Sculpture By The Sea Three

Happy Easter, everyone! Matt is at work and I decided to work as well; we will celebrate once he is home. To make for a nice break from translating, I thought I would blog!

Last week a lot of our time was spent looking over all the stuff that has accumulated in the year Matt has been in this house. We had a bit of downtime as well before the next couple of weeks which should be fairly busy between signing the lease, figuring out what we need, moving, and getting this place ready so we can get the deposit back! We did squeeze in a bit of fun, of course.

On Thursday we headed over to Cottesloe Beach to check out this year’s Sculpture By the Sea. I went in 2011 in Sydney, 2012 at Cottesloe Beach, and now again. It was Matt’s first time and unfortunately I think the art was a bit more intriguing last year. We enjoyed it nonetheless. All the photos are on my Picasa page: click here to see them, so I will just mention our absolute favorites here.

We both liked this nut. Simple, yes, but we could tell what it is!

Matt loved the skeleton conducting the ocean:

I really enjoyed this lobster:

And we both thought these bamboo windmill-noisemakers were awesome. You could hear them from a ways away, then as you entered the sound changed, and then in the center there was this sweet spot of sound. Pretty cool.

After wandering and checking out the art, we soaked up the sun, jumped in the sea a bit, enjoyed some snacks and had deep conversation before stopping at Ikea on the way home, showering, and hitting up my new favorite restaurant in Perth: Neighborhood Pizza. (Spelled the American way!)

I read about this place a while back. It is in Mt Hawthorn, a pretty short walk from the house, and located “behind the IGA” according to the website. The website also mentions that the owners spent two years traveling the US and were inspired to open a small wood oven pizza restaurant after sampling awesome pizzas in the states – you can see why I was interested! Once I walked back behind the IGA and couldn’t find the restaurant. I brought it up to Matt and we drove back there once, in the evening, to look. Couldn’t find it. I double-checked the website which listed the open hours and days (wed-sun, this was the issue) and we took a walk one evening two weeks ago to see what on Earth was up with this place. Sure enough a roller garage door was open and there was a chalkboard sign out that said pizza and people were inside. We made plans to go the next swing.

Finally, the next swing arrived and we went. There is an American flag hanging over the order counter, so I liked the place from the get go. We took forever deciding what to order. Eventually I decided on a pizza with sweet potatoes, potatoes, feta, and maple syrup (plus a few other things). It may sound strange, but it was to die for. Matt got the special of the evening, Quattro formaggio, which included Gorgonzola, and was also amazing. We enjoyed our BYO bottle of wine and can’t wait to go back!

On Friday morning we skyped my brother Kenny and got to hear all about his new job in DC. It was great to catch up and hear that things are going so well for him. For lunch we hit up McDonalds because they are running a “Tastes of America” promotion. As Kenny pointed out, McDonalds is pretty much always a taste of America, but I am not going to argue with $2 waffle cone sundaes in Australia. Along with the cheesy jalapeno bites, and the Texan burger Matt had, it was pretty much the best deal on terrible for you “American” food to be found in this country. Maybe the best deal period.

To continue what I am now realizing was a very, very American couple of days, we attended the final Perth Wildcats NBL basketball game of the season that evening at Perth Arena. 

We faced the New Zealand Breakers, the top ranked team. Perth was ranked second. I am happy to say that Perth won, and was propelled to that win by Midwesterner Kevin Lisch, originally of Illinois! 

Saturday we slept in and hung around the house mostly. Sunday we headed over to Matt’s coworker Nathan’s house for an evening of socializing with Plutonic people. We managed to score moving boxes in the process, just one positive aspect of a really fun evening.

Monday we headed to the Paddington Pub down the road for lunch, which managed to upset my stomach, so we spent most of the afternoon on the couch. Tuesday we did lots of grocery shopping and BBQed for dinner. Matt gave me two chocolate bunnies for Easter, which looked very nice next to the card my parents sent!

Matt flew back to work Wednesday and I cleaned. Thursday I translated for a while and one of our roommates, Carina, moved out. Her visa expires next week and she is doing a bit of traveling before leaving Australia for a while.

Friday I split my day between translating and heading to Scarborough Beach, which made for a very nice day. I was a bit confused by all the women deciding to go topless on a day the beach was crowded with families and foreign men who couldn’t help themselves but comment, but to each their own I guess. It felt a bit like Spain, where usually the exact people you’d rather not see nude on a beach are the ones baring all!

Yesterday I spent a quiet day around the house working and took a nice long walk to enjoy the lovely weather we are having. (Sorry.) And that brings us up to today. Tomorrow I may try walking to the Kosher Providore – the Kosher Food Centre has renamed itself – for bagels. Matt and I stopped by on Tuesday, but it was Passover, of course, and they were closed. It should be about a 6K walk and it is supposed to be quite warm, but their bagels are definitely worth it!

I hope you are all enjoying this holiday weekend with family and friends and taking time to enjoy the change and renewal that Spring brings.

Happy Easter!

The Ides of March

Happy Birthday, Dad! Happy St Patrick’s Day, Everyone!

I actually didn’t celebrate St Patrick’s Day at all this year – even with the hoards of Irish immigrants here in Perth, it isn’t quite as huge in Australia as it is at home. I did see some Irish people on the beach Monday, nursing their hangovers and still sporting shamrock glasses!

Matt and I had a good week while he was here from March 6-12^th. On Thursday we turned in an application to rent a house that Jack and I visited earlier in the week.

(We have since heard that the house is ours, but until we sign the lease papers, etc, it isn’t set in stone yet – I will give more details once we know for sure!)

Friday we had to provide additional information to the real estate agency, so we did that and then headed into Perth. We did a bit of shopping and wandering and had lunch at a place I quite like: Annalakshmi. It is a vegetarian Indian restaurant where you can eat as much as you like and then pay what you think is fair. The view over the Swan out on their deck is hard to beat.

On Saturday we headed to Fremantle with our roommate Vince and meeting their co-worker Agata on the way for the Chili Festival on the Fremantle Esplanade. As with everything in Australia, you had to pay to get in and then had to pay for everything inside…luckily I had sold the seat covers from the car Matt traded in last June and we used that money to offset the cost a bit. There were lots of stalls with chili relishes and sauces, chili olives, and all sorts of foods with chili involved as well as chili wine and chili beer. After doing the full circuit and running into more Plutonic gold mine employees, Matt and I shared a plate of sort-of jalapeño poppers (it was just regular cheese inside) and then some “Spanish Spuds” which were well-seasoned potato wedges. Matt bought some chili-pickled eggs (it’s an English thing) and we bought two chili plants, which I haven’t killed yet! All in all, it was a good (if expensive) festival. Later that day we went to Matt’s boss Pat’s house for games and barbeque with several others. He and his girlfriend Rena were great hosts, and Matt was immediately smitten with their cocker spaniel puppy “Chewie.”

Sunday we slept late after being out past midnight (we are old) and then just ran errands and hit up the grocery store.

Monday we drove about 45 minutes north of Perth to Yanchep National Park. 

We took a 2-kilometer walk on a trail around Loch McNess and were surprised by kangaroos and a lizard along the way.

We wandered through the area where koalas live and mostly just saw koala butts way up high.

We also made a quick stop at the visitor centre, which has a great view of Loch McNess. 

Once we arrived back at the picnic shelter and parking lot, there were more kangaroos waiting for us. The mother and the joey were happily eating flowers, each with a bird on their back!

We had a nice BBQ, I was a little freaked out by ducks encircling us as we ate, but they are probably the least threatening wildlife in all of Australia.

Before heading home, we stopped in the nearby town of Two Rocks, so named because there are two big rocks on the shore there. There is also weird giant statue of Neptune and lots of stones carved into heads all over the town, a little bizarre. Driving back south from Two Rocks, Matt noticed something on the GPS: an entire development with streets named after towns in Cornwall. We found St Ives Drive and Mousehole Crescent. It was pretty surreal and funny!

On Tuesday we did a lot of driving around town. We went to Miami Bakery in Melville for lunch, and then toured around East Fremantle and Mosman Park. 

Later we stopped at the Kosher Food Centre to stock up on bagels – Matt is so good to me! Bagels, when you find them, at the grocery stores here are not nice at all. The Kosher Food place is fantastic, but a bit out of the way. To show my appreciation I made pasta a la vodka for dinner and Matt grilled us asparagus to go with.

Since Matt has been at work I have been continuing my war against pantry moths, I hate them. I have also been doing a lot of major cleaning jobs like bleaching grout and washing the outsides of windows, all to get the house ready for when the owners want to show it to prospective tenants. I have also been busy translating for Siegwerk. On Sunday (St Patrick’s Day) I took a walk to nearby Lake Monger and after completing the 3.5K loop I was looking at some wildlife info posted on a little gazebo thing over the water. I noticed a black snake slowly moving through some water plants next to the gazebo. I watched as he struggled to get free of the plant and eventually shot out into the water. It was pretty cool, and a little disturbing since this lake is about three blocks from our house! I didn't have my phone with me, so no photos, sorry. 

On Monday I took the bus to Scarborough Beach and enjoyed a nice couple of hours there, reading and listening to music, and reapplying sunscreen often. I am slowly reintroducing my skin to the strong sun here. While I was there our roommate Jack got into a fender bender – which completely removed his bumper, so he has been dealing with that. Now it is Tuesday night and I am very ready for Matt to be home again tomorrow!

Thanks for reading, may the road rise to meet you!

for more photos from the last two weeks, click here

Up, Down, and All Around

Hello, I hope everyone is well and happy it is March! Things have been, well, hot here and we continue to sweat and remember you all are dealing with snow and wet, etc. 

On Tuesday, Feb 20^th, I took the bus into the city in the evening and attended a lecture at the Western Australia Museum called “Dressing Desires: Girls, Gowns, and Bridal Fantasies,” part of their Unveiled exhibit. Don’t get any ideas, I wont be wearing a white dress any time soon, I just thought this would be an interesting lecture as it was by a Professor from the Curtin University School of Design and Art. It was mildly intriguing, but I left feeling very happy it was a free event and feeling very spoiled with the education I received. It basically was just a survey of bridal magazines with the conclusion that wedding dresses are white and wedding dress models are young and white. The main resource was a 1999 study published in an American journal. I could have figured out as much from standing in line at the grocery store, but I went, listened, and I am no worse for it!

Wednesday evening Matt arrived back home, we stayed in for dinner. I made mushroom lasagna.

On Thursday I thought we were going to the hardware store to pick up materials for Matt to repair the patio table. (It was broken a while ago when a friend of a friend who was over decided to throw someone onto the table…obviously, I wasn’t around when this happened, but I have been pestering Matt about the money he would lose from the deposit if it were left with a gaping hole in it, and he agreed it was time to fix it). Instead of heading straight to Bunnings, however, we just kept driving into The Swan Valley!

 The whole time I was in Perth before, I never made it to the nearest wine region. There are also breweries, restaurants, and produce stands. It is only about a 20-minute drive from the city. Our first stop was Feral Brewing, which Matt loves because it sounds like Ferrell. It is a really nice place with lots of tables inside and out, they brew about 20 varieties of beer and we ordered a tasting menu of six mini beers. They were all tasty, though we liked some better than others, and the food menu looked very nice. A return trip might be in order! 

Next we stopped at Olive Farm Wines, which actually didn’t have any olives, so uh, very misleading. To make up for that the wine I tasted was very good and the girl working was friendly. We bought two bottles that we didn’t really need…next we stopped at Whistler Chocolate Factory, tried the free samples and browsed. I think Matt thought I was crazy when I bought a small bag of chocolate covered pretzels. He changed his mind once I opened it! Our last stop of the trip was at Twin Hill Wines. There we sampled cheese, wine, and port. Matt bought a 2-liter bottle of port for $20 and was very happy. We also got cheese and another bottle of wine, so I was happy too. (We have just gone over our spending for the month of February and determined there will be no more winery/brewery visits for some time!).

On the way back to Perth we stopped at Bunnings for supplies and that afternoon Matt fixed the table! Looks almost good as new – hopefully good enough to avoid notice by the property manager! We grilled out that evening and enjoyed eating off a complete, whole table!

On Friday, we made a trip to the grocery store and the liquor store, since those are two separate places here, and prepared for several of Matt’s work friends to come over that evening. I made 7-layer Mexican hit which went over muy bien! It was a pretty relaxed evening with everyone sitting around the (complete) table, chatting and enjoying each other’s company. By the end of the night, Matt and I had plans with Galina and Peter to visit Ethan and Louise at Ethan’s house in Bunbury the next day.

So, Saturday, we drove down to Mandurah and had a nice lunch with Peter and Galina, and continued on to Bunbury, which is about two and a half hours’ drive south of Perth. Ethan and Louise had been busy making pizza dough and we all made individual pizzas! Matt and I decided to take advantage of the cool evening temperature and get in the hot tub. The others stayed in and watched TV while we had fun boiling ourselves outside. The next morning, after devouring pancakes made Bulgarian-style by Galina, we went to the lookout tower (photo op!) 

and then to check out some basalt rock nearby. This is just how it goes when you are with four geologists. 

Apparently basalt is special because it forms hexagons. I learn something everyday. After staring at and climbing on the basalt, we wandered town and eventually made it to the Parade Hotel where we enjoyed a drink and were entertained by a dolphin fishing in front of us. 

On the way back to Perth we stopped at the Old Coast Road Brewery and had a late meal. The place was huge – and had olive trees all over, unadvertised olives. The world makes sense again! 

After enjoying our food and drink, Ethan and Louise headed back to Bunbury and Matt and I, and Peter and Galina drove to Perth. Matt managed to stay off line and watch the rugby match recorded from earlier that day with no clue which team would win. England did, thank goodness!

Monday morning we got up and opened a bottle of champagne! And orange juice! It was time for the Oscars at 9:30 AM! In addition to mimosas, or Buck’s Fizz as they are called in England – see, always learning - we also had Danishes and brioches from the New Norcia Bakery in Mt Hawthorn. We had filled out our ballots the night before. I ended up getting 12 right and Matt got 4 right, but he did get Best Picture right, so pretty even I guess.

On Tuesday we took a drive to Hillary’s Boat Harbour, which has a water park, the aquarium, shops and restaurants, and had lunch there. We didn’t have enough time or energy for the aquarium, but we do plan to go soon. That evening we made our second attempt at pizza on the BBQ, and our results are improving!

Since Matt has been back at Plutonic, I have been working on translating training PowerPoint’s for Siegwerk, cleaning out the garage which is mostly full of the home owners belongings and a few of ours as well, and looking at rental properties (a little bit obsessively). The good news is, wherever we move, you are welcome to visit and stay with us, just not all at once!

This week when Matt is home we won’t be up to much, mostly searching for places online and then making appointments to check them out. I will feel much better once we know where we are going! I am sure we will find time to hit the beach or something fun in between house inspections.

Early birthday greetings to my Aunt Erin, and congrats to my brother who, only a couple months after returning to the US from Costa Rica, has landed a job in DC and moves there in under two weeks!

Thanks for reading,

Jane