My first speeding ticket, ever

Glad to see the police are fighting crime where it's needed, as I was obviously going to cause a major accident doing 8 kms over the limit in a dark quiet road on down near margaret river...

Winter break in Yallingup

After work being very hectic for the two of us we decided to get away for a quick weekend break "down south" and found a quaint lodge attached to a Winery just outside of Yallingup, called Sienna. We got things packed up Thursday night and I grabbed a train (being a city commuter now...) to a station south of the city (J works down towards Freo) and we set off around 5, getting down there for just after 7.

The place was as expected, with a real fire (my second favourite element to play with) and was a challenge to light it with the damp wood, but some of the wine they left us helped the time go by too!

We had to laugh at the bedroom as it looked "a bit red" in the photos we saw online, but how about this....

OK, that was a bit of an exaggerated slow shutter speed, but still :)

After some (well needed) wet and grey weather it was lovely to have a crisp and frosty morning to start us off  the next day.

In true J and P style we don't "relax" very well, so we headed for a very nice breakfast in Dunsborough with the best fresh orange juice I've ever had (and most expensive). Then of course had to go to the Yallingup coffee company to keep J happy :)

And being near Smiths beach we had to go surfing, or at least try. Can you spot the difference to the Perth beaches, big long clean swells, perfect for us learners....and a bit fresh to get in but then very nice.

Day two, saw us heading to the northern point of the Cape near to the lighthouse which we hadn't been to before. A great walk around the tracks with some surfers showing us how it's really done right at the point.

Then of course always on the lookout for critters in the sea and first saw several groups of sea lions chillin out

And even though it's not officially whale season "eagle eye" phil spotted some blow and then a breaching whale!!! Was a way off from us, as you can see from the shot using my zoom lens, then the next I did a major photo crop.

We were told that there was another nice place for a lunch called the Wise Winery which was on the way back in Eagle Bay, so called in there and were not dissapointed by the view or the food.

So overall was a great break and just what we both needed.

The great escape...

Just what you want on your first week of work, day 2, 7am, is to get locked in the bathroom! And not just me, J was getting ready for work too (and she was the one that broke it ;o). But the mechanism just locked up....

The "blighter" that caused all the trouble

So after 40 mins and getting the handle off and still no joy, then breaking my "high tech tool" or tweezers, we were still there! Laughing, in a kind of manic unbelieving way.

Not quite the screw driver I needed

Next effort, trying to get the hinges off WAS NOT going to happen, as this was enough trouble with a hammer and tools before.

And of course, having a security screen which is built into the frame meant that there was no window to just open and get out (which you would have done in the UK!). So had to break it and climb out (thankfully NOT like the UK we were on the ground floor).

And even coming back and taking the hinges off, the door wasn't budging, those damn metal frames sure are strong. And being a tad late already Janice had to climb out the window with me (and yes we had some clothes with us, which has been one of the questions...)

Getting home that evening took a few "gentle" kicks to the door from the other side to get it off the hinges as even after taking all the handles off and using pliers that mechanism wasn't moving... "Weird as"!


The silver lining is hopefully giving a few of you a good laugh and now waiting for the glass guys to come and fit the new glass on Monday (got the other sliding glass pane wedged in for now).

Luckily Winters in Perth aren't that cold

Floors looking good

So after all the waiting the laminate floors are done. Got them in about a week ago now and the only downside was that the installers mentioned there "might be a bit of dust", which after grinding the bottom of the metal(yes I said metal - very WA it seems!) doorframes actually translated into A LOT of thick black/brown dust on EVERYTHING!! Janice was well amused, as you can imagine.

But other than that slight oversight, very pleased with the job which was done in one day. Would have taken us about 2 weeks probably and not half as good, so money well spent me thinks :)

So we feel like we have a real house now, that is ours :) Just the carpets and bedrooms to go now....

Kitchen

Lounge, with new lamp

Crunch time at Clayko

Only 2 more days (including today) to go at Clayko and not a lot of work for me at the moment so things dragging on a bit. Been an interesting time here and a good introduction into "real" work in Australia, after my diving jobs, but time to move on to a bigger company with more prospects. For those of you I haven't told, I'll be working for another consultancy called Beacon who are based in the city, which will be a welcome change as I don't get into the city very much at the moment.

Out after work tonight with some people for a beer or two for a farewell bash for me, which will be the first work "Social" for a long time, so will be interesting.

Looking forward to going home and seeing our new laminate floor FINALLY appear, as after several delays the guys turned up this morning to start it and should be completed tomorrow. No more concrete floors, Yah! Photos to follow....

Cruising along the Canning

Janice chillin out before we get back on the bikes

Last weekend was a public holiday here in WA (but not other states, of course....) and after a few days hacking the rest of the bushes down ready for the green pickup, we decided to find somewhere for a bike ride. Looking at one of my Perth outdoors books we found a bike route along the south side of the Canning river. For those of you that haven't been here yet the Canning and the Swan river meet near the city and flow out towards Freo together, but further upstream the Canning runs south of the Swan (geography lesson over!).

It was a lovely 19/20 degrees so great temp for a meander along the river and quite interesting as it started out quite small and swampy then opens up to a huge expanse futher downstream (where we decided to take a break for some munchies).

Nice spot to live, if you had a few million spare!

The good, bad and the ugly

After my garden bashing and several weekends of DIY round the house I needed to escape to the sea and J was as ever happy to let me (I got a good catch - do you like that, keeping in with the sea theme....)

Anyway, moving on. Soooo, jumped on a dive charter with Dolphin Scuba (not Dolphin Dive in case you get mixed up like I do) and we headed off over to Rottnest for a couple of dives.

Was blowing a bit and swell from the NW, so we headed to the SE side of the island for some shelter and ended up at the site that J and I did with Dolphin Dive (yep the other guys) over Easter. Is a pretty good wall dive with some good shoals of fish and drops off to around 25m if you want to get some depth in for a change.

The Bad
My poor old Lumix camera has been struggling of late and the "plastic bag" underwater housing I have discovered is great for 10m, maybe 15m....but deeper than that it compacts so much it has been interfering with the lens as it moves in and out on a motor as you turn it on. So "the bad" was that this final dive has killed it I think and maybe didn't help that to even close the lens I had to blow some air into it (at depth - no, not included in your normal PADI course) and some water got it as well!? So think it's back to the drawing board for a new underwater camera plan....

The Good
For the second dive we moved on a bit more south of the island to a site I hadn't been to before, which had a "ripper" of a current at depth and then some fun swell in around the reef. Lots of really good hard coral and an real good sized Cuttlefish hiding in a hole (pretty good, but wait for it). Then on the way back to the boat we saw one, then another BIGGEST RAYS YOU HAVE EVER SEEN!!! At least 2m across and 3m plus tip to tail, so we were happy to hang about 5m above them (close enough, thank you!) and watch them swim around and harass each other. MUCHO AWESOME, and not very often that I get to some something very different under the water, so like it :)

Looking them up when I got home they were Smooth Stingrays.

The Ugly
The wind picked up on the way home (as expected) and was blowing about 25kts, so a fun ride back and some pretty green looking people on the back deck. I did my usual on a moving "thing" and fell asleep.

The plants are history

The green waste pickup is due next week, but knowing we had several trees/bushes that needed some "excessive pruning" I started the job last saturday. Maybe due to my other choice being a trip round the shops looking at mirrors and house stuff with Janice, so even I chose hard labour ;o)

So I took on the crazy bushy eucalyptus bush that was growing over the wall - stumps ahoy!










Then thinned out the huge monster at the corner of the house as it was growing into the gutters as well. All good so far.

But then I decided to attack the crazy thing that grows so fast in the back garden that I'm cutting it back every few months. It had to get chopped big time as it hadn't been properly cut back in years I reckon, but not sure Janice was quite prepared for the sight that hit her when she came home.....

Yes, you can now see the "ugly" shed and water tank!!!

I'm claiming (and hoping) that it will soon grow back with lots of new green shoots as it has been doing all year, especially now we are actually having some rain. And for my sake, it better had.....

This weekend, this fellah is going down....ha ha. Tools and destruction, my kind of DIY :)



Trees at night

Awesome photo taken by Mr Duffy "senior" whilst in Sharm a few weeks ago. I just loved the colour contrast and sense of movement, so thought it deserved featuring on my world famous blog...and provides an easy post subject. Thanks Dad :)

 

Tried to link to your Picasa picture, but easier to upload!

 

 

Let's just take the kitchen floor up ready for the new laminate...

Oh, if only it was that easy! The top "new" lino was up in 10 minutes, then we discovered the "old" 80's style lino was glued VERY WELL to the concrete floor... So 10 hours later, we're still scraping away and finally finished today thanks to my new tool, the broom sized floor scrapper (didn't even know they existed until I went to Bunnings looking for anything to make the job easier).

But in the end the actual painting of the skirting boards wasn't so bad after that and ripping up the carpet rails(not needed with laminate going in the lounge too) or whatever they're officially called?!?

So that's why not been blogging too much on weekends as painting, painting and then this fun weekend has taken up most of our time over the last few weeks. But finished soon (this part anyway) and and already looks much better.

And makes me think I was right all those years in not buying a house sooner....people who do this just to sell houses on for a profit MUST BE BARKING!!! Just my opinion :)

Updated photos of the ongoing improvements and saga are on the Picasa site.

On a plus note, did get out for an hour to surf last weekend and actually "rode" my first wave which was pretty cool, although Janice wasn't there so can't verify it and I don't have a photo, so I can hardly remember it. I assure you it did happen!