There's been some fun the last few weekends. Some of the hotels here have a deal for locals where if you eat in their restaurant, you can stay and use the pool. It's pretty neat. The town pool is really nice, but it's fun to be somewhere else for awhile.
In fact, that feeling of - that's great, but what else is there?- starts to pervade a lot of one's life here. Alice is an island. It is an oasis surrounded by desert - thousands of miles of it. A ten minute drive has you on the edge of town and there is no town ahead of you... for hours and hours.
There is heaps to do and see here, in Alice. It just starts to occur to one (ahem, me) that this is all there is. There's lots of it (I realize I'm repeating myself), and it's beautiful and fun and wonderfully interesting, but then... there's nothing else. Sometimes, I worry that heaven will be kinda similar. "Halleluia, halleluia..." Four billion years down; eternity to go.
Back to the hotel pool - we were all hungry after church last Sunday and we decided to eat at the Alice Springs Resort where Tom's group had had a Christmas party.
The food was tasty and the staff was so nice. We were the only people in the restaurant. There was no one else at the pool either. Thomas had been asking to drive his remote control boat somewhere and the glimmer of an idea came to us both. I asked the manager if we could drive the boat around the pool so long as we didn't bother anyone. In true Aussie style: "Aw sure , no worries."
We had the pool as our personal marina for a good 3 hours. There was a stone fountain in the middle which added to the excitement with "driving blind" behind it. Tom and I both raced the boat swimming. The skipper was in fits of giggles. The flies and some other patrons came in about mid-afternoon, so we headed home - 7 minutes away.
I hear there are three or four more hotels in town with the same lunch/swim deal. We'll have to work the circuit. Thomas took the photo in our backyard to look like one he saw in a catalog. He's quite fascinated by marketing; especially the Sham-WOW!
Understand about the shrinking town. Stan and I feel the same way living here. An island is nice, but sometimes it just gets way too small and we have to escape. But at least Charleston and Savannah are fairly close for a dose of something else. Two years will go by for you in a flash.
ReplyDeleteYep, it's about that time ... you've been there 6 months soooooo time to get out and visit the real world my dear! Been there done that. Also, this is the slow part of the year for Alice since it's so darn hot even the tourists stay away so the town really starts to feel like one of those ghost towns. Even if you can't get away right now, start making plans and do some research on a place to visit in the next couple of months. Having something to look forward too will help you a great deal! So do some research what you want to go see. You do need to get out every 6-9 months or you will get island fever. I made it to 9 months one time and oh boy was I ready to get away. So start making plans, it will help. Hang in there girl.
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