waroona dam

this weekend we had the time of our lives. we went to waroona dam, its man made and the lake is lake navarino. its beautiful. we took nearly 3 hours to drive there and have to admit that i didnt think we were ever going to get there!!! there were storms forecast for the weekend and i did wonder what kind of weekend it was going to be. storms?? what storms?? apparently there were in perth but since we were 3hours inland to the south west of perth it seemed to miss us. the weather was beautiful all weekend. mikey was water ski-ing, murrae rowed the dingys, stevi spotted on the boats for the skiers and michael and i went biscuiting! i have never been so scared in all of my life!! inflatable rings being pulled behind a speed boat with me on it??!!!! i never thought i would ever do anything like that but considering that everyone else was either ski-ing, wake boarding or on the biscuits i felt a bit of an idiot just standing there. the buscuits seemed the easiest option!!??? maybe next time i will try water ski-ing??!!! on friday we arrived, unpacked and got into some serious drinking. there were around 20 odd couples plus respective children. we had a real camp fire and a guitar! what else could you ask for? the stars were out and the kids were toasting marshmallows on the fire. saturday it was up, breakfast and away to the lake. murrae shared his breakfast with the friendly parrots that came to visit. saturday night was back from the lake, bbq and more booze! one of the guys that was with us decided at 1am that it would be a good idea to climb the tree next to the campfire. after falling off a couple of times he finally managed it but the tree didnt like it and snapped, throwing jeff to the ground! it was so funny but scary at the same time. he just got up and walked away laughing. however, no one was laughing in the morning when jeff appeared all bandaged up and hobbling off to get his foot xrayed! looks like he broke his foot as well as the tree!!! i couldnt have hoped for any better way to spend our 18th wedding anniversay, if we hadnt gone away michael would have been working and i would have been out on the piss with my friends, at midnight on friday, everyone toasted our anniversary and wished me a happy belated birthday. i will take pics of all my cards and pressies later this week. thanks folks for everything that was sent, its much appreciated!!! love you all lots. xxxxxx

new car

well today i had a friend, yes!! a friend!!!over, her name is barbara and she is lovely. shes michaels friends wife. they have a gorgeous baby called eden. we had coffee and talked babies!! then michael and i went and bought a new car. we have purchased a second hand mitsubishi delica spacegear. its a 4 x 4 8 seater. its luverly!!! michael is also pleased as he kind of lost faith in the hyundai when the clutch went for the second time!!! we paid $16000 for it and got $3000 as a trade in for the hyundai. thats about £6700 to pay and £1250 for a trade in. AND we are going to waroona dam for the weekend at the end of the month. a weekend by the lake lots of bbq and booze once again!! cant wait cos thats my birthday weekend and our 18th wedding anniversary. guess this means its coming to summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! trying to get money out of the bank is a nightmare here. they couldnt give us cash and we ended up having to get a bankers cheque and we had to give them notice! and its our bloody money!!!! nat was right WA does stand for wait a while!!!!

weekend off

well this is my weekend off and guess what? i have no one to do anything with!!! spoke to my chummy on the phone today and shes in the same boat! bugger!!! if only she would move over here too then we'd be made!!!! seriously tho, we went our usual food shopping today, it gets more expensive every bloody week! this week it was $250! god knows why it keeps going up!!! we then went shopping for undies! i needed to get white vests to wear under my uniform cos i have lost a little weight in the 12 weeks that i have been waiting for them to be delivered!!! mikey is off to a bbq with his work mates so god knows what time and what state he will be in when he gets home! we decided to have our own bbq so for only the 2nd time since we bought it we had bbq for supper whilst it was still light outside!! the only other time we have managed that was last weekend!! i have posted a couple of photos from last week. murrae went to rottnest island on tuesday with his friend, the cycled for miles!! his poor little bum and leggies were in agony the next day!! his friends dad took a photo of him with a quoka so hopefully he will email it on to me and i can post it on here. we are still waiting for our crate to be delivered!!! what are they doing with it!!! its been in perth for nearly a month and we are still waiting!! customs and quarantine still have it!!!! as you can see from the pics stevi has dyed her hair again!!!!! she was moaning about her roots being brown and her hair blonde so i streaked it brown, put a little more than i bargained for in tho!! never mind it stopped her moaning for all of 5 mins!!! last sunday much to her disgust we trailed them into the city to go to the museum! michael, murrae and i found it interesting but as per usual her face was on! its a huge museum there are loads of different things in it. from stuffed animals to old toys and shoes, part of it is in the old perth gaol but there wasnt much stuff from that. i was hoping to see old hanging places etc!!! it was still interesting tho! not sure what we are up to tomorrow but as per usual the weather forecast is brilliant!!!!! i DO NOT miss the cold wet dreich stuff of home!!!!

working week

well this week we havent done much cos we've all been working. stevi has been babysitting for murrae as its the school holidays. he had a sleep over at his friends house so she was given a break for a morning. on the public holiday we went to the perth royal show. its a bit like the highland games but without the games!!! the actual event was centred around agricultural stuff. it originated from when the farmers used to bring their prize bulls etc into town for showing so there were lots of animals to see. there was a dog show, chicken washing??? and horses etc. the main arena had lots of events, the only one we saw was cars jumping ramps. we spent most of the day dodging the crowds, swearing under our breaths at people who stopped in the middle of the walk way to talk to friends thus blocking it completely!!! there were lots of amusements but by the time we found our way to them i'd had enough and wanted home!! the kids bought show bags, really like huge lucky bags with lots of tat in them. we got a coca cola one which contained lots of sweets, coke of course and a black cord beanbag with coca cola blazoned along the side. stevi didnt come with us as she had a prior arrangement to hit the beach with her friends. now i even stopped off a the chemist to buy her sun screen but the silly girl forgot that her back was also exposed!!! she badly burnt it and couldnt wear a bra for 3 days!!! its all peeling off now and looks disgusting, the new skin underneath is even burnt!!!! i have added a couple of photos of her and murrae at the beach last monday, murrae on his new boogie board and stevi wrapped in her towel! i have also added a couple of photos of the city, we visited it a couple of weeks ago and there is a little alleyway with quaint old fashioned shop fronts. its called london court and looks really out of place amongst the skyscrapers but its cute all the same!!!!! michael and i are on our only day off this week so we are off to explore some of the culture that perth has to offer!!!!

mikeys new t shirt and other things

well this weekend we have been busy little socialites. friday was 29 degrees and everyone and their dog were at the beach, me, michael and mikey were however at work! dave and mechelle decided they were having a poolside bbq and kindly invited us round. i scurried home from work, jumped into the shower and readied myself for a nice relaxing evening. off we travelled round the corner
and up the hill. the kids were stripped off and in the pool before my first drink was in my eager little hands. here we see murrae and stevi having fun in the pool. murrae was in there til gone 9pm and must have been freezing. he is however beginning to swim like a little fishy. stevi paddled around and finally managed to swim across the pool under water. hopefully this means that shes nearly there for the real deal!!! mikey didnt stay as he had a prior engagement with his work mates and another bbq. he did as you can see have time for a quick beer. do you like his new t shirt??? his neck and arms are almost black but alas the chest and back are still aberdeen white. we ate, we drank and we were merry, well i was. that will be the very early morning, the fact that i dont get out much, oh and the bottle of smirnoff i managed to get over my throat!!!! dont remember much about getting home but apparently i was giggling like a school kid but no one knew what at!!! receipe for hangover yesterday! no!! up bright and early putting washing on tidying up etc!!! bbq no 2!!!! off we go to clint and chris mansion! what a house! its gorgeous. 3 storey high, all balconies and mezzanines!!! in the theatre room we all settled down to watch the GRAND FINAL! its an aussie rules league final thing and is the highlight of this time of year! loads of hype etc. the WA team won by one point. enter lots of screaming and running round the garden! and that was just the neighbours. it was like party central in perth last night. every street had parties going on! we ate some more and then the men settled down to some serious poker playing! now mikey and michael have never played before, mikey is a natural!!! he loves it!! and the little bugger wins!!!!! 8 hours later they are all still playing and chris and mechelle have joined the game!!! i didnt,, me being thick like still doesnt understand the rules!!!!! will have to get mikey to teach me!! think murrae probably has the jist of it too!!! apart from mikey there were 7 kids there also and i would bet that they could all play a mean hand of poker!!!!! guess what the story of the holidays will be about???? 'my dad and his friends taught me how to play poker whilst drinking vast amounts of alcohol!!!!'. now today i am not sure what we are up to but its the queens birthday on monday so its a holiday so maybe we will just relax and recharge after our couple of days on the booze and bbq cruise. then its off to the perth royal show on monday!!!! will update as it happens folks!!!!