Parap Street Market

My social life is starting to pick up! My first couple of days here I had the frequent, irrational thought of "what the hell have I done?" & I'd convinced myself I'd spend the next three months living an isolated monkish life staring at the four uninspiring walls of my room. Luckily, that has not turned out to be the case . . .

I had my first real outing last night in Nightcliff, one of Darwin's seaside suburbs. I joined Dina, a senior pediatrics "reg" (short of registrar), Kath, a senior critical-care reg, & James a nephrology reg at the Beachfront Hotel Restaurant. We sat outside & I had my first drink of Australian beer. I started off with a VB (Victoria Bitter), which had been recommended to me & chased that with a Coopers, which is similar to a Blue Moon orange colored & somewhat opaque. I also had my first "real" Australian meal of grilled Barramundi, which is a delicious white, flaky fish native to the Northern Territory.

Today, I ventured to the Parap Street Market with Nicole, an intern, & her friend Simon. The Parap Street Market is a local institution. It's a weekly Saturday open-air market in Parap, a Darwin suburb, & features multi-ethnic food vendors, produce, arts, crafts, musicians etc. I stocked up on some weekly groceries including local honey, enjoyed some a Vietnamese vegetable noodles followed by a freshly made mango-lime smoothie, & purchased two beautiful black & white photos, one of an indigenous child holding a sleeping baby wallaby which had an uncanny resemblance to Smedley when he was a baby . . . I miss Smedley. I also saw a Staffy Bull, which I had to meet, & kiss on his beautiful, smiling face.