women on the verge

A couple of times a year the council will come and pick up all the crap that you don't want anymore - old furniture, TVs, broken stuff... basically anything that you want to get rid of. So sometimes you might be driving through a neighbourhood and you'll see the verge in front of each house piled high with stuff to be binned. This is called a Verge Collection. Now, if you're a bit like me and R, then verge collections are exciting times... because it means you get to have a rummage for free things. hooray! It's a bit like a freecycle jumble sale hybrid. So far we've got a few good things.. the best being a set of drawers that are completely intact and not broken at all... tsk, the things people throw away. But, anyways, i think this is genius. it means people get to dump all the crap that they've been hoarding for ages and haven't got round to getting rid of without even leaving their house, and it means people like us get to engage in the exhilarating sport of rooting in rubbish. Yay! Now, doing it in daylight feels quite wrong and a bit scuzzy but to do it after dark makes it very hard to spot a good bargain, so the optimal time is just at dusk when there's still enough light to see the goods but you're not so obvious (obviously a torch helps too). The other night we found this orange faux leather cladded bar... but R wouldn't let me take it... *sigh* some people really don't know a good thing when they see one.

green fingers

i'm so excited! This is the first time i've ever grown anything. It's clearly v. early days but we have courgettes (zucchinis), lettuce, spinach, rocket, coriander, thyme and basil! What with the veggie growing, my lavender drying and knitting, just call me barbara. If we got some chickens down the end of the garden, it truly would be the good life.

Let's hear it for the Home Brewing King and Queen!

... that's us. And I include myself in this because I did help to stir the lager brew and I am responsible for the fabulous labels (created from R's design, i've been told to point out). Check out our beer fridge. So, we now have the Bali Belter, so named because R left the brew whilst he went yoga'ing in Bali for a week, and then we have the european style lager 'Prologue', which brewed during the tour de france... hence the name... currently just bottled is 'old spiced', a dark ale with cinnamon which is awaiting labelling and next to brew is a strawberry blonde beer, which will undoubtedly be named after yours truly (so far R's come up with 'moody ginger'). Other than us, the beers have been sampled by two Scots and a West Country chap.. with the thumbs up from all (perhaps they were just being polite).

At home with the Jones'

Sunday we were invited for a roast at R's friends', Mr and Mrs Jones, who live in the lovely Bayswater area, home to a recent drive by shooting and where whole contents of houses are ransacked whilst the owners slept, (apparently). But, really, it is a nice area. Saturday a text arrived asking what the eating meat situ was these days... Now, R is a part-time veggie (as you know, he is a hippie).. and despite being vegetarian for many years and vegan for the last 2 or 3, i, too, dabble in a bit of meat and cheese on occasion (if i've had a hard day, is it so wrong to treat myself to a bit of brie and crackers goddammit). BUT, i don't really dig meat, and i do find it a bit icky. But, not wanting to be fussy, and rather than text back with a long list of meats i won't eat, kangaroo, emu being among two of them, we texted back with a 'meat is fine', thinking well, it's a roast, i'll eat the potatoes and veggies (sorry, veggos, we're in australia now), a bit of chicken or beef will be ok, and all will be fine. Sunday arrives, we draw straws for the role of Designated Driver (DD) (oh, hang on, no we don't, i'm automatically selected for the post) and off we go.

Upon arrival we are welcomed with gin and tonics (just a tonic for the lady) and informed that after a recent holiday to france, kath has been inspired to cook a cassoulet.... hmm, might not be able to avoid the meat on this one! Lamb, pork, rabbit, sausage, bacon, and probably more actually. I lost count. My eyes certainly widened but other than a quick glance in R's direction i think i somehow managed to keep my face from looking totally horrified. So not only did i have to pretend to eat a bowl of meat, as DD, i also didn't even get to drink through it. Thankfully kath also did a very yummy (and meat free) leek and potato soup for a starter. (oh, and btw, word around the table was that the cassoulet was delicious). Anyways, we had a lovely evening and i went home with a armful of gossip magazines which i gorged when i got home along with some rice crackers and houmus for a late nite snack. Note to self - just be vegetarian from now on... so much easier than dealing with flesh and bones and skin and general meat ickiness.

i believe the children are our future...

...which is why i helped out at the annual Save the Children book sale at UWA this week. Well, and because i don't have anything else to do. The annual book sale is quite a big deal, with 3500 (or was it 35000) (anyway, it was a lot) boxes of books, it's one helluva book sale and runs for 5 days. So popular in fact that people were queuing 5 hours before the doors opened (i kid you not). Anyways, i had a lot of fun lugging boxes, chatting to the regular volunteers and sorting through books and managed to get quite a lot of bargain books to fill the previously empty bookshelves (oh, obv i don't need to point out that the yoga, star sign, self help, hippie dippie etc books were not chosen by moi). And the other old volunteers loved me! Although not quite as much as they loved R, whose appearance at lunchtime and coffee breaks was met with 'ooh, doesn't he look lovely' comments when we weren't quite out of earshot. He got a big gold star for bringing me coffee one morning... such a creep. So, check out the bruises i incurred whilst saving the children. I was worked like a good 'un, i can tell ya. NB. For those with a keen eye who can spot what tv show is on in the background, I was not, i repeat, NOT, watching the show. R, however was, (and he laughs out loud at it), which is why he only had the time to take one bad photo of my arms.

No drinking on a skool nite...

except when you get an invite to a free beer tasting evening... Tuesday nite we went down to Generous Squire's in the city for their members only beer tasting evening (sounds elite.. it's not ... anyone can join... even odd australians who refer to themselves as psycho, wear hats at jaunty angles, refuse to drink 'black beer' and remind me of peter andre)... Anyways... back to the beer.. so the evening was a battle of the something or other.. it was some pun on something to do with rugby... oh, or maybe football... but basically it was NZ vs Australia in 3 beer categories, lager, ale and stout.... Surprisingly, R had never been to a beer tasting before.. and we both learnt a lot. Firstly, no spitting it out, beer tasters swallow... which means i did get a lil' tipsy... (it did start at 5.30pm).. but we learnt about clarity, identifying the aroma, what to look for in taste in the different styles of beer... and then they all blended into one, and we ate some free pizza, which i spilt down R's work trousers. oops, and then, what was meant to be a lil' early evening of free entertainment, turned into 1 more, and then 2 more and then oops, missed the train, best have another, missed the next train and got a taxi home. I had a killer headache the next morning but got to stay in bed, poor R cycled to work and had a kebab for lunch.

the backstreets of perth

on the whole, the roads in perth are wide and straight. sometimes too wide and i find myself one minute on the inside lane and then suddenly there's four lanes and i'm on the outside, thinking how did this happen. There are however lots of little back lanes, like tiny narrow little lanes that go along the back of people's houses, and in a similar way to me seeing a bridge and wanting to walk over it, R finds it very hard to resist passing a lane by, and suddenly we're off road and down a dirt track that clearly hasn't been used in quite a while. However, they are extra handy for avoiding traffic and also for ducking down when there's no right turn to ensure your car is facing the correct direction for parking.... because here, when you park on the street, you have to be facing the direction of the traffic... i'm not sure what would happen if you broke this 'rule', but basically no one seems to, and i'm a stickler for authority anyway. Oh, and sometimes we go down a lane just because we like the name.

it's all about the birds

bird story no. 1 - there's a car hire company in perth whose tag is 'no birds'... for ages i kept tutting and thinking this was some sexist dig at something or other to do with women and cars. In the end I googled it and discovered it wasn't quite that bad (although obviously the fact that they refer to women as 'birds' isn't the best)... so it refers to back in the day when car hire companies had 'delivery girls' which increased hire costs... so there we go. I'll stop tutting now, but will still roll my eyes occasionally when i see one of their hire cars.... and i won't hire a car from them.

bird story no. 2 - I claimed in a previous post that i love seeing the brightly coloured lorikeets in the trees as they're so pretty. This is still true but the key phrase in that sentence is 'in the trees'. In my opinion birds should either be in trees, birdbaths, busy eating worms or whatever bird activities they want, as long as they're at least a metre or 2 away from me, and they certainly shouldn't think that they can come perch on or around or under the picnic table i'm sat at to grab meat bones from near my feet (bones, i hasten to add, that were left by the previous picnicking litterbugs, and not us). 'ooh, look at the green parrots, how cool are they?' *grabs camera*... 5 mins later i'm slightly freaked out that these birds are so tame and i'm shrieking that this isn't right and birds shouldn't be eating chicken, and fearing for my life (or at least the ickiness of one landing on my head), R suggests i go back to the car whilst he packs up the picnic stuff. My hero! R then poses me the dilemma of what would be worst... a bird on my head, a button held inches from my face or an hour in a car with loud music... Funny. Note their camouflaging skills so they can more slyly creep up on unsuspecting innocent people, like me.

things that are rubbish

things i've learnt today (or already knew but were reminded of)..... the wombats suck. Not that i ever thought they didn't, but they really do. They're playing on the radio right now. urgh. Our washing machine also sux. It doesn't wash properly and everything seems to be going bobbly... soooo, it's a good job i can't afford to buy any new clothes at the moment.... This thought led me to think about Toploader... remember them? Awful band. I thought for some reason they were australian but they're actually from eastbourne (according to wikipedia... although none of them are actually from eastbourne, so why they decided to live there is slightly odd). Why would you name yourself after a type of washing machine?

australian graffiti

Some pics from an underpass that i regularly cycle thru. Remember Operation? That man's red nose always kinda gave me the creeps. The underpass is right by the Subiaco Oval, which is the home ground of both the Fremantle Dockers and the West Coast Eagles... this is AFL we're talking. Not proper football! Speaking of which, first match of the season on saturday. COYS!

tuesday fun

tuesday, in some rare moment of madness, particularly because it was bloody hot (for winter) - like 23 degrees or something, i decided to go walking, and walking i did, because i ended up walking about 10km and my feet were not happy by the end of it. Luckily however, at the end of it all, i was able to collapse on our new (secondhand) sofa on the verandah with my v. precious, not to mention expensive, copy of the last Scott Pilgrim. Eek!

Anyhoo, back to the walk. I walked along to hyde park, a lovely shady park with birds and swans (including cygnets according to another park walker, but i didn't see them), where i found a different style drinking fountain. As you can imagine (or not) I was v. excited. And for those of you as excited as me, watch this space, because i shall be posting up my photo collection v. v. shortly.... oh yesssssssss. But, for a sneak preview, here's the one i found.

I took some photos of the trees too. I don't know what tree it is but the leaves looked like confetti up on the thin branches with the sunlight coming through (you probably had to be there...) and this old tree with it's twisted trunk and roots looked amazing.

i then wandered to the mount lawley strip, where i resisted going into any shops. Like seriously, things are sooo expensive and I don't have any money. blah blah blah, walk continued... ended up in the city trying to find the scott pilgrim book... and then planned on getting the train home.. but didn't happen and so i walked a bit more. So good exploring for finding my way around and getting my bearings.

juice box

This is the 1970s juicer we freecycled at the weekend. How cool? Check out the boxy square-ness of the design. Clearly who ever designed it, didn't test it out, because it's a pain and a half to clean. BUT, it was freeeeeeee..... and it juices. So far we've juiced some carrots and apples but tomorrow is market day so i'm a-gonna load up with fruit and from now on, most of my day will be spent cleaning out the panasonic juice box.

sunday sesh

Sunday, we headed into Freo, for a couple of reasons. Firstly to pick up a juicer which I'd spotted on freecycle, secondly, to meet up with james, rusty's bali yoga friend, and thirdly, (this is all in chronological order btw, rather than importance), to hang out with my new friend, lex and her boyfriend, loz. So, Freo (as the locals call it. it's actually called Fremantle) is a port just outside perth. It's on our train line so we jumped on the train with our bikes and were there in 20 mins. it was a glorious day and after doing our chores, (picking up the 1970s juicer) we had coffee at Vespa patisserie, a fabulous brunch at Aubergine (Ian - i had a breakfast burrito!), and then headed down to the South beach to soak up the sun. After a couple of hours basking, we headed into the town to check out some pubs, where we found the fantastic Clancy's fish pub, which had an amazing selection of beers on tap. i had the feral belgium white from up the road in Swan Valley. we sampled some yummy fish and chips, drank some more beer and then staggered home. Such a lovely day! And the pub sign makes me laugh. Mmmmm, fish beer. p.s. check out my bright green cycling gloves. they are WAY cool.

the birds and the bees

Here's a couple of photos of the coral tree out front of our house (sorry, not the best photos, admittedly). You can see it's leafless but it's got beautiful bright red flowers on it, which the birds are going crazy for! It's a hive of activity! Our front porch is the perfect spot to catch the last of the day's sun, before it turns bloody cold again in the evening, so around 3ish, i'm out front with a cup of tea, and a tim tam or two (which, to digress, i'm not sure why they're so popular, a lesser quality penguin, in my opinion). Anyways, so the birds are loving the nectar and although they're pretty common round these parts, i love to see the rainbow lorikeets, because they're just so darn colourful!