Thursday, November 25, 2010

crazy weather

So Tonica joined us for 3 weeks in WA and I think they've had the biggest mix of weather conditions ever. It was baking hot for their first couple of days, reaching up to 40 degrees and some hot nights when we had to put the air conditioning on. Down south they said it was positively mild, only mid-teens and then back to Perth, we've had rain, lots of overcast days, it's been humid and many, many clouds. Now the weather seems to have evened out into proper perth weather - clear blue sky, no clouds and sun, which is perfect for my dad as he's happiest when it's sun, sun, sun.

At the weekend we went up to Trigg beach. the water's quite rough here, there's lots of rocks and parts of it are off limits for the swimmer but the ocean was full of surfers waiting on their boards for the perfect wave.


rotto


At the weekend we went to the marvellous Rottnest Island. Rotto is a small island just off the coast from perth. It takes about 25 mins on the boat from Freo so we got up early with the bikes and a picnic and set off for a day of activity with Tonica. Rotto is great for cycling because no cars are allowed and it means you can explore the whole island (it would take too long to walk it all and it wouldn't be much of an adventure going around on the island bus!) The weather was quite overcast but still lovely and warm and we spent the day cycling around the island, snorkelling, swimming and spotting wildlife. The quokkas are common as, so it was minus points for spotting them. Yes, they are basically oversized rats, which is where the name for the island comes from (Rats Nest Island).

but plenty of points for spotting dolphins (check), whales (check), birds of prey (osprey in this case) (check) and a manta ray! woo hoo. This is me spotting the whale at the far end of the island. It was very grey, misty, windy and drizzly out on the point.

And look at these two crazy cats.




Monday, November 22, 2010

moody beeeeyatch


i was gonna call this post 'down in the dumps' but that wasn't right, so i opted for this one. And it's all about boring old PMS. And i wouldn't even bother writing about it but it's been pretty hefty this month, and to be honest, i just need to write down how bloody awful it is, for me, and for my lovely, patient, tolerant boyfriend. Especially when, actually, my life is so bloody awesome, as i wrote here just a couple of weeks ago. I started taking some supplements a couple of months ago with b6 and chaste tree in, which really seemed to help. unfortunately, about a week ago i ran out, and i've been so busy with house guests, i kept putting off getting to the chemist. Ohhh how i wish i'd prioritised that on the 'to do' list! (especially as Tonica arrived back to stay with us again on tuesday for another week). What gets me is that i just feel like a totally different person and when i come out of it, it's like, wow, did that really happen. It's like something's trapped and it needs to be released through tears or shouting or something, and then i'll snap out of, but nothing was managing to 'snap me out it'. I should have just sat down and watched an episode of Secret Millionaire or something. That usually makes me cry! So it started last sunday when i had a wobble over my shorts, and then as you'll may remember, my inexplicable emotion at the bagpipers at the parade... hmmm, not so inexplicable now. It then continued with a general nagging, irky, tetchy feeling throughout the week, culminating in the big finale on saturday nite when poor R, (admittedly rather insensitively, but on another day, i may have seen the funny side), telling me whilst out having dinner with his parents, that it looked like i had a moustache (we'd been out in the sun cycling all day and i had caught the sun, somewhat unfortunately it would seem!). Needless to say, in my current state, this did not go down well with me. Ahhh, the poor guy, and poor parents. I now feel very embarrassed and sure that everyone must think i'm some kind of crazy deranged person, and y'know, sometimes that's what it feels like, and it totally sux, especially when it lasts a whole week or more. :-( Sorry everyone. (And i posted a photo of me happy as sometimes i need to remind myself that i'm not always like this). For my own future reference (and for the sanity of those around me) I will now ensure i don't run out of vitamin supplements.

Monday, November 15, 2010

the parade!


By the time we'd come out of the market, people were expectantly waiting on the kerb for the parade to start. The parade was cute and colourful.

i was inexplicably finding the bagpipers quite emotional so by the time the 3rd band had marched past i was really hoping there wouldn't be anymore, otherwise it really might all end in tears!


I think this little kid had been moved by the bagpipers too.

Lex was sporting an extreme hangover after the previous night's street party so after the parade we headed back to her house to meet her very teeny tiny cutey pie bengal kitten, Sookie! Eek!


Freo festival

Yesterday was the last day of the Fremantle festival so after a morning at the beach, R and I hopped on the train (too easy!) to Freo, where we met up with R's friend, James and my friend, Lex. We had a mooch around the market. Freo market is pretty cool - loads of different stalls - fashion, souvenirs, food and it's fun to have a look around. it's only open fridays, saturdays and sundays and it gets pretty busy. It even has a bar in there!



I was looking for a sun hat but had no luck. I've realised i take after my pinhead mother (yeah, thanx for that Biv), and hats just don't suit me. We did however find some suitable food - chocolate strawberry kebabs! And somehow managed to pass on trying the potato twist.

Outside the market, the streets were packed with people drawing on the streets with chalk as they waited for the parade to start.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

A bloody good indian

As Tonica headed south, the Farmer called to see if there was any room at the inn. The Farmer, aka R's oldest friend (in longevity, not age) lives in NSW but often pops over this way for work. We love the Farmer, (particularly when he kindly brings gifts of an iron and mandarins), so we welcomed him with open arms. And last nite he very kindly took us out for dinner. I fancied Indian food and so we headed to Punjab, (J and T's fave Indian restaurant in the whole of Perth) and after our meal last nite, I concur. It's in an odd location, on a retail park next to Subway in Innaloo (hee, hee, Innaloo) but don't let that put you off. We've been to the Cinnamon Club, our local Indian previously. Admittedly my review of that meal was somewhat influenced by the air con being turned on full blast directly above my head towards the end of the evening when they clearly wanted us to leave; the loud party of people celebrating Christmas in June (noooo, i'm not making it up, yessss, this is a real something that people here do); and R's tipsy-ness from after-work drinks making it very difficult for him to select wine and choose his dishes, BUT, aside from all that, the food wasn't that great and the saag aloo was ridiculously hot, which i've never, ever experienced before. i wouldn't describe myself as a chilli wimp so i don't mind hot(ish) dishes but i wouldn't have thought a saag aloo is meant to be spicy and it ruined the flavour for us. We've also been to the Two Fat Indians restaurant in Mount Lawley. This was not only a grease-fest with most of the dishes full of oil, but we were somehow duped into getting the banquet for 4 (don't worry, there were 4 of us - we weren't that duped) which meant dishes we didn't really want and lots of leftover food (which obviously i doggybagged up and ate the next day for lunch, grease and all).

Anyway, back to last night. Once we'd got over the awkwardness of the waitress not understanding my wine request (i first got brought a bottle of stella and then a glass of red wine, before the correct drink came), we ordered poppadoms, lentil daal, chicken jalfrezi and lamb madras with rice, peshwari and plain naan. I think our main beef with the indian restaurants in Perth is that they don't do curries like in the UK (not that i'm after a vindaloo or anything you understand) but there are a lot of good indian restaurants and here, it's not so much of an institution. There are a lot of Thai restaurants, Malaysian, Indonesian, but not so much Indian. Having a curry at Punjab however was like being back in the UK. The flavours were superb and spice levels as we expected from mild on the daal, upping it on the Jalfrezi and then hotter for the Madras. Too often curries have small cubes of over cooked dried chicken but none of that shit here. They use free range Mount Barker chicken in all their dishes (that would be in all the chicken dishes, not all the dishes, fear not vegetarians) and it showed. And you could tell that the vegetables were all fresh too (which worryingly isn't always the case in restaurants - my memory specifically recalls a very bad meal at an Indian restaurant in Kettering in 2006 with frozen spinach and tinned mushrooms). My only mild niggle was that the peshwari was slightly too sweet. But other than that, the food was amazing and there were no leftovers for me to bring home! 3 cheers for the Punjab!

Monday, November 8, 2010

kangaroos!






at the weekend we took Tonica out to the Perth Hills. The Perth Hills are the Darling Range just on the outskirts of the city. We've been cycling up in John Forrest National Park before and we thought we'd take the folks out for some bushwalking. Unfortunately our walk was cut short due to a bushfire earlier in the week and we could still see one part smoldering. But we got to check out the amazing views, lots of Xanthorrhoea (commonly known as grass trees or blackboys), saw some parrots and kookaburras (no pix - by the time i'd changed lenses on the camera, they'd flown away, their laugh echoing in my ears) and saw some roos close up! Perfect for the visitors.

another day in paradise


we have such an awesome life here in perth. I'm so happy and so loving life at the moment. Visiting melbourne was great but coming back to perth was more great! i love it here and we have totally got it made (probably me slightly better than R because i don't have to work!) but we have gorgeous weather, a lovely house and garden, bike riding is so easy, no traffic jams, beaches, the list is endless, no stress at all. Our set of friends are getting stronger and sitting out on the verandah last nite with Tonica (we've opted for Tonica over MonoTone) and J and T having a bbq, drinking homebrew and WA wine, with our new solar powered fairy lights(!), it's hard not to think we have it made here. life is pretty sweet. As the aussies might say, too easy. p.s. the rocking chair was rescued from the verge and fixed by handy man R.

plagued by birds




i've realised that i have a fear of birds. Birds in trees, on lakes, up high in the sky.... all fine. Birds close to me and in places they shouldn't be... not fine. Take for example these crows... evil looking... huuuuuuuuuge birds ransacking the bins and tables at Kings Park cafe. This is not ok. Compare to Egret on pond... ahhh, lovely.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

sunsets in november





R's parents, aka M & T, (or as i like to affectionately call them - Monotone) (which i should point out is purely for play on words purposes) have arrived and we took them to enjoy their first WA sunset. R was by himself when he decided a dip in the sea was a good idea.


Gotta get myself some of those amazing specials

if you don't get into oxford....

Monday, November 1, 2010

melbourne part 2






So, aside from the art, we also went to see Low at the Forum - an amazing band at an amazing venue and also met up with an old face from brighton, so a good nite all round. The next evening we had a few too many pints (R was shitfaced before dinner - his words, not mine) followed by a yummy dinner and rounded the evening off at the gin palace. The rest of the weekend included tram rides, cakes on Lygon Street, a stroll to St Kilda, spotting fairy penguins and some more cake. All in all, a successful trip!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The East side






Just back from a lovely few days in melbourne. Same country but a 3 1/2 hour flight and a 3 hour time difference... this country sure is big! I had a couple of days to myself to explore the city whilst R worked hard. One thing i really noticed was how hectic it felt compared to Perth... busy,busy, busy with a helluva lot of people. As i was telling people this today at the gallery, we decided to google population figures and discovered melbourne has about 4 million people and the whole of WA only has just over 2 million! I really hadn't realised how few people there actually are this side of the country. Anyway, so back to Melbourne. Had a great time checking out the street art. There are lots of laneways to discover with graffiti and cool secret bars... i don't think we even saw half of them.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

sunsets



the sunsets in Western Australia are so amazing. As we're on the west coast we get clear views over the Indian Ocean and if you head down to one of the beautiful beaches we have on offer in perth at sunset time, you'll see lots of people there to watch the show, some with a few beers or a bottle of wine, and if you're in cottesloe, then fish and chips whilst watching the sunset is a bit of an institution. We've only caught a couple of sunsets so far this summer but i'm sure there'll be many more. Sunset is currently about 6.30pm. WA doesn't have daylight saving so no altering the clocks for us. Apparently there was a 3 year trial which started in 2006. in 2009 there was a referendum and the outcome was no to daylight saving! So I think sunset won't go later then 7.30pm at the height of summer. The second photo is R trying to capture the reflection of the sunset in our sunglasses!

things i found in the garden





i was v. lazy today and didn't really leave the house (except to return to ikea to collect my phone which i'd lost and they found - yay!). I mostly enjoying lying in the hammock reading, and i kept hearing this noise which was ridiculously loud. It was obviously an insect. it sounded like a cricket or something so i kinda went to investigate. Turns out (i think) it's a cicada. The first photo shows the shell it leaves behind (there were about 4 or 5 on the wall) and the second photo is of the noisy little critter. Like, seriously, you would not believe how loud they are. I got used to the noise but then when there was lull i really appreciated the quiet. On my search for the cicadas I thought i'd take a picture of our mulberry tree! how cool is that. Mulberries can be used like other berries apparently so i'm thinking i should pick some and make a pie! I also saw a cute little lizard. I don't think you can gauge from the photo how small he was but he was only about as long as a finger. V. sweet. And that's our garden for today.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Now baking


The Bakery recently reopened. I say this as if i went before it shut down. i didn't. So, i can't compare, but we went on sat and sun nite and it's a pretty cool venue. It's red with old sofas. I like sofas... particularly at gigs. Sitting down gigs are my favourite. Not that we sat down for Sun Araw, because we didn't. But we did for Grouper on Sunday nite. Sun Araw was great. Not sure if it was the psychedelic music or the fact that R makes me watch too many crime shows on tv, but i was pretty sure that the drops of rain on the front porch when we came home were blood and not rain. We'd bought joint tix for Sun Araw on the sat nite and then Grouper on the sunday. However, by the time sunday evening came round, after a late nite and a free rainy day out in the Valley at a winery watching the Basement Birds, we were quite tempted to not head out for Grouper. It was a dark, rainy and windy evening, x factor was on and i was cooking up some hard boiled eggs... Luckily however sixthousand's post on facebook to get up and push on thru the hangover inspired us to pause xfactor (ohmigod, i love pausing live tv) and drive down to the bakery. We sat on a sofa, drank fizzy pop and nearly fell asleep to the sounds of Grouper. To be honest i didn't really dig Grouper. I liked her vocals and there was a nice haunting sound to it but, as anyone who knows me will know, i have a time problem, so one song that goes on for a whole set and lasts about 30 mins is my idea of hell. Like, if it hasn't stopped after 3 minutes, will it ever stop? And that thought scares me. But the sunday vibe and the sofas and the ambient table lamps made it v. cosy and mellow so i was pleased we made the effort. We then drove home, unpaused x factor and carried on with our vegging out. P.s. the photo's taken at the winery.... best caption wins a prize.

The Monk versus Xwray

last weekend felt pretty hectic as there was lots going on. Out in Freo with my friend, Lex on friday. We went to the Monk. The Monk is a pub on the main strip of Freo. I've walked past it a few times in the day and it's always been heaving as it's a great sunny spot for watching the world go by. We thought we'd check it out as I hadn't actually been there (and i had a 25% off voucher!) So, in short, i think we did it all wrong. As i said, it's a sunny spot, so i think it's best appreciated on say, a sunny sunday afternoon, and not a friday nite, when the atmosphere wasn't up to much. Like, it was busy, but i dunno, it felt a bit generic pub maybe. It's also a brewery so they brew their own beer. We however opted for a couple of glasses of wine. The reviews of this place on Urbanspoon pretty much say the tapas is awesome, well... we went for the pizza, which wasn't. Just had a couple of veggie pizzas which were, well, ok, i guess, nowt spesh at all. So, all in all, i can't say too much about it but probably would suggest trying a couple of beers on a sunny arvo and leave it at that. Afterwards we went round to Xwray (no website to link you to and i always forget to take my camera with me so no pics either - i'm such a rubbish blogger). Anyhoo, much cooler and a real lovely cute place to hang out. R and I stumbled across Xwray on our first trip to Freo. It's tucked away on Essex St opposite the Luna and is definitely worth checking out. And in a contest between the Monk versus Xwray, Xwray would win every time.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Peggy Guggenheim


This week i started volunteering at the
Art Gallery of Western Australia on the Peggy Guggenheim exhibition. And I get to wear a snazzy blue t-shirt, which.... wait for it.... i get to keep! Alright! Funny actually because yesterday 2 people came in looking to buy the t-shirts, which aren't actually on sale, so i'm thinking.... end of the exhibition... ebay... highest bidder wins. (not really, obviously). Anyways, so it was a lot of fun and it's very exciting for Australia, and for Perth, (because the exhibition isn't going anywhere else) for so much great art to be here. I haven't managed to check out the exhibition yet (me bad) but i plan to next week. The exhibition is on for the whole summer and it's expected to get v. busy.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

a hike in the woods






Due to a puncture our sunday cycling plans became walking plans. After a quick coffee at The Wine Tree, (and some morning cider tasting!) we drove to Lane Pool Reserve to walk one of the trails. R. a.k.a. 'My Hero' managed to get a fire going from the embers of a previous someone's fire so we got to cook sausages and have hotdogs for lunch. yay! He's so cool. We then went for a short walk along the river, R got attacked by a large red ant and we took a picture of Bob, because he looked so pretty with the sunlight falling on him through the trees. We then went home and had take out Stones pizza (for some reason we thought the pizza of the week - blue cheese and pear was a good choice). Yay for weekends!