Some days I'm not quite sure what our 'category' is - we aren't locals, we aren't grey nomads, we aren't employed, we aren't retired, we aren't really tourists because we aren't moving, we aren't locals - I'm just not sure what our category is.
We often do what we did at home - just here, in our smaller home. Lots of things are the same but just a little different. We still cook dinner, but we cook outside, mostly bbq-ing, in the mild evening air. We still have to do the dishes, but we boil the kettle and wash in the plastic tub. We do the washing, it dries in half a day and gets put away, mostly that night, because when 4 things are out of place the 'house' is messy.
Monday to Friday we head off to 'work', volunteer doing whatever is needed. Today, it was moving dirt and filling pot holes for Bill, for me it was trimming back shrubs and cleaning plaques. Other days I pop off and 'work' - like real work, with pay and everything, at the cafe!
We usually come home for lunch - we just don't have to go back! The afternoon might be spent shopping, reading, doing Sudoku (Bill), or chatting. Sometimes we get the push bikes out or go and be a 'tourist' for a few hours.
The other evening we walked up the hill, in the middle of town, at the botanical gardens in hope of seeing a rock wallaby or twelve. Well, we didn't see that many, but we did see two. They sat still and really let us look at them!
It was lovely to see the West MacDonnell from a slightly different point of view.
On the weekend we decided one way of meeting some locals (or acting like a local) would be to volunteer at the Henley On Todd. This is, I believe, the only boat regatta in Australia held on a dry river bed. It is also a fundraising day for the Rotary Clubs of Alice Springs. The day is based on people joining in family picnic day type races - tug a wars, shoveling sand competitions, boat races Fred Flinstone would be proud of - 4 people in a bottomless boat running (hopefully) in time up and down the river. Just when a team thinks they are winning a Viking, pirate or 'navy personnel' could jump in their way, tackle them, derail or rather sink them. There are bands and musicians playing, food stalls, all the usual fun things. Our job was to cook the volunteers BBQ, something like 120 volunteers help make the day happen (not counting the volunteers that work for the week setting it up - lots of help is given by the day release prisoners who are supervised and work hard to help set up). I did get to chat to quite a few locals as they came up for a snack and a break from their shenanigan's.
There is no doubt that over the next few days we will definitely be 'volunteers' as we prepare for the weekend event, now only a few days away. The speeches are written, rehearsing them will start tomorrow, more cleaning to be finished, more frames to be completed, more trucks to be moved, more dust to be dusted. There will be the odd 'swapping of the hat' as I go from volunteer to kitchen hand to bar attendant. Maybe category swapping will be our new normal - it certainly keeps life interesting.
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