Broken Hill

We've been here just under a week so far and already we've done so much!
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert:
After the long journey to see James it was great to finally arrive. He has an amazing house in a great area. He already has a few pets; Susie, a 'Large Black House Spider' who lives just outside the toilet in the laundry room, she is poisonous but not deadly (comforting!) And loads of red backs in the garage, John was in his element. The first evening (Saturday) James took us to a quirky pub, it was a pub used in the film 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert', on the staircase and up to the balcony it was covered in the most beautifully painted murals.
BBQ with the Flying Doctors:
Sunday was a big BBQ held for the new members of the Flying Doctors Team to get to know each other. John and I were also invited and made to feel very welcome. It was steak all round! Vegetarianism doesn't really exist in outback areas such as here but even so they made me delicious stuffed mushrooms (my emergency cheese sandwiches stayed wrapped up in my bag).
Silverton:
Later that afternoon we ventured out to Silverton, it had a real 'Wild West' feel to it. The town was originally populated by a mining community in the late 1800's but has now reinvented itself as a prime location for the shooting of movies and adverts and is also the home of 2 Australian artists and their galleries. One film made out there was Mad Max 2. They had a Mad Max 2 museum there but we decided to postpone going in, although John had seen the film James and I hadn't so on our way home we picked up a copy from the Video shop. Unfortunately both James and myself fell asleep half way though, John who was a fan of the film when he was younger sat through the whole film for the tenth time and we didn't bother going to the museum in the end.
Flying Doctors:
Whilst we've been her James has been having his induction to start his role as a Flying Doctor'.
One of James's colleagues arranged for us to go on a tour of the Flying Doctors base and Museum including getting to go inside the plane. Some people having a look around with another guide were most put out that they weren't getting the same special treatment as us. We felt very privileged (..it's who you know!!!). It was fantastic to see where James will be working. From talking to people and seeing clips from the videos in the museum it looks like an amazingly rewarding job, we can't think of a better person more suited to this challenge. Other Doctors have said in the past that their new jobs have paled in comparison after finishing with the flying doctor service. One Doctor said in a morning he was dealing with a serious car crash, then he was rushed to deliver a baby. That followed by a usual GP clinic and then giving advice over the phone to patients at night. Not your usual 9 to 5! The Doctors are very well thought of in the outback and as they are a charity people will do lots of fund raising to keep them flying.
School of the Air:
From speaking with Anna about the School of the Air we were keen to see how it works. We went to watch one of the lessons. It was a Kindergarten lesson. It started with the teacher logging on for 9 o'clock for register. She could see on the screen which other children had logged on and then she said good morning to them individually .Their responses were so cute. It took them a while due to air delay and also them being so little and they would reply “Good Morning Mrs ###... 'Over'”.
They went through different activities each one with the children ending everything with 'Over'. It was like a virtual school (Simon do you remember the kind of school our year 6's imagined would be in all schools in 50 years time) only with fairly primitive ICT being used. It was fantastic to see.
We shrunk:
We went up to a lookout point on a big slag heap left by the nearby mines, it's now a beauty spot with a cafe overlooking Broken Hill. A resident Canadian artist had made a HUGE bench.
Sunset at the sculptures:
One of James colleagues, Adona, took us up to 'The Sculptures', a place close by, famous for it's beautiful sunsets. We went up there with wine and nibbles. Although we were a bit late for the start of the sun set the lower it got the redder the sky became, it really was beautiful. We gave Adonas's 12 year old son artistic license with the camera and think he did a great job.