Coddiwomple

I recently took a phone call from one of the ringer's mums. Not quite sure whether she had dialed the right number, she asked "are you the new cook?" and I replied "I am the other half that came with the new cook, I am more the (kitchen's) helping hand". We then continued to have a lovely chat. She was kind enough to enquire whether we are settling in okay and then she asked "are there still frogs in the toilets?"  Ha! I laughed out loud. I told her that almost every toilet we have cleaned on the station so far has come with a "froggy" surprise. Fortunately, they don't make themselves known while you are "in business" but once you proceed to the flushing part of your toilet visit, they jump or slip-and-slide into your vision. God knows how they get into the system in the first place, but once they are in there, they are hard to get out. This is not so much of a worry if they reside in the staff toilets. But when it comes to

It is probably a bit overbearing to say that the Coddiwomple blog is back by popular demand. We are sure everyone's life was just fine without the daily posts from two middle-aged ladies riding their bicycles around the countryside of Eastern Australia, trying to circumnavigate the potholes of menopause and midlife while following the endless backroads of this nation towards unknown horizons.  But after what could be described as a four-week crash course in "working and living" on a remote cattle station in the Northern Territory, we have built an appetite for sharing some of the anecdotes and experiences of Kitchen Coddiwomple with our family and friends. In only a month, we have enough material to share stories until the cows come home (literally). There is a fabulous saying in German: "das geht auf keine Kuhhaut" - which freely translates to "you won't fit it on a cowhide". And if we all thought that riding a bicycle from Melbourne to Cairns the