Long weekend snaps

Sunday was a beautiful day. Lots of people were out and about enjoying the sunshine. I had a walk over to Claisebrook Cove (7 kms round trip) and even treated myself to a take-away coffee. I wasn’t alone:

People waited patiently for their name to be called and then took their coffee away to a shady spot:

This family, sitting on the grass in front of me, were considering what to have for dinner as Mum read out various tempting options from a foodie site on her phone. They eventually decided on BBQ’d spare ribs.

This austere building is home to the Chinese Embassy.

Many boats on the river as I crossed the Windan Bridge on my way home.

Schools re-open here tomorrow. In the light of the flattened curve, gatherings of up to 10 are now permitted. There are potential threats from 4 incoming flights to Perth this week, returning Aussies from India, S.Africa, Malaysia and France. Fingers crossed!

Lest We Forget

Yesterday was arguably the most important date on the Australian calendar. Every year on Anzac Day, dawn services are held at war memorials all over the country. This year people stood on their driveways to hear the last post. Young and old held candles. Anzac Day commemorates the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 when there was a huge loss of life on the beaches of Turkey.

Today is another anniversary: the destruction of Guernica in the Basque country of Northern Spain in 1937. The Luftwaffe systematically bombed the civilian population for several hours, deliberately selecting market day in the small town to maximise the number of casualties. Picasso’s enormous black and white painting is a moving reminder of the event. I’ve seen the painting in Madrid, where it covers an entire wall of the art gallery. 

I can also recommend the book by Dave Boling. Fiction illuminates history:

This year I was planning to visit Guernica on the Camino del Norte till Covid19 put paid to all my travel plans.

In other news, it’s exactly 5 weeks since I ordered some wool from Loveknitting in the UK. Australia Post cannot cope with the increased volume of parcels as a result of online shopping. My wool is on its way, but where is it?

6,500 steps and a crate of beer

Our liquor restrictions mean I can order a crate of beer but only 3 bottles of wine for home delivery. So I took that option. I’ve now got 24 bottles of Peroni Leggera and 3 of Lobster Reef Sauvignon Blanc. It’s a long weekend for Anzac Day; let’s hope not too many people get tempted to break out of isolation after staying in over Easter.

My 6,500 steps represent a longish walk for me as I did a circuit of the Chevron Parklands on the far side of the stadium. This area has been beautifully landscaped over what was once a rubbish dump and landfill site. There are lots of creative play spaces, many making use of old logs from timber that was felled to make way for the stadium construction.

This represents a dry creek bed into which hundreds of  pebbles have been deposited.

These pipes are tunnels for kids to creep along. The porthole windows have designs done by an Aboriginal artist.

This display features an Aboriginal story with a warning about over-indulgence:

Meanwhile, this is what was served in a NZ quarantine hotel:

Over Indulgence NZ

That's MY title!

I've been blogging with the title Camino Confidential since 2013.  I was quite proud of the idea when I first thought of it.  Now I've just discovered that someone has been using MY title on YouTube. In September 2019, two American couples set off from St Jean Pied de Port to walk the Camino Frances. There are about 45 episodes. It's actually an offshoot of their vlog Campfire Confidential, which describes their other long-distance trails. So, I don't think they deliberately stole my idea: it was just coincidence.

They use a mixture of videos and still photos, all of a very high standard, though I'm not keen on their "daily roundup" in the evenings.  These seem a bit contrived and mechanical.  This is a screenshot of their vlog:

Food

Some UK bloggers have reported problems with food deliveries from supermarkets: not being able to get a slot or substandard items in the boxes. Prepacked boxes contained too much fattening food and damaged tins.

I’ve been fortunate with Woolworths deliveries which I get once a week on Wednesday evenings. I can always get a slot because they have a priority ordering system for seniors. I’ve been an online customer of theirs since I had my hip replacement, when I wasn’t allowed to drive for 6 weeks. Lately there have been more substitutions when items were not available. They always send things of greater value. For example, a whole chicken when I’d ordered thighs, two packs of frozen organic blueberries when the normal ones had run out, a 1.5 litre bottle of orange juice instead of a 600 ml one. Their veggies are always a bit tired, but oranges and bananas are fine. We get top-ups from C who visits a local greengrocer near her office which even sells fresh figs. She also brings us essentials like Aldi’s chocs and wine boxes. We only really lack stuff if I forget to order it.

Last night we enjoyed red meat for a change, in the form of BBQ’d lamb chops - a great favourite of mine. I used to consume 4 at a time, but have to make do with only 2 now! I served them with mushrooms, carrots, beans and rice. We drank a precious bottle of Proximo from the Marqués de Riscal vineyard in the Rioja (a place which I visited a couple of years ago whilst on a deviation from the Camino). It’s not expensive and sold here by Dan Murphy’s.

I’ve just come across the frenetic Gordon Ramsay cooking a similar dish on YouTube at his self-isolation home in Cornwall. Mine was much less chaotic in the preparation.

Tales from the Vasco

Some of the passengers from the Vasco da Gama are still waiting to go home. I see quite a few of them from the hotels next door taking their morning exercise. Today I had a chat with a lady from Cairns, who came out of lockdown on Good Friday and is hopeful of onward transport news today. She told me the hotel food had been quite OK, but no alcohol was allowed. Being a Christian, she had given it up anyway for Lent, along with chocolate and ice cream!

She said she had boarded the Vasco in Singapore and the pandemic was called just as they were leaving harbour heading for Phuket. All ports were closed to them after that, so they were at sea for 3 weeks, but looked after very well by the crew. It had in no way put her off cruising. She was quite cheerful about it all, but said there were a few “agitators” in the hotel.

I gleaned all this information whilst sitting on a park bench, looking at the Swan Fountain:

What day is it?

Every day is the same in our self-imposed lockdown. We could go out but we don’t, except for a daily walk. A man has been jailed in Perth for breaking out of his hotel quarantine by jamming open a fire door, coming and going several times. He went on public transport to visit his girlfriend! Now he has another month’s free accommodation, without any fire doors.

I accessed our building’s fire doors in order to get to our herb garden. When I accidentally let it stay open a crack, the alarm sounded. I wanted to check on the new plantings, because the area had been closed off for  the installation of a new concrete path with a waterproof membrane. (The underground carpark is below). When I got outside I found some of the others celebrating with a pre-dinner drink.

The two boys have the ground floor apartment directly behind and have been doing the watering for the past two weeks.

The tomatoes have been replaced by kale and bok choy: looking good.

I made a mini quiche for two...

... and helped myself to a few roses from Crown to brighten the place up:

Across the railway line

We actually live on a peninsula, where the Swan River does a big loop. Normally I would walk on the side facing the city (below the word Burswood on the map). Now it’s got so busy, I’m looking for different ways. Today, I crossed the railway line and the freeway and found a quiet spot with a boat ramp:

I noticed an old factory had been sold for an apartment building and there was a huge photo of the area to generate interest:

Our block is second from the right of the row of towers and Crown is to the left of those.

The following pics were taken near the boat ramp:

There are not many ferns around, but this is a nice clump:

Autumn?

The spell of hot weather has finally come to an end. Today we woke up to a relatively coolish overcast day, albeit very humid at first. I varied my early morning walk in order to avoid crowds on the river bank.

This photo shows Crown’s car park, now relatively empty. We have never seen it like this. In the foreground is a row of luggage trailers, belonging to Hughes, a chauffeur service that normally brings guests from the airport.

In Crown Metropole and Crown Promenade, the 600 interstate travellers who came off cruise ships have now finished their 14-day isolation. However, most of them still can’t go home because there are very few flights to get them away. So, they are staying put, still at government expense.

As I continued my walk this morning, it was obviously an autumn scene, even though Western Australia doesn’t have many deciduous trees:

Nearly back home, I came upon another of JL’s feathered friends, a white ibis:

A few months ago, this ibis lost its mate and now it comes alone every day to the lake in front of us. Today it was about to scavenge in a rubbish bin.

We are enjoying a few Easter treats today, thanks to C’s deliveries of chocs and fresh veggies:

Mind your back!

It’s getting like Piccadilly Circus (to use an old expression) as I walk along the river early in the morning. People are trying to beat the heat of a 36 degree day, but there are just too many folks out there. Dog walkers, runners, mums and dads with push chairs all compete with speeding cyclists who yell “Bike behind” and expect people to make way for them. Today I witnessed a man carrying his little dog who refused to budge for a cyclist and they yelled insults at one another. I’ve started walking on the grass instead of the path. There is also a theory about droplets flying in the slipstream of cyclists to worry about. 

Back home, this notice has appeared outside the main entrance:

Talking of police officers, they have been told that beards are no longer acceptable in the force because they render face masks less efficient.

Doings

A bushwalking friend sent us this joke:

Just be careful because people are going crazy from being in lock down! 
Actually, I've just been talking about this with the microwave and the toaster while drinking coffee and all of us agreed that things are getting bad. I didn't mention anything to the washing machine as she puts a different spin on everything. Certainly not to the fridge as he is acting cold and distant. In the end the iron calmed me down as she said everything will be fine, the situation is not too pressing. The vacuum cleaner was very unsympathetic... told me to just suck it up, but the fan was more optimistic and hoped it would all soon blow over! The toilet looked a bit flushed when I asked its opinion and didn’t say anything but the door knob told me to get a grip. The front door said I was unhinged and the curtains told me to pull myself together.

———~~~~~~~~————

JL has made friends with two magpies which sing to us every day. This morning he gave them some whole meal bread crumbs:

At sunset, I gave him some chicken and barley casserole:

I spend the afternoons reading my way through some Georges Simenon novels, available as e-books from the library. They transport you away from Covid19 to the seamier side of last century Paris. We really enjoyed Rowan Atkinson in the all too short Maigret series. There are about 70 books, so I shouldn’t run out!

We briefly went outside last night to see the super moon rising. My iPhone is not much good for such a photo, but JL could see a lot more with his binocs:

Closer to home

JL’s nephew has an American wife. Last month they returned from a trip to the US and knew that they had to self isolate for 14 days. They decided to load up their boat and go across to Rottnest and moor it offshore. Shortly after that, the island was cleared of tourists in order to accommodate passengers off the Vasco da Gama. Back home, D started to feel unwell. She went to a clinic and the result was positive. Husband still OK as far as we know. A policeman called at their house to make sure they were still there in self isolation. He remarked that they were lucky to have such a nice residence to stay isolated in.

We are still fine. JL spends a lot of time studying the graphs and trajectories of the virus as he likes doing mathematical puzzles. My main distraction is thinking what I can produce for dinner. We are not short of supplies except for fresh green veggies. These have become scarce or expensive.

The weather has hotted up again, so the only time to walk is early morning. Yesterday I went past Crown. The two cheapest hotels in the complex, the Promenade and the Metropole, now house Australians who have returned from overseas, in isolation for the 14 day period. Travellers cannot be trusted to stay at home otherwise. The most expensive one, Crown Towers, is still being used by normal guests. I gleaned this info from a security guard who eyed me as I walked past.

Grey heron walking near the golf course.

Gardening etc.

Bloggers are reporting on progress in their veggie gardens. I miss mine a lot, even our windswept plot at Quinns. The balcony at Burswood gets a fair bit of wind and hot sun in the late afternoon, though the latter must surely die out soon. Here are a few shots of what I’m growing now:

Bottom right is parsley and perpetual spinach in a big black pot. On the far wall is an olive from Quinns being trained as a climber. I don’t expect any olives but it looks nice.

This is a very productive chilli, which I pick green when they are not too hot. It is planted in an old esky, seen here from the back:

Today I planted some garlic plus an experimental spring onion which may or may not regrow.

I also transplanted a self seeded climber which had started to grow in a pot of rosemary. JL thinks it is a passion fruit vine. Fingers crossed!

More news on the ill-fated Artania cruise ship which is still here in Fremantle. Apparently it was launched 36 years ago by Princess Diana in Southampton as the Royal Princess, and has changed owners and names a few times in the interim. Local journalists are looking around for things to write about.

Let them drink wine

C brought us some essential supplies last night. The Police Commissioner has clamped down on alcohol sales, so I can’t get these delivered any more and there are limits on sales at bottle shops. I’m not going shopping. It’s two weeks since I visited a supermarket.

JL’s grandson got married today. It was to have been a splendid affair, months in the planning, at Wise Winery near Dunsborough. The new law on social gatherings states only 5 people could be present, i.e. the celebrant, bride and groom, plus two others. 10 are allowed at funerals.

One of the passengers from the Artania cruise ship has died in Joondalup Hospital. It turns out that most of the crew are Filipinos and Indonesians. No wonder they don’t want to go back home. The Norwegian captain is apparently a TV star in Germany in a long running series about cruising.

Essential supplies!