Coogee

In a recently published list of the 20 best beaches in Australia, Misery Beach near Albany came first. The only other one in WA (at number 14, I think) was Coogee which is where I am now.  I’m staying in a small (very small) cabin in Coogee Beach Holiday Park. Next door is a young man, evidently here for some time, with a top-of-the-range bike, a surfboard and a portable gas cooker on which he produces healthy stir-fries. He is also a technology whizz and soon put me right about the intermittent wi-fi, showing me how to make my iPhone into a hotspot to link up to my laptop.

Most of the other residents of this place are grey nomads in caravans. They gather in the late afternoon under shady trees to swap drinks, nibbles and stories about their travels. This goes on for hours until darkness forces them inside and someone has to cook dinner. For myself, I brought with me a casserole of lamb shanks and Puy lentils which just needed a few minutes in the microwave.

The real reason for my trip was to go snorkelling at the Omeo Wreck, about 10 minutes walk up the beach. Last weekend the Nats Club had organised a trip to the wreck, but Sunday is not a good day as it’s like Piccadilly Circus out there. Everyone was milling around, stirring up sediment, learning how to snorkel and generally getting in the way! So, my plan was to be up early and get there before the crowds. I was surprised to find I had slept (with earplugs) till 7.00 am. When I looked out of the window, a woman from a neighbouring caravan was doing her ironing outside! 

After a quick cup of tea, I was on my way up the beach. Today there were only about 8 or 9 people snorkelling and 100% more fish swimming around the wreck. There were many different types of fish. On Sunday, the Nats had with them a handy chart to identify fish and I should think I saw most of those on the first page. I watched a couple of fish opening their big lips to feed off the weed surrounding the rusty ironwork of the wreck, then spit out what was unpalatable. I saw shoals of small silver fish darting in and out and two big black ones sliding away. I needed that chart! On Sunday, we saw a red-lipped Morwong, but he wasn’t there today. I stayed out for at least 45 minutes. It was a very calm morning and my tight short wetsuit kept me warm enough. I just had to keep my eye on the sunrise to see which direction I was floating in. It was a very successful expedition, I thought.

Celebration at Miss Chow’s

Miss Chow’s is an up-market Chinese restaurant in South Perth. We enjoyed some tasty morsels yesterday evening:

E chose a selection of dumplings
and a mocktail

Very tasty!

Mine was a version of Singapore Noodles,
with extra prawns

The prawns were really fresh and juicy

Afterwards we strolled along the South Perth foreshore, where there is some clever artwork:

Hippo made of gears and spanners

Hugging an emu

Behind E's head is the building where I lived when I first moved to Perth in 1990. I used to cross the river every day by ferry to the CBD and then by bus to Mt Lawley.

Perth CBD in the setting sun

What were we celebrating? A momentous step for C, who has resigned from her job of ten years to become a student nurse. She will start a nursing degree at Curtin in a couple of weeks, beginning with a science bridging course. She received some very appropriate leaving presents from her office: a nurse’s upside down watch and a stethoscope.

Leopoldstadt

We are totally over this hot weather! On a 41 degree day on the weekend, the best place to be was in a nice cold cinema. A friend told me about National Theatre productions from London which are filmed and shown around the world; (she misses English culture and goes to them often). So we went to see Leopoldstadt.

Tom Stoppard’s latest play follows the fortunes of a wealthy Jewish family in Vienna before and after the Nazi Anschluss of Austria. Much of it is based on Stoppard’s childhood in nearby Czechoslovakia before he escaped to England, where he was adopted and brought up by a British family. He had little knowledge of his Jewish inheritance till he went back to Vienna to search for his roots.

The play moves swiftly from riches to rags in Leopoldstadt, the old Jewish quarter of Vienna. At first it was all merriment and parties. Later everyone was wearing winter coats indoors and wondering if they should stick it out or try to escape to America or Shanghai. America had quotas. Sounds familiar? There were a few lighter moments. A baby was about to be circumcised and the doctor was expected. In a case of mistaken identity, a Doctor of Law arrived to see someone else in the family and was taken for the medical doctor. He took out a cigar and said has anyone got a cigar cutter. No? Never mind, I’ll bite it off!

The play resonated with me, as I worked in Vienna for four years in the 1980’s. I was Librarian at Vienna International School. My daughter’s best friend was a Jewish girl called Debbie. Her grandmother was one of those who actually escaped to Shanghai. The family had first gone to Singapore, but then they decided it would be safer to go even further away and ended up in Shanghai. After the war they returned to Vienna, bringing with them a lot of Chinese artefacts which enabled them to set up a lucrative business.

Fact meets fiction.

In other news

The heatwave continues. It’s the longest I’ve ever known. The forecast itself was exceeded and a few times it reached 41 degrees. The plants on my balcony are struggling. The rocket is exhausted, but I’m hoping the tomato will survive.

The only thing to do is get up early to enjoy the cooler air or do a few jobs before it all becomes too much. Today we went to the beach to teach Rocky to swim, but it seems doggy paddle comes naturally to them:

At 7.00 am conditions were perfect! The sea was calm and the water very clear. There are short videos on my Instagram.

Afterwards we went to have breakfast at the beach cafe. Raisin toast came out but the coffees failed to materialise. The machine seemed to have broken down or had to be re-calibrated. E is now a trained barista, having worked at Maccas for a few months in her spare time. She gave us a running commentary of the manager’s worst nightmare as he tried to fix the problem and queues built up. My coffee was the first of the new batch, so not the best: she cast a critical eye on the froth. 

E is building up her bank balance with many shifts during the school holidays. Maccas, like many other businesses, are short staffed because of COVID. She has bought herself a bespoke computer, with a pink keyboard, a big curved monitor and a space-age box (CPU?) with all the works on view:

What's in the box, you might ask. I don't know the answer!

Those were the days

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they’d never end..

England 2004
Did we really drink pints?

On Hadrians Wall

23 Feb 2005
80th birthday party

From the invitation: sketches of John's engineering projects:

Raising Mundaring Weir 1947-51

Ord River Diversion Dam 1959-68

Onslow Saltworks 1988-97

Party photo at Matilda Bay

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Kimberley Trips:

Mitchell Falls

Gibb River Road

Cruising on the Coral Princess

G and T at Gantheaume Point

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Shelling prawns, January 2013

Kings Park bushwalk

Lunch in the garden,
Como Sept 2013

Near Exmouth, October 2013

Cowaramup, New Year 2013/14

Devil's Own Group Settlement Memorial,
Cowaramup, New Year 2013/14

Lunch at Sandalfords Winery,
June 2017

Afternoon tea at Kalamunda,
July 2017

Wooleen Station, July 2018

Dining in at Wooleen

Nats Club Xmas BBQ,
December 2018

Dining in at Mandurah,
January 2019

Dining in at Burswood,
April 2020

With Ellie and Rocky at Como,
August 2020

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Us
Cable Beach Club, June 2020

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Bye, Mr Wolf

The Camino Diaries

What to do during lockdown?  Or in my case, during lock-in, since our West Australian borders have been closed for two years?

One answer is to reminisce about past travel adventures - and maybe even write a book about them! So this is exactly what I did.  My e-book is now available on Amazon.

Book cover

On the Camino, somewhere in France

Read an excerpt here

BBQ

The annual Nats Club BBQ was back at Herdsman's Lake Wildlife Centre after its renovation. Everyone is getting older and not necessarily wiser, but they just keep going. We claimed a spot out front, where the lake stretches out and the waterbirds drift past:

Enjoying a drink before the BBQ

A moorhen with its big feet wanted to join in

View along the lake as the sun went down

Time for the traditional stroll along the boardwalk

The path wanders through the paperbark trees

Life in the shallows

Close-up of a paperbark

At the BBQ, I cooked some meatballs which are very forgiving. Someone else was cooking prime pieces of fillet steak; she asked my advice but its several years since I bought such an expensive cut of meat!