Latest Molly Situation

Well Mol has been diagnosed with canine epilepsy so she is on more tablets now. At least it can be treated and she seems fine and happy as ever (including bouncing up at people still trying to give them a kiss!) . We are becoming experts in vetinary science anyway, and in the ways to cook kangaroo plus the gravy is great (not recommended for human consumption however, unless you are really hungry)

Note

Note: New photos and text added to West Australia 12 hr post for those that are interested......for those that are not..tough!

Christmas Day

We were all good and Santa came to visit us! Anna was very worried that Santa may not have realised that we had moved from Longhorsley but he did!

We were up a little later than normal (7am) as Anna had a late night as she couldn't sleep. She was so "disappointed" that Santa couldn't come that night and so "disappointed" that she had to wait until the morning to get her presents (if Santa knew where she was!).

We opened our presents in the morning then went across to Carol and Paul's house where the rest of the family was gathering to open presents from one another. It was nice as Anna got to play with Anja and the two of them get on really well. We had some lovely presents; mainly food and wine, which is great! Carol also did breakfast and there was champagne. A great start to Christmas morning!

Afterwards we came home and had some lunch. I was cooking a chicken as we weren't having Christmas dinner till 7pm as it is so hot (37 degrees), when disaster struck. The front glass panel of the cooker shattered and now we have no cooker. It was a good job that I wasn't doing Christmas dinner here!


After lunch we had every intention of going to the beach but Anna wanted to play her new Rapunzel computer game, which she did for nearly 3 hours! Nige and I managed to get a relaxing afternoon and it was great.

Late afternoon we went to Jane's house where the rest of the family were gathering for Christmas dinner. The dinner was lovely and Bea had made me a special vegetarian dish, which was delicious. We stayed till 9.30pm until Anna wanted to go home as she was tired.



We finished off the day at home with a beer and the TV. A good but very different Christmas!

Nige has updated the blog with his bike ride and The Ashes ....

What have we been up to ...

Anna was invited to her first birthday party last week. It was the 6th birthday of her friend from school - Hannah.

Hannah had a "farm" party, which basically meant that a farmer came with loads of animals to the house and the children had a chance to hold them. There was guinea pigs, lambs, rabbits, chicks, chickens and a gorgeous pony that gave pony rides for the day.

Anna had a great time!

I have been working hard at home! As it's school holidays Anna has been going to the local recreation centre as they have a holiday club there. She seems to enjoy it (fingers crossed) but I think it really tires her out. They do arts and crafts, play games on the courts and today they were in the gymbakids room for a couple of hours, which is the soft play area (Anna went there for her birthday party). They have different age groups for the different kids and Anna is in "Kidszone", which is for 5 - 8 year olds. I worry that she's young to go there, but the facilities are great. The good thing is, is that because we are in the city, and Australia is so so geared up for families, there's so much choice for childcare.

Thanks for the comment Mitchel! You're right ... there isn't many pictures of me ... I'll try and dig one out ...

The Ashes

Well the Ashes came to Perth and any self respecting Pom had to go along and cheer on with the Barmy Army. Thanks to Nadines' friend Kylie and her husband Rohan a ticket in the shade was mine for the Saturday's play. Slightly hungover from the work Christmas bash the day before I still had a great day out, and blew the froth of a couple of cold ones just to keep cool. The temperature was in the mid thirties so we were glad of the shade, and saw a few people being stretchered out with heat stroke (no doubt assisted by the dehydrating effect of a few beers). A full house with plenty of Brits and Aussies toasting themselves in the relentless sunshine. Excellent banter and songs from the Barmy Army kept things going when there was a lull in the play though. Judging by England's final performance the Aussies were trying to minimise their energy expenditure by hitting plenty of fours! Poor Monty got hit for 24 of one over when Gillchrist got the second fastest test century in history. The Aussies will be dining out on this one for quite a while, however for this Brit it was still a top day out at the WACA (West Australia Cricket Association) ground.

We have finally bought and put up a Christmas tree so things are starting to feel a little Christmassy around here (despite the temperature being in the high 30s!)!

I have found a great shop called Myers which is a little like Fenwicks. I was very extravagant as well. When Anna and I went into the Christmas department, we found that nearly all of their Christmas trees had been sold. Undeterred, I bought one off display (I let Anna decide which one) with all the lights and decorations. It felt so good (and an absolute bargain as I managed to get a HUGE discount on it).

Now to write the Christmas cards ...

It was a hard weekend ....

We met up with some friends on Sunday before they were due to fly back to Aberdeen. We spent the day around their pool. As you can see, Nige and the lads had a hard time ...

PS. Is anyone reading this blog, there are never any comments!

I found a great swimming pool today. It's all outdoors and has three pools; one for serious swimming, one for not-so serious swimming and one for the kids. The kids pool has slides and climbing frames in it and it was great fun!

It was in the 30's today and you can tell we are getting used to the heat as Anna and I were both getting cold! Anna even wanted to go and sit in the car where it was warm and put her cardi on (the car was hot enough to cook any mammal ...)!

We finished off the day by watching Calamity Jane, now you can't get any better than that!

PS I must be getting homesick as I have started to tape and watch all the UK soaps (Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Eastenders). Now I NEVER used to watch them when I lived there!

West Australia 12 hour ....

I thought it was about time I sampled the Australian bush on the mountain bike, so in a team of 4 I entered the WA12 Mountain Bike Race sponsored by Alcoa and arranged by Perth Mountain Bike Club. In true Perth style since its too hot to ride all day this was a 12 hour race through the night from 6pm till 6am. With Dan from work and a couple of native Aussies we entered under the dubious team name of the 'Hard Core 4', we were only hard core in the fact that all the others who had promised the race with us had seen sense and dropped out! I was dutyfully representing the UK with Team Zimmer (www.teamzimmer.org) the Perth Chapter has started now lads! I had some pre race maintenance help from Anna as you can see, note 'Bicycle Doctor' costume.
So with a quick team meeting to discuss DIY lights, batteries and old war wounds we pitched up at Langford Park in Jarradale (about 45 mins from Perth) mid afternoon to race through the night. By preregistering we were entered into a raffle and won support for the night from the sport drink sponsor Carbo Shotz. This entailed a inflatable tent to use as a base (see pics) and free energy drinks and gels for the race.

The race started with a Le Mans style run to the bikes for Pete our team Captain. Things were fast and furious until darkness when the bike lights were needed and we took turns at laps, Dan put out a 43 min lap which was our best all night, even though it was dusk and he'd never raced at night. Check out the blistering start from the 'unknown' rider in black No.188, had my serious racing face on there!

It was an excellent course, 99% singletrack with logs, rocks, pea gravel and fast dusty sections, comparing favourably with built courses in the UK. In between laps there was enough time to charge lights a bit, get some food on the barbie and do a bit of bike/light manintence. It was a good atmosphere and no one felt like sleeping, with the effects of the energy gels no doubt, so by the sunrise we were feeling tired. The view of a kangaroo boucing along in the trees at about 4am was a bit special though.
I had the last lap needing to finish before the 6am cut off otherwise the lap wouldn't count, after a top effort from Pete I had plenty of time I thought......until complete light failure so I was using a back up LED headtorch until sunrise which was interesting to say the least.......luckily about half way round it was light enough to see. More by luck than fitness/skill I got round before 6am and we came in 12th in the team event. We all agreed it was a great night out, although doing it solo was purely for nutcases!

Note hat and jacket for some in photo, it did get cold overnight or perhaps some folk are a little soft!

Busy, busy ...

This past week has been a busy week! I got the chance of a ticket to see Robbie Williams and he was great.
I'm not a huge Robbie fan but the gig has been the talk of Perth for sometime now. I went with the wife of Nige's work mate. She's a huge Robbie fan having been to see him 6 times already! She is a member of his fan club and so managed to get us some tickets right near the front ... I could see the white in his eyes!
Which is a big thing if you think that there were over 65,000 people at the gig! The crazy thing is, is that he bought his mates with him (Jonathan Wilkes and Max Beesley) and none of the Aussies knew who they were.... he also talked about Take That and sang one of their songs and this guy next to me asked me who Take That were ... and he wasn't kidding!! - MITCHEL YOU WOULD HAVE LOVED IT!

I also went on the parents night out with school. It was a good night. We went to an Italian restaurant in the posh area of Applecross. In true Aussie style, there wasn't one thing on the menu that was vegetarian. Vegetarianism in Australia is very unusual - they definitely like their meat. In the supermarkets there is NO pre-packaged food AT ALL. It's not a problem as their fruit and veggies are superb, they just don't have quorn etc. In the restaurant I had to ask if they could do me some pasta without the meat. I ended up with pasta in a vodka sauce. It was yummy but very potent!

Anna also "graduated" from Playgroup yesterday. It was quite sad seeing her saying goodbye to her friends but now she has turned 5 and is starting pre-primary she is no longer able to go.

It's Anna's last day of school today and her last day in Kindy, she starts back at the beginning of February in pre-primary and I think that she's really ready for it. They still don't teach reading in pre-primary but it's more constructive learning rather than play and they get allocated a "buddy" - which Anna is most looking forward to! The buddy helps at lunchtime (they eat their packed lunch outside on the grass) and when it's assembly. Anna will also wear a uniform in pre-primary (which I have bought) and is allocated into a faction. She will be in Stirling and on a Friday will have to wear her red shirt and black PE skirt. The factions are generally used for sports etc. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that one of her friends is in Stirling! The school is so organised that in the weekly newsletter there's a stationary list included. It's detailed down to the number of tissues that I need to provide her with!

Nige is out on his first bike ride this weekend with his biking buddies. No doubt he'll do a post for it. They are doing a night ride through the Australian bush! Should be interesting ... just a bit more "dangerous" than the Thrunton Woods rides he used to go on!