Mom's in Oz!

Pretty amazing - my Mom had a visit in Australia! She spent 20 great days here, it was heaps of fun and great to see her.

She arrived On the 8th of Febuary, 11:45 PM. It was actually quite a bit after that because of customs, but she got here safe and sound, which was great. We went back to ours, and Mom gave us some great things from Canada; some David maple cookies, some awful tostitos nacho cheese that I really love, some lovely fragrace, shaving stuff for Dave, a couple of cute things for me, and some maple leaves (that's where the long customs procedures came in).

Mom was up super early her first day, watching the birds. Dave and I were house hunting, and a great opportunity came up, so we brought Mom to see the house too, along with Cottesloe Beach. The house looked fantastic, and the situation looked good. We went back home for lunch. Unfortunately, Mom got a migraine, and she went back to bed. Dave and I took a nap too, and then Dave took off to the Becks Music Box for a concert he had tickets to. When Mom woke up she felt better, so we had a Cosmopolitan and walked around Mt Lawley before going out to dinner at 2 Fat Indians, which was really good, and we had a great chat. Jetlag was setting in again, so mom headed back to bed, and I joined Dave and the gang at the Music Box; it was the first time I'd seen it, and it looked amazing. We had a good time, going to the Moon after the Music Box and then walking home.

Dave, Mom and I had lunch at the Flying Scotsman on Sunday, it was a beautiful day, and after lunch we walked into Perth City and showed Mom around.

The next week I had work during most of the days, but we still had some great times. Monday night a bunch of us went to our fave restaurant, the Sparrow. Yay cheap Indonesian food! On Tuesday Mom and I went out for dinner at Koinonia and had some noodles, some of the best spring rolls ever and a bottle of wine, went home and watched a silly movie together. Wednesday night Mrs Henry was scheduled gor a gig at the Rosemount. When band members cancelled, Dave decided to do the gig anyway, but solo. I came home from work, made dinner and after Dave left for the Rosemount for sound check Mom and I sat on our deck, had some wine and chatted. Then we took a taxi to the gig, saw I Love Painting Houses, who were great and then Dave, who was also amazing! Thursday - no work, yay! Mom and I went out to Caversham Wildlife Park, and even though I had been there before I was still really excited! I was so happy to see Mom getting to see all the Aussie birds and animals, and it looked like an absolutely perfect day for the park - a beautiful day, but just slightly overcast, so all the great animals came out! I even got to see a lot of the ones that were hiding the last time I came. Mom got to feed tons of kangaroos. My favourite is still the Emu I think. And I know it's silly, but I just love seeing the bunnies. Anyway, it was a perfect day. Tuesday night was Valentines Day. Dave took me to see A Midsummer Nights Dream at His Majesty's Theatre. It was a really interesting and visually stunning performance, Shakespeare with an Eastern twist. The play however was in many different Indian languages as well as English, so it didn't completely work. But it was an experience!

Friday was the start of our holiday down south. First Dave's dad was driving Dave, Mom and I down to Bunbury. Mom met Maureen, Dave's Mom, and we had Chinese food. The next day we took a stroll through Bunbury and in the evening we went to a special exhibition at the Bunbury Art Museum, and Bob Evans played a spot. We watched him while eating big, sloppy burgers from the stand in the street.

Sunday we were off to Margaret River! It was an awesome week, and I'm not going to detail all of it, but I'll give you the gist. The place we stayed at was called Al's Place. It's a cottage between Margaret River town and the beach, it's kind of in the bush. We were surrounded by lovely field and forest, and we got a great surprise the first morning - kangaroos, just hanging out outside the cottage!!! We saw them every morning, as well as a lot of beautiful birds; parrots, honey eaters, Fairy Wrens...and some rabbits a couple of nights. The week was a little weird in the weather sense. Prior to our arrival, the weather was in the late 30s, even cracking 40 degree heat. We thought we had a beach holiday lined up. But when we were on our vacation the temperature dropped to below 20 and rained. We got poured on with chilly rain when we were doing a hike and in the cottage we had a fire at night, which was cozy. We went to some wineries, breweries, cheese and chocolate factories and checked out other towns; on the way down we went to Busselton and walked the Busselton Jetty, which is one of the longest in the world,2nd only to one in the UK, it's about 2km long. Then we went on an underwater tour of the Jetty and saw some cool fish. From Margaret River we saw Augusta, and went to Jim's a restaurant where you can cook your own meat the way you like it. We did manage to get a bit of beach time, and we saw some beautiful forests. We had BBQs at Al's Place and we watched some movies. On our last night we went out for dinner at Goodfellas, an Italian Restaurant with a gangster theme.

Before we knew it we were back home. Sunday Mom, Dave and I went to Fremantle for the day. It was a beautiful sunny day. We had fish n chips, saw the markets and the town and did a little shopping. Mom got a didgeridoo and we went to the Little Creatures lounge for a drink, where we ran into Navin, which was really cool. We drove to Vic Park for dinner, and we couldn't get into the Prophet to we went to an Indian restaurant which was nice. Things started to wind down; I'll write about this later, but we were moving house. Monday we had to do a lot of that. Tuesday night we went to see Miss Saigon, and it was wonderful! I was happy because Dave really enjoyed it. Wednesday night Mom had to leave. I started school, we were starting to move. Mom and I went into town and when Dave got home for work we went out to the Prophet, where we had made a reservation, and from there, it was straight to the airport. I was sad to see Mom go, but even happier that she was here visiting us here.

The week so far

Good 4 day week. Work was okay, it was the same as always with not much to report. Thursday night Dave and I went to the Luna outdoor cinema to see a screening of the Joy Division documentary, which was great to see. We walked home from Leederville and it was a beautiful night.

When I got home from work last night I was a little down about everything. I had gone to the doctor and since I am not eligible for medicare yet, it cost me a lot of money and I didn't get what I wanted out of the appointment. I started to think about that, and moving house soon, and our visa, and work and possible school and just became very stressed and teary. Dave as always was amazing and supportive and made me feel so much better.

I got some news a few minutes after when I was checking my email...ECU (Edith Cowen University) wrote me to tell me that I have been accepted into their Graduate Diploma of Education program!!!!! Provided the visa gets sorted out, I start at the end of Feb/beginning of March and finish in December. It's an intensive program, and at the end I am qualified to teach high school!!!!!!!!! It's all just so exciting, and I can't wait to embark on a challenge and have a change. It's something that I'm actually pretty scared to do, but I really want to just dive into it. It's time to take that step, to grow up and do something that fulfills me.

Dave, Jack and I had champagne to celebrate; Jack just started working at RTR as well, so that was another celebration! Larni came over and we had a great time sitting on the deck, hearing the sounds from the Police concert, and then watching Beavis and Butthead episodes until bedtime.

The weekend is still going - tomorrow is Big Day Out! Should be a great day. I'm off!

Aussie Day Long Weekend

It's Friday afternoon, and the clock hits 5:30. Yayyyy! It's the weekend! And not just any weekend either...it's...a....LONG WEEKEND!

When I got home, the house was empty - no Dave or Jack! But sson enough they arrived with snacks for the Aussie Day party the next day and with Hungry Jacks for dinner. Chomp. After dinner we got into Jack's car and headed out to the Ace Cinemas in Subi to meet Lou, Larni, and Kok. It was Juno night! I think Juno was a bit hit with everyone who went; it was funny, the cast was great, and it had a heart. It was fully cute without being nauseating and the soundtrack was cool. Everyone was in good spirits after the movie so we all went to Bagot to hang out, and to watch (to the boys' dismay) Sex & the City episodes. Outside, you could hear the Bon Jovi concert going on, it was great. When we ot home we already felt like we had a great night, and the weekend had just begun.

Saturday was Australia Day, and we, on Mary Street were the party hosts. he party kicked off in the afternoon and continued on until good and late at night. The Bagot girls made some fabulous goon punch. Our place is a great on to have a party - great big open plan lounge and kitchen, and a huge deck with a BBQ. That night, we had an amazing view of the Aussie day fireworks. It was my second Australia Day and they keep on getting better!

I woke up without a hangover on Sunday, which was great. Dave and I went out for breakfast at the Beaufort Street Merchants and I had the best vegetarian panini ever! After that, Renee called and invited us to go to the beach with her and Owen. Dave had some pretty bad allergies, which was really too bad, but he still decided to beach it, so we went. It was a beautiful day, a perfect beach day, over 30 and sunny. We chatted and soaked up the sun (with proper sunscreen of course), got ice cream and the boys went for a swim (Renee and I were a bit put off by the water temperature and liked just enjoying the sun). Later on Renee and Owen came back to ours and we had a big BBQ dinner of steak, salad, grilled eggplant, garlic bread and potato bake, mmmmm! Watched the tennis and then Superbad.

Monday was another beautiful day. Dave and I hung out in the morning and I was glad for him because his allergies were gone. The boys had a band practice in the afternoon and I went to the park and read my book. I saw some lovely rainbow birds on the way and watched them for awhile. Time flew fast, and soon it was time to make supper and wind up the weekend, but I think long weekends are where it's at. I felt relaxed, recharged and prepared more or less for the work week.

GinGin Weekend

It was a pretty tough week last week, so the weekend was very welcome.  I think I'm rapidly approaching saturation with my place of work. It's not a bad place to work or anything; I mean, I think of the bakery job I had last year and Dymocks is excellent in comparison.  I just think I've done my dash with retail jobs, and feeling like I've grown out of it all. There's no future in the job I'm in, and right now its only purpose is the bi-weekly deposit that appears in my bank account.  It's gotten to the point where I can hardly contain my aggravation.  I think it's because there is virtually no challenge in my job, and every day is essentially the same; I feel like I would be using valuable days better by writing, reading or even cleaning the house and cooking dinners. But the money has to come in somehow. Anyway, a change is definitely on the horizon.

Friday evening I got home and the Daves from RTR were over having some beers and the boys were watching the cricket. Larni came over and we had a couple of beers, and when the RTR boys went home Dave, Larni, Jack and I ordered pizza, listened to some tunes and headed to Amplifier. We saw the Tigers who were really good but left partway through the next band. 

Saturday was quite a lazy day; Dave played music, I did some reading, watched some guilty pleasure tv (yay Gossip Girl!) and went over some writing. Later on, Dave and I went with Hamish and Cat to Renee's 25th birthday party in Gingin, a lovely small town. On the drive over I saw my first real Emu IN THE WILD! It was awesome! Renee's parents' is a beautiful house and yard with cockatoos, geese, goats, horses and ducks. Everyone sat outside on the grass and had some great snacks and drinks. We watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off and played a drinking game where whenever anyone in the movie said "Ferris" or "Bueller" you had to take a drink. It was fun. After we had a vote on what went on next and a few of us voted the Neverending Story but we got outvoted and Willow came on. I had some good chats with Cat, Big Dave and Busta and played the pianos in the house. There were two gorgeous pianos, an upright and a grand, and the upright had the nicest touch I have ever experienced, apart from the piano at my folks' house in Canada. In the morning we went to the little Gingin markets and drove home, where Dave and I had a long nap. We got Noodle Box and watched the Sopranos when we woke up and now here we are!

And now another wonderful week begins.

I want to move to the country on a farm and get a big rabbit hutch full of bunnies.

Well I'm off. I think we're going to have some ice cream now, yum.

Bringing in the New Year

I wanted to start this new blog in the beginning of the new year.  As always, I'm late, but I think it's definitely better to start now than not at all.

2008 was brought in here in Aussie Land at a great party hosted by friends Richard and Ash.  I think it was the best way to bring in 2008, with good friends at a house party. Call me lame, but I detest the idea of going out to a bar on New Years Eve, where it's crazy, crowded and expensive at the bars just because of the date. I mean, $50 to get into Luxe, our local cocktail bar New Years Eve, free any other night. Anyway, I digress. ave and I made Absolut Pear and grapefruit martinis and the whole gang danced brought the year in with Champers and danced the night away.

Dave and I went into the New Year with the same jobs - Dave's a sponsorship manager at RTR FM, I'm at the book shop.  There's a possibility that I'll be going back to school this year - I want to be a high school teacher. It's a bit daunting, but I welcome a challenge at this point.

Unfortunately, the New Year is not without a lot of sadness.  On January 14, around 4AM, Thomas Logan, my lovely Grandpa passed away.  He was such an amazing man, and was loved by a wife of over 50 years and 4 children, my mom Maureen, Kevin, Peter and Ann-Marie.  Kevin suffered with MS, and Papa looked after him in the hospital every day with hope and without fail until the day Kevin died.  I had hoped to have many more conversations with Papa when I next visited Montreal, and it was hard for me; I didn't think that last summer would have been the last time I saw Papa. But through being sad I remember that he lived a good life, and I will always remember and love him.  I will always remember a long time ago, when he used to smoke his pipe and what it smelled like. When I wanted to know something and I always knew I could ask Papa because he knew so much. How he always cleaned his plate immaculately (I never knew quite how he did that). I remember he loved the fajitas Tara and I made. In later years, how he gave me his car, and how protective he was when I met Dave. He always wanted the best for me. There are countless memories of Papa and I could go on and on.  But at the moment I want to keep them for myself, and as long as I have them, he'll never really be gone.