Seal Island

On Saturday the 3rd of February I (Ellen) went canoeing to seal island together with cousin Eric and one of his friends (Tim). Seal island is a very small island before the coast of Hillary’s (14 km North of Perth city) and about 5 km out of the shore. You can park very close to the shore and we carried the canoes to the waterline and filled them with all the gears we wanted to bring. Eric and Tim brought their light diving gear and took my snorkel gear.
After only a few minutes on the sea Tim’s rudder at once didn’t function anymore. He and Eric first tried to repair it on the water, but then saw that a metal pin was broken and the rudder was beyond repair on the water.

Eric and Tim went back with his boat and changed it over to another boat Tim had at home (about 10 minutes drive from the shore). When they came back the trip could start to seal island.
It is a very small island and we saw one seal laying on the beach.

We went snorkeling and diving and one seal looked regularly what we were doing. When I was struggling with my flippers, one of the seals was looking very close by to see what I was doing. I think he didn’t understood why my feet and flippers were separated :-). One seal was curious about our boats and approached me when I was eating my bread.


A lot of motorboats had anchored in the neighbourhood and people were swimming and fishing.

After a while we back to the shore were Eric and Tim stopped for some snorkeling at some rocks close to the shore. I went back to the shore to paddle back a long the shore in a slow manner. I passed doggy beach where dogs were playing around and some horses with their riders took a see bath.
When I came back on our leaving point Peter was waiting for us and took some pictures of our arrival.
Here you can see some more photos…..

Bells rapid walk

The fourth of February we had another walk, this time organized by Sandra and Xander. The route is called the Bells Rapid walk. As you can see clearly in the pictures, it definitely does not look like any rapid ;-)

Reason for this is the lack of rain (well, maybe not total lack, but clearly not enough of it). The yearly kayak / canoe event (The Avon Descent) almost did not go through because this Bells Rapid is part of the track...

More photos here.

Hot Australia day

Hi all, today is Australia day, meaning that everyone has a day off! So do we ;-). We do not go to the fireworks display tonight downtown because we like a day of rest, it is going to be very busy there and last but not least... it is very, very hot! Close to 40 degrees during the day. For tomorrow 41 degrees is expected. We are very, very happy that we have our (evaporative) airconditioning, we manage to keep the inhouse temperature at 26.

As far as news: the only news we have is that we have signed a contract to get a (concrete) lap-pool built! We are looking forward to that. The building should start in April and be ready about July. Then about 2 months later the paving around it should be done. So, next summer we will be swimming...

Beginning of January we had another walk with the walking group:


More walking photos here.

Then there was McNaughts comet that comes by every 40 years or so. I have been able to make some photos:


More comet photos here.

Finally Ellen went out on another kayak trip. Cousin Eric has bought a boat of his own and they went on a river trip with Tim and his girlfriend.


More kayak photos here.

Merry Christmas & a happy New Year

Hello everyone, the day before Christmas, time to give you all the best of wishes from us. Although it is a little bit funny to have this weather (29-33 degrees) at Christmas, we think it is a lot better than the cold, foggy weather back in Europe ;-)

As you will all know there have been and still are a lot of bushfires in Australia. Luckily not so much around Perth. One house has burnt, which was situated in 'the Hills' which is about 15km east of CBD. On the news they told that the main reason why the house burned down to the ground was that the evaporative air-conditioning was on, which was 'inhaling' burning bits and pieces from outside.

So far about 500.000ha have been burned in Australia, which is about 1/10 of Holland. To give you an idea, this is whole of NoordBrabant or so.

Anyway, over to us:
Next week we have the whole week off. We realised that this is our first Australian holiday!!

Talking about bushfires, in the bushfire season people are supposed to be very careful, and there are rules (laws) in place that should help to prevent fires from extending. The block of land on the right and the left of our house is not built up yet. The owners have to make sure that at the beginning of the fire-danger season (half of October) they cut all the weeds on their block, so if a fire starts, it will not easily expand. The owners of those blocks had not done that (by the end of November) so we called the county to ask what is supposed to be done. The county then told us that they had already been given fines (AUS 750,=) for not doing it, and given one week to prevent the county having to do it (and than paying far bigger fines).
As of last week they both have done that.

Two weeks ago the photoclub had their end-of-year function. Again a photo competition, but this time with food and drinks. Entries for the competition had to be photos that have been entered before (in one of the monthly competitions). Of course Peter has entered some photos. And one of his photos won the 2nd price (aud 20 voucher) in the 'slide'-competition.
The photo that won was this one:


And one other photo that we would like you to see is one Peter took a week ago, just in our backyard. The photo is named "David & Goliath":

Kayaks and Planes

Another mointh has gone by. Fortunately this last month was (again) not all work and no play ;-). After a test paddle Ellen has chosen a kayak to buy. And today she joined a group-paddle and had a ball...

Some more pictures here.

Peter's boss has extended his contract for another 4 months (last week requested 3 months and made 4 months of it this week). We will be taking a few days off between Christmas and New Year, and we have planned a holiday for 3 weeks in February. We are not going to plan anything for the holiday, we just want to get in the car and drive in a generally south direction.

Another one of Peter's pictures 'won' a competition. The photo won the 2-weekly 1st half of November competition with this photo:


For the next weeks competition I have entered this one (a view from our backyard ;-):


Last week we have enjoyed the Red Bull air race in Perth. I made lots of pictures and it took me most of my spare time in the last days to sort them out and present some of the better ones on the photo site. I know there are people out there (Jan !!) who might have wanted to see all that.. Good news for them (again, Jan !!): The Red Bull air race will be back in Perth in 2007 and 2008. Nice to see was that the Black Swans were not all worried about the big number of people (> 200.000) and not frightened of the noisy planes.



More photos of the Air Race

Well, as said last week, pictures say more than a thousand words. I hope you're enjoying them.

A picture says more than a 1000 words ;-)

Hi All,

We can not believe it has been this long since the last post (a whole month). Don't worry, we did not forget you! It has just been pretty busy the last weeks. That happens when you're both working full time ;-) ;-)

In a nutshell the latest news, followed (where appropiate) by pictures (in the spirit ot the title of this topic ;-):

Two weeks ago we went on another walk with the walking group. This time we went to Yanchep Park, about 30 mins driving north of us. Here is one picture, a wildflower called kangaroo paw:


If you ant to see more, have a look HERE.

Last week we went whale watching with our friends Sandra and Xander. Very nice to do, just be carefull if you're easily seasick. I managed to take some reasonable photos. Not all as sharp as tehy should be, but that is a challenge when you're out on a boat on the ocean! One picture again:

And if you want to see more, look HERE.

And last but not least, we have bought a second car. We wanted a little bit more 'space to move'. With a second car we can go our own way when necessary. BTW, we bought another Ford, this time a Falcon, 1,5 year old. Photos of that car will follow when we have made some ;-)

Anyway, we think you are now a up-to-date about our life! Just one last thing to say: We still love it here, more and more every day........

First work week / Correction of mistake last week ;-)

To start with, I said that the monkey photo had won a 3rd price in the club competition, but that was a mistake... It was the Mountain Goat photo!! The judge did spend some time talking about the monkey photo too, that's what caused the mix up.. Anyway it is now corrected, have another look at the prior post.

Last week was my first week of work. Not only has it been 5 months or so since I have been working, but also I am now working 5 days a week in stead of 4. The days are not as long though as they were back in Holland and because we are back home early enough, we can still enjoy other activities in the evening (like photoclub, dancing, bowling). So, more days to work in a week, but shorter days.
How did I like this first week? Well, I think it went all pretty good. I am taking over the work of someone who had his last working day last Friday. Starting next Wednes day the second person who knows about 'my' customers will be on a holiday for 2 weeks, so from Wednesday I'll be on my own.
I will probably make some mistakes in that time, but my confidence is growing really fast. All together I like my new work (BTW I am working as change-coördinator, which does have some overlap with my last role in Holland).

Although I did not feel too tired through the week, and we were out literally each evening, I was pretty tired yesterday (Saturday), and only after sleeping in a bit more this morning (Sunday) I felt rested! While getting more used to the work next weeks that will probably get better. Also we will not be doing something every evening which will help too!!

Triple top 3's !!

Last Monday I entered some photos in our monthly competition again. I was hoping I would at least get a same result as last month (a merit). To my surprise, three out of my six entries became 3rd in their respective category. Especially for the Mountain Goat photo that was a very good result, since there were about 30 entries in that category (and good ones too!).

It will be very difficult to improve this result the next time, since I am now working full time. But I'll try anyway ;-)

Here they are:

Category: Mono/B&W, subject (Windows)


Category: Slides, Open


Category: Prints, Open, Colour

Done with the fun !

Good news and bad news... I was not called from Sydney last Monday, also not after leaving a message the next day at the voicemail of that manager. But... this morning I was called by the recruitment office through which I have had an interview at a IT-support company for a role as change manager (and for which I did not get the contract because of budget problems).
They were urgently looking for a change-cöordinator (to start on a 3 months contract), and they asked if I would be available on short notice. Of course my answer was yes, and after the recruitment agency contacted the company again, I have signed the contract this morning. I am expected to start coming Monday, and I will be visiting them tomorrow morning to meet some people and get some reading material.

So, suddenly the fun has come to an end. Only 4 days of freedom left and then I will have to work too. Although nice to get back in a work situation (meeting new people etc) and being able to contribute to our bread and butter (;-) too, I will be missing my freedom of the last weeks (hmmmm, months really). I will now have a lot less hours to 'play' with my photography...

BTW: The company where I am going to work is the same where Ellen works, only in a different building (closer to a trainstation too ;-). So, from now on we will be again working for the same company just like we did back in Holland for the last 3 years.

Update

After receiving the 'golden pineapple' award Ellen received a giftvoucher last week as an appraisal for her work. That has been a very nice gesture!
Peter is expecting to be called coming Monday from Sydney for a job interview (on contract base). The responsible manager is stationed in Sydney, but the application is for a job in Perth.

What Ellen likes very much (the most ?) about working in Perth is that when she goes out for lunch to get a nice Italian sandwich, she is always seeing and hearing parrots flying around. As well the typical rosella's (grey and pink) as the 28's (green/blue with a yellow band around their neck).

One of the things we have found is that the signs stating that speed camera's are used in WA is very true in Perth. So far we have not been 'catched' (as far as we know at least ;-), but we are spotting a (mobile) speedcamera at least once a week on average. So for anyone wondering about that... Perth is really a risky place to speed!

Last Wednesday we (finally !!!) took up dancing again. We found a nice dancing school about 15 minutes driving from home. So for all ballroom dancers that are thinking about coming over to Perth for a holiday (;-) do take your dancing gear with you (Peter and Lia). BTW the owner of the dancing school recognized the name of the sister of our damcing teacher in Holland.

Three weeks ago at the monthly competition Peter entered some photographs. Although none ended in the top 3, one of them got a 'merit' (see below ;-). Next Monday (September 11th) he will enter some pictures in the competition again. If any results are worth mentioning, you'll read about it!