some aboriginals. They must be coming to visit their paintings!!". There were a few snickers from the students and a few death glares too.... uh oh....

I think when I last left off we were still in Cooinda and about to go to Ubirr to watch the sunset. Maybe I should have written about that first but my blog is all mixed up so it doesn't really matter. Ubirr was lovely. There are these massive rocks, which are covered in thousands of years old aboriginal art. It is amazing and beautiful and they have guides walking around explaining the pictures. You can climb to the top of one of the rocks to watch the sunset. It was spectacular!!! The only downfall was that as soon as the sun is down you have to run down off the rock so you aren't trying to climb down in the dark. It was full on rock climbing too. By the time we were at the top we were at least 6 stories high. The awful thing about Ubirr was that it was insanely hot. There is no where safe to swim and there were mozzies and flies everywhere. I was soooo uncomfortable.

We also checked out the local river at Ubirr, which is full of crocs. My husband decided to fish there and stood with his feet in the water fishing. We had just seen a big salt water croc just meters from where he was standing. Crazy man!!!!

Today we went to Crocodylius (not sure of spelling of that word but I'm not sure they are either). It is a crocodile farm. The kids got to feed a huge 4.6m salt water croc. They had a broom handle with a bit of meat hanging of some string on the end and they had to dangle it in his enclosure and tease him with it. Apparently that is the only way he gets exercise is when he has to work for his food. It was a bit surreal watching Kylah giggling and teasing the croc with the food. There was only a wire fence between them. We were on a platform overlooking the small enclosure. Jazzy and Rohan didn't want to feed the Crocs. I can understand why!!! They stood back with Jago singing "Ner, ner, ni, ner, ner - you can't eat me!!!".

The kids all got to hold a baby crocodile and also hold a python. It was a really nice place to go. Very informative and educational. I did feel slightly sorry for the 682 baby salt water crocs all squished in the one enclosure but it is hard to feel too sorry for crocodiles. They are the ultimate psychopath.

Tonight we went to Mindil Beach Markets. We had such a fun night. The kids got to try their very first Dagwood Dog (I still haven't tried one - too scared of food poisoning) and we bought a few souvenirs. The kids all wanted hand painted boomerangs so we let them pick some nice ones out. Then we sat on the grass and ate ice creams while watching an indigenous band, followed by an african band. My eldest 3 got up in front of the crowds of people and danced. Very enthusiastically danced I might add. It was wonderful to watch them dancing so freely, not a care in the world about what everyone else thought. I bought myself, ummmm... I mean the family, some new fossils for our collection. I now have a total of 4 fossils in my, I mean our, collection ranging in age from 600 million years old to the fairly recent 2 million years old. I would tell you all about them but I can't be bothered. Anyone interested can arrange a private viewing of them when we return!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Litchfield national park. I'm sure there won't be any phone coverage there so I will be off the radar for a few days. Litchfield is supposed to be even more spectacular than Darwin. You can actually swim there because there is no Croc's so we are all looking forward to that.

It is really amazing the way that some families are traveling around Australia. I have seen everything from a family of 6 traveling with a tent tied to the top of their car, to a family of 4 traveling in a million dollar motor home. It is so interesting to see the way people get around. Some are completely over the top and others are so basic. The family of 6 who had the tent all wore the same green outfit day after day. I'm sure they must have had 2 of each outfit because they didn't smell offensive.

Oh gosh I am soooo tired. I had better publish this and go to bed. I need to be up early in the morning to get the kids ready to go fish feeding.

I will try to blog again soon!!!

xx

Oh - I almost forgot to tell you the two most exciting things that happened in Darwin. Ben bought me another pair of Flash Dance Pants on the proviso that I not talk about them again!!! And I finally worked out how to commuicate with my iq lowering box so it can tape Jersey Shore for me while I'm away. Happy days!!!!!