Merry Christmas

Russ and I hope all of you who read this have had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you all the best for 2007. Our WA Christmas was great-lots of good food wine and fun and did enjoy my first ever Christmas celebrated outside Victoria!


Blair, Leah, Todd, Russell and I provided lunch (seafood, ham and salads) for 12, then dinner for another 4 plus a few drop-ins for drinks later on. Dinner was more traditional with turkey, pork, beef, leftover salads, roast veg and several sweets. The guests kept us supplied with nice drinks. As you can imagine, lots of fun was had shopping and cooking for the day as well. The kid’s house is a great place for entertaining with the beautiful pool out back and their huge table and many chairs. It was a pretty warm day so the pool really got used and enjoyed.
Carly Morrfield

I have lots of photos of the day so will post some soon. We had Russ’s NZ nephew with us and it was nice to hear from Daniel, Mick and Ryan and Kirstyn. Mick is leaving Whistler on January 5th, so will be home in Warrnambool when we get there.


Tim from NZ


Leah's parents Christine and John

Boxing Day was spent very quietly-we came home and I slept for 3 hours! We had stayed over in our van on the two previous nights. Today we went over and collected a few of our things we’d forgotten, ate the last of the turkey and had several swims. Leah was home as she is in between jobs with 4 ½ weeks off before she starts the next. It looks like the weather will stay hot until New Year’s Eve, so I think more swimming will be in order for us. The plan NYE is to spend it quietly at Blair, Leah and Todd’s with a very few others.

WACA!!!!

Saturday we had our first shifts at the WACA. Russ got moved into the members bar and loved it.
Russ is at work today. I lasted one day and quit. It was awful-dirty, disorganized and not looking like it would get any better. I had no idea what I was doing as a supervisor and my staff (when I finally got some) had no idea either-what a recipe for disaster that was. I had faulty equipment, no stocks of some things ….the list just goes on and on. Russ on the other hand is really enjoying it. Night before last he worked in the player’s bar which impressed him a lot. He got to serve Ian Botham, Denis Lillie and Kim Hughes amongst others. If I had my time over, I’d have asked for corporate bar work too!

Yesterday he had a day off, so we lazed around then went and picked our NZ nephew Tim and his mate Sam up and brought them over to see their cousins and Leah. They have plans to live and work over here for a while which is great as we've never spent much time with Tim. They are loving Perth already (lots of hot girls apparently!) and just need some work for things to we perfect I think. They are living in Mosman Park which is on our train line about 4 stops away so nice and handy to us. We organised a BBQ and salads for dinner and all enjoyed another of those lovely perth evenings sitting outside by the pool.

Today I am over here again doing my laundry and waiting for a delivery of bedroom furniture for Todd. Tomorrow, Leah and I are off to do a bit of shopping. We want to get as much done for Christmas as we can.

We're coming home!

Another week’s gone by in a flash. I did my supervisor training (and Responsible serving of alcohol!) at the WACA last Friday and worked there for a day Tuesday doing set up. Russ worked Monday and Tuesday doing the same. We were both to work today but they are ahead of schedule with set up, so we weren’t needed. I work next on Saturday and Sunday at an England v WA game, then again on Tuesday for a 20/20 night match. Then The Ashes begin a couple of days later.

Last Friday we went over and had a drink with Leah after work, then stayed on until Blair flew in and had Thai take aways sitting outside beside the pool. It’s a nice life style here. Saturday we ran them to various Christmas dos and picked them up from the races when they couldn’t get a taxi-it’s nice just to be here to do the family sort of stuff.

Todd turned 28 yesterday, so 11 of us went to Chutney Mary’s (an Indian restaurant in Subiaco) to celebrate. It was a really fun night with really good food. Chutney Mary’s is on the really busy corner of Hay and Rokeby Sts right in the centre of Subi and our table was on the footpath right at the traffic lights. Dame Edna was playing at the theatre opposite. A very interesting place to sit, eat and watch the world go by!

Also yesterday we got word from the bride to expect an invite to a family wedding in March. I hope she meant it because we’ve booked our flights and will be gate crashing otherwise. Our plan is to arrive in Melbourne, catch a train to Traralgon, then go to the wedding in Werribee with my sister Glenda and BIL Peter on the Saturday. On Monday we will head to Port Fairy to spend a few days with Ryan and Kirstyn, then maybe go down to Portland for a night (Deb), come back and spend a couple of nights in Warrnambool, back to Melbourne then Perth the following day. We’ll be home for 2 weeks and hope to catch up with as many of you as we can.

Mick tells us he will be home in January-that’s 12 months he’s been gone. I think after a trip up to see Daniel on Hamilton Is. he will head to WA to work. There’s heaps of well paid work out in the mines and in construction and right now I think that’s what he desperately needs.

Today we planned to go fishing, but we have slightly unpredictable tummies after all that Indian food last night (probably the goat I reckon!) so have decided to write our Christmas cards, shop and do a bit of banking instead. We’ll probably fish tomorrow instead.

Trip to the Stirling Ranges

We both got pretty good jobs at the WACA-Russ in treasury (so handling all the money that comes in from the food and beverage outlets) and I got to head a small team of people who will help out any of the outlets that get into trouble-not enough food prepped, staff chucking fits etc. I have a training day this Friday with the outlet supervisors although I’m not one of them.

Saturday we had dinner with Todd, Blair, Leah, Chris and Carly. Leah and I had a big shopping morning (mainly new clothes for Leah) then got the stuff for a roast. The boys cooked it on the BBQ and we ate outside which was nice. Chris and Carly bought along a lovely apple pie, strawberries and cream that they’d bought that day at the East Perth organic market.


Sunday we got up and headed down south to the Stirling Ranges for a few days (2 nights). We found a fully equipped cabin for $49 pn in the Cranbrook caravan park, so spent two very comfortable nights there. I have to admit it was pretty hot out in the ranges and the wild flowers had never come to much, but we visited some great wineries to make up for that! On the way home yesterday (Tuesday) we went through some great little out back towns stopping for a counter lunch somewhere in a big old country pub. Non Aussies might like to know we saw heaps and heaps of emus (including very young chicks), two goannas very close up, nearly killed a kangaroo and her joey on the road and saw lots of birds-mainly parrots and cockatoos. We got home round 6ish last night, made ourselves pizza for dinner then went to bed. We were woken about 1.30 by the loudest, heaviest rain I have heard in ages. It's rained on and off for 12 hours since and it's wonderful


Today we are over doing our laundry, will cook Todd and Leah dinner then head home. We’ve just been shopping, and we bought Leah’s dog a lovely bone (split with plenty of marrow and meat on it). He looked at it, then finally picked it up and wandered up and own and up and down and up and down ….before finally burying it and sitting on it. Devi would have scoffed it by then.

When we first took the flat, I wondered how we would amuse ourselves for 12 weeks without the chance to go fishing as often as we do. It's easy and we are really enjoying it. And, we are already 3 1/2 weeks into the 12 and the days are flying!

WACA

Russ and I have both managed to get jobs with the caterers who have the WACA contract. We'll both be working at the Ashes in December, but they haven't decided exactly what we'll be doing! I think Russ will probably be dispensing beverages in the corporate side of things. I"m not so sure about me. We had our interviews Monday night and tomorrow night is induction. It seems like there is lots of work to be had at the ground with smaller cricket matches, functions and stock takes, so the time in Perth will fly I think.

Sunday we went for a lovely lunch at wagamama in Subiaco. It was a 15 minute walk there for us which is nice. We met with some people grom Recipezaar-the recipe club I have belonged to for 5 years. Three were strangers, and we caught up again with Terese who we had met a few times in Melbourne. She met, married and moved over here about 18 months ago. It was great to see her and wonderful to meet the other three. The food was pretty good too. Here's a photo of the six of us.



Tuesday (yesterday) we caught the train to Fremantle. It was a beautiful day, so we had a really good walk around, did a little bit of shopping, sat out in the Mall to eat our lunch, then went to the Maritime museum. A really good day!

Week 2 in Perth

Our second week in Perth has flown.
Monday we spent doing our laundry at BL&T’s, followed by a bit of shopping.
Tuesday, we went back over there for a swim which was wonderful. The two of us had a BBQ for dinner here at the flat, and Russell potted us up some more herbs.
Wednesday, we caught a morning train into the city (6 minutes) and wandered around Forrest Close shopping centre then walked over to Northbridge for lunch. We came home and made a couple of salads, then took them over to BL&T’s and had a swim before they got home. Todd has had a mate over from Melbourne (for the Red Bull Air Race) so we had Kurt and Holly over and had a BBQ dinner (sitting outside in the lovely warm evening).
Thursday, we went over and house sat while we waited for a serviceman to come fix the reticulation system. After he’d been, we drove to O’Connor near Fremantle where we finally got the lights for our boat trailer (only a week late!).
Friday we took the boat out on the Swan River and did a bit of fishing. There were lots of fish to be had, but only 1 was legal size. Lucky for him, because we only ever keep our fish if we have enough for a feed and one small (but legal) bream is not enough for the two of us! We only went a couple of ks on the river so we have heaps and heaps of exploring to do. It was great to pass all the beautiful homes, gardens, see the construction going on and it was really entertaining to watch a school down at the river having dragon boat races for the day. When we got home, I got a message to say I’ve been short listed for some cooking work at the WACA whilst The Ashes are on. I go for my interview Monday night over at the ground so wish me luck. Last night I watered the garden and I noticed our herbs are really taking off-it must be the lovely weather.
Today we are off to the races at Ascot and tomorrow we have lunch in Subiaco with a few of the people from my Internet recipe club. We are going to Wagamama, an Asian (mostly Japanese) restaurant.

Our first week in Perth

It's been a lovely first week. We have really enjoyed living where we do as it really is so central.
Through the week, we took the boat trailer's lights over to O'Connor to be repaired-I was more excited in the butcher/fish/game shop over the road and came home with a bag of duck marylands, quail and king prawns.
Thursday Russ cooked dinner for all of us over at BL&T's. He made really nice crab stuffed chicken breasts that he wrapped in prosicutto and served with hollondaise sauce over. Yum.
Friday night we came over for drinks with Chris and Carly (both formerly from Warrnambool) and Russ cooked us a few barbied sausages, chops and a lovely fresh coleslaw.
Saturday Russ and I visited a couple of church fetes and bought ourselves a vaccuum cleaner ($25) a lot of books, pickles, jams and chutnies, and a 20c wine glass. Leah had planned a "girls night in and pool party" but the weather was a bit against us swimming. We still sat outside though and had a really fun night w2hile the "boys" went around to Luke's (Luke is from Portland) and played poker. The girls were still partying when they got home from their poker game! Lucky Russ and I have a caravan in the yard for sleepovers!
Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast, then headed to Subiaco markets to get our fruit and veg for the week (or most of it). It's so cheap and only about a 10 minute walk from the flat. We also grabbed a few pots, some potting mix and herbs to grow while we are in the flat-Russ planted them this morning.
The flat is really quite comfortable and even better now we have bedside lights and a vaccuum cleaner.

Back in Perth

3 nights in Guilderton was more than enough! The place was crowded come Friday night with heaps of families from Perth there for the weekend. It was windy as anything and we got rain and a couple of pretty good thunderstorms to boot. We took the boat up the Moore River the two days we were there and although the fish were all too small to keep, it was fun.



It’s a really beautiful river with lots of birdlife, kangaroos down eating in the late afternoon and big beautiful paperbark trees lining the edges and growing in the water. The few hours we spent on the river got us out of the wind and away from all the feral kids running around the park.



I wasn’t particularly sad to leave yesterday and drive the 90ks into Perth and to our flat. We unpacked quickly, and then brought the van around to its home for the next 12 weeks at Blair, Leah and Todd’s. Leah’s parents John and Christine came down from Mandurah, so we stayed and had a lovely BBQ for dinner last night.

Today we are over here again cleaning the van and doing many loads of washing. It’s about 30c here today, so it’s drying almost as we hang the next load out.

Dongara to Guilderton

Thursday November 2nd we left Dongara and drove to Guilderton where we’ll stay for 3 nights before heading into Perth. Dongara was one of the best parks we have stayed in and I was sad to leave this morning. We booked another week on our way up north next year as we left. The managers Kev and Jeanette and staff of the small park work very hard to make it a clean, safe, fun place to stay and I’m sure they get lots of repeat business because of that. It comes highly recommended if you are ever passing through, but I think you would need to book as it is small.

Our long term neighbours Don and Shirley were fun, and we met lots of nice couples just moving through. We especially liked an English couple we met at drinks last night. They came to Aus with no real plan, bought an old ford complete with camping gear and off they went. They seem to be having the time of their lives.

We managed to catch and cook a number of crabs that are now safely in the freezer and waiting to get to Perth but the only fish we caught of any size was my flat head.



Last night the park managers put an interesting proposition to us-they’d like us to come back in 16 months and manage the park for them for a year. It’s tempting to say the least, so watch this space……

Now we’re in Guilderton (after a very pretty drive past lots of shrubs in flower), but we seem to have no TV reception, the wind is blowing a gale, the internet won’t work, Russ just scraped heaps of skin off his toes, a neighbour had to help us park the van (very rare we can’t do it) and it was MY idea to come here. Not happy Jan!

Crabs in Dongara

It’s Sunday and we’re still in Dongara. What a great little place it’s turned out to be! We originally booked for 3 nights, then booked another 3, then this morning, another 3. There are crabs in the harbour (a short walk away) which is the main reason for us extending and our freezer is slowly filling with crab meat to take back to Perth to turn into things for Blair Leah and Todd. There isn’t much in the way of fish in there, but I did get a nice flat head yesterday-he’s going on the barbie tonight.

Dongara is a bit windy and we haven’t had a day we could put the boat in, but it’s a nice park. We have good neighbours Shirley and Don, and although he is just over 80 and she somewhere near, they are very active and lots of fun. It was a surprise to find out Don was over 70 let alone 80! Wednesday the park put on nibbles and this morning a pancake breakfast. It’s a good chance to meet lots of other travellers and hear their tales.

Coleseam National Park


We both really enjoyed a trip out to Coalseam National park about 60ks out of town. They discovered coal there over 100 years ago so hence the name! It's got small gorges, camping and picnic areas and a very pretty dry river bed with fossilised shells along the mud banks. We followed a thunderstorm out there, and copped just enough rain to wash a bit of the red dust of the car and boat and enough lightening to have me wondering if aluminium boats attracted lightening!



Another enjoyable day was spent driving up South Beach, follwed by a lunch and a bit of fishing. We finally gave in though to the wind and tiny fish taking our bait and went back to the jetty to have the same thing happen!

South Beach Dongara

Dongara

I haven’t been a very enthusiastic blogger since we got back from Europe, so I thought I better get it up to date. I haven’t been enthusiastic because we were staying in parks and towns we’d stayed in before and apart from more wind and drier conditions, not much had changed.

We really enjoyed our few days in Kalbarri-especially fishing out along the beautiful river, but left Saturday and went to Geraldton (another park we’ve stayed in). Brice is staying there while he carts wheat for a couple of months so it was great to catch up with him-sad to see the state of his health though. In a good year, he has 13 trucks there, this year he has only one so you can imagine there is not much wheat around. The farmers with any wheat are going to get good prices, and the price of bread will rise.

Tuesday we drove less than 70kms to Dongara and plan to stay here 4 nights. This is a new town and park for us at last and it makes a nice change. The park is small and friendly and has absolute waterfront (which would be nice if the wind would stop blowing!). We are about 500 metres from the boat ramp but it doesn’t look like the boat will be going in at this stage. The boat harbour has a big wall which Russ fished off last night and caught lots of (undersized) fish. Tonight the park puts on free nibbles at the BBQs-we have to BYO drinks. I like parks that do that for their visitors and wish more would.

This is a really pretty town and after a drive round yesterday, we both felt it was one of the first places we’ve come to that we could consider moving to. We probably couldn’t afford to, but it’s nice to dream.

October 18th Denham to Kalbarri

Yesterday, (October 18th) we left Denham and drove south 350ks to Kalbarri. It’s a lovely place we’ve been to before, but that bloody wind is blowing even harder than it was in Denham. Russ wasn't too keen to come via here as the fishing's not too hot in our tinny but I like the place.

We hadn’t actually towed the van any distance for 12 weeks (apart from to and from storage) so it felt a bit strange to have it behind us again. I drove until lunch time (I usually do because I get sleepy in the afternoon) and Russ after that. I was busy admiring the huge grevillias either side of the road when we nearly hit an emu. They are really stupid birds, almost as stupid as the hundreds of pheasants we almost killed in England, but a heap bigger.

After we set up, we went and did some shopping then some 4wding in search of a fishing spot we’d been told about. It was all going really well until I said we’d come one particular way and we hadn’t and we ended ups slightly stuck in some extremely soft, thick sand-Russ was Not Happy Jan! anyway, a bit of air out of the tires and we were on our way again.

The good bit of the road


When we got home, a guy was trying to pop his pop-up up but it wouldn’t work-the winder was broken. He ended up just standing there looking very pissed off, having a beer before booking into a cabin. They towed the van away to be repaired this morning.

Today we went back out to River Road (no trouble at all this time) and had a lovely day fishing off the bank for bream and mulloway. We only got two of each, but that is more than enough for our dinner tonight. It was beautiful out there. We were 6km up river from town and we didn’t see another person all day. We saw lots of groups of emus coming down to a small beach opposite us where they would just sit for a while before wandering off. I reckon we saw ten different groups. We also saw kangaroos and many different birds-ducks, swans, pelicans, gulls, terns, herons, sea eagles etc and the emus. And we lost no gear, found a nice rod holder and $2 so a good day all round.

Our week in Denham October 4th to 11th

We’ve been back in Denham a week today, and I have to say it’s a very different place from the last time we were here. It’s school holidays now and the majority of people here are in tents or pop tops and have children with them. There are a few tinnies and a few boats a bit bigger than our tinny, but no serious fisherpeople like Brice. It gets too windy to get out in the bigger boats and is really starting to get warm-round 30c most days.

Because of the wind, we have been fishing off the beach near Monkey Mia twice. I have never caught anything doing that so I was pretty happy to catch a couple of nice sized yellow fin bream and we caught quite a few whiting both times (some of them very good sized) and Russ caught a flat head. Our two fishing sessions got us 3 feeds.



Yesterday the wind dropped and we were finally able to put the boat in at a place Russ and Todd had been to-Eagle Bluff. They found a channel with fast moving water and were able to bring us home a couple of nice pink snapper from there. Yesterday we found the channel, moved off it then couldn’t find it again! We caught about 50 undersized pinkies which was lots of fun but were just about to give up and go back to the butcher for something for dinner when Russ caught us a nice 54cm pinky. A fish that size is more than enough for the two of us so we ate him cooked on the BBQ last night with chips and salad and the rest of him is being made into fish cakes for dinner tonight.



It’s been pretty quiet socially here, so it was nice to have our neighbours stop by for a drink and a chat after dinner. They are really funny, friendly couple from Perth but left today as Gill’s deputy principal died (52yo woman) and is being buried tomorrow. Gill is a year younger than me, has had 7 children, 5 grandchildren and only retired 3 years ago from the Perth to Rottnest swim-something she’s done many times. It was quite a late night for us last night so today is just going to be a quiet one. There are a few clouds to ruin the beautiful big blue sky too.

I did forget to mention we had a really nice day out driving 100ks back towards the highway and into Hamelin Pool where we saw the stromatalites (thought to be the oldest living organisms on earth) and the old telegraph station. On our way home we called into a few of the bays, inlets, caravan park and camping grounds along the road to Denham. The stromatalites don't do much, but it was a nice day out once again.

A lot of stomatalites not doing much

Back in Denham October 4th to 18th

We arrived safely back in Denham yesterday. It was a really windy drive, so we were happy not to be towing the van. We stayed in a self contained unit in Geraldton and did a big grocery shop to bring on with us-between those groceries and all the toiletries we bought in Bangkok, we won’t need to shop for a very long time!

Perth was great. Blair, Todd and Leah’s new home is so nice and we were very comfortable for the week we spent there before leaving on Tuesday. It was wonderful just to relax after the long flights, then to shop and cook after so long. We both had haircuts-I have at last found a hairdresser I like and she is only about 2 minutes from the house. Saturday we had a Grand Final/ house warming party which was a lot of fun. Leah and I were probably the only ones cheering West Coast on, and I was only cheering because Sydney won the year before and I thought they should share!

We got the van and boat out of storage yesterday. Leaving them here was an excellent solution for almost no cost, but the van was full of dust and ants. It took a long while to clean it, put those groceries away and get the fridge down to something reasonable to put the cold stuff in. We also had trouble with the gas-one of the park managers just came up and had a go and decided it was the regulator. After he left, Russ the bush mechanic hit it with a shifter and now it works just fine. It’s a good thing we have the electric hot plates though or we would have been eating at one of Denham’s delightful restaurants (not).

I’m feeling a bit down after our very enjoyable holiday-I miss my sister Glenda, neighbour Janette and Kirstyn as I know they would have all been interested to see the photos and here our travel tales. Glenda has visited all those places we went so it would be good to have her to talk to. It’s also funny to look over the way and not see Brice and his big boat sitting there; the caravan park is a lot quieter now. The real serious fishing people have gone as it gets too windy from now on. We should get in a few days though as the weather is on the improve for the next few days (wind wise that is). It’s about 30c right now and lovely. So much pleasanter than hot humid smelly Bangkok at about the same temperature and the sky is so blue!

Welcome to the new blog.

The old blog got too large and took too long to publish each time (especially when I put photos on). Here's a link back to the old one though if you ever want to check the archives

Jan and Russ Around Australia