We’ve bought a new second hand car – yah. Starting to feel like we are settling in to our new life and we now have a little car to run around in. It’s a Honda Jazz, bright red and 10 years old, however it has low mileage for its age. We’re very happy with it and planning on keeping it as clean as possible. We’ve already got a cover for the back seat so that Siena’s dog hair doesn’t get everywhere (that and the beach sand). Job hunting in this Covid19 world is difficult, I’m still looking, which is a surprise to me as I thought I would get a job much quicker than this. Due to the time factor it has made me realise that I needed to sign on for unemployment benefits, which I have now done. Hopefully our first payment will be this week. One thing I have been doing is a sewing course, this is on Monday nights and this week is week 4 (it’s a 6 week course). Absolutely loving it, and my sewing knowledge is getting much better. So far I’ve made a sunglasses pouch, a cushion cover (with a zip) and a reversable tote bag, tonight we start on a jacket – which is what our last three classes will cover. Looking forward to it as we will be covering patterns and how to read them and making a jacket. I’ve also been trying to do some art, I dug out a painting

I am pleasantly surprised how green and bushy the surroundings here are. I especially enjoy my morning dog walks of which I seem to have come down to three choices, depending upon whether I need to be back home especially quickly or not. Delia’s mum lives across from a school with a large playing field (where if school is not on, I can run Siena if I want). The block that the school occupies is shared with a bush reserve area, part of which is easily accessible with footpaths. The whole reserve is called Cadogan park.  I have various 25 minute routes taking in most of the possible routes around the park and then walking around the block passing two side ot the quad where I sometimes let Siena run. The bush reserve is delightful, nothing park-like about it though, seemingly “raw” bush burnt tree trunks and all. The next, and longer, walk, I discovered was down to Lake Goolelal. There is a line of lakes (fwiw along a geological boundary parallel to the Darling Range) of which this is one. There is a well paved cycle and walking track that runs from Greenwood Station – I think I described the walk from the station previously(?). It is a leafy walk that I access via an “alley” between houses from Delia’s mum’s place up a steep slope to the top of a ridge. This east-west trail leads (east) to the lake up and down to another preserved bush are but

Hello all, so what has been happening with Pat and I this week? Well I finally got my drivers licence and medicare card – so that was good, the admin is progressing. I’m still applying for jobs, not had much success so far. But we are keeping ourselves busy. We’ve been down to the dog beach a number of times, one day after a storm and there were so many blue bottles (a type of jellyfish) along the shore. Most had dried out, but Siena decided that eating them was a good idea! Thankfully she learnt that it isn’t a good idea as she threw everything up very quickly. But we are now careful with her on the beach. We also went out to Guildford this week to help my aunt with the pick-up of her new birdbath – which is lovely. We also did a few other running around type things, I even picked up my new sunglasses – which I love. That night we also went to dinner with one of my cousins – who had made a rather nice beef ragu – I liked it so much, I asked for the recipe and I’m cooking it for dinner tonight. On Monday I started my beginners sewing course, which was informative and fun. I did have to go and buy some material for this weeks class – and I found a lovely red and white striped fabric with French things all over it. I’ll be learning to sew

We drove up to near Yanchep to visit one of Delia’s cousins. We went a rather roundabout route to visit several of the many new housing developments along the coast. To be honest this made me a bit depressed, so many lovely houses so much money. By the time we could afford anything we were so far north as to almost be in Singapore. OK I exagerate but too far to consider the commute for Delia. Still some lovely coastline. When we got to Christine’s it was lunchtime and suitably plied with wine and having had the grand tour we could tuck in to a grand spread of cold cuts and a lovely pumpkin soup. Their several acres (2?) of land had been sorely tested during the bush fires of late 2019. The blaze narrowly missed their home, by the grace of wind direction. They did have a decent firebreak from their house but if the fire had approached closer it wouldn’t have been pretty. No power for a while of course. One reason we had gone was the offer to borrow a ute (a pickup truck with 5 seats for you non-Aussies). Sounds like a tractor but drives fine and it’s very handy not to be reliant on Delia’s mum and her car – I think she feels the same. So back to Kingsley in convoy. I have to admit to having fun driving the tractor, high up and feeling invulnerable – “make the most of it I think

Hello and welcome from Perth, this is my first blog about Perth since we’ve been back. It is interesting, after coming from France where we were under such a strict lockdown, to here where we are able to have meals out. On Friday after visiting my (new) Oncologist to have my 6 month follow up Pat and I walked around Elizabeth Quays and sat down to have lunch with a glass of wine overlooking the quays – it was lovely. Now that we are out of quarantine, we have spent the past two weeks doing things to get ourselves established, things like getting our bank accounts sorted, driving licences exchanged, Tax file numbers sorted, medical things sorted, there is so much to do when you move countries. I’ve also had to get myself back on the electoral roll. I’ve also had an interview with an agency about finding work, so hopefully it won’t take long to get a job. We have also hung some paintings in our bedroom to help make it feel a bit more us – I doubt this will be surprising. I’ve also slowly been catching up with various family members, this has been nice and most people have been very generous with helping us with various things (like lending us cars – especially so that Pat and I could get his new 2nd hand desk to mums). We’re continuing to sort out the admin and catch-up with people this week. Hopefully the main bulk of the

So we have finally arrived in Aus, probably 6 months later than planned with the help of extra uncertainty of the last nearly three months under lockdown. I have to say the journey here was spooky – empty roads, empty airport terminals, empty planes. The Doha to Perth leg was extra luxurious as we had a great offer for upgrade to Business Class. The staff were dressed in full protective gear with goggles, masks and full body suits – for the full 11 hours flight. I was especially impressed with the camera views on the plane which gave much better views than we could get through the windows. Delia was especially impressed with the champagne on offer at her whim! The first leg of the journey from Paris to Doha, started in daylight flying over Epernay in Champagne, Germany and then the Carpathian Mountains, before flying near Baghdad and on to Qatar. I would certainly recommend Qatar Airlines, business class especially. Landing at Perth was enhanced by being able to see the view from the underneath cameras. Arriving just at dusk we got to see out first actual traffic jam for 3 months. De-planing and heading into the terminal led us to a physically distanced queue to have our temperature monitored and a brief few questions about our state of health, then onto another queue awaiting our police interview. The two of us positioned at the end of a long table with the fully gas-masked policeman at the other end.

So why “On the Beach”? After over 6 years in France, the time had come to move on. To view the blog of our time in France (in another tab) click here. There were several reasons and one was a hankering for the sea.   Delia spent most of her childhood living near the beach at Quinns Rocks near Perth and always longed after a beach. Whilst living in France we spent several holidays in Conti on the Atlantic coast south of Bordeaux where the beach runs continuously to the Pyrenees. We also discovered that Siena absolutely loves the sand in her paws and goes crazy when she gets a chance to run free on a beach. Also in this time of covid19, where, for the moment, Australia seems to be one of the safest places to be, whilst the rest of the world goes to hell in a handbasket… Neville Shute come to mind (I know “On the Beach” was set post nuclear apocalypse in Melbourne but…).