Let me begin by stating; Lae is the unofficial pothole city, Port Moresby is a cheaper cousin, but much more fun! In Lae, you get potholes the size of cars, Moresby – just tyres 🙂

The kids love potholes around Moresby, I swerve to avoid – but sometimes clip the odd one, and after every rain there are extra potholes for twice the fun. For extra points, we hook up the hill behind town and hoon around up there – great fun. And when it rains… The potholes get lots of buddies…

So the last couple of weeks have been quite eventful, we are still living in a Hotel, Jacinta had a birthday, the kids started school, and I cracked 120 on the freeway in an emergency dash back to the hotel when Xaria fell off the bed, and knocked herself out. I bit of a drama, but she is OK..

Talking about car driving, the speed limit here is 60 km/h. Nobody drives at 60! It’s either 10 or 100. The police setup roadblocks to check registrations and collect revenue – they also drive at whatever speed they feel like, and there is no speed guns, or cameras – so if you have the balls, and a clear road, with no potholes… and you can do 200, they isn’t anyone here going to stop you!

Jacinta finally got her license yesterday, her first question: do I have to drive as fast as you? lol. – nope, but just don’t dawdle. In the wrong place, at the wrong time – you are an easy target for a good old fashioned carjacking. Here in Moresby, the saying “the faster you go, the bigger the mess”, translates to “the faster you go, the less of a mess”.

The other unique thing here in Moresby is the fun times you have, when the power goes out. As I am typing this, the power has dropped out twice. I have also just been about to jump in the lift, when the power died… So jumped out really quick! And at Brian Bell (home centre shop) last weekend, the power went out, just as we were about to purchase our goods, however instead of coming straight back on, it just stayed off. The staff put “counter closed” signs up, and they finally let everyone that could, pay by cash. Every PC at work has it’s own UPS!

We are still all getting used to the food, the heat (yes, it’s getting hotter now), the crowds, the cars, the buai (betel nut), the newspaper reports of rapes and murders, the political murmuring, and of course Island Time!

Above all the horrible things you hear about PNG – still, the people are amazing. And yes, although frustrating at times – I love it here….