Rhonda Bracey: At Random

On my drive into town, I pass by a few paddocks that are home to several mobs (perhaps just one mob?) of grey kangaroos. These are wild roos, but they eat and laze in the paddocks, sometimes close to horses and houses. They rarely come onto the road, though you may see one on the road at night. If it’s too hot or too cold and wet, they hide up in the bush behind the paddocks and you can’t see them, but most days you can see some along about a 2 km stretch.

These ones were lolling about an empty block of land that’s for sale. The driveway and pad for the house have been established, but the roos have definitely taken over 😉 I’m not sure I’d like to build on that block — the garden would likely be FULL of kangaroo ticks.

See also: https://rhondabracey.com/2010/09/08/local-kangaroos/

It’s several years since we visited Gnomesville (Ferguson Valley, Western Australia), but we were out and about in the valley on Saturday after voting in the federal election. After having lunch at a brewery, we continued driving along Ferguson Road to the end where the big roundabout is — and where Gnomesville is. And the first thing we noticed was the massive population explosion!

From several hundred gnomes (at a guess) the last time we visited, the population is now in the thousands and extends quite some way along the road verge, down into the creek, up trees, on top of logs, under logs, and there were even some ‘outer suburbs’ some distance from the main settlement. There was even a bird 😉

And while I was there taking photos, some classic cars turned up, including a GORGEOUS 1951? Buick!

Living on top of and beneath logs

Living in the outer suburbs

A couple of weeks ago, we took a drive inland and into the hills and visited a few dams that supply drinking and irrigation water to this fair state. I knew the dams were pretty low last summer, but as we’ve had quite a bit of winter rain, I had expected that their levels by the end of July would be well on the way up. Not so. Most were in an awful state.

We’ve since had quite a bit more rain, but I don’t know if it’s been getting into the dams. If we didn’t have two desal plants operating, I suspect the Perth metro area would have run dry long before now. Not a pleasant thought.

Other than the parlous state of the water supply, it was a gorgeous day for a drive — cool and sunny for the most part, green pasture everywhere, a lot of the early wattles were blooming, and very few people were out and about being tourists like we were. But then, it was a Monday outside school holidays and in the middle of winter 😉 And of course, on such a winter’s day, what else to do but stop and have a nice hot pie for lunch!

Harvey Dam:

Logue Brook Dam (Cookernup):

Waroona Dam:

On Easter Sunday I drove down to Yallingup to spend a few hours with friends who have a holiday house down there. This was the view from their verandah. A perfect day, with enough wave action for the surfers. The place was PACKED.

My friends have two gorgeous parrots, but they are cheeky little buggers! They happily climb all over you, and, if you let them, they’ll kiss you and ‘clean’ your teeth…. and they’ll take anything shiny out of your ears too — like a diamond earring stud!!! Yes, the cheeky green one removed my earring and I didn’t feel a thing. Fortunately, my friends’ daughter was being vigilant and saw it happen so got it back from the bird… After she’d taken the photo! I’d like to have seen the look on the face of an insurance agent had I had to claim for a lost earring! Later, he tried to grab my necklace too. Thieving critter 😉

Caught red-handed stealing my earring!

Spotted from hotel window in Sydney:

Love it!

We had a busy weekend just gone. On Saturday I drove to Perth to drop off the latest batch of community quilts I’d finished, and to pick up another ten. Then it was off to the airport to pick up Dave, our good friend from the US (he’d flown in from Auckland via Sydney that day after spending a few days in NZ speaking at a conference). And then I drove Dave home to our place (it’s a 90 minute drive each way if the traffic is good; I left home at 9 am and we got back about 2 pm).

We spent lots of hours chatting and catching up, then we all went out to dinner to our local steakhouse (well, it’s a 50 km round trip, but local enough!). As usual the steaks were AMAZING, and then Dave finished off with his Australian favourite, Sticky Date Pudding, which he said was the best he’d ever eaten. High praise indeed, as he’s eaten plenty of them each time he’s come to Australia. My husband and I opted for home-made ice-cream at an ice-creamery in town (mine was a to-die-for mango sorbet!). Then home and to bed. Dave had been up for about 20 hours straight at this stage, and we had to be up early next morning to drive back to Perth.

Why were we driving back to Perth the next day, and how come Dave only stayed with us for just one night? Well, it’s all to do with a train and a conference. Dave’s done The Ghan each way from Adelaide to Darwin, but had only done the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth and wanted to complete the loop by catching the train from Perth to Sydney. As he and I are both speaking at a conference in Sydney at the end of this week, we both needed to get to Sydney. He couldn’t leave Auckland any earlier, and the train only goes on some days of the week. Thus the lightning trip to Perth (and he really wanted to see our new house, thus the extra trip to our place). Once we’d put him on the train, we high-tailed it out to Perth Airport to catch our flight to Sydney– my husband and I are taking a few days break in the Hunter Valley wine region before the conference. We’ll meet Dave again on Thursday in Sydney.

Our flight to Sydney was delayed about 30 minutes as there was a BIG electrical storm (lots of lightning) that came through while we were waiting to board. We were on the PER-SYD flight that uses the 747 and I’d been able to get us a Business Class upgrade on Qantas frequent flyer points a while back. So we were in the upper deck of the jumbo. It was the full upgraded Business Class too — with the lie-flat beds, etc. just like those used for international flights. There were only 24 seats in the upper deck with two toilets and two attendants. Very nice. Dinner on the flight was spicy dhal soup,  fillet steak with a panko and rosemary crust, thinly slivered and layered carrots, broccolini and onion, followed by Maggie Beer passionfruit ice-cream with almond biscuits (tulles?) and a sticky white wine. Absolutely delicious and all served on fine bone china (yes, I could see my fingers through the soup bowl) and with proper cutlery. I felt like a very full balloon after all that wonderful food 😉

We landed at SYD after 9 pm, some 30 minutes late (as a result of the delay out of Perth), and got our bags and picked up our rental car to drive maybe 200 metres to the hotel we stayed at overnight (Stamford Plaza Airport Sydney). Nice room, good hot shower, but the water pressure was a bit lacking. Parking was included (the carpark under the hotel is a real maze and very awkward).

We left about 10:30 this morning headed towards the Hunter Valley. We’ll stay in Cessnock for three nights as it’s spitting distance from the winery region.

My husband had a very sore neck/left shoulder as a result of the flight and driving to Cessnock, so when we got here we asked the receptionist about Chinese or sports massage. She gave us a flyer for Thai massage, so we went there and both had a 30-minute head/neck/shoulder massage. I think it was my husband’s first massage and he moaned and groaned an awful lot! (I was invited into the room while he had his massage) But I think the upshot was that he thought it was good! He was amazed by the strength and dexterity of the tiny little dot of a lady who massaged us both. After a good hot shower and lots of water, he’s now sleeping the pummeling off 😉

Oh, lunch was in Gosford at the Trackside restaurant. We shared a Mexicana pizza ($14.50 for a large) and it was more than enough for the two of us.

Bruises on the second day after the Thai massage…

On my way to the US, I stayed overnight at the Stamford Plaza Hotel at Sydney Airport. The room was HUGE, as was the bed — plenty of room to swing a cat, and even herd a few ;-). The shower had good pressure and good temperature controls. The bed and pillows were comfy, and the air conditioning temperature controls were accurate, with a low fan speed that was unnoticeable. The aircraft noise was minimal, but I could hear it, unlike the Hilton (now something else) at Melbourne Airport or any of the Hong Kong airport hotels where there was NO aircraft noise at all.

However, as is typical with Australian hotels, the Stamford’s internet fees sucked — 55c per minute to a maximum of $29.95.  I’m not sure if the $29.95 was per 24-hour period or per stay — I was only staying for about 15 hours, so I didn’t ask. If it was $29.95 per day, that’s an absolute rort.

Anyhow, I decided to try tethering my phone and using it as my link to the internet — and it worked well! I already pay for 1 GB of data per month on my phone, and rarely use anywhere near that amount as I’m usually linked via my home wireless network, not direct to the internet via 3G.

Here are some photos of my room at the Stamford Plaza (click on a small photo to see it full size):