Sunday, 21 September, 2014

This week, during the week, was pretty much the same as last week for me - at least from Monday to Thursday.  On Thursday, Harry's wife, Dawn, joined us at the unit.

Dad had two exams this week and got 97% on both of them.  He was disappointed to get one question wrong on each of them, but I reminded him that he got 97% of the questions correct. :-)  Dad found the information this week to be pretty similar to what he already knew.

On Friday, Dawn and I went to downtown Perth.  I didn't realize how close we were to the centre of the city.  We took the train and it was only three stops ($2.90 each way).  Two of the major streets downtown are for pedestrians only (they're called 'pedestrian malls') which is great cuz you never have to worry about cars, etc.  We had a lovely time sticky beaking in the various shops there.  Then, we stopped at a cute cafe called 'Miss Maud' where we had a hamburger before heading back home.

On Saturday, it was such a lovely day - 33C, sun shining, blue skies - a perfect day for touring.  Dawn and Harry took us on a day out - with lots of food along the way.  We stopped at two chocolate factories where we HAD to do some taste testing. :-)  We also stopped at a nut factory, a nougat factory and a farm where they made non-alcoholic wine (grape juice) where we HAD to do some more taste testing.  It was a beautiful drive along the way, too.

My very first trifle - Harry supervised me making it

On our day out with Dawn and Harry, we went to the Swan Valley and stopped at Guildford - this is the post office - I love the architecture

An old hotel we saw along the way - beautiful architecture

A vineyard - the Swan Valley is full of wineries

Margaret River Chocolate Company - Dad tasting the free chocolate - yummy!

A chocolate factory worker - he was putting chocolates on the conveyor belt and spreading them out - they then went under a chocolate waterfall to get more chocolate coating

Harry, Dawn and Dad eating lunch - Dad and I shared a ham, cheese and tomato panini and chips - delicious - Dad and I also shared an ice chocolate - chocolate milk with ice-cream and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings - yum, yum!

Dad checking out the grapes on the vine

Grapes on the vine - can you see them - they are so so tiny!

The farmhouse where we tasted the non-alcoholic wine - Kafarela's Vineyard

The owner of the vineyard pouring us some red grape juice (we taste tested five varieties)

Taste testing the grape juice - we preferred the white grape juice over the red grape juice

A flagon of Medium White grape juice we bought at the vineyard

Dad and I at the Mondo Nougat factory and the Morish Nut factory

Krystal, how would you like us to buy this freckle chocolate 

for you? :-)

A huge fish tank filled with chocolate fish, chocolate seaweed and other chocolate sea creatures

Sunday, 14 September, 2014

Dad and I went to a doctor's on Monday to get his stitches out.  Everything went smoothly although the nurse who took them out said that they were a bit stuck in the skin.  Dad now has a nice scar on his back. :-)

The rest of the week was pretty much the same as last week with me knitting, reading, watching tv, and exercising and Dad going to 'school'.  Dad had another test on Friday and he got 100% again - he wasn't as excited about the mark this time, though, as 6 other guys also got 100%.

Yesterday, we went out to lunch with Harry (Dad's boss) - he chose to go to a pub where we had a delicious lunch.  I had chicken parma (parmigiana) and Dad and Harry had ribs.  The ribs were so tender - just fell off the bone - but, no-one liked the barbecue sauce - it tasted nothing like the yummy bbq sauce we get in Canada.  I think we are going to have to teach these Aussies how to make good barbecue sauce. :-)  We rarely see ribs on a menu here, though, so that's why Dad chose to get it.  After lunch, Harry took us on a short drive to an area not far from where we live.  We took a short walk in a park and along the river.

                                   
Me, Dad and Harry with our lunch

Today, after church, Dad and I went for a walk - it turned out to be an 8km walk.  It was such a beautiful day today - the sun was shining, the sky was blue and there was a light breeze blowing.   The walking trail we went on goes through two parks and over two bridges.   There were tons of people on the trail we walked along - some walking, some running, some riding bikes, some skating.  There were also lots of people having picnic lunches along the way.  Dad and I were good and tired when we got back, but it was a good 'good and tired'.  :-)

                                     
Welcome to Perth

Pelican we saw along the way

View of some expensive homes built along the Swan River

Ducks and ducklings we saw on our walk

Sunday, 7 September, 2014

Not much has been happening this week, so there is not much to report about what we have been doing this week.

Dad started school this week.  Dad's boss, Harry, is teaching the course about the Fokker 100 airplane.  It's a smaller, older jet which is widely used in Australia for flying mine workers in and out of the mine sites.  Dad says that it's a lot of work learning about a new plane, but it's also very interesting.  He has been spending a couple of hours each night making notes - he has been doing double duty as he makes notes as a student so he is ready for the tests he will take during the course, and he is taking notes as a teacher for when he teaches this course in the future.  Dad had his first test this past Friday and he was the only one in the class to get 100% (yay, Dad :-)  

I have been spending my days knitting, reading, watching tv and doing stuff on the computer.  I have also been able to get in some exercise every day.  We brought two dvds with us from home - one is for resistance bands exercises and a pilates one.  I have been alternating between these two and also have been going downstairs to the gym and walking on the treadmill and riding on the stationary bike every day as well.  It's great having the gym so accessible - especially since it's been quite rainy since we've been here. 

Today, we went to church at a local chapel, but were only able to go to Sacrament meeting.  Since Harry is here and he owns the car, we didn't want to ask him if we could have the car for 3 1/2 hours to go to church.  The people in the ward were very welcoming and made me wish we could have stayed longer.  I love that wherever we have gone in the world, we have been able to go to church and worship with other saints.  I love the gospel! :-)

Sunday, 31 August, 2014

Dad got home from Newcastle on Monday and it was good to have him home.  He said that the course went well.

On Tuesday, Dad had two doctor's appointments to go to - the GP and a Specialist.  He had to go to the GP to get a couple of skin things taken out.  The doctor said that he is 99% sure they are nothing, but his motto is 'when in doubt, take it out'.  Dad had to get stitches afterwards and so they will have to be taken out next week here in Perth.  The specialist visit was to get the results  of the 'top and tail' test he had done a couple of weeks ago.  The results of the colonoscopy were perfect which was great to hear.  From the endoscopy, they learned that he does have some evidence of long term acid reflux.  Dad told the doctor that he takes Tums when he gets indigestion and the doctor said that that was fine, but that Dad should also take another pill which will lower the acid in his stomach.  He doesn't need to take it regularly, just when he feels the indigestion happening.  So, we were happy with all of the results today.

On Wednesday, my friend, Denise and her husband, Robert, came over to our house.  I had asked Denise if she could ask Robert to come over and check out our lawn and tell us  what to do with it.  It looks really awful right now - so many weeds and so much dried grass.  Everyone else's lawn on the street looks green and ours is mostly brown.  It's a bit embarrassing, actually, but right now, there's not much we can do about it.  We will have to do the fix-up when we are home for a few weeks.  Robert was so helpful - he knows so much about lawns and was able to tell Dad what he needs to do to get the lawn back to healthy.

I spent Thursday up at my friend, Haidi's, to help her clean her house since their move-in.  Haidi has a bad back and so cannot clean for any length of time before it starts hurting her.  As well as cleaning, we also managed to get in a nice walk and talk.  Dad spent the day spreading 'weed and feed' on the lawn to try and kill the weeds.  Hopefully, that will help the lawn to not look too too bad while we are gone.  We are thinking about getting an underground sprinkler system which our neighbour said he will put on for us when we are away.  I think that fake grass would be even better. :-)

Dad went back to the doctor's on Friday so that they could check his stitches.  All looks well so far.  We also got our hair cut that day - I asked Christa (our hairdresser) to make mine really short so that I don't have to get it cut again before we get back to HB.  I have had my hair cut twice by other hairdressers in the past year and I have not been completely happy with either of them.  I have had to come back to Christa each time and tell her to 'fix it'.  She always knows what to do. :-)

                                     my new haircut

                                     Dad's new haircut

We had to get up really early yesterday so that we could catch a 6:45am flight to Perth.  If we had gone any later in the day, we would have landed really late in the evening in Perth.  As it was, we landed in Perth around lunch time.  After dropping our stuff off at the unit, we went grocery shopping and then spent the rest of the day relaxing.

We are glad that we also have had today to relax before Dad starts his stint as a student tomorrow.  Dad's boss, Harry, arrived at the unit today - he's the instructor for the course.  We decided to let him stay in the master bedroom with the ensuite since he is Dad's boss and the instructor for the course. :-)

Sunday, 24 August, 2014

Dad and I took the sister missionaries on a picnic this week.  I noticed on Sunday that they didn't have many people signed up to have them for dinner, so I talked with one of them on Sunday and asked if they would be able to come to dinner this week at our place.  They are only given a certain amount of kilometres to use each month and they were getting tight for this month.  I then suggested we come over to Maryborough and bring lunch with us.  We picked them up at their place and drove them to a lovely park.  We bought a roast chicken, salads and watermelon.  One of the sisters had never been on a picnic and she thought it was so nice.  The day was absolutely perfect and it was really nice getting to know the sister missionaries.

Our sister missionaries

On Thursday morning, I drove Dad to the airport - he flew off to Newcastle (two hours north of Sydney) for five days to teach a hands-on course with another instructor.  After I dropped him off, I drove up to a little place called Burrum Heads to spend the day with my friend, Haidi.  She and her family had just moved into the rental house and I was hoping to help her get things in order, but she wasn't feeling up to it and so we just spend the day sitting and chatting. :-)

Haidi and me - notice my bare feet (in winter) :-)

I had something planned for every day that Dad was going to be away so that I was being kept busy, but then the weather turned horrible on Friday and Saturday - pouring rain - so, not good for going for a walk or a bike ride.  Robyn and Geoff invited me over for lunch today which was really nice - it does get lonely without Dad here - so it was nice to spend the afternoon with our friends.  I am looking forward to Dad coming home tomorrow.

Sunday, 17 August, 2014

I have been doing a lot of family history this week.  Dad and I started off the week spending Monday at the Family History Centre at church.  My friend, Robyn, has been quite sick and, as she helps out every Monday at the FHC and couldn't go, Denise (the Family History Director) asked me if I would come and be there for the day.  It's been an interesting week with doing my family history.  I am trying to make  sure that the info that is online is correct for my ancestors.  I have input my own info received from various sources, but others have put stuff on there which does not have the source for their info.  So, I have spent quite a lot of time this week trying to find sources.  My cousin, Rosie, who lives in Sydney, is very much into family history, too, and so she has been helping me along the way.

Dad had a 'top and tail' procedure this week (that's the nickname for an endoscopy and a colonoscopy here in Australia).  He had to go on a special diet for three days before the procedure and it was a very boring diet - he is glad that he only had to be on it for three days.  He could basically eat white toast with honey for breakfast, chicken on white bread for lunch and chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner.  The procedure went very well.  I waited at the clinic while Dad was in having it done.  Most patients have their carers go and come back later when the procedure was over, but I didn't want to leave.  So, I brought a lunch with me as well as my book and knitting.  We got there around 12:30pm and left at about 4pm.  Dad said that when they put this thing over his face that he thought it was the anesthesia, but that when he started counting backwards from 100, he didn't think it actually was the anesthesia as it didn't seem to be working. Next thing he knew, though, someone was shaking him awake. :-)  We go see the doctor a week Tuesday to get the results of both tests.

Dad has been trying to resurrect our lawn this week.  It is looking so sad in the front that I told Dad that the neighbours are going to kick us out of the neighbourhood. :-)  It used to look better, but since we have been away so much, the lawn hasn't been getting enough water and the weeds have been allowed to run wild.  So, Dad has spent time this week pulling weeds and putting 'Weed and Feed' on the lawn.  He has also been watering it regularly at night and then we had a lovely rain storm last night. We'll have to see how it goes this week.  

Sunday, 10 August, 2014

A new employee has been hired at QAC (Queensland Aerospace College) who will be instructing the basic courses and is also the quality manager.  His name is Gary and he came to stay at the unit this week.  He was teaching during the day and so Dad and I got to talk with him in the evenings when Dad wasn't working.  We got along really well and it's always nice to meet new people who work for the company.  We love that Dad is working for a small company with such a family feel to it.  It sort of reminds us of when Dad first started working for Wardair.

I thought that I was going to have very little to write about this week as most of the time was taken up with Dad teaching (six days this week) and me knitting and going for walks.  But then.......Dad came home from work on Thursday and told me to get ready right away to get in the car right then.  I was confused as to the urgency of the request.  When I got in the car, he filled me in.  There had been a theft at the hotel where Dad teaches - one of Dad's company's laptop computers and five of their ipads had been stolen - and Dad had to go and make a police report at the police station.  The computers are left in the conference room overnight as it's a hassle to have to set them up each morning.  The conference manager of the hotel was unlocking the door to the conference room in the morning when she got in and leaving it open so that it was available for whenever Dad and the guys got there.  Sometime between when she opened it early in the morning and when Dad got there at 9am, the items were taken.  Judy, the conference manager, told Dad that in all her 17 years of working for the hotel, they had never had anything taken out of the conference rooms, and she was quite distressed about it.  Dad and I went to the police station and spent about an hour and a half being questioned about the incident and waiting while the constable wrote it up.  QAC will be able to claim the items on their insurance, but it sure was a hassle to make the police report and for Dad's boss to make the insurance claim.  Dad thinks it was a crime of opportunity as the conference rooms are on the third floor where there are no guest rooms and QAC were the only ones who were using the conference rooms at the time.

On Friday, I went to talk with the administration person at the local primary school.  Since we are going to be in Melbourne so much with Dad's teaching, I thought I would like to volunteer in the primary classes at that school.  I miss teaching and this will let me keep my finger in education.  The school is also within walking distance from the unit which is handy since Dad will have the car during the day.  When I spoke to the woman at the school, she told me that I needed my 'working with children' card which requires a police check.  I told her that I was a registered teacher in Queensland and that I also had my 'blue card' from Queensland which is a 'working with children' card.  However, each state requires you to get a card from their state even though the police check is national.  I went onto the website that the woman at the school said I needed to go on to apply for the card and wrote an email to the contact address given.  I needed to find out how I would fill out the form as it asked for my Victoria address so that they could do the police check, but since my name wouldn't be associated with the company unit, I didn't know whether or not I could just put my HB address in and they would then do the check, but give me a Victorian card.  I have not received a reply from that email, so I might have to give them a call this coming week so that things are in place for next time we are in Melbourne.