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Showing posts from March, 2023

Home Again

We had a good journey home although the flight was a little bumpy at times.  We landed at 05.15 yesterday and we were back indoors by 07.45.  The only hitch was passport control as the automatic barrier would not work for Richard.  He had to queue in a really long slow queue and was getting angry but luckily a sensible assistant suggested he tried again and it worked, phew.  Luggage was on the belt soon after we got to baggage reclaim so no delays there.  We would definitely book the direct non stop It is good to be home but we are missing Australia and most of all Gavin.  Bonus was seeing Lisa and the boys again.  I popped round to their house and they didn’t know I was going to be there, Theo was so excited and I had lots of hugs and kisses.  Joseph and Toby were more casual but pleased to see me.  All have grown since we have been away, especially Joseph how really towers above me now! Lisa had brought Freo home and she was very excited to...

Perth Airport

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Our last day has finally arrived and we are now waiting for our flight to the UK.  We had a leisurely, or relatively so, morning packing and leaving the house clean and tidy.  Richard vacuumed the car and got rid of all the sand then put it through a car wash ready for its return to No Birds near the airport.  I said our goodbyes to Liz and Dougie next door.   We took all the frozen food we were storing for Gavin to the freezer at his house then drove to The South Beach Hotel for lunch.  We went back to the house to change in to our warmer clothes, in temperatures of 38 degrees today, not good!  We decided after all we would rather say goodbye to Gavin in Freo than at the airport, especially as it is such a hot day.  We dropped him off at the beach and said our goodbyes. Of course we were all sad and I had a few tears, but it is lovely to see him so happy and settled this time. We had a good journey to the car drop off and caught their shuttle to the a...

Last Full Day in Australia

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 It is with mixed feelings I am writing this blog.  What a wonderful trip this has been, we have met friends and family we have not seen for over three years and made new friends, all of whom we will treasure. Our thoughts are turning to home and being reunited with friends and family there, and of course Freo! In some ways this eight weeks has flown by and in others we seem to have been here for longer than that.  As  usual we have had a mixture of hectic and restful times.  We have seen new places in Western Australia and revisited places we have grown to love. Tomorrow will be especially hard when we say goodbye to Gavin, but if all goes well he hopes to come to the U.K. late summer this year, so we will wait and see.  It is always hard to say goodbye to our distant cousins as we are all that much older and Frank in particular has become very frail but again we hold them all close in our hearts. We had our final sunbathe and swim at CY O’Connor this morn...

Stand Up Paddle Boarding

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Today I had an hour and a half lesson to learn how to stand up paddle board.  Gavin and Lisa treated me for Mother’s Day and I will treasure the memories as it is something I have wanted to do for a long time and the warm waters of Western Australia were perfect.  We went to Peppermint Grove on The Swan River and the conditions were nice and calm and perfect place for beginners.  There were six of us in the beginners taster session, three of us complete novices. Shannon, our instructor was very good and extremely calm and patient and determined we would all stand up on the board.  It is not as easy as just paddling as there is a lot more to it and we learned techniques of paddling, falling off the board like a starfish, something I was good at and getting back on the board.  We got used to the boards and the water by lying down to start, then kneeling and paddling and final goal to stand up.  Was a bit off putting to see quite a few jellyfish in the water, ...

Last Friday/St Patrick’s Day

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Today was going to be a relaxing beach day but it was too windy so relaxed at the house.  Then we had a call from Gavin to ask if we could help give his house a clean prior to leaving inspection as there was more to do than he realised.  Unfortunately the gas had already been switched off and therefore no hot water and he had already given the kettle to Camila.  Cleaning with cold water not too easy but Richard did a really grand job of cleaning the oven!  Now we wait and see if all our joint efforts are enough for him to get his Bond back, let’s hope so.  I did suggest if he does another house move to get removal guys and house cleaners in!!! He treated us to lunch and we went to Gage Roads Brewery for the final time.  We sat outside looking over the harbour and were lucky enough to see four dolphins, such a treat, they looked almost black so not sure which type of dolphin they were.  As we drove through town, we saw quite a few people dressed in gree...

Not Such a Good Day!

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This morning we woke to cloudy skies but it was still warm.  We collected Gavin and decided to go to South Beach and then go for lunch at a bistro nearby.  Richard noticed police officers on the beach walking towards the far end and realised that someone was administering CPR to a person on the beach.  It was very upsetting to see even from a distance and we could see their attempts did not succeed when everyone was standing and the body was covered by a white sheet.  The police came along the beach looking for the man’s belongings ie towel, car keys wallet, ID etc as they did not know who he was and where he had gone into the ocean.  Apparently a nurse who regularly swims there found the body but they think by then he had already been in the water a while.  Such a sad situation and we can only hope they find out who he was and can inform family and friends, our thoughts go out to them.  Later on we saw what with think was a tv cameraman filming the sp...

Scarborough

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As Gavin was busy cleaning and clearing the house ready to move at the end of the week, Richard and I decided to drive up the coast to Scarborough.  We were impressed by the seafront and views of the ocean. There was a beautiful open air swimming pool that was well used by folks lane swimming and schoolchildren learning to swim.  The surf was up and there were people surfing the waves, it was a lovely atmosphere.  We had coffee at the cafe at the swimming pool cafe and then walked along the esplanade before returning to Fremantle. Scarborough where schoolchildren were body surfing This was not as nice as I hoped Scarborough Esplanade We spent a couple of hours at CY O’Connor beach which was very pleasant.  The ocean is much calmer in Fremantle than further up the coast and to swim was very pleasant.  We saw loads of sailing boats on the water and wonder if there is a special week for sailing as we have seen them more than once this week, magnificent sight when t...

Sculptures and Making New Friends

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Today we drove to Peppermint Grove to have look where it is as I want to have a paddle board lesson as this is where they are held.  It is a beautiful spot and sheltered so should be perfect. Black swans We then drove to view Sculptures By The Sea at Cottesloe and being a Tuesday we were surprised at how busy it was.  We were planning to eat there but everywhere was packed so we decided to look at the sculptures and then drive back to Fremantle to eat.  There were loads of groups of primary school children and I asked a teacher if it was a special event.  She told me these older children learn to swim in the sea while the younger ones learn first in the pool.  The sea was quite rough but none of them seemed phased by it, even when a wave knocked a few of them off their feet.  They swam in a roped off area by the jetty and loads of staff to supervise them. Swimming lessons Whispering tree, you could record a message and then the small microphones played mess...

Start Of Our Final Week

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Woke this morning with mixed emotions, but felt better as the day wore on.  Did usual washing,  cleaning and shopping, no bed linen this week though as we have one clean set.  We picked Gavin up and headed for South Dog Beach and as it was a little windy we got behind a wind break and it was really hot.  We all swam today and none of us saw any jellyfish, hooray, hope they have left now.  Gavin told us all about his first dive yesterday and he cannot wait to dive again. We took Gavin home to shower and change and we did the same and then headed for Port Beach to watch the sunset.  We were going to meet Felipe and Paulita but as they had their dog Padang with them and dogs are not allowed on Port Beach we met up with them after sunset on the next beach Leighton Beach and chatted as we walked along.  It was lovely to see them again and hear about Felipe's new job which is going well.  Padang had a great game with Gavin and was much better than the l...