Tag: Life

~ 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”.

Me and my Babes

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. 

Me last week!

Posted as part of Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share

~ Activities and Hobbies – What are yours? ~

This week’s WQ topic is activities and hobbies. Marsha at Always Write hosts this challenge every Wednesday. All you need is a quote relating to the topic and a poem, photos or a general post to go with it. Also by co-incidence Terri at Second Wind Leisure’s challenge is “Something to Do”. 

I’m not sure what category travel falls under hobby or activity! My dear husband thinks it’s my hobby but I prefer to think of it as more of an activity. 

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving”
Lao Tzu

The above quote does not quite ring true for me as I like nothing more than arriving at my destination, especially if it’s been a long flight. 

In the last few years I’ve acquired some new hobbies and activities. 

My favourite hobby after travelling is Bridge. I took a course a few years ago and have attempted to climb the ladder and join more advanced classes. My mind is totally focused during the four hours of play and time goes so fast. I’ve met a completely different set of people and twice a week we greet each other like old friends.

“No matter where I go, I can always make new friends at the bridge table”
Martina Navratilova

The above quote is so true, there is no need to worry about what to talk about, someone will always have a story to tell about a past game they have played. Absolutely boring for anyone who doesn’t play Bridge.

Blogging is also a recent hobby of mine. This fully took over my time at the start, trying to set up the website and master the way WordPress worked. I’m sure many of you agree how frustrating WP can be at times. I feel extremely pleased with myself when I’ve mastered something so simple as the menu and widgets. 

I started blogging because I took so many photos and wanted to do something with them and also I was writing many reviews on Trip Adviser. Blogging has changed my life and it means I now have something to do all the time and again made many new friends.

“The first step in blogging is not writing them but reading them.”
Jeff Jarvis from BuzzMachine

I believe the above quote is very true, I often take inspiration from the bloggers I follow.

My exercise abilities are sadly limited! Although I do go to Zumba and Aqua Aerobics. Also I’ve started line dancing again. I have met a wonderful group of ladies who are welcoming and so friendly. We often meet outside Zumba for outings like the cinema or theatre. I feel so blessed to be part of such a fantastic group.

The empty pool before 50 ladies jump in for an aerobics session

In December our lovely Zumba teacher hosts a Christmas party for around 60 people and it’s always such fun. I’ll finish with a small video I took of all the ladies having the best time. 

I believe having a hobby or an activity you enjoy is essential to your well-being. It stops the blues and those down days everyone has on occasion. It’s important to enjoy it though and not feel as though it’s a duty or a chore – what’s the point in that!

A question to my fellow bloggers. My media gallery is now 92% and the next step is upgrading. If you don’t have a paid website how do you manage with all your photos? I always forget to downsize my photos which would go a long way to resolving the issue.

I look forward to reading your responses.

~ A Review of My 2023 ~

Jumping on the bandwagon with everyone else and thinking about my year that has flown by.

There have been highlights and lowlights (not just for my hair) but we have all ended up healthy and well and that’s all we can ask for. The fact I don’t live anywhere near a war zone makes me all the more thankful for this good life I lead. 

I have travelled far and wide and to places I’ve never been before and enjoyed every moment. 

January

January saw me travelling to the UK to celebrate my mum’s 90th. I took this trip alone and was able to stay with my parents. I could see my Dad was becoming more frail and my mum was slipping into dementia. However we had a fabulous party for her and I’m so glad I was there to be with her. I also took a sneaky side trip to Dublin.

I enjoyed Dublin very much and it was thanks to my neighbour here in Perth who was also there at that time.

February

Back in Perth we continued to enjoy the summer, relaxing on the patio, catching up with friends and trips to the beach.

March

Once again I was travelling back to the UK but this time with Elena and the kids. My Dad had taken a turn for the worse. We arrived just in time for him to see Elena and Lachie again and also to meet Rosie for the first time. A few days after he slipped away. I am thankful that we made it back to see him. He was 91 and had lived a very fulfilling life. 

There was still entertainment to be planned for the children though, so we went up to London and visited parks and playgrounds. They managed to keep themselves very amused in my mum and dad’s house with just everyday household objects. They took the net curtains off one of the windows and used this as a flagpole, found a rolling pin for a microphone and were fascinated by the letter box.

I was hoping any passers-by would not think they were being held hostage!

April

Elena and the kids returned to Perth in April and Anthony arrived. We would be taking care of my mum until the end of the month when the funeral would be held. I caught up with a great many relatives and friends during this month and Anthony and I did manage some days trips to nearby villages and up to London. I was lucky with the support from my relatives and friends in caring for my mum.

Essex Sunset
Farewell Nanny Jean

Anthony was missing Australia so decided to have a makeshift BBQ in the back garden. 

View from my brother’s garden, South Fambridge, Essex

May

After a sad goodbye to my mum we headed back to Perth. We had a fairly quiet May and began our preparations for another trip to Bali, Lake Toba and Penang.

June

This month we travelled to Ubud, Samosir Island on Lake Toba and Penang. We enjoyed all three destinations. The highlight though was definitely Samosir Island, the stunning scenery and the pace of life was just so relaxing. The people are some of the friendliest we have ever encountered. 

July

It was time to visit Melbourne again to celebrate Laurence and Maddie’s engagement. We all went and I’ve already posted about the awful accommodation we stayed in! 

The Happy Couple

August

It’s hard to believe that I again took a long haul flight back to the UK for the third time this year! This time for my cousin’s wedding. It was a spur of the moment decision to go back, but I’m so happy I did. The wedding was such a joyous occasion and enabled me to see my many cousins again. I also had another little side trip to Paris, with the same neighbour and friend who was staying there at the time. It was a fantastic three days, and to travel through the Euro Tunnel was an added bonus.

Gallerie Lafayette

September

It was Laurence and Maddy’s turn to visit us and we had them for a week, which we loved. We managed a couple of lunches and dinners with them, although their feet don’t touch the ground while they are here.

October

Enjoying some down time this month and catching up with long forgotten jobs! 

Ready for Trick or Treating

Elena bought costumes for the boys and I have to say it was a hard job putting them on. 

November

Time for my girls’ trip down south to Dunsborough. We had the best three days, chatting, laughing, drinking and eating.

The dearest friends

December

So here we are at the end of the year already. I’ve only just posted about recent trips to Bali and Hong Kong so won’t go over that again! Just to say another trip is planned in March to Bali, basically to collect my engagement ring which I left in the bathroom at the hotel! I have to ask myself why I didn’t listen to my dear hubby as he said “do a last sweep”. So I lifted my head and scanned the room. Fortunately I got in touch in time and they had found my ring. Ironically the day before at immigration I had found a “diamond ring” on the floor and asked around if anyone had dropped it. I put it in my pocket and forgot about it. That’s karma I suppose.

And so that’s a wrap as they say and if you have read to the end, my thanks to you. 

I wish everyone a fabulous 2024 but most of all a healthy one.

Sunday Stills – Summers, Past and Present

From a small child until I was 16 my parents took my brother and I off to Devon or Cornwall for two weeks, usually in August. I can’t ever remember it raining that much, just spending days on end at the glorious beaches in the South West of the UK. Around April or May in the earlier years my dad would go to W.H. Smiths and get the latest Caravan Park and Bed and Breakfast accommodation book. How easy it is nowadays with Booking.com! He and my mum would choose a suitable place and make a phone call to reserve our two weeks and pop a cheque in the post.
My favourite places to stay were holiday camps or caravan parks with evening entertainment. Everyone was just so happy all the time and I always ended up making a friend or two, who later became pen friends. At the age of 17 I decided I was too old to go on holiday with my parents anymore, I was working full time by then and could afford to holiday with friends.

By the time my own children were born we were living in Hong Kong and the summers were long and hot, but also rainy and humid with the typhoon season starting in June. School breaks were two months long, July and August, and I always took the children back to the UK for a few weeks or so. But I loved the summer in Hong Kong as there was no pressure to get up early. We could go to the beach late in the afternoon or maybe get invited to friends who had a pool. Once we had our own pool, it was used constantly every day.

Now we are in Perth, WA of course our summers are the complete reverse. We have been here 18 years but I still mix the seasons up sometimes! But I love the summers here the most as they seem to last for ages. Although it does get super hot at times, there’s never a time when you have to say let’s wait for a warmer day to do something. I still find it strange having Christmas when it’s so hot outside! When we first moved here I wouldn’t swim in the sea as it was so cold, but in the last few years I have taken the plunge and now go for a swim. Only when it’s a very hot day though! We have such beautiful beaches but of course we have sharks too, so I will only swim in the shallow parts and I don’t like it too rough!

In the photo on the right my two friends are trying to put away one of those beach tents that are supposed to just fold up! It just kept springing open, so in the end we had to jam it in the boot of the car half opened.
The photo on the left shows all the school kids having surf life saving lessons. I felt sorry for them having to sit in the sun for so long listening to the teacher giving instructions, still I suppose it’s necessary.

This post was written as part of the challenge Sunday Stills – Summer hosted by Terri at Second Wind Leisure.

🎅 December in Review – 2021 🧑‍🎄

December started off with a bang, literally, as I went to see the latest 0️⃣0️⃣7️⃣ film with a friend at our local cinema. It was the last one for Daniel Craig and we both enjoyed it, although it’s a mighty long film. Full of twists and turns and action packed as usual. The gadgets getting more techno every film. Daniel Craig has done a good job throughout but for me James Bond = Sean Connery.
As I came out of the cinema I saw one of my first Christmas decorations.

“let me out”

~Time for the tree to go up ~

On 2nd December Lachie decided it was time for the tree to go up. All the decorations we could find went on the tree. He was very happy with the result.

Also this first week was the start of the parties, brunches, lunches and dinners. Anthony and I went for dinner one night to a local restaurant, Miss Chow’s and had the most delicious dinner.

Sang Choy Bao
Sweet and Sour Pork
Spicy Crispy Squid

The tree and decorations in the town of Claremont, WA

A few days later it was our Zumba Christmas Party, held at our lovely instructor’s house in her amazing beautiful garden. The food was delicious and of course there was dancing.

A week later there was another zumba party, this time it was brunch attended by 55 ladies! So much food. It was held at another lovely instructor’s house, Laura. We were all asked to bring a small gift to put under the tree for Secret Santa. I couldn’t stay too long as I had another Christmas lunch to go to at the Bridge Club. I struck lucky with my gift, herb scissors and a basil plant, very useful.

It was a very hectic month indeed with a couple more parties and dinners with friends, but such a wonderful lead up to Christmas Eve. This was when the summer really arrived with temperatures in the forties for Christmas and Boxing Day.

We always celebrate Christmas Eve with a seafood dinner. On Christmas Day for the past few years we have been going to our neighbours for Christmas lunch as daughter and son visit respective parents. It is always good fun as they host for around 16 people!

Christmas Eve Table

Just a small table this year as Laurence and Maddy were back in Melbourne, due to the closure of the borders, but still a delicious menu of Cucumber Soup, Smoked Salmon, Cold Prawns and Potato and Green Salad.

Before
After

Santa also brought a big green slide that he spent nearly all night trying to assemble!

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

From Boxing Day until the 29th December we are gradually clearing the house up for our departure to England, we are off to see my parents. Thankfully Elena and Damian are moving in to take care of our two boys so they don’t have to go into kennels.

What a rigmarole to fly back, tests to be taken, forms to fill out, boosters to be had and more tests once we arrive. It will be worth it though to see my parents after such a long time.

My December gallery

Time for a swim!
Jacaranda Trees
Crayfish Salad
A hazy sunset over the Swan River

Hoping everyone has a healthy and happy 2022

The Changing Seasons – June 2021

The month of June for me started with quarantine and is ending with lockdown! Plenty of time for blogging.

WEEK ONE

The first week was spent at home in quarantine as we had been in Melbourne and Sydney the previous week. It was only 11 days as the 3 days in Sydney were counted as part of that. My daughter’s partner very kindly brought our two boys back to us from their little vacay in The Big Paws Hotel.

What to do about their walks though? Dear Hubby (DH) opened up our two side gates and created a mini circuit around the house. He very diligently walked around and around for an hour every day. At first the boys followed and thought what new game is this, but just after a few days grew bored with this as I did! He also decided that our bougainvillea needed cutting back and as a verge collection was coming up, we tackled this head on.

Somebody is protesting against no walks!
A huge job

We relied on the kindness of friends and neighbours and some online shopping for our food and wine.

One day I had a surprise visit from a good friend and we sat outside, socially distanced and had a lovely chat. She brought some beautiful tulips and a small bag of exotic fruit, lucky me.

The beautiful tulips she brought as a gift.

WEEK TWO

The second week we were able to get out for dinner and celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary, definitely something worth celebrating. We had dinner with very dear friends at a restaurant called Dilly Dally.

Not too much change 😬

This week was also the first time I had seen my two adorable grandchildren for nearly a month.

It was good to catch up with these two precious bundles. I could also get back to my weekly activities of zumba, Bridge and Mahjong.

WEEK THREE

This week was much the same as before. I did venture out with a girlfriend one night to our line dancing class. Not the boot scooting kind but more dancing in lines. Such great fun and we get plenty of exercise doing this.

Our couches are getting ruined by our spoilt boys so I ordered a couch cover for one of the couches to see if this would improve things.

Not quite what I had in mind!

WEEK FOUR

It was Book Club this week and the book this month was The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Kranostein. This was not a book I could relate to even though it had some pretty good reviews. There are 11 of us in the club and I think most enjoyed it.

Our Girls Games Night was also this week and it was my turn to host. My son and his girlfriend bought me a Murder Mystery game for my birthday. Even though it’s meant for male and female, my friends were all okay about some of them dressing up as men. It was a brilliant evening and everyone made such a great effort with their costumes.

A Slice of Murder

Also during this last week was my Grandson, Lachie’s third birthday, what excitement that was. He sure did receive a lot of gifts.

  • My little lumberjack

Last of the month from today’s walk around the lake.

I hope everyone else had a good June also, look forward to hearing all about it over at The Changing Season hosted by Ju-Lynn this month. Next month Brian at Bushboys World will be hosting.

Game Play!

Who doesn’t like a good game? Well my dear husband for one (DH), but I grew up playing them. Christmas and Boxing Day were the best days back then. Our whole extended family got together on Boxing Day and played all kinds of games. Escalado was an absolute favourite with everyone. We played the wind up version with all of us shouting and cheering, of course bets were taken.

Nowadays there are so many games out there and just over a year ago I got together with a group of likeminded ladies and we formed a monthly games night. There are seven of us and each month we take it in turns to host and we play several different games. We start around 6pm with cocktails and nibbles and a general catch up on our lives and then get started. It is absolutely the best fun and generally laugh till we cry.

The Games

I think our favourite so far is Telestrations. “Each player begins by sketching a TELESTRATIONS word dictated by the roll of a die. There is a sand timer to limit the time for drawing. When the time is up all players, all at the same time, pass their sketch to the next player, who must guess what’s been drawn. Players then simultaneously pass their guess — which hopefully matches the original word (or does it??) — to the next player who must try to draw the word they see — and so on.” This game has us in hysterics – at times we are just so stumped that only a wild guess is made. A pictorial Chinese Whispers!

Midnight Taboo

Not to be confused with just Taboo! This is a team game and they must guest the target word from your clues, but you must not say the forbidden words! An adjudicator with the buzzer is looking over your shoulder!

Qwirkle

Qwirkle a strategic matching tile game where you really have to have your thinking cap on! Where you find out who is the most competitive. We’ve played this on many occasions as the rules are easy.

Pictionary

Another drawing game, where you find out who the artists are! Also it depends what version you play, Australian, English or American. So many of the words and phrases have us baffled.

My adult children also love to play games and I try to find a new game every Christmas that is fun.

Watch Your Mouth is another game that is just so hilarious that we all end up with tears running down our face. A person has to say a phrase whilst wearing a mouth guard! The frustration that comes with repeating the same phrase but the same nonsense coming out is the funniest thing to watch. Highly recommended.

Tiny Hands is a team game and also great fun to play with likeminded souls who don’t mind looking silly. There are various stunts that have to be pulled off with your your tiny hands, catching a ball, tying a knot or serving someone a drink.

This month it is my turn to host our Girls Games Night and we will be having a Murder Mystery Evening. Everyone dressing up in the roles that they have been assigned. Hopefully a fun night.

Has anyone played any of these games, or have some that they love playing? Would love to hear.