There's a palpable excitment in the air - part of it is because we've had the first of the years dry days when you can sniff the coming of the dry season and the night sky is starting to open up as the humidity drops  and the dragonflies must be somewhere over the desert heading north in squadrons of silvery wings- its a way off yet but just that hint is enough to get the muscles uncoiling.

The other part is the Tiwi Bombers are in the NTFL  Grand final!  That' s Aussie rules! I went to the preliminary final last week with my 6 year old boy and the game was a ripper, lead changing back and forth, the Tahs big men trying to keep the ball away from the Tiwi fellas but that Tiwi mob kept coming and when they got a hold of the pill it was like lightning cutting up the field. The crowd was ablaze and at half time I bumped into an elderly patient of mine and we were grinning away at each other and hoping the bombers would carry it - they finished them of in fine style.

Now my dinner times are interupted with ' Tiwi!...Bombers...Tiwi" as the kids break in to a spontaneous chant.

Its going to be a massive Grand Final, the whole clinic seems to be going and it will be Darwin at its best - sultry evening, cold ones flowing and every man and woman, black, white or brindle croweded in at Marrara and yelling like Banshees!

Go the Bombers!

Monday morning

Mondayitis? or maybe just a case of sunburn and exhaustion after a weekend building cubby houses and surfing the high tides - no crocs in sight, swell decent but all over the place and quite a bit of squally rain about making the wholesurfing experience like being in a washing machine. People out everywhere along the beach swimming and walking their dogs  - weather cooled down and some lightning storms around ( blasted a high voltage tower in Friday night and knocked out power all the way to Katherine for most of Sat for some mob!) Big winds in my area on the same night and quite a few trees down. Then in between squalls blazing sun and steamy tropicana!

Cyclone in the gulf heading back to Queensland, 8m tides and fresh local snapper for tea!

Altogether a typical January Weekend in Darwin town.

Darwin - a good place to raise chooks - or so they say,  maybe I need a few lessons.

Lost the first mob to a BhraminyKite and Olive python

Lost the next lot to a maurauding dog ( burrowed under the back fence - since been put down).

Lost a few more to python and mysterious attacker.

The three that are left  keep flying over the fence  in spite of clipping their wings and have just started laying where ever it takes their fancy, strong minded and independent lot - maybe I should keep them on a shorter lead but its the NT and they should be allowed to stretch their legs!

Back in Darwin and at work after a month away in the Solomon Islands - holiday and a fact finding mission for DDHS - looking to develop relationships with neigbouring countries and expanding our recruitment footprint. 

Solomon's -Em gudfella to mas! 

The flight in was a sight, water everywhere - wetlands all through the Darwin rural area and rivers swollen. Garden growing like a fiend and grass almost waist high!

Going to be a big year for Danila Dilba and Crew - lots of  new locums, registrars and medical students and expansion of our outreach teams and the chronic disease service. Our Family centre is also gearing up for a big year  being newly established and we are also expanding Dr capacity at the Men's clinic.

Monsoon season - went for a surf early Monday morning - clean conditions but small.  Hoping for a bit more of this on the weekend - yep - come surf Darwin!

Well the temptress gave in last night and althought the weather bureauforcast no rains rain it did - with a thunderous cacophony - I ran glistening into the street to wind up the old Mercs windows and then stopped for a few minutes of soaking under the lightning streaked sky.

Sunday evening I spent with the family at the Darwin Buddists Association international food festival watching bollywood dancing, traditional Burunga dancing and Bhutan rap with my little girl perched on the shoulders and reflecting on why Darwin is such a great bloody place - a panopoly of culture under a mango tree on a sultry evening, small town vibe but big earth stuff and then home and into the pool to cool off, bats chattering, and beyond that frogs and the magpie geese passing overhead.

This lady told me a story the other day and I am going to share it with you.  We’ll call her Gladys, not her real name,  and she was sitting at home relaxing one evening and suddenly felt short of breath, like someone was sitting on her chest. Next thing she was seeing black spots in front of her eyes and felt faint, the chest tightening became much stronger and she knew she was in deep trouble so she called 000.  The ambo’s turned up pretty smartly and Gladys tried to get to her front gate to unlock it and let them in but she was so out of breath out she just couldn’t make it – so she slipped the keys into her dog’s mouth and asked him to deliver them to the ambo’s – and the dog did just that, they opened the gate, whisked her off to hospital and she lived to tell the tale.

So why am I telling you this story?

Mostly because it’s just a bloody good story and needs to be told but otherwise just to raise the issue of heart disease and how common it is in our community.  It’s the leading cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Men and Women Australia wide  and in the NT it accounts for about one third of the 20 year gap in life expectancy.

 

Smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol  and high blood pressure are at the root of it all.

 

So if you are looking for a reason to give up the smokes think of Gladys and her dog – or keep on smoking and train up your own pooch.

1st blog experience on a cool Darwin morning after a storm came through around 4 am, crackling lightning and then about52 minutes of downpour and she moved on - usual temptress at this time of year but just long enough to send in a cool breeze through the louvres and the last two hours of sleep before dawn were luxurious.

Drove in to work in the old mercedes, yesterday resplendent with bat poo - today clean and almost shimmering (not quite - duco pockmarked and faded from the tropical sun). No traffic, no parking worries, should really be on my bicycle but....what's up this week?

Doors at DDHS are open and I am the walkin dr today - what can I expect? well anything really and people from all over the Top End. So I'll polish of my fresh coffee and get into it.

jim

Hi All,

Welcome to the Danila Dilba Experience Blog. We hope you enjoy the website and please stay tuned for updates to our Gallery, Blog and our Video section, which will be coming soon.

Enjoy,

The Danila Dilba Team