Beyond Perth: A WA Geological Getaway

Happy Mother’s Day Week!

I can still say this since my card and gift for my mother still haven’t arrived…you can never predict how long customs will hang onto things!

Also, Happy 80^th Birthday to Matt’s Granddad Don Corin (May 10^th)!

It has been a while since I updated the blog. While everything here continues to go well, I had a hard couple of weeks thanks to rats living in our roof. I became suspicious the first week we were here since I could hear scratching noises above the study. The noises continued and I contacted our property manager to send out a pest control person. Well, that took over a week to happen. In the meantime, Matt and I had purchased an inflatable hot tub and were breaking it in with nightly soaks. Even at four in the afternoon we could see the rats going in and out of the roof near a downspout and running around to a tree in the back garden to eat the berries. The good news was they had a food source and were only in the roof, not the rest of the house. The bad news was that I had a bit of a freak out. Years ago, when I lived in New York, a similar thing occurred when we had mice in our apartment. Of course at that time I wasn’t working, had enrolled in grad school at Pratt, and was under a bit more stress. And I really freaked out. This time I did a little better, but I was not happy hearing those rats running around over the kitchen and bedroom. Ick.

So eventually the pest man came and rolled poison baits down into the part of the ceiling where we heard the most activity. Five days later the house smelled a bit and despite the screens on the windows, flies were all over, but that disappeared and since then I haven’t heard any rats in the roof. Which is very good. I keep thinking I am hearing things outside, but a neighborhood cat climbs the walls and visits our back garden frequently, so I hope she will dissuade any other rodents from setting up house here!

I didn’t want to blog before, as I was feeling pretty negative about the house and being here without Matt with rodents running around above me. We did manage a bit of fun and hit up the O Day street festival in Northbridge on Sunday April 28^th, where we wandered around collecting free magnets in shops and restaurants and had lunch at Flipside, home to the “Kenny Burger,” which was very good!

Matt went back to work, I stayed here and tried to stay busy, but it was a long week. I ventured to Ikea and picked up a few things we still needed, which helped J.

Soon though, Matt was back, we weren’t hearing the rats, and we had a nice week together.

On Friday, May 3^rd, we left Perth in the morning and drove up to Nambung National Park, home of The Pinnacles. In case you have time to kill and really want to trace our route, we made a quick stop in Lancelin on the way there.

Even though Matt is a geologist, and The Pinnacles Desert is only a two-hour drive from Perth, he hadn’t seen them yet.

The (Jane version of the) story is that they were once seashells crushed together and eventually sediments deposited and turned them into limestone. I am sure if you ask Matt he would explain it in much more depth. And Wikipedia presents three theories as to their formation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pinnacles_(Western_Australia). Anyway, they are pretty awesome to see, popping out of the sand over a really large area.

I first visited on a tour last year, but it was great to go back and see how much Matt enjoyed them. And how much he enjoyed photographing his car in front of them!

After doing the walk and drive at The Pinnacles, we headed to the nearby town of Cervantes and discovered that another geological phenomenon nearby. At Lake Thetis, just outside of town, there are stromatolites! When I took that tour last year, Matt and I were just friends, and he was all excited that I would get to see stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. (Some of you may remember my post about those last year). We weren’t going that far north on this trip, so it was pretty cool that Matt and I got to check out stromatolites together. They are part of the reason we exist, after all, thanks to their oxygenating the Earth.

After looking at the stromatolites for a few minutes, since that is all you can do, we headed to breezy Hangover Bay for a BBQ lunch. I remembered everything except tongs for the BBQ, which I think might be in the garage, but we made do and had a nice lunch. Then it was time to head to New Norcia.

In an attempt to practice even more Spanish, Matt changed the GPS language and “Monica” gave us directions. She did not, however, mention that we would be driving on several unsealed, winding gravel roads, populated by human sized kangaroos. Big human sized! 

It was an exciting, unnerving, and scenic drive. I cannot tell you at all where we were, but about two hours later we arrived in New Norcia.

New Norcia is an interesting place. Benedictine monks founded it as a mission in 1847, literally in the middle of nowhere in WA. The second abbot decided to build private colleges, which were very successful but have since closed. They had cottages for Aboriginal families and schools for the Aboriginal children as well. They have a flour mil and bake bread, grow olives for olive oil, as well as grapes for wine. The bread is pretty popular and available in Mt Hawthorn at the New Norcia Bakery.

Matt and I were staying at the New Norcia Hotel. Originally built in the 1920’s for family visiting the monks and college students, it is the only option in town that isn’t gender segregated and doesn’t require getting up at five am for prayers. It is also the place to try Abbey Ale and Abbey wine, including their vintage port. Once we had checked into our room, we headed down to the hotel bar for some food and Abbey Ale and wine. It was pretty good. I tasted a bit too much, but I slept very well!

The next day after a continental breakfast, we checked out and booked our town tour. On the tour we saw the outside of the monastery, inside the Abbey Church, inside an old Aboriginal family cottage, the operational New Flour Mill (1879), and inside both of the colleges, which are closed to the public. We also saw the chapels inside St Ildephonsus College and St Gertrude’s College, which were pretty impressive and unexpected just off the Great Northern Highway! 

Our tour group included, as they always seem to do, some very chatty and disrespectful people, but it was pretty interesting. I enjoyed seeing and experiencing something completely different to what you usually find in WA. We came away with an Abbey Ale glass and a bottle of the port to cellar…for a while!

We left New Norcia early in the afternoon and headed to Bindoon on the recommendation of Matt’s co-worker Brad, that we try the Bake house there. I am very glad we did. I had a pasty for lunch and Matt had a meat pie. They were good, but we also left with carrot cake, a huge cinnamon roll (hard to find here), a white chocolate brownie, and banana bread. Lets just say breakfast the next day and snacks along the road were very, very nice!

After Bindoon we were on our way to Merredin, where we would spend the night, and we happened to drive through a town called Toodyay. No idea where the name comes from, but it was a really charming little town. We decided to stop and stretch our legs. We were browsing in the old firehouse now art gallery and Matt bought me a very nice little painting. The woman there told us to go look at the old gaol and courthouse, which we did, and we drove on to a lookout over the Avon Valley that the town is in. It was an unexpected but very enjoyable stop.

Later on our drive on the Great Eastern Highway, we stopped in Meckering and checked out a display all about an Earthquake, 6.9 on the Richter Scale, which rocked the area in 1968. We had never heard anything about it, but the photos and facts presented were striking. As it was a public holiday, there were few injuries even though the school and several buildings were destroyed.

In the evening we arrived at our motel in Merredin. It had a handy little kitchenette for breakfast the next day. We headed into town and had a nice dinner at The Commercial Hotel. It wasn’t very busy and we discovered this was because the entire town was at some huge party a few blogs from our motel. The thumping music carried into the night and Matt was awakened when the partygoers came back at 2 AM and were sick in the parking lot. We are old. Also, we will not be going back to Merredin.

The only reason we were there was to check out Wave Rock in even tinier Hyden, about an hour south of Merredin in the Wheatbelt region.

(This little trip was very geological).

Wave Rock is actually a part of Hyden Rock, a granite outcropping. Wave Rock is 100 meters long and 15 meters high (think yards, people). It began forming underground 60 million years ago. Noongar aboriginal people lived in the area for thousands of years. The town and the rock were named after a sandalwood cutter who camped in the area in 1920.

Matt and I both thought it was pretty awesome. After taking the obligatory surfer pose shots, we climbed up and walked all around the rock following trail markers. 

There were two ways to get down: steep and stairs. I chose stairs since I have a tendency to fall down steep things. And stairs for that matter, but at least there was a railing!

It, like the Pinnacles, is one of those awesome things that you want to see, and then when you have walked all around and taken loads of photos and read the literature, you say “ok, well glad we did that,” and then you’ve done it and that’s all.

We left Hyden for our four-hour Sunday drive back to Perth with stops in Corrigin and York. Matt noticed this sign as we whizzed past and we turned around - we had just passed the Rabbit Proof Fence, the longest fence in the world!

It was nice to get out of Perth and go exploring. 

Click here to see all the photos from our trip.

Monday we relaxed, and then went to dinner at Il Pasto, a little Italian restaurant on Ninth Avenue in Inglewood I had been dying to try. It was delicious, all of it. Unlike Merredin, we will definitely go back!

Since Matt has been at work this week, I have been busy at home working on translating, organizing our upcoming trip to Malaysia and Matt has been figuring out what else he wants to do to celebrate his big 30 birthday. The weather is cooler, highs between 20-25 C, or 60-70 F with lots of rain. It looks like pretty good weather the rest of the week though, which is good news as Matt gets back Wednesday!

Thanks for reading,

Jane

A New House!

Happy Spring Everyone! It is autumn here, but raining all week so it feels the same. Our big news is that we have moved into our new place. We are in Inglewood, a suburb just N of Perth’s CBD or downtown, and right next to Mt Lawley, which is a great area full of restaurants, cafes, and pubs.

Click here for google map. 

In an attempt to save money, we continue to live with Jack, who also works at Barrick and attended Plymouth University with Matt. They work opposite weeks at work, so when Matt is home it will be just the two of us. The house is smaller but it should work well as there is a study/small spare room on the opposite side of the house from the living room and I can work in there with the door shut and not be too bothered by Jack watching TV or whatever.

I will start by telling you what we were up to last week (mostly moving) and then include some pictures and details of the new place. Our lease in Mt Hawthorn doesn’t end until April 19, so there is still some sorting, cleaning, and furniture moving to be done there once Matt is back.

On Wednesday, April 3^rd, Matt returned from work around noon since he had been on night shifts that week. We had lunch at Spanish Flavours, a restaurant right around the corner from the Anzac Road house. Most of the afternoon was spent relaxing and trying to keep Matt awake until at least 8 or 9 PM.

Thursday we celebrated Easter late. I made a ham for Matt, along with deviled eggs, cheesy potatoes, and asparagus. It was nice. Jack arrived back from work since he had taken the weekend off for a camp retreat thing with one of the churches he attends.

Friday we headed over to Acton Real Estate to sign the very long lease. We have asked for a lease of just six months with the option to extend. It frees us up to see how things go and not be too stressed about being responsible for the rent if anything comes up. After signing, paying, and getting the keys, we came by the new house so Matt could see the inside. Luckily he liked it and thought I had done well in saying we should apply for the lease. Afterward, we dropped Jack at home to get ready for his retreat and Matt and I headed to Ikea, Big W, etc to pick up things for the house. One of our receipts had a coupon for Marco’s Organic Pizza on it. On a whim we stopped in and took Pizza home for a late dinner.

Saturday was more shopping and several trips back and forth to the new place. We weren’t sure that we would make it to a housewarming party at Matt’s coworker Renee’s share house, but we worked it in with a trip to drop of things at the new house and were able to give our roommate Vince and his friend Erin a ride to the party! (Chewie the spaniel was there, so Matt was very happy we managed to stop in :).

Sunday we slept in and then hit up the Angove Street Festival in nearby North Perth. Local restaurants and companies had booths up, there were two stages with live music, some freebies, and several craft and vintage clothing stands as well. We spent most of Sunday evening packing.

Monday Matt went and picked up a cargo van at the rental place. Moving from one furnished place to another, we don’t have too much large stuff, but there is a lot. Matt is still storing things for his friend Simon, and when you add up all of our clothes, house wares, the TV, Matt’s bike, plus two large shelves, it was worth having the van. We got a large amount of stuff over and unloaded, pretty much everything and then spent some time unpacking. We stayed in the new house Monday night and had very nice takeout from an Indian restaurant just a couple of blocks down the street. Except for the very early lawn waste removal and tree chipper Tuesday morning, the first night went well.

Tuesday we headed back to Mt Hawthorn. We watched the Iron Lady since Margaret Thatcher died the day before and Matt got ready to head back to work. On Wednesday I cleaned the house and really worked on the kitchen, getting it ready for new tenants.

Yesterday I used the bus system to make my way over here (Jack worked an extra day to make up for his weekend off) dragging a cooler and two large bags with me, and only got a little wet when it started raining and the bus driver skipped my stop, even though it was requested and lit up, and I had to walk a few extra blocks. Ah, public transport. Except for the fact that the gas isn’t on (no hot water or stove), and the electricity went out for a couple of hours earlier due to the rain I guess, I am settling in well. There are still odds and ends to get at the other house, and Matt and I will stay there Tuesday night so that once Jack is all moved and goes back to work I can clean some more. (Matt is coming back to Perth Monday evening and has training courses in Perth all day Tuesday and Wednesday). But to be perfectly honest, I am really enjoying organizing and setting up house, and hopeful that this place will feel more like home and be more comfortable for both Matt and I. The style and décor is definitely more to our taste, and it is smaller and cozier. My goal after this week is to get more involved in activities outside the house.

First though, all about the house!

It has two bedrooms, a main bathroom and then a second one with the washing machine in it.

There is a small study, which we will also use as a spare room, eventually. I am most excited about this room, because I am kind of claiming it as my workspace to do my translating projects. When Jack is home he spends most of his time in the living room, and at this house I have a desk I can work at away from that noise, with plenty of power outlets nearby.

There is also the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

A garage is attached to the side of the house, but as it is a manual door and quite small, Jack has amiably decided to set his drums up in there, which adds a lot of space inside. In the front is a yard with lots of trees and plants – gardening is included in our rent! Out back is a bricked terrace with partial roof cover, a small storage room, and laundry lines, etc. It should be great for entertaining and just enjoying dinner off the BBQ.

Our new address is:

169 Tenth Avenue

Inglewood, WA 6052

AUSTRALIA

Don’t worry if you’ve just sent something to the other address, we will have mail forwarded for a month beginning on the 19^th.

As much as we enjoyed Mt Hawthorn and some of the perks at the Anzac Road residence, we are very excited to explore our new neighborhood and home. We will have a housewarming soon for friends in Perth and everyone, in Australia and beyond, are welcome for a visit (once we get a futon in the spare room)!

To see all the photos of our new house, click here. 

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

Happy Valentine's Day...and President's Day!

Hello Family and Friends!

I hope you are all enjoying February, had a nice Valentine’s Day and (for those of you in the US) President’s Day!

Matt arrived back in Perth on February 6^th. We had a pretty busy week and managed to explore some places in Perth and nearby that we had never visited before.

On Friday we headed to Fremantle, arguably Matt’s favorite area of Perth, because he had a hankering for fish and chips. I’d never actually had fish and chips down on the Freo docks, and was happy to try it. First we wandered around Freo and Matt had his haircut at a barbershop. We walked down to the docks and ordered food at Cicerello’s. It was beautiful out and the food was very good. Hard to beat fresh fried fish eaten right over the water!

Once we were sufficiently stuffed, we walked over to the nearby Shipwreck Galleries, run by the Museum of Western Australia. The galleries were free to tour, with a suggested donation. They were full of recovered pottery, coins, hardware, food jars, jewelry, and other interesting paraphernalia from over 400 years of shipwrecks along the west coast of Australia. For me, the most interesting part of the Galleries was everything relating to the Batavia. For those of you who read my last blog and have good memories, you will recall that on a tour I took up the west coast we stopped in the Bay of Batavia and learned all about the shipwreck, mutiny, and barbarism that followed. I have shut down that blog, but here is a link to a short video about the shipwreck and recovery: http://www.nfsa.gov.au/digitallearning/heritage/batavia.html

It was fun for me to see the recovered shipwreck, recovered goods and the skeleton of a victim of the shipwreck, having learned about it last year.

After the museums we showered up and got ready for an early Valentine’s dinner at a Japanese restaurant right down the street from the house. It was a lovely evening, the food was good: Japanese served tapas style, but pretty expensive so I don’t think we will be rushing back.

On Saturday we headed over to Matt’s friend/co-worker Agata’s apartment to swim and hang out with some of Matt’s other co-workers. I got to see Ethan and Louise, who I know from being here before, and meet more of Matt’s co-workers, which was great. That evening we were adventurous and made a first attempt at making pizza on the BBQ. It was an adventure, though we ate it all, we are hoping practice makes perfect!

On Sunday we headed into downtown Perth and did a little shopping at the Harbourtown outlet mall. Next we toured the main Museum of Western Australia. I thought Matt had to get in there and see the largest gold nugget ever mined in WA! 

We also looked at the taxidermy section and mineral/geology area. After a quick walk through the Chinese New Year Market and lunch, we headed home to get a picnic ready for Moonlight Cinema in King’s Park. It was Matt’s first time ever watching a movie outside. I think we did pretty well. We took a cooler with guac and salsa, crackers, cheese, zucchini muffins (which I will never make again…no thanks Australian cookbook…) beer, and peanut m&ms since it was a movie after all! 

We saw Jack Reacher, and since we remembered the bug spray, it was a really fun evening. It is also cheaper than seeing a movie at the theater here, so we may have to go again.

Matt had planned a Valentine’s surprise for me and told me to pack an overnight bag. Monday we took off and drove south into the Peel region, just southwest of Perth. He had booked a night for us at the Peel Manor House (built in the 80’s and meant to look old – oh, Australia!) near Secret Harbour. Once we were in the general area on Monday, we visited Peel Estate Winery, which was charming and quaint, very different from wineries we visited in Margaret River. We checked in, and then headed to Secret Harbour for a late lunch. That evening we wandered the Manor House’s garden and enjoyed the truly massive room and a little time to ourselves. 

We had a very nice dinner in the Manor House dining room. On Tuesday we stopped at Stakehill Wines, another tiny boutique winery. I was excited to try their fruity wines, such as passionfruit, and Matt was interested in their chili wines, which turned out to be amazing. Nice wines which then leave a perfect little burn in your throat. One variety is even bottled with little bird’s eye chilies inside! We headed to Rockingham for a nice lunch, even though it was really, really hot, overlooking the water. After that we drove back to Perth and took advantage of cheap Tuesday at the cinema to see Zero Dark Thirty. I liked it, as did Matt. For us, best picture at the Oscars is between that and Argo. We will watch Monday morning here to find out who wins!

Wednesday morning Matt left at 5 AM with our roommate Vince to go fly to work. Unfortunately, Vince’s Jeep broke down on the way to the airport. They missed their flight and were forced to take a day of vacation. The plus side was I got another day with Matt before he flew out Thursday! We mostly ran errands and chilled out, tired from our busy week.

On Friday night I went with our other roommate Jack to a Perth Wildcats basketball game in the recently completed Perth Arena. It was fun, lots of dance team dancing, fireworks, cheers, etc. Most of the players are American too, so that is kind of funny. Perth beat the Townsville Crocs, and Matt and I are planning to attend the last game of the season in a few weeks against the New Zealand Breakers, the top ranked team right now, so it should be a fun evening!

Lest you think all is perfect in the land of Oz, I am currently at war with pantry moths (or Indian Meal moths). We discovered a long-forgotten box of taco shells wriggling with pantry moth larvae before leaving for the Peel Region. I chucked that box as well as some others that were obviously infested, but it wasn’t until we were back and I was working on it Wednesday that I realized how bad the infestation was. We have storage containers for all of our food now, and a trap set up to catch the males and prevent another generation. It isn’t a terrible illness or anything like that, and hunting the adults with a flyswatter in the evening is kind of fun, but I thought I would include one of the less appealing aspects of living in such a warm climate. All of you facing snowmageddon and bundled up indoors shouldn’t feel too envious.

Happy Birthday wishes to Matt's sister Nicky on the 22nd!

Stay warm and thanks for reading! 

(More photos from the week are on my Picassa page): 

https://picasaweb.google.com/117680624136413564992/MuseumsMoviesPeelManorHouse