Sunday, 8 April, 2018

Dad had this week off from teaching while Garth taught the electronics part of the course.  It was nice for him to have some down-time after teaching for five weeks straight.  Even though Dad was not working, I still went to my exercise classes.  I didn't want to even take a week off since I have been doing so well at keeping up with them.  I did, however, skip my Tai Chi class on Wednesday and dad and I went geocaching for the day.  We were able to pick up a bunch more travel bugs to bring back to either Hervey Bay or Canada, so we were happy about that success.

 Great hiding spot - the geocache was actually part of the rock - the cache owner had drilled a hole in the bottom of the rock and put the cache container in the hole

 View from the path which led to the cache above

 Dad went geocaching on his own while I was at my Senior's Circuit exercise class - the first find is the little white pill bottle behind the metal box in the middle of this photo

 This geocache was really tricky - the container was magnetized to the bottom of that support rail (see photo below of the support rail)

 Another tricky geocache - this container below was inside the hand rail for a set of steps on a walking path - the container is sticking out of the hand rail in the above picture

 Dad and I went out for lunch after my class and his geocaching - we shared this yummy meat pie, mashed potatoes and peas lunch - delicious!

Dad and I went geocaching again after lunch and ended up having to go on quite a walk to find this one (700 metres each way) - it was bit of a difficult walk as a lot of the path to the geocache was sandy and we were wearing running shoes (instead of bare feet) as we were in the bush and you never know what creatures are lurking there 😳  The cache was a treasure trove of travel bugs as well, so it was well worth the walk

On Saturday, Garth said he was going to drive to a nice place called Hillary's Boat Harbour just for something to do and asked us if we would like to join him.  We thought it would be a nice day out and so off we went together.  It was a beautiful day, too - sunny, warm, blue skies - you know...the norm for here. 😊  We were even able to do a geocache with Garth - he wants to be able to do it with his kids, so we looked up where we could find one close to Hillary's and made that our final stop for the day.  After a bit of searching, I found it and then Dad found it and then Garth.  It even had a travel bug in it which was a bonus!

 Hillary's Boat Harbour

What is a day out without an iced chocolate

Sunday, 1 April, 2018

Another week down for Dad and it was the last week of theory for him - he was glad to be done this part of the course - five weeks is a long time to be teaching, Dad says.  I reminded him that we public school teachers taught for thirteen weeks in our first term with only two days off - he wasn't impressed. 😃  All the guys passed the final exam - phew!  Now Dad will have a week off while another instructor, Garth, teaches a week about avionics (the electronics part of the course).  Then, Dad and Garth will both teach for the following week and Dad will teach the final week on his own.

On Tuesday, after work, Dad went geocaching by himself.  We had tried to find this one cache near the airport previously and, even though we spent a long time searching for it, we just couldn't find it.  We really wanted to find this one as it had a couple of travel bugs in it and we wanted to help their owner move them along.  Dad contacted the owner of the cache, explained the situation and asked for a hint.  Using that info, he was able to find the cache and retrieve the travel bugs - success!

The cache container that was hidden really well in a bridge which went over a highway near the airport

A view of the bridge from the backside. The cache was hiding in the support for the light bar that lights up the side of the bridge structure

I continued on with my exercise classes and my strength training sessions at the gym this week.  Also this week was another meeting with the library knitting group - they were much more welcoming this week and one lady there even remembered me from last time we were here in Perth!  Another of the women was using four double pointed needles to knit a baby beanie and I asked her if she would show me how to do it next time we met to which she agreed.

On Wednesday, the sister missionaries from the ward we are attending here, came to visit with us at the house.  They just wanted a chance to get to know us a little better since we are visiting here for quite a while.  One of them is from Sydney and one is from Melbourne.  We had a lovely chat with them and then they left us with a spiritual message - the funny thing was that the message they left with us was from a passage of scripture I had just read that day in my scripture study. 😊  It's always nice to have the missionaries in our home as they bring such a sweet spirit with them.

On Thursday, I met up again with my friend, Thea.  She and her son, Jackson, had to drive to Fremantle which is about 20 minutes from their house to drop something off, so Thea asked me if I would like to join them for their appointment and then she and I would go off and leave Jackson to find his way home after he met up with some friends.  Fremantle is a really nice place - lots of beautiful architecture - and I enjoy going there.  We had a really nice time eating lunch at the 'Coffee Club' and chatting away the time.

 Thea with her mint milkshake (and lunch)

 Me with my iced chocolate (and lunch)

Our lunch dessert - a yummy passionfruit pavlova

Dad had the day off work on Friday as it was Easter Friday - he was so worn out from teaching the course that he just wanted a day off to do nothing - I didn't even get out of my jammies that day - having a 'day off' every once in a while is a nice way to rejuvenate.

After staying home all day Friday, it was time to get out and about yesterday and so we spent the day geocaching.  We searched for twelve geocaches and were able find all twelve!  It's been really good for geocaching in Perth - there are tons of caches out here. 

 Such a cute cache

 The cache owner put a small plastic container into this cute cache which held the log book, etc.

 This cache was slid into that pole - I am holding the top cap of the pole which was slid on top of the pole - very tricky, eh?

 Lunch time - we found this cute bench to sit on

 This was our view from the bench

Interesting gnarly rooted tree 

 

Cool bird standing on the bridge we had to walk over to get to a geocache

Sunday, 25 March, 2018

Another week gone by - and they are going so fast here in Perth.  Dad just completed his fourth week of teaching on this course and he is looking forward to a break after this coming week - we will have a week off as another instructor will be teaching that portion of the course.  Then, he and Dad will teach the following week together and Dad will teach the final week of the course on his own (the last two weeks of the course are hands-on tasks).

My week was busy as it has been every week since we arrived in Perth.  I went to all my gym classes, continued on with my strength training exercises and did Tai Chi and my knitting group at the Seniors' Centre.  A woman in Hervey  Bay has asked me to make lap blankets for the seniors who come into the hospital.  I tried knitting one, but it was taking so long.  I much prefer knitting to crocheting, but crocheting works up faster, so I decided to start crocheting a blanket.  I was telling some ladies in my knitting group at the Seniors' Centre about it and they offered to photocopy a pattern which they use plus teach me how to follow the pattern.  I started when I was there on Friday and have done some more since then.  The pattern is very easy and I was able to catch on fast.  Once I get a bit more done, I will take a photo and put it on the blog.

On Friday, my friend Thea and I spent the afternoon together celebrating both our birthdays - hers was yesterday.  We started off by having lunch by the pond next to the Leisure Centre where I was doing my exercise class; then, we drove to a mall and had a manicure (I love being pampered 😃).  After that, we had a thickshake from a premium ice-cream place and our last stop was the movie theatre where we saw a movie called 'Game Night' (funny, but in a weird way - it was rated for being 'comically violent' - have never seen that rating before).  Just an aside: movies are very expensive out here in Perth - it cost $21. to go to this one.  It was a nice way to spend the day, for sure. 😊

 Ferrero Rocher for my birthday - yummy - and yes, I did share them with Dad 😊

 Muffins and pop (with plastic champagne glasses) which Thea brought for us to have after lunch - a toast to our birthdays!

Our view at lunch time by the pond

My manicure - very pale pink nail polish - I find that I am rough on my nails, so the polish chips quickly and it is much more noticeable on my finger nails if the colour is bright (like my beautiful bright orange toe nails are from my pedicure a couple of weeks ago

 Thea with her very bright green nail polish

 My decadent chocolate thickshake

Movie poster of the movie we saw

Yesterday, Dad and I went geocaching again - it was such a good day to go as it was cloudy, but warm.  We searched for 12 geocaches and found 11 of them.  When we got home, Dad checked out the comments of those who had attempted to find that unfound geocache of ours.  A number of cachers said that they had looked under a cement block which I had tried checking under - Dad said he didn't think it would be under there because it was set solidly in the ground and a hole had just been dug under one side of it.  A few of the cachers said that a red-backed spider was in the hole when they were searching (they are very poisonous), so they hadn't attempted to put their hand into the hole.  We were happy that we had given up on that one!

 View of Perth from one of the geocaches

 While walking to one of the geocaches, we came across this old stone foundation of a house which was in the middle of the woods - it's amazing to me to think that years and years ago, someone actually lived there - the hole there in the middle of the photo appeared to be a fireplace which was likely where they cooked their food

 One of the geocaches we found - hidden in a hole in a tree with the bark to the right covering it

 Dad standing in front of a very old bus stop which was beside a path we were walking along to get to a geocache

 Beautiful fountain in a pretty lake which was beside a path we walked along to get to a geocache

 Me sitting on rubber block with a hole going through the centre along the length of it - there were a number of them in this one area where we were looking for a geocache - the gps told us to go into the middle of this field where construction was going on - when we checked for a hint for the geocache, we discovered the hint said to look for a rubber structure - those who were doing the construction must have moved the whole structure and then just placed the pieces down wherever - we couldn't believe it when we actually found the cache container still inside one of the rubber blocks!

After geocaching, I thought I would treat Dad to an ice-cream from the place Thea and I had gone to on Friday.  I, of course, had to try their iced chocolate - I even got to choose the scoop of ice-cream to put in it (I decided on mint chocolate chip) - mmmmm. 😊

Dad with his double scoop cookies and cream waffle ice-cream ...... mmmmmm!

Me and my iced chocolate

Sunday, 18 March, 2018

Happy Birthday to me! 🎂  I thought that I would feel down turning 60 since it sounds so old, but I was fine today - I don't feel old, so I think that age really is just a number.  My cousin, Rosie, told me that 60 is the old 40 - I like that! 😁

Our week was very busy.  Dad's course continues to go well with the guys all passing the exam this week.  I was kept really busy going to my exercise classes.  I also joined the knitting group which meets at the library every second Tuesday.  They weren't particularly friendly - I was disappointed about that - I will give them one more chance in two weeks - if things aren't better, I will give the final week here a miss.  Thankfully, my knitting group on Friday is much more friendly and welcoming.  I also met with a young female personal trainer at the gym (part of my gym membership) who created a muscle strengthening routine for me which I can do wherever I am.  It only requires some small dumbbells and a resistance band.  She modelled the moves for me and then she observed me doing the moves and gave me feedback to ensure that I was doing things correctly. 

On Thursday, I met up with my friend, Thea, to celebrate my birthday.  We went out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and then to a cute little cafe where we had a drink (an iced chocolate for me, of course 😃) and we shared a mint chocolate slice which was yummy! 

My iced chocolate and the mint slice

Thea with her mint milkshake

That evening, Dad and I went out to celebrate my birthday at Hogsbreath Cafe - a chain of steakhouses here in Australia.  They give you a free main meal on your birthday and the food is pretty good.  Dad and I both chose the prime rib / port ribs dinner.  The prime rib was okay, but the ribs were so yummy.  When we got home, we had mudcake (like chocolate cake, only better) with premium vanilla ice-cream. 

Our non-alcoholic drinks to celebrate my birthday - mine is the one with the whipped cream 

Dad and me with our prime rib / pork rib (birthday) dinners

Me with my mudcake and ice-cream birthday dessert - so yummy!

Yesterday, Dad and I went geocaching again - we really love being in the outdoors and it was a perfect day to be outside  - not too sunny or too hot with a nice breeze blowing.  We looked for 15 geocaches and we were successful in 13/15 (one of the two we couldn't find was actually missing) - not too bad, eh? 

This was one of our favourite geocaches - you will have to make the picture bigger to see it, but there is a green medicine bottle attached to the end of a branch which is leaning against the tree - the medicine bottle is up in the air - what a great hide right out in plain sight

 Dad standing behind a swan statue in one of the parks we found a geocache in

 To get to one of the geocaches, we had to climb down a gully, walk across some rocks in a stream and then climb up a steep hill to find the treasure

The treasure was found in the midst of these rocks

 This geocache was another great hide - the top piece of bark is actually not part of the tree - underneath this piece of bark is where the geocache was hidden in the hollow of a log