If the Shoe Fits, Buy It

Three years ago, in October 2000, Peggy was in the States and we spent a lot of time shopping. Specifically shoe shopping. I gave her a hard time, then, for all the time she spent trying on shoes and all the money she spent on shoes.

It is with some chagrin that I admit that while in Australia I have purchased four pairs of shoes and a pair of slippers. That's more than I owned when she was in the States.

Today we returned to Freo (Fremantle). On our first trip, our goal had been the maritime museum and I learned a lot about Australia II, which took the Americas cup from the US. But I learned nothing about the ship Batavia, about which I'd prepared by reading on the Internet. So this trip to Freo was to serve two purposes: We would walk the shops (it's a great shopping town), and we would visit the Batavia.

Fremantle is a modern town with an old feel. Many of the historic buildings underwent rennovation in the 1980s, under the direction of Alan Bond and his promotion for the Americas Cup. The old town hall, prison, and hotels are now museums, cafes, and tacky souvenir shops. It's an interesting blend of old and new and I was glad to have the chance to get back--and to finally see The Batavia.

On the way we visited all the op shops (second hand stores) and shoe shops.

At the op shop, we found cheap stuffed toys and Peggy picked up a handful for Chippa. I took a picture of her grinning like a happy grandmother with all these toys for "her girl" but she broke my camera and the photo didn't come out. Trust me. It was truly the "photo of the day" and you missed it. Peggy was also looking for sandals and we went in several stores, unsuccessfully. We did hit pay dirt at a "wide sizes" store, where she didn't find anything she liked, but I found some very comfortable walking shoes (so difficult for me with my wide foot and foot problems) and despite the prices, I decided to buy them.

Finally, we ran out of shops and it was time for the museum.

After seeing so much of Australia's rocky coast and its extensive reef, it's amazing to me that the country ever got settled by anybody who wasn't indiginous to the region. So many shipwrecks have occurred off the shore of Australia that an entire museum is devoted to shipwrecks. The sign on this building (formerly a prison) reads "Maritime Museum Shipwreck Galleries."

Here is a piece of the Batavia, recovered between 1972 and 1979. A piece of the hull of the boat is erected and I was amazed at how huge it was...and even more amazed when I discovered that this huge piece, significantly taller than my head and requiring a second story balcony to see the top, represented only one teeny corner of the bottom of the hull of the huge ship.

Peggy insists that I include information about the skeleton which is on display here. I argued that I didn't want to use it, but again, I'm an ever gracious guest and will do anything to keep my hostess happy, so here are her photos:

When I had thoroughly examined the Batavia and some of the contents rescued, we went into the other galleries and I began to get a feeling for how difficult it was to get to this land, let alone survive the rigors of life on the often unforgiving continent.

I chuckled to read about the "Success," which ran aground at Carnac Island...and its successor, also named "Success" which ran aground 20 years later. Perhaps someone should have re-thought that name!

Eventually, we'd run out of shipwrecks and decided that our time in Freo was about over. We took the scenic route home, via....another shoe shop, where Peggy hit pay dirt and not only found two pairs of sandals she liked, but was able to get her current sandals (purchased 3 yrs ago in the US) sent in for repair. An all around very positive stop.

The plan had been to come home and cook that cute little roast lamb for dinner, but instead we went down to Hillary's Marina again, booked a whale watching tour for tomorrow, and had a chicken salad while we sat and watched families cavort in the water off the bay. It truly is Paradise here.

While I was eating, we were visited by a very persistent seagull. I took his photo and while I was taking it, he snatched a piece of chicken off my plate as Peggy shooed him away. The photo I took was great, but the camera screwed up. Peggy tried using some sort of repair program to retrieve the photo, but we were only able to get half of it. We tried fixing it with Photo Shop, but could not come up with anything which really did the trick, so I've put in what we did come up with just because I love the look on the bird.

After dinner we had a terribly wicked ice cream cone (I had boysenberry and cheesecake ice cream mixed with raspberries and a TimTam; Peggy had chocolate and Nutella ice cream, with a spoon full of Nutella and a Tim Tam...both were then piled high in a waffle cone). We came home "stuffed" by all definitions of the word (Australian "stuffed" is exhausted; we were also "stuffed" with food).

There was a full moon rising when we left Hillary's and tomorrow we will be back again to catch the ferry and hopefully see a whale or two.

My time here is growing short. It will be difficult to leave.

"I wonder what the inner brotherhood recommends for cramp"

(It's a quote from Gilbert & Sullivan)

The cramp hit sudden and hard and I couldn't get past it. We were standing by the water's edge at Trigg Beach, having walked down from the parking lot, when suddenly I got this horrendous Charleyhorse--not in my calf, where I'm used to having them, but in the back of my thigh. No matter what I did I couldn't reduce it and everyone had to stand there while I bent over trying to move the leg into some sort of comfortable position.
We had come to the Trigg Beach Cafe with Monty and Carolynn for lunch. I'm not sure what I was expecting...something similar to where we stopped for coffee a couple of weeks ago, I guess. I was not prepared for the absolutely gorgeous setting of this beachside cafe.
Earlier in the morning, the glass man finally came and fixed the shower door. While he was working, I was outside digging weeds out of the front lawn. By the time the glass man left, I had put in my weed digging stint. It seems to have been good exercise for my arm, as by the time I'd finished, I was feeling a little more strength in the muscle, though it still hurts like hell to use much pressure on that arm.
It's also difficult to weed when you can't kneel and have difficulty getting up and down. Gawd, it's hell to get old!!
Earlier in the day, I had finally managed to upload the web page for Settler's Run which I'd finished designing the previous day. (I was waiting for some additional information from the server so I could FTP it to the web). I'm pleased with how it came out and I hope everyone checks it out so you can see where we spent last week.
But Monty and Carolynn came around. Monty was going to install a new CD burner in Peggy's computer, but first we were going to lunch. My god, what a meal. Carolynn and I had Thai prawns while Peggy and Monty had a surf 'n' turf platter of ribs and calamari. Portions were huge and all was delicious. I tasted a bit of the wine Monty ordered, just to say I'd had a bit of Australian wine in Australia, but mostly I stuck with my newly discovered drink: lemon lime with bitters. We splurged on dessert, an enormous meringue with ice cream, whipped cream and strawberries. (I offered to split one with Peggy, but she insisted on her own, so, gracious guest that I am, I agreed to have a whole one myself--the sacrifices one makes to keep your hostess happy. But I suffer in silence.)
Then it was time to walk off at least one or two of the calories.
We were going to walk down the path near the beach, but Monty felt I needed to be able to say I actually walked on a beach in Australia, so we headed down to the sand. That's when the cramp struck. Fortunately, Monty is a paramedic, so I figured if I needed medical attention, I was in good hands, but the cramp eventually worked itself out without my having to dive into the ocean to get cold water on the muscle.
We all took photos of each other to prove I was actually there.
Trigg Beach is a popular surfing beach and we watched a lot of guys riding the waves. I had earlier marveled at how these guys hop on their bikes, still dressed in wet suits, bare footed, with surfboards attached to the back of the bikes, and pedal on home.
After walking on the beach for awhile, we moved back up to the path, which doubles as a walking/jogging path and bike path (Marn, please take note). Monty and Carolynn have bikes and made a passing suggestion that we go for a ride together, since Peggy has a bike she hasn't used in a very long time. So I may actually get out on a bike next week. Peggy has offered to drive me to a starting point and pick me up at an ending point. I suspect my arm (and knee) are recovered enough that I can actually ride again, but I'm going to ride around the block here first just to get the lay of the land and see how really rusty I am after not riding since June.
Back to the house, eventually, and Monty put in the new drive. Chris stopped by and she and I sat outside chatting while all the computer work was going on inside. Finally all the visitors left, and the little girl from next door stopped by. She had caught me earlier in the day and I thought Peggy had caught on--the new camera she "won" at the Perth Show is a water camera and she got me good when she asked if she could take my picture. I never mentioned that to Peggy, figuring she'd actually looked at the camera, but she ended up getting splashed too, so we made a child's day very happy today (even if the two of us got wet doing it).
We are both too full from our huge lunch to even think of eating again, so the evening will probably be spent with Peggy trying to explain the rules of cricket to me, or as much as she can explain before she falls asleep. I figure that should take about 3 minutes, the way her eyes are already drooping. As for me, I expect to be awake all night, thinking about returning home to Governor Schwarzenegger. The very idea is enough to give one nightmares.

The Glass Man Commeth

I had never seen one quite like this before. It's a mini (micro, really) rolled boneless leg of lamb. Cute, I thought. Peggy wasn't sure it would feed two of us, once it cooked down, but I convinced her to buy it anyway.

The Big Deal of the day was picking up food at the local grocery store. (Such an exciting life I am living!) Actually, we expected the glass man to come to replace the glass door on the shower, which broke the week before we left for our trip up north. They first scheduled to be here the day of the football championships, and never showed up. Then they rescheduled for today at 8:30.

Peggy woke me up by yelling "Are you awake yet?" I had a bad night and was awake from 1:30 until after 4:30, so I hadn't had much sleep. But within minutes--less than 5, I'm sure--I was in the car getting the dogs out for their morning walk. We had to be back in time to meet the glass man.

It was just the four of us this morning--Peggy, me and the two dogs. Janne is on early shift, so didn't meet us. We got them run in record time and were home in plenty of time to put out the first load of wash on the line, get some breakfast, and be ready for the glass man.

Who, of course, never showed up.

After an hour, Peggy called her insurance company and got permission to take care of it herself, find her own glass company and bill the insurance. The new place was very accommodating, were not surprised at the unprofessional behavior of the first place, and promised to have someone out here by 3:30. As it was now getting late in the day, that narrowed our options. Besides, we still had washing and ironing to do (yes, I ironed...stop chortling. You know who you are.)

By about 2, Peggy suggested we take a quick run to the shop and pick up bread and something for tea, to add to the leftover take-away Chinese dinner we had from last night.

Peggy shops in a little strip mall at a place called Dewson's. I thought Dewson's was a tiny little local mom and pop store. From the look of it--the tiny size, the cramped aisles, the foods crammed into every nook and cranny--you'd think this is the case.

But we seem to be running into a Dewson's nearly everywhere we go. Peggy says she thinks they may have been taken over by some larger corporation because she sees them popping up more and more.

Each location has its own unique feel. The Dewson's in Mount Barker, where we shopped with Claire and Penny, was huge--easily as large as a small supermarket in the States. But it was cavernous and half of it almost echoed with space that might have been used better for food displays (though in a town that is 3 blocks long at best, why??) A piece of the cavernous half was filled with a display of toys and holiday items (Christmas--already?), but it had more the feel of a garage sale, rather than the flashy displays one might expect.

In contrast, the Dewson's in Margaret River was a neat and tidy little boutique of a supermarket, with freshly made locally produced delicacies (like the package of beef satay we bought for our tea the first night), great looking produce, and a wonderful deli counter.

I love looking through markets of any sort in another country. You always find such interesting things. Like kangaroo bones. And the aforementioned boutique lamb roast. We were standing at the deli counter today and I saw something labeled "pumpkin pie." I pointed to it and said "I'll bet that's not a sweet." And no, it's a "savory," the vegetable use of pumpkin rather than the dessert use of the plant.

I've been surprised to discover that Weight Watchers Australia has a whole line of products that I have never seen in the States. Boxes of cereal, for example, with some unidentifiable bits in it, but which is 97% fat free and loaded with fiber. There are great Weight Watcher cookies and pudding mixes and other things. I don't know if there are Weight Watchers frozen meals--haven't seen those, so perhaps in this country the "make it yourself" option wins out over the "thaw-it-yourself" option!

Peggy also buys soft light butter, which may exist in the States, but which I haven't seen. It looks like, spreads like, and tastes like real butter, but with only 50% the fat. (I'm starting to sound like a commercial.)

We returned from Dewson's in plenty of time to meet the new glass man at 3:30 and I was getting concerned when it was approaching 4:30 and he still hadn't arrived. But he did eventually show up, measured the door, went back to the shop to see if they had glass to fit it, they did, and he is now scheduled to come and fix it at 9 tomorrow. Let's hope.

In the meantime, I hear that tomorrow is the day we discover whether California has "total recall" or not. I groan when I think of returning home to a state governed by The Terminator. That may give me nightmares to keep me awake tonight as well.

(My time here must be growing short--it's the first time I've thought seriously about any political issue since I left.)

The New Navigator

It was a new record. We got lost going out of the driveway today.

For a change, it was not the navigator's fault. The driver, having given up on her navigator, took matters into her own hands. "Turn right at the end of the driveway," Penny said, giving the driver a shortcut from Settler's Run to catch the Albany highway. The driver took a left turn at the end of the driveway, interpreting the term "driveway" to mean the end of the road which connects with the driveway. The driver had gone about 10 km when she began to get angry with this huge 4 wheel drive riding her tail, with high beams glaring in her eyes. Then the 4WD cut the beams, and then flashed them. "That's Penny," the driver said, and pulled over. Penny had been chasing us at significantly over the speed limit to let the driver know she was already lost. The driver asked if she could just keep going in the direction we were headed, but Penny said it would be quicker to turn round and head back to the house again (if we had kept going, I swear we would have ended up on that damn Margaret River-Busselton highway again!) Once we were pointed in the right direction, it was pretty impossible for either the driver or the former navigator to get lost, since it was a straight shot from the road to Perth. We did stop in Kojonup for lunch. The sign "coffee shop" seemed promising, but it was anything but. It looked like a nice efficient place, but the people running it appeared to be on loan from the local old folks' home and there was much confusion about orders, and it took forever to slap some chicken salad onto a piece of toasted bread (which was only toasted on one side). While we were waiting for our food, I bought a CD. It was 5 songs recorded by a local group of 3 kids, aged 14, 15 and 17, who have been singing together for 3 yrs and who had obviously put out this home-grown CD on which they thank their parents for all the miles they have driven them to gigs. How could I not buy it? (We played it in the car and it probably won't get played again, but I feel good for having contributed.) We took our sandwiches and went off looking for someplace to eat them. We were right near the cemetery (which is across the street from the hospital, an arrangement that would make me uncomfortable on hospital admission!), so we parked under a tree overlooking the graves and ate lunch. Peggy pointed out that we seem to be visiting all the local cemeteries--I think this is the third one we've been to. We did not, however, get out of the car, owing to the fact that we appeared to have parked near the home of some of the largest ants I'd ever seen and I was afraid they'd bite my ankles if I tried to step on the ground. After lunch, it was just get on the road, follow countless huge trucks over hills on the 2-lane highway, and eventually spy Perth in the distance, hitting it just about the time rush hour traffic was starting. We pulled into the driveway at about 4:10, 10 minutes later than Peggy predicted when we left the farm (coincidentally about the length of time we drove down the wrong road...ahem) and the dogs seemed happy to have "Mum" home again. I suggested we have Chinese take-away for tea tonight, so I walked down to the shopping center and picked it up. As I walked back, I realized that except for pictures of the lambs this morning before we left the farm, I hadn't taken a single photo all day. Fortunately at about that time, I spied a 28 and a pink and gray walking together in front of the veterinary office and I took a picture of them, so that's all you get for photos of the day. It's good to be home, but it sure was a wonderful week. Tomorrow we have washing and re-settling and organizing of photos to do and I suspect won't be leaving the house much. I have to admit that as we get back into the routine here, I'm already missing our little farmstay cottage...

The Ashes Are Blowing in the Wind

It was sunset. The water was calm and the boat barely rocked. Celine was singing in the background. Penny stepped to the side of the boat, opened the box, and sent their friend Hillary to her final resting place. The other passengers on the boat tossed flower petals. The ashes rested for a moment on top of the water, and then sank into the bay.

It was the end of our day. We had come to Albany to join Penny, Claire and their friends in the scattering of the ashes of their friend Hillary, who had died one year previous. They had rented Albany's premiere whale watching boat and figured that it might be a good way for us to see some whales as well (though this has been a very bad year for whale watching, and no, we didn't see any).

But the tribute to Hillary was very nice. The weather had been fairly good, a bit nippy, but not unbearable. Peggy and I spent most of our time on the top deck of the boat, since we didn't really know anybody who was there to honor Hillary anyway.

The day started with a misty morning sunrise that allowed me to get some lovely photos of the horses in the field.

We futzed around the farm for the morning. I worked on the web page. We did the usual stuff. At noon, we left to drive to Albany (the "al" is pronounced as in "Albert"), where we spent a couple of hours at the whale watching center.

Most of what we did at the center was sit by a gorgeous picture window and eat lunch. Then I did made some more contributions to Australia's economy (no wonder the Australian dollar is getting stronger), and then we started through the museum.

The museum covers many buildings in what was once a whale processing facility, and there are signs everywhere warning that this is NOT necessarily 100% safe for tourists, since it was designed for production, so if you hurt yourself, don't sue us. (I can just see something like that going over in the states!)

I didn't get to see a lot here because we got split up, and since we were on a tight timetable, it seemed that most of my time was spent in trying to find the others. But I did see the platform where they stripped the blubber off the whale, and the huge saw which they used to cut up the jaw, which is too tough to be cut by human hand alone. Then I spent the last 20 minutes trying to hook up with Peggy, Claire and Penny. Missed the whale carcases, and especially the preserved whale penis. I guess I will have to live the rest of my life without seeing that.

On our way to the boat, we had to pass by Dog Rock, which Char had told me before I left home that I had to see. I have now seen it:

And then onto the boat for Hillary's last trip.

It was late when we returned to shore and had an hour's drive back to the farm. We stopped in to Penny's for coffee, but as her cold had left her with virtually no voice whatsoever, we decided it was best to call it a somewhat early night.

We leave in the morning to return to Perth. Peggy asked me last night what had been my favorite part of my trip thus far (with only 2 weeks go go). I thought about it for a bit and decided that these few days here at Settler's Run has been the highlight. I don't know what there has been about it, but the time to relax, to get to know Penny and Claire, to get away from everything has just been lovely. Perth isn't exactly hustle and bustle, compared to the life I lead in the states, but it's going to seem a lot more hectic compared to the few days we've just been through.

Thanks for a wonderful vacation, Penny and Claire!

Who Needs TV?

The Lady Laura was not happy.

They had come for her regular pedicure and she wanted none of it. Each time someone took hold of her foot, she yanked it away and stamped it impatiently. She was not in a mood for all this foolishness.

Laura is a Clydesdale and Shane, the farrier was here at the farm today to clean and trim the horses' hooves. He had already done three of the miniature horses. Now it was Laura's turn and she was definitely not willing to cooperate.

It was "farm day." We didn't do much but hang around the place and it was an absolutely wonderful day.

I was up at 5, watching the mist slowly evaporate as the morning sun rose over the hilltops. Then I helped Claire feed the sheep again. I love that they put the milk in beer bottles.

We had our respective jobs to do. I settled in at the computer to start working on the web page for Settlers Run, the others went off to do...whatever they were going to do.

In time, Claire returned, looking for Peggy's camera. She explained that the farrier was having problems with Laura and Peggy wanted the camera. I gave her Peggy's camera, grabbed my own, and the two of us headed off across the daisy-covered field, the three lambs following along behind us like puppy dogs.

It was quite impressive watching Shane work, maneuvering that huge horse around to get all of her feet cleaned and trimmed. By comparison, when it came time for Silver (a retired racehorse) to have his feet trimmed, he was quite docile, lifted his feet obediently and actually seemed to doze off while Shane worked. (We had visions of Laura snorting back in the stall..."Wimp!" we're sure she was muttering.)

Eventually I decided I needed to return to the web page, so left the others in the field. Shane finished his work and Peggy went off to chop wood for an hour. ("I'm in my element here, you know," she glowed, when I found her, axe in hand, later.) Then we all sat down for lunch (soup guaranteed to help you fart, we were promised. Just what none of us needed!)

In the afternoon, we took the dogs down by the river. But this was no mere stroll down a country path to the water. First there was a sheep herding lesson. Zack, the old dog, has taken Indy, the baby, under her wing and it was amazing watching her actually teach Indy how to herd sheep. Following Penny's shouted commands, Zack got the sheep to race this way and that way, or just around in circles, while Indy joined in, sometimes tripping over her own feet, sometimes making mistakes, but when a few sheep cut out from the herd, little Indy ran after them and brought them back. It was a beautiful demonstration.

The river--the same one that had flooded the road we drove down yesterday--had washed lots of debris over a bridge, and was still quite high. Zack jumped in, chasing sticks (sometimes watching branches floating downstream--the doggie version of "Pooh sticks"). Indy, who has not yet perfected swimming, wore herself out, trying to jump in, falling in, dog-paddling, coming out again, and chasing Zack. It kept us amused for a very long time. The puppy was one exhausted dog by the time we got home, having leaped over tall grass, flowers, in and out of water, and chased both Zack and the sheep for over an hour.

Penny and Claire both took turns using Peggy's camera and got some wonderful photos. Penny's were particularly brilliant and I told her that some of her "artsy fartsy" photos reminded me of a Monet painting. She was quite taken with herself, and rightfully so.

On the way home, we stopped to speak with the horses, and Penny, the horse, blew in my ear.

We ended our afternoon romp in our cottage, where Peggy served chocolates from the Margaret River Chocolate factory, along with cups of coffee, and then we all changed for our big night on the town.

We went into Mount Barker to the "bottom pub," (as opposed to the "top pub"--there is no "middle pub" because the town isn't big enough) where we had t-bone steaks with chips and salad. There's something about sitting in a pub at 8 p.m. at night watching first Stuart Little, and then Winnie the Pooh on the big screen. Our big night of partying. I think there were all of six other people in the place, two of whom were under the age of 5, little girls who sat there clutching their blankies and holding hands, mesmirized by the movies.

It was a little before 9 when we finally left the pub and headed for home, our big night on the town finally over. I simply had to take a photo of "downtown Mount Barker on a busy Saturday night."

Always Chasing Rainbows

The title doesn't really have much to do with today's report, except that it rained off and on and we kept finding these wonderful rainbows...and I couldn't pass up the chance to use the title.

potty of gold at the end of the rainbow!

What a wonderful place this is!!! We are at Settlers Run farmstay cottage. Of course, we are here because we are visiting, but Penny and Claire have given us the use of the cottage that would normally be rented out.

It's a beautiful place. I awoke this morning to the sound of a kookaburra sitting on a post outside the back porch, laughing. His mate sat on a telephone pole nearby. Never did get a good photo, but it was a good omen.

We wandered around the grounds here. They own 100 acres and have lots of livestock. We enjoyed watching the sheep (and bottle feeding 3 of the nearly-grown lambs).

We followed Penny around as she let the horses out and gave us a tour of all the outbuildings on the place. The puppy, Indy (named because she was born on the 4th of July), had a great time keeping up with us, romping through the fields of daisies, and herding the lambs (she's a border collie, so sheepherding is in her blood).

We did our turns at the computers. I got a couple of Funny the World entries uploaded and registered a domaine name for Settler's Run, Peggy worked on some graphics and we found an interesting way to solve a technological problem---

Peggy had taken pictures of the cottage for me to use in the web page I'm designing for Settler's Run. The picture was nearly perfect, except she thought it would look better with a more interesting sky and more clouds...and Penny was unhappy that there was a wattle tree in the foreground, which she doesn't like and means to cut down.

Peggy spent some time trying to get the sky right, to get blue behind the leaves of the wattle tree, and to make the picture look just perfect.

As she worked, she looked out the window and saw that the sun had come out, the clouds were beautiful and...what was she doing trying to craft the perfect photo in PhotoShop when she could just walk outside and take it again! Not only that, but Penny picked up an axe and hacked away at the wattle tree and in a matter of seconds, Peggy had the perfect picture--lovely clouds and no offensive tree-- without so much as manipulating a single pixel.

I had a bit of a moral twinge in the mid afternoon. We had just come from the raptor center in Margaret River where we had learned about the value of hawks, and the injustice of the laws which allow the killing of hawks in Western Australia, and the raptor center's attempts to get that law repealed. Here, they have a cage of small birds and a hawk has been making raids and has killed several of them. The hawk was back yesterday. Penny grabbed her gun and with one shot, put a bullet right through his head. I wondered what the guy at the raptor center would have done in a similar situation.

After lunch, we drove in to Mount Barker, did some shopping, and got the grand tour. While it doesn't take long to see greater downtown Mount Barker (which is about 3 blocks long), Penny whipped her 4-wheel drive around some "road closed" signs and through some beautiful scenery, until she came to a spot where the river was overflowing a bridge and decided that maybe it was better to turn around and go back from whence we came.

The skies opened up as we got home and we've had a nice bit of rain. But as I type this, Penny and Claire are out on the patio putting a barbie together for us, and Peggy is dozing off in the lounge. The dogs are asleep under my feet.

This was a day to relax, and just what the doctor ordered.