September 26th: Silka's Day with Mommy

and a chocolate milkshake...

Sharing an order of pancakes at Tarts

It was Silka's turn for a day with Mom. We started off with a pancake breakfast at Tarts - Yum! Thank goodness she opted for breakfast and not lunch at Hungry Jacks - I don't think I could do that again. Then we were off to the theater to see the Smurfs. We got there a little early so we went to a second hand store where Silka purchased a cool little purse with her allowance. We ended up having the theater to ourselves - it's a good thing because Silka couldn't sit still and was crawling all over the seats. We went home for lunch, did a little bit of art and then Silka helped me do a bit of grocery shopping. We had a great day!

September: Wildflower Month in Western Australia

Silka with a "flower girl"

Grevillea calliantha

Well, I apologize to you, Aunt Cathy....

honey myrtle

another unknown...

September would have been a better month to come visit Perth, Australia, you being a wildflower fan. Like their fauna, their flora includes many species that are exclusive to this country - pretty spectacular! This past Saturday, Tom and I and the kids headed down to King's Park where they were having their annual Wildflower Festival. They put on quite a show.

mottlecah (Eucalyptus macrocarpa)

Much to Tom's vexation, I took many pictures. I couldn't help myself - I was in awe. Here are some of the highlights...

flame grevillea

scarlet feather flower

bottle tree

grevillea misty pink

pink gladiolus

Silka amongst the wildflowers

Kangaroo Paw

cowslip orchid

Mangles Kangaroo Paw

Three Flowered Pea

Donkey Orchid

unknown but beautiful...

cabbage white butterfly

Spider Orchid

Federation flame kangaroo paw

Macropidia fuliginosa (green kangaroo paw) amongst blue Leschenaultia

everlastings

the remains of a feathered friend

"Searching for REM"

"Searching for REM"

Since the kids came along, I haven't been able to sleep like I used to. I wake up frustrated more often than not feeling like I was awake for the majority of the night. Gone are the days when I would dream, dream, dream...In "Searching for REM", I am looking for those peaks in the night where we actively dream.

Silka's morning bike ride to school

Well, there are some advantages to living in the city - riding your bike to school is definitely one of them. Silka has adopted this activity with gusto - knee pads and all. I can just see it now...her BMX bike racing over dirt tracks in a couple of years....

September 19th: A Mom/Son bonding day...

hanging out at a Subiaco Cafe

going to the movies...

Rein and I were due for a mommy/son day so I pulled him out of school on Monday. After Tom left with Silka, we had breakfast together and got ready for our day. We left to go to Subiaco, a nearby neighbourhood, where we were going to see "Johnny English Reborn". When we got there, we discovered that the movie started an hour later than what was quoted on the internet. So, we went to a cafe to hang out while we waited. We talked about our adventures in Australia over some tea and a caramel milkshake. We then headed to the nearby second-hand store (op shop) where Rein spent some of his allowance on a footy ball that he found. We were then off to the theatre.
Other than two other people, the theatre was ours. We cuddled and held each other's hands the best we could with those theatre chairs while we laughed our way through the movie. We ended up at Hungry Jacks (Burger King, back at home) for lunch - I promised Rein it was his day and we would do what he wanted. Oh well, we've managed to avoid Hungry Jacks for 9 months...
We then headed back home with a stop at the grocery store. We then took his new footy ball and biked to the school park where we kicked it around until the bell rang and Silka was ready to go home. A fantastic day!

September 18th: Our Seventh Anniversary

Trying not to laugh as we wait 10 seconds

Ah, the happy couple

 Well, we have arrived at our seventh anniversary without an "itch"....ha, ha, ha...

We had the babysitter booked, had made reservations at a local Japanese restaurant and dressed up a little for the occasion. This was the first time we had gone out on our own since we arrived on Australian soil 9 months ago. We were stoked.

some cake and cappuccino at Greens & Co.

pleasantly full and ready to walk home

We had a lovely stroll to the restaurant - Ha Lu. We were introduced to this restaurant by Barb, my painting partner, and her husband Lee recently. It was one of the best meals Tom and I had ever had so we thought why not do it again? We revisited some of our favourite dishes: Duck and Aubergine Madiera Sauce, Wagyu Beef "Ishi-yaki" grill with fried onion, and their sashimi of the day. Click on Ha-Lu above and you can see all the other moan-inducing delights they create. After we were sated and our moaning had tapered off, we walked down to Leederville, another funky neighbourhood not far off, and enjoyed a piece of strawberry pavlova and chocolate halva cake with cappuccino and chai tea at the Greens & Co. Cafe. After realxing a bit and watching the night-life humming around us, we started walking home. We got within a couple blocks of the house and the skies opened up and we were soon drenched as a tropical rain storm settled in. We ran through the puddles laughing slipping around back and into the house.

September 6th: Kyilla Primary Sports Carnival

Go Selkirk!

Rein waiting to race

Rein running the Zig-Zag Race

zig, zag, zig, zag...

 The kids participated in the school's sports carnival last week. On the morning of, Rein woke up feeling extremely nervous. That translated into him stomping around and grumbling at everybody while getting ready for school. It was originally supposed to be the Friday before but they cancelled it because it was supposed to rain that day. Well, it did. Torrential downpours all day long. Tuesday was a glorious day - maybe even too glorious. Despite me slathering on sunscreen two or three times I still got more sun than I wanted.

Rein running the Flag Race

Silka running the Flag Race

The first of Rein and Sila's races that day was Rein's yr three 75 meter race. They were a tight pack the whole way and he came in with a respectable 6th place - he and I were very pleased. Rein's next race was the zig zag race and his team won for year three. Then there was the flag race and his team won that one as well. The morning was over fast and Rein ate lunch with me before the afternoon races commenced. Silka and her class showed up after lunch for their two races - a 50 meter run and a flag race. Rein and I watched and cheered her on as she came in first in her heat of the 50 meter race - we nickname her Silka "the bullet" Olvet. She was very excited. Then she ran the flag race and did very well - the kids were pretty cute trying to remember which flag to grab next.
Rein ran his flag race and then did a relay race after. They split the school in half and assigned half of them to the Selkirk team (blue) and the Vincent team (yellow). Rein and Silka are on the Selkirk team for carnivals throughout the year. The Selkirk team won that day.

which flag do I pick up now??

It was wonderful to be there and cheer them on! Rein's nervousness quickly melted away and he was all smiles at the end of the day.

having a great time!

Rein watching his sister

Silka "the bullet" Olvet

Rein playing with a classmate

Rein running the Relay Race

Father's Day Adventures: Decommissioned Fremantle Power Station

 We had a great day on Aussie Father's Day. Rein, Silka and I made Tom blueberry pancakes and rashers (bacon) for breakfast. We then allowed Tom to read a bit of the paper and then we packed up the bikes and a some snacks to go for a bike ride near Fremantle. We would bike for the afternoon and then go to Little Creatures Brewery for dinner. When we got down to Freo, we decided to bike south towards Port Coogee. The kids did really well in biking the whole way and we really enjoyed our meal at Little Creatures. An unexpected highlight was a decommissioned power station that we rode by that was located right beside a brand new subdivision going up in Coogee along the water front. Tom decided to check for a short cut along the water front to avoid having to go back up to the road. Well, we rode  to this abandoned power station with impressive art deco architecture. Signs soon revealed that it has been designated a heritage site. They also stated that all "Trespassers will be prosecuted". You can see the sign above the kids in the photo above. Anyways, this did not deter us. Back in Canada this building would have been surrounded by double fencing and security would have been present through video taping or in human form. In true cavalier but refreshingly Aussie form, it was obvious that it didn't exist here. I was trying to be the responsible one by demanding that we are not allowed to go in there but as Tom stepped over the crumbling threshold and the kids scrambled over after him, my own curiosity compelled me to follow. Well, we were awestruck. Despite the state the monolith is in now, you could imagine how beautiful this building was between 1946 (when it was built) and 1985 (when it was shut down). Over the years that it has stood silent, individuals have come and gone leaving their marks. It is now a show case of graffiti. It is beautiful in a post-apocalyptic way. Vegetation is pushing through the floors and growing over the walls, swallows would dive in and out of the hundreds of windows while we were there - windows that no longer held what were at one time thousands of panes of glass. Material remnants fluttered against the windows reaching out to the outside world. It was fascinating. There was an upstairs too - a grand staircase led you up there but I had to draw the line somewhere. Rein wasn't happy, of course.

While we there, someone was spraying some art out of a can, someone was setting up a tripod to take photos and there were a few others there to take a peek as well. I took a bunch of pictures and a video as I walked through (check it out below). There is another blog that has some great pictures posted of some of the areas we didn't get to: Urban Ghosts .