Fish, Cheese, Wine, Chocolate & Stalactites

We spent last weekend staying with Lynne and Aldo and family which was very enjoyable. We spent time relaxing with the children, seeing more Kangaroos, exercising their dog and visiting their church - which is big.

We then went away with Suzanne for a couple of days to give her a break from college, homework and work - she has not really had a break since she got here.

We decided to go down to Margaret River which is about 300 kilometres south of Perth. On the way down we stopped off at Busselton to have a look at the jetty - which is about 2 kilometres long - and visit the underwater observatory at the end. To get to the end we had to ride on a "Dotto Train" which was an interesting experience, once there we had about an hour to go down to the sea bed - inside the observatory - to see what fish were about. We were fortunate to see shoals of Herring, Yellow Tails and Taylor come by together with lots of smaller pretty fish - well worth the trip.

When we were driving by we also went into some cheese factories - to sample the goods - and some wineries to do likewise - need to be careful for those of us who were driving - and a chocolate factory - no need to worry here except it spoils the appetite for lunch.

On the return journey we stopped off at the Ngilgi caves just to see how different Australian caves are to those in the UK - they are pretty much the same except a lot dryer at the moment, no real rain for over a year. These caves are part of a huge complex but we chose only to do the short easy bit - what a surprise - three hundred and fifty nine steps later we got to the middle where we were given loads of information about stalactites, stalacmites, straws and upside down mushrooms - mind blowing.

Got home Tuesday evening very tired but we did enjoy ourselves.

We are getting ready now for our next trip which is up the west coast to Exmouth - not sure what internet access will be like so it may be a little while before you hear from us again.

PS Thanks for all Jean's birthday cards which have arrived early!

Still can't get boats out of our system

Having looked at all sorts of boats on the water - on the river, on the sea, in the marinas, being put in or taken out - we decided that a visit to the Fremantle Maritime Museum was in order. Exhibits ranged from homemade boats made from sheet metal to the successful Americas Cup winner a few years ago. The highlight for Suzanne and me - Roger - was the submarine tour. HMS Ovens was in service from the late 1960's to the late 1990's although never in a battle situation. Suzanne was very interested in the size of the galley which served 63 meals 3 times a day and I was particularly interested in the machinery. Can you imagine the noise when these two engines were up and running - they were used to generate electricity to charge the batteries which were used to power the electric motors that drove the propellers. Now that was exciting wasn't it?? Well we thought so!

We also decided to visit a well known local cemetary to see what the locals get up to there. Well they eat amongst the graves, they fight amongst the graves, they bring their young along for an outing and they generally have a good time! This is a regular meeting place for the local kangaroos and there were a lot there. All wild but well used to having people around them. We spent probably about an hour here watching them and taking loads of pics. In the end the light gave up on us and we had to leave them to it.

We are currently in the middle of celebrating birthdays - Suzanne, Nic and Jean - and so we went to the theatre on Sunday night - now that sounds posh does't it? We went to see the farewell tour of Riverdance which was excellent and we all enjoyed it very much. Now we must get down to the more mundane activities of eating birthday cakes, drinking celebratory wine, munching chocolate and anything else that comes along.

We are very conscious that we only have about 6 weeks left before we start our journey home - doesn't time fly?

Don't forget Christchurch

We know it is only about 2 weeks ago that the earthquake hit Christcurch, but a lot of other events worldwide can so easily take our attention and without realising it we can so easily forget.

We were there ourselves only 4 months ago and found it to be a most beautiful city - as those of you who have also visited will know - and to see the devestation is heartbreaking, but it must be even more so for those living and working there.

Please keep Christchurch and her people in your thoughts and prayers as they come to terms with what has happened and continues to happen. Not just tremors and the like but also issues like employment for those working in the devestated areas and the effects this will have on the local and national economies

We have included some of the photographs we took when we were here just to show you how magnificent this city was and hopefully will be again.

Yes we are still in the land of the living

We have just returned from visting our friends Gavin and Liz in cold Melbourne. Temperatures varied from between 13 degrees to the mid 20's - not as warm as we have been getting in Perth. We went sightseeing some of the ares devestated by bush fires 2 years ago - so much damage! A lot of the properties have been rebuilt, but not all of them. Some of the trees have begun to recover but not all will. We also went walking in rain forests, in amongst large ferns and huge trees - we also saw a Lyre bird, but the pictures are not very good - shame! A camping trip had been planned for this time with Gavin and Liz and Yes you've guessed we went, and no we didn't have enough warm clothes with us - this is summer in Australia - WRONG. We went up country to Beechworth, Echuca and Ballarat. Beechworth is Ned Kelly country and like most places with a little bit of history it is over played - we saw a 12ft statue of him, we ate his pies and we heard all about his exploits and seen replicas of his armour - we are Ned Kelly'd out.

While we at Beechworth we visited some old friends from way back - Geoff and Linda Upton who came out to Oz about 5 years ago, with their family, and have settled into a smallholding just outside the town. They are both doing very well and enjoying themselves, their son Oliver has recently got married. Neither of them appear to have aged - so something here must be good for them.

Echuca is on a river and used to be the second largest port in Victoria. While we were there we went for a trip on a steam powered paddle steamer named the Pevensey - not after the village in Sussex but after a sheep station somewhere in Victoria - she was built about 100 years ago and originally used for moving freight down to Melbourne. Weather still cold. We then moved over to Ballarat to look for some information on the grandfather of a friend of ours - lots of pictures Alan but nothing very specific. Raining. Packed up and went home to warm up and dry the canvas. Helped Gavin repair his garage. Did some more sightseeing in Melbourne. Had an evening with some people from Gavin and Liz's church who are going to Cusco in Peru, where we were earlier on our trip, they were interested in our pictures. Pulled a muscle in my neck and had to have it massaged as we were flying back to Perth the same day. Still cold. Got back to perth in the evening - it's hot! Now having to get used to it again!! Celebrated Suzanne's birthday with a BBQ at Pete and Nic's and a swim in their HOT pool - great.

Black Sunday in Perth!

Just a quick note before we leave for Melbourne tomorrow - sorry no time for a picture. We have spent the weekend in Mandurah - had a great time - but on the way home saw the smoke from 2 fires. One was about 20 - 30 mins from where we live but it has burnt out of control for a whole day and destroyed 64 houses - the pictures on the TV were horrendous. It was started by a man using an angle grinder in his garden! The second was very near to us but much smaller and we have not yet found out exactly where it was - suffice it to say when we got off the bus at Suz's house there was a lot of black smoke not far away and smoke wafting down the end of the road. It made me choke and our clothes smelt of smoke when we got in. We kept an eye on it for a few hours but it diminished. We think it may have been up the river valley where we went cycling last week. Very scarry experiences for the people involved and a constant danger here because it is so dry. Melbourne have had floods so we will be going from one extreme to another!

Flying the flag, fireworks and Jail

January 26th - Australia Day - when it comes to celebrating Ozzies certainly know how to do it. We all gathered on the south Perth foreshore to watch the airplanes doing some displays before the main event. It seemed like half of the local boat owners had the same idea as the water was full of boats varying from the small rowboats to the big "Gin Palaces" we look at with envious eyes. Then it was time to bring out the picnic. without the wine this time, as we did not want to upset the local constabulary again. By this time it was getting dark and the fireworks were due to start at 8.00 - well they almost got it right - about 5 minutes late - but so what - this is Australia. A fantastic half hour display mainly from barges on the water but with additional sites on the top of some of the large office blocks in the city. Yes - they really do know how to celebrate in style and it was all very friendly and well behaved.

As the children are going back to school this Wednesday we took everyone to the cinema on Friday evening - outdoors in Kings Park. We went to see the new Narnia film - The Voyage of the Dawntreader. Now that is something different, sitting on the grass watching a film with a glass of wine (yes we were allowed), under the stars - all very enjoyable.

Sun eve we went to Jazz in the Park down in Fremantle but left a bit early because it rained!

Today we took the Pete and the children to see Fremantle Prison which was built by convicts from England in the 1850's and was used up until 20 years ago. I certainly would not have liked to be locked in there. The cells were tiny, the exercise yards were small and it was all very oppressive, but it is all part of the local and national history which makes it interesting. The weather has also been very hot and humid this last week - makes going out in the day and sleeping difficult, but we won't complain!!

Hard work and hard ground!!

Well since our last post we have packed up all the furniture and belongings that Suzanne brought over here from UK, hired a truck and taken it to her new rented villa, unpacked and found homes for it all, then re-sorted Pete and Nicky's house, moving Lois into Suzanne's old room and Isaac into Lois' old room and moving settees and desks around to fill in all the spaces - needless to say both places look great now! Suz has a lounge/diner, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom, toilet and laundry room, car port and under-cover patio area. Unfortunately there are a lot of trees round it so hence quite a few mosquitos! But its nice for us to have our own bedroom and chest of drawers at last.

Whilst we were moving, Pete and the children were at the Pacific Rim Churches "Newday" north of Sydney. They all had a great time but Josh came back with his arm in a sling having fallen whilst playing soccer! Unfortunately his arm had not stood up to the hard ground and Nicky and Josh spent the first day and night back at the hospital where he had to have an operation to mend the top of his radius bone which had been knocked off!! Painful!

We have spent a few days investigating the new area we live in (Shelley on the border with Riverton) and today with Suz took a trip up the Swan Valley which is a big wine growing area. We sampled lots of wines, beers, cheeses and chocolate and brought a chosen few back home for Australia Day celebrations on Wednesday. We really enjoyed ourselves! Glad to report weather much cooler at present - 26 degrees today!!