Updatey

Man, why do I neglect my LJ so much? I read LJ and Blogger every day, so I don’t understand why I’m so crap at updating it.

Example: my incomplete holiday entries. Will I ever get around to finishing them before we head off on our next holiday? (unknown)

What have I been up to? Darren’s Aunty Rae and Uncle John visited from England, which was nice. We got to play host (took them to Donovan’s) and drive them around the state (the Penguin Parade!) a bit before packing them off to the other rellies in Warrnambool. And Xmas with Mum and co. up in Murwillumbah, which was nice, and would probably have been the last time I visited there, as my mother is moving again. Why does she wait for me to get really comfortable and attached to a place (and her in it) and then up sticks and move? It’s only been three years! I don’t like to move more often than once every five-ten years, but it seems she can’t help herself! Anyway. It’s a bit upsetting. But I’ll survive. The fact is, I love that little town and it’s always a wonderful respite from Melbourne. The weather’s never the same there as here, and it RAINS there. A lot. At Xmas, we thought we were going to get flooded in because of the swollen river. Coming from Melbourne where we are carrying grey water to our camellias in buckets so they don’t die, it’s wonderful to see. I wish we could move up there and become hippies like half of the rest of the population. Though I’d make a shit hippie, as I like new and trendy stuff and, you know, bathe and wear deodorant. (seriously, can’t they smell themselves?!) If only Darren’s company had an office there. Or a reason to set one up, haha.

Anyway, it turned out they weren’t moving as soon as they’d hoped, so I was able to fly up last week and squeeze in one last visit. Unfortunately, Mum and I had a doozey of a fight which we both tried to pretend afterwards didn’t happen, but I’m still upset about. No doubt she is too. But our POVs on these issues are so different, I doubt we’ll ever agree. She thinks I’m wrong and I think she’s wrong. Never the twain shall meet as it were. And the next day, to make peace, I offered to stop doing the thing that upsets her so much and she told me it was okay! Which is also frustrating. Family, eh?

I did get to drive a nifty little VW Jetta for two days, which gave me some idea of what it would be like to own a VW, as I’ve been eyeing off a Tiguan for a while now. Liked the car, wasn’t a fan of how hard the ride was. We do a lot of country driving and I want a car that smoothes the bumps on country roads, not just a tight-handling city runabout. But we don’t want to buy anything huge, so it’s hard to find the compromise. Especially now that Subaru have ruined the Forester by making it huge. :(

Other than that, we’ve popped up to Sydney in November and caught up with friends (Brendan and Di and Meghann and Siggi) there. We ate at a restaurant called Strangers with Candy, which was expensive, but worth it. So good. Hope to be there again in early May. It’s the replacement holiday. We had planned to go to WA again, but because we overspent at Xmas, we’re only having five days in NSW instead. We’ll look at WA again in Sept to see if it’s do-able or will have to wait a couple of years.

We went to the Palais and saw Tim Minchin, who just about started a riot a few rows in front of us with one of his songs. We’d never been inside that building before, it’s amazing. I think it’s supposed to look kind of Roman, has columns and so on. The best part was that we had seats in The Lounge, which actually meant lounge-chair type seating which was huge and really comfy. They are refurbishing (much needed!) but I hope they retain the original seats (a recovering might be nice though). We’re going to see Huey Lewis there soon-ish (Darren’s choice, not mine!), so I hope it’s still the same.

Next week will be Darren’s birthday. I have already bought his present (unusual planning on my part) and the next day, we are going to The World’s Longest Lunch at The Noojee Trestle Bridge and then on to Wilson’s Prom for a couple of nights. Barry won’t be lonely either, one of the girls from work will be moving in for the few days we’re away.

Soon after that, I hit The Big Four-Oh. Yep, I’ll be an old fart. I’ve been resigned to it for a while now, but can’t say I’m enjoying the prospect as it draws ever closer. I guess the worst of it is – apart from the outward ageing, Darren and I have been trying to get pregnant and failing. The upside of this is that I can – and will - get trashed on my 40th. The downside is – is it ever going to happen? And how late is too late to have your first kid? (my sister seems to think any kid after 35 is a huge mistake, let alone the first)

The other nagging worry is that I want to move to a bigger house, but we can barely afford the mortgage on the one we have! And house prices are even more insane now than when we bought it in the first place! I keep reading that first home buyers are despairing of ever owning one, but I can tell you that third home buyers feel the same way about getting something that fits more their needs! (in our case, these needs are: stay close to current locale, third bedroom at least, proper backyard, better situated home, semi-detached if possible) If anyone has a spare couple of hundred grand, I can put it to good use, haha. And of course, we probably can’t afford to buy a new car AND a new house. I’m glad our current car is paid off and costs us very little.

I’m working shift at the moment. The money’s good, I get a lot more time off and I feel far more autonomous at work when on shift. The downside is, if I keep at it for too long, I’ll get too old, and they’ll never promote me. That said, I can earn more money doing shift than I can as a senior and the hours are better. Perhaps I should be willing to accept that I’ll never have a proper career with progression. I dunno. I’m sure there’s been hundreds of millions of people who’ve come to this point I’m at, where they realise they’re unlikely to go anywhere on their current course, and have to decide whether to accept that and make the best of it, or try and push their way up against the tide, as it were.

So anyway, that’s me at the moment. And more personal stuff than I usually post on LJ, but I’m feeling a bit reflective. Sorry it’s so long.

Happy New Year, yeah!

It’s hot here. Or it was – until the massive thunderstorm deluged us with lovely, lovely rain.

 

Hubby and I stayed in, haven’t bathed, cooked junky food, drank champers and geeked out all day. I can only hope the rest of the year will be as harmonious and happy. With more bathing, of course. :)

 

I wish everyone who sees this only the best for the coming year.

 

Much love and peace out, man. \o/

Holidaying pt 2 – Broome the second

Following on from the previous post, we drove from Gantheaume Point back towards Broome township, via a dirt road that ran past Deep Water Point, where the large ships are docked.

I didn’t feel well, but Darren walked up the dock and on the way back, spotted a turtle:

And then headed into town and located the Japanese Cemetery, which has been restored with the help of the Japanese people, but was also vandalised soon after.

It was unlike any cemetery I’d seen before and very lovely.

Later that day (after the required pool time) we went to iconic Cable Beach to watch the sunset from one of the restaurants there. It’s the place that everyone recognises from pictures of Broome – often with people taking a camel ride up the beach at sunset. Darren had been keen on doing this, but honestly, I’ve been on a camel before, they are nasty smelly beasts that spit and the ride is NOT comfortable. I told him he was welcome to, but after reading about the dodgy dealings that went on when last the camel operator licenses went up for tender (scroll down for story), Darren was put off as well. They only walk them on the section of the beach North of the rocks and have banished the cars up there as well, leaving the Southern section (it’s a long beach though) for the swimmers to enjoy in peace. That’s at least one good decision the Council have made as I had thought our time on the beach would be ruined by yahoos in 4WDs (though they seemed to exit the beach quietly enough after sunset, so I may have been mistaken there too).

Many people picnic or BBQ on the beach at sunset, or just come to look at the view, which is worth braving the crowds for.

We took those from our table, and afterwards wandered down to the water.

I am in love with this shot, I want to put it on my wall:

As you can see, the beach was a bit rocky, and I was glad it was low tide and the rocks were exposed and easy to avoid. The water was much colder than I expected though, despite the sign stating it was 22C, it seemed worse!

More to come…

LiveJournal Tags: Holidays,us,Broome

Holidaying pt1 – Broome!

LiveJournal Tags: Holidays,us,photos,Broome

All my adult life, I’ve wanted to holiday in Broome. Pretty much ever since they started promoting it on Perth Radio as a winter destination. Though given the mild weather in Perth while we were there, I don’t think they need it, and we should move it closer to Melbourne, haha.

Some readers might be aware though that Darren and I were very ill in the fortnight before we went away. Darren with swine flu (during which I worried about him a lot and considered taking him to hospital more than once), myself with whooping cough. For those who don’t know, apparently your vaccinations to whooping cough (that you have as a baby) wear off when you are in your mid-thirties. And it’s been on the rise for some years, leading to an epidemic in the northern rivers of NSW, which is where my Mum lives, and I visited her two weeks earlier. I blame the prevalence of hippies in that region. If they’d seen a baby with whooping cough (as I have), they wouldn’t risk their children by not vaccinating them. Whooping cough is no easier for adults. In fact, I was diagnosed when I went to the Dr in hysterics because I’d been unable to sleep for coughing the entire night before. Not to mention the other unmentionable consequences of coughing as violently as I had been. Anyway, both of us made it back to work in time to do two days of work before buggering off on holidays. \o/

So, leaving Barry in the care of the lovely and wonderful housesitter Anna, we snuck off early in the morning, heavily laden with luggage (for we were to head South to Perth after Broome and had been told that it was freezing there) and flew to Broome. We headed off to our accommodation, the wonderful and now highly recommended Frangipani Resort, which was blissfully quiet the whole time we were there, and had a beautifully quiet pool as well. After we’d put on appropriate clothes and stocked the fridge with food-type goods and plenty of alcohol, we headed out to do touristic things. I’ll not give a blow-by-blow account of all our days there, instead, I’ll say that we tended to get out in the morning, head back and spend the afternoon by the pool and then head out in the evening (either to the beach or for dinner), very much as we did with our trip to Darwin. The best way to cope with a warm climate IMO is to do very little in the heat of the afternoon, which also means you’re not out in the sun getting sunburnt too. :)

Anyway, we went to Gantheaume Point, where sadly the tide was too high to walk out and find the dinosaur footprints – though on our second visit, it may have been low enough IF we’d had a guide to take us out there and show them to us (but we were too scared of the rapidly changing tides compared with the time it might take us to locate them!). Still, the contrast of the red pindan soils with the blue blue of the sea and sky was amazing.

Looking North towards Cable Beach.

Walking down to the point.

Obligatory tourist photo

This shot was a complete accident but has garnered a lot of comments. I liked the drama of the sky behind Darren. Others have noticed something else…

This amuses me.

Lighthouse keeper’s “cottage”. I LOVE this shot, the dirt, the sky, everything. Though I wish I’d had some low-speed slide film and a polariser on the lens. Then it would be even more poppy with the colours.

Looking south-east around the point towards the township

Birthdays

Both Darren and I have had birthdays recently; he’s 38 and I’m 39.  I think we both felt appropriately fussed over for our big days.  I got some lovely gifts, took the day off and went shopping for clothes (best idea ever – I’m never going to work on my birthday again!), was drunk on sav blanc and champers by 6, and also had a delicious risotto dinner cooked lovingly for me by my hubby.  

His mother was lovely enough to send me a present from England, and while I was thanking her on the phone, she asked about how I felt about the upcoming 40th.  It’s interesting: I don’t feel at all like I did when I turned 30.  Turning 30 was a disaster for me; I was so far off what I considered my life path, it precipitated a slide into depression that lasted a couple of years.  I had seriously expected to be married, promoted and somewhat reluctantly approaching parenthood by that point.  When I got there and none of that had happened, I was devastated.  I also had (rather interestingly) had a strong conviction that I would die before I was 30, so getting there was a shock on that level as well.  So anyway, I made it past 30, I’m so far off what I thought was my life plan that it’s irrelevant now.  So I’m not concerned (yet) about the prospect of turning 40.  We’ll see how I feel 11 months from now!

Anyway, Darren and I went to St Kilda Beach for breakfast on my birthday eve, at my request.  We had breakfast at The Pelican and then a walk past the markets – like we used to when we lived there.  We enjoyed both and the weather was pleasingly mild but sunny.  At about 1130, we were walking back up along the beach outside the Stokehouse, when we came upon these two lovelies who had obviously stumbled out of the nightclub strip and onto the beach, too drunk to go further.

I know it’s callous of me to take photos but we couldn’t resist!  They were already getting burnt in the sun, and no doubt would wake up with cracking headaches, but everyone was gawping and laughing and even the lifeguards wouldn’t go near them.  Bonus photo for the eye makeup:

The good news is that one of them stirred soon after I snapped this with my phone, so hopefully they didn’t spend too much longer there.

Black Saturday.

You’d have to have been living under a rock to be unaware of the devastating wildfires that have burnt through (what seems like) half the state in the last three weeks.

Black Saturday brought with it record heat and winds, and an appalling death toll. It’s been heartbreaking to watch the news and I’ve been especially affected by stories like this one, and its follow-up. I think a lot of people, when faced with stories of thousands who lost homes and a death toll currently at 211 forgot about the devastating effect fires like this have on wildlife. I even got off my (usually complacent) arse and made a decent donation to Wildlife Victoria.

It’s true that fire is a normal part of the natural cycle here in Australia, and certainly the Aboriginal custodians of the land have been using fire for hunting and to maintain the bush for thousands of years. What’s unusual in this case is the ferocity of the fires and the size of the devastation. There’ll be plenty of discussion to come about whose fault it is that this happened. Some of the fires were deliberately lit too, which makes it so much worse – that someone could do that, knowing that we had that day what amounted to a 300% fire risk day (yes, on a scale of 1-100, the risk was estimated at 300).

The hospital I work at is the main burns centre for the state (ironic I left Royal Perth to get a job in a hospital with an almost identical case mix of patients and also the main trauma centre for the state, completely by accident). So of course, as it was after the Bali bombings, we’ve had an influx of critically ill patients, who require lots of blood tests and blood products. If you are in Australia and eligible to donate (and haven’t already), now’s the time your blood is really needed – after the initial influx of donors has died down. Because burns patients can go through (the equivalent of) 200 units or blood per day for months.

Darren and I actually drove down really early to Red Hill Market early that day, with the strong intent of buying more of those incredible sausages we got in early December, and maybe hitting the beach afterward. Which is exactly what we did.

Of course, Darren took the usual unflattering pictures of me.

But it was GLORIOUS. We really enjoyed it. I didn’t enjoy coming out of the water and suddenly weighing my full weight again (when is that diet going to start anyway?). We left when the hot wind arrived from the North. As we were driving back we stopped for an ice cream, but really we just scurried home to turn on the a/c and flop. And then later, watch the horror of the tragedy unfolding on the news. And it hasn’t stopped. The fires are still burning, I can’t imagine if there’s going to be any of the beautiful temperate forests left after they burn themselves out.

I can’t end this post without mentioning Marysville, which was completely destroyed. This was a town Darren and I had passed through on our way to the snowfields last year, and talked about whether we could move there. The air had agreed with me so much and it was so beautiful and historic, that we thought it might be a nice place to contemplate for a tree-change/commute belt life. Not anymore. :(

What we've been up to.

In this post, I talked about our trip up the mountain to the snow. I have finally uploaded the (two only, alas) pics associated with our merry funtimes up there. 

And one of Barry looking expectant as he waits for water.  Heh.

(I wouldn’t bother clicking “view full album” as these are all that’s in them.  Most of the pics are actually on Photobucket, but with this editor, they are uploaded to mysterious places.)

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Fast forward to Australia Day weekend this year.  Darren and I went to Warrnambool to see the rellies on the Saturday.  There was much joviality and a BBQ, in which hubby gleefully did the honours with the cooking.  While the animals milled around (well, Sam the dog milled around while Mr Bigglesworth studiously ignored him), while Den modelled Darren’s hat and her favourite dressing gown.

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The next day, we headed towards SA, but stopped on the way at Nelson and travelled up the Glenelg River to visit a fantastic limestone cave.  The river journey was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.  It was all gorges and water (which we don’t see enough of anymore here in Melbourne), and the captain fed the ducks all the way along the river, which was entertaining in its own way.

When we reached the Princess Margaret Rose Cave, it was rather spectacular (and I’ve seen a lot of caves, coming from WA, where they are seemingly all over the place) and well worth the journey.  It was also nice to get a bit of a respite from the heat.

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That night, we stayed in a small cottage-style accommodation and had a fantastic steak meal at The Barn, which was a short walk from where we were staying. 

The following morning we were up early with a long drive ahead of us.  First, we had to visit the Blue Lake in Mt Gambier.  Because when we went through there on the way back from our honeymoon, it was a sad grey colour.  But in the warmer months (something to do with algae or something), it turns a spectacular azure blue.  Not a shade of blue you ever expect to see in nature.  It was worth seeing, but it was one of those moments where you go “wow” then immediately think “okay, what’s next?”

Next was a long drive up the coast (which was so underdeveloped, considering how nice it is) because Darren HAD to see Larry the Lobster in Kingston SE.  It was huge, probably the best Big Thing we’ve seen so far (Darren just loves them).

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Following that there was an interminably long drive home.  Kingston SE is actually only a couple of hours from Adelaide, so that meant we were at least 6 hours from home.  :(  One thing that struck us was that there were areas of farmland that were still pretty green.  And areas that were so dry they were grey.  I wish it would rain.