Sailing Photos

We finally scored some good weather again and got out on the water yesterday afternoon. This is Wed afternoon winter sailing, no spinnakers allowed. We're sailing in C class - 28 footers. Slightly less deeply competitive than normal summer racing, it's a great place for me to be learning the ropes so to speak :-) I got a promotion to fore-deck hand yesterday - learned how to pole the jib and only almost fell off the boat once. A few more times practicing and I'm sure I'll look just like an old sea dog. Got my official application in to join the yacht club so that Mike and I can toddle down for a roast dinner of an evening and have a comfy casual place to host drinks for visitors.

Some of the boat pens (as they are called)

Our crew - we're the only all female team racing on Wednesdays. We were on Bella this week. Left to right are Anne, Heather, and Kate - the skipper.

The city from the bow.

The club house

Sunset

Proof of our mad skills :-)

I'm getting a whole lot of pleasure out of sailing, and it's nice to be learning as I go along. The local yacht clubs are already making preparations and looking for volunteers for the World Sailing Championships in December 2011. I think that's something I'll pursue.

Walkies

There is a most excellent 6km/4 mile circuit that we can take for walkies just outside our door. The walking path runs next to the river and circles back over two bridges - Canning Bridge and the Mt. Henry Bridge. It's a well used path for families out for a stroll, bikers, runners, and people like us who feel some sort of obligation to at least SAY we exercised over the weekend. Yesterday I remembered to take my camera. It's the dead of winter so not many wild flowers to photograph but I'll try to remember to revisit in October in the spring time.

A paperbark tree - I love these and have to touch them every time I walk by.

Some boats moored in the river. One of them is named Zulu which makes me happy.

Big houses along the road A house I want. I have garden envy. Another house I want - also with the garden envy.

View from the walkway up to Mt Henry Bridge - the halfway point

Giant pelican - these guys are HUGE!

How does this happen?

So I'm minding my own business, and a job opportunity falls in my lap. Was I looking? No. Am I interested? *sigh* Yes. It occurs to me that if I don't keep a hand in business in some shape or fashion sometime down the road I may be in the lousy position of needing work and not being qualified. Better to take work than not I suppose. But it's a mixed blessing. Part of me likes the idea of getting out amongst the business community here to see what it's all about. Part of me really likes the idea of having my own income and not being dependent on my darling husband. And part of me recognizes that its quite true that the more you do, the more you can do, and I've become rather exceedingly lazy. Plus I need to keep the old brain cells functioning. Happily this would be different work from what I've been doing for the last 12 years so it would provide a nice change. Plus perhaps even a back up skill set that would give me greater career flexibility. However, I have serious scheduling conflicts - there's mahjong on Monday and sailing on Wed. I hope these guys understand a woman's need for flexibility :-)

Stuff I like

I expect this to be an ongoing theme. There will probably be Stuff I don't like too but lets start with the positives shall we? I like my ladies mahjong group. I was lucky enough to get introduced to these women while I was still living in the hotel when we first arrived. A company wife, Robbie, called and suggested I play and then was gracious enough to come pick me up and deliver me to Yvonne's doorstep. I also met Carolyn and Gaylene and Margaret that day. We've got Julie and Joan in the gang and hopefully Denise will come regularly if we didn't scare her off yesterday. A couple of women who played in the spring have already moved on with their husbands to their next assignments. Its the nature of the beast that people come and go though there is more volatility in this group as we're mostly expats. We call ourselves Beginners Mahjong since anyone is welcome to join regardless of skill level. There is a regular mahjong group too, but they keep score and from what I hear actually take their game play seriously. We do not. The game is fun (at least when the tiles are falling right) but I think for us it is a handy excuse to get together for lunch and a chat once a week. As I was leaving Carolyn's house yesterday afternoon I mentioned how much I enjoy the company of these women and we discussed why that is exactly. We're of a similar age, we're all (with the exception of Yvonne who works in real estate) trailing spouses for husbands in the oil and mining industry, our kids are mostly grown, and we're figuring out how best to cope with becoming 'a certain age'. But most importantly, nobody has anything to prove. These women have lived in exotic locales, traveled extensively, experienced glorious things, struggled with adjusting to moving and leaving family behind for years at a time, coped with raising children to be responsible adults, dealt with weird diseases, learned foreign languages, and scavenged back alley stalls in search of whatever "normal" cooking ingredient they used back home that they can't find in their new posting. It's the shared experience that makes it so fun and easy for all of us. We understand that when one of us tells a story about "that time I was in Timbuktu" it's not boasting, its just what life has been. We don't have to edit for each other. My friends are intelligent women. They've had professional careers of their own, kept things together under extremely challenging circumstances, dealt with being nomads, and coped with the weirdest and funniest day to day challenges you can imagine. They are grown ups and there is no one-upmanship, no gossip, and no back biting. It is a pleasure knowing them.

It's the economy stupid!

I find myself in the perplexing situation of actually wanting to purchase a book on the Australian economy. I scored A grades in my economics classes in college and actually enjoyed the study, but have never thought to myself until now "hmmm....I need to go spend $40 on a book about economic policy". I know its a function of coming from the US to Perth, but I've lived overseas before and never found myself as I do now, wondering from where exactly some of the (to my mind) odd economic decisions spring. Its different here for some reason. Case in point - the price of books. Books are crazy expensive here. A used and somewhat soiled minor paperback will still run $10US. New it's closer to $20US and Mike just paid $40US for a hardcover book of popular fiction. The reason books are so dear is because there are laws on the books (ha!) preventing their import. To my mind the poor state of the three local libraries I've been to attest to the prohibitive prices of books. To make it even more depressing, the main library for my general area of town did have a wall of new books displayed. But you can't check them out for a month. Yep - they just put them up to taunt you. The patrons are supposed to put the books on reserve and will I suppose eventually get their hands on the desired tome sometime in the next 6-12 months depending upon demand. It would be hard to get excited about reading all the books in an authors series when you know the choice is to spend a fortune, or wait an age to have your thirst slacked. So I'm really curious to know what other measures the authorities have deemed necessary to serve and protect the Australian economy. I know that the economies of scale countries with smaller land masses and/or larger populations enjoy are not options, so I want to know what the various governments have seized upon as solutions to growing and protecting industry and employment. I guess it's a whole different ball of wax.

Waiting...

Waiting for the rental agent to do their quarterly inspection. We are informed by letter a week or so prior that they will be appearing any time between 9AM and 3PM on a specific date. If we are out, they will let themselves in. This date/time are non-negotiable. The premises must be inspected. We are to make sure there's no visible soap scum or kitchen leavings. They want clean windows too but it's winter and they can just wait till the weather clears up for that. Yes, it's motivating. I wiped down all the baseboards and scrubbed the inside of the stove burners and I assure you there's no mildew lurking in the shadows but frankly, it irks the heck out of me. It's the whole "like it or lump it" of the whole process. As renters we signed a two year lease for vast sums of money after weeks of wrangling and assurances that if we leave only an "executive" can take our place. Snobs. I'm sure this is a fantastic deal for the landlords and in return we're treated with suspicion and a faint hint that they expect us to damage the goods. For example - I'm not allowed to make any holes in the walls to hang art that were not already in existence. Not even those removable 3M wall hangers. Nothing, nada, zippo that isn't specifically approved by the authorities. After owning homes (or being in company owned housing) since about the age of 22 I find this both restrictive and offensive. I'm mentally vowing that we will not rent when we move back to the states. Period. I need to get over it and just appreciate the view. PS: *I used a 3M hanger for a picture - lets see if they spot it! Insert wicked laugh here...*

If it's Wed it must be race day

Looks like the weather is holding enough for us to go out on the river to race today. Yay! The wind is blowing hard and we're in the boat without an engine again so it could be an adventure but I find that I can just sit back and relax while we're sailing despite exciting near misses and interesting weather. *update* No luck - the winds got up to 25-30 knots so the authorities canceled us today. Did get my yacht club membership application all signed by my sponsors though so good was still done. Last night I booked Mike and I into a boutique b&b spa in Yallingup for the long weekend in Sept and also booked us dinner at Leeuwin Estates for an elegant dinner. The plan is to arrive Saturday, get the lay of the land, enjoy an afternoon massage, and then the dinner. We'll stay till Monday and Sunday is completely unplanned at the moment. I can spend the next few weeks pestering friends to see what wineries we can't miss and hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy a long walk on Smiths Beach. This will be our first overnight excursion together since we arrived :-)

Sydney Day 4

Woke up to some cold and miserable weather on Tuesday but after our great good luck the prior three days it was hard to complain (much). We were right in the thick of the real working world - important looking business men and women bustled in their uniformly black and gray business togs. My sister and I felt like peacocks in a crowd of crows in our perky orange and blue sweaters. We speculate that because clothes are so expensive people don't buy as many and so want to make sure everything mixes and matches. Trinny and Susannah would have had a field day with this lot. We decided to head to Darling Harbour and the Australian National Maritime Museum. The celebration of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday continues with a free exhibit about his voyages on the Beagle. There are a number of replica and original vessels docked at the museum and you could easily spend hours exploring the Beagle, Endeavor, submarines, Navy ships, etc. As it was we spent a couple of hours just visiting the regular exhibits and the Darwin displays. As a big Darwin fan and prior visitor to the Galapagos Islands I loved seeing the original drawings of wildlife and speculating about how wonderful and horrific it must have been to be an explorer and researcher 175 years ago. The History of the Swimsuit exhibit was pretty snappy too. My brother in law and sister had spotted an interesting downtown food court so we decided to head there for lunch. The black clad crowds descend underground for feeding :-) Admittedly upscale for a food court it had all the falafel/kebab, Chinese, Italian, and European food stalls you could desire. Tea at the Westin and then off to the airport to head back to Perth. The airport was great, the flight and the guy with the obvious lung congestion issues (swine flu?) in front of me were not so great. It takes forever to cross this jumbo sized country. A great trip and Sydney is high on the list of cities I know I could visit again and again and always find something new and interesting to get into.

Sydney Day 3 - The Blue Mountains

Who knew there is an area called The Grand Canyon of Australia? Not me! The concierge at the Westin recommended a 4 Wheel drive "Adventure" tour to my sister so we figured, why not? The driver, Mike, picked us up at 8AM on a chilly morning and we were off with two other Americans from NYC - a high powered financial type named Henry and his 13 year old son, Henri. My sister and I were secretly amused by the Henri's orange cashmere sweater, button down shirt, and slacks...and later on by his obvious interest in the Olympic park and scoring tickets to the Opera while in Sydney. Not your typical entry level teen! That said they were excellent company for the day - between them and Mike we had great conversation about all manner of US and Australian politics, cultural mores, expatriate life, the global financial crisis, and sports. First stop was the local wildlife park to pet the kangaroos and koalas. This would have been a WHOLE lot cooler for my sister if she hadn't literally just petted two different kangaroos in the US in the past 3 days! She was shopping for slacks for the trip and mentioned she was heading to Australia to the sales woman in Chicos in Salt Lake City. The woman whispered "come with me to the back room". She had a 6 month old joey in a basket back there! Apparently they are useful as therapy animals and this woman raises them for that purpose. Again...who knew? Then since they were on the inaugural Delta flight to Sydney from LA, Delta has flown in a kangaroo as well. Basically she'd been overrun with opportunities to nuzzle marsupials before she'd even arrived! Still it was fun and the bird life, wombats, wallabys, crocs, etc were all worth the stop. We drove up through the 'burbs of Sydney, through historic townships, to the mountains. Since this was "adventure" touring we went off road in a national park. Mike dropped us on a dirt track and we walked down to meet him at the truck. Got the full skinny on how bush fires work to regenerate the shrubberies and got to see my first active termite mound up close. It stood about 4 feet high and was hard as a rock. We visited Kings Botanical Gardens for lunch then wandered around and got to interrupt a very erudite looking TV host filming a documentary. Would love to go back since it's all temperate gardens - great variety and the rhododendrons were almost in bloom. They also have Wollemia nobilis - an ancient pine/palm cross tree reputed to be a remnant of the days of Gondwanaland. The story of its discovery is pretty cool. Find out more here: Wollemia nobilis Then it was off to Govett's Leap and Bridal Veil Falls as pictured above. Scenic vistas abounded! Our final stop of the day was Scenic World! I'm still giggling about the name. Scenic World! Suffice it to say, Scenic World is indeed VERY scenic. And also overrun with large busloads of Chinese and Japanese tourists. Fortunately our trusty guide Mike knew the best way for us to see what we wanted to see was to take the reverse route of the hoards, which we did. I would actually love to go back earlier in the day some time to beat the crowds and browse the rain forest, mines, waterfalls, vistas, and bird life. We got to ride the Scenic Cableway, Scenic Railway (steepest incline in THE WORLD!!!! With Indiana Jones music to add an extra thrill), and walk the Scenic Walkway. The cheese was knee deep but they had managed to find genuine cool stuff to exploit. We got to hear the story of the rock formation The Three Sisters and watch the birds as well. There are four birds in the photo below. Our adventures concluded with a brief drive and stop at the Sydney Olympic Park. Most impressive! A fun day and we all really enjoyed Mike, Henry, Henri, and the Blue Mountains.

Sydney Day 2 - Bondi Rescue fan girl!

Not sure if you've heard of Bondi Rescue since it's an Aussie produced show...I can't even find it for sale on Amazon (out of stock). It's a reality/documentary show about the day to day of the lifeguard staff at Bondi Beach. They do something like 2500 rescues annually which means not only are these boys busy, and also that tourists can't read beach warning signs. You see their adventures in rescues, romance, crime, lost kids, injuries, etc with a hearty dose of humor along with the drama. I'm a complete fan girl...words like "OMG I get to go to Bondi and if I'm lucky I'll see one of the guys. Squee!" did come out of my mouth. It's ridiculous I know, but there it is. I love Bondi Rescue and am not afraid to say it. Check your National Geographic channel and you might be lucky enough to find it yourself. We took a bus from downtown Sydney to a beach south of Bondi to meet up with a former employee of my brother in law. They've been in AU since Jan and will only be here 18 months so they wisely decided to go water front. They know the area now and took us up to the cliff side walking path that hugs the coast. The first neato place we came to was this gorgeous enormous cemetery we had to cut through. I could have spent ages there reading the stones. The newest one I noticed was from the 1930s. Would love to have time for a picnic there one day reading about 100 year old family drama as played out on tombstones. Every cove and inlet had it's own name and own sea water swimming pool. The horizontal line you can see in the water is a barrier to keep big waves from washing swimmers out in the middle of their laps! After walking around several cliffs and coves, and seeing whales spouting and breaching offshore, we finally came to my own personal mecca....Bondi! Best of all...I got to see one of the guys I've seen on TV. The guy in the blue shirt exiting the lifeguard station. I knew I'd just humiliate myself by going all fan girl on him so contented myself with a shot from a distance. And the Bondi Surf Club. I know that one of the lifeguards purportedly lives in the top floor here. *Sigh* And lastly, more of the lifeguards practicing in the surf. I was a happy happy woman. And the beach, is freaking gorgeous. There's a reason people flock to it. I was all beach superior until I saw it but have to admit it's damn scenic. After lunch at an Italian place overlooking the beach we took the bus back to the CBD (Central Business District) and realized we had time to take a ferry ride out to Manly Beach as well. We hopped on board and had the great good fortune to sit across from a couple of Navy veterans who had been out on a remembrance march of some sort. They were still sporting their medals and had been celebrating the day rather liquidly before heading home themselves. They cheerfully told us about all the sights we were passing, weaving gently on their feet and only slurring slightly. It added greatly to the enjoyment of the trip for us all. Manly itself was a sort of Orlandoesque venue with family friendly boutiqes and kebab shops along a central walking mall. The beach, lets face it, couldn't compete with Bondi but was still worth seeing what with the surfers (shark bait) floating on the water while the full moon rose and moonlight sparkled around them. The return trip was as pretty as billed with the city lighting up as we headed back in. Dinner and an early bedtime were required as Monday was our 8AM departure for the Blue Mountains!

Sydney Day 1

Last post was 8 days ago before I went to Sydney, before I helped crew a boat to a second place race finish in the Wednesday afternoon races, and before I caught some mildly horrible cootie on the flights on Virgin Blue that could easily have doubled for t.b. quarantine wards. I had happily forgotten what it's like to travel in winter, what with it being July and all. Suffice it to say there was hacking to the left of me, snorters to the right, there I was stuck in the middle with germs. Took the midnight red eye from Perth to Sydney and arrived at 7AM on two hours sleep. Got all checked in at the Intercontinental (lovely hotel, all modern on the outside but built around an old brick courtyard) and the walked the 1km over to the Westin (even lovelier also with an old brick facade in the center) where my sister Laura and her husband Tripp were happily ensconced in a with access to the executive lounge. Thank goodness for miles! We were able to eat breakfast and have tea, coffee, snacks, and adult beverages at the lounge the whole time - and with continental brekkie running $40AU it added up over the four days. We immediately headed out to the Botanic Garden...gorgeous. My favorite part was this: The trees were full of these darling flying foxes which I remember fondly from our days on the islands of Indonesia. They were extremely grumpy - chattering and squeaking and fussing about. Would love to go back and see them take flight of an evening. The contrast between the noise of the days in the trees and the silence of their flight at dusk is amazing. We wandered all over the gardens taking the slow and scenic route around until "the" vista finally emerged. Just as scenic as expected! We eventually walked down to the Opera House, around Circular Quay, and up into The Rocks. We settled in to celebrate July 4th with a couple of pints and a patriotic wave of our little American flags at a pub billed, probably in a savvy marketing move, as the "Oldest Pub in Sydney". It did look the part. As did a few of the customers. Appropriately lubricated we walked (perhaps staggered) through a local open air market admiring cheap trinkets, finely carved wood, soaps, pungent unguents, and charming kangaroo scrotum coin purses *shudder*. Eventually thirst and hunger won out and we settled on an Irish bar for a breather. Begging mercy from my more refreshed relatives I managed to get back to the hotel for an hours nap before getting clean and dressed for dinner at a seafood joint in Darling Harbor. Apparently designed by a former Orlando FL resident Darling Harbor offered all the conventioneer treats one could possibly hope for - the aquarium, wildlife museum, endless restaurants, food courts, glittery lights, and cute young things. The meal was lovely, wine great, people watching better. After a stroll around the harbour my feet started yelling at me and we caught a cab back to the hotel for a well earned sleep. Day two - Bondi!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July everyone! The USS George Washington is making a call at Fremantle for the weekend and we made a special trip down there at lunchtime today to take a look from shore. There were plenty of locals down for a look as well. It's an impressive sight. As a Navy mom...*so proud* :-) Off to Sydney for the next 4 days and really looking forward to the trip!

Sailing!

I participated in my first race yesterday and despite our sorry 2nd to last place finish (with handicap) I had a blast. And was good enough and remembered enough from ancient sailing days to get asked back to crew at any time. So yay! I get to sail every Wed afternoon if I want to, and I do want to. We had an all woman crew and our skipper, Kate, is very good. She's been sailing for 18 years and is the wife of the Commodore of the yacht club. The boat is a H28' - I think H stands for Hobart. She's an old timber boat and while seaworthy is stripped down for racing so no head, no bunks, no kitchen stuff. Just boat and sails which really is all you need...plus some skill. We had a very dramatic near miss with a larger yacht out of the Royal Perth Yacht Club that caused us to fall to last place, and the wind was fairly light... the vessel is apparently better suited to stronger winds. Which reminds me...I want to look up who has the right of way in these situations because I think it was us. Somehow racing in a river is even more relaxing than open seas - the worst that can happen is you fall in and have to swim for the nearest shore after all.