Members Chat
G'day from W.A
Wednesday 28th January 2009
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 much more than I used to.
Christmas Day was lovely and we had Barbecued Pork and Turkey with vegetables and the Christmas pudding also cooked on the BBQ. It was the first time in over 10 years that Cleo, Lucas and I had been together for Christmas dinner and it was great to share it with them in the garden at Mum and Dad's house.
Mum, Dad and I were invited to a fish BBQ on New Years Day at my nephew's house were we had crayfish, oyster, prawns and groper. MMM!!! Today we had a big family breakfast picnic at a nearby park as a farewell to Lucas and Hanna who leave to go home to Sweden tomorrow. 28 of us cooked egg and bacon on the BBQ near the lake. Over Christmas I spent a few days house-sitting for a friend. It was a time with a few dramas as the first time I went for a walk at the nearest beach a man who had been snorkelling some 20 metres off the beach had been taken by a 4 metre White Pointer Shark a couple of hours earlier so there were loads of search and rescue activity on the beach. Very sadly he was not found. And, my friend's fully grown Rottweiler dog managed to bite Lucas on the hand which fortunately has now healed. Other than that my house-sitting time was quite relaxing. Fortunately it was only for 5 or 6 days or who knows what else might have happened. There have been many shark sightings off our beaches this year, many more than I remember from the past, but I have still been swimming a few times.
I am flying to Sydney on Tuesday for 10 days and while I'm there my friend and I are climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge at twilight and we are also going on an in-depth tour of Sydney Opera House as well as a visit to the Blue Mountains.
After all that I am flying down to Melbourne to spend 10 days with friends I haven't seen for 15 years so we will have lots of catching up to do.
After that it's back to Perth and hopefully I'll be able to get some supply teaching for a few days a week. My parents are coping with the hot weather by staying inside their air conditioned house during the hottest parts of the day and are doing well health wise at the moment.
Paul tells me you have had some good club events over the festive season and I read the bulletin eagerly each month when Keith emails me a copy.
I think that's about it until next time.
Doreen