Surfs up dude

After many deliberations and ponderings of Kayak's or surfboards and what/when/who will use them, we decided to go for a surfboard!!! Having done some research on it (no surprise there hey!) I knew the kind of board we wanted and there is a good board shop in Scabbers, so we went in there and the guy recommended one of the few we were looking at. And it passed the primary requirement, having some yellow on it somewhere, obviously.

My wife, the surf chick!

So board and wax in hand we stomped down to the beach and proceeded to wax it up ready for our first attempt, then realised actually waxing it up ON the beach in a 15-20kt wind wasn't the best idea. So got that sorted and we were off into the huge 2ft surf, and by that I mean real 2ft not "surf" 2 ft which actually works out to be somewhere from 6-8ft waves. Especially in Perth as they SMASH you into the sand if you're not paying attention. "Been there done that" on the boogie boards several times!

We took turns having a go which was interesting as there was a big rip on top of the wind so ended up about a km down the beach in a few minutes. But had lots of fun although we never quite got standing.

So, fast forward to last weekend and we got down there again on saturday morning and figured out what we needed to do and BOTH got standing, Yeah!! Still small waves and whitewash, but still Standing.

So onwards and upwards hopefully and have a plan to be in the water at least once a week, as the nights are getting darker it's going to be tough to get down to the beach after work, but we'll see.

Mum and David visiting

Mum and David have just headed back this week after a fun trip over with us. We had a lot of good days out around Perth and of course the odd beach or two :) Including Yanchep lagoon which hadn't been to in a long time.

Then followed them onto Margaret River for a long weekend away which was pleasantly cooler, allowing us to escape the month long 35+ heatwave of Perth. Did a few wineries one day with me designated DD or skipper as they like to call it on the signs.

Had a day out at Mundaring Weir too (thanks to Glynn for the idea) which actually produced a few decent photos of us all (except for Janice of course who took it)! Decide for yourself...

And very nice to have them here for my birthday and we had a good night out with the crew at a vietnamese restaurant in Leederville, where I got my surprise golf trolley! Which came in handy for the subsequent game of golf a few days later. Just don't Glynn how many balls he lost in the water on that round ;o)

That's what they call a beach dump at sunset

Another HOT night, about 3 weeks of 32+ degrees (that around 100 in old money). So we decided to head to the beach for some relief and city beach is a great spot to sit and see the sunset.

There was virtually no wind (hence being so hot) and even then an easterly, with a 2M swell came out of nowhere. Which created a great clean huge set of dumping waves, you had to time the entry well to avoid being smashed and after a brief look decided not to take the boards in! But great fun hanging just out beyond the breaking surf and a great way to cool down for the evening.

Then chilled out on the grass overlooking the beach for the sunset and a drink and some munchies - this is why we're here, so crazy not to do it :)

Doesn't look big surf but trust me...

Chillin out with the sunset

Had to try some slow shutter speed shots

Surviving a night of glee

So I came home tonight to Erin and Janice lining up a few episodes of Glee! As the new series started a few weeks ago and the new toy (T-box) has been put to use recording the whole series which works well for everyone.

Luckily I had to sort a few things out around the house and they stopped at 2 episodes, more next week.

I'm stuck with a trauma planning to potentially get a games console for my upcoming birthday, X Box 360 (with Kinnect) or PS3 ?!?! Although that means that I'll be staring at a screen some more....hmmmm! We shall see.

Diving at Ammo Jetty

Had been a while since I'd gotten under the water, just before New Year actually down in Albany. So after a few abortive attempts at meeting up with the Dolphin Scuba crew for the Sunday morning dive I finally got down there this morning.

Wasn't too impressed at first as the plan was to go to Ammo Jetty which I have dived a few times before, but got chatting to some guy (my buddy to be) and ended up having a fun, relaxing dive with lots of interesting macro life to see. A great example of when there's lots of divers and not great vis, you just need to stop and take a good look at the small stuff. My first seahorse at this dive site which I was pleased with as it was tough to spot, but the movement gave it away. Then while looking at an octopus and nudibranch in one spot a small but frisky cuttlefish glided on in to entertain us, changing colour and texture rapidly as it chased my light around :)

The Canadian Contingent Came Visiting, Aaayyy!

Had a great couple of weeks with Bob and Louise here and great to show them the new house and share it with some family, rather than just the two of us. And only roped Bob into one odd fix-it job which I was glad of the help with and we now have a stable outdoor support beam that was a little wobbly for a while.

Worked out really well with Australia Day while they were here and we took a trip to Penguin Island, with some good snorkelling and a bit of fishing.... and guess who was the only one who caught a fish?!? Yup, me and me :)

Then up to Jurien Bay for a long weekend and got hit by some of the wild weather that spun off the cyclone we had off the coast, nothing like cyclone Yasi thankfully! But some high winds and rain while still being 30 odd degrees which actually made the trip good as it wasn't too hot all the time. The storm tried to stop us seeing the Pinnacles though, but we just ignored the signs and 4WD around them, well there was some small puddles and a few washouts ;) And again pretty amazing aroundsunset time with the light and shadows.

They had some other fun adventures around the city and to the beaches with a few good evenings out too, then left us back to our devices last night and returned to a snowstorm hitting north america big style, welcome back to winter!!

So back to reality for us for a few weeks, although looking forward to Mum and David coming over soon too :)

Will be sorting out the photos and putting them up on picasa at the weekend.

Happy Days at Happy Days

Albany, our new favourite place. And our campsite "Happy Days" on the banks of the King river just outside of the town was a great place to relax and explore the area.

• The weather was a balmy 25, a pleasant change from the 38-40 in Perth!
• The beaches and bays were superb. Great for exploring and rockpools
• I got a few dives in one morning too, with a special appearance from a sealion and weedy seadragon
• A hard slog up a mountain (big hill) in the Stirling ranges. Was tough going but worth it for the views :)

Christmas at 40 degrees

Another Christmas and another tree we went to chop down from the field. Tis fun wandering round the field choosing a tree, even if it was a bit wonky :)

So Christmas day was a fun affair with all the crew around at our house although being a tad warm, we had to do an interesting furniture arrangement to get the garden table into the lounge, as that is the only room with the air con in!

A pleasant meal of Turkey (of course), ham, roasties, sprouts and "pigs in blankets", although we forgot the sweet potato on the BBQ until afterwards....

The only slight disaster was when Ollie decided to head butt our chimnea while testing out the new pogo stick (only to be expected!). But he was fine and managed to recover enough to go running through the sprinklers on our "christmas walk" down to the park around the corner.

Me with my mini Tardis (thanks Glynn!)

Back in Perth, so let's go to the Zoo

No posts for a month! Although in my defense I was with my main blog audience for 2 weeks of that :) So after a great trip back to the UK it was straight back into life back in Perth with work full tilt and trying to organise the last bits for the kitchen (which has been dragging on too long).

But the week went by very quickly and I had a week away over east planned through work. So before that J and I wanted to get out somewhere different and realised we still hadn't been to the Zoo here in Perth. We had heard some good reports and the weather was a balmy 25 on the sunday, so off we popped to see the animals. It was a fun afternoon and we seemed to be very lucky with all the exhibits and see all the animals doing their thing with our favourites being the Orangutan and Tazzy devil - see my picasa albums for all the photos :)

Can you guess which is my foot or my hand...

Jacobs Ladder

So Janice had a good idea to start doing Jacobs Ladder with Erin and I decided to join them one time. The first time seemed a good idea as I did it about 7 times and felt a bit sore, but it wasn't until the next day and the next day that my calf muscles reminded me that I hadn't done that kind of exercise for a while....

But a couple of weeks in, more goes at it and running the hill besides it is a good workout, especially when I don't get a chance to get on my bike due to too many client meetings!