Eggbert is gone. Bertie, the Billabong Caravan, is a bigger and better van! Geoff and Varena are still on their big trip - into their fifteenth year! Heading from Darwin to: Bungle Bungles, Tanami Desert, Alice Springs, Dalhousie Springs, Woomera, Lake Eyre, Nullarbor, WA, Eyre Peninsular, Melbourne, Canberra, Blue Mountains, Bourke, Cameron Corner, Toowoomba, Tully, Birdsville, and back to WA for 6 years! Who knows what's next?
Tuesday 30th December
SHE SAID:
Great start to 2026, pinch & punched Geoff, except it was New Year’s Day, V!!!!
A groceries run, washing done, more photo sorting & a haircut for Geoff.
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Museum of WA |
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I even found orchids!!! |
HE SAID:
Not exciting, but at least we left the house for a while. Aldi had a beer special that I liked, so I treated myself to a 4-pack of Coopers Sparkling. It has been a while, so why not. BBL in the afternoon, of course.
Monday 29th December
SHE SAID:
At Geoff’s suggestion we headed into the city for some ‘culture’. He came up with the Museum of WA, which had a special exhibition on of the Terracotta Warriors from China.
We spent probably about 3 hours looking around that exhibition & the rest of the museum. Quite a change for us to do something like that. Enjoyable, educational, & different.
For lunch we eventually found a Japanese restaurant, before going back to Quinns Rocks. Not knowing where things are in the CBD, I wanted a non-chain independent place to eat & to sit down. I think we should have turned left instead of right from the museum! Oh well, we worked up an appetite before eating!
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Perth's old gaol |
HE SAID:
Our day of culture! Different culture, anyway. We’ve been to so many small town museums over the years that we don’t bother much any more. While they can be quite interesting I have seen plenty of displays of the many uses for kerosene tins, old knocked-together houses, mining and farm equipment, tractors etc, that I usually give them a miss. So, I thought Varena would be surprised, and also enjoy, this one. It was a good few hours of wandering.
Sunday 28th December
SHE SAID:
Geoff & I had an hour’s walk to the beach along & back through the suburbs. It was mild, sunny & there were quite a lot of people out & about.
Other than that, we hung out at the house.
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Brighton Village, Butler, art |
HE SAID:
Our beach-side wander made a good change for me. I had planned to be glued to the TV watching cricket, but as the 4th Ashes test finished in two days I had an opening in my schedule. There was still BBL in the arvo.
Saturday 27th December
SHE SAID:
With Geoff glued to the cricket again I took off on another walk, this time up to the shops & across Marmion Road into the suburb of Brighton. The shops & suburb have small street sculptures & a series of lakes & fountains, which are quite nice.
Back at the house I ploughed on with this huge orchid day. I started yesterday; there were over 960 photos for the day, and I managed to finish it late in the afternoon!
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Lakes in Brighton |
HE SAID:
It was day 2 of the Boxing Day test in Melbourne. 20 wickets had fallen yesterday, and 16 fell today, with England stumbling to a 4 wicket win in just 2 days. I imagine that we will be hearing a lot more on the state of the MCG pitch. There seemed to be a large element of luck involved when batting, with the ball seaming all over the place. Commentators were saying that the ball had made divots in the pitch, and when hit by a subsequent delivery the ball could go anywhere. The match was entertaining, I thought, but not great for test cricket.
Friday 26th December
SHE SAID:
Almost 20C cooler today, & windy.
I went for a walk to Quinns Beach; I haven’t been out for a few days & felt like a wander. I guess I did about 5km, taking different routes there & back.
Geoff was glued to the Ashes in Melbourne, though it seems rather pointless as the Aussies have won 3 already, but…
We caught up on Teams with Mum, Julian, & Kiyoka in the late evening. They were good, and had a huge meal over at Michael’s yesterday.
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Quinns Beach |
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"Crayfish fence art"...rather smelly! |
HE SAID:
The Boxing Day test commenced at 7:30am so I was up and sorted before then. Luckily I’m on holiday! The test was a bit frenetic, with 20 wickets falling, and Australia seeing out the last few overs of the day with Scott Bolan, normally a number 11 batsman, as opener. There were also 2 BBL matches after the test, so I was in my element.
Thursday 25th December
SHE SAID:
I woke soon after 7am but dozed a little longer. When I woke again there was no power! We jumped up to get Marvin’s room opened up, as it is the warmest room in the house & we didn’t want him to cook if the power was out for ages.
Luckily power was restored within about 45minutes.
The temperature zoomed up to 40C by about 1pm, so we were very grateful that the power didn’t stay off for longer!
There was another black-out in the mid-evening, which only lasted a few minutes; it was straight after a burst of rain!
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Our current house sit. We were asked to "keep the lawn watered"! It was like this when we arrived!!! |
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Incoming clouds to cool the day down, a little! |
HE SAID:
Yesterday, for some inexplicable reason, I started and ran our generator, just as a test. Then this morning I thought it would actually be put to use! Waking to the power outage this morning I thought that I’d have to connect up the fridge, and maybe the router for a few hours. We were lucky that the outage was brief, I guess.
Varena did her usual wonders in the kitchen, putting on a very tasty roast turkey lunch, with all the trimmings. That was us done for the day, we just chilled at the house.
Wednesday 24th December
SHE SAID:
A photo culling day, with shows thrown in, plus lunch AND dinner!
What a day!!!
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Jes's favourite place, after sitting near Geoff that is! |
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Jazzy in her "mad tree" |
HE SAID:
Our day was another quiet one at the house.
Tuesday 23rd December
SHE SAID:
The new Blog Book is now in editing phase; I’m also getting through the October photos, & enjoying the quiet life here in Quinns Rocks.
The weather is hotting up as of today. it was 33c when we had lunch outside with high 30c’s & a couple of 40c’s predicted towards the end of the week. Then down suddenly back down to 24c! Wacky weather!
HE SAID:
A warm and quiet day at the house. I did not let the excitement of feeding the cats, clearing litter trays, and scrubbing the shower recess overwhelm me. BBL in the evening, though from this evening there is a cricket drought, if you call 2 days with no cricket a drought!
One of the dash cam distributors that was helping yesterday by phone, and whose wife has a phone like mine, asked me to try a few things this morning and let him know how it went. As usual, I did as I was asked; no word from him. Typical!
Monday 22nd December
SHE SAID:
We had a quick trip to Aldi for a few fresh things. We were back for morning tea; the Panettone went down very nicely.
A technician for the Dash Cam we have in the ute came around about 11.30am to replace our camera, as it had never worked properly since we got the ute. Geoff said it took 30 seconds to swap out the old camera & put the new one in, then 90 minutes trying to get the camera & phone to talk to each other…!
Dinner was Scotch Eggs & rice salad, followed by the 2020 Oscar movie of the year, Parasite. It was a South Korean movie, & different & good.
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Whilst sorting my photos a came on the gorgeous Numbat photos & couldn't resist putting some up again |
HE SAID:
The dash cam bloke rocked up and we sorted out fitting the new one in a flash. But this bloody thing needs a smartphone app to do anything, and that is where the problems are now. Originally the camera would have times when it just would not record, hence the swap, and I used to have no end of drama getting my phone to talk to it. But, eventually the planets would align and I would get connectivity. Now, with the new camera, we tried so many different combinations of phone settings, with just some brief success. And this is even after he rang a few different people for support! Hopefully the recording is now resolved. But what a crap way to interact with a camera. A few more buttons on the device would help, as would proper (written) instructions. We’ll see where it leads from here, but I have many doubts.
Sunday 21st December
SHE SAID:
I vacuumed & mopped through the house, managing to knock the whole bucket of water over on the final section of the wooden floor; pretty ****ing SPECIAL!
I did more reading/editing of the new Blog Book, & photo culling for the rest of the day.
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Perth |
HE SAID:
With the third Ashes test going into day 5 I was avidly watching, as usual. There were a few moments when I started to wonder whether the England team could pull off a miraculous fightback and win the match. Luckily, one of the batsmen had a brain fart, reverted back to the Bazball style of batting, and played a crap, and totally unnecessary shot. After that it didn’t take long for the Aussies to finish them off, giving us a 3 - nil lead. I was very happy about that.
Saturday 20th December
SHE SAID:
A cool 24c max. today, with strong winds.
I managed to get the Blog Book finished, sort out the cover & began the slow edit, reading through, checking for errors, aligning the photos etc. We won’t likely get it sent off to the printers before the new year, but hopefully soon afterwards.
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Flat out cats |
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Cute little Marvin |
HE SAID:
The Ashes test had me occupied for most of the day, again. This was followed soon after by BBL, so a pretty good day!
Friday 19th December
SHE SAID:
With Geoff heading out before 9am I decided to make a Peanut Butter & Chocolate Brownie in the house 'air-fryer'. I’d seen the recipe in the little booklet that came with the device. It was easy enough to do, there are now baking paper inserts to use for keeping the machine clean & for baking in, so it worked well. It was nice, very sweet & sticky, though possibly needed more cooking on the bottom?
Geoff returned loaded with goodies. I asked him to go to the British Bakery again to see if they had mince pies. None there, but he got 2 lots, 1 at the IGA & the other at Bakers Delight, plus pork pies, scotch eggs & Cheesy mite Scrolls!
Yummo!
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The 1st Strawberry from the little plant And the Desert Rose is starting to flower |
HE SAID:
With another trip to Joondalup I managed to get a few nice things, some for me and some to share with Varena. I thought I’d try a new beer that I had read about, and an old favourite was on special, so I grabbed them too. After that it was all about food! I resumed my cricket watching upon my return to the house, of course.
Thursday 18th December
SHE SAID:
We woke to the sad news from Mum that John had died last night. He has been in a nursing home for over a year & seemed frail last time we saw him in May/June. He was 93, so he had a good long life.
I spoke briefly with Mum in the late afternoon.
For dinner we headed up to Two Rocks, about 25mins north of Quinns Rocks. We returned to a favourite restaurant of ours Oscar & Sons; it must be close to our 10th time there over the 15 years of our travels. Once again the food was excellent, huge portions. I had the Palermo Fettuccine & Geoff had salt & pepper chicken with a mountain of salad.
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Two Rocks Marina |
HE SAID:
It was sad to hear about John's death. He has been a friend to Varena's mum for over 10 years and we have met him many times.
Our dinner at Oscar's was the usual tasty affair, though I don't know why they put hippie orange on my salad! Anyway, we enjoyed the meal, as we always do.
Australia is doing well in the third Ashes test in Adelaide. It would be nice to have a win, as that would make it an unassailable 3-0 lead.
Wednesday 17th December
SHE SAID:
MELT DOWN DAY.
HE SAID:
I was watching the cricket (day 1 of the 3rd test, in Adelaide), and when I emerged during a break I think Varena had started one of those days that makes you wonder why got out of bed. It was a quiet day of cricket watching, both test match and BBL, for me.
Tuesday 16th December
SHE SAID:
We headed for the shops at Butler for a few food things.
I made up a batch of muesli; Carmel gave me the recipe. It’s toasted, which I don’t usually have, but hers was delicious so I thought I’d give it a go.
Back sorting photos. I only have 11,000 to go!
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Aquarium Mural |
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Burns Beach, north of Hillarys |
HE SAID:
Our short trip out to the shops was uneventful. After that it was a quiet day at the house, with the BBL on in the afternoon.
Monday 15th December
SHE SAID:
I woke with a sore back this morning; it randomly comes on, usually when I haven't done much walking around. Geoff suggested we go out, but our options are limited as it is a hot, sunny day which isn’t great for walking outside. His suggestion was the Museum of WA in the city, yes cool.
Heading down the HW I realised that I’d left the split chicken for dinner defrosting in the sink. We couldn’t leave it there all day. So, we quickly changed our destination to Hillary’s Boat Harbour, had morning tea, & returned to the house around 12.30pm. The chicken was, thankfully, still cold!
As it turned out not going to the city was a good plan as there are still power outages from yesterday's storms, including traffic lights, which would make it chaotic trying to get around. We will plan to do the museum another day!
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No expense spared on this 21st century lighthouse...!!! |
HE SAID:
We’ve had a few very quiet days so an outing seemed like a good plan. I was hoping to help Varena’s back-ache with a walk around, and the museum sounded like a good way to do it. Oh well. Our shorter outing to Hillary’s was still OK, and we hadn’t been there for years, so no worries. BBL in the arvo as usual.
Sunday 14th December
SHE SAID:
The 40-degree day is on us; we hid away inside with the AC keeping us cool. Surprisingly, the predicted storm did appear; we had lots of thunder, dark grey clouds & a small amount of rain. Geraldton & Perth copped it worse, with power blackouts in both cities.
The start of the BBL Cricket was delayed with the ground covered in water - poor Geoff. In the end he had to watch it on the computer as all the TV networks turned to an unfolding terrorist attack at Bondi Beach.
HUMANS, we do SO HATE each other, SO F***ED up & SO SAD.
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Incoming storm from the north |
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21st Century chandeliers!!!😂 |
HE SAID:
I had been waiting and waiting for the BBL season to commence so that I could get my nightly cricket fix. Unfortunately, the line of storms that came down from the north meant that the first match of the season was delayed by loads of lightning, and a couple of good downpours. The match commenced late, and was reduced to 11 overs a side, with Perth beating Sydney Sixers fairly comfortably.
But the big news for the day was the Islamic Terrorist event at a Jewish family event in Sydney’s Bondi. About a dozen deaths so far, with more predicted. Why these cowards need to bring their troubles to our country doesn’t make sense to me. If they want to be heroes, or warriors, then perhaps ambushing unarmed children on a beach is not the way. The real hero, at least from I have seen on TV so far, is the unarmed 40-something year old man who disarmed one of the two shooters, and then managed to contain himself and not shoot the terrorist dead.
Saturday 13th December
SHE SAID:
A 34c day coming up, so staying inside with the AC on was the plan. It’s a great excuse that Marvin the Guinea Pig can’t tolerate temps over about 26c, so the AC is on for him...LOL!
For the first time years I made some savoury scrolls; delicious as always. Making them reminded me that Erica had given me the recipe. I hadn’t chatted with her for months, so gave her a call. She & the family are good, Maddie moved to Canberra about a month ago.
We watched the latest “Knives Out” movie in the evening, an amusing distraction without any thinking required, though Daniel Craig is looking old!
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Fur charges at the house |
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Jes the cat loves Geoff Barricades required to stop the cats getting into the master bedroom! |
HE SAID:
Keeping out of the sun and heat is the best for me. My skin just can’t take it. And Marvin’s sensitivity to heat is a good reason to run the AC. So, this summer will be full of quiet days inside, I guess.
Varena’s scrolls were yummy again. I do get looked after very well!
Friday 12th December
SHE SAID:
Another over 30C day, warm & windy. The bush fires have started, though thankfully not too serious yet, but the weekend is expected to get up into the high 30c’s.
A quiet day again, typical for us at this time of the year.
Digging out old & not so old photos for the Blog ATM.
HE SAID:
A very quiet day at the house, dodging the sun. As usual, we managed a few minor jobs, but I expect mostly quiet days for the next few weeks.
Thursday 11th December
SHE SAID;
It seemed like a warm night here last night; the ducted AC was on fan to move the air around, but it doesn’t seem that great in our room. We are in for a few hot days as summer kicks off, & likely to have quite a few whilst here. Hopefully when the AC is on it will be more effective.
It was a quiet ‘house’ day today.
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Kings Park, WA |
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Pukeiti Park, New Plymouth NZ |
HE SAID:
There were just a few small things to do today so most of the day was on a screen of one type or another.
