Happy Halloween Everyone!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Anyone up to anything spooky?

We have Anna's 6th birthday party after school at the local gymnasium, "Jungle Gyms". They get one hour of supervised play and then the party room for food. I have been busy making "Jelly Boats" this morning from Annabel Karmel's book (if you have a baby or kids you will know who I mean). It took about 35 oranges to make 10 boats. They are so fiddly. Now I need to make the cup cakes ...

Ugg Boots

I have finally succumbed and bought a pair of Ugg boots. For the uninitiated, Ugg boots are quintessentially Australian, sheepskin boots. My vegetarian conscience has not been sleeping over this purchase.

I think of Ugg boots and Pamela Anderson, girls wearing hotpants and Uggs. I of course will just be wearing them around the house!

They are the most comfortable and warm slipper I have ever had.

Anna also has a pair and loves them!

I'm taking orders if anyone wants a pair...

Weekend in Busselton

We were away at the weekend with some of Nige's work colleagues and their families. We stayed at a wonderful farmhouse (owned by the parents of James, a work colleague) in Busselton. It took about three hours to get there but the drive was well worth it. The seat-back DVD player is an absolute blessing. When we arrived there was a glass of chilled wine waiting, and a wonderful pasta dinner. James and his girlfriend had even prepared me a vegetarian dish. Everyone promptly got the kids off to bed, so we could all relax with a glass of wine!

With the weather being overcast and rainy we decided to stay around the farm on the Saturday. This was no hardship though, all the kids got on really well playing together, there was even a trampoline and a QUAD BIKE! Everyone spent most of the day whizzing around the farm on it. Anna loved it!

Then Nige decided to take our car off-roading, as the rain we have been having this season had made a lot of the tracks really muddy. Of course, most of the guys went! Everyone else just hung around the house. An hour or so had passed when we saw James running back up the track looking really concerned. Nige had managed to get the car bogged (I could think of a lot to say here ... but I won't ...) and one of the guys (Afton) had managed to step on a bee. Now, that isn't that worrying except that Afton is allergic to bee stings. Alan quickly jumped on the quad bike with his medication and went to find them. Nige had taken on the job as first-aider. Afton's wife followed in the car. To cut a long story short (I HAVE to get some paid work done), Alan got the medication to Afton and everyone was brought back in the car to the house. What about our car??? I can hear you asking. Well, this is the cool part. James pulled up outside the house in a HUMONGOUS TRACTOR. The kids were beside themselves with excitement. Anna got to ride in the cab with some of the guys and help pull the car out of the ditch. The car was OK, it just had some very impressive mud and dirt on it.

Afton recovered to have a celebratory glass of red wine, that sent him directly to sleep for the reminder of the day. Missing the planned BBQ we had all been looking forward to.

All's well that ends well...

Not So Magic Roundabout

In typical perth style the corporate sports challenge (which is organised by the local government to get more people into sport) has a bike to work challenge. Basically it encourages companies to enter with their employees to get them cycling to work, everyone logs their mileage (or kilometerage) over a six week period and there are prizes at the end.
My preparation didn’t get off to the best of starts though. The week before the challenge found me hitting the ground on a roundabout after having been hit by a car. The bike was totaled with me sporting cuts and bruises only thankfully.
Whilst waiting for the cuts to heal and for the drivers insurance to replace my bike, I put together a slightly unusual single speed full suspension mountain bike with slick tyres based on what I had in the garage (since like many I never throw bike bits away, much to my Nadine’s frustration). The first week of the challenge found me still limping around so I tentatively tried a ride at the end of the week and found the legs still worked okay. After a few rides around the infamous roundabout to purge the demons (wearing more high visibility clothing than a railway worker) I was back in the saddle for cycle commuting. I’m used to pretty poor cycling conditions so the cycle paths and weather here in Perth are a revelation to me. Each ride to and from work has allowed to explore paths I would normally miss out in the attempt to ‘get the mileage up’ for our team the X men. On week 4 of the challenge the call I had been waiting for came though and a replacement bike was waiting for me down at the local bike shop. I bid a fond farewell to the singlespeed as I converted it back to a bike for Nadine, I was back on the new bike by week 5, just in time for a government great prize giveaway (see pic above)

I obviously didn't drink and ride!

Our team (the X men) managed to clock up 5527 km in the 6 weeks between 6 of us, equivalent to about Newcastle to Dubai, or in energy terms 615 Mars Bars. For the eco-conscious amongst you that saved around 1625 kgs of Carbon Dioxide. Check out http://www.homecorporatechallenge.com.au/b2w07/b2wblog.html
for more details.

A glorious Sunday in the park

It was a glorious sunny day today (spring is FINALLY here) and so we headed off down to South Perth to meet some friends for a BBQ and chill out. We met at the park which is right on the foreshore of the Swan River and has a huge, huge playing field, family BBQ areas, lake, catamarans for hire, adventure playground and pretty much everything that you would need!

We spent a good five hours there, sharing the BBQ facilities with other families (these areas are maintained by the city and are free and clean) and just generally hanging out. Anna played with our friend's little girl and so everyone had a great day!

We have broken through a milestone!

Nige and I have finally done it, for the first time ever .... hired a babysitter and gone out! We have been out before (we are not quite that sad) using grandparents as babysitters but that was very rare. Now we can't, as obviously all our family live in the UK and we are in Australia!

The babysitter (Louise) was recommended by a girlfriend from Anna's school. She a student nurse and absolutely fantastic. Her and Anna hit it off straightaway. We didn't even get any tears when we left.

Nige and I had a great meal at a posh restaurant in South Perth, which is on the foreshore and looks over the Swan river to the Perth city skyline. We met with another couple and had a fantastic night!


At the debrief with Louise, her and Anna had played games and then watched Calamity Jane (our favourite). Louise had had some very probing questions from Anna about how our muscles work, how our jaw moves and what happens to the blood in meat when we cook it! Anna likes to keep everyone on their toes ....

You never know, this socialising thing may become a monthly habit ...

Cirque Du Soleil

Yesterday afternoon we went to the matinee performance of Cirque du Soleil (they have been here in Perth for two months) and I can honestly say it was the best performing arts show I have EVER seen.

I know that they are a group of acrobats/gymnastics of all nationalities that travel the world putting on shows. They have been to the Albert Hall in London a few times and are coming to London in January 2008. I would urge anyone to try and get tickets!

Anna was mesmerised (as was everyone in the audience)!

Perth has had the wettest weather for years. Everyone is celebrating that the reservoirs are full after the drought we have been having.

Nige went out for a drive into the hills and took these fabulous photos ...

School Holidays

It's the school's two week spring break at the minute and the weather is glorious! We are now reaching temperatures of 20-25 degrees, and it's staying warmer in the evening. It's strange but I'd almost forgotten how warm it gets here!

Yesterday, I looked after my friends little girl (we help each other out when we are working) and it was such a lovely day we went to the park for a play and a picnic.

I just had to post this photo, as I thought it was so lovely!

Gymnastics

It's the end of term two for Anna's gymnastics and she's doing great. In true Aussie style, the gym club here although recreational, is deadly serious. There's no learning to do cartwheels or handstands, they do beam work and the bars. Somehow, I guess that's why the Aussies are good at their sport ....

I wonder what the competitive gymnastics club is like!

Perth Royal Show

Well, we knew that we have been here a year as it was time again for the Perth Royal Show. The Show happens annually during the school holidays and it's like a HUGE HUGE country fair. There's animal shows and judging, a fairground, craft competitions, street theatre etc and show bags! There are around 100 show bags on sale and you can get ones on virtually anything. Anna had two; a Saddle Club one and a My Little Pony one. To give you an idea of them, the Saddle Club one contained a bag, baseball cap, stuffed horse toy, poster book and a jigsaw puzzle. It was $20 to buy at the show but probably contained about $50 worth of goods. They publish a list of them and there contents in the paper and everybody spends hours looking for the ones with the best deals in them. As you can imagine, they are sold in there thousands!

We got the train to the show with some friends (you cannot park anywhere near it) and spent the whole day there. The highlights for Anna were the cat show, dog's agility competition, fairground rides and the show bags. For the parents, it was the ability to grab a beer whilst the kids watched the show jumping competition. Funny that!!

Towards the end it got cold and so we all went and bought fleeces from the Europa tent. We looked like peas in a pod ...

We all left extremely tired and broke!