~ Postcard from Perth – 12-18 Feb 2024 ~

This February has been one of the hottest here in WA for decades, so I decided to get myself off to the beach most days. The sea is always chilly to start but you slowly get used to it, or maybe you just go a bit numb! Most days have been between 37 and 43! Everybody has the same idea so before 9am or earlier is the best time. The water has been like a mill pond and absolutely wonderful to swim, or water walk.

It’s also school swimming month and the sea fills up pretty quickly with small bodies. My own swimming lessons were a far cry from this, and if you are English and reading this you will know what I mean. Having to get on a bus for a 30 minute ride, changing in a communal room and those funny wooden pallets all over the floor. The overwhelming smell of chlorine still to this day brings back memories.

I met two of my friends on some of the days and after we treated ourselves to breakfast.

**The famous stone elephants outside Indiana Tea Rooms**

I’ve been lucky enough this week to have dinner out twice, once for a friend’s birthday and another night to our favourite restaurant.

These three are my wonderful group of friends, I can always rely on one, two or three to join me in most outings. So very blessed to have them in my life.

La Pizza is like a Woman,
you have to look after her, tend to her, check on her…

I saw this in the restaurant the other night as I watched the chef lovingly shape and pat the pizza dough.

On Saturday Elena and the munchkins came for a sleepover which Anthony and I always love. After fun and games in the pool we came in and played more games. At 3 and 5 it’s great to be able to play a proper game like memory.

Today – Sunday – we went to the beach again. I think all of Perth had the same idea. We spent around 45 minutes driving along the coastline to look for a carpark. The rangers were out in force and I saw many cars already had tickets for parking illegally. Finally we spotted one at the “dog beach”. We parked and walked down to the beach. I don’t think I’ve seen so many dogs jumping in and out of the water.

**The container port at Fremantle in the background**

I’m very fortunate that I live so close to some fabulous beaches and have changed my habits a little by getting up earlier to avoid the extreme heat later.

Well that’s my week over and done with, the next week is going to be much the same weather wise, hopefully I can get down to the beach on a few days.

Posted also for Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share and Sue’s Weekend Traffic Jam

~ Postcard from Perth – February 2024 ~

The week before last Laurence and Maddy flew over from Melbourne for one of their friend’s engagement. As we have known his friend Harry for the same length of time we were also invited to the party! I was very excited to be going, not so my dear husband. He said he would only stay a while, which was fine by me as I had both children there and their partners, so would be well looked after – or “babysat” as my daughter so kindly put it.

I had bought a new dress, red wine in colour. When I told Elena she sent me the invite again “black /white cocktail dress”. What to do? Wear it and hope no-one noticed or do as I was told and dress in black or white. I’m so glad I did as I was told, as the fiancee wore bright pink in a sea of black and white.

It was such a fun party and I was reluctant to leave but Elena and Damian were also going home and I didn’t want to hang onto the tails of Laurence and Maddy. I had also had a few too many!

Many of Laurence’s old friends were there and it was good to see them all again. All grown up into prosperous young men, which I may have doubted back in the day when I used to find bodies all over the house in the morning. Our house was a bit of a hub for gatherings and sleepovers, of which I was grateful for, on most occasions. Getting woken up at 3 am by the doorbell was a fright I had many a time. I would look out of the window first to see if there was a police car, breath a sigh of relief when there wasn’t and stomp down the stairs with great anger saying “how hard is it to take a key”.

Sunday dawned and I didn’t have much time for a lie in as I was also going to be out for most of the day. My friend Lisa had bought ten tickets to & Juliet. We were going to the matinee performance at Crown Theatre, Burswood and having brunch before.

I think it was unanimous that it was a day well spent. The musical was magical with marvellous performances from all the cast. I’m not that keen on musicals when I don’t know the songs, but we all knew the songs taken from a modern day playlist.

The story of this musical follows Romeo and Juliet if they didn’t die as Shakespeare wrote. Anne Hathaway decides she doesn’t like Shakespeare’s ending and wants to rewrite the story. At the end of the performance everyone was up and dancing by their seats, it was a great feel good musical.

The rest of the week has been extremely quiet and I’ve hardly left the house. On Monday I thought I would sweep the leaves at the front and pull up some stubborn weeds. By Tuesday I was in agony with a pulled back muscle. I’ve been to the physio and due to go back next week. I feel a slow recovery happening. Until then no dancing, zumba or aqua aerobics. Plenty of binging tv shows and reading. My family think I have a low pain threshold, but who knows someone else’s pain – what is low and high.

Posted as part of Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share

~ Postcard from Perth ~ November 2023

This last week has been another busy one for me, beginning with entertaining guests from the UK. I have been chatting a while now with Little Miss Traveller (aka Marion from Love Travelling Blog) and when she emailed and said she would be visiting Perth with her son Mark I immediately invited her to stay. They had a few days in the City before joining us for their last few days. We hit it off immediately and Anthony and I showed them around different parts of Perth.

Perth was in the grip of a heatwave and the temperatures were late thirties, but we still ventured to Kings Park the next day. We enjoyed a good walk around the park but I had to concede in the end and sit in a cafe while Marion and Mark carried on for a while.

We then drove into Claremont my local town to have lunch and a look around before heading back for a rest (for me anyway!). That night we had dinner in Fremantle at a beachside restaurant.

On Sunday we drove to the Perth Hills to one of our favourite wineries, Plume. We always receive a lovely welcome here and the service is outstanding as are the views.

I had told the lovely owner that I would be bringing guests and she arranged a wonderful table for us overlooking the valley and vineyards. We enjoyed a delicious charcuterie board and a dish called Flammekueche a German style pizza.

We stopped off on the way home to take some of the views of the Perth Hills and the Perth Skyline in the distance.

Over the next two days Marion and Mark took themselves off and explored other parts of Perth, which I’m sure Marion will be posting soon.

On Marion and Mark’s last night we had an early dinner overlooking City Beach to watch the sunset. It was one of my favourite restaurant/pubs Clancy’s Fish Pub. Unfortunately for Anthony in my haste to take a photo of the sunset I knocked over a whole pint of beer into his lap and over his dinner! Luckily the manager replaced these free of charge, but poor Anthony had to sit through dinner very wet indeed. He was extremely gracious about it.

It was a pleasure to meet Marion and her son Mark and we did compare other bloggers who we follow and found we had quite a few in common. So many of you will recognise Marion. Meeting someone in person, especially when you have been communicating a while can be daunting, but we certainly had no worries on that score and got on like a house on fire.

~ Postcard from Perth ~ 28 October 2023

The last week here in Perth has been pretty busy for me and last weekend I was out and about in the hills of Perth. On Saturday I went on an art trail with a friend. In the hills and surrounding areas there are many small galleries, featuring all kinds of crafts, artwork and sculptures. There was an open day so we took the chance to have a glimpse at the work. It was also a great way to see some of the countryside. The weather has been fantastic, but I haven’t put away all my winter gear just yet as it is still very cool in the evenings.

Some of the artwork in the gardens

We saw some beautiful houses, all very different, I couldn’t live up there though with the danger of bush fires throughout the summer.

On Sunday we had our winery date and once again drove out into the countryside, this time to the Wheatbelt region. About an hour and 15 minutes drive from our house. I had booked lunch at Stringy Bark Winery. In the middle of the state forest (luckily we didn’t get lost this time actually in the forest itself as we did the week before!).

It doesn’t look much more than a shack but nice and cosy inside and a good menu too.

**Chicken liver pate with cranberry relish**

This was absolutely delicious which I had with a glass ..or two.. of their Verdehlo.

**A bottle of their Cabernet Savignon to take home**

🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫 🟫

Monday I drove over to Elena’s and had lunch with her and Rosie in a cafe on the river. I saw some amazing murals on the toilet block. Better than having them look like a concrete grey block. My feature photo is looking across the river.

Beautiful mosaic decorated box

The parks and reserves on the river banks in Perth are great places to visit. There are always bbq facilities, picnic areas and of course intricately designed playgrounds for kids. There are also purpose built playground equipment for wheelchairs. A day out doesn’t have to be expensive, who doesn’t love a picnic.

Linking to Pull up a Seat and Weekend Coffee Share/PPAC

~ 🦘 Postcard from Perth 🦘~

The week started with a trip to the cinema with friends to see the much acclaimed movie Barbie. It’s had fantastic reviews so off we went. After we walked over to an Indian restaurant, “Bollywood” for a few curries and a lively discussion. We were all in agreement that it was an enjoyable film. For me the best scenes were the ones with Ryan Gosling, who was brilliant. I’m not sure how he kept a straight face! The choreography with all the Kens dancing was wonderful to watch. We chatted about who had Barbies and our different memories of playing with dolls.

There were some very political messages they were trying to put across, and the Space Odyssey scene at the beginning was clever, a tad scary! When I go to the cinema I like to watch something that’s feel good and uplifting, I’m not one for true life films.

The rest of the week flew past as usual, before you know it the weekend has arrived. It was Bridge on Tuesday where my partner Donald and myself are in a two week competition, we came fourth out of 22, very happy with that.

Wednesday and Friday are Zumba mornings, where we are currently doing one dance to a Barbie song, lots of fun.

Thursday night we had dinner out with friends at a yacht club overlooking the Swan River, a lovely evening eating and drinking.

Saturday we had a birthday lunch at a winery in the Swan Valley. A gorgeous sunny afternoon outside looking out across the vineyards. We caught up with many old friends, some we hadn’t seen for a few months and even years!

All the vines had been pruned so did not look that picturesque.

This time next week I’ll be back in the UK again, a last minute decision to attend a wedding.

🦘 Have a fantastic week 🦘

~ Postcard from Perth – July 2023 ~ Museums, Movies and Meanderings

This week was the last of the school holidays and I went with Elena and the munchkins to the WA Museum, Boola Bardip. I’ve never been before so was interested to see what was there.

Boola Bardip means many stories in Whadjuk Nyoongar;
the Country on which the Museum sits.

A fantastic museum for all ages and takes visitors on an enchanting journey through the ages. There are many exhibits to see and also interactive displays and games for the kids to enjoy.

We all had the best time, especially as naughty Ninny said yes to a stop in the gift shop!

The rest of my week was spent shopping, a zumba class, dinner with friends and of course Bridge.

I was surprised that Anthony agreed to accompany me to see Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning. What a hectic ride of a film, so many car chases and implausible stunts, I read Tom Cruise does his own! Anyway I enjoyed it especially the scenery, set in Venice and the Austrian Alps. By hook or by crook, I will visit Venice one day. The film went for so long that we missed our restaurant booking but managed to get a table at the next door Indian, Bollywood which was delicious.

Today (Sunday) Anthony suggested a winery in Bickley Valley. About a 45 minute drive from our house and it has been a beautiful sunny day. I chose Plume Winery which has amazing views over the hills and vineyards.