Get some prawns



Open some coconut milk







marinate.



Total cost? about $10AUD for the prawns and about $0.75c for the coconuts.

At the Lae Golf Club



The theme was "colour me crazy", which was harder than it sounded, given that my luggage was lost and I pretty much had on the clothes I'd left Melbourne in, THREE DAYS BEFORE!



I establish my position as the new village idiot with The Goode Wymen of Lae, by whipping out my camera and taking photos of food. Like the locals at the market, they are all a little weirded out by this.



Pretty much all the food in PNG is organic, primarily because pesticides et al are just too expensive. When you buy your fruit and veg at the markets, the produce is from the surrounding villages, each of which grows one, maybe two crops. Locals may have walked 3 hours down from their Highland village to sell their produce.



Possibly the sweetest, plumpest prawns I have ever eaten.



A side of smoked salmon is promptly demolished.



It sounds all very Mehm Sahib and pink gin, but it's not. Expat wives aren't allowed to work. It's a condition of their husband's visa. LOTM provides an excellent networking opportunity, and raises money for local charities and schools. Education isn't free in PNG. In a country where the average wage is about $1.10AUS per hour, educating a child can cost as much as $500. Rather than the clique of hot house flowers that I expected, I met a wonderful group of intelligent, sassy, independant women who are very involved in their local community. AND I possibly lined up a gig for some volunteer work with Médecins Sans Frontières as well.

Not bad for a morning's work.

Things have been tough lately. And tight. I've said it before, the line between prosperity and destitution is a very thin one indeed. Lots of things have had to go by the wayside, like money for exotic and yummy ingredients. I've been working 2 extra jobs and have barely had the time to blog.

let alone had the motivation.

For a while there, the novelty of Frugal Foods kept the blog alive, but you guys can only hear about so may posts based on mince and canned tomatoes.

For a while I have felt like I have nothing new to offer. All my posts are based on my whiny-arsed position of Furry's unemployment.

It has really sucked to be me, and sucked even more to read my boring, gormless, whining posts about how hard it is yada yada yada.

So, you probably have wondered where I have been for the past week or so. PG, who pretty much lives her open life on the Interwebs, has had no blog/facebook/twitter act-shawn.

Thing have to be pretty crook in Tallarook for PG to disappear of the www.radar for a week at a time.

Or maybe I am a totally self-absorbed numpty and none of you have noticed?

Anyway. Here's what I've been up to.

and a bit of

and even a bit of



yes, folks. I'z been away.

To PNG.

As in Papua New Guinea.

As in LAE, PNG, where Furry will shortly be taking up his new position as Logistics and Operations Manager for a local rice company!

For those who follow my self-indugent ramblings, you may recall that Furry recently went for a job in PNG, only to be pipped at the post.

Well, late last Thursday, we found out the guy who got the job had knocked it back, and that Furry was now the successful candidate.

So on Tues of last week, we were flown to Lae, in PNG to have a looksee at what is going to be our new home for the next 3 plus years.

I thank you all for the collective ju ju that allowed this situation to develop and promise you more exciting posts from PNG. Furry is moving up there in about a week, and I will hopefully be off around the end of the year. There are still some decisions to make that might change the timelines of my move, but at this stage of the game, it's all systems go go GO!!

So,

BBQ'd fruit bat, anyone?