Things to Do on the Weekend

I must admit that I'm beginning to worry if I have an advanced case of 'nesting-itis'. Tourists on a four day trip of the Red Centre have seen more of the surrounding countryside than I have. As a resident of Alice Springs for close to 4 months, that makes about 16 weekends where I have basically chosen to play at home rather than get out!

Admittedly, I've been finding out where things are, what's on, and what I want to do. And gradually accumulating routines. The Basic Weekend now looks like this:

• Sat: Gym, 11am Yoga, 1.30pm Saturday Papers, Clean Clothes, [Insert Event Here], Snuggle up with Book or Go Out
• Sun: Sleep In, Markets (fortnightly), Avoid Shopping for Food, 3.30pm Meditation, 5pm Walk with Tahana, 7pm Arthouse Movie

It doesn't leave much room for tourist-y like activities (such as heading off to Emily or Jessie's Gap, King's Canyon, Uluru etc). But then again, Alice is not short of things to do on the weekend:

One of the big weekend past-times in Alice is the Saturday morning garage sales. There lots of goodies, because there's lots of people moving in and out of Alice at a relatively fast pace (quite apart from the Americans who are disbursing their 2-3 years worth of accumulated parapharnelia as they leave Pine Gap). After one fruitful weekend, see haul above, I decided that the early morning dedication and the likelihood of watching $30 regularly go down the drain on items that I didn't really need was not my thing.

Then there's Alice Springs Desert Park. This is one of those great 'fallback' options for a weekend saunter. Desert Park is a large expanse of park in the desert (strange but true). It would be described by fancy menu designers as 'artfully nestled on a bed of sandstone, accompanied by a backdrop of Macdonnell Ranges'. It is filled with an excellent expanse of desert flora and fauna exhibits, including a few handy signs that tell you what is obviously right in front of you (but which you can't see for the trees). There's also the Bird of Prey show, which seems to bring wild birds together with hunks of meat and some excellent choreography ("these types of logs are used for owls to hide in while waiting for their prey, and yes, here he comes right now out of the log" etc).

And of course, as mentioned above, there is always the bi-monthly Todd Mall Markets. I tend to go to the markets because (a) it's something to do, and once a fortnight is long enough to forget what it's like and (b) there are good coffee, great dahl, and excellent frozen fruit smoothie stalls. Basically, it's the food and the drink that brings me in.

But if I were truthful - painfully honest - the Markets are the soft exposed underbelly of an otherwise great little town. It's what I like to describe as the 'covered toilet roll holder' heart of the town. The only useful items I've purchased so far haves been a handy peg basket and a freak good second hand book. As I vainly scour the available stalls (including information on local politicians, becoming a Ba'Hai convert, and the ubiquitous covered holders of all known household items), I become painfully conscious that I'm living in a Small Town.

But all is not lost. Stay tuned for the drama of the ... drum roll, please ... 10th Annual Beanie Festival!!