Albany Adventures

Saturday morning in Albany and the weekly Farmers Market is a must for fresh produce. We were up early to get there before the crowds, but everyone else had the same idea. Everything was top quality, but not cheap. I bought cherries, plums, apples, a sourdough loaf with jalapeños and a luscious almond croissant to share. I would have bought a big bag of macadamia nuts but it was a cash-only stall and I didn’t have any.

On the way back to Emu Point, we saw E and her friends walking into town (3kms!) and it was hot and humid. They should have investigated the local bus service, especially as they needed to buy all their food supplies and carry it home.

Our local beach is a long strip of white sand. Rocky loves to race along it and wears himself out. He is still on the alert for rabbits near our chalet. Apparently there is a sudden surge in the rabbit population:

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/103126512

24 rabbits were imported from England in the early days, to facilitate hunting by the landed gentry. They have been impossible to control ever since, as there are no natural predators here. A so-called rabbit proof fence was erected north/south to keep them out of WA, to no avail. 

E sent a pic of their fridge stocked up with food for six. C made friends with the tiny dog who lives next door to us.

Local gardeners have built their own mini rabbit proof fences round their garden beds.

Albany Escape

“Schoolies Week” is a big thing here. Traditionally, groups of school leavers go off and enjoy themselves, completely free of supervision and parental control. Favourite venues from Perth are Rottnest Island and Dunsborough, but E and her friends decided to go further afield and booked 5 nights in Middleton Beach Caravan Park, near Albany. I had visions of them travelling down there in a car with an inexperienced driver who had just passed their test. So I put it to C that we should book ourselves into a place nearby and just transport a few of them down there.

We set off with 3 friends and Rocky in C’s car and everybody’s heaps of luggage in my car, on a 4.5 hour journey. It was a very hot day (about 33 degrees). We stopped for lunch at Williams Woolshed, where I was told to leave one of the outside tables because I had brought my own sandwiches, and later for a short break at Mount Barker in the carpark of Plantagenet Winery.

When we got to Middleton Beach we waited for the other 3 friends to arrive and they all went to check in. The manager was alarmed to be confronted by a group of schoolies and almost turned them away unless an adult was with them. Two of the group were 18 and the others 17, and this had been made clear at the time of booking. The manager wanted one of us to stay there, but we said we were going to a dog-friendly chalet up the road at Emu Point. Eventually the manager relented, having read the riot act to all the kids, with dire warnings about riotous behaviour which might annoy other residents.

Our dog-friendly chalet is really nice. It’s set in a grove of peppermint trees which protects it from the sea breeze. The only issue is that there are rabbits everywhere, so Rocky goes mad trying to chase them. Greyhounds are trained to go after a mechanical rabbit on the race track, so it’s hard for him to keep sighting real ones that pop in and out of the bush.

C had a mishap with an exploding bottle of non-alcoholic champagne, which she had put in the freezer to cool down and forgotten about:

Re-creating Japan?

Our terrible heatwave is getting worse. It's impossible to do anything except think about how to stay cool. Our traditional Friday night dinner had to be a no-cook affair, so I had the brilliant idea of a visit to Kailis to buy some Japanese inspired dishes:

On the menu: half a dozen oysters, sashimi-grade kingfish, seasme seaweed and salmon & avocado maki:

E has now left school and has nothing to do, so I insisted that she should make dessert. She produced some delicious brownies:

I had to ask C for her sharpest knife to slice up the kingfish. When she was washing up this dangerous implement, she accidentally sliced into her thumb. Not a good ending to a lovely Japanese meal!

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

There was a pop concert on at the stadium which would be very noisy and keep me awake till 11.00 pm. It had a sell-out crowd of 67,000 apparently.

Perth was going mad, paying over $200 a ticket to see the British pop group Coldplay. Time to make my escape and go over to Como to sleep on C's sofa, I thought. Sunday morning and the house was up early to go for a greyhound meet-up in the local park:

Coldplay are doing a repeat concert tonight. Neighbours tell me it ends at 10.30 pm with fireworks, so I think I'll brave it out at home. I must check up for up-coming stadium events and make myself scarce in future. At least, there are not many pop groups that can attract the sort of crowds that fill the stadium. Even so, I wish they would just stick to cricket.

Pay it Forward

Today I did a very stupid thing. I went out shopping without my credit card. First stop: to buy petrol. I put $20worth into the tank and went to pay. Total embarrassment! It came to me that my card was at home, still in my money belt from my holiday. A queue was forming behind me, everyone eager to pay and be on their way, probably thinking Stupid Woman! At the counter, I had to give them my drivers licence and they gave me an invoice slip.

Then, the girl behind me in the queue offered to pay for me. But I don’t know you, I said, amazed. She just said Pay it Forward and smiled. The kindness of strangers. Incredible! I’m just pleased that I hadn’t filled the tank. The Prius goes a long way on $20.

B L D

B L D on our daily schedule meant that all meals would be provided as part of the tour. Occasionally, we had to find our own lunch or dinner, but breakfast was always provided in our hotel. Japanese people love a hot bowl of rice into which they stir a raw egg. On Day One, I thought this was a hard boiled agg and cracked it on the table to take off the shell. This was a bad move! After that, I always looked out for a Western breakfast: fruit, natural yoghourt, two cups of coffee and sometimes French toast. One day, we had a bento box on the train:

A big treat in the afternoon was finding somewhere to buy a matcha ice cream:

Group dinner in Kanazawa: DIY cooking over the gas burner:

We had another meal at a Cooking School:

A quick snack in Kyoto:

More food in Kyoto:

Two sisters deciding where to start:

Tea ceremony demonstration:

Had to try the golden arches just once; Ruthe refused to come with me!

Huge bowls of soba:

Sashimi: always fresh, always deicious, always beautifully arranged:

Dinner with Kitty and Lemon after another Onsen:

Another pretty set lunch:

On our last night in Osaka, Mayumi could finally close her eyes:

I've written this post before breakfast on Monday morning. Now I'm going to have muesli with banana and yoghourt. No photo required!

More about the food

In Hakone, it was rather chilly and wet. We didn't see Mt Fuji, but we ate well and had an Onsen in between:

Lunch and dinner photographed. Did we really eat all that?