Another birthday has come and gone. Another year of travelling around the sun. I had the fun to actually do some very different things for my birthday this year. I normally take my birthday, day off work, however this year I did not, however I did spend the weekend before my birthday doing wonderful things. Firstly on the Friday before my birthday, we met up with one of our friends from the UK, and a couple of her friends from Australia and went for a lovely walk at Whistlepipe Gully. One of Pat and my favourite walks in Perth, partly because we can take Siena and partly because the stream always seems to have water in it, which just makes for a lovely walk when it is hot. After the walk, we all came back to our place, just to give our friend a chance to have a look around as she hadn’t seen it. We have now been in the house just over two months. It feels longer than that, but we are already planning what is next to do (hint – it will be the garden next year). We then all headed over the Tranby House, which is one of the few National Trust properties in Perth, which has a fabulous café next door which overlooks the river. It is lovely to sit there on a nice day and relax. Lunch was fabulous and enjoyed by all. On the Saturday, after I had gone to see my mum

My new grandaughter Mira is about 6 months old and I still hadn’t actually met her. So long overdue, Delia and I flew  to Brisbane, hired a car and drove north to Bargara. I still haven’t got used to the idea that everywhere in Australia is a loooong way. Perth to Brisbane is longer than anywhere in Europe from London. Anyway, four and a half hours and the latest Elvis film later we landed and made our way to the Ibis. Here I found out that we were supposed to collect our car half an hour ago but that the car hire was closed an hour ago. Apparently because our flight arrival was the same time as they closed we didn’t get the memo. But a phone call later and we re-arranged to pick up the next morning – my booking mess up notwithstanding. At 370km to Bargara (near Bunderberg) its was a tenth of the distance from Perth but around the same travel time. We did stop on the way for morning coffee and a view. From the viewpoint at Noosa Heads Carrying on with the drive, we inadvertently found ourselves on an un-sealed road (forbidden by our car hire apparently, but then so was driving anywhere with a flood risk – which meant a lot of our route). So on we drove, arriving in good time to settle in to our hotel just 5 minutes walk from Adam and Rashelle’s beautiful beach front apartment. Mira was just discovering

I’m sitting here in my red armchair (bought in the UK and always selected to move to the next place) looking up at a semi organised living/dining area in our new home. We have finally bought a house here in Perth. We are not actually in Perth but one of the inner-city suburbs and while there are mixed emotions, it is so nice to have a place that we can do what we want with. Unfortunately, we did pay more than we wanted to pay, but it was the only way we were going to get close to what we wanted. We have had the place for a couple of weeks now and I will admit I painted the main bedroom before we moved in. Partly because I could and partly because I didn’t want a blue bedroom. It’s now a pale pink and Pat can’t see a difference so glad I didn’t go with his choice 😊. Pat has spent the weekend constructing a shed, with the help of one of our friends. The instructions stated 2-3 hours, it basically took around 10! Partially as there were points of pulling the shed apart after they realised that something had been put together incorrectly. But we now have a workable shed in our carport. It’s not in the backyard as there just isn’t enough room in what is essentially a courtyard. The plan is to be here for a minimum of 10 years, it may be the forever home. But

Hello everyone, hope things are going well in your part of the world. I’ve come to realise that part of the reason that I don’t write much in my blog is I know longer felt that my life was an adventure which could be written about. I’m just back to everyday life. I then stopped and thought about things and realised that even though Pat and I had written out a list of days out and interesting things to do in and around Perth, we are not doing them. We went through our list and have assigned a month to each one, and at the beginning of each month we will choose a weekend and head off to do something different. May will be our first month and that is a trip to Perth zoo for Pat’s birthday. The rest of the list is below:Gravity CentreGiants of MandurahArt GallerySwan Valley winery tourWhiteman ParkObservatoryMatagarup Bridge climb and zip lineCaversham wild life parkPerth double decker tourist bus We’re hoping to get a least one of these done each month and really start exploring. The other thing we are hoping to do is once a month try a different restaurant. There are so many good restaurants in Perth that it seems to be a shame that we don’t go out to them that often. Granted they do tend to be on the expensive side but I think Pat and I need to be out doing things a bit more. On that note we

Well this is different (with a slight sense of deja-vu) It has been a while, and a lot has changed.  Unfortunately, in January my mum had a fall and broke her arm.  I moved in to help and took some leave from work.  What did become apparent is mum’s memory is worse than I realised and that she shouldn’t be living alone.  So for now Pat and I (along with the dog and cat) have moved in.  We’re currently living in the back bedroom on 2 single beds – waiting for our stuff to be transported from our rental. It has been harder than expected, but we will get through it.  We’re thinking we will be here from 6 -12 months.  One thing we did realise, from the last time we stayed, is that we need the space that we occupy to feel like us.  To be our home with our things around us.  We have there started the process with the bedroom and ripped up the very old blue carpet.  With a dog and a cat, carpet is not a good thing.  We now have laminate down – not my colour choice but the hardware store was out of a lot of choices and the colour we chose was on sale as end of line, so it won.    We have also be clearing out one of the spare rooms so that we can set it up as our study and my art/sewing room.  It is taking some work,

New Years started with fireworks, literally.  Pat and I headed down to the river front to watch fireworks at 9pm.  It was fun, one of our friends walked down to join us and we watched 15 minutes of fireworks and then all went home.  I’m not a fan of New Years Eve.  We did however get woken at midnight by all the fireworks happening, which I proceeded to watch from my bedroom window and then back to bed to snooze as I was on a flight to Sydney the following day. New year’s day I boarded my flight and flew very quickly to Sydney – it was one of the fastest flights I’ve ever been on.  We obviously had a good wind behind us.  My friend – S – picked me up and headed to her home.  Neither of us had eaten dinner so we had a quick bite to eat and a catch-up and headed to bed. I thought the 3-hour time difference would be a bit difficult to adjust to, but interestingly it wasn’t too bad.  The following day as it was a Monday, we got up and headed into the city – not for the New Year sales but because I had never been to the botanic gardens in Sydney – despite living in Sydney for 2 years – and wanted to go.  It was a warm day, but lovely to walk around the gardens, we did find a café that was open and I had my