Christmas has come and gone and the weather is getting warmer and more summery with every day here in Perth. It's divine weather for spending the morning at the beach, the middle of the day doing something like a siesta (aka sitting at a cafe with friends and seeing how many hours lunch can possibly last for), afternoons by the river and evenings out and about. Something like the antithesis of the weather I remember from previous Januarys in the USA. Since I spent most of those Januarys feeling jealous and miserable about how much fun my Aussie friends must have been having, here are some photos to spread that same feeling to you... and to let you know what we have been up to.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Thompson family tradition takes us to Cottesloe Beach first thing on Christmas morning. It was a bit cool and breezy this Christmas though...
... which is why Gracie and I felt specially tough for having gone for a swim. The water was surprisingly warm, considering.We had a bit of a mad rush on Christmas Day. After the beach we were due up in the hills at Nic's Dad's place for 11... then at Granny George's place at 12... then down at Aunty Peta's at 3... by the end of the day we were exhausted, spoiled rotten, and marvelling anew at how much family Nic actually has.
Christmas lunch at Granny George's, by the pool. The outside table had the "youngsters" - Nic's cousins, their other halves (I guess that includes me), and in this case, Gracie and Pete (my brother and sister). Oh, and Uncle Wayne, who is young at heart : )Although I might not have been working as hard on my PhD here as I should be (ahem, that is, I have barely been working on it at all... ) we have been doing some good outdoorsy projects. Nic built a new veggie box for Mum and Dad's courtyard and we have been building new garden beds and gravelling the whole area. Its looking pretty good now - we just need to finish the reticulation (that's irrigation, yankees) and to plant.
Nic looks artistically tough, I lay out black plastic, the finished product.
We also did some boomerang throwing up at Nic's Dad's place. The George boys are pretty good at it. As for me, I throw like a girl. The boomerang did come back though, which was a first for me.
Sal Thompson, not likely to be catching a meal with the boomerang any time soon. New Year's Eve we spent in the sand dunes about 1 hour north of Perth. Well, it used to be 1 hour north, but the city has grown so much that its now about 10 minutes north of Perth. Its quite eerie - you literally drive by the "last house" on the northern border of the city and then its just dunes and scrub (beautiful), and surveyors pegs... suggesting that the last house will not be the last for long. Depressing.
Everyone on the beach just after sunset - pretty time of day.
Camping at "the bowl" - a sheltered spot behind the dunes, just back from the beach. It looks like a movie set to me, with all those bright lights.
Fire twirling later in the evening... Nic also set off some "perfectly legitimate incendiary devices" (aka home-made fireworks), but I don't have any decent photos.Those who've been paying careful attention might recall that ostensibly we are here for a wedding of one of Nic's best mates. Well, the "bucks party" (stag night) happened yesterday and was a bit on the non-traditional side - a full day at Rottnest (an island off the coast of Perth) and some dinner that night. Not many naked ladies, but lots of half dressed men... swimming, that is. Rotto is beautiful, I was seriously irked that this was a boys only event : (
Swimming at "The Basin", Lancer (the buck) gets ceremonially buried in the sand, the boys hit the pub, more boys in the water, Lancer with an attractive seaweed headdress...
Finally, Nic has some seriously talented cousins, and we enjoyed seeing them perform at "Clancy's Fish Pub" the other night. Emma is now a movie director, but sings the blues with the best of them, while Ben (the curly haired bloke in the background) belts out the Bass for the Waifs when he's at work. Yes, I am proud to be associated with these two. They're awse. Press play, go on...
Oh, it must be love...
Two more weeks of Aussie goodness, then back to Carolina. Back to work. Here's hoping for some motivation!
