1st anniversary

Monday we took Brice’s boat up the river for a picnic. We travelled as far as you can go to a campground just passed the Alexander Bridge on the Blackwood River, where we tied up and had a nice lunch of fresh salad rolls and fruit.


It’s a beautiful boat to travel in and I felt a bit like royalty cruising at 8 knots past all the little tinnies out fishing. It was fun to get into the ski zone where we could open it up and speed!

We had a BBQ dinner with Brice and Phyllis to finish off a wonderful day. I was very touched when Brice said how glad he is he invited us over for a drink the night we arrived in Denham back in May last year! This makes me think of another funny thing one of our neighbours said on Sunday night when we were having a casserole tea with them. He said in all seriousness that we were the friendliest Victorians he had ever met-that some of them are very snobby or grumpy and rude, but we are OK!!!!!

Yesterday we went out in the ocean (“ocean’s” actually because when we went behind one of the islands, we crossed from the Pacific into the Indian!) looking for fish. All we caught was 6 small sand whiting and 2 tommy ruff (or herring if you are from WA). Still it was a nice day, although a bit rough for Phyllis who got quite icky so we came home about an hour earlier than planned. I used to think I got sea sick, but seem to have grown out of it which is good. Last night we ate venison steaks for dinner with mash and veg. It was good, and good to have a night at home alone. We opened ourselves a very nice bottle of wine to celebrate our 1st anniversary–it was 1 year yesterday we headed off from Warrnambool on our trip.

Today is a day of rest for us; we are doing our laundry and house work. Tonight we‘re having curry with Phyllis and Brice (Phyllis is Indian so her pork Vindaloo should be good). I’m making a chicken one.

This time in a week we’ll be in Traralgon and I have to say I’m looking forward to it a lot.

The Festival of the Pig

Last night was the annual Festival of the Pig! It’s a pig on the spit organized by a group of people in the park every year that we were lucky enough to get a guernsey to. It was $10 a head and I took along a salad for Russ, Brice and myself to be shared with everyone. There were 45 people and some really wonderful salads to go with our very delicious pig. After our delicious pig, there were some very nice desserts too. And after all that, there was a bit of joke telling, singing, and our neighbour Bob played his electric mandolin which was really good! I was pretty impressed that he actually made the mandolin himself too as it was beautiful. It was a fantastic night that I’ll always remember this lovely park for.

On the way home from the Festival, some of our neighbours were still up chatting around their fire, so we spent an hour with them before heading to bed. They will be in Denham in May when we are there, so we have made arrangements to catch up up there.

Today, we rose very late and sat and had a cuppa with Brice before heading out crabbing in our boat. It was all going very nicely until we hit a log and damaged our motor. It will have to go into the marine place here for repairs in the morning which is a bit of a bummer as I had my heart set on a few more crabs. We caught ourselves 3 big beauties and planned to make chilli crab with them (which we did and it was fantastic).

When we got home from crabbing, yet another neighbour invited us over for a casserole tea, saying we didn’t need to bring a dish as they’d given us such short notice. Not to worry, we just took our chilli crabs and rice that we had planned to eat anyway. The people who ate crabs and chilli loved them and I got asked for the recipe, so they must have been OK.

Brice’s Indian lady friend Phyllis arrived today to spend a few weeks with him, so we are looking forward to a curry night with here before we head back to Perth on Friday. This has been a really enjoyable place to stay!

Malloy and Crab Pots

Feeding the Neighbours

We are having a wonderful time at Malloy. The weather has been great-not too hot and good for sleeping at night. The wind can get up a bit, but we find places out of it to fish and crab. Not many fish in our part of the river though, but we did catch a nice feed of whiting closer to the mouth the other day. There are crabs up this end and although we never catch many, they are a good size so that makes up for it.

The other day when we went down to the river mouth, we noticed a crab pot that looked to have been abandoned. No one ever puts out one pot. On the way home we pulled it up and saw it had the remains of a fish head long eaten, but threw it back. Two days later it was still there so we rescued it (pinched is not a nice word!). Yesterday we took it crabbing and lost it when its rope came undone (that’s what you get for “rescuing” something). Today we went crabbing in almost the same spot and caught it again! Talk about a saga.

Brice arrived yesterday-he’d been down in Perth having tests so his boat and caravan were already here. He had dinner with us last night. For entrée we had 3 huge crabs and then lamb chops in onion gravy, mash and veg. It was all pretty yummy and the crabs really were so big they were enough.

He thinks we’ll get a fish out in the ocean tomorrow which will be good, and he said we should pack a picnic and take his big boat up the river as far as we can go which would be fun.

There are also lots of other nice people in the park. Many are here together and have been coming for a gazillion years, but they are friendly and have invited us over for drinks before dinner whenever they are sitting outside. Everyone has a small boat (except Brice and the odd other person) so all are keen to talk fishing and fishing locations. It’s one of the better parks we’ve been in so far.

Russ and I will have been on the road 1 year on Tuesday 20th, it certainly has been a wonderful year.

Malloy and Crabs!

The park in Busselton “looked nice” but it was really scary. It was full of old people who all looked the same-they all drove sedans that they covered at night, about 1/3rd of them rode push bikes and many called each other “mum and dad”. The park put on water aerobics every morning (so it was a rush to get to the showers before it finished) and boot scooting once a week and as a special treat last night, they had a brass band on the common for all to enjoy! I was pleased to get out of there before I was brainwashed into joining the festivities! As we were leaving this morning, our neighbours raced out to ask if we had been their neighbours in Denham in May which, as it turns out, we were. We’ll also be meeting them there again this May

We had to drive about 90ks to Malloy (through Margaret River), so arrived here bright and early and are now well set up. Malloy is near Augusta which is where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet. We’ve been there before a few years ago, but it was lovely to go out there for a drive this afternoon.

The park is lovely-a bit sandy, there is duck and kangaroo poo everywhere (the ducks circle the vans like Indians around the wagons) , but we are only 70 metres from the beautiful Blackwood river (and the park’s boat ramp) where the park manager tells us we’ll be able to catch black bream, whiting and blue swimmer crabs so big we’ll only need two each for a feed. I nearly wet myself with excitement when she said that.

This park is small and not particularly full right now. Everyone drives a 4WD and has a boat so we think it should be good fun for 2 weeks. Did I mention there are BIG crabs to be had? Of course it will be good. Our friend Brice (from Denham with the big boat) is here, but has had to go back into Perth for a few days for some more treatment for his bone cancer. He and his daughter should be back Tuesday. The park manager has kindly agreed to store the caravan and boat for us when we fly home for Yvonne and Paicey’s wedding which is great-the boat doesn’t have to go back on top of the car now for about 6 weeks.

There is no TV reception here, so I guess all those books we bought at garage sales and op shops are about to come in handy, I can also see us playing a bit of scrabble and Canasta too.

Busselton

We ended up staying an extra night in Nannup and leaving today-Wednesday. On Monday we went for another drive to Donnybrook and along the way bought ourselves a heap of tomatoes, nectarines and plums on the side of the road. Yesterday we went out to the local recyclers and got ourselves some jars and turned the tomatoes and nectarines into a couple of chutneys. Over the past few days we had bought a nice lime and date chutney ($12.95) and a beetroot and cranberry one ($6.95) and figured we could make ourselves a year’s supply for the price of those two. Funny too, when I read the ingredients of the beetroot and cranberry one, there was no cranberries listed! At least we know what we put in ours.

Today we tidied the house, said goodbye to the chooks, frogs and baby magpies and headed into Busselton where we’ll stay for 2 nights.

This is the first time we’ve been in a park since the end of October. It’s a big full one with nice amenities, friendly people and a beautiful pool that we swam in for a couple of hours this afternoon.

Still in Nannup

It’s Monday 5th and we are still in Nannup-we are heading to Busselton tomorrow for 3 nights, then on to Malloy for 2 weeks. The caravan park there has been kind enough to bring our booking forward so we can be in and out two days earlier. That means we can be back in Perth in time for a days sailing on the Leeuwin and for Leah’s birthday.

Nannup has been great. Christine and John arrived down Friday night (early, while we were out touring around) and it was really nice to have their company for two nights. We cooked the rack of venison for Christine’s birthday, and had stewed nectarines fresh from the tree for dessert. John cooked a great BBQ Saturday night, then we had BBQed bacon, eggs, sausages, homegrown tomatoes etc for Brunch on Sunday. Very delicious.

There were 2 couples staying in the house two doors up, so we went and had drinks with them Saturday night. One of the couples is friends with the house owners and has been doing a bit of electrical work on an extension there in return for a bit of use of the place. They invited Russ and I up again last night after John and Christine headed home too, so it has been a lot of fun. We went for a drive to Bridgetown which is a very pretty little place with not much open on a Sunday which is a bit of a shame. It seems the smaller places are a bit keener to cater to tourists and Sunday drivers. There was nothing in the way of interesting foodie things either (not at all like the other two drives) so all we came home with was 3 very nice bottles of wine from a tiny vineyard we visited.

It was a much cooler day yesterday and perfect for sleeping last night. I think I had the best sleep I’ve had in a month! Today we are just having a quiet day before we move on tomorrow.

Nannup

Yesterday (Wednesday) we made a few sandwiches and headed to Pemberton about 80ks away. Along the way we visited a waterfall (not much water at the moment) then stopped at an avocado farm (9 avocados for $2) and an organic food stall (beautiful chillies and kaffir lime leaves) then on to the bicentennial tree for lunch and a photo opportunity of Russ climbing the tree.


After lunch we stopped at the Pemberton wine centre and bought a couple of really nice local wines (a yummy Riesling and a verdelo) then stopped at a trout farm where we bought a smoked trout for dinner Friday night. We had a look around Pemberton, then drove on to Manjimup where we did a bit of shopping in Coles, then went to the local op shop and bought ourselves 9 books ($1.50 in total) and a wine glass (expensive at $1.00).

At home again, we cooked ourselves a delicious green curry including our chillies and kaffir lime leaves. Yum.

Historic Waterwheel Near Margaret River


Today we went to Margaret River, driving through the lovely forests and past lots of vineyards. It’s been about 6 years since we were here last and not a lot seems to have changed in that time. After a drive down to the mouth of the river, we had a walk around town, bought some Turkish bread for our lunch and some lovely local veggies (beautiful sweet cherry tomatoes, basil, cucumbers etc etc). We ate our lunch in a pretty park outside town-only problem was about 10 very cheeky ducks expected a share of my sandwich. I don’t think so duckies!!!

Margaret River Mouth


The venison farm was just as good as last time we visited-they make the best salami I have ever eaten. We also bought a rack of venison to roast for Christine’s birthday dinner tomorrow night, steaks, sausages, pastrami, prosciutto, cabana and pate. Then we went to an olive farm for a tasting (bought some lovely chutney and olive tapenade). We came home through Busselton, arriving here about 4.30. It was another great day out.

Hot, hot hot in WA

We moved out of the flat as planned on Friday 26th. It wasn’t a good plan though as it was so hot we couldn’t believe it. I think we drank about 5 litres of water in the three hours it took to do it. Afterwards we went back to B, L & T’s and spent the rest of the day in the pool (only coming out to cook dinner for our Aussie Day celebrations After entrée and mains we walked up to Mt Lawley and watched Skyworks over the city and Swan River with about 400 other locals. It was pretty spectacular, but still hot (about 38c by then), so we came home, got in the pool and finally had our dessert watching the Skyworks replay at 11pm.

Saturday and Sunday hovered around the 40c mark again, Monday cooled to about 35 and today it is probably 40c again.

Todd Leah and Blair off to Their Party!


Saturday night everyone went out to a 40th birthday party so Chris and Carly had diner with us. Russ cooked quail and we polished off the leftover salads from Friday night then we had ice cream, fresh fruit and Leah’s homegrown passionfruit. We also did a lot of swimming. Sunday was again spent in the pool.

Monday we got the car, boat and van ready to travel (pretty much a full days job with all of them needing a good clean and tidy up and a few minor repairs to the water pump and tank of the van. I don’t think vans like just sitting around.

Today (Tuesday) we have driven to Nannup (about 60ks east of Busselton) to spend a few days at Leah’s parents holiday house there. It’s a beautiful spot, but it’s very hot and smoky today. Still it was a really nice drive and it feels so good to be back out in the country. We stopped in Harvey on the way for a counter lunch in a beautiful old pub (had Harvey Beef steak sandwiches) and passed lots of foodie places on the way we’ll pop back and visit in the next day or so. Tonight we’ll sit outside and BBQ some turkey sausages and have a salad-it’s too hot to think about much more than that.

3 more sleeps in the flat.....

Thursday was spent with Leah doing our laundry. It’s nice over there using the wireless Internet and watching Food TV on the big screen! After we’d washed and dried all our dirty stuff, we headed to Ganeesh, and Indian grocery store close by. We bought a heap of stuff for $14 (spices, curry mixes poppadums etc), it’s clean and orderly and cheap!

Friday we woke and sat watching TV wondering what to do for the day. An ad came on for Midland markets, so problem solved. It’s a fair drive out there, but it got us out seeing other suburbs and the fruit and veg we bought was probably the best we’ve got in the whole 3 months we have been here.

Friday night Leah cooked us a yummy dinner and we stayed over in the van. It’s silly to drive home after even a drink when we have a very comfy bed of our own sitting there! Saturday morning we got up and did a round of the Garage sales and a church fete, stocking up on books, magazines jam and pickles.

Sunday was a quiet day. Russ walked to Freo, but I stayed home as I wasn’t feeling too well. Sunday night we gave in and had a drink before dinner with landlord Ramesh and his Korean Harem. There’s not much choice when they are sitting right outside our front door.

Monday was the start of our last week in Perth, so we did a bit of running around (post office, hardware, battery world) then visited Leah and put a few things in the van. I wanted to try Nando’s chicken before we left so off to there for a late lunch. When we got home, the neighbour came over and made herself known to us. She had shot an arrow over the back fence and needed to retrieve it! We had to promise not to tell Ramesh she practices archery in the backyard aiming at the flat’s kitchen window. It’s the first time she’s missed. Anyhow, we ended up over there having a glass of wine before dinner with them and I’m sure she and I would have been good friends. It’s sad to meet her in our last week.

A busy week

Our look around Perth was good-we went to Harbour City (an outlet shopping centre) in West Perth and bought ourselves some new clothes and shoes which always entertains me! Dinner with Allan was good too-he brought me over some recent photos of Daniel when he visited him on Hamilton Island.

Now we see the end in sight, we are rushing to do a few things we had planned while here. Friday we went to the aquarium at Hilary’s Boat Harbour. It was expensive, very fishy smelling but still ok as we saw quite a few of the fish we’ve caught up north and been unable to identify.

Saturday we did a few garage sales and came away with 14 books, a fishing knife (Victrinox) for me, and a crab pot, so we were pretty pleased. The two of us a huge readers, so garage sales and op shops are an essential source of cheap books.

Saturday night we gave in and had a BBQ with our lunatic loser of a landlord. He really is a tosser. He is the biggest know it all, know nothing, I have ever met! And I’m serious about that.

On Sunday, we slept late, had brunch, and then went over to Blair, Leah and Todd’s for a day of swimming followed by a BBQ with them and Chris and Carly. What a difference it makes to spend the day with pleasant intelligent people (as opposed to our landlord!).

Monday we took our caravan for a service and a few minor repairs, Tuesday we picked it up and returned it to the kids place. Tuesday night the two of us went to Latasha’s Place in Leederville for an Indian meal. I’d give it high marks for value for money, but pretty low ones for service and somewhere in the middle for the food. In other words, it was OK!

Today (Wednesday, we have been over to Freo on the train for a day at the Maritime Museum there. It was fantastic-must have been, it took us 5 ½ hours to see all we did! Included in that was a 1 ¼ hour tour of the Submarine Ovens. It was great and made even better by a former crewman from QLD (who had served 7 years on it) taking the tour too. He was really entertaining and pointed out lots of things the guide didn’t. I especially loved seeing Australia II on display along with lots of memorabilia from it.

Tomorrow is laundry day, so we’ll spend it doing that and swimming.

Perth

Only 2 ½ weeks left here in the flat. My sister is always worrying we will fall in love with Perth and never leave, but you know what, I am looking forward to being back on the road, seeing new places and meeting new people. We have really enjoyed our time here (although I don’t much like our old woman of a landlord!) and I’ll always remember it as a wonderful time, but let’s get going!

The past couple of weeks have been really good fun. We’ve managed to take the boat out a couple more times on the Swan (not that there are any decent fish in it). The fun of it is more just fishing in the middle of the city and seeing all the different spots from the river.

On December 30th, we (about 40 of us) had a picnic/BBQ and cricket in the park to farewell Ange and Graham who are off to Sydney to live and work. They hired a spot in the park, so we had a playground for the kids, a key to the toilets, plenty of shade and space to play cricket and botche.

We had a great NYE over at Blair, Leah and Todd’s. About a dozen of us had a very relaxed dinner by the pool and it was possibly one of the nicest NYE’s I’ve put in. New Year’s Day, Leah Russ and I packed a picnic of leftovers and took it to the 20/20 match at the WACA. It’s the first major cricket match that Leah and I have ever been to, so we both really enjoyed it.

Saturday night we went over to Curt and Holly's for a BBQ. They bought a really nice unit in Yokine and it was the first time we had visited it. Tim (Russ's NZ nephew) came along and a cousin of Curt's who has just arrived from Warrnambool. There can't be many people left there now! Tim does a bit of work with Curt at the bookbinder's but it looks as though he has a job out in the mines now which is good.

Early this week we got new tyres for the Navarra which pleases me. I hate dodgy tyres on a car. The price didn’t please me, but these are guaranteed to last 60,000 ks (which should nearly see us home!). Next week, the van goes in for a service.

Leah is in between jobs at the moment, so she has cooked us a couple of lovely dinners over the last two weeks. She was a bit run down as she finished work, so it’s nice to see her enjoying her home, pool and garden for a change.

Today we are off by train for a look around West Perth, then tonight we have my ex husband coming over for dinner.

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!