Sunday, December 4, 2016

Another week here in Melbourne with much the same as the past two weeks...although the weather is getting a big annoying here - it's cooler here in Melbourne than when our winter is in HB.  We are looking forward to getting back to our 27C weather. :-)

Dad's course is still going really well - this week has been the first week of the practical part of the course which Dad really likes teaching.  They spent the week at the airport doing troubleshooting and testing on an airplane.  The guys really enjoyed getting their hands on the actual airplane and getting a feel for where things were on the plane.

I spent my week doing the same as I have been doing while I have been here: scripture study, piano, french, knitting, and classes at the Aquatic Centre (knitting, aquafit, tai chi and aerobics).  I am still working on the baby sweater, but I got to a point yesterday where I found out that the pattern I had, which I took off the internet, did not have a complete pattern - I got to the part where I had to start the sleeves and the pattern didn't have any instructions for how to complete the top part of the sweater.  I am going to take it into the knitting group tomorrow and ask Judy, the head of the group, what I can do.

Dad and I were planning on going to the temple yesterday, but it turned out that Dad had to teach yesterday morning.  I checked out the temple schedule and they only had sessions in the morning.  We were both disappointed that we couldn't go as we don't get to go as often as we would like.  Then, we had planned to go to 'Carols By Candlelight' yesterday in the park near where we are staying, but it turned out that a colleague of Dad's was coming in with his family to stay at the unit for about seven hours while waiting for their next flight and so we ended up giving the carols a miss this time.  Hopefully, they will have something similar when we are up in Cairns next weekend.

Yesterday, we were invited to dinner with our friends, Wendy and Norm Keilar (they were friends of Nana's and Poppy's first and they are now our friends, too).  They made us a roast lamb dinner with all the fixings and a pavlova for dessert - so yummy!!!  Their daughter, Marjorie, and her husband, Peter, also joined us - all four of them are such nice people and we always have a good time when we get together.  We offered to take them out for dinner next time we are in town, but Wendy said she would rather eat at home than eat out.  Marjorie was okay with that as she loves it when we come cuz she loves her roast dinner and pavlova. :-)  Hopefully, we will get to come back to Melbourne next year so we can come and visit with them again.

Pavlova which Wendy made for us - rather than putting fruit on the top, her family prefers mint chocolate shavings

 Muffler which Wendy knits for alzheimer's patients - they like to play with the bobbles on it - she has knit over 200 of them so far

Wendy, me and Norm

Sunday, November 27, 2016

This week, Monday to Friday, was pretty much the same as last week.  Dad finished up the theory portion of the course and all the students passed.  The next two weeks will be the hands-on part of the course which entails some visits to an airplane.  I continued on with my scripture study, knitting, French,  piano, aquafit, aerobics and tai chi.

On Friday, after Dad's work, we drove to Wagga for the weekend.  Auntie Norma, who is in a nursing home now, is not doing too well and so I wanted to go up there and spend some time with her.  We arrived in Wagga around 6pm on Friday - we first went to my cousin, Beth's house where we stayed during our time in Wagga.  Beth lives within a 3 minute walk from Auntie Norma's nursing home.  Beth has a second room with a single bed, but she decided to go and stay at Auntie Norma's house with Uncle Les (her dad).

After eating dinner, we went and visited with Auntie Norma - she has her own room at the nursing home.  When we first went into the nursing home, there was this horrid smell - fortunately, it dissipated the closer we got to Auntie Norma's room.  When we went into her room, she said to me 'oh, you brought my boyfriend with you' (meaning Dad) :-)   We had a really nice visit with her - her body is giving in, but her mind is sharp and so is her wit.  It was nice to have that time with her.  After our visit, we went over to Uncle Les' as my cousin, Cherylyn and her husband, Ross, had come down last Monday to spend some time with Uncle Les.  It was lovely to see them and Uncle Les again.

Yesterday, my cousin, Ian, came to visit Beth and so we got to visit with him as well.  After that visit, we headed over to see Auntie Norma again.  Cherylyn came in at lunch time to feed Auntie Norma (she can't do it herself as her hands shake too much) and we had some good chatting time and laughing time together.  After lunch, Dad stayed back at Beth's to do some work and I went and had another visit with Auntie Norma.  While I was there, I asked Auntie Norma what treat she would like me to buy for her from money which Nana had sent her.  She said she would like to have some lavender plants, so off I went with Beth and Cherylyn to buy her some.  Beth has set up a beautiful garden of various plants just outside of Auntie Norma's window at the nursing home, so she added the lavender plants to it.

 Auntie Norma with one of the lavender plants

Auntie Norma and me each holding a lavender plant

 Two views of the garden outside Auntie Norma's nursing home window

After that visit, Cherylyn, Ross, Beth, Dad, me and Ian and his wife, Loreen, went out for dinner to a local pub.  The food was pretty average, but it was nice to have more time to catch up with everyone.  Dad and I were going to go and visit with Auntie Norma again, but Ian and Loreen were going over, so we decided to let them have alone time with her.  So, Cherylyn, Ross, Beth, Dad and I went back to Beth's for hot chocolate and more chatting.

Beth, me, Cherylyn and Ross at Beth's house

This morning, I met up with my friend, Jenny, for about an hour - it would have been nice to have more time to catch up with her, but that's all the time I had today.  Jenny does catering and so, while we were chatting, she was busy making food for a client.  She cooks without a recipe at all - amazing!  It was really nice to be able to have some time with her if only a short bit.  Hopefully, next time I am in Wagga, we will be able to have more time to sit and chat.

Then, it was our last visit with Auntie Norma before we had to leave for home.  While we were visiting, my cousin, Kim came in to visit.  I hadn't seen her for about four years, so it was good to have a few minutes to catch up with her, as well.  So, it was like a little reunion with all my cousins this weekend.

 Driving out of Wagga towards Melbourne

'The Rock' - when I was a little girl, I climbed this 'rock' with my cousins - it ended up raining that day and we got soaked - I remember crying all the way home from being wet and cold :-)

Sunday, 20 November, 2016

This week was pretty much like last week - Dad continued with his teaching - and I continued with my scripture study, piano, French, knitting and walking.  This week, I also joined up with an aquafit class (I love being in the water), tai chi (really nice to get back to it) and an aerobic class (the instructor worked us well and I can tell you that the old ladies put me to shame :-)  It was great, though, getting in some other ways of exercising and I also like getting out and being social.  I also got out on my bike finally - way more fun doing a variety of exercising! :-)

Yesterday, we went to a city called Bendigo to go to another caravan and camping show.  We wanted to go and check out whether they were giving different deals than Brisbane to see if it would be worth driving down here to buy our camping trailer (it isn't).  The show was pretty much the same as the Brisbane show, so we didn't spend as much time there as we did in Brisbane.  I am not sure when we will get to buy our camping trailer, but Dad really wants to buy one from a dealer, whether it's new or used - he just feels more comfortable doing it that way.  We are going to drive up to the Bundaberg dealer (about 90 minutes from HB) when we get home to talk with them about buying one there.

Bendigo is such a beautiful city - the architecture is amazing!  We went to the Tourist Information place there and found out that the city of Bendigo has kept many of the original buildings and houses - I loved looking at them!  We are definitely going back there one day - I can't wait to do a walk around town checking out all the buildings, plus they have a tram tour and gold mine you can go down into - such a lot of history in that town.

 Dad at the end of the line to get into the Caravan and Camping Show - there were three rows and it took us ages to get in - tons of people interested in camping in Australia

 Country band playing for us as we waited in line

 Dad and I eating lunch (hamburger for Dad and chicken wrap for me) - we decided to support the Scout fundraiser - they had so many volunteers, it was great! - and the food was yummy, too

 Some of the architecture in Bendigo - love it!

 Scenery on the way home

Hill in the distance - Dad says they call it a 'mount' here cuz it's not a mountain :-)

Sunday, 13 November, 2016

Dad started his course last Monday and he says it's going great - there are 14 guys on the course.  Dad says they are all sharp and all keen and he really likes teaching these kinds of students.

I have been busy during the days playing piano, studying my scriptures and knitting.  I called the library to find out when the knitting clubs meets (that I was going to last time we were in Melbourne) only to be told that there weren't enough people coming and so they had stopped holding it.  The woman told me about another knitting group which met across the road from the library.  I went there on Friday - there were about half a dozen older women in the group.  They welcomed me right in and I went away with some free wool to make something which they will give to charity.  I decided on some blue and grey wool which I am using to make a baby sweater.

Start of the baby sweater I am knitting

After Dad was finished work that day, we went to find a 'nano' geocache (which means it was really really small).  I don't like those ones as usually they are just too difficult to find and it doesn't make geocaching fun.  As usual, we weren't able to find it even though we spent a lot of time looking for it.

On Saturday, Dad had to spend a lot of time prepping for his course, but we were able to get outside in the afternoon for a bit of a walk and some more geocaching.  We had some travel bugs to put into a cache and so we wanted to get them in asap as we had been holding on to them since we had been in Ontario.  We were able to find both geocaches fairly easily - I prefer to have a bit of a challenge in finding them, but it was still nice to go looking and to get out in the sun and fresh air.

 Dad looking under boardwalk where we found the first geocache

 Views from the first geocache (the city of Melbourne is in the background in the photo above)

We found the second geocache under a slat in this planter bench

After geocaching, Dad and I spent a little more time outside doing some front yard work.  Most of the front yard is covered with gravel so there is no lawn mowing to do - however, there is a strip of grass in front of the house which has to be taken care of.  Dad asked his boss if the company would pay for a whipper snipper so that he could take care of that strip of grass.  I used shears which we had bought last time we were in Melbourne to trim the bushes on the side of the yard while Dad was doing the whipper snipper.  It looks so much better now - Dad and I will need to do some more work on it next weekend, including some weeding (which I hate doing), but it will make the front look so much better.

 The bushes after I had finished trimming them

 The front strip of lawn half way through Dad's whipper snippering

Dad finishing up the front strip of lawn

Sunday, 6 November, 2016

Another busy week at home - always tons to get done in between Dad's work assignments.  This week (for me), it was a massage, a chiro appointment, and a facial.  Also, I met up with my friend, Bronwyn, for morning tea, my friends, Robyn, Jan and Daphnie for lunch and my friend, Maureen for afternoon tea and a movie (we saw 'The Girl on the Train' - I would give it a 5.5/10).  Dad's week was filled with tax stuff, a haircut, and chiro and dental appointments - I think that my week was more fun than Dad's. :-)  We also had Robyn and the missionaries for dinner which was really nice - we always love having them over and it's been ages since we have been able to do that.

We picked up our new car on Thursday - Dad was so excited that he could hardly sleep the night before and he could hardly eat anything for breakfast that morning - it was so cute! :-)  It took us ages to do all the paperwork, but after about an hour or so, Dad and I were able to drive out of the Toyota dealership with it.  We drove over to Robyn's so we could show it off to her - Dad loves the way the car drives!  Now, it will stay in the garage at home for the next seven weeks.

Dad in our new car at the Toyota dealership talking with David, the salesman who sold us the car (David took a photo of Dad and me in front of our car to be put on the Toyota Facebook page, but we haven't seen it up there yet)

Dad beaming from ear to ear in our new car

On Friday, we flew to Melbourne via Brisbane - typical flight, no dramas.  Yesterday, we drove to the Jayco caravan/camper trailer dealer (about an hour's drive away from the unit) to talk with a salesperson about the cost of accessories we might like to add to the camping trailer when we buy one.  There is a camping trailer for sale which I found online - it's only a year old and it has some great extras on it - unfortunately, it is all the way in South Australia which would take us 23 hours to drive to from HB.  Too bad, because it sounds amazing and is such a good price.  However, there is a Jayco dealer in Bundaberg which is only 90 minutes from HB, so we night just end up buying a new camping trailer.  We both love camping so much, so we are looking forward to lots of side trips when Dad is not working.

We went to church today and everyone was so welcoming - since Dad has worked a few times in Melbourne for weeks at a time, many of the members in the ward know us and are always happy to have us return.  I love how we can go anywhere in the world and feel welcome when we walk into a chapel. :-)

small white frog which we found attached to the front of our house

Sunday, 30 October, 2016

We didn't do much in our last week in Perth - the weather was so windy and wet and cold, so most of our time was spent inside.  Dad's last week of training went really well and the guys were quite happy with the instructing Dad gave.  One of the guys even gave Dad and Siri a thank you card along with a $40. gift card to a local restaurant in Perth.  Siri wasn't interested in going to the restaurant and so told Dad to just go ahead and use it.  We decided to go that day for lunch since we were leaving on Saturday and already had plans for the Friday.  It turned out that the restaurant was situated in a strip mall where you had to pay to park - we had to pay $7. for two hours - which we couldn't believe people were actually willing to do.  There weren't any other parking places even close to the restaurant, so we ended up just paying it.  We chose a steak sandwich and wagyu beef burger and had a mud cake for dessert.  The prices were too high for the food we had (although it tasted good), so we were glad that we had the $40 gift card (which we had to add onto to pay for the bill).

 Gift card from one of the guys on Dad's course

 The steak sandwich at the 'Squires Loft' restaurant

Dessert (mudcake) at the 'Squires Loft' restaurant

On Friday, we got together with Rob and Rosalea again - this time, we went out for lunch with them to a Chinese restaurant.  It was so nice to get together with them again and the food was really delicious there - that restaurant is definitely on our 'to visit again' list.  We flew to Brisbane on the Saturday and stayed overnight in a hotel - then, we flew back to Hervey Bay last Sunday night.  It was nice to be home! :-)

A kookaburra Dad saw on our back fence when we got home from Perth

This week has been busy, busy, busy - this always happens when we get back home and aren't going to be back for long (the break this time is twelve days).  The first part of the week was filled with a facial appointment, a tax appointment and a chiropractor's appointment.  On Wednesday, we drove to Brisbane.  Our first stop was to Dad's work so he could drop off the Perth keys and catch up with everyone down there.  Next stop, was to drop our stuff at a hotel before we headed off to the Temple.  We love going to the Temple - it is so peaceful inside.  I wish that we could go more often.

The Brisbane Temple

On Thursday, we went to the Caravan and Camping Show in Brisbane.  Dad is chomping at the bit to buy the camper trailer and so we wanted to look again into buying one.  Jayco had all of their camping trailers on display and so we checked out the 'Swan' again - it's such a great trailer and has almost everything we want in it.  One of its best features is that is has a full couch in it which will be great when we are camping on long trips.

The 'Jayco Swan' camping trailer we were hoping to buy at the Caravan and Camping Show

We began talking with one of their salespeople and told her that we weren't sure if our Toyota Corolla would be strong enough to pull the Swan - one salesperson we had spoken to previously had said it would be okay and another had said it would be too heavy.  When the salesperson asked her boss about it, she came back and told us that they wouldn't sell it to us because it would be just over the limit if it was fully-loaded.  Dad was so disappointed.  We considered buying a lighter trailer which our Toyota Corolla could pull, but after checking out all the options, decided that we really wanted the 'Swan'.  I told Dad that we would just have to go and buy a new car first so that we could pull the trailer without any issues.

When we got home that night, Dad reviewed the specs for the Toyota Aurion which he had determined would be the best car to tow the trailer.  I checked out redbook.com.au which is a website which lists a price range of what a car should be worth and I checked out some private sales to see what we could get if we tried to sell the car privately.  I also checked out the price of what a new one would cost.  So, we had a really good idea of the price we would feel comfortable in paying for a new car.  We also said a prayer that night that if we were meant to buy a new car that we would get a good deal on the trade-in.

So, on Friday, we went down to the Toyota dealer in town to talk with someone about a new car.  We asked for the salesman who had sold us the Corolla, but he had moved on, so we ended up with another sales guy who turned out to be really good.  Dad told him which vehicle we wanted to buy and they 'just happened' to have one as a demo model on the lot which 'just happened' to be the colour Dad wanted.  We had a good look at the car and then talked with our salesman, David, about the features of this particular car.  We then went and spoke with the sales manager about purchasing the car.  He asked a number of questions about price to which I could speak really well to - I think he might have been a bit surprised that a woman knew so much about what the car was worth and the worth of the trade-in we would be making. :-)  The manager asked us what we were willing to pay for it and I laughed at him thinking he was kidding (he wasn't), so I said about $2,500 less than what Dad and I had thought we would be happy in paying.  He thought for a second, but then said that he thought he wouldn't be able to do it, but that he might be able to do $1,500 more IF the used car salesperson agreed at how much our Corolla was worth (based on what I told him we thought it was worth).  He asked us if he could sell it for the price he quoted, would we commit to buying it.  I told him that Dad and I always took overnight to think before we made any big purchases, but we would go outside and talk about it.

Outside we talked about how the reason we took overnight to talk about big purchases was because we wanted to pray about it and also to research about it before we bought.  We had already done this and knew we were getting a good deal on the exact car we wanted, so we agreed that we would commit to buying it that day.  When we went back to tell the manager that we were ready to buy the car, he said he had to go and speak to the used car guy (who had inspected our Corolla in the meantime) to see what he thought they should offer as a trade-in price.  When he came back, he said that he couldn't sell the car to us for the price he quoted, but could for $400. more.  I said that Dad and I would go outside again and talk about the new price.  We decided that the price was still way less than what we had come prepared to pay and the price we got for the trade-in was $600. above what we thought we would get for it, so we decided to go for it.  We went for a test drive while the paperwork was drawn up.  Dad loved driving the car - when we finished the test drive and David asked Dad how he liked driving it, Dad's grin was like that of the Cheshire cat. :-)  He loved it! :-)  We were both so happy and felt so blessed at how wonderful everything turned out.  The next step is to buy a new trailer - we are going to look at the Jayco dealer when we are down in Melbourne (which we fly to on Friday).

Our beautiful new 2016 charcoal coloured Toyota Aurion

Sunday, 16 October, 2016

When we got back from our trip to Canada, we had three whole days at home before flying out here to Perth.  The company has rented another two bedroom unit here which is close to the previous one.  We are here with another instructor, Siri (short for his last name which is Sirianni) and his wife, Joyce.  Siri is actually a student on this course so that he can teach the electronic part of it in the future so that Dad's boss, Harry, no longer has to teach it.

Dad's course has been going really well.  He finished the theory part of the course the week before last on which he had 15 students.  This past week and this coming week is the hands-on part of the course which Dad prefers to the theory.  They have been very fortunate here as they have had easy access to an airplane almost every day.

Our first Sunday here, we met up with our friends, Rosalea and Rob, who used to live in Hervey Bay and moved back to Perth a few years ago.  They invited us for dinner along with another couple from the ward.  The church sure is a small place - turns out that the husband of the couple grew up with a friend of ours from England who spent a few years in Canada back when we were living in Springdale.  We had a lovely dinner and good conversation with everyone.

Amazing trifle Rosalea made for our dinner with them

The following Friday was Dad's birthday.  We celebrated that day with a sushi lunch (for Dad) and a burrito (for me).  After that, we went geocaching near where we are staying.  We looked for two of them, but could only find one.  The first one was supposedly under a gazebo at the water's edge, but as hard as we looked, we could not locate it.  The second one was easy to find - after doing it (geocaching) so much, we are getting quite good at figuring out where things might be hidden (most of the time :-)  We were using our new gps which Dad ordered over the net while we were in Canada.  Dad was having so much trouble loading geocache locations onto our old gps and so he decided that we needed to get a new one.  He really likes this new one - he is still learning all the bells and whistles it has, but it is really easy to download geocaches onto and he is really happy about that.  We bought two slices of cheesecake for dessert after dinner to top off Dad's birthday day.

 Dad eating his sushi

Burrito for my lunch

 Swans we saw on our geocache walk

 Pelican and other birds we saw on our geocache walk

 Where we found our second geocache

 Dad with his birthday dessert cheesecake

On the Saturday, we went out to Hogsbreath (mid-range steak house chain restaurant) with Siri and Joyce.  Dad had a coupon for a free meal there for his birthday.  It's expensive for what you get, but since Dad had the free meal we figured it was a good place to go and celebrate his birthday again. :-)  Dad had prime rib and shrimp and I had prime rib and ribs (I shared my ribs with Dad) and then we shared a yummy chocolate mud cake for dessert.

Dad's second birthday dessert mudcake

The next day, Sunday, Rosalea and Rob picked me up and we went to Rottnest Island which is about a 45 minute boat ride from Perth.  Rob has an underwater metal detector and he wanted to go to Rottnest Island to do some detecting - it's a treasure trove for money and rings (lost by tourists who come to visit).  Rob spends most of the days doing that so Rosalea wanted me to come along for company for her  They rented an old furnished cabin for five nights and brought all the food we would need for the week.  We each brought a bike to get around the island, as well.

Most of the days, while Rob was doing his thing, Rosalea and I sat on the beach or hung out at the cabin.  They had brought a tv and dvd player and dvds from home, so we also watched a couple of movies during the day -'The Book Thief' which I have wanted to see for a while - I would rate it an 8.5) and 'We Bought A Zoo' (a 7 rating from me).  At night, we watched sessions from General Conference which they had downloaded from the net onto a USB stick and also more movies.  It was a very relaxing week for Rosalea and me.

 The ferry to Rottnest Island

 Me and Rosalea on the ferry to Rottnest Island with a pic of a quokka in the background

 Pics of beaches on Rottnest Island

 View from the tent we sat in on the beach

 Quokka outside our cabin - they are about the size of a domestic cat, are herbiverous and mainly nocturnal (so says the description on Wikipedia - but they came out before lunch and stayed out all day on Rottnest) - they are found on some smaller islands off the coast of Western Australia, in particular on Rottnest Island and Bald Island

 The quokkas are quite friendly

 The cabin we stayed in on Rottnest Island (and the bikes we rode to get around the island)

 Seagull

 Peacock

 Quokka eating a banana which Rob gave to it

 Lizard eating a banana piece

My iced chocolate which I bought after getting back to the mainland