Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Here are some pics from my morning walk (black swans) and from the drive into town twice a week (kangaroos)…

I’m getting more and more disillusioned with Australia Post. In the past few weeks, I’ve been expecting several packages to arrive, but to date, only three have turned up.

• Package 1 from my client in Perth — sent at the end of July/early August to my PO Box near Bunbury, some 90 mins from Perth. Has never arrived.
• Package 2 from a supplier on eBay based in Sydney — arrived in about a week.
• Package 3 from a supplier in Virginia, USA who I’ve purchased from several times before — two packages sent 3 August, one (clearly labelled ‘Pack 2 of 2’) turned up 5 September; the other is still to arrive… arrived sometime between 6 and 8 September.
• Package 4 from another eBay supplier in Sydney — sent 19 August via Australia Post. Not yet arrived. Supplier sent replacement package (at no cost to me) on 8/9 September — that arrived sometime between 13 and 16 September.
• Package 5 from my client in Perth — replaced Package 1 that never turned up; sent from Perth by ‘overnight’ Australian Air Express on 1 September. Arrived at post office 6 September. It takes 5 days to travel 90 mins??? Sure, two of those were weekend days, but ‘overnight’ is meant to mean overnight!

I’ve spent several hours via email, phone calls, and hanging at the PO counter trying to find out where these other packages are.

And back in April, I ordered a package from Sydney. It was sent on April 13, but it didn’t arrive until late June! Meantime, I’d contacted the people and got a refund after they determined that the package was signed for at my PO on 21 April, but NOT BY ME. I had to scan my signature from my drivers license and they had to find the signature in Australia Post’s system to confirm that I hadn’t signed for it. A lot of phone calls and running around on our respective ends.

Not good enough, Australia Post. Parcels are your biggest business these days. I’ll start using other (private) services if you continue to stuff up.

Update: Package 6 from my client in Perth — sent 13 September, arrived on or before 16 September. How this one even got to me is surprising. The person who sent it to the client’s mail room for posting stuck a Post-It note on it with my address. The mail room didn’t remove it, tape it down or replace it with a more substantial label. The parcel arrived with the Post-It note still attached — it was the only identification on the parcel. Amazing.

Since I left Perth 4.5 years ago, I haven’t had a regular massage. And for a person who works at a computer all day, every day, this is not good. My neck, shoulders, and back take a bit of a hammering.

So I was intrigued when I noticed that a Chinese massage place had opened up shop in what would have to be the tiniest shop in my local shopping centre. They only opened a couple of weeks ago, and today I thought I’d check out the sign in their window.

Well, checking out the sign became walking in and having the most amazing neck and shoulder massage I think I’ve ever had! 15 minutes for $15 (normal price $20).

I’ll be back. At that price for that service, perhaps once a week.

Interestingly, they are open 9 am to 8 pm, 7 days a week, which provides plenty of opportunities and no excuses for not having a regular massage. They are a walk-in, cash-only place too — no bookings, no EFTPOS/credit cards. And you can’t swing a cat in the shop, but they’ve managed to set up two curtained off treatment ‘rooms’.

The lady that did my massage had *limited* English language skills. But boy, could she knead my muscles and joints and pressure points into submission! She asked if I wanted hard or soft — I chose hard as I used to have deep tissue massages when I lived in Perth. I had lots of hurty points, which is no surprise seeing as though I haven’t had a massage in ages.

I don’t know if these gals are licensed or not or if have the requisite diplomas from the massage industry people, but having had a 15-minute sample of their ability, that’s not an issue for me! My back is thanking my masseur too.

Two weeks ago, right smack bang in the middle of winter, we had a run of some gorgeous days. So I packed a picnic lunch and we drove to Mandurah for the day. Here are some photos showing just how magical some days can be in the middle of winter here in the south-west corner of Western Australia. It was warm enough in the sun to walk around in jeans and a t-shirt — no jacket required!

To see a picture full size, just click on the small version of it, then click it again once to zoom in.

On the way home, we detoured via the local shopping centre then caught some magical setting sun rays over the Leschenault Estuary, before seeing ‘Humphrey’ the camel testing out the grass on the other side of his paddock’s fence.

A magical day.

Since then, the weather has turned nasty. For the past few days we’ve had several stormy cold fronts pass over the south-west, with howling gale force winds and quite a bit of rain. As I write this morning, I can see some blue sky, but more fronts are expected later today and into this week. For the first time in about a decade, we’re on track to get our average rainfall — it’s been so dry over winter the past few years that it’s easy to think that this weather at the moment is exceptionally wet, but it’s not. It’s normal.

Yes, eighty — 80 — cubic metres of mulch (tree bark) was the amount required to cover our entire garden to a depth of about 2 cm! We have about an acre, but with the space taken up by lawn, hardstand, shed and house, I’d guess there is less than half an acre of garden.

Three truckloads had to be delivered — and no, we didn’t spread it. Two guys, a bobcat, and a wheelbarrow took close to a working week (8 hour days) to spread it all out. If I’d had to do it, I’d still be going until 2020!

The pictures below show the delivery of the first load only — some 35 cubic metres. There were two more deliveries like this…

Mulch at the front of the block -- first load

Mulch at the back -- first load

First truck load

The garden already had tree bark mulch, but I think it was laid before the house was built (i.e. more than 4 years ago), and it was getting a bit thin and weathered in places (as you can see from the picture above).

The garden looks great now! And we got it all done in time for summer — hopefully the water retention will be improved dramatically.

All done

I try to go for a walk a few times a week, especially now that the weather has cooled down and the mornings are crisp and clear. Sometimes I only go as far as the estuary (about 1 km round trip), but last Saturday morning I did the loop to the estuary, alongside it for about 1 km, then back home — about a 3 km walk on roads and walking/bike paths.

I took my camera with me last Saturday as I needed some photos of trees for a quilt retreat I’m attending in a few weeks time. I got trees, plus lots more! Black swans (in the distance and flying overhead), blue herons, cows… even a camel!

Yes, a camel. I call him ‘Humphrey’ (if you’re old enough, you might remember the novelty song ‘Humphrey the camel’). Usually Humphrey is hard to spot as he lives in a big paddock with cattle, and I might be lucky to see him in the distance. Not so last Saturday — Humphrey was right up near the road, eating grass on the other side of the fence — where it’s always greener!

I’ve just put a couple of pictures from my walk here:

Click on a thumbnail image to open it larger, then click that image to zoom in even further.

This is the satellite photo from 2:30 pm this afternoon (Jan 28, 2011), showing Cyclone Bianca. She turned the corner (NW Cape) dumping rain etc. on Onslow and Exmouth last night. Now she’s off the west coast. There’s a strong chance she will cross the coast on Sunday, with heavy rain and very strong winds, somewhere around Bunbury. We live somewhere near Bunbury… We’re on cyclone watch now.

The unusual thing is that tropical cyclones typically don’t come too far south at this time of the year — they tend to stay in the Kimberley or Pilbara, crossing the coast there then petering out into a tropical depression over the inland areas, dumping rain on places like Kalgoorlie and Esperance. Later in the season (about March/April) they tend to track further south, though they’re rarely a cyclone by the time they reach the Perth area. Exception: Cyclone Alby in (April?) 1978 that wrecked homes in a swathe from Bunbury to Albany.

Of course, this cyclone may peter out, or just fade off into the Indian Ocean. Or collect more power, water and force and come screaming down the coast…

It’s time to get the outdoor setting into the shed, find the battery-operated radio, etc.

Oh, for my non-Aussie friends, to give you some idea of the size of this thing, the section you can see on the map is most of Western Australia and Texas would fit into it about four or five times over (depending on who you ask)!

Update: Satellite image from 3:30 am 29 Jan, 2011. That area of pink/red north of Perth is about to hit us now — 6:15 am. Sky has gone black, rain hasn’t started yet, but imminent. Thunder rolling… Oops. Rain just started. Very heavy rain — can’t see the estuary or the sand dunes in the distance as we normally can. And did I mention it’s hot? 28C in the house at 6:00 am.

Update 7:15 am 30 January 2011: Well, it looks like all we’ll get is some strong winds and some rain, thank goodness. The 5:30 am satellite image (below) shows that the main part of the cyclone has weakened considerably, so if/when it does hit the coast, it will bring rain and some winds. We’ve had very little of both so far, though areas to the north of Perth (Geraldton) and to the east of Perth (Northam, York) copped a fierce battering in that storm you can see in yesterdays’ photo — the big white blob with red and blue blotches between Perth and Geraldton. That one missed us totally and went inland following the other red blotchy bits. There are still plenty of warnings out for coastal areas though, as along with the wind and rain, there are also some pretty high tides.

See also:

• History of cyclones hitting in/near Perth: http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/history/wa/perth.shtml

I just realised that I haven’t written a few updates about ‘my’ cockroach that’s now living with one of the entomologists from the Australian Museum (do a search on this blog for ‘cockroach’ to see my earlier posts — or just click this link). The quoted bits are from his emails to me advising me of the progress of my cockroach.

April 2010:

At least one of the oothecae ‘your’ female produced did hatch – the young were a pale grey all over – I only found 5 but then they all promptly disappeared into the leaf-litter and in the few rudimentary searches I’ve made I haven’t seen them again. This may mean nothing as their mother can remain hidden and unseen for a few weeks until I get worried and start looking for her – whereupon she is found hale and hearty. The species seems to be very good at avoiding detection and the smaller ones due to their size even more so.

The ‘related’ species they are in with – which seems to be not that closely related based on behaviour – is far more obvious and diurnal and so far NONE of their eggs have hatched. The cockroach expert hasn’t been down to Sydney to have a look at all the bodies of yours and various others – for a while yet so I have nothing to report on that other than it seem to check out now pretty well with Polyzosteria cuprea but the expert on the group will have to let us know if this is indeed correct and or if the locality is a new record for the species or not. Either way they are very useful specimens for us of a species we had very few specimens of before.

8 October 2010:

… your original female cockroach has just emerged from her winters sleep and seems as healthy as ever. I haven’t seen any babies as yet but then considering how well she can hide amongst the leaf litter in the cage there is still hope that they made it through to winter as well.

25 October 2010:

Just thought you’d like to know I saw your cockroach again yesterday and she was carrying yet another ootheca. I have now caught her out of the main cage and put her in a smaller one where I can better track the progress of the eggs. Anyway clearly P. cuprea is a very hardy long lived species! They are also very good at escaping detection – I still haven’t noticed any babies but can’t discount them as the original female was so good at hiding that several times I assumed she was dead and started looking for her body only to find her hale and hearty.

I replied, asking Martyn who the female had mated with! His reply:

Well that’s where it gets tricky. Most insects mate only once and store the sperm for the reproductive life of the female (this can be years). Some long lived species mate several times over a long lifetime, and some, like certain beetles and certain cockroaches can mate with multiple partners and the eggs are either fertilised with a mix of sperm OR the next eggs laid get fertilised by the last male to mate with her – in the latter case the earlier sperm are still viable but must now ‘wait their turn’.

Needless to say this is what I am hoping is the case here as the other species in there with her – although of the same genus – is of a different sub-set of that genus without the speckled legs. It is unlikely to be viable as a cross as a result OR maybe she’s laying blanks like a chicken does. The purpose of this segregation now is to see if the eggs hatch and what they look like.

4 November 2010:

Just thought you’d like to know that the last years babies are starting to appear now in the cage. All look like perfectly normal P. cuprea but all I have seen so far (about 3 ranging from half grown to adult) seem to be females so it might be option 3 and the result of parthenogenesis or it might be that this species throws more female offspring than males. Either way it is good news and the result is a success so far. If the colony can continue from here will be the next milestone.

More updates as they come to hand…

August 2014: The final chapter

I had a birthday about two weeks ago, and spent about 10 days celebrating it in various ways!

My birthday was a weekday and a work day for me, so we started the weekend before and continued on into the weekend after it.

On the first Friday we drove down to Albany (Western Australia, not New York!), where we stayed for two nights. On Friday night we went to Rustlers Steakhouse where we both had the enormous on-the-rib rib-eye steaks. I had mine medium rare with blue cheese butter and my husband had his with pepper sauce. The sharpness of the blue cheese was a match made in heaven with the char grill flavour of the steak! Mmmmmmm….. Wonderful food!

On Saturday we drove to a neighbouring small town (Mt Barker) where my husband went hunting (vinyl) records in the most amazing ‘collectibles’ store. Amazing because it was almost impossible to move in there — there was SO much stuff. I had to remove my jacket and purse as I was sure I’d knock something over. There were thousands of books, hundreds of records, lots of kitchenwares, tins, toys, and all sorts of STUFF. The guy who owns the store is a real bower bird and I might have found something for myself if his store wasn’t so overwhelming! My husband found about 10-15 records he wanted (he didn’t actually want the records — just the info on them about the tracks, the producers etc. and the liner notes), so he bought those. Oh, and we bought some really nice shiraz from a local winery (Plantagenet Wines).

Later on the Saturday we were back in Albany and it was my turn to shop — this time at the local quilting fabric store (I lead such an exciting life!). We also drove around Albany and out to Frenchmans’ Bay, where stupid me decided I wanted to see the blowholes where the Southern Ocean meets the Australian coast. Surprisingly, my husband came with me (normally he sits in the car and waits until I’ve ‘been there, done that’). It was a long and fairly steep walk down to the blowholes — and it seemed like an even longer and steeper walk back up. I was stuffed!

We had dinner that night at an Italian restaurant in town.

Sunday we drove back home (it’s a 4-hour drive to/from our house to Albany).

On the Monday I went to lunch with two friends at the Apple Basket quilting store and cafe in Donnybrook. I didn’t buy any fabric! We also went to a clothing boutique in town where I bought an outfit.

On the second Saturday we went to my parents’ place about 45 mins drive away. Mum had her 79th birthday on the 22nd, so we combined my birthday and hers plus Christmas by going out to an Indian restaurant on Saturday night. We stayed overnight with Mum and Dad and came home Sunday.

My LONG birthday was over!

Some pictures from the area near the blowholes; I was amazed at the almost perfectly straight split in the large granite rock! Click a small image to show it in full size.

Here are the most recent items I’ve added to my Etsy store (http://RhondaMadeIt.etsy.com). I just love the ‘Finding Nemo’ tropical fish fabric — it’s so bright and cheerful; and the pea fabric. I’ve had the watermelon fabric before, so it was nice to find it in a store again. And the turtle fabric was for some of the people I work with.