Members Chat

Hello again to you all. I originally wrote the following article for the April bulletin, but in the melee of my life I missed the deadline so I've re-worked it and hopefully you'll be reading it in the May bulletin. It is amazing just how quickly the weeks are passing and I have now been in here for over 7 months. Paul and I had a wonderful 2 weeks together doing all sorts of tourist things, but unfortunately he had to return to UK earlier than anticipated. We had a memorable Swan River cruise where we were accompanied by 4... [read more]

Hi everyone, it only seems like a few days since I wrote for the February bulletin and here I am again. Nothing very much has happened since last time as I have had a bout of bronchitis and sinusitis. A bit ironic really when we have been having such warm weather and you have been suffering the worst winter for ages. Perhaps your cold weather has killed off all the bugs or they have migrated down here. However, I am a lot better now. Our weather continues to be hot with more forecast and it is now well over 90... [read more]

I have been home from Perth now for 8 weeks and how the time has flown. I meant to do a short write-up for the June Bulletin, but ran out of time so here I am with the final instalment of my trip.



I spent the last month or so in Perth doing all manner of maintenance jobs for Mum and Dad. Things they are unable to do now - painting, gardening, heavy cleaning and so on. Fortunately the weather continued to be glorious until well after I left. My Dad's 90th Birthday was great with over... [read more]

Doreen's news from Australia (originally posted 15 February, part held over from March)
Since I last wrote the weather has been exceedingly hot almost everywhere I have been, with temperatures in Sydney reaching 44c one day with high humidity and Melbourne had the hottest day ever recorded in an Australian capital city at 46.4c on what is now called 'Black Saturday' while I was on holiday there.
Since returning to Perth a week ago we have 37c, 39.7c and 40.5c. It must be following me around or I'm taking the hot weather with me. I really wish I could send... [read more]

Saturday 7th February was the day the fires really started in Victoria with one major fire about 3 miles away from Cathy & Haydn's farm. It started out as a beautiful cool summer morning, but by 10am the temperature had risen dramatically to about 40c and the wind got very strong very quickly. By 1pm we could see a huge plume of smoke coming over the house, so we started to take turns at walking around the property making sure no fires started from embers. It was too hot to stay outside for long as the temperature had reached 46c.... [read more]

Notes from a Large Island..(with apologies to W. Bryson)
G'day from W.A.
Here I am with another note from Downunder and I have to say it is a lot warmer than when I last wrote. We have recently had a heatwave of 14 consecutive days with temperatures over 32.5c. During that time we had 2 days of 38.5 and another of 41.8, only going down to 25c one night. Phew!!! Yesterday and today have been much cooler at 31c but the humidity has been very high so it's been much more uncomfortable. I'm not complaining though and have enjoyed it... [read more]

Greetings from Down Under,
It has been a very busy time for me since I last wrote to you all, so much so that I have just had a weekend of very much needed respite. I stayed in an apartment in a little town about 60km south of Perth and had a very lazy time with lots of reading, eating, swimming etc. My parents are going well now and are able to do most things on their own now, but I am still doing loads of gardening, washing, shopping etc. They certainly have improved and religiously do their exercises and... [read more]

I'll start with the weather, which I feel will be quite topical. We have had some fabulous weather here recently. The first two weeks after my arrival were quite wet and we had quite a lot of rain and again these last few days we have had rain, but in between it has been exceptionally dry and I wish you could send some of the rain I understand you have been having.
Unfortunately, my Mum and Dad have both been poorly since I arrived and I have been able to help them a lot, fortunately they are now both making... [read more]