Sunday, 3 September, 2017

It's been a very busy week - and that's a good thing.  😃

Dad's course continues to go well and all the students passed the two exams Dad gave this week.

On Monday, I went for my second appointment at the gym with the personal trainer assigned to help me with the workout which had been planned for me by Brendon.  The routine, which is a warm-up, weight machines and then a cool-down, only takes about 20 minutes.  The personal trainer, Jesse, showed me how to do each of the parts of the workout and then I did the moves.  None of them are difficult, but it all depends on how much weight I put on the machines.  The goal is to work up to a weight that I either push up with my hands or out with my feet that I can do between 8 and 16 reps and I have to do 2 sets of each right now.  I have to do this 2 - 3 tines a week and hopefully my arms will get stronger during the month we are going to be here in Perth.

I continued on with my exercise classes for Monday and Tuesday.  I also attended a knitting class which I found meets at the library every second Tuesday.  It was fun meeting with the ladies in the group and they were very welcoming.  One lady told me not to bring any knitting which I had to concentrate on when I come to the next meeting as it's hard to concentrate when we are all talking so much. 😊

Tuesday afternoon, Dad and I picked up Robyn from the airport - she is here for a week to meet up with some American friends she served with when she and Geoff were on their mission in Sydney.  It was nice to have Robyn staying here with us during the first part of the week.  On Wednesday, Robyn and I met up with our friends, Rosalea and Rob (we met them when we first moved to Hervey Bay - they are originally from Perth, moved to Hervey Bay, Rob couldn't find work, so they moved back to Perth).  We had a lovely day with them driving from Perth south to Rockingham - stopping at Cottesloe Beach and Fremantle on the way.  We had lunch in Fremantle at a fish and chip place (of course, I didn't have fish and chips, I had a chicken roll 😃), but everyone else enjoyed their fresh fish.  It's interesting as there are three fish and chip places close to each other in that area and each one has a sign saying they are either the best or the favourite or the number one fish and chip place there.

Cottesloe Beach

Me, Rosalea and Rob at Cottesloe Beach

Robyn, Rosalea and Rob walking down to Cottesloe Beach

Fishing off the rocks by the pier at Cottesloe Beach

Looking back to the Cottesloe Beach from the pier

Lighthouse in Fremantle

Me with my iced chocolate at lunch - Kailis' Fishmarket Cafe, Fremantle

Seagull waiting for scraps at Kailis'

Me sitting beside statue of fisherman - Fremantle

Robyn, Rosalea and Rob in the foreground with ferris wheel in the background

Fabulous architecture in Fremantle

Such a great idea - books are covered in brown paper with a short summary of the book on the front of the brown paper (seen while walking down the streets of Fremantle)

Tram on the street in Fremantle

Beach at Rockingham

Robyn looking out to the water at the beach in Rockingham

My Malteser/Caramel/Chocolate ice-cream I totally enjoyed from the Eye Scream Cafe in Rockingham

Thursday, Robyn and I spent time with our friend, Thea - she had also come from Perth to Hervey Bay, but her husband couldn't find work and so they returned to Perth.  Thea drove us up the Swan Valley stopping at various places along the way.  Our first stop was at a photography gallery after which we stopped for lunch at this really cute restaurant (Taylor's Cafe) which Thea's sister had recommended.  I tried the beef massaman which was delicious.  After lunch, we visited a non-alcoholic grape juice vineyard (Kafarela's) and then stopped at Whistler's Chocolate Company where they gave out free chocolate samples - yummy!  We made this our 'afternoon tea' spot and I had my usual iced chocolate - and it was sooo good!  I bought Dad some chocolate since he wasn't able to come with us - and I even shared it with him. 😉  Our last stop for the day was at Kings Park which is a large beautiful park with great views of Perth.  It was a great couple of days with my friends.

 The photography art gallery, Paul Dowe Galleries - some amazing photographs

 The outside area of Taylor's Cafe

 The garden outside the cafe

 The craft shop at Kafarela's

 Kafarela's vineyards

 Humongous freckle at the Whistler's Chocolate Company

 Chocolate koalas for sale

 Large aquarium-like glass display all made of chocolate

Me and Robyn with our iced chocolates - Robyn didn't want any cream on top of hers, so I told the girl to put hers on mine 😆 

 Flowers at Kings Park - Robyn loved it there as she is a real gardener and can appreciate all the different flowers which are growing there

Robyn and me standing in Kings Park

 Views of Perth from Kings Park

On Friday, Robyn, Dad and I went to the airport to pick up Robyn's friends from the States.  They had arranged a place to stay with another friend's parents, but they lived 2 hours away and Robyn's friends had no way of getting there.  Poor Robyn didn't know what to do, so I suggested we call Rosalea (who had offered her place earlier) to see if the offer still stood - thankfully, it did.  Everyone came to our place for dinner which gave us a chance to get to know Robyn's friends, Jim and Marie McKell, a little bit.

On Saturday, Dad and I went geocaching and we were able to find three out of three.  We love being outside in nature and having some treasure hunting to do just adds to it.

One of the geocaches we found - the 'treasure' was under a log which had been hollowed out and the container put into the hole of the log - the log had then been placed by a tree and it looked like it totally belonged there - very clever cache!

Views from the geocache - beautiful

On Sunday, after church, we went over to Rosalea's to have dinner with Robyn and her friends.  Rosalea is a great cook and the roast lamb dinner she made was so delicious.

Jim and Marie McKell, me, Rosalea and Robyn sitting down to our sumptuous feast of lamb, etc.

Sunday, 27 August, 2017

Dad started his course this past Monday - he is teaching a course on the Fokker 100 airplane for five weeks - three weeks of theory and 2 weeks of hands-on.  He has 17 students on this course, including one girl, and most of them are pretty young fresh engineers.  They are all keen and enthusiastic students and have been asking lots of questions which Dad really likes.  It did take a couple of days for the students to 'warm up' to Dad after having had a previous instructor who began the course.  They all passed the first exam and Dad was pleased about that.

I started attending my classes at the leisure centre and I am really enjoying them.  I was able to get in three aquafit classes this week and the instructor really has us moving fast and hard in the water.  The same instructor teaches a 'Movement to Music' class which is basically exactly what it says - and I love the music as it's 70's stuff which I can sing along to (in my mind 😂).  I also did two 'Body Balance' classes (a combination of tai chi, yoga and pilates).  I had my first 'Face2Face' appointment with Brendon, the fitness trainer, at the gym part of the leisure centre.  He asked me a bunch of questions about what I am hoping to get out of the work I do at the gym and took some of my measurements.  He was to prepare a workout program for me during this week and we will meet again this coming week to discuss it.

On Friday, after Dad's work, we drove to Bunbury which is 2 hours south of Perth to spend the weekend with John and Sheila, a couple we had met on our last cruise.  They were in our trivia group and we got along so well with them.  They are originally from England, but have been in Australia for about 35 years.  They were fabulous hosts.  When we arrived, they showed us to our room and there on the bed were two towels which Sheila and bought for us and had embroidered our names on them.  We had a delicious lamb shank meal for dinner and then spent the rest of the evening chatting and catching up on what we had all been doing since January when we met on our cruise.

The towels waiting for us on our bed - such a thoughtful gift

Yesterday, after a delicious breakfast of crepes (made from scratch by John) with fresh fruit and Canadian maple syrup, they took us out for the day.  We started with a drive around Bunbury (not a lot to see) and then it was time for 'morning tea' - white hot chocolate for Dad and iced chocolate for me.

View of Bunbury from a lookout

These coloured houses in Bunbury reminded me of San Francisco

More views of Bunbury from the lookout

Dad with his hot chocolate for 'morning tea'

and my iced chocolate - what else?

More views of Bunbury from our cafe where we had morning tea

 We then drove to 'Gnomesville' - it is a 'city' in the bush with a population of about 7,000 garden gnomes.  No-one knows exactly how it started, but someone placed a gnome in one area and others added to it.  When it got to be a traffic hazard where it originally started, it was relocated to the bush area where it is now.  People from all over the world have placed gnomes there - it is truly an incredible sight to see.

Gnomesville

By this time, it was lunch and so we drove to a lovely little vineyard and winery with a little cafe attached.  It's called 'The Green Door' and there is actually a green door in the restaurant which came from Spain.  We shared a couple of nice lunch platters (crackers, cheese, pate, fruit, bread, pickles, etc) which were delicious.

Our platters for lunch at the 'Green Door'

Dad and I standing in the doorways of the 'Green Door'

The other side of the doors of the 'Green Door' (vineyard and winery)

The view from where we were sitting at lunch

We went back to John and Sheila's house for the afternoon and just had another relaxing time chatting with them.  We had asked them to choose a restaurant which we could take them to for dinner and they chose one called the 'Back Beach Cafe'.  They had never been, but it had been recommended by their daughter.  The view was fabulous (see pics below) from the restaurant and the food was quite tasty (although it was barely warm).

Parrots and galahs on Sheila and John's lawn

Me with the sun setting behind me

The sun set quite quickly so we didn't have to wait long for Dad to get all of these photos

Dad's seafood basket for dinner

My dinner - chicken parma

Sheila, John, me and Dad having dinner

Today, John and Sheila invited some friends over for lunch - they met this couple on the cruise they took in May, and the woman, who spent some years in Canada, wanted to meet us when Sheila told them we were coming.  The wife had spent 12 years growing up in the Jane and St. Clair area of Toronto - she enjoyed reminiscing about her time there with us.  We had such a lovely relaxing weekend with John and Sheila and we hope to be able to do it again next time we are in Perth.

Sunday, 20 August, 2017

The weather in Hervey Bay has been so beautiful - we love living here - our winter temperatures this week have been a high of 25C - but, still a bit cool at night.  It's not hard to live with, that's for sure.

The first half of this week was filled with appointments (including another facial 😁) , a morning tea with a bunch of retired teachers, a lunch with my friend, Bronwyn, and a dinner with Robyn and friends, Thea, Rachael and Fiona (and yes, more iced chocolates were had 😃).  My friend, Maureen gave me a wooden giraffe that her daughter wanted to get rid of - Maureen knows how much I love giraffes and so she rescued it and gave it to me - so thoughtful of her - and now the giraffe has a place of honour in our front hall.  It's quite worn, but we are just saying that it has a lot of character. 😊

 Lunch with Bronwyn

Morning tea with the teachers - this is my friend, Luise

Dinner with Thea, Fiona, Robyn and Rachael

On Wednesday night, Dad and I went to Robyn's for dinner - she also invited Thea and her daughter, Rachael, to join us.  Thea and Rachael used to live in Hervey Bay, but Thea's husband, Martin, could not find work here and so they moved back to Perth.  It was great to catch up with them (they had stayed at our house on Tuesday night and at Robyn's on Wednesday night).  It was also great to be able to spend more time with Robyn since we are travelling so much right now.

On Wednesday, Dad texted the instructor, who was staying in the Perth unit which the company recently purchased, to let him know that we would be coming out on Thursday (early) and staying with him at the unit.  Dad got a text back saying 'no, don't come until Saturday when I have left'.  Dad texted him back and told him that the flights had already been booked.  He received another text back saying that he (the instructor) was 'very angry' about this.  Dad didn't know what to think about it all and so he messaged the training manager to find out what was going on.  It turned out that this instructor has been really ornery for the past three months and so we thought it better to not stay at the unit.  Dad found it all a bit unsettling and I was upset that this instructor upset Dad.

We decided that we would still like to go early and so we booked into an Airbnb just down the street from the unit.  It turned out to be a perfect place to stay.  The guesthouse was in the back yard of a house owned by Crystal and her brother, Joel.  It was built for their grandma and then rented to a friend and now Crystal has decided to list it as an Airbnb place.  The design was really well thought out and it was quite roomy.  The bed and pillows were so comfortable.  Crystal provided cereal, milk, bread, peanut butter, jam and vegemite for breakfast which was really appreciated.  Dad and I mostly relaxed for the two days we stayed there.  It was great after being full-on for the past 2 1/2 months.  We also spent some time walking around the area to get to know the neighbourhood - it's close to the airport where Dad will be teaching, as well as close to the leisure centre/gym (which I signed up for), the library and a large mall.

 The Airbnb unit

We moved into the company unit yesterday and it's really nice - a two-storey, three bedroom house in an eight house complex. There's a nice park down the street which we could go walking around when Dad gets home from work each night.  We need to get back to our exercise and eating plan - we didn't do so well when we were in Canada. 😏

 The company house

The living room looking out into the back yard

Today, we went to church in the Cloverdale Ward (which we attended last time we were here last year) and the Bishop still remembered us, which was nice.  Some other members also welcomed us back to the ward and one man even said that, since we were going to be here for five weeks, they could extend a calling to us.  We laughed and told him that they had said the same thing to us when we were in Melbourne. 😊

Sunday, 13 August, 2017

Yay, we made it home safe and sound - and were greeted with heavy rain when we arrived in Hervey Bay.  No matter - we were just happy to be home! 😃

This week has been full-on as it always is when we get home after being away for a while.  We did take Monday off to recuperate from jetlag - even though we do get to sleep up front in the airplane, we still find that it takes a few days to get back on track.

Starting on Tuesday, though, it was 'hit the ground running' time.  We had to drive to Bundaberg on Tuesday to have the Jayco people do their three month inspection on our camping trailer.  We have only used it once, but we had noticed a couple of things which needed repairing and the mechanics found one more thing to fix, so it was a worthwhile trip.  We were hoping to spend a couple of days camping up near there in a place called Bargara which is a cute place on the coast, but the night temperatures were a bit too cool for us without some kind of heating, so we decided to give it a miss this time.  Hopefully, fingers crossed, we will have some time to do some camping when we get back from Perth in five weeks.  We did go to Bargara for the day and enjoyed lunch there and lovely walk along the beach.

Enjoying lunch by the beach in Bargara (me eating a chiko roll and Dad with his fish and chips)

The rest of this week has been filled with pampering myself (a massage and a facial), catching up with friends (Maureen, Robyn and Haidi (all from church) and Luise (a teacher friend) and appointments (chiropractor and optometrist).

 Maureen at 'Happy Days'

 My lunch at 'Happy Days' - a pulled lamb sandwich

 My first iced chocolate after returning from Canada (oh, how I have missed you 😁)

 The view from the restaurant, the 'Homemade Cafe', where Robyn and I had lunch

 Robyn with her iced chocolate

Me with my yummy lunch (quiche, chips and salad) and my iced chocolate

I forgot to take a  pic of me and Haidi at 'The Coffee Club' where I had ANOTHER iced chocolate and my phone had died when I tried to take a pic of me and Luise at 'Happy Days' with another iced chocolate (do you see a pattern here ).

While I was out socializing with my friends, Dad spent his time relaxing at home - well most of the time - playing his racing game on the ipad and watching episodes of 'Star Trek'.

This following week doesn't look any less busy - it will be nice to get to Perth for a break.  We actually will fly out Thursday to Perth so that we can get ourselves familiar with the new townhouse Dad's company, QAC, has bought and with the area surrounding the unit.  We are also going to catch up with some friends in Perth which will be great.