West Side Story

An update, how amazing!

2006-04-03T10:09:00.000+10:00

My mother called last night and reminded me that I haven't updated the blog in over a month. Oops.

Plenty has happened in that time. Neil had interview after interview, and we began to wonder if the jobs were going to pan out after all. But he got a call last Thursday and starts his new job today.

It's very exciting, because this is an international company, and there's a good chance that he may get a 3 year transfer to Sweden as part of the project.

That's right, I said Sweden. We're very excited and have our fingers crossed that the opportunity comes our way. It's funny, we've uprooted ourselves once and now there's a chance we'll uproot again. Maybe this transfer to Perth was exactly what we needed to get out of the rut we were in.

Mind you, we're doing our best to build another rut. Because we're down to only one income at the moment, we haven't really been investigating as much as we should. True, there are things we could go and see which are free, but we've been very slack. I haven't even pulled the camera out of the bag for weeks. Look, we're on the other side of the country, and we've found a new rut. Amazing.

My work is picking up, I flew up to Karratha last week. It's an amazing place. The landscape is all red rocks, grey vegetation and bright blue water. Karratha is the youngest town in WA; it was built in the 1960's to service the mine sites in the region, and all the oil and gas plants. It's 90% company owned, and in consequence, there is a large housing shortage. Renting a 3 bedroom house will set you back $800-$1000. That's fine for the mine workers, but the service people really get short changed. So consequently there's a shortage of all workers except mines employees! The suicide rate is second only to Hall's Creek, which apparently resembles hell on Earth. Glad I don't have to go there.

Slow updates

2006-03-08T16:25:00.000+10:00

I'm so sorry. It's been a hectic few weeks, and I'm very far behind with updates.

On the job front, lots of good news! Neil has had 2 interviews and has another one this Friday. Everyone has been very keen. I keep telling him he's marketable, but he never believes me. Now, if only I could work out a way to make money from him...

The weather has been stinking hot, so we are making the most of the pool before it gets cold. The sun blazes down and it never rains, but it's very pleasant.

The dogs have settled into their routine and seem to like the house. I know they love the garden, because they spend hours in it, and come back covered in flowers, prickles and cobwebs. Needless to say, it's a battle to keep the floors clean! but they are happy. The only thing they don't like is the strong winds; the house creaks and shudders and they hide under the computer desk.

My work is still tootling along, no sign of the horizon yet, still buried under work. I just need to be patient and it will clear, I know!

More soon, I promise.

Egret at sunrise

2006-02-16T23:05:00.000+10:00

The first of the photographs. We took this one at Herdsman's lake, about 5km north of the CBD. It was 5:30am, middle of summer but freezing cold. I had a very wet butt from sitting in the mud, trying to photograph a great crested grebe on the nest.

I've added this picture in using Picasa, a neat little free program that sorts and labels all the pictures on your hard drive. It's great, very easy to use. Click on the little pic to download it.

What did YOU get for valentine's day?

2006-02-16T11:42:00.000+10:00

We're being extra careful with money at the moment until Neil gets a job. Which means no roses or chocolates or expensive dinners. So when I jokingly asked "where's my valentines pressie?", my romantic fiance says, "I paid for your root canal. Be happy."

That's right, I had a root canal on Valentine's day. I was so sore and swollen the next day that I stayed home. I'm back to work today, but ouch. Listen to me, kids; clean and floss. All the time. I can't stress this enough. Root canals are painful and expensive. $1300 so far and I still have the final visit and crown to go. Health insurance does not pay for all of this.

It's amusing that it happens when we are a little short of cash. The car is also toying with us; the day after we got it home, we started the car and the aircon and radio died. So of course we checked the lights, which worked but, oh dear, no wipers. We're just praying it doesn't rain. So far, so good.

Now for the good news; Neil sent in five job applications yesterday. At 6:30pm last night he got a call from one of the agencies, very excited and asking if they can represent him to their client. Woohoo! I hope he's that sucessful with all the applications. If he gets it, it's a $10,000 p.a. increase in salary.

I say, got for 20!

Photos are coming; technically Neil is setting up the computer room today so I can download the photos from the camera. I took some lovely shots of the sunset from our back verandah last night. I'm hoping we can go out to one of the lakes this weekend and take some more bird photos. We can't go out and spend money, so it's lucky we like quiet weekends outdoors!

Settling in

2006-02-07T15:14:00.000+10:00

I try to keep up with this blog, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding the time to sit down and type. But I will manage at least once a week.

On the weekend we unpacked everything except the spare room. So we now have clothes, a kitchen, towels (that was fun - next time I'm packing a towel in our hand luggage) and other essentials of living. We found time to have a swim every afternoon, which was lovely for our aching legs and feet.

Every morning at breakfast we get to watch the ringneck parrots fly over and settle in the trees. Yesterday we bought a dish and some birdseed. If they don't come down to feed, I'm confident that the galahs will.

The dogs absolutely love the house and yard; Bear can lie on the bed and watch the hallway, in case Neil gets up from the computer to get a drink. If he does, she's ready to follow him down the hall, and then return to snoozing on the bed when he's done.

I met our neighbour yesterday; she's quite lovely. She has 4 geese, 3 miniature horses and 2 dogs (a cocker spaniel and a saint bernard!), and she's getting chickens later this year. A woman after my own heart! We had a lovely long chat. She's only just returned from a working holiday in London.

I got up at 5am this morning so I could leave at 7am and beat the traffic. Not that there's much, nothing at all like Brisbane, but there are no freeways here so it's still a 1/2 hour trip. The view from the veranda was lovely; all the lights of the lowlands spread out like stars and the sky just starting to turn a soft, milky blue.

We're so lucky to have this house. Even if it does creak like a galleon in a gale whenever the wind blows, which frightens the dogs.

Neil is at home today hunting for jobs; his holiday is nearing its end. There's plenty out there to apply for, so I hope to have good news on that score in the next few weeks.

Neil's also signed up with ii-net, so we should be back online soon. As soon as we are I will post lots and lots of photographs. The camera is nearly full already.

Last minute hitches

2006-02-02T10:27:00.000+10:00

Well, we're still not in the house. The agents that our removalists in Brisbane contracted to do the unloading in Perth messed up. What's worse is, they're not even apologetic about it; in fact, they were downright rude. Bah. Never, ever go with Curtis Bros if you are moving interstate. Consequent to their ineptitude, we had to spend last night back at the motel, after checking out yesterday morning. Furious? Oh yes, I certainly was.

Anyway, Neil is at the house now, watching them unload. The dogs arrive this afternoon. I can't wait to get home and start unpacking. Maybe then this will stop feeling like a holiday.

So much to say, but where to start?

2006-01-30T12:56:00.000+10:00

Well, we're here. So much has happened in the last week that it feels like a month. I could write an essay, but instead I will summarise.

The flight over was fine. We stepped off the plane into the most glaring midday sun I've ever seen outside the tropics. It wasn't hot, just bright, and really, really dry. We drove around in a daze, not particularly going anyplace, and definitely not looking at a map. We ended up in Fremantle, the suburb by the sea. The water was the most amazing sea green, nothing like the indigo blue you get in Queensland. It looked cold, and rather unforgiving. We looked at the water and thought about the high number of shark attacks over here, and decided we would stick to fresh water, at least down south where there are no crocodiles.

House hunting was a chore, and the worst experience I have had in any state. They're weird over here; instead of looking at the outside of a house and then calling in to the agent to get the keys, you actually have to wait until the agent has a "showing", where a mob of potential renters turn up all at once. To apply, you have to fork over 1 week's rent, which you get back if you are rejected. Consequently, this was a frustrating and expensive exercise.

We saw only 3 houses we were willing to contemplate renting. Two of those were rented out from under our feet, and we were rejected for the third. We were in despair and thinking we might have to drop our standards when, at the 11th hour, I called a real estate agent who said she had a real "character" home on her hands. Well, you know what that means - a fibro dump with a jungle for a yard. But it apparently had amazing views, so we went to have a look.

We drove up, and up, and up; to the east of Perth is the escarpment, where the high interior deserts meet the coastal lowlands. the house was right on the endge of the escarpment, and looks down over Perth. The breeze was blowing and the garden was full of native trees. The house itself was gorgeous; an old timber home, refurbished and fitted with heating and air conditioning, with a lovely veranda and real old charm. It's 99 years old, but in excellent repair. So we put in an application and waited on tenterhooks; the owners are overseas and we didn't expect an answer until Monday. Lucky for us, the real estate agent was a wonder and called us Friday morning to say - we have a house! Neil is signing the lease this morning.

They've just announced cake for morning tea, so I'll finish this later. Much, much more to say.

Our life in boxes

2006-01-17T08:50:00.000+10:00

Well, the packer came yesterday. One man for a mammoth task! He did it though, amazingly fast, so fast that we could barely keep up with him.

We arrived at Paula and Kelvin's place with our living arrangements for the next two weeks. The move is finally sinking in. The stress levels are going down, and being replaced with supressed excitement. Four more days in Brisbane.

We have five bags to fly over; one each for clothes, one with bags, bits and a tripod, the laptop and the camera bag. We wanted the camera especially so we can start taking photos as soon as we get out of the terminal. Unfortunately, we won't be able to post them until we get connected.

We had dinner with the Brisbane rellies on Sunday, and said a last goodbye to little Noah, who was cranky and hot. Next time we see him, he will probably be walking and talking. Wednesday we have dinenr with Mum, Thursday is my going-away lunch at work and Friday night is a barbeque with our Brisbane friends.

By the time we get on the plane, we're going to be several kilos heavier.

I'll try to post again when we arrive in Perth; there's bound to be an internet cafe in there somewhere.

Wait, do they have electricity in Perth?

Stress levels peaking this week

2006-01-08T21:03:00.000+10:00

We planned to visit the Port of Brisbane this weekend, for photographs and a nice morning tea at the coffee shop. Unfortunately when we got up at 5:30am, it was raining. While I love the rain, I'm disappointed that our last outing in Brisbane was washed out.

We couldn't finish cleaning up the garden either. The inside of the house is ready to pack though; just a few more things to tidy, mainly in the computer room. Everything is booked and paid for except the hire car and motel in Perth, which is getting done this week.

And that's is. This is the last week in our house. We got a letter from the real estate agent last week, reminding us that it was our anniversary; we've been in the house for two years. It certainly feels like home, and we will miss it very much.

Lets hope it doesn't rain too much this week, as that will make the final cleanup very damp.

Muggy heat

2005-12-29T16:29:00.000+10:00

Another early start this morning to go and explore Ennogera State Forest. We started at Bellbird Grove which, I'm sorry to say, has no bellbirds at all. Water was almost coalescing out of the air, it was so muggy. For some reason, the mosquitoes decided Neil was tasty today, and followed him around in a black cloud, completely ignoring me. There was much swearing from his direction, and a pledge to buy some aeroguard.

Our first photos were a perfect illustration of the problems of autofocus and very small subjects. This little White-Browed Scrubwren was about 2m away from me, foraging merrily and completely ignoring me. Because of the grey day, the fastest shutter speed I could get was 1/60, which just wasn't fast enough to get more than a blur. Then, just for a second he was still and I pressed the shutter button; alas! The autofocus decided the large piece of bark was a much better thing to focus on and the moment was lost.

A little further on we had more luck. We were examining an enormous Golden Orb Weaver and deciding whether or not he was photogenic. Suddenly there was a rustle in the foliage and an Eastern Yellow Robin appeared. He looked startled, as much as any bird can look startled, and kept flying from bush to bush around us. He had probably spotted the spider as well, and came in to have a nice, juicy breakfast. I grabbed the camera and started shooting. He was obviously curious, and flew around to several points to investigate us. This perch was his favourite though, and he returned to it several times to get a closer look.

Eventually, when it became apparent that we weren't going to move on, he flipped off into the bush. We went on a little further, hoping to spot a Whipbird, but only heard a few scattered calls.

We left "Mosquito Grove" after 2 hours and went back to Ennogera Reservoir, to walk along the lake and look at some waterbirds. There were very few waterbirds, but what there was, in abundance, was bellbirds. First up we saw a baby Scrub Turkey and a group of Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, who unfortunately became immediately camera shy as soon as I set up the tripod and flew off.

We set off along the walking track, dripping with sweat and cursing summer. We almost jumped out of our skins when a lace monitor exploded out of the grass in front of us. His camoflage was amazing; we knew he didn't go very far, but it took us 5 minutes of searching to spot him against a tree, hidden behind some grass. He gave us a once over, then decided to remain still rather than fleeing. This suited me fine, and I ended up with about 20 photos of him. This one is my favourite; I had to pull off a leaf to see his eye, and I thought he might run, but he stayed still and watched me. His colours absolutely glow and I suspect he has moulted recently.

We staggered home at 11am, covered in prickles and sweat, but it was worth it.

Small birds are hard to photograph

2005-12-27T08:24:00.000+10:00

I actually managed to get Neil out of bed at 5:30am this morning so we could photograph some birds at Minippi parklands. I wanted to get going early to avoid the heat and the haze. So, typically, it was a grey and overcast day.

We decided to go anyway, and I'm glad we did. On the lagoon as we drove in were flocks of black duck and this lovely pair of pelicans. They were a little nervous, but let me get fairly close to the bank with the tripod to get these shots. The reflections in the water were just wonderful.

A little further along we spotted some beautiful red-backed wrens, and I took about 20 blurry shots of the male, none worth showing. Then suddenly, out came the golden-headed cisticolas in droves. We counted 4 males in a very small area. Once again, tiny birds that are an absolute pain to catch on film, but I did manage to get some excellent shots, although a 400mm telephoto zoom wouldn't have gone astray. This shot was taken with the 55-200mm, f5.6 for those of you who are interested.

Because it was so overcast, the colours came up quite clearly and you can see his lovely red head. This is breeding plumage; for the rest of the year, they look very similar to the females, with striated brown and buff on the crown. They fly amazingly high for tiny birds; they would perch for a moment, then drive upwards, wings blurred, to survey their territory. They would zoom around for about a minute before dropping down again to perch and call.

We went further in the hope of seeing the birds we specifically came to photograph; the chestnut-breasted mannekins. Unfortunately, just as we came close to the patch of grass they usually inhabit, it started to rain. We shoved the camera back in the bag and hurried back to the car. The rain cleared for just a moment and then the tawny grassbirds appeared. Like the cisticolas, they were in abundance; we had 4 to play with in an area about the size of my lounge room.

They were in fine form today; they perched, they called, they argued with each other about territory and we took almost 100 shots of them alone. We even managed to get quite close without disturbing them.

Then the rain came back with a vengeance and we called it a day. Neil has gone back to bed. The rain has eased again and it's muggy and hot. I can't wait for Perth.

Superb Blue Wren

2005-12-24T21:31:00.000+10:00

I thought I would take a moment to test out the photo-uploading feature of blogger. The photo to the right was taken this afternoon in our garden. I'm sad to say it was the best of a bad lot. These little wrens barely stand still for more than a moment and are to small to use the autofocus. Picture me madly clicking and zooming and focussing and...well, you get the picture.

This is the male, who lords it over 6 females and immature males. He's quite protective, and spends most of his time watching while they feed. He's sitting on my Shasta Daisies, which are looking a little worse for wear after a hailstorm and a long hot spell.

We planned to go birdwatching at Eagleby Wetlands this afternoon, but time got away from us so by the time we reached the wetlands, the sun was setting. Even so, we saw 15 species in about half an hour, which is quite respectable. The lagoon has filled up significantly since our last visit and the birdsong was incredible. We counted 5 distinct flocks of red-backed wrens in an area smaller than my backyard.

We left when the mosquitoes discovered we were tasty.

Christmas Eve

2005-12-24T16:23:00.000+10:00

Just over three weeks to go until the move. The blog is up and running, though it will need some tweaking once we get settled.

Merry Christmas!