mama hello thanks for your letter

it is 40 degrees and it is not easy to sleep at night - it goes down to maybe 30 - it is pretty miserable unless you can be inside for extended periods of time in air conditioning - i am not coping with the heat at all well and i feel really unwell today - i don't know if it is because of that but i feel really sick on the stomach and woozy - like i've got a temperature and with a strange pain in my neck and shoulder and radiating into the chest on the right hand side - i have to go into work if only because with the air conditioning it is the only place where it is bearable and the core temperature of my body can actually come down a few degrees

these are my last days at the farm and i am counting them

i have been very happy here but also really miserable

it is nice here six months of the year and for three of the other months it is cold and dark and damp and for the other three it is hot and dusty and teeming with insects - right now there is a plague of them all kinds of creeping crawling and flying beasts of many different sizes and configurations - worse still the mozzies take no notice of the insect repellent in which i am covered from head to toe - i am not happy about the fact that the dreaded dengue fever (a terrible sleeping sickness spread by mosquitoes) which used to be confined to the north has made its way south as far as wagga

i might have told you about the outside toilet which they call a dunny here - apart from being outside and connected to a septic tank instead of a sewer it is a normal toilet in every other way but one - it doesn't flush and so when you are done you have to go to the tap with a bucket and draw water which you throw from as much height as you can manage into the bowl - i don't mind that so much as the fact that the flies seem to have this communication system going whereby within minutes of you sitting down to open your bowels they all come over to check the action and they like to inspect it closely - by that i mean they like to actually sit on your aperture get the full picture - out of daylight hours you have also the problem of mosquitoes - when you are someone who likes to take it easy and just relax on the toilet and let nature take its course insects are like well flies in the ointment :)

somehow i find it difficult to tell people that one of the reasons i am moving into town is so that i can do a shit without having flies crawl all over my bum

also when it is really hot those extra few degrees by which it is hotter (or colder in winter) out here compared with in town are the straw that breaks the camel's back - the last few days it has been 40+ and i can tell you the difference between 40 and 42 or 43 or for that matter 37 and 40 is vast since it is the difference between almost unbearable and unbearable

there are lots of these little whirly bits of wind around where everything goes around and around and it moves along like a tiny tornado — the indigenous people have a name for them I forget but they think they are spirits

also there is such a water shortage that you really have to restrict your showers which can be the only way to cool down a bit and in town i can have all the water i want

also the other day there was a redback spider in my bed

also i drive nearly 100 km every day to go to work and into town for supplies and the road into town and back to the farm is getting longer every day

also there is no tv or mobile phone reception

also this dilapidated old farm house is getting on my nerves i want to live in a nicer place and i have found this great flat in the groovy end of town some of my graduating students mentioned in passing they were moving out of a good flat and i said oh yeah where is it since i have been toying with the idea of moving back into town for six months or more and i have even looked at a few places (which were awful) and they told me where it was and it was the place i saw three years ago when i was in wagga for the first time to talk about the possibility of working at the uni and i was walking down this street going hmmm that is a cool looking place and so i went to have a look and it is great brick with a proper tiled roof and high ceilings it has three bedrooms although small ones but a big lounge room and a good size kitchen and it is close to everything supermarket across the road a cafe for breakfasts which opens at 6 and close to the pubs and bars and also just around the corner from my friends jamie and louise

i am spending a bit of money on some new furniture a couch two seater red 4 director chairs a small fridge and an evaporative cooler so that i can leave the few crappy broken down old things i own behind - it is all an expensive business but i have a good job and i should allow myself just to have a little bit of comfort and pleasure - i have only bought a couple of second hand things in really good condition a 50s table a wardrobe dark wood with hanging space a couple of drawers and a little cupboard down the bottom for shoes and a mirror and a 50s red vinyl and aluminium easy chair

i had a look at new beds and futons they can order me in a beautiful futon base and 8 inch thick cotton futon mattress for 500 but i am still thinking about it

on the weekend i went to see the kids for igor's birthday - nice to see your cards on the mantlepiece and i will give them the money like you asked - pity i wasn't as organized this year my apologies to pat and john - we wanted to ring you for pat and john's birthday but i didn't have my little book with the numbers we will try to ring on christmas day when i will be in sydney again - debbie and me and the kids went to a place called old sydney town where they have recreated the way sydney was in 1806 - it is slightly interesting if completely exhausting - igs loves it and is completely absorbed

when we get home the professor from the hospital rings finally with igor's diagnosis after almost exactly 16 years : it is chromosome 14 trisomy - there are 15 known cases in the world - trisomy on chromosome 21 is much more common : downs syndrome

tell john with the smoking thing the only way is to use the patches properly and you can cut them in half with scissors or I was cutting them in 4 because i found it gave me too much nicotine and it was making me feel bad but you need to have the steady stream of nicotine in the right amount and then you are ok but off and on is no good stick to the patches every day although i went without at night — i am now eight months without a single cigarette or a puff on a cigarette and I only used patches for the first three months - although I had a cigar the other day and it was jolly nice J

so another day and i will be in my new place !

so i am off see you all later have a happy christmas en een goed uiteinde niet te veel oliebollen eten he ?

talk on christmas day or boxing day if we can't get through - you will probably not understand igor too well and we might have to translate but just tell him something about what you have been doing and he will be happy

if you are ever able to access the internet i now have my own domain name joh.net is more or less operational just type joh.net into the location box and you will find a picture of me and links to all my sites

love

johannes

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