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 6-12th.
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
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