Author Archives: Jenni - 'Yuri'

Christmas Dinner and Boxing Day (2009)

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We had an AMAZING buffet for dinner, seafood like you would not believe (snow crabs, cray fish, sushi, shrimp) but there was also beautiful salads and steak and roast pork. And the dessert buffet! We both ate waaaaaaay too much, eyes most definitely bigger than our bellies finally. And a nice bottle of champagne to go with it.

Feeling bagged full, we reckoned if we didnt go for a walk immediately, we would collapse into bed straight away, so changed into trainers and went across the road to Hyde Park. After a few moments, we went back to the room to pick up a camera as the place was full of bats. Not little ‘was that a bat, an owl, or just a seagull’ flying things, but proper, honest to goodness could be a Bat Signal bats. Loads of them. Google tells us that there are so many of them they were trying to cull them fairly recently.

Today (Boxing Day) we walked down to Circular Quay and then across the Harbour Bridge. Not up and over the bridge, just the standard pedestrian foot path. Some impressive sights to be seen there. Some excellent shots of the Opera House from the other side.

Later on, we decided to go out to Darling Harbour and see whats going on there – I had spotted it has a shopping centre open to 9pm, thats NINE AT NIGHT! We are so used to Perth closing at 5:30pm that shops open till 9pm are a huge novelty. (We have repeatedly mentioned The Fort being open till midnight on the run up to Christmas and how that would never happen in Perth)

On our way down a young guy ran across the road in front of us, slipped and cracked his head on the edge of the kerb. We tried to help him up, but he was totally spaced and just lay in a puddle in the gutter. After trying to make sure the passing cars didnt drive over him, we managed to get him moved, and spotted a lot of blood coming from the back of his head. Grabbed a passing bloke to phone an ambulance, and then the guys mother arrived (he had ran on ahead to get something when he fell). We managed to move him to in front of the Apple Store (The staff were closing up and checked he was OK rather than trying to move us along coz he might stain the glass 😉 ) He came round properly and was rather embarrassed about getting an ambulance, but he had bled a lot and didnt remember falling or being moved  so must have been very concussed. So we waited till the ambulance arrived before leaving them.

So, we got our walk round the harbour after that bit of excitement, and it looks amazing. Gonna spend some time there during the day! Just had some FAB room service food, and looking to head to bed. Carpe Deium once again!

Welcome to Australia! Now F*$k off home.

By | | Australia, grrrr
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fowf

So we picked up Alan and Penny from the airport. It was great to see our friends again and we had a great time, which we shall blog about in due course….

The first bloggable thing happened less than an hour after they left the airport.

We loaded the suitcases into the back of the ute, and headed back to our place. We made a slight detour to pick up some rolls so we could start them off into the Aussie lifestyle and have a barbeque, with burgers.

As we wander from the carpark towards the bakery, a 4×4 swerves across the carpark towards us, the window rolls down, a head appears closely followed by the high class, typical Aussie welcome of

WHY DONT YOU FUCK OFF HOME!!!

Ian had made the cardinal error of wearing a Scotland Tshirt. That was it. So, roughly 45 minutes in the country, our friends get to experience the great Aussie welcome shouted at us.

Welcome tourists, leave your money in this bucket, then fuck off, we dont want you here.

Short Update!

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Its been a while since we have posted, this is because we have been busy.

My parents arrived two weeks ago and we have been busy keeping them entertained since.

Its been *brilliant*, I have a sore throat from gabbing so much. I am tired from sitting up late talking. Its been playing merry hell with my diet and exercise plan, but its been so worth it.

The last two weekends have been busy – last week we took them to the east and got some of the best pizza evah, then oop norf to Lancelin, swam in the ocean, sat on the beach and had a glass of wine/bottle of beer and totally chilled.

This weekend we went down to The Beach House (TM) on Friday night and used it as a staging post for a trip all the way to the south coast to see a treetop walk, made wood fired pizza, and then went down to Busselton with probably the best beach I have ever seen – it was gorgeous, clear, calm, sparkling waters and a 2km jetty to walk along. On Friday night we did some star gazing on the beach, absolutely stunning.

We will do a longer post later in the week once we have caught up on some sleep, but this has been fantastic for us – we have been more sociable than we have been in 9 months. Its going to be hard when they leave, but at least we have reinforcements on the way 🙂 My folks leave on Wednesday, and Alan & Penny arrive next Monday 🙂

Quick! To the beach!

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On Sundays theres not a whole hellish amount to be done here. Its not quite as bad as when we first arrived, the local wholesalers is open so we can get food which is good for a sudden MUST HAVE BBQ – GET BURGERS impulse. But what Sunday is good for is heading off to the beach.

beach1

So, we headed up to Lancelin. We had been there a couple of times, the sand is beautiful, the water is lovely, its all good. So, icebox packed with some fruit and, more importantly, wine and beer and cola we set off. Set up on the beach and chilled. Dad wandered off taking pictures (this is a recurring theme) and the rest of us had a swim 🙂

We dried off, dad rejoined us and we sat for a bit having a very civilized (but illegal) drink on the beach. Then it was time for another swim

swim

We packed up and headed back down the road, but spotted a sign for Moore River on the way back. I had been told it was somewhere nice to see, so we veered off and headed that way instead. Well worth the detour, it was a really pretty place.

moore

You can see the river doesnt actually flow into the ocean – theres not enough water! So, thats as far as it gets. I guess during the winter when the river is higher it will, but for now, you can stand on that sand bar and have a river on one side, and an ocean on the other.

They also have free to use gas barbies there. Someone was cooking sausages. Apparently the smell was making everyone else hungry. Certainly the idea that someone was cooking sausages was enough to make me hungry.

Our new best friend.

By | | Australia, Interesting! (Well, for me)
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Sorry guys, you have all been usurped.

This is our new best friend. The best friend of the sunburnt muppet is PAXYL!

Our new best friend

Our new best friend

It soothes, with its coolingness, and heals with its antiseptic, but most importantly it contains lignocaine. A sunburn treatment that contains anesthetic. Its relief in a small bottle. We are now covered top to toe in this stuff, it only takes a minute to dry in, then less than 5 minutes later the worst of the pain is gone, and its effective for 2 hours.

I love it.

Driving

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Aussie drivers are mental.

Well, I will change that statement.

Perth drivers are mental.

The East Coast is apparently not that great, but people who have driven in the East and West say that Perth is the worst.

The rules of the road here include :

  • Tailgating is compulsary
  • Staying in one lane is a bad idea
  • Swerving about whatever lane you are in at the moment is beneficial
  • If someone indicates that they are changing into your lane, you MUST accelerate to prevent them from doing so
  • As a follow on from above : if you want to change lane, do it as fast as possible into as small a gap as possible, without ever indicating (if you indicate, they will block you)
  • If your exit is coming up, move into the “slow” lane and accelerate as fast as you can, so you are doing a really high speed as you reach the end of the exit slipway
  • You should drive the largest car you can afford, the wider the better
  • 50% of the cars on the road should display a sticker on the back saying either “F$@k off, we’re full” or “If you dont love it, LEAVE”
  • A UTE is the prefered method of transit
  • If you have a UTE, you need to get a dog so it can sit in the back of the UTE
  • When parking, the best places are not tarmac, they are on grass.
  • When parking in a car park, ignore the many empty spaces and instead park at the sides, on grass if possible, to reduce the number of steps to whereever you are going (This will be demonstrated at a later date with pictures)
  • When lanes merge – try your damnest to edge in front of the other car in the other lane. Even if you could have slotted in easily behind them, you MUST get in front. He will be trying to get in front of you too – your manhood depends on you getting in front.
  • Aim for bikes – motor, or pedal
  • Speeding is evil. Do not speed. Ever.
  • Drink driving is not a problem. If you can get the key into the lock, you are fit to drive. Hurrah for remote locking.
  • Driving while as high as a kite is also fine. The same rules apply as drink driving.

    • There are some differences in the driving here …
    Traffic lights take forever! The majority of traffic lights are large affairs, and have filter lanes. The people turning right get to go, then the people going straight on, then the other set of people turning right, then the other people going straight on. You can wait on your green light for an age. And it is a green light. No amber. No prepping to get ready to go on green. Its red, red, red, red, red, GREEN GO! GO! GO! Then you get amber to warn you that you are going to have to stop soon. Then finally red. And you have to wait forever to go again. The amber light seems to last longer. When we get back, we will skip a few red lights as we are used to the amber being on so long 🙂

    The Aussie slip roads onto freeways work slightly differently from UK sliproads onto motorways. They basically add another lane, then remove it. Leaving the two lanes to merge into one. Like that bit on the way back from Edinburgh on the M8 at Livingston. The person who is ahead has right of way. So, there is a lot of acceleration to be the one ahead. So, there is a lot of emergency braking. So, there is a lot of bumps, and the freeway grinds to a halt early in the morning. They are very fond of this manner of traffic management. You will frequently be going along a two lane road in the burbs and if you dont spot the “Form One Lane” sign, it can come as a fright when a giant 4×4 tries to side swipe you.

    We thought there were a lot of rude people on the roads when we first arrived. Not sure my opinion has changed, but at least we have a reason for it now! The freeway has an upper limit of 100kph (60mph) but it also has a lower limit of 80kph (50mph). They rarely speed, so you try and overtake someone when your restricted to 10mph of each other. It leads to two cars side by side, one edging ahead slightly over a long time. Its like being stuck behind two trucks on the M8. The other thing that makes it all seem rather rude, is that while you are encouraged to move to the left and keep the slow lane left and the fast lane right …. undertaking is perfectly legal. So, if someone is doing 80kph, they are perfectly entitled to sit in the “fast” lane. We had repeatedly been stuck behind someone doing just that, getting frustrated that they wouldnt pull over. Getting annoyed at the idiots undertaking us. Except thats all fine and legal. There is a lot of weaving from lane to lane to get where you are going a few seconds faster.

    There is more to come here, but I figure thats enough for now, keep watching for Driving (Part 2) in the future!

    One Down, One to Go …

    By | | General Mumblings
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    We had two loans left over from “the lost years”. They both have defaults on them, and they have refused to remove them, so we refused to pay any more than a pittance towards them.

    One is due to clear from my credit record in June next year, one Jan 2012. The 2012 one was for a relatively small amount, so after much discussion we finally decided to pay it off. And I just did.

    We are hoping that after a few months they remove the default, if they don’t we start the campaign of harassment – REMOVE THE DEFAULT, HAVE YOU REMOVED THAT DEFAULT YET, IS THAT DEFAULT GONE NOW?

    If that doesn’t work, we have a new tactic open to us once the account is closed where we harass Experian to remove it as its old information.

    Neither of these tactics may work, but its worth a shot. The worst that happens is in June 2010 I am left with one default that was settled 18 months before. Hopefully its better than still having a default.

    Besides, between not paying them their cash, and the bank of england repeatedly dropping the interest on our mortgage rate, we might keep some cash in our UK account 😉

    New Year in Perth.

    By | | Australia, events
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    The whole festive season was a bit strange, christmas just didnt feel like christmas with it being warm and the sun staying up till 8:30ish. We kept spotting trees and christmas decorations and doing a double take. the Aussies dont seem to do christmas cards much either – all the cards we got were from home – and thats not just coz we dont know that many people 😉 Nobody in our workplaces had any, and they arent in windows, or the houses we were in. They are in the shops, so there must be a trade for them (maybe for brits), but the Aussies dont really seem to do it the same way the UK does.

    We finally settled on adopting it as an Australian Summer Festival. It was less weird 😉

    Christmas itself was good fun, we did a lot of cool stuff that we have pretty much covered (though we will probably put up more pictures of Penguin Island). But we havent covered New Year in much depth.

    You know how when a band is asked to comment on a Scottish crowd they always say “man, Scotland is the best, they are just wild, we love playing gigs in Scotland” and you think, “thanks for saying that, but we know you say it everywhere you go”. Well, I had the same kinda thinking about Scots and New Year. Yeah, yeah, the Scots make New Year a big thing, but its just not a big deal everywhere else. You see the fireworks in Sydney and Times Square and all round the world and you know everywhere likes New Year.

    It appears WA doesnt get the point of New Year. The plan was the day trip to Penguin Island, then you know, probably bed, coz its always tiring being out on the boats. WHAT! says us, BUT ITS HOGMANAY! We have to stay up for the bells! “Hogmanay” and “The Bells” being two scottish concepts, it took two goes to explain we wanted to stay up to celebrate the new year arriving. It didnt take any persuation at all, just a suggestion and another paella and champers and all sorts was planned in moments.

    There were 6 of us (plus the kids, who went to bed – I remember being put to bed, and then getting up again for the bells and steak pie as a kid) and the paella was fab, and there was wine and beer and sangria and whiskys. Another couple of people dropped by briefly wondering “whats all the fuss about New Year, I mean, its dull and boring, its no different from any of the other 364 days …” So we let them know they were doing it wrong!

    The Aussies were enjoying the night, if not the whisky, but didnt seem that interested in the bells themselves. So, I ducked inside, and with 10 minutes to go, got the telly on. Mostly it was just old movies that was showing, but one channel had a New Year countdown on. Sydney is 2 hours ahead of Perth. I had expected to see Perths New Year countdown, but what we got instead was Sydneys, repeated two hours later. I have to say I think this is a little bizzare, rather than show your own fireworks at the time, repeat someone elses two hours later. But hey, Sydney does it very well. Apparently it wasnt just a repeat though, Sydneys fireworks had already been shown in Perth live as it happened in Sydney. So, it wasnt just a repeat, it was a repeat of something that had only been shown 2 hours previously! Weird!

    Calling the UK was a bit of a no-go – the international phone lines were filled pretty quick, however, thanks to the wonders of skype and skype out – we could call across the internet and get out onto the UK phone network no bother (what with it being 3pm in the UK)

    So, in summary, it was good, but a little weird. Next year, we are hoping to make it to Sydney for New Year, we have seen it many times on the tv over the years, and have always said it would be cool to do. This year will hopefully be the year to do it!

    Whats Black and Blue and Red all over

    By | | Australia, events, General Mumblings, grrrr
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    My legs!

    I am going around like an eighty year old woman at the moment.

    We were taken 4×4 off roading, which was fun and enjoyable, we went along the beach at Preston Beach, and then around a reservoir further inland. Up rocky roads that the 207 would get swallowed up in. We also rescued another 4×4 that was up to its wheel arches in mud, it was surprisingly easy to do.

    See that white 4×4 in the picture (if you click on the picture it will show you it bigger), thats not us, but thats what we were doing.

    It is fun, but its damn difficult on the spine. My back is killing me now!

    We also did some kayaking on the reservoir.

    The kayaks are pretty stable in the water, and it was also fun. Me and my clumsiness however meant that when I was trying to get out, I fell over, skinning my knees on the gravelly ground, and bruising my leg on the edge of the kayak.

    The reservoir was also pretty bad with flies

    This is apparently “no flies”. There are “no flies” this year. Given that we spent the entire time doing the aussie wave to keep the flies out of our faces I have to say I am mighty glad there are “no flies” this year. I did get mozzie bites on the leg that wasn’t kayaked. This time though, they are looking worse than before, with the red itchy bit spreading and being damn itchy. The flies seemed to like it too. Blearg.

    There were also (I think) march flies. When mosquitoes bite, you don’t feel it till usually the next day, certainly it takes a while to appear. A march fly bite you feel. It hurts. And I got a march fly bite on the back of the bruised leg. It stung like buggery. It took a few hours to surface and now half of the back of my right calf is red and sore to the touch.

    On the same leg, one of the dogs, Minnie (who looks very like Misty), launched herself at me to try and bite one of the march flies, leaving me with another bruise!

    So, in the space of two hours, I ended up with a sore back, mozzie bites, a march fly bite, two separate lots of bruises and a skint knee.

    *sigh*

    This was a couple of days ago now, so I am starting to heal. In time for the new year 🙂

    Booze, glorious booze …

    By | | Australia, Food
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    With New Year on its way, and visitors starting to arrive in less than six weeks, we reckoned it was time to stock up.

    The national pasttime here in Oz is drinking. Its taken so seriously that when other shops are forced by legislation to close (usually) at 5pm, and corner shops at 8pm, the offies are allowed to open anything up till 9pm, and given that they open at 8:30am, thats some going. I nipped out at 8:30ish yesterday morning to get some croissants for breakfast from the local bakery and the Bottle-O bottle shop thats beside it was hoaching. At 8:30 in the morning.

    Most of the shops sell chilled crates of beer or pre-mixed drinks like breezers, some have large walk-in fridges for this.

    They have drive in bottle shops as well. We had heard about this before we came over, but couldnt quite get our heads round this idea. They are popular. I will get a piccie and put it up here so you can see.

    Anyway, we wanted to stock up our booze. So, we went to one of the many giant liquor shops (They often have great names like Thirsty Camel or, my favourite, Liquor Barons), these places are huge warehouses filled to bursting with beer, wine and spirits.

    booze

    booze

    Heh. We still had whisky, port, wine, beer, cider and peach schnapps in the house, this is just the new stuff.

    But, thanks to Dan Murphys, we now have more 😀

    Any requests from our visitors as to what they fancy while they are here?

    I should point out that the WKD is already gone. It didnt last through dinner….

    Its such a perfect day … I’m glad I spent it with you..

    By | | Australia, Food, Interesting! (Well, for me)
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    We had a FANTASTIC day on Saturday.

    Absolutely brilliant.

    I woke up and went through to our gym (OK, the extra bedroom we dont know what to do with, so we put the exercise bike in it and got a weights bench, so its now a gym 🙂 ). Did a good upper body workout – I am increasing my bench press again to a far less embarrassing weight 🙂 – and then 20 minute interval training on the exercise bike. ROAR!

    After a nice long shower, we decided to go into Perth to get some breakfast. I fancied taking Ian to Pranz – a cafe in west perth just up the road from my work. They do amazing paninis. I have only had the veggie ones, because they are fab, but the rest also look good. Cept west perth appears to be shut at the weekend. So, we took a drive to east perth to see what it had to offer. And apparently, east perth has only marginally more than west perth at the weekend! Ah well, we skipped breakfast and went straight for lunch. So, we went for sushi! There are two great sushi bars with conveyor belts here, and from a conveyor belt is the very best way to eat sushi.

    Once sushi-sated, we took a wander along Hay St and stopped off for ice-cream. Yay! It was oh so very tasty. Hay St was full of people, vibrant, sunny, shops were open, buskers were performing. Goths were gathering on steps in front of buildings. It was all good.

    The sky was beautiful and clear, it was around 30C. And I got the aforementioned sunburn. We had the roof down on the car, it was just great.

    Later on that night, after dinner, we went back out for a run in the car – we are considering East Perth to stay in once the lease is up on this place and wanted to see it at night. So, once again through East Perth, it was so warm we put the roof down again 🙂 Happy to report that East Perth is quiet at night, while being in walking distance of a couple of pubs and restaurants.

    Why things feel a bit weird

    By | | Australia, General Mumblings
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    We have come to an understanding as to why things feel a bit weird here.

    Basically, we arrived in Autumn, the leaves were falling from the trees, well, from the trees that lose their leaves in the Autumn. We mentioned way back, a lot of the trees here dont lose their leaves, they lose their bark.

    During winter, there continued to be a steady stream of trees losing their leaves.

    And through spring. When the trees that had held on to their leaves grew new ones and ditched the old ones.

    And now its summer, there are still leaves on the ground.

    I took these pictures this morning.

    You can see the green all around in the background of the second, but the leaves are on the ground.

    Add to this that the latest the sun goes down is 8:30. Tonight sundown was 8:17pm, and it gets dark pretty fast – no hour long twilights here. (and thats only this year, they are most likely to refuse Daylight Savings in a referendum next year and wont change the clocks, so it will be dark at 7:30pm at the height of summer)

    So….. it gets dark fairly early, and there are leaves on the ground.

    It feels like the longest autumn EVER! It feels like a seven month autumn with some really cold and wet days and some really dry and warm days.

    Its all a bit strange!

    Yogurt. Where you can find the most culture in WA.

    By | | Australia, Food, General Mumblings
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    This is Joondalups Sunset Market …

    http://www.joondalup.wa.gov.au/cms/templates/coj2_business_grp.asp?id=498

    Yeah.

    I had wanted to go see the Sunset Markets since we arrived in Joondalup and I googled what this place has to offer.

    I bugged Ian for the last few weeks about this. Between one thing and another we hadn’t made it down to look at it. So… tonight … as we are watching Back! To The Future! and I am skimming through the Joondalup Times I spotted a Sunset Markets photie from last week. So, with all haste we paused the movie, and went to sample Joondalups Kulcha.

    Yeah.

    So, it was kinda like 8 stalls at the Barras. Of which 4 were selling donuts and hot dogs. And one selling what they called “scottish tablet (fudge)” so, we got two slabs. And its definitely tablet 😀 So, thats the high point of Joondalups cultural events for the year. Condensed milk and sugar. Not complaining about the tablet. Just the marketing of the tablet ….

    I’m Spinning Around … Move Out of My Way

    By | | Australia, grrrr
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    Spin. Gotta love it.

    The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM, the Aussie MET Office) released its summer weather forecast today. Summer starts in 4 days, on the 1st Dec. Tonight it is once again chucking it down. It was at least beautiful and blue skies for long periods and the rain whilst heavy was at least in showers rather than constant.

    So, the summer forecast is not very good, or great, depending on the spin you put on it.

    Weather bureau predicts wet, cool summer
    WEST Australia’s unseasonal weather is set to continue with forecasters predicting a wet, cool summer.

    Perth has recorded the wettest and coldest November in 17 years – the seventh-wettest on record – and the trend is set to continue.

    WA Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Glenn Cook said a warm Indian Ocean and several high-level troughs — or low-atmospheric pressure systems — had produced the wintry weather Perth has experienced during the past few weeks.
    …
    According to WA Bureau of Meteorology forecasts, central WA has a 70 per cent chance of exceeding average summer rainfall between December and February while maximum temperatures are predicted to remain average or cooler than normal during the same period.
    …
    This time last year, Perth was on its was to recording the warmest November on record. But so far this month the mercury hasn’t reached 30C.

    Cloudy skies are also robbing Perth of one hour of sunlight a day as the average 10.7 hours of sunshine is cut to just 9.8.

    “It is the first time we have not had a 30C in November since 1964 ,” bureau forecaster John Relf said. …

    Hot summer on the way, bureau forecasts
    26th November 2008, 14:21 WST

    It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

    The Bureau of Meteorology has released its summer weather forecast, and it’s tipping hot days in the southern states, and hot nights in the north and west.

    But there’s some good news too – there’s wet weather ahead for some lucky areas.
    …
    When it comes to overnight temperatures, most of the country is in for a warm summer.

    Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory are the areas most likely to have unusually hot nights.

    The mercury may rise this summer but there’s some relief on the way when it comes to rainfall.

    Western Australia is in for a wet summer, as is north-east NSW and south-east Queensland….

    So, its either a great hot summer thats going to be fab because of the rain, or a cold wet summer. Both from the same forecast. Gotta love that spin.

    What they havent clicked yet is that its down to us. No matter where and when we go somewhere, the rain soon follows. The rainclouds worship us. They followed us to Jamaica, Lanzarote, Majorca, all over. And now they are here. The reason the UK had such a bad summer this year is that the clouds were sulking because we werent there.

    *sigh*

    Well you did lose a lot of versatile solutions for modern living

    By | | Australia
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    Or not!

    Our stuff is here!

    Woot! It arrived on Tuesday, we have spent the time since unpacking , setting up the sofa, the tv and the wii! The place is filled to the brim with boxes, and I spent an hour and a half tonight playing my favourite songs and getting reacquainted with guitar hero…. on easy I managed Baracuda and The Metal on 100%! and nothing below 97%. Till I got to The Fire and the Flames. Which I got to 85% before getting boo-ed off. Ah well. Tomorrow!

    We will post pictures and video at the weekend 🙂

    Fourteen Years Later …

    By | | Australia, Food
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    Then :

    Now :

    Nothing has changed much 😉

    How many people can you spot, its kinda like a Wheres (the) Wally 🙂 (Click on it to see a bigger version)

    So we went out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary, we went back to Outback Jacks and
    it were well tasty so it was. Ian had nachos and wagu steak. I went for the “Rib and Lace” … a bowl of pasta, followed by ribs and chips, for as many times as you can eat it. So I had a second ribs, they were amazingly tasty.

    Three months in …

    By | | Australia, Food, Interesting! (Well, for me)
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    Well, we have had a fantastic weekend!
    Its been really sunny for a whole week now, with temperatures at least 22C each day, and getting to around 27C this weekend. The nights are still a little chilly, but nothing we (and 20 minutes with the oil heater) cant cope with.

    We got word on Friday that our stuff had cleared quarantine – Ians boots needed “decontaminated” because of his smelly feet, but they will clean them up and we can collect them in a week or so – but everything else is arranged to be delivered here on Tuesday. I cannot stress the relief that will be! We have coped OK, but we have bare minimum to live with at the moment – 4 plates, forks, knives, cups, garden chairs and the cheapest crappest sofa ikea provides. We are still mostly living in the computer room. But when our stuff arrives we will finally spread out and actually use this place!

    So, on Saturday morning we went out shopping and got Ian a new phone – we have been looking for a few weeks, since his stopped working properly and refused to acknowledge the SIM card (we have been using it as an alarm clock since.) The battery on mine cant last overnight, so we both need new phones. On Saturday we got one for Ian, and I had near enough a panic attack – the phone cost $100 (£50) more in the shop than it did online, but the online shops looked particularly dodgy. Apparently I am still not quite over the “dont spend a single penny more than you have to, they might take the house” from the company going under. Looks like it will take more time to get over all that …

    Ian is happy though, he loves his new toy 🙂 I will get one soon too. When my heart rate recovers.

    We then came back and spent the afternoon in the garden – I did some sun bathing and have ended up a little sunburned on my back. Ian pottered about and cleaned the pool. Then we tried out the pool. Oh my god but it is still cold, it takes a long time to warm up a puddle of water that big 😉 We still went in though … but I think we could have caught hypothermia if we had stayed in much longer. Billy Connelly and his “In you go, you big jessy” came to mind 😉

    We are not that close to anything particularly here – by car is fine, but walking we are a wee bit out of range of most things. But, there is a Botanical Garden about 15 minutes walk, we still havent seen the garden (and the mini golf) yet, but they have a cafe, which on a Friday and Saturday does pizzas. So, we took a walk down there and had tasty pizza and beer and a wander back up. It was fantastic, and we will definately be doing that again.

    Walked up the road, grabbed another drink, and sat in the hot tub for half an hour.

    What a brilliant Saturday!

    Today, we cleared up as they will need space to put our stuff, then, for lunch went to the movies! We had booked seats at the “Gold Class” showing of Wanted. What a refined way to see a movie… private lounge to wait in, you turn up a bit early for the film, peruse the menu, go up and order, and tell them when you want it to arrive. When you go in, you get a giant recliner (electrically operated) and a table for the food and drink to go on. Waiters then bring the food and drinks you ordered, when you asked for! So, we got some tasty starters a glass of wine and a beer about 20 minutes in, and then half an hour after that another set of drinks, and a pizza for us to share. It was fab!

    I am so looking forward to the wii getting here!

    Anyone bored with their wii fit that they wanna send over? I cant get it for love nor money in the UK atm …..

    Last Couple of Nights …

    By | | Australia, Food
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    Well, again, in an attempt to find some night life, we were out the last two nights.

    Well, we went to see Get Smart last night – we reckon its only got a week till its gone and managed to find a showing that wasnt in the afternoon.

    Halfway through, it jumped forward by a few minutes – at the time I thought it was just crappy editing. Except …. right in the middle of the BIG EXCITING END BIT – it died. Much “WTF!” goes on, and they get it back within a couple of minutes, a good 30 seconds of movie skipped. For roughly 90 seconds, when it dies again. For about 15 minutes. When they only skip about 10 seconds – we watched them faff with sellotape. And then, yet again … it died as they were doing the closing scene. So everyone left and they didnt bother trying again. The queue outside was enormous – it was a showing of Wanted and I reckon it was not far from sold out, all waiting outside looking disgruntled.
    There was no bother getting a refund – or rather, a “Breakdown Voucher” as this happens enough that they have a “sorry your experience was disappointing because our projector broke down” pre-printed voucher.

    Tonight, we went out for dinner to Kulcha Cafe & Noodles House … it was hoaching, so the only table we could get was was beside the toilet. Fair enough …. cept it took them ages to take our order. Sigh. Then our starters arrived, but no cutlery, So, had to ask for cutlery. And then grab a passing waitress to put in a drinks order. The drinks arrived quick enough, and the starters were very tasty.

    Then it took them AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES to bring the mains. And each time staff passed they were studiously avoiding taking away our old plates. Ian was *this close* to throwing them on the floor (he was very grumpy by this point). We finally got our main courses and they were very tasty and HUGE portions. We wouffed them down coz we were rather hungry by then… it was however bloody cheap – two starters, two mains, two bottles of cider for $36 (around £19)

    What was the really annoying thing was that on the wall beside us was an extract from this months “Welcome to Perth” magazine saying how great this restaurant was, how the service was “Friendly, courteous and fast”. HA! My arse.

    So, basically – we went to the pictures and it broke. We went out for dinner and it was cheap and tasty, but terrible service.

    We are now on a mission to eat at loads of restaurants till we find the good ones!