Breakfast with friends

Gross.

So we pull up in Lesueur NP (gorgeous views and quite underrated if you ask me) for breakfast.  Robyn says, "Ah, a spider's crawling up my leg!" and briskly brushes it off.  Odd, thinks I, that a spider would be so bold as to do that.

Minutes later I look down and also see a spider-looking insect crawling down my singlet.  A moment later Robyn notices another crawling up her leg.  I sit down for breakfast and feel something on my leg, glancing down to find three of them struggling to negotiate the bushy terrain of my left shin.  What's going on?

It is then that Robyn remembers something she read on the board at the entrance to the park.  Something along the lines of: "There are ticks present in this park.  Be sure to check for them before leaving.  If one is embedded in your skin, use a pair of tweezers to extract the parasite."  Maybe not in those terms but I kid you not about the tweezers.

Ticks.  My memory flashes back to the display we saw the day before at The Pinnacles.  These things bear a striking resemblance to the critters depicted on that info panel.  I remember reading something about how they bury themselves inside a host's ear and sit there comfortably sucking blood until they're full, at which point they drop off.  The hosts don't feel it because they inject a saliva into the bite that numbs the sensory receptors.  Hosts can include kangaroos, mice and (casually noted) passing humans.

Ew.  Ew ew ew.  I nervously start rubbing my ears.  I laugh at how my sister Ann would be handling this situation.  Robyn looks down and spots one trying to bury itself into her singlet.  Pretty sure they're not spiders.

We throw everything back in the car after breakfast, checking it for any unwanted excess baggage.  There's only so much you can do though.  Oh well, if some managed to hitch a ride into the interior of our Troopy, we'll find out by morning.

I'm still rubbing my ears.

One of the numerous critters that were on our fridge. Any entomologists out there that can confirm our fears?

Perth.

Gotta confess, we actually really loved this town.  If overseas missions doesn't work out for us, we'd probably consider relocating here we loved it that much. Not least because there's some of the most amazing spearing we've ever done only a few hours away...  But the whole town beckons you so enticingly, which is probably due to a number of factors:

The River. I kid you not when I say that I have seen no prettier city. The only other contender would probably be Putrajaya in Malaysia, which is beautiful more for its architecture than its setting. Perth, on the other hand, looks majestic as its skyscrapers tower over the banks of the gorgeous Swan river. And there aren't too many cities that acually have a park (King's Park) that allows you to drink in this view from an unrivalled standpoint.  We went back a few times and were still marvelling at its picturesqueness.

Climate. It is HOT. I think there's a heat wave right now so we're talking consecutive days of close-to-40s. But apparently even in the winter it's still not too cold, and a friend of mine who moved from here to Melbourne for a while, came back and realized she'd never need a jumper again! Makes sense though. I thought Perth was actually further south than it actually is. If you look at a map of Oz, you'll see that it's about latitudinally level with Coopernook on the east coast (which I hear has amazing weather in the summer...).

Vibe. Obviously a fairly subjective observation, but there was something I couldn't quite articulate that I liked. The sun rises quite early, which lends itself to people being out and about a lot earlier.  It's like everything gets going before 9am.  You'd think that's how businesses should operate, given that they're three hours behind the east coast.  I'll remember to implement that when I'm the CEO of the Perth KPMG branch.

Size.  Melbourne is starting to become a bit of a metrolopolitan mega-centre these days, which brings with it both ups and downs.  Perth seems to be big enough to still be able to do whatever you like (bar, perhaps, creative pursuits...  which many of my creative friends in Melbourne who moved from Perth will testify!), but still not feel like an overcrowded urban behemoth.

On a side note, did I mention that it is stinkin hot?!??!  We drove around to 11 stores today trying to find one that sold a battery powered fan.  It was at least an hour before we could get to sleep last night and we decided it wasn't worth a rerun.  Go Supercheap Auto 12V fan!  I think I can I think I can!

At least 38 degree+ on a daily basis is good for beaches and ice cream.  Now to find both.

Perth to Melbourne and back to Perth again...

With 2012 under way, we found ourselves jumping on a plane to head back to Melbourne for a flying visit.  Our six days consisted of JR performing his Best Man duties at David and Tarryn’s wedding, meeting my 2 week old niece (who is absolutely gorgeous!), a quick trip to Bairnsdale to see my family, a couple of movies, dinners and Dominion hands with JR’s family and before we knew it it was time to board the plane again.  (Apologies if you didn’t know we were in town or if we didn’t get to see you as our time was limited.  We still love you!).  We treasured every moment we spent with our families and discovered that saying goodbye the second time around was a little harder than the first as it is a longer time until we will see them again.  Thank God for today’s technology!

Upon returning to Perth, we admit to have fallen in love with Western Australia’s glorious weather and pristine beaches.  A week straight of 30+ degree days, a coastline of inviting (though supposedly shark-infested) waters and balmy summer evenings...

While JR has spent the last week putting a smile on Perth’s children’s dials at the Princess Margaret Children’s Hospital, I have been catching up with old friends, preparing for the North West Coast and have found one excuse or another to get outdoors at least once a day to enjoy the glorious weather.  We are both sun-lovers (if you hadn’t gathered) and have had fun enjoying some of Perth’s popular beaches such as Cottesloe and Hillarys.  A massive thanks to our friends James and Katelyn for your generous hospitality during our stay!

Next destination:  the famous Coral Coast!  We are looking forward to some more spearfishing adventures, spectacular landscapes and delicious beaches.

Hope your summer has been as enjoyable as ours!

Until next time,

R.

P.S.  I thought I’d put up a few of our favourite pics since our last post.  Enjoy!

(Click here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3109708823363.290002.1283635428&type=1&l=76a17f6ce6)

Seeing in 2012

Happy New Year!  Two days late...

I really am getting old.  The prospect of staying up until 12 really didn't appeal to me last year.  I don't htink it did the year before that either.  My wife, on the other hand...  she was kinda keen to see what was happening about town at midnight.

Thankfully, after driving through Bunbury in the afternoon her curiosity was sated and she no longer felt the need to do it.  I don't know what it was, perhaps habit or the gravity of the occasion, but we still felt the need to see in the New Year at midnight.  I was working until 9pm so that took care of that portion of the evening.  At that time messages and greetings started to stutter through from the eastern states, even though we still had 3 hours to kill...

So we did what we always do.  We played Boggle.  And as usual, Robyn dominated.  Thankfully, I still got a few wins in to keep me interested.  Most exciting of all though was this little beauty right here:

By FAR the best Boggle "board" either of us had ever seen.  I don't know how many games of Boggle you've played where you've scored 37 on a four-and-up and still lost, but that happened to me.  We both had super long lists of words and hardly any of them crossed over!  Unfortunately we found what we think must be the longest word on there (8 letters) after the 2 minute gong.

For all the word-nerds, enjoy.

Much love,

J.