Out west we go!

Arrived in Perth @ 8.10 a.m, were in the car @ 9.15 a.m. and arrived in Esperance (729kms) @ 6.30 p.m.  ...

That was just a tad too late for the folks in Esperance; the motel we planned to stay in was locked and no response to vigourous banging on reception door and the restaurant we wanted was just closing and we were very hungry and very tired, so we went to the only other restaurant (The Loose Goose) we could find open and nearly fainted when we opened the menu.... Two price choices: $45 for a main course, (inc. garlic bread & salad or veg) or $59 for appetizer and main course etc! There were NO other choices!  We almost broke into tears so they let us choose an appetizer for $20 ea (bread/veg inc.) - alas no special free dessert for us - main course required!  urgh! 

  (Now I remember writing about the high price of eating out here … way back in April !)   

Cassia's unit (#8) is a one-level townhouse in a row of 9. A small backyard and parking spot at front. It's one street away from the beach, a decent walk and an easy bike ride (when we find a bike!) to her work. 

No closet - no hooks!  No problem!

Tiny fridge on left - tiny yard on right.

 Work people were very nice to fill the unit with OK furniture (table/chairs, couch & bed). They even put in a folding bed for me and bought new linen for both of us!! 

No broom closet - we took out the shelves and made one!

looooong bathroom with washer (forefront)

The fridge is teeny tiny, the bathroom is ridiculously large (includes a washing machine (that overflowed on first use!!)) and the eat-in-kitchen/living area comes with a TV and has a crazy triangular deep corner 

OK - YOU figure out what to do with this corner!!

 ... it would challenge most interior designers to make use it. 

  Of course there is nothing  - absolutely nothing on the walls.

 (If they think we're not putting nails in these walls - they're dreamin'!!)  

  But … it was waiting for us first thing Tuesday and I'm pretty sure they don't do all of this for new-hires in large cities!

 Cassia started work on Wednesday and was very happy for a slightly early finish on Friday!  I started shopping on Wednesday …

The job; 

Her boss is very nice and from NZ.

Co-worker is a bit of a geek and from around this area, so that will come in handy no doubt. The other employees seem very nice. 

Free membership to the rec. centre. 

 $500 uniform allowance. Cassia chooses wisely … choice of navy/black/grey 100% wool, skirt, cardigan, pants in a few classic designs.  Blouses in whites, silver, light blue, again mostly classic designs. No red or polka dots (sad face) that could have been quite funky!  All of those choices work with her current black, grey, navy wardrobe so there is a plus to be (ultra) conservative!!

The neighbours: 

Unit # 1: Angela works at the council and is from NZ. Miguel, Angela's husband, is from Chile - hurrah!  Spanish.  They are very nice and go dancing on the weekend and teach it during the week!!??!! 

Unit # 9: Mario  is a very (very) good-looking Italian who is just learning English … and speaks some Spanish!  Hurrah! He's brooding waiting for his girlfriend to come and join him.

(We are yet to meet #'s 2-7)

The town:

Speed limit is 50kms with no traffic lights. Most intersections are round-a-bouts - (they are very big in Australia!)

Almost no pedestrian crossings - most people drive and if you do want to cross the road then YOU must give way  - and best to wait until there is absolutely no cars in sight - cars - er large pickups/SUVs rule this town.

Stores close @ 5.00 p.m. except Thursday (9.00) - close @12. p.m. on Saturday except Woolies (6.00) , all closed on Sunday

Meals - the two pubs, the afore-mentioned Loose Goose, The Dome (WA diner-type chain) the typical fast-food places (even a McD's - Macca's ) and the mandatory Chinese restaurants!

HUGE video store that has Cassia euphoric - it's the size of a small grocery store -pretty-well stocked with add-ons such as jars of Hershey's marshmallow!!

ONE furniture store in town - it had a sale on Nespresso and big fluffy robes so they became Cassia's house-warming gifts!  

Housewarming gift #1.

(I needed the coffee - she needs the robe to wear at all times in the house which (even I agree) is freezing.

ONE second-hand shop and it's gross and grossly over-priced and closed on the weekend!!

TWO garage sales on this weekend: Sat. @ 7.00 a.m. had no sign of life when we drove up (@7.00 a.m. urgh!) - apparently you had to knock on the door!! -Sunday 10.00 a.m. produced a sugar bowl and a kaleidoscope/wand that we used to sell in the store!

No nice affordable furniture (or much else) here (hello IKEA -it's only an 8hr drive!)

The saving grace:

The beach  - it's quite spectacular - especially over the hill and around the other side of the Ocean Drive. In town it is shared with a very busy harbour shipping iron ore and grain - but there is a walking/bike path that goes the whole length up and around and provides a lovely walking route

… and in the middle is the best place in town - a warm/friendly/popular cafe with live music some Sundays and … a fireplace!!

The view from our new fav cafe!!

On Sunday at the Cafe Cassia loved the fireplace.

The weekend:

Saturday:

We invited Angela and Miguel to join us for a meal at the pub!  They invited us to join them after for dancing at the nearby bar.  We helped the meal along with a nice bottle of red and decided we would go and WATCH them dance. I needed a coffee to finish off the meal but of course the Cafe part of Maccas was closed and the coffee machine at the dancing bar wasn't working!!  Urgh!!  But there was live music at the bar and along came Mario and his friend Marcello (who speaks less English than Mario).  Up pop Angela and Miguel to dance and they were the ONLY people dancing for a long time … until … Marcello asked/made/convinced me to dance as well.  A&M assured me that Marcello could teach anybody to dance! Alas - not quite everybody. Poor Marcello - he tried … "one, two, three,four" … I tried "one, two, three, four" but finally he showed me back to my seat with a rather desperate "please" (sit down). 

Jill, Cassia, Miguel, Angela, Mario

Jill, Marcello, Cassia, Angela, Mario
(shortly before Marcello gave up!)

  It was hard to have conversations above the music, especially when language is tricky - so we said we had to go home to bed!!!!  The drive home was all of two minutes and we managed to be pulled over for a breathalizer on the way!! I was rather red (dancing) and nervous (two glasses of red) and couldn't see due to a foggy window so I'm pretty sure the officer thought he had his quota for the night - but - I passed! Phew - home to bed … well a movie actually… I think the Esperance nightlife might be a bit too much for J&C!!

Sunday:

We drove around the beaches and then walked the beach to the cafe and it's fireplace and live music (the same people as the night before!) and we sat in our comfy chairs and spent a happy (warm for Cassia) hour before a breatherlizer-free walk back home.

Nobody else on the beach...

Next weekend we drive to Perth to SHOP - oh yeah - and to see Erin!!

 Cassia flies back to Esperance to be by herself and I fly back to Adelaide to be by myself! (sad face).

Tall ships and Brunch

The ships arrived on Wednesday afternoon and it was quite spectacular.... 

The news helicopter seemed as though it would crash into our balcony and then crash into the big ship

 The weather was perfect and the scene was spectacular.

The dolphins came out to join in the fun!

The last of the three Dutch ships, the smallest one, docked right in front of our house! 

Hello Sailors!

I noticed "our ship" had just a small crew, so thought I would be neighbourly and invited them in for a shower. I figured they would jump at the chance to have a large stable shower but they declined saying they had one on board!  Well OK - have it your way - so I bought the T-shirt and asked the Captain to sign it.

I have the T-Shirt!

With the two local tall-ships docked as well and a British ship arriving on Thursday - it was just an amazing scene.

On Saturday the ships were open to the public so we invited everybody we knew over for a brunch and to join the party. The weather was so perfect and warm we could throw open the two sliding doors and even put some chairs up top on the deck  so everybody could wander all over with great spots to view the ships and then walk out the front door and join the thousands of people who had come to our dock.

Included in the thousands of people (sorry no photo of 1,000s -too busy entertaining!)
was a wedding!

It was just a brilliant day . The only thing(s) missing were Joseph and Pablo (sad face)… and it was only sightly more brilliant the next morning when they sailed out of the harbour!

It literally took your breath away!

Goodbye Tall Ships - it sure was fun having you visit!

So the fun is over - now it's down/off to work!!

No more boring … for a while

We were sailing along, living our normal (boring?) life, here on the dock of the (Port) river  …

There were the usual second-hand purchases: a bigger coffee table $15 (cheaper than the smaller one) and a $4 lamp, IKEA lamp $20 -shade- the hundreds of pot lights here are way too bright  - oh and the HUGE Monet poster to hide the ugly (ugly) wall-mount TV contraption in my bedroom!

The new coffee table - guess you need to see the old to appreciate the difference!!

Can you believe this lamp (without this crazy shade) was $130!!

Then Cassia's driving lessons: not really lessons more practicing I guess. She already has her driver's licence in Canada, Spain and now Australia (no test reqrd.- phew) but driving in Adelaide requires her to sit on the other side of the car, drive on the other side of the road and change gears with the other hand (left) - all this and she doesn't have a clue where she is going -  hence the need to practice!!  We start out in the industrial area on the weekend with no traffic - but we've slowly introduced traffic, intersections, traffic lights and people into the mix and now there are only minor jerks, very few stallings at intersections and few (if any) pedestians in our wake! 

A bit more culture: Billed as a "Night Mural Picnic" - we (50-60 people) sat outside at the end of our group of buildings and watched as murals by local artists were projected onto the walls ( "futuristic urban transformations"!). Sandwiched in between some pretty crazy wintry weather, this night was bearable; cool & breezy but a souvenir blanket and hot chocolate (included in the price) helped. It was pretty gosh-darned amazing!

Our house is three doors to the left.

A bit of babysitting the ever-adorable "J". 

Jasper loves Tia Cassia ...

... especially play cubby in Joseph's wardrobe with the wind-up flashlight!

Cassia spending hours applying for jobs all over the country. Cassia receiving rejection notices from all over the country. A bit of shopping to cheer us up and that was about as exciting as life was until Monday...

Cassia had an interview for a job!  It was a phone interview because the job was in Esperance Western Australia.  Cassia didn't really want a job in Esperance W.A. because Esperance W.A. is on the other side of the country; a 22hr drive from Adelaide across the Nullabor dessert , and an 8 hr drive from Perth. But she needed the practice interviewing so she studied the whole weekend and even though during the interview, she couldn't understand a word the manager said, a call came the next day on our way into town, on the crowded tram (street car), to offer her the job!  

Of course she did what anybody who is offered a job in Esperance W.A. would do - she panicked - asked for a couple of hours to make a decision- then broke into tears! We left the tram and went into one of the nicer hotels in town and sat in their lovely lobby and took a million deep breaths …  Call Pablo he'll help make a decision - well it was 3.00 a.m. in Spain, and Pablo turned off his phone when it rang so that was no help!  So ... she had to decide all by herself!

 She knew her best chance of a job would be in a country town. At least this one is on the coast and she will live one street away from a very nice beach and be able to walk to work and there are lots of great National Parks close by and it does have an airport so Perth isn't quite so far and with the flexible work schedule, she can take a trip to see Erin (Perth), a trip "home" to see me (Adelaide) and after I stay for the first two weeks, I'll make another trip and hopefully Joseph will be back and he can make a trip and by then it will be Christmas and Pablo will be there right after!  So YES!! -  she can do it! A phone call to the very nice HR lady to accept and all of a sudden things are pretty exciting here on the dock!  

Dressing for a job in an Australian rural town, working for the local council, requires precision choices in clothing - so off we go to the shops … again! There is a uniform provided!  Yikes!  (You should know that uniforms are very big in Australia.)  This one is (we think/we hope) just a blue shirt with the council logo discreetly embroidered on the chest -so pants/skirts/cardys (sweaters) will suffice.  Oh and a rather adorable dress to compensate for the tough days ahead (pretty well guarantee there will be some).  I must say I rather enjoy shopping vicariously through my daughter. 

The dress we had to convince ourselves she needed!

... the skirt was a no brainer!

 There may be just one letter different but the joy of looking for XS instead of XL (XXL?) is hard to describe.  The shop assistants look at me strangely as they help me look - sometimes I explain - sometimes I don't!  The funny (sad) part is that in my previous life here, most of my shopping in these stores was for an M or S not XL (you should know that Australian sizes are slightly bigger than N.A.). Sad face...

A fleet of Dutch tall ships arrive this week, docking almost at our front door, so we're having a brunch to celebrate and say goodbye to Cassia and then we're off … to Esperance, Western Australia … on the other side of the country ... flying … not driving!!

Believe it or not last week was a rather busy one …

Whales!    

I don't know if the whales are new or not - I know I never heard about whales at Victor Harbor when I was young - but now it's all everybody talks about!! Whales during the winter and you can see them from the beach - it's like birdwatching from the car!!

Now that Cassia is warm with her new coat we can go outside and the whale report said there had been lots of whale activity so we drove 1.5hrs south of Adelaide -  straight to Middleton beach where the whale report said they would be and we arrived at exactly the time the whale report said they would be seen!   - et violà there they were! 

Well we could SEE them!

  Ten steps from the car we could see six or seven swimming (or whatever whales do) about 100 - 200 meters from shore and others we could see spouting (or whatever whales do) way out. It wasn't even cold watching them (well not for me anyway) but it was the first time in a million years that I didn't have binoculars handy - and it was then that I realized I'm starting to miss Joseph!  

  Lunch at the cafe on the beach, a visit to the dump (…er … refuse depot) for a few "treasures" then home - that was a whole day!

Jasper's foot tile is on here!
This is the beach we were whale-watching!

… then just a bit of Sports!  

When you don't have snow and ice and freezing temperatures in winter, you can play sports outside and if your nieces and nephews play sports outside then it behoves you to go and watch them play … outside… at night … in the cold!  Jess played netball outside and she scored all of the points in an 8-0 game, probably because she is the tallest girl on the court. It wasn't too cold that night so we were "happy" to be there to cheer her on. 

Jess NOT playing netball!

 

Sorry no pics of J&J actually playing - it was dark!

Not so happy two nights later for James' football game (another thrashing win for him) on a cold, wet miserable night. He's one of the tallest in his team, so was a big part of the thrashing and in an effort to give the other team a chance he was taken off for the last quarter. Well we figured he wouldn't miss us so we sneaked off early!  

Zane in action.

The next night Zane played basketball indoors -  but might as well be outside (it's an old draughty massive building). His team was winning and mum was freezing and we figured he wouldn't miss us so we sneaked off early!  I think that's enough sports for us for one week!

… then more Shopping! 

A couple of major second-hand 'finds' this week -  a bedhead/bookcase ($35) to replace the ironing board that acts as a TV bench in my bedroom. It scrubbed up well with some Vim; the magazines hide the scribble that wouldn't come off one shelf, the stool hides the hole in the middle at the bottom and the # eight adds a bit of interest.

You have no idea how excited I am to have this piece of furniture!!
(pic taken while in bed)

 While we were picking up that gem a battered-up side board jumped out at us ($80) so home it came because the dining room is desperate for a side board. I figured paint would fix it but somebody had a "share" on Facebook with info on how to restore wooden furniture using olive oil and vinegar. It still boggles my mind that it worked and I wish I had taken a "before" pic because the "after" is quite amazing. 

"after" pic!!

The legs were rather slippery carrying it upstairs and it does smell a bit like a salad and each drawer only holds one tablecloth but it looks wonderful

 - especially under the painting ($25).

Getting there!

Still no place to put dishes so the trolley works for now!

… some Cooking!  

Cassia made a huge (huge), healthy pot of lentils and some banana-chocchip muffins (we selflessly gave away 10 of the 12!), I made a Beef Hot Pot stew that was passable for company and we both made Gypsy Soup (because I have my Moosewood Cookbook now!) Thank goodness Jen bought cheesecakes when they came for the Hot Pot!!  Poor Cassia - Joseph asked her to make sure I stay away from desserts - it's a thankless task!

… and a bit of Culture! 

I think Matthew McConaghie without a shirt is culture?  Anyway, we saw him in MUD and loved it. Also saw Before Midnight (saw the previous two) and I enjoyed it - Cassia didn't like the fighting - but the acting was brilliant as always.   Walked to an art gallery here in the Port - sadly (luckily?) the huge mosaic dolphin was sold ($500) goodness knows there was room for it in this house!  

view on the way BACK from the gallery!

Then tonight - a walk around the streets as part of Illuminart's New Light Industrial project in the Port. 

There was a bicycle inside of this ship!

The projection was contained inside the bottle!
It was a movie of the beach!

art on a wall...

... and inside the buildings!

A little bit cold but Cassia and I (and even Jen & Michael & even mum!!) were all blown away by the different artwork that was projected onto the walls of the beautiful old buildings, 

"trees" of material hand-painted with interior lighting.

as well as the "trees"

 and lanterns 

… and the yummy hot chocolate from my (new) fav. cafe (Red Lime Shack).  Love these people that are working hard to make The Port more alive and more interesting.

So while we were hard at work keeping ourselves busy here at "home", Joseph was back "home" in Toronto and Ottawa and the cottage having perhaps a little too much fun.  He's submitted his visa application and now he seems to think he can enjoy himself!!  

It's all very nice of friends to look after him, and I do appreciate it and I'm sure he does as well - but you can stop now - I want him to come "home" soon!!

Joe and Les ...
looking just a bit TOO happy!