27th June. Arrived 20 minutes early. Picked up by Annabelle (Bella) and whizzed first to Swanview Gardens to dump our gear and then to S&P's for a meal. Barry & Sally were there too. Drove back to SG in Dad's car Bella stayed at home, being discrete maybe?
28th June First visit to Freo Markets (on Dad's electric bikes). Went to Aqua Life for a 3 month pass. Stocked up with supplies.
1st July. Chilled until Sunday night then Rotto for the week (managed to get Fitzhardinge, Yaaay!) Usual touristy sight seeing things all week. Pretty cold though. One day it was only 14 degrees! Brrr.
5th July. S & P Anchored the yacht in Thomson Bay (nominal fee as they have an anchorage in Stark Bay). They'd brought Dhufish for the evening meal. First one of our visit... Rah rah and indeed rah!
6th July. Diving on the wreck of the City of York. Sea really, really clear. It had an archaelogical grid affair laid out over it. No idea why and Jill was no help either. (She works for DPaw so might have known.) Afterwards went diving for clams (masses) and crays (none at all) in Catherine Bay. Another meal on the yacht.
7th July. Diving again this time on the Lady Elizabeth. Water much warmer than Saturday (we were on the south of the island). Caught masses of yabbies for the evening meal. There were absolute hordes of people on the island - first weekend of the two week mid winter break so only to be expected.
8th July. Rotto Ferry backto Freo the cycled back back to Swanview Gardens. Grocery shop then off to the Concert Hall to collect our tickets for the concerts and theatre we'd booked, then down to collect our luggage from B Shed - the Rotto Ferry point.
Here are Ms J-S & Ms T's cultural activities selection:
July 21st (Sun)
Perth Concert Hall
Proms night (in the afternoon):
WALTON Crown Imperial
HANDEL arr. HARTY Water Music: selections
JOHN RUTTER For the Beauty of the Earth
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN You’ll Never Walk Alone
COATES The Dambusters March
KARL JENKINS Benedictus from The Armed Man
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN The Sound of Music: Climb Ev’ry Mountain
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Wasps Overture
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a theme of Greensleeves
LOEWE My Fair Lady: Ascot Gavotte
LOEWE My Fair Lady: I Could Have Danced All Night
WOOD Fantasy on British Sea Songs
arr. SARGENT Rule, Britannia
PARRY Jerusalem
ELGAR Pomp and Circumstance No.1 ‘Land of Hope and Glory’
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August 2nd* (Fri )
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.4
BRUCKNER Symphony No.6
Simone Young conductor
Javier Perianes piano
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August 16th* (Fri)
Perth Concert Hall.
ELGAR Violin Concerto
BRAHMS Symphony No.2
Asher Fisch conductor
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider violin
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August 25th* (Sun)
BEETHOVEN Fidelio: Overture
BEETHOVEN Fidelio: Abscheulicher! wo eilst du hin?
MAHLER Blumine
STRAUSS, R. Four Last Songs
WAGNER Tannhäuser: Entrance of the Guests
WAGNER Tannhäuser: Dich, teure Halle
STRAUSS, R. Salome: Dance of the Seven Veils
STRAUSS, R. Salome: Final scene
Gun-Brit Barkmin soprano
Asher Fisch conductor
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August 30th* (Fri)
MENDELSSOHN Ruy Blas: Overture
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto
STRAUSS. R. Don Juan
STRAUSS. R. Death andTransfiguration
Nikolaj Znaider conductor
Asher Fisch piano
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September 21st (Sat)
His Majesty's Theatre
Giselle
WA Ballet
7.30pm
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The August concerts were co-sponsored by Uncle Alex and Aunt Chris we were asked to be meeters and greeters at all four!
Also arranged to go and stay with Jill in Geraldton for a few days - arriving mid-arvo on the 11th.
July 9th & 10th. Into Perth shopping (Lindt shop mainly fort pressies for Jill and Alex & Chris). Went for a meal at A&C's in Baldivis. Then across to S&P's where we had so much collapsing juice we had to spend then night. Suze took us to Aquajetty for our morning swim the next morning - a great hangover cure - NOT.
11th July. Geraldton is 420Km from Dad's (OK just over). We decided to use State Route 60 as it sort of follows the coast. We were up before dawn to avoid the rush (6am) and there wasn't any! ! Bloodty lazy lot these Okkers, eh?
We stopped at Jurien Bay for a late breakfast / early lunch. I wanted to stop here because of the weather forecast. The presenter gives coastal waters predictions and one of the areas is Jurien Bay to Mandurah. (Mandurah is much nicer, btw...) Got there early so visted Jill at work in the brand spanking new DPaW building on the waterfront, to get the key. On her arrival she'd brought takeaway.
Her unit is in a terrace that, madly, runs between two roads, not along side one road as usual. It's the end one on Simpson Street - overlooking the Indian Ocean - where we were head on Friday.
12th July. Up with larks (or even before) to get the DPaw boat out to the Abrolhos Islands. 4 hours out and 4 hours back for just 2 and a bit hours on the island. It was worth it though. Tourists aren't allowed and it is a small archaepalago which makes Rottnest look huge! We were allowed on the way marked paths while Jill gathered up the crew who been here all week. They were doing a non-indigenous predator removal programme - it's an on going thing.
The reefs looked really amazing. I bet they'd make great diving. One of the guys told us they were a great location for WA Dhufish, my favourite fish meal ever. Shame we didn't have time to catch one...
Back at Simpson by 6pm to a gorgeous smell of cooking stew. I offered to make some dumplings nut had to go and buy suet and flour!
15th July. We watched the cricket world cup final at Jill's. It started at 4.30pm and went on to 2am. Jill gave up at midnight but we watched to glorious and surprising end. Rah, rah rah England! We didn't get up to see Jill go to work. The annoying thing about the final was Dad being at Lord's to watch. He had hope the Aussies would be finalists but when he bought the ticket it was months before the first ball had been bowled. Jealous Much!
16th & 17th July. Went to Kalbari and had two nights at Kalbari sea front villas. It does what it says on the tin. On Wednesday did the whole of the Loop walk which was really enjoyable.
On both nights we had our evening meals at the Gilgai Tavern - recommended by the people at the Sea Front Villas. Seafood platter (sharing) on Tuesday and steaks on Wednesday night. The booze was a bit expensive ($8 for a glass of wine - large glass) but the food was excellent and not as expensive as the drink prices would have suggested...
It got a bit rowdy over in the bar side but the restaurant was more civilised. We went into the bar and had a couple of games of pool and then got challenged by a couple of guys who failed to pick up our lesbian vibe.
Best of three, we won the first so they insisted on best of three, we aced that too winning 2-1. Close but fun. We got the 'you are too beautiful to be lesbians' line from the two guys. But they were quite harmless. They bought us a couple more glasses of wine as our winnings and went on to have a more raucous game with their mates...
19th July. Back at Dad's. We drove down highway 1 instead of the coast road and did the journey to E Shed car park in 3½ hours. We drove straight to Freo to have lunch with Heidi at the Monk on South Terrace opposite Freo Market. She is my former colleague at Myers Department Store in 2005/06 and 2009/10.
We keep in touch via e-mail and occasional Skype. She's now assistant store manager at David Jones, Garden City (that's in Booragoon, between Bicton where Suze and Pete used to live and Hurlingham where Dad's flat is). DJs is one of the 'posher' stores in WA.
She'd booked a terrace table for 1.30 but we were there easily by 1pm. Parked up at just after noon at E shed and had done all our shopping - and market visiting by 1.
Had a good old catch up gossip and got an invite to her place near Bibra Lake for one night the following week. It's at Lachlan Way (maybe name after General McQuarrie) and is opposite a nice green space and stand of trees. Wed or Thurs depending on her other half... She was moved to Myers in Perth with the promise of promotion in 2015 but it fell through so she skipped back to Freo at the end of that year. In 2017 after being promised promotion but being thwarted again she got the job at DJs.
Lunch was good. I had the langoustines which were so succulent. We decided we'd better do a week's worth food shop on the way back to Dad's. We stopped at our local outlet, Meadow Vale and bought a mountain of fresh stuff and and a dozen bottles from Vintage Cellars - can't keep quaffing all of Dad's Penfolds, now, can we?
21st July. The Proms weren't quite proms.
There was a packed house for a 2pm start but we had a major, major, major disappointment - there was no walking about, promenade area at the front a la Albert Hall. Boo and indeed Hoo!
We decided not to posh frock it in the end and were glad, people had mad cossies on and they were selling hats, streamers, whistles, scarves and items on sticks for the audience. I bought a cardboard crown hat (Shades of Bon Jovi's "These Days" not a styrofoam crown though...) and Loll bought opera glasses on a stick. We also bought tinsel scarves.
The songs from shows were not cheesy at all - I was so worried they would be. The singer was a pucker opera diva, Jacqueline Dark, whose last opera gig was also in Australia.
They opened with Walton's "Crown Imperial" and closed with "P & C no 1" with obligatory audience singalong - sadly the programme had the words printed in it! Land of hope and Glory, indeed!
We took the Mends Street ferry there and back, which was fun but definitely not something we'll do in our posh frocks for Uncle Alex's 4 sponsored concerts.
Oh BTW, more about Heidi. I forgot to mention, she wanted to meet because she has lost her job at David Jones. There has been a serious slump in posh department stores in WA and about 200 staff were made redundant last week (well, given notice - 3 months). They used a last in first out policy hence Heidi got the push. She's not fussed - she's already got another to step into once her notice is served.
23rd July. Swan River wine cruise. Have done it before. Wanted to sample new wines and enjoy the meal and company. Didn't buy any as we are off to Margaret River later to stock up... The Houghton AWB as delicious as usual.
24th July. Long bike ride around the Swan heading east first but then back on the north bank to King's Park, Lunch in the cafe there - Yummy as ever. Mum Skyped to show me how hot the UK was with Callie and Teela luxuriating under her air con unit to escape the heat wave. 34 degrees she had yesterday! Phewee Muskey.
26th July. Busy old day. Freo markets and shops in the morning. Visited the Maritime Museum on the banks of the Swan and found, on one of the displays, a photograph of Jill and a write up all about the non-indigenous predator removal programme on the Abrolhos... It is weird to see a rellie in a museum exhibit - especially as they aren't dead! I called her to tell her this. She was quite amused, I think.
After a food court lunch we headed over to Alex's to sort out arrangements for our meting and greeting. I can't see why he's worried, he runs a pretty big concern himself so organising this should be a doddle. I guess it has taken him out of his comfort zone a bit. It isn't as though he's the sole sponsor of the concerts there are a whole slew of them.
Suze & Pete joined us for the meal. I had a bet with Loll that they would ask why they haven't been invited to the events. They have never been to any of the Classical Music stuff we've attended whist over here in the past- which should be a pretty convincing reason by anyone's standards, don't you think? However, we are talking family here and noses being disjointed, so who can say what would happen? Not me, as it turned out because they never mentioned it at all (their not being invited, that is...)
24th July. Long bike ride around the Swan heading east first but then back on the north bank to King's Park, Lunch in the cafe there - Yummy as ever. Mum Skyped to show me how hot the UK was with Callie and Teela luxuriating under her air con unit to escape the heat wave. 34 degrees she had yesterday! Phewee Muskey.
26th July. Busy old day. Freo markets and shops in the morning. Visited the Maritime Museum on the banks of the Swan and found, on one of the displays, a photograph of Jill and a write up all about the non-indigenous predator removal programme on the Abrolhos... It is weird to see a rellie in a museum exhibit - especially as they aren't dead! I called her to tell her this. She was quite amused, I think.
After a food court lunch we headed over to Alex's to sort out arrangements for our meting and greeting. I can't see why he's worried, he runs a pretty big concern himself so organising this should be a doddle. I guess it has taken him out of his comfort zone a bit. It isn't as though he's the sole sponsor of the concerts there are a whole slew of them.
Suze & Pete joined us for the meal. I had a bet with Loll that they would ask why they haven't been invited to the events. They have never been to any of the Classical Music stuff we've attended whist over here in the past- which should be a pretty convincing reason by anyone's standards, don't you think? However, we are talking family here and noses being disjointed, so who can say what would happen? Not me, as it turned out because they never mentioned it at all (their not being invited, that is...)
Laura has had an e-mail from a bod at Sheffield Uni asking her if she'd be interested in working in the field of "Statistical Physics" when she completes her PhD. It is a new field of scientific research which she thinks sounds quite interesting. She has e-mailed back arranging a meeting for early October. It's all unofficial at the moment, more of a jungle telegraph type thing, I think.
She has been bogged down (her words) with Quantum Mechanics of Simple Systems for a while, which she is not enjoying. Professor M (from Bristol U) thought she might find Ted Davies' work on QM of SS interesting but she feels it's a dead end as far as her Maths goes...
It could be a 'watch this space' situation.
29th July. Bella is back, she came over to Swanview Gardens on Sunday (28th), Uni began again today. She spent the morning being a bit of a prima donna about us having Dad's car. I mean FFS, she has claimed the kid's clunker from Jeff, so he should be the stresshead, not her. The clunker is a 12 year old Corolla Ascent, which is in great nick, TBH.
Bella can't have been too stressed out with us, she had cooked one of Suze's old favourites for our meal when we got back after a jaunt round the shops in Perth - shepherd's pie. (I will avoid old jokes about where did she find the shepherds to put in the pie...)
31st July. We have just taken our bikes on the train to Mandurah. Caught it at Canning Bridge station and about 45 mins later we were at Mandy Station. Outside the station is a modern art installation which from some angles looks like a pair of testicles and a penis sharpened to a point!
The trip saved us 140 Km of cycling (there and back) but we did do about 45Km according to the on board computer, cycling round the town and across to Hall's Head and beyond.
I like Mandurah. It has a really attractive waterfront and feels a bit like the area of Perth where Dad's flat is... We had a meal in a café overlooking part of the Peel Inlet and watched dolphins in bay looking like they were herding fish.
August will be the next post... Don't hold your breath!
