Sunday, 20 July, 2014

I have been lax I know in writing my blog, so here I am catching up.  We are in Melbourne right now and the weather is very cold (by Australian standards ;-)  Thankfully, our unit here has central heating. :-)

When I arrived in Melbourne after being in Canada and Dad arrived there after teaching in Perth, we had five days together to relax before heading back to HB.  On the Tuesday, July 8th, we decided that we wanted to get out and go for a drive.  We decided that we would go to a city called Geelong which is about an hour away from the unit here.  We decided that we would make one stop on our way to Geelong - at the Point Cook Aviation Museum.  It's an RAAF (Royal Australia Air Force) museum and is the birthplace of the Australian Flying Corps and the Royal Australian Air Force.  The museum tells one of Australia's most important aviation stories, that of the second oldest air force in the world.  Even though the airplanes were not ones that Dad worked on, he really enjoyed walking through the museum (and I did, too).

The day was grey and cool and it started raining while we were in the museum, so we decided to drive back home and leave our visit to Geelong for another day.

We had a week at home and it was a week full of appointments and relaxation.  On the Monday after we got back, I had a day of pampering.  I started off by getting a lovely hour long massage from Ali who is marvelous.  Dad took over after me having a half hour massage before heading over to his chiropractor.  While he was doing that, I headed over the have a manicure/pedicure - they did a lovely job - so relaxing - and I decided to go for a bright bold red colour this time (pic below).  Dad and I met up and went out for lunch to the Hog's Breath Cafe.  Dad then went home and I went over to meet up with my teacher friend, Bronwyn - I enjoyed an iced chocolate while we chatted for a couple of hours.  That evening, Dad and I watched the movie 'Non-Stop' - you were right, Krystal, it was totally my type of movie - very recommended if you like a good action film.

On Wednesday, we had the most totally lazy day we have had in ages - we didn't even get out of our pyjamas all day. :-)  We didn't have any appointments and we didn't feel like doing anything - so we didn't! :-)  It was actually really nice to relax so fully.

On Thursday, I had a mini pampering day.  It started off with another hour massage with Ali followed by a 45 minute facial (which included a mini hand and foot massage).  The girl who gave me the facial did a fabulous job!  They charged me $10. more than the price listed online which I was not happy about.  When I questioned the cashier, she said that the website says that prices are subject to change and that they had changed their prices in January.  I thought that they could have updated their website, but didn't say so.  I did send in a comment on the website, but have not received any feedback.  I will try another salon next time.

We met up with Robyn and Geoff on Friday - we met up for lunch at a local cafe which we wanted to try - it was just a so-so meal overall, so Dad and I were disappointed, especially since it was our choice of venue.  We went back to their house after lunch to get in a visit and also to have some dessert which Dad and I had made - banana bread with cream cheese icing - yum.  :-)  Robyn and Geoff were so sad that we had to fly out the next day and so had to leave the leftover banana bread with them. :-)

We flew out of HB yesterday around 11am - the flight to Melbourne was uneventful and, after landing, we took a taxi to the unit.  (rant coming :-)  We have always found taxi drivers here in Melbourne to be quite friendly and open to conversation.  I tried to start one with this cabbie, but to no avail.  (Dad said later that maybe he just doesn't like to chat).  Okay, I thought, that's fine.  But then, when we got to the unit, while Dad was paying the fare ($18. for a ten minute drive), I got out and waited by the trunk for the driver to get out and get us our luggage.  Next thing I know, Dad yells out that the driver said that the trunk should be open.  I had to get my luggage out myself.  Wow, how rude!  I have never had that happen before - I was quite surprised!  Dad said that the guy was likely upset  that the drive was such a short one to our unit and so the fare was a small (?) one.  It's not our fault that the unit is so close to the airport!  I wish I had thought about getting his cab number - I would have called the company to express my annoyance.  Anyway, rant over. :-)

Trip to Sunbury, Victoria - 31 May 2014

Dad and I went to this cute little town just for something to do, but we didn't get to download the pics before I had to head over to Canada in June.  So, here are the pics of Sunbury, a little town about a half hour from our unit.  

The former Sunbury State School - this structure dates from 1912

Rupertswood Gatehouse - Built at the entrance to Sir William Clarke's mansion, 'Rupertswood'

Rupertswood

Inside Rupertswood

Inside Rupertswood

Inside Rupertswood

Inside Rupertswood

Inside Rupertswood

On Rupertswood property - Salesians College

Clock Tower in Sunbury 

Sunday, 18 May, 2014

Dad finished up his first course yesterday and he was really pleased with how the whole course went.  All of the guys passed the exam which is always good. :-)  After each course, Dad gives out an evaluation form about the course and the instructor.  Dad received wonderful comments about his teaching - it always feels good when others appreciate your knowledge.  We had two visitors to our unit this week: Munir (a colleague of Dad's who is actually leaving the company) and Harry (Dad's boss).  Harry actually treated us to take-out last night.  After that, Dad and Harry spent the evening reloading the ipads which the students use for the course.

I have now knitted eight baby beanies and two adult beanies.  I was able to stitch up the adult beanies without assistance and they look okay.  I don't want to try and do it with the baby beanies on my own, though, as I want to make sure that they are done perfectly.  I also started on my online course 'Sharing the Gospel' this week.  After stating the objectives of the course, the main one being that 'the main purpose of missionary work is to bring people to Christ', I learned about the growth of the church in the past 150 years.  It's amazing how fast it has grown, especially since the 1960s.  There are little tests every now and then and, so far, I have passed the ones I have taken.  I had to take a pretest for one of the sections and got 6 / 12 - not too bad, eh? :-)  On Friday, I finally took advantage of the gym here in the building and did a half hour on the treadmill.  I hope to get more use of it in our final week here.

Dad had Tuesday off and so we decided to go to Rottnest Island which is 18 kms off the coast of Western Australia.  We caught a ferry from Perth and it took 1 1/2 hours to get to the island.  Once there, we took three walking tours given by volunteers on the island.  There are not very many permanent residents on the island, but there is a school and a teacher there (something like 5 - 9 kids over grades Kindergarten - 5 -- I'll put up my hand for that job :-)  The three walking tours we took were: 1) Reefs Wrecks and Daring Sailors Discovery Walk - Pilots were stationed on Rottnest Island between 1848 and 1903 to guide ships safely around the Island's dangerous reefs. This free walk from the Visitors Centre to the Bathurst Lighthouse involves enthralling tales of the exploits of the Pilots and crew on Rottnest. The tour incorporates the pilot crew accommodation, the boathouse and replica pilot boat;  2) Quokka Walk - Rottnest Island's famous marsupial, the quokka, is discovered in this informative walking tour. With an educational focus, this walk
leads participants to the quokka's natural habitats and imparts some interesting facts about this iconic animal; and 3) History of the Settlement Walk - A free guided history tour around the settlement. See where gaolers and ship pilots lived and worked. Discover why Rottnest

became an Aboriginal 'open prison' in 1839. The volunteer guides were fabulous - they have such an amazing knowledge of the island and its peoples and animals.  The weather was fabulous - we had a wonderful day out.

the red ferry in front is the one we took to Rottnest Island

a quokka

tree knocked down by strong winds which began growing upwards again

 a building built by aboriginal convicts 

our view from the seats at the back of the ferry on the way back to Perth

"Millionaire's Row" on the way back to Perth

Sunday, 11 May, 1990

Dad's course continues to go well.  Two new students joined the class for four days last week - they just needed to complete one part of the course.  One of Dad's colleagues, John, joined us in the unit on Wednesday for three days.  He was teaching a different course at the airport, but joined us for dinner each night.  We had met him once before in Melbourne, where he and his family live, but it was nice to get to know him better.

I continued on with my knitting this week and have now completed five baby beanies.  I am alternating between the three colours just to give myself some variety.  I also signed up for a free online course from BYU about preparing to serve a mission.  It's actually geared to young people getting ready to go on a mission, but I figure that it should be pretty much the same for older couples who want to go.  Since Dad and I want to serve a mission when we retire, why not start now to prepare.  I have also started reading a new series of books: Rizzoli and Isles - a detective series which has been made into a tv series - I like watching the tv show and the books have turned out to be quite good so far.

Thursday night Dad and I went to the movies.  Dad's boss had remembered that I had talked with him in Brisbane about how expensive movies were here in Australia ($19. per person here in Perth) and he sent us a movie gift card that was lying around the office and expires next month.  There wasn't much showing that we were terribly interested in, but we wanted to use the card since Chris had been kind enough to send it to us.  The best of the lot seemed to be a movie called 'Chef' - it received good  comments on rottentomatoes.com.  It was an 'okay' movie - nothing to write home about - more of a tv movie-of-the-week, I thought.  I was glad that I had not spent my own money to go and see it.  We are hoping that something better will come out in the next two weeks before I head back to Canada.

Dad finished work early yesterday and so we headed down to Kings Park - an incredibly beautiful park in Perth.  They have free guided walks given by volunteers and so we decided to go on one of those.  It was a walking tour through the Botanic Gardens.  The tour guide, Margaret, was so knowledgeable about the plants/shrubs/flowers/trees in the park and so it was interesting to be on her tour.  Dad and I want to go and take another free guided tour in Kings Park tomorrow - this one is called 'Kings Park: Past and Present'.

Saturday night, we went to a see a play with our friend, Rosalea, which was put on by an LDS theatre group in her Stake.  It was called 'The Importance of Being Earnest'.  It's a British comedy play and the actors did quite a good job.  After church today, we went to Rosalea's for dinner with her children.  As it turned out, her youngest son got the time wrong and so didn't show up until after we'd eaten and her middle daughter didn't show up as she wasn't feeling well.  Her oldest daughter came along with her husband and daughter, but wanted to wait until her brother showed up to eat and we had to go early to let another of Dad's colleagues into the unit here.  So, Dad and I ate dinner with Rosalea without any of her kids.  I felt bad for her since it was Mother's Day and it didn't turn out as she had hoped.  It was a delicious meal for us, though.

Sunday, 4 May, 2014

Dad's course is going really well although Dad found the long hours this week to be tiring.  There was a lot of information to cover this week and so they needed to work long hours each day to get through all of the material.  Dad found that he was tired by the end of each day and that during the last hour he was sometimes losing some of the guys.  He said that this coming week they will be doing shorter hours which will work way better.

For this week, while Dad has been teaching, I have been relaxing inside the apartment.  I have been doing more knitting and now have almost completed three baby beanies (white, pink and blue) and they look so adorable.  I haven't sewn up the sides of the beanies yet - I need to go onto the internet and check out more closely how to do this.

On Thursday, Dad and I got back to our healthy eating.  We feel so much better when we are eating healthy and getting out and getting some exercise and fresh air and sunshine each day.  We are keeping track of what we eat and what exercise we do each day.  Our goal is to do some kind of exercise at least four times a week.  Right now, we are walking to get our exercise in.  Whenever we get back to HB, we will also be going for bike rides.  I am also looking forward to getting back to going swimming.  The weather here in Perth has not been good for swimming outside (too cool) and I do miss swimming.  I also plan on doing pilates three times a week while in Australia - there's a pilates show on tv each morning which I can follow.

Yesterday, Dad and I decided to be tourists for the day and so went on a bus tour of the city of Perth.  It was on one of those hop-on / hop-off buses which gives commentary as you drive along.

Perth is a very nice city - lots of nice architecture and some really nice parks.

Dad and I enjoyed the two hour ride and then got off the bus at The Art Gallery of Western Australia and spent the afternoon there.  We went on a guided tour of one of the exhibits of an Australian artist and then just wandered through the gallery at our own pace.  The last exhibit we checked out was one showcasing the artwork of the graduating grade 12 students of schools in Perth.  Their artwork was AMAZING - they are so talented. My favourite was 'Creation Aspiration' by David Lane (the middle picture below) and 'Khmer Grandmother' by Jessie Lee was voted the most popular by the art gallery audiences (picture on the right below).

Here's a link to what was displayed - it doesn't do the work justice, but you can get an idea of  what was shown.

http://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/exhibitions/documents/130035_Yr12_Perspectives_ONLINE.pdf

I bought a print of one of the paintings in the gallery which I loved when I saw it - very typical Aussie scene.  When I get home to HB, I will find a frame and then a place in our home to hang it.




Today, Dad and I were invited over to Rob and Rosalea's place for lunch, church and dinner.  Rob and Rosalea are good friends of ours who used to live in Hervey Bay.  It was lovely to get together with them again and to spend some time with them.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

We did a lot of relaxing this week along with going to a couple of appointments and hanging out with friends.  Dad and I have both enjoyed spending time outside relaxing on our chaise lounges and eating our meals outside on our patio.  I have been reading a book called 'Friday Night Knitting Club' - it's one of those books which is about different people's lives who meet up every Friday night to do something in common (knit).  I only got to chapter 4 before I had to return the book to the library.  I will have to wait until I get back to Canada to take it out from the library. :-)

Tuesday was massage day and was I ever happy to be back on that massage table.  I even talked Dad into going for one.  Ali (the massage therapist) is amazing.  He had told me that getting a massage before going to the chiropractor really helps keep the muscles relaxed and so helps also to keep the adjustment working longer.  Dad said that he quite enjoyed the massage and that it was very relaxing - he is looking forward to going again when we get back to HB.  He went to the chiropractor in the afternoon of the massage and said that next time he will get the appointments closer together as he thinks that the massage will be more effective than it was this time.

On Wednesday, we went out with friends to the beach for the afternoon.  Our friends, Denise and Rob, have a two person kayak and we met up with them and Robyn and Geoff.  Their kayak is awesome - you can make it go by using your feet on these pedals or the regular way with oars.  Dad and I want to buy a kayak/kayaks and are trying to decide whether to get one two-person kayak or two single-person kayaks.  Denise took me out in the kayak first and we had a nice time on the water - we even saw a turtle.  The only thing was that she went out too far for me - I know that there are sharks in the ocean and while there hasn't been any problems with them in HB, I am still aware that they are out there and it makes me anxious to go too far out.  After Denise and I went out, I went out with Robyn and then again with Dad.  Dad loved the kayak and is doing more research to find out which kayak we will buy.

Our flight to Perth on Friday was uneventful and it was nice to get to the unit.  We were hoping to do some sightseeing yesterday - we had picked out a double decker bus tour around Perth that we thought would be fun to do - however, it was raining and so we ended up staying home.  It was a good thing that we did, though, as it turned out that Dad needed more time than he thought he would to prepare things for his first day on the course tomorrow.  So, while he prepped, I knitted - I finished one doll blanket (I already finished one earlier this week) and also finished one of the baby beanies for the preemie babies at the hospital.  Now I am working on a knitted doll which is going to be sent to a hospital to give to children who are coming in for an operation.

top left: crocheted doll blanket

bottom left: knitted doll blanket

back right: preemie baby beanie

bottom right: the start of the knitted doll