Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Well, yesterday we had the most amazing thunderstorm, the lighting flashed every few seconds and the hail was the size of large marbles. I have never seen it rain as hard as it did, and it took Bill an hour and a half to drive home from work, compared to the usual 10 minutes. There was street flooding everywhere and traffic was at a standstill for hours. This broke Perth's long drought, and supplied more rain than they would normally get in a month. One friend said their spa cover blew off and tore down their neighbor's fence, another had 3 inches of water in her living room, and in areas where the hail was golf-ball size, there was lots of damage to cars.
But, everyone assures us that this is highly unusual and no one can recall seeing a storm like this one. I have to admit that while it was going on I was wondering if this was the norm - glad to hear it's not. We have just finished the hottest, driest summer on record, so the weather is a bit out of whack, like most places it seems. Our neighbors say the best months are in autumn - April, May and June. Seems weird to think that's autumn, not spring, but we're getting used to everything being turned around.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Bill and I drove out to Karakamia Animal Sanctuary last night for a guided walk to see nocturnal animals. We saw quite a few, including Tammar Wallabies,Woylies (which are extremely rare,)Quendas and opossums. Oz has lots of different kinds of opossums and none of them look like ours, they all have cute, short noses and bushy tails. Our pics didn't turn out very well in the dark, but here's a wallaby, they look kind of like a miniature kangaroo.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
We drove down to Busselton over the weekend to check out a house we were planning to rent when all the kids come over for the Christmas holidays, and it was a good thing we did. The house was only steps to the beach, but the beach, well, it was quite a surprise. The sand for as far as you could see (and it was a very wide beach) was covered with decaying sea grass, and it smelled awful. The water looked black, it was so full of churned up bits of sea grass, there's no way anyone would want to go in it. So, we drove a bit further down to Dunsborough, and found a big house with only a 5 minute walk to the beach and town, and no sea grass. Much better. We also noticed lots and lots of "for sale" signs near the location of the first house, and we assume it's because of the mess on the beach, not exactly something that would drive up property values.
While driving home, we passed an interesting business, with a sign that announced "Car, Boat and Dog Wash." I would have loved to see how they put a dog through the wash, too bad it was closed. We also almost hit a kangaroo on the highway, or rather, he almost hit us as he hopped across the road. Luckily he landed right behind our car, and not in front of it. And we saw our first wallabies, cute little guys that look like miniature kangaroos.
We drove down to Busselton over the weekend to check out a house we were planning to rent when all the kids come over for the Christmas holidays, and it was a good thing we did. The house was only steps to the beach, but the beach, well, it was quite a surprise. The sand for as far as you could see (and it was a very wide beach) was covered with decaying sea grass, and it smelled awful. The water looked black, it was so full of churned up bits of sea grass, there's no way anyone would want to go in it. So, we drove a bit further down to Dunsborough, and found a big house with only a 5 minute walk to the beach and town, and no sea grass. Much better. We also noticed lots and lots of "for sale" signs near the location of the first house, and we assume it's because of the mess on the beach, not exactly something that would drive up property values.
While driving home, we passed an interesting business, with a sign that announced "Car, Boat and Dog Wash." I would have loved to see how they put a dog through the wash, too bad it was closed. We also almost hit a kangaroo on the highway, or rather, he almost hit us as he hopped across the road. Luckily he landed right behind our car, and not in front of it. And we saw our first wallabies, cute little guys that look like miniature kangaroos.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
We were invited to see the play "Chicago" with some of Bill's office mates, along with dinner beforehand, and I must say they know how to entertain first class here. Our seats were only 3 rows from the stage, right in the center, and I managed to catch one of the 6 roses the two leading ladies threw at the end of the show. And I didn't even have to slug it out with anyone else to catch it either, since the seat next to me was vacant and the rose basically fell in my lap.
Someone from the American women's club I joined mentioned that one of the department stores downtown carries a small section of US food products, so I splurged and bought a jar of Jiff peanut butter for $16.00 and a can of pumpkin for $10. Not cheap but worth it, since I can't find any good peanut butter brands here and no canned pumpkin.
We were invited to see the play "Chicago" with some of Bill's office mates, along with dinner beforehand, and I must say they know how to entertain first class here. Our seats were only 3 rows from the stage, right in the center, and I managed to catch one of the 6 roses the two leading ladies threw at the end of the show. And I didn't even have to slug it out with anyone else to catch it either, since the seat next to me was vacant and the rose basically fell in my lap.
Someone from the American women's club I joined mentioned that one of the department stores downtown carries a small section of US food products, so I splurged and bought a jar of Jiff peanut butter for $16.00 and a can of pumpkin for $10. Not cheap but worth it, since I can't find any good peanut butter brands here and no canned pumpkin.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Well last night was the first of two AC/DC concerts at the Subi Oval, which is about 4 blocks away from us. I could not believe how loud it was, we had absolutely no trouble hearing it from our balcony, can't imagine what it must have sounded like inside the arena.
Went to a wetlands in Joondalup this morning to walk, as we were told there is some weird sort of half duck, half platypus there, we did not see any and I think maybe it's an urban legend. But we did see several of these really big spiders, and all of their webs had lots of pieces of bark and wood that they'd drug up there, so you know they have to be pretty big to carry that much weight. If one of these big suckers dropped down on me I think I would have a heart attack. I wouldn't be surprised if they catch small birds in their webs, most of them had several layers, instead of just a flat web like you normally see. (Double click on the spidey to see his pretty striped legs.)
Well last night was the first of two AC/DC concerts at the Subi Oval, which is about 4 blocks away from us. I could not believe how loud it was, we had absolutely no trouble hearing it from our balcony, can't imagine what it must have sounded like inside the arena.
Went to a wetlands in Joondalup this morning to walk, as we were told there is some weird sort of half duck, half platypus there, we did not see any and I think maybe it's an urban legend. But we did see several of these really big spiders, and all of their webs had lots of pieces of bark and wood that they'd drug up there, so you know they have to be pretty big to carry that much weight. If one of these big suckers dropped down on me I think I would have a heart attack. I wouldn't be surprised if they catch small birds in their webs, most of them had several layers, instead of just a flat web like you normally see. (Double click on the spidey to see his pretty striped legs.)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
On Labor Day we drove up to Toodyay, a historic little town that had some devastating bush fires a couple of months ago. Much of the surrounding area looked like a moonscape, totally blackened as far as you could see, except for an occasional house left untouched. The firefighters did an amazing job, as the easterly winds were fanning the flames, and are very hot and dry just like our Santa Ana winds. The fire did not reach the actual town however, and here are some pics of the old buildings.
This is the old jail, and the windows were so tiny and so far off the ground, (at least 15 feet or so) there's no way anyone could have escaped. With these tiny windows it must have gotten incredibly hot in there though.
Here's Bill at a quaint little fruit and veggie stand, searching for Cilantro, which we've not yet been able to find here.
On Labor Day we drove up to Toodyay, a historic little town that had some devastating bush fires a couple of months ago. Much of the surrounding area looked like a moonscape, totally blackened as far as you could see, except for an occasional house left untouched. The firefighters did an amazing job, as the easterly winds were fanning the flames, and are very hot and dry just like our Santa Ana winds. The fire did not reach the actual town however, and here are some pics of the old buildings.
Not sure how "innovative" you can get with meat, but apparently this butcher is just that.
This is the old jail, and the windows were so tiny and so far off the ground, (at least 15 feet or so) there's no way anyone could have escaped. With these tiny windows it must have gotten incredibly hot in there though.
Here's Bill at a quaint little fruit and veggie stand, searching for Cilantro, which we've not yet been able to find here.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Although the Olympics ended a few days ago, the reruns are still showing, on all 4 channels. It was great seeing the US do so well, and the coverage here was very good. One of Bill's coworkers lived in the States for a few years and his daughters basically grew up there, so since the kids consider themselves Texans, they were rooting for the US over Australia.
Went to see the Pointer Sisters concert over the weekend, so nice to sit outside on the grass, since the temperature dropped to the high 70's after the sun went down. We were only about 100 feet from the stage, almost close enough to see their wrinkles, but they put on a great show.
Well Monday was Labor Day, a national holiday, but it's celebrated on different days in the various states. Three states celebrate it on the first Monday in October, in Queensland it's the first Monday in May, in Western AU its the first Monday in March, in Victoria it's the second Monday in March and in Tasmania its called Eight Hours Day. Just seems strange to have a national holiday celebrated on different days.
Although the Olympics ended a few days ago, the reruns are still showing, on all 4 channels. It was great seeing the US do so well, and the coverage here was very good. One of Bill's coworkers lived in the States for a few years and his daughters basically grew up there, so since the kids consider themselves Texans, they were rooting for the US over Australia.
Went to see the Pointer Sisters concert over the weekend, so nice to sit outside on the grass, since the temperature dropped to the high 70's after the sun went down. We were only about 100 feet from the stage, almost close enough to see their wrinkles, but they put on a great show.
Well Monday was Labor Day, a national holiday, but it's celebrated on different days in the various states. Three states celebrate it on the first Monday in October, in Queensland it's the first Monday in May, in Western AU its the first Monday in March, in Victoria it's the second Monday in March and in Tasmania its called Eight Hours Day. Just seems strange to have a national holiday celebrated on different days.
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