The Bike

I'm loving the bike. Saturday evening I & two other "village people" biked from the hospital, along the Casuarina Coastal Reserve to Nightcliff for a dinner party at Asha, Dina, & Cath's. They fled the Village after a very short stay to rent a beautiful three bedroom flat in Nightcliff on the top floor of a building overlooking the shore. We got there just in time to watch the sun set over the Timor Sea. The dinner party was wonderful--the best food I've had in Darwin. Three other doctors plus Asha's boyfriend joined the party so all in all there were ten at the party. We made quite an international group, which is typical for Darwin. James, a pulmonary reg, is most recently from London. His girlfriend, Kathy, a nephrology reg, is from Northern Ireland. Ed, a critical care reg, spent most of his childhood in Hong Kong. Uma, a medicine reg, is from Sri Lanka . . . You get the picture. There was also an odd over representation of vegetarians, which is unusual for Australia, but gives you an idea of the kind of people Darwin seems to attract.

The bike home was wonderful . . . Most of the bike path was well lit except for one short stretch, but Ray had a very bright light & there was a bright half-moon in the sky to light our way. The temperature was perfect around 60 degrees & we hardly passed a car or a soul.

Today, Nicole & I biked halfway across town along the shore to the East Point Recreation Reserve & the Dudley Point Lookout. I'm including a picture of a sweaty me alongside my bike at the Dudley Point Lookout. As much as I love the bike, I'm starting to suffer from a severely sore backside, shoulders, legs, etc. It's been almost a decade since I've biked with any regularity & I'm finding that I'm definitely not in bike shape. But, she's beautiful. You probably can't appreciate it from the picture, but she's a dusky pink & my helmet matches with purple & white flowers. I'll be very sad to leave her when the time comes to return to the states.