sami's colourfulworld

100th POST and GIVEAWAY

2012-02-26T23:29:00.003+08:00

Well I have reached a milestone!
Not bad I think, writing 100 posts in less than 9 months! I never thought I would have so much to write about when I wrote my first post in June 2011. Sometimes I would write lists of topics, I would even lie in bed and try and compose little essays for my blog, and wonder whether what I wrote had any interest to anyone out there...
But slowly, I started getting more readers and more feedback from my posts and I started enjoying the interaction with my readers and blogging friends, and I´m having fun!!
That´s what it´s all about - fun and friendship.
At the time of posting this post, 8787 people from 90 different countries have visited! Wow, I find this amazing!
My blog is also a way to keep a sort of diary of my activities, my travels, my life...It will be fun to look back in a few years time and re-read these posts. Also, one day my "future" grandchildren will be able to read about their granny and her activities.
I´m now involved in the A-Z challenge and having great fun writing about my adoptive country - Australia.
On the right under the Australian flag, you will find a link to all 7 posts to date - A to F posts and A again!
Next week I will carry on with the G and so forth, I´m trying to do them alphabetically and have all topics mapped out.

In honour of my 100th post I would like to do a giveaway, which is open to all friends, followers or potential followers worldwide:
I will be giving two of you, a painted wooden box, decorated with the serviette technique, similar to these ones.

Rules:
- Please leave a comment under this post with your chosen colour/colours, so I can paint one specifically to your taste. If you would like a specific theme for the serviette mention that, as I have hundreds of them, so I might have what you like: eg. flowers and colour of flowers...

- If you don´t have a blogger profile, leave your e-mail address, so that you can be rewarded if you are the winner. (to avoid spam into your account, write the e-mail address in this format: mary at gmail dot com"

- You can also leave a comment on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/sami-colourfulworldblog/238817216155544?sk=wall

- The giveaway will be open for two weeks, closing on Monday 12th March. The winner will be announced a few days later and of course notified via email and on a blog post.

So, participate and good luck!

A to Z of Australia - A is for Adelaide

2012-02-20T00:40:00.001+08:00

I’ve gone back to A for the simple reason that I have just spent a few days visiting the city of Adelaide

and wanted to let you know about it.

Adelaide is the capital of the state of South Australia. It’s about 1700km from Perth and it takes about 3,30h to fly there, and they are 2,30 hours ahead of WA. (We don´t have daylight savings in Western Australia).

It’s a smaller city than Perth, with a lot to see in the neighbouring regions – two distinct wine regions, the Hills, etc. The River Torrens creates a division between the city centre and the suburb of North Adelaide, and both are surrounded by various parks creating a green ring around the city.

As this was my second visit to Adelaide, I tried to see things I hadn’t visited before such as the Botanic gardens, the Himeji Japanese garden and the beautiful older suburbs of North Adelaide and Norword as well as a drive through the northern coastal areas.

I absolutely loved the Himeji Japanese gardens, a small oasis in the middle of the city, in the corner of South Terrace and Glen Osmond Road.

The Lantern in the Himeji garden

The Lake at the Himeji garden

The Botanic Gardens, also in the city are one of the most visited attractions, situated right next to the Adelaide Hospital. The most interesting for me was the Amazon Waterlily Pavillion, a glass house with specially controlled temperature where you can find the Brazilian Waterlilies. The Palm House, another heritage glass building displays plants from Madagascar, and the modern Bicentennial Conservatory (entrance fee applies to this one) houses an indoor tropical forest. There is a huge Rose garden with a variety of roses in various shapes and colours and a beautiful and very cool avenue of Moreton Bay Fig trees (Ficus macrophylla) - Murdoch Drive - (named after the media mogul Rupert Murdoch), which is believed to have been planted in 1866, the oldest avenue of Fig trees in Australia.

Tropical Forest in the Bicentennial Conservatory and Rose Garden

The lovely and cool Murdoch Drive, full of Fig trees

The Amazon Waterlily

A field of Lotus Flowers

In the Botanic gardens you can visit the few museums of its kind - the Santos Museum of Economic Botany - where you can learn all about plant materials: seeds, fruit, dyes, baskets, resins, poisons, etc.
A most interesting museum and I was told the only one in the Southern Hemisphere.
Have a rest and something to eat and drink at one of the cafe´s in the park under the shade of some lovely trees overlooking a lake full of ducks, black swans, fish and turtles, or just take your picnic basket and lie on the grass and enjoy the day.

The river Torrens, north of the city centre, with the Convention Centre at the end.

The Festival Centre with river Torrens on the left

The Central Market, where you can buy lovely fresh produce, meat and fish

Adelaide Arcade in Rundle Mall

Inside the lovely Adelaide Arcade

Next Friday 24^th is the start of the “Adelaide Fringe Festival” with over 250 different acts playing all over the city, and this Friday (17th) on my way home via Rundle mall, (a pedestrian zone where the beautiful Adelaide Arcade can be seen), I stopped to watch a sample of some of the acts, and ended up staying for about 1hour just relaxing and enjoying the party atmosphere.
Adelaide is known as the city of churches, and the State of South Australia is known as the "Festival State", as apparently there is always some festival happening in or around Adelaide.

Sample of some of the Fringe Festival acts in Rundle Mall

We stayed in Glenelg, a coastal suburb, south east of the city centre. Being summer it was always full of people walking around the shopping areas, sitting at cafes or restaurants and a few at the beach, either swimming or fishing.

Beach at sunset taken from our hotel room

Some of the sun-sets at Glenelg Beach, taken from the hotel Oaks Pier Hotel

Life saving clubs Iron Man competition on Sunday 19th Feb.

Set of 8 Terraced Apartments built in 1884, with 3 floors, in front of Grange Beach

Looking to Glenelg Beach, where we stayed

Victorian Buildings, all very well conserved

One of the highlights was visiting the suburb of North Adelaide and Norwood, some of the oldest suburbs in the city, where you can see lots of Victorian houses, all very well preserved. Both suburbs have a "cafe strip" - a street full of restaurants, cafes and interesting boutiques. In Norwood it´s "The Parade" and in North Adelaide, you find it in Melbourne St and O´Connell Street.

The only downside I found in Adelaide, was the road infrastructure not as good as in Perth and the public transport system is (for me at least) a bit confusing with buses that change numbers halfway through their route, buses seem to run late or do not appear as per the timetable... There are two free bus services, one service provided by the council and the other provided by the Adelaide transport authority, but timetables or maps are only available online, so difficult for tourists to get on a bus they don´t know exists or where it stops. (I was told this is because the services don´t make money, but in Perth we have 3 routes with free buses in the city and there are maps and plenty of information available).
But I walked and walked and walked, used the tram from Glenelg to Adelaide, asked directions from bus drivers, and on the weekend my husband drove me around to the places further away.
All in all a very enjoyable stay!!

A to Z of Australia - F is for Fremantle

2012-02-09T00:39:00.002+08:00

As I was putting the finishing touches to my post about Fremantle, I heard on the 1o´clock news that the Queen Mary II was docked in Fremantle for the day and was departing at 5pm. I could not pass the opportunity to see this grand ship, and to photograph it to go with my post about Fremantle.
So I took a train and waited a couple of hours until her departure to Adelaide.
Photos can be seen at the end of this post and a sequence on the PHOTOS page as well.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Fremantle or Freo, as the locals affectionately call it, is the main sea port for Perth, and it´s about a 20min drive from the city centre.
It was named after Captain Charles Howe Fremantle, an English naval officer who established a camp in the area.

A container ship coming in, on the right side the WA Maritime Museum

The same container ship being tugged into the harbour

It´s a multicultural city, with charming 19th century architecture and a fascinating maritime and convict history too.
All of my visitors to Perth have enjoyed spending a few days trailing the tourist spots like the Fremantle prison, the WA Maritime Museum where they have the Welcome Walls, full of names of immigrants and the ships they arrived in at the Fremantle port, or a peep at the weekend Fremantle markets where they stock up on the souvenirs to take back home.

The Welcome wall at the WA Maritime Museum where names of immigrants and the ships they arrived in are recorded

The atmosphere in Fremantle is relaxing, there are a lot of street cafes, fresh fish and chips restaurants by the harbour and a few breweries too. A lot of people that own boats have them in stacking storage in Fremantle.
At night the pubs and clubs are alive with music, lights and lots of people.

Bon Scott- Scottish born who migrated to Australia at the age of 3, lived in Fremantle, died in 1980 and buried at Fremantle cemitery. He was the lead vocalist of the rock group AC/DC.

The statue of the cray fisherman and behind a few of the Fish and chips restaurants by the harbour

The stacked boat at he harbour

The Round House in Fremantle´s west end, was the first jail built in limestone in 1830 by the convicts, with just 8 cells and the jailer´s residence. A tunnel was later built under the Round House to provide whalers with access to the town from the beach and jetty. In the West end you can see a lot of Georgian and Victorian style housing, and a lot of new conversions into modern style apartment living.

The Roundhouse - first Fremantle prison

The West end, by the Roundhouse - Victorian buildings

An old side facade with a new apartment block built behind it

When a new prison building was built to accommodate the 75 convicts that arrived from Britain in 1850, the Round House was inadequate and a new prison was built, by the convicts once again. It was finished in 1850 and was last used in 1991. The conditions were deplorable, not enough bathroom facilities for all the inmates, hangings were commonplace, and eventually a revolting crowd set fire to it, causing some damage to the ceiling. A few years later is was closed.

The Prison

It is now a popular venue with the tourists, with night Ghost tours, tours to the underground tunnels and inside tours to visit the rooms, chapel, courtyard, and to see the wall art of the prisoners.

Artwork painted on the walls of the cells

A boat built with Porridge by one of the inmates

Prison gates looking into the courtyard

The Fremantle Arts Centre, another building built by convicts in 1860. It was formerly an asylum, today used for art exhibitions and music concerts.

The Markets which were opened in 1897, are opened from Friday to Sunday only and you can find over 150 stalls selling crafts, speciality foods, and a section for fruit and vegetables and fish. Outside a lot of buskers and street performers vie for your attention and tips.

The Fremantle Markets

Nearby the National Hotel, another historic building was almost destroyed by fire in 2007, and though the interior was gutted, the facade was saved and the building has been fully restored.

The National Hotel

Some of the lovely buildings in Fremantle

Fremantle War memorial at Monument Hill has 360º views of Fremantle

As I mentioned at the beginning, I had the great pleasure of seeing the Queen Mary II departing from Fremantle to Adelaide this afternoon. She truly is a majestic ship! There were thousands of people all over the harbour and the atmosphere was of excitement and awe. It was lovely to see a lot of small vessels accompanying the liner to the open sea.

When I grow up I also want to travel on the Queen Mary or a similar one!

The WA Maritime Museum with Queen Mary II

A lot of small vessels followed the liner to sea, and passengers waved and shouted "Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie" while the well wishers shouted back "Oi, Oi, Oi"

The Liebster Blog Award

2012-02-05T16:52:00.001+08:00

Alyson from Algarve Blog , awarded me the Liebster Award a few days ago. Thanks for award, really grateful for it.
Unfortunately I have been quite busy the last couple of days which accounts for the fact that it took me quite a while to post about it.
Having lived in Germany I know "Liebster" means "dearest" which is quite sweet. This award is given to newcomer bloggers with less than 200 followers to give them some encouragement.

As a recipient of the award the rules are:
1 - Accept the award and congratulate the bestower on her well deserved award - http://algarveblog.net/2012/02/01/special-awards/
2 - Link back to her blog http://algarveblog.net/
3- Nominate 5 new people, whose blogs I have enjoyed, to receive this award. Don´t forget to notify them.

(Because I had previously received a Liebster award, this time I will nominate 5 new bloggers, although it´s just so difficult to choose from the many talented bloggers I have come across...

You can also copy the Award logo to the sidebar of your blog.

My Nominations are:

1 - The serial expat diaries - http://anexpatwife.blogspot.com.au/

a blog about a family of 4 on the move, the latest one to Thailand.

2 - Granny´s 1947 blog - http://granny1947.wordpress.com

a one-liner´s blog written by a funny granny from South Africa.

3 - Letras á solta - http://www.celestecortez.blogspot.com
a Portuguese blog about writing, poetry...

4 - Life and other things on my mind - Lian, a young lady from the Netherlands, also taking part in the A-Z challenge. - http://liannouwen.nl

5 - Expatlogue - another expat blog reporting from Canada, also taking part in the A-Z challenge - http://expatlogue.wordpress.com

I seem to be attracted to expat blogs, I wonder why?

Have fun and spread the Karma!

A to Z of Australia - E is for Esperance

2012-01-28T00:18:00.002+08:00

French explorers are credited with being the first to come on land in 1792, in Southern Western Australia, in the town that was then named after a French ship - Espérance - or Hope. Esperance, is located 750km south east of Perth.

The town lives from tourism, fishing and agriculture. When we first went there in 2009 I actually thought it far from touristy although we went at Easter time.
It certainly was totally different from the way I pictured it would be; i.e. like most beach towns in Europe for example, full of tourists, loads of shops and restaurants along the coast...Instead it was a sleepy town of about 9000 people, and although the 3 or 4 camping places in the town were full, not many people were on the beaches, and with the exception of one restaurant on the Pier, all others were in the city centre.
As you can attest from the photos, the beaches are beautiful, the sand is so fine and white, the water is clear, but they are empty.

Some wonderful rock formations at sea

That coastline has been voted as having Australia´s best beaches and whitest sand.

The mostly calm sapphire waters are crystal clear and you can swim, surf, snorkel or fish.

There are a whole lot of camping places and accommodation to suit all budgets.

Plenty of variety of fish to catch.

Just off the coast there are about 100, mostly untouched islands - The Recherche archipelago - with colonies of sea eagles, sea lions and fur seals. You can visit some of them by boat.

We met the friendly resident seal by the Pier - "Sammy", who likes to meet the tourists and waits for the fishermen to throw him a morsel.

Esperance became known as the place where pieces of the NASA´s space station Skylab crashed when the craft broke up over the Indian Ocean in 1979..

The San Francisco Examiner newspaper offered a $10,000 prize for the first piece of Skylab to be delivered to their offices. A 17 year old, Stan Thornton scooped a few pieces from the roof of his house, and caught the first flight to San Francisco, where he collected his prize.
What a lucky young man!

The United States was fined $400 for littering, and the fine was paid about 10 years later by Highway Radio´s show host Scott Barley, who raised the funds from his listeners.
I´m not sure why the US Government or NASA didn´t pay the fine?

Apart from spending some time at the various beaches, we did some walking around town to visit some quaint village shops, we visited the Museum and also had some relaxing time in the camping place.
A funny thing happened to us when we arrived at the camping place in the early evening of the first day in Esperance.
As we attempted to set up our tent, we realized we had forgotten some of the tent poles.
Needless to say the shops were already closed! So, all we could do was put down the back car seats, inflate our mattress, but only halfway...as otherwise it wouldn´t fit inside the boot, and we had a most uncomfortable night, tossing and turning in a half filled mattress.
We hung towels from the car windows to block the view inside, as we were next to one of the paths to the outside, as well as block the early sun in the morning.
The next day right after our breakfast we drove around trying to find a shop that sold camping gear and we bought the poles. Lesson learned, they were never again forgotten!
I wasn´t yet the photography freak I am now, so sadly I didn´t take photos of our car-bed.
I would certainly recommend a relaxing holiday in Esperance.

On the way back to Perth we drove by Corrigin, a small farming town 325km South east of Perth to visit unique "Dog cemetery" which was established in 1974 and is the burial place to over 80 beloved pets. There are some beautiful tributes from wonderful dog-owners.

We also visited the famous Wave Rock on the way back to Perth, but you will have to wait for it when I get to the letter W!

AUSTRALIA DAY - 26 January

2012-01-25T16:55:00.002+08:00

This will be our 5th Australia day celebrated in this country.
I can still recall the first one, when we joined another couple, also recent immigrants, and we took our picnic baskets in the early afternoon and made our way among the crowds to as near the river as possible in the suburb of South Perth to enjoy the atmosphere and the fireworks.
Australians are very Patriotic when it comes to celebrating this special day. I can remember in Portugal most people just enjoy a day off work but certainly do not join in any celebrations. The day is mostly about speeches by Government leaders anyway...Maybe a few parties and concerts would bring a bit of cheerfulness to the people!

Here, in many towns and cities, people will be celebrating, having a barbecue at home with friends, going to the beach dressed in swimwear with the Australian colours, attending special concerts, having free breakfast in various parks organized by clubs or ultimately joining the huge crowds around the various areas where there will be fireworks displays.

In Perth, the fireworks will be set off from boats in the River Swan, and the fireworks will be visible from the various parks in the city´s Esplanade foreshore, Kings Park and the South Perth foreshore.
Boat owners are allowed to be in demarcated areas in the river and watch from their boats.

Even Eliza, the statue on the River gets dressed for the occasion

Flying the flag in their cars

Typical merchandise sold in various shops

This day is one of the busiest events of the year across the country and one of the busiest for the Police, trying to enforce non-drink policy outside allocated areas, crack down on drunken and anti-social behavior, etc, no easy feat when there are about 400,000 people at the "Skyworks" zones in Perth. Last year after a huge Police presence, only 23 people were arrested in Perth, due to drunken behavior, the lowest number ever, so the measures seem to be working.
This year drinking in the demarcated areas only, will be restricted to 1 bottle of wine per adult or a 6 pack of beer or pre-mixed drinks, and drinking is only allowed from 6,30 to 8,45pm.
It will be a very hot day, 40ºC, so it´s expected people will arrive later and drink less.
Fireworks and laser show start at 8pm, accompanied to music from a Radio station and lasts for 30 minutes. The ceremonies will later be transmitted on Channel 7 TV.

Fireworks and Laser shows accompanied to music from a Radio station Mix94.5

An interesting highlight of this day, will be the Citizenship ceremonies performed at various City councils, awarding Australian Citizenship to immigrants who qualify. A day of pride and celebration for them!

In the capital city of Canberra, on the evening of the 25th, the Prime Minister will award medals to 4 deserving Australians in the following categories: Australian of the year, Senior Australian of the year, Young Australian of the year, and Local Hero. Nominees are chosen from the 8 people in each of the the 4 categories, nominated by the general public. All ordinary people who work selflessly for the benefit of their country and countrymen.
PS: The Australian of the Year 2012 has just been announced as being the Actor Geoffrey Rush.

Wherever you may be celebrating, enjoy your day, don´t drink too much, and stay in the shade!
We will be joining some friends for an early swim and bbq at their house and later will go mix with the crowd to watch the fireworks. The atmosphere is always amazing!

A - Z of Australia - D is for Driving, Drinking and Dressing

2012-01-20T22:45:00.007+08:00

My 3 D´s in one!
Driving is done on the left side of the road, steering wheel on the right side of the car.
Having been in Europe 12 years it took quite a few weeks to get used to it, I would either sit on the left side and realize there was no steering wheel or when driving out of a parking lot I would observe the others to see which side I should go to. Why can´t the whole world drive on the same side?
Another change was from a manual car to an automatic! I was petrified of an automatic at first, kept on looking for the gears when driving, of course the indicator and the screen wipers are also on the opposite side, so I would be flicking the wipers instead of the indicator...
Nowadays I cannot imagine driving a manual car again, it´s just so easy with an automatic.
In fact when I went to Portugal in November and drove my Dad´s car, I almost gave him a heart attack when I didn´t know how to put the reverse gear on, and when driving in built up areas I kept on forgetting to change gears...

Changing my Portuguese driver´s licence was easy. We had ours officially translated, but when we went into the Department of Transport and handed in the translations as well as the certified copies of the originals the guy just handed back the translations and said that as all European licences are the same they knew what to look for.

So, fill in form, have your photo taken right there, do your eye test, chose if you want to pay your licence yearly or 5 yearly, and half an hour later (I swear, it only took half an hour!!) we were called and given our provisional licences. Within 2 weeks we had our originals. Because Australians don´t have an ID document like they have in Europe, the driver´s licence card is considered and ID, another one would be a Passport if you have one.

I was impressed, that was our first dealing with a Government department, and they were very efficient!!
Holders of licences from most Non-European countries will have to do a theory test or a driver assessment test. Also this only applies to Western Australia, as rules are different for all States. You even have to change licences if you move to another State.

My son Michael had done his driver´s licence in Portugal less than 2 years before we came, which meant he had to display a P plate on his back window when driving, until he had the licence for 2 years. (Now 3 years).
Nowadays restrictions for P platers (Provisional licence) have been increased and they are not allowed to drive between midnight and 5am, they must have 0 blood alcohol at all times, etc ...There has been talks of restricting P platers from driving potent cars as well, as there have been quite a lot of fatal accidents with youngsters who lose control of their cars (or probably their parent´s potent car...).
Learner drivers must drive with a qualified driver and display an L plate on their car.

Because Perth is a fairly quiet and relaxed city, traffic is not too chaotic, unless there is an accident or roadworks...Peak hour is usually not too bad either, if you compare it to the bigger cities of Melbourne or Sydney. Main traffic congestion at peak times is to or from the city centre.

Speed limits are 50km in urban areas, 60 or 70km in main roads and 100km in the highways.
If driving in front or close to a school during the allocated times in the sign, you must not exceed the 40km speed limit.
Australian love their potent motors, but I don´t see much point in having those petrol guzzlers when the maximum speed is 100km on the highways.

Fines are quite heavy in Australia - some fines carry demerit points which are deducted from your licence and you are only allowed to lose up to a certain amount on a yearly basis, if you go over then you have to sit a driving test again.
During public holidays, Easter and Christmas, the demerit points are doubled!

We didn´t bring a car from Europe as there is no point in having a car with the wheel on the wrong side.
Cars are generally cheaper than they were in Portugal, especially the Asian cars. European cars are of course more expensive to buy and to service.

A very serious problem, is the drinking and driving.
A lot of young people and some not so young get carried away with drinking, and feel they are still capable of handling a vehicle and driving as if they were stone sober. Quite a few accidents happen this way, sometimes innocent people are killed or hurt. Fortunately on weekends there are a lot of Booze-buses around the city and some of the most popular entertainment venues, and some drinkers get caught red-handed and their car is impounded.
Once while waiting in a line to blow the balloon, the car in front of ours decided to cross the barrier dividing the lanes and turn into the opposite direction.
Straight away a policeman jumped into his car and sped after him. I can just imagine that the driver would be double penalized for crossing the lane and for trying to flee from the Police...

Hooning is another pastime of the young - rubber burning - what a waste of tyres, disrespect for the law and the streets and a danger for people around. They obviously have lots of money to spend on new tyres, otherwise they wouldn´t waste them.
Under new laws hooner´s cars will be impounded for a few days. If caught a third time the car will be crushed!!
Thankfully this doesn´t happen in my suburb!

Before finishing the driving just a warning, much to myself as anyone else to whom this could happen.
Just this Wednesday a young man bumped into the rear of my car while I waited at a stop sign. It was something quite small, or at least the damage looked small.
The young man said he didn´t have his driver´s licence with him, but would contact me the following day and pay me $400 as he thought that would cover the damage. He gave me his name and address and I took his car number plate too. I should have been more street wise at my age and ring the number he gave me just to make sure, but I believe everybody is as honest as I am. Also the fact he said he didn´t have his licence with him should have rang alarm bells in my head... As it turned out the phone number he gave me is not connected, and I wonder if the address is real? I took the car to a panel beater today and the damage will cost $880 to fix, as the bumper would ideally need replacement!!!
I will have to go to the Police tomorrow and see if from the number plate they are able to provide me with his details. My insurance company will pay for the repair but will have to go after him to cover it, or my insurance premium will go up!
So, be warned, if no driver´s licence, call the Police, take photos of the car and the driver, call the number he gives you to confirm it rings...How silly of me!

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Not really related at all to the above, but I thought the subject of "Dressing" merited a couple of lines...
Australians are very casual dressers, but for work they will put on a nice pair of trousers, skirt or dress.
Some professionals must wear a suit or formal clothing for work purposes, and going around the city centre I do find office people better dressed.
Otherwise the dress code in summer, especially among the young crowd is mostly shorts and thongs (i.e: flip-flops), jeans, very minute mini skirts and a lot of cleavage for the ladies and also shorts and thongs or jeans for the men - they even go to Uni dressed in shorts.
I find that the women love showing their boobs, and have no problems showing a lot of cleavage at work, which I find must be a bit distracting and out of place in a work situation.
I remember a male friend once saying all men at his office loved going past the Human Resources department and go a bit "ga-ga" over one of the booby secretaries... I bet she loved the attention she was getting from her male colleagues!

I´m old fashioned and brought up in another era when you were taught that you dress for the occasion, so I wear smart-casual clothes to work with either flat shoes or heels. Flip-flops and shorts are for the home or beach use only.
Another strange thing I see is a few people walking barefoot when in the shopping centres or even around the city centre. I find it a bit "yukki", they would be picking up all the bacteria from dirty floors and streets, they could cut their feet, etc, etc. I even have trouble walking barefoot at home, the only place I do it would be at the beach...

A to Z of Australia - C is for Culture

2012-01-17T23:48:00.004+08:00

Because the Australian society is made up of people from many countries, with different backgrounds, cultural diversity is part of Australia´s identity. This identity blends established traditions by the country´s original inhabitants - the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders - and new influences from the immigrants who have arrived from over 200 different countries and who have made Australia their home.

Aboriginal man playing the Didgeridoo at Kings Park botanical gardens

With over 21 million inhabitants, about half of them were either born overseas or have one parent who was born overseas.

Migrants have enriched the Australian society from the business to the arts, sports, sciences and cooking.

A Portuguese friend who has lived in Perth for over 25 years still remembers when people didn´t know what an expresso coffee was.
Now the Australian society cannot live without the various types of coffee - Latte, Expresso, Cappucino, Mocha...The tradition of coffee drinking was of course brought in by the Italians, as well as their beloved Pizzas and Pastas.

I have found Australians to have a great sense of humour and the ability to laugh at themselves , they are a liberal, tolerant, informal and quite an egalitarian society.

An example would be the fact that most people treat each other by their first names, no titles are used with the exception of the Dr (clinical one). This was certainly confusing for me, as in Portugal I had gotten used to the fact that most people are either called Dr. or Engineer...no kidding!! Or, at least they all pretend to be, and love to be called by a title.

Here when I started working at the clinic I used to call the Doctors - Dr M, Dr Y, Dr J....After a couple of months I realized I was the only one doing it, as my colleagues called them all by their first names! So first names it was from then on. Even most patients call them by their first names.

I find that so refreshing, no airs and graces, we are all the same, some more clever than others, some richer than others... This is probably one of the few countries where you will see an engineer or a doctor renovate or paint their house, do their own gardening, build a shed...

Australia respects and accepts the rights of all Australian immigrants to express and share their cultural heritage, languages, and practice different religions, as long as we all show a commitment to uphold Australia´s democratic foundation and are prepared to learn and accept English as the national language. There are various schools where Australian born kids can learn the language of their parents.

Food traditions are also celebrated in the schools with annual Traditional food fairs, where kids from the various countries (or at least whose parents come from a foreign country) will bring a traditional dish.

South African school kids at a food stall at the Multicultural food fair - Nov 2011

In politics, our Prime Minister Julia Gillard was born outside of Australia, so were a few other Members of Parliament, but that was no impediment to their advancement into the country´s most responsible job!

One of the differences I can find between Australians (genuine or not) and the Southern Europeans, is that they aren´t as affectionate as we are. No hugging or double kisses (triple for the French) when they meet with friends, unless you have known them for a while and they eventually get used to the kissing.
I´m always a bit puzzled when meeting someone new as I don´t know if I should just say "hello" , shake hands or give them a kiss...Most times the kiss wins!
On the subject of kissing and traditions, I remember a funny story that happened in Portugal - a South African friend married to a Portuguese, got so used to kissing everyone that the first time the Postman knocked on her door to deliver a parcel, she promptly gave him a kiss on both cheeks! The man was certainly puzzled!!!

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Another international event

Immigrants have greatly helped build this beautiful nation, and make it what is is today!

Typical Australian:

TYPICAL AUSTRALIAN - Footy or Australian Rules Football, thongs (flip flops), Vegemite (an yeast extract that is a strange taste to most non-Australians (me included), Anzac biscuits (Yummi!) and Tim-Tams chocolate biscuits (a bit too sweet for my taste, but eatable).

A to Z of Australia - B is for Beaches

2012-01-16T13:30:00.006+08:00

My star sign is Pisces, so anyone would equate that with a love of water. Sadly, although I would love to live either by the beach or by the river here in Perth, just for the views alone, I am no great lover of water. Apart from the time we went to Thailand a few years ago and the sea water was lukewarm and I swam to my hearts content, I find the sea water far too cold for my liking.

Still, because I was alone this weekend, my friend S invited me to spend the day with her in her suburb of Ocean Reef, about 55km from where I live. She lives 10minutes walk from the Mullaloo Beach, and after putting our bathers on, (swimming costumes) ,we set off to the beach at 9,30am.

The suburb of Ocean Reef, with the sea just visible

The day was just marvelous, still not too hot (we have been having temperatures in the high thirties lately)...and for the first time in many years I actually ventured into the water.
Little by little I wet myself and eventually I was neck deep in the water. At one stage I turned myself to the beach and was overtaken by a wave and went under even swallowing some salty water.
One thing to bear in mind in is that the UV factor is extremely high, so everyone should make sure that they slip, slop, slap - that is slip on long sleeved top, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat! Skin cancer is unfortunately very high in Australia!

The parking lot at the beach

This cycle/walking path just outside the car park, runs all along the west coast from Burns Beach, (about 6,5km north of Mullaloo) to Fremantle in Perth's south - Google maps tells me it's about 40 kms. It must be quite pleasant to ride along the sea with beautiful views of the various beaches, plus the very posh houses by the beach, as long as it's not too hot! And...you have to be super fit too! You can get a cycling map of Perth's pathways, where you can see Mullaloo in the top right square and then Fremantle in the third right square just below the river that divides Perth.

cycle path along the sea

After a walk along the beach, we had a quick shower and set off back to my friend's house for lunch.

shower facilities just outside the beach area

The cute slip, slop, slap advert from the 80's!

I had planned on something else for the B, but along came the offer to come to the beach so I thought it was quite fitting!
Compared to beaches I have seen in other countries, a lot of beaches in Australia have a grassy area just before the sand with children's play areas, picnic areas, free barbecue facilities.
The sand is clean, the sea water clear and clean.

Probably one of the most iconic beaches in Australia would be Bondi Beach in Sydney, as it is known as a popular destination of surfers. There is a very popular tv series called "Bondi Rescue" that follows the day to day of the life savers in one of the most visited beach in the world. When we visited Sydney it was also one of my must-see spots, although I must say, I found it nothing special, I much prefer the quieter beaches of Perth.
So is Bondi well known because of the tv series, or was it already famous because it's a favourite spot with the surfers? I really don't know.

As you can see in this photo, Bondi is a popular beach, not much space left...
I think the Dutch would dispute that, there certainly is a lot of space... I once went to a Dutch beach in the North sea, and had to lay my towel among the millions of people already stretched out in their precious tiny piece of beach real-estate! Not my idea of a relaxed day at the beach for sure!!

PS: I have just received a beautiful photo of a beach sunset taken by my husband from the balcony of his hotel in Glenelg, a suburb of the city of Adelaide, in South Australia. What gorgeous colours!

.Lastly I would like to mention the Dog and Horse beaches scattered along the Perth coast as well, which are widely used. It's amazing to see all sorts of different dog breeds running around, swimming, playing and making friends. What lucky pets so have such commodities.

Check out the other bloggers participating in the A-Z challenge:Have fun!
http://pigletinportugal.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/my-a-z-of-portugal/ (Piglet in Portugal)
http://handsinportugal.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/personal-a-z-of-portugal-a-is-for-anniversary/ (The Hand family in Portugal)
http://algarveblog.net/2012/01/12/a-is-for-the-algarve/ (Algarve blog - Portugal)
http://www.yoursaucepans.blogspot.com/2012/01/is-for-avocado.html (Dominican Republic)
http://restlessjo.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/my-a-z-of/ (Poland)
http://teamoyeniyi.com/2012/01/15/a-for-arid/ (Australia)
http://juliedawnfox.com/2012/01/14/c-is-for-cabbages/ (Portugal)
http://estirador.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/a-z-of-uk/

A to Z of Australia - A is for Australia

2012-01-12T21:48:00.007+08:00

Julie Dawn , PigletinPortugal and Algarve blog have started a new topic which I thought was quite interesting.
They will be blogging about their A to Z of Portugal - their likes and dislikes using every letter of the alphabet.

I thought this a great idea, and in my case I will post about my A to Z of Australia - the country, the people, travel, my likes and dislikes...
Hopefully I will find something for every letter, and I might repeat a few letters, as some of them have quite a few topics I could discuss.
Join in and link your posts as this should be an interesting journey.

A - nothing more fitting that starting with the letter A for Australia.

We landed in Perth, exactly 5 years ago yesterday! (11 Jan 2007)
We had previously lived in Portugal (and before that in South Africa, Germany, Mozambique) for 12 years and a long time friend who came to Australia about 10 years ago, invited my husband to apply for a position in the company he worked for. There was a mining boom in Perth, highly qualified people were hard to come by...
We decided to come for a short visit to Perth and Sydney, to see if this was a country we were prepared to move to.
We liked what we saw, the quality of life was good, high standard of living, outdoor life style, we would be able to afford to buy a house, albeit a "renovators dream", I would have no trouble getting a job either...so we decided we would move.
Within about 4 months we packed up our life in a container and moved to Perth.
Sydney was a beautiful city, but far too big for my liking. Anyway my husband´s job would be in Perth!

Of course leaving family and friends wasn´t easy, but we were lucky we already knew two couples in Perth, which made our life a lot easier, having a bit of support. But overall Australians are friendly and relaxed people, so just join them and say "No worries mate", "Too easy"...

The language wasn´t a problem as I was raised in South Africa. I can just imagine that moving to a country where they speak a "strange" language, can be quite a challenge. Still, during the first few months at work, my ears had to get used to a different "twang". People spoke very fast, names were totally different from the usual, John and Joe - what about Skye, Storm, Cruze, Khrystyna, Deeon, Bora, Tamika, Dympna...plus strange surnames. I was forever getting people to repeat what they said, and to spell their names. You can check my post about the Australian slang to see what I mean! If you are familiar with Portuguese first names, they are very conservative, and foreign or strange spelling is certainly not allowed at all. My kids have foreign first names, but they were born outside Portugal, otherwise I would be unable to register them with those names.

The Australian society is made up of people from hundreds of different countries, some people assimilate better than others, but I never felt out of place for being a "foreigner". When you walk in the streets of the city, you hear all sorts of languages being spoken, it´s quite amazing.
In fact in that first company my husband worked for, they had 200 employees, and only 3 of them could be considered Australian (they were 3rd generation born here), all others were born somewhere else. They had 3 Portuguese too, can you believe it?

I leave you with 3 photos of the city skyline taken from Kings park and from South Perth, all 3 with very different sky colours.
Please join me, participate, do and A-Z of your country, and leave your comments too.

Movie night in Northbridge

2012-01-08T16:54:00.003+08:00

Last night we went to the movies!

After reading Grace´s blog about Cinema Paradiso in James Street in Northbridge, I managed to convince my husband to go watch "The women of the 6th floor" a French romance/comedy about the Spanish maids working for rich French families in the 60´s.

Outdoor entertainment are in James Street, Northbridge

It has been ages since I last went to Northbridge, the center of Perth´s entertainment and night life.

I have mainly avoided it, because it´s reported by the Press as being a dangerous suburb at night with drunken, rowdy youngsters (and maybe not so young) coming out of the discos and clubs and getting into fights. I know the Police are always present in big numbers at night to prevent such incidents.

But I must say even though we left the movie house at 11pm, the place was quite orderly, and I didn´t see any strange behaviour.

We walked along James Street and then turned into an alley full of Chinese restaurants, part of Perth´s Chinatown area, and sat down for a bowl of Seafood rice.

We had parked our car at the "City of Perth Parking - Roe St car park" and from the 6th floor you can admire the view of the city centre on one side and of James St and Northbridge on the other side - which we did when we went to get our car on our way home.

We even saw some youngsters with their car parked in the middle of the now empty 6th floor, lying over sleeping bags and having a picnic. Strange place for a picnic, when they could be sitting in a nicer spot for free, instead of paying hourly parking fees. They must have a different idea of the ideal picnic spot!!

So, apart from the movie that we enjoyed, the parking lot view was a lovely end to our visit to Northbridge, don´t you think?

As we left the parking lot just metres ahead the Police booze bus awaited the drivers along Roe st. There were two lanes, one was directed to the "firing line" where they would blow the balloon, the other was free to go. The police must have seen that two middle aged people weren´t their target market, so we were waved by. My husband hadn´t drunk anything anyway...

Inside the lobby of Cinema Paradiso

Chinatown - the city buildings across (pity the rubbish bins next to the pillars)

Chinatown alley full of restaurants

View to the city from the parking garage - the railway line divides the centre from Northbridge

View of James st, from the parking garage (the entertainment area in a previous photo is shown here from the top)

Police booze bus in Roe st, Northbridge

A blog award!

2012-01-04T23:29:00.003+08:00

I have been one of the bloggers selected by Alyson at "The thought palette" blog as a recipient of her newly created award for Awesome Blog content. (You can check her other blog too - Algarveblog.net)

It´s exciting to receive and award, to see my blog mentioned in someone else´s blog. How proud I am!

So I graciously accept this award, and pass it on to some other deserving blogs. It´s a lovely way to discover new bloggers that you might otherwise not come across.

Alyson´s aim for this award is to get bloggers to share something about themselves via the alphabet - by choosing a word or phrase for each letter that best describes yourself, something you like, or a place or thing you dream about. It´s not easy...

When you accept the award, just add the ABC logo to your blog, share something about yourself, then pass it on - no limit to how few or how many you can send it to. Send them an e-mail and the link to this award logo and watch the fun begin!

So here´s my alphabet about myself:

A	Australia	B	Brunette
C	chocolate mousse	D	Dogs and cats
E	enthusiastic	F	friendly
G	Germany	H	happy
I	ice cream, Ikea	J	jewellery
K	Karina (daughter)	L	laughter
M	Michael (son)	N	nostalgia
O	Optimistic	P	Portugal, Perth
Q	Quince marmalade with cheese	R	romantic
S	South Africa	T	travel
U	Uluru	V	violets
W	Women´s Weekly magazine	X	X-box
Y	Yellow	Z	Zebra

I am very happy to pass on this award to some deserving bloggers:

http://seashellbytheseashore.wordpress.com/ - the goals Shell and her husband set to move to the beach full time.

http://emaleecrochet.blogspot.com/ - a young craftswoman and her crochet creations

http://bananarunkin.blogspot.com - living a simple and self-sufficient life in the Adelaide Hills

http://presepiocomvistaparaocanal.blogspot.com/ - expat life in the Netherlands and travel

http://celestecortez.blogspot.com/ - a blog in Portuguese, from a self-published author

Enjoy, and don´t forget to pass it on!

Sami xxx

Still last year - Carnac Island and New Years Eve

2012-01-03T00:35:00.002+08:00

In the early morning of the 31st, the last day of the year, my husband and I met in Fremantle with a friend who owns a boat, and two other male friends.

The occasion was to reunite with a former colleague of theirs, who was here on holidays from South Africa.

We had last seen him just over 20 years ago, when they had worked together in Germany.

It was lovely to catch up on what had been happening in everybody´s life since then.

Leaving Fremantle port

The boat took us to Carnac Island, an island just 10km out of Perth. For the adventurous snorkeling and diving are allowed. But we all just stayed under cover, talking and having some snacks.

Just a few metres away on the beach of one of the bays, a few sea lions lay in the sun.

A pelican, and tiny birds perched on the boat were some of the attractions

A while later two of them went for a swim and a few snorkelers jumped in the sea to follow them.

It was lovely to see them circling the boats, gliding in and out of the water, just so fast and gracious, while when they were lying on the sand they looked like lazy blobs of fat. Last time we were in the island, the sea lion colony was a lot bigger, so I presume they might have migrated to a nearby island.

Later the Marine Parks Protection boat came by to warn the snorkelers not to get too close to the sea lions as they are wild after all. One sea lion lying motionless on the sand was in fact dead - old age, we were told.
It just feels so good to see these creatures frolicking int he water. What a pity we didn´t see dolphins this time either. Have you ever come close to these animals? Aren´t they just amazing?
Around noon, and it was time to return home.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the evening it was time to get our picnic hamper and head to the Portuguese Social club for our
New Year´s Eve dance.
Almost 240 people filled the hired school hall. We were 10 people at our table and each couple had brought their own drinks and nibbles. I baked a Tuna Cake which came out very well and I will be posting the recipe soon. I also took a plate with fresh fruit and a plate of nuts and dried fruit. Everyone is so fed up with eating, that something light and fresh seems to be the best bet.

A good night was had by all with entertainment provided by DJ Paulo and by a group of young singers.
We left shortly after 1,30am, having danced the night away and happy for having joined our friends in welcoming 2012.
May this year bring us all peace, health, prosperity and happiness.
Happy New Year to all my readers, friends and family!

View of the crowd dancing/ the hall full of people/hubby and I/ and almost midnight.

Happy New Year - Highlights of 2011

2011-12-30T15:54:00.003+08:00

I saw this idea at Sandra´s blog, and thought "what a wonderful idea to remember and celebrate the lovely things that happened during 2011". So here it goes:

December 2010
I celebrated New Year´s eve 2011 at the Portuguese Club in the company of hubby, our daughter and her partner, who were visiting from France, our son, and about 14 friends. We danced to the sound of a mix of Portuguese and English songs, and we ate and shared the goodies that we had taken with. (No catering at this club, each family takes their own).

Almost midnight!

January 2011
I had the opportunity of visiting Sydney for10 days, giving me plenty of time to roam around this beautiful city. I also got to know an "e-mail friend", and she and her husband were lovely people. They took us to the Blue Mountains and to the famous Bondi Beach.

The Sydney Opera House and The bridge

The Three Sisters at Katoomba mountains

February 2011
A picture I painted for a friend. I have been very slack when it comes to doing what I love - which painting and crafting - so maybe one of my new year resolutions should be: - to dedicate more time to my art!
Do you make many new years´s resolutions? Do you manage to keep to your promise?

March 2011
The 6th "Sculptures by the Sea" exhibition was held at Cottesloe Beach. It was my first visit, and I really enjoyed it.

The most popular work of art

View of the beach, with some works of art in the sand area

April 2011
I had a lovely day out with two of my work colleagues, visiting the different garden displays and gathering some ideas for our gardens.

May 2011
A fishing trip on a friend´s boat to Carnac Island, 10km off the coast of Perth. Not too successful for any of us, as the fish caught as far too small and thrown back into the sea, but a fun day out nevertheless. We also saw some seals frolicking in the water.

June 2011
A friend from Portugal came to visit. We also celebrated the 5th year of the Portuguese Social club with a dinner and dance.
It was also the start of my blog. I have met many lovely people from all over the world through it, and have got to know how other people live in other parts of the world, and learned some new skills, like soap-making.

My visitor with us at the dinner-dance at the Portuguese club

July 2011
I visited Adelaide, a city on the South east coast. As my husband has been working there since June on a long term project, it could be our future home...

Glenelg marina

Riverbank in Adelaide

August 2011
The weather was warming up and a lot of work went into gardening.

Can you see the difference in growth just a few months later?

September 2011
Fremantle´s Sustainability Fiesta and Kings Park Spring Festival were the highlights of this Spring month.
My Mom´s second novel was also published in Portugal.

View of the city of Perth from Kings Park

My mom´s first and second novel

October 2011
After a few months of tiling, grouting, plumbing, assembling cupboards, etc, etc, my laundry was finally finished!

November 2011
A short visit to Paris to see my daughter, and then on to Portugal, to sort out the sale of our apartment in Lisbon. Of course the highlights of the visit would have been meeting up with family and friends who I hadn´t seen in almost 5 years.

A grey day in Paris

Sunny day in the bay of Cascais (Portugal)

December 2011
Christmas parties, lunches and dinners with friends...
Preparing for the New Year´s eve party, once again at the Portuguese club.
We still have one more boating activity planned for tomorrow morning though, hope it doesn´t make us too tired for some dancing later on in the evening.

Some lovely chocolates inside a chocolate bowl, that I was given at Christmas

My "Mommy" cat inside a basket by the presents table.

Happy New Year everyone!! May you be blessed with lots of health and happiness.

After Christmas gardening

2011-12-28T20:43:00.004+08:00

I took a few days off work to spend some time at home with hubby, who is also taking a few days off to relax.
Yesterday and today, we have been taking care of our veggie patch and garden.
Hubby had built a wooden box just under the canopy of our former rotary clothes lines. That in turn was covered with netting to protect the plants from the harsh summer sun.
Yesterday we hired a van and bought a couple of cubic meters of soil. It took both of us about two hours to put the soil from the van into the wheelbarrow and bring it to the back of the house and dump it into the veggie box...

Later when the sun wasn´t as hot we started transplanting some of the veggies that were in container boxes into the new soil. Vegetable and flower seeds were planted into pots.
I know this time of year is probably not the best to be planting or transplanting due to the heat, but hopefully because they are reasonably protected from the sun they will survive and thrive in their new bigger space.

When it was time to put down tools and prepare some dinner, we looked up to see the last of the sun´s rays disappearing, giving us a beautiful spectacle, and I ran inside to get my camera.

Add caption

My garden at sunset with the fairy lights on

After dinner we went for a short walk around the neighbourhood and I took some more photos of Christmas lights in our area. Quite an enjoyable and relaxing day.

Christmas Eve - Portuguese style

2011-12-25T12:38:00.004+08:00

This is my first Christmas post on my blog, hopefully there will be many more Christmas to blog about.
The traditional Portuguese Christmas Eve was celebrated at my house with 15 friends.
Hubby made his delicious Garlic prawns for starters, I had cooked Bacalhau com Natas (Cod fish in cream sauce) and Algarve style carrots for the main meal, and Arroz Doce (Rice Pudding) and Panacota for dessert.
My friends brought a plate of various nuts and dried fruit, biscuits and dips, a delectable Tuna Roulade (I must get this recipe!), Pudim Flan (Creme Caramel), a green salad, Mango Mousse and more Rice pudding.

Cod fish in cream sauce

Algarve style carrots

The tablets outside (forgot the flash!)

The tables were set outside in the backyard, with some cane sofas under the gazebo. Later as the wind was picking up we took the sofas out and put the two tables and chairs under the gazebo, so we would be more protected. We had a wonderful night of sharing beautiful food with lots of talk and laughter.
When the guests started to leave around midnight we exchanged our gifts, to be opened later, and the last guests left at 1am.

My home-made gift baskets

The goodies I made - spicy nuts, soap, cherries with rose wine and vanilla, laundry liquid and tomato jam

I put another load of dishes in the dishwasher, we stacked the garden chairs and put the cane furniture back under the gazebo. It was past 2am when we went to sleep, after still having a short chat on skype with my parents and my sister in Portugal.

This morning under the gazebo

This morning, a Pudim flan (creme caramel) has been done and we are almost ready to go and join another Portuguese family who live 60km away.
Tomorrow, Boxing day will once again be celebrated with friends at their house and I will be making a Chocolate Mousse to take with. Luckily we still have another public holiday on the 27th, to enable us to recover from all these parties of overindulgence.
We do seem to eat far too much, an overload of sugar for me at least!!

Hope you are all having a Wonderful Christmas with your family and friends.

Christmas Lights in Perth

2011-12-22T23:52:00.002+08:00

One of Perth´s attractions just before Christmas are the Christmas lights in the suburbs. The newspapers, TV and internet advertise the streets to visit in more than a dozen suburbs, so you can plan ahead which areas to see. Picking the streets where there are quite a few houses is a good idea!

It´s sometimes difficult to drive past the houses, so it´s better to leave the cars a block or two away and just walk. A lot of time and effort goes into putting up these displays and some house owners ask for a gold coin donation ($1 or $2) to support their favourite charities. I find this fascinating, as I don´t think I would have the patience to set up a display year after year, so I take off my hat to these brave people that do that for the enjoyment of others, especially the kids and to raise money as well.

Do you have this type of display where you live? I know that in the United States it´s also very common, but I don´t remember seeing it in Europe.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

The weekend and week ahead

2011-12-19T22:38:00.004+08:00

Saturday was a busy day with my husband and I tidying up the garden, picking weeds, moving some veggies from the harsh summer sun to a more sheltered spot under the lemon tree...
It´s amazing how much work goes into keeping a garden in shape.
On Sunday we both joined a couple of the Doctors at the practice I work, plus another receptionist (the rest of the staff was away on holiday or unable to come) and we had a buffet breakfast at the Red Herring, a beautiful restaurant right on top of the river in Fremantle. It´s just beautiful to be eating surrounded by water on 3 sides, watching the yachts glide past...

The Red Herring Restaurant

Then we just spent about an hour at home and we were off again to join friends for a barbecue at their house.
Two hours later we had to leave to take hubby to the airport for his weekly flight to Adelaide, but due to some "misunderstanding" with the GPS device, we got there late and the check-in was already closed.
Luckily his flight was rescheduled for early this morning without any penalties.

This morning I did some last minute gift shopping, for my son to take overseas. I have just dropped him off at the International airport and he should be taking off soon. He will spend Christmas with his sister in France and later will fly to Portugal to see the family and friends, only returning home at the beginning of February.
This year we will have no family around for Christmas, just friends...
Hooray for friends!!
Tomorrow I will start with the preparations of the Christmas Eve meal, that is so traditional in the Portuguese culture, tidying up the house, preparing the tables and chairs in the garden...
Don´t you feel as if there is never enough time to do it all when it comes to these special celebrations?

Productive Wednesday

2011-12-14T22:26:00.002+08:00

Today was my day off work. I got up early and after breakfast started making a few of my home-made Christmas presents.
I started by making Tomato jam (recipe below), which will be my contribution to the Christmas presents we put together for the Doctors at the clinic where I work. All the receptionists make some goodies and we package it into a nice container and give to each doctor.

When that was ready I make Laundry Powder and then Laundry Liquid. I have bought some nice glass jars to fill with either the powder or the liquid, and they just need to be labelled and will be ready. I will post some photos when all my things are ready.

Just before 12, I drove to Fremantle to join Gill and Jan, two of my former work colleagues, for lunch at Zephyr Cafe - a restaurant by the river Swan. A pleasant place, next to a tiny strip of sand and a park with a play area for kids. A few mothers and toddlers sat under some trees having a picnic...the day was just beautiful.

I received my first Christmas present, home-make goodies lovingly made by Jan - a jar of Lemon butter, Sweet Onion relish and a jar of spicy nuts. I love the little jars!

You might want to try the recipe for the Tomato Jam, it was taken from a Portuguese cook book - "Cooking the Portuguese way in South Africa" by Mimi Jardim. After Marmelada (Quince jam), Tomato jam follows in the popularity polls.

TOMATO JAM
1,5kg tomatoes (use very ripe tomatoes for best results)
1 kg sugar
1 stick cinnamon
(I also added a few dried cloves)
15ml lemon juice

Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, skin them and remove seeds. Cut into pieces and place in a colander to drain. Place drained tomatoes, sugar and cinnamon stick in a large saucepan. Bring to boil and simmer until thick. To test if ready, place a spoonful on a saucer and let it cool, if it crinkles when a finger is drawn over it, it is ready. Add the lemon juice and bring back to boil. Bottle in sterilized jars removing the cinnamon stick and cloves.
Enjoy it!!

Late Christmas preparations

2011-12-12T08:48:00.003+08:00

I´ve been back home since Tuesday, but still out of sorts due to jet-lag! I seem to fall asleep as soon as I sit down on the sofa to watch some TV, wake up a few hours later...if I do go to bed early (a lot earlier than my usual time), I wake up at 4 or 5am which is certainly not my usual waking up time either.
Didn´t realize it would take so long to recover, I´m getting old...

This weekend I started on the Christmas preparations, because with my overseas trip and this jet-lag, everything is falling behind.
I covered the fruit mix for the Christmas cake in Port wine and tonight I will add the flour, sugar, eggs and nuts and bake it slowly for a few hours. The lovely recipe was from the now extinct "Notebook" magazine, I have been baking it for the past 2 years and it always turns out well.
The previous cake I had baked in November before going away wasn´t anything special, although easy to bake it was a bit dense with far too much fruit for my taste. Still, even though it wasn´t good it was all eaten!!.

I went into the garage to get the Christmas decorations, but this year I will just put a few baubles in glass vases, hang a few things on the walls, but won´t put up the Christmas tree.
The few Christmas cards I will post are ready to go out to Europe today, these are just for the few people I didn´t manage to see on my trip. Other friends will get the usual email message, not as personal I know, I always try to send out cards with a little letter telling friends about our year, but no time this year.

I made a test batch of ginger cookies, but left out most of the ginger as I´m not too fond of ginger and somehow they don´t taste of anything....I should have substituted with other spices.
I will have to bake some other cookies to package as Christmas presents.
As for more Christmas presents: I have home-made soaps, will still make a batch of washing powder...but have to get nice glass jars to package my offerings.

From what I read in other blogs everyone is miles ahead of me with their Christmas preparations. I have to get moving quickly!!
Hope you are all enjoying the lead up to Christmas and making the best of your time with your family and friends.

BACK HOME

2011-12-06T13:12:00.006+08:00

I arrived in Perth early this morning, at 1am, after a long flight from Lisbon, via Paris and Singapore.
It´s been a hectic 3 weeks with lots to do, meeting friends and family that I hadn´t seen in about 5 years, lunch and dinner get-togethers...
As I woke up after 5 hours sleep, it was raining and will be raining for the next 3 days...at least the days will be cooler.
I just checked my blog to realize that my readers had gone above the 5000 mark, but because I have been away I didn´t do anything special to commemorate. What a pity, I´ll have to wait for the 10 thousand mark now.

I read my emails and was sad to find out that my sister and brother in law had to make the difficult decision to put their dog to sleep yesterday. "Rocky" was a Portuguese Water Dog, 13 years old, he had been a Christmas present to my nieces when they were young. He was suffering with kidney failure, arthritis...the last couple of weeks he had been having daily treatments with intravenous drips as he was very weak, not wanting to eat, his back legs were hardly holding him.
This photo of him was taken last week sitting close to the family as we watched TV. He liked to be close to people, and on this occasion he had to be helped up into this bean bag.

I still remember how mischievous he was when young: one day my sister left out a whole fish to defrost on the kitchen counter and when she returned from dropping the kids at school, the fish was gone, Rocky had eaten it. Well, he was a fishing dog after all! Another time because he got hold of my brother in law´s mobile phone and chewed it up, beyond repair!

I finish this post with some photos taken on my last days in Portugal. Special occasions with my friends and family that I will treasure. The lovely Portuguese food and hospitality that made me feel special and welcome.
Thank you all xxx

29 Nov - dinner with friends at Pátio das Conversas restaurant, Carregal do Sal

A most delicious Prawn curry

Broa (Corn bread) filled with Cod fish

Berry Panacota

3rd Dec - Lunch with Lisbon friends at Kaia Kahina Restaurant, Carcavelos

Monday - Walking around Lisbon, Poetry Night and Fado - World Heritage

2011-11-29T08:39:00.004+08:00

After a very early morning in the Notary´s office to sign the paperwork for the transfer of our apartment to the new owner, my daughter and I went into a "Loja do Cidadão" which means "Citizen´s shop", a place where all Governmental departments are represented, and people can apply for a passport, an ID card; connect or disconnet phones, water, electricity, gas; deal with problems at the Tax office, there are internet providers, Post office... Quite a handy place with everything under one roof. Here we changed our addresses, my daughter collected a passport she had applied for a couple of months ago and I applied for a Police clearance certificate I needed for Australia.
Then it was time for Karina to go to the airport for her flight back to Paris and I took the underground into "Baixa-Chiado", Lisbon´s city centre.
I wandered around for a couple of hours taking pictures, the day was warm and I wish I wasn´t laden with the winter jacket, scarf and a bag of documents to be more mobile as a tourist. Just before rush hour, I took the train to Cascais at Cais do Sodré station.

Rossio Plazza

The old trams around the city

Statue of the Portuguese Poet - Fernando Pessoa, outside the coffee shop where he used to sit and write.

Chiado Shopping - this whole was destroyed in a fire many years ago and reconstructed

After dinner, at my Mom´s invitation, my sister and I went to watch a Poetry night at ALA (Academy of Letters (words) and Arts) a cultural institution my Mom is part of.
I have never been a great fan of poetry, but I must confess it was interesting and the poets recited some of their own work or poems of well known Portuguese poets, and they were very well interpreted, and an enjoyable night was had by all present.
The night was organized by my Mom who is always very active in the world of the written and spoken words.

My mom and dad reciting poetry

Another poet singing his poem

I would also like to bring the world´s attention to the fact that Fado, the traditional Portuguese musical genre, was on Sunday voted by Unesco as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Fado - "the emblem of Portuguese culture and talent".
Here are two of the youngest generation of talented Fado singers - Katia Guerreiro and Mariza.
Listen to these songs and you will feel moved by their sadness, melancholy, longing, even though you might not understand a single word.
Let me know what you think.

Weekend wanderings - Cascais

2011-11-28T07:33:00.004+08:00

Friday morning was my first relaxing day in Lisbon, and my mom and I went into the Cascais city centre and were later joined by my Dad for lunch.
We had a lovely lunch for 7euros ($10 Aud) each which included a soup, main dish, dessert and a drink. Quite yummy and very well priced too.

My tasty Bacalhau á Lagareiro (Cod fish with baked potatoes in olive oil)

Dad left and drove home, and mom and I walked along the coast until the Marina, while I took quite a few photos. The day was lovely and warm...just lovely to be outside. Then we called Dad to fetch us when we were tired towards the end of the day...

Taken from Cascais Villa shopping centre

Cascais Municipality building

One of the lovely tile panel on the Municipality walls

Mermaid statue

Friday evening after picking up my daughter at the Airport, from her Paris flight, my brother in law arrived home to collect the rest of the family, and we went out to an Indian restaurant in Cascais.
This was due to Piglet's influence from one of her latest posts!
We had a bit of a laugh at the menu translations before choosing our dinner.(the funny translations are in Portuguese as the English version is fine).

Back in Lisbon on Saturday, which was a bit hectic, moving the last of the furniture out of the apartment, going to the Church a couple of times with car loads of stuff to donate, etc, etc. At night we all joined my parents at their house in Cascais for a family dinner and to watch my Paris photos.

Sunday was a more relaxing day with a sleep in, then before lunch, my daughter, my sister and I went to Cascais Shopping, a big shopping centre nearby.
I managed to get a couple of presents to leave behind as Christmas presents and bought myself two white shirts for work. I find clothing quite reasonably priced compared to Australian prices of course!

After a home lunch and an afternoon movie, my brother in law took us for a drive along the coast from Cascais to Azóia, near Cabo da Roca, Europe´s the lovely "Moinho Dom Quixote"(Dom Quixote Windmill) near Cabo da Roca, Europe´s most western point.

The Windmill Bar/Restaurant

View of the Atlantic Ocean from one of the outside "rooms"

Little pond with waterfall in the garden

View of the sunset sky

The Windmill bar/restaurant is lovely and homely, with various lounges with walls full of bright colours, covered in Mexican artifacts and interesting pendant lights.
We got there after sunset, but it would have been the perfect place to watch it come down in the distance over the Atlantic ocean. You can sit outside in various enclosed areas surrounded by beautiful gardens, ponds, waterfalls, or sit inside where the main room is warmed up by an open fireplace.
A very enjoyable end of the day.
Hope you all had a lovely weekend too and I wish you all a wonderful week ahead.

The entrance with the colourful walls and eclectic mix of art

More colour inside the main room

The lovely fire place in the corner of the main room

A week in Lisbon

2011-11-24T19:01:00.003+08:00

So much to do, so little time! I have had a very stressful week trying to sell furniture from the apartment we need to vacate by this weekend...with not much sucess. With a recession and not much money around, I thought it would be easier to sell used furniture, but it seem the Portuguese aren't too keen on second-hand.
One of my daughter's friends will keep the dining room and the double bedroom furniture.
I then contacted Remar - a charity organization that sells used things to fund rehabilitation centres for drug addicts, and they came to see what I had to give. They were very selective in what they wanted, and then carted away a single bedroom and 3 Billy bookcases from Ikea, and some other bits and pieces of furniture, but didn't want a big metal desk (not fashionable) or the sofas as these were scratched by the cat.
I have promises of people to come get another single bedroom, washing machine, fridge, etc by Saturday, so I really hope that happens, as by Sunday I need an empty apartment.
Other things like bed linen, some unused clothing, ornaments, books will be taken to the local church, as they hold monthly sales for charity.
I have a corner of the lounge with boxes to ship to Australia...but am still waiting for a quote from the only company that showed up after contacting 3 companies.

My corner of boxes to ship

View from my street in Lisbon

Probably because of all the stress I managed to get a terrible cold, and yesterday I stayed in bed most of the day with no energy to do anything, my body was sore, scratchy throat, awful cough...
After taking a mix of various medications my sister had in her medicine box, I am feeling better today.

Today there is a general strike affecting public transport, hospitals, schools, other public services....so in the morning as usual I got a lift with my brother in law into Lisbon (I stay with them in Cascais, about 30km from Lisbon), traffic wasn't as chaotic as we expected, but I will have to stay here until 7 or 7,30pm when my brother in law usually finishes work, even though I don't have that much to do, but with no other means of transport I am stuck!!
At least the sun is shining, maximum temperature will be 19C, unlike the previous days when it was grey an wet.

Strike poster

I haven't had much time for sightseeing unfortunately, but hopefully after this weekend I will be able to relax and enjoy the rest of my short stay.
I have already planned a get-together lunch with friends at a small restaurant, where I will have the opportunity to see people I haven't seen in almost 5 years.
Next time I hope to be more cheerful!!

Expo Train and bus station, taken at night while I waited for my lift

Vasco da Gama shopping centre (in front of Expo station)

Au Revoir Paris and Good evening Lisbon

2011-11-19T17:49:00.003+08:00

My last day in Paris - as soon as I set foot outside it starts to rain. I go back to the apartment to get an umbrella! I cannot waste the last few hours of sightseeing even in the rain!!
I get the underground to Varenne station to visit the Rodin Museum. My daughter had recommended it and I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful gardens which are full of his famous sculptures including "The Thinker".
Inside his former house, now the museum, hundreds more of his sculptures, including "The kiss" and a few paintings by his friend Monet, are scattered around the various rooms in 2 floors.
Then I sat on a wooden bench in the garden with "The Thinker" in front of me. Very peaceful, an oasis in the middle of busy Paris.

The Thinker by Rodin

The Kiss

Across the road is the Hotel d'Invalides, an army museum now and where Napoleon's tomb is under the golden dome. I didn't visit the museum, just had a look around the gardens.

Les Invalides Museum and Eiffel tower in the distance - taken from the Rodin gardens

Then as the rain had stopped, I decided to still do a river cruise, I took the train to the Eiffel Tower, as the quay is just across the road. The cruise was 1 hour long and it was enjoyable and I got to see the monuments from the river side and a good view of most of the bridges crossing the Seinne.

Notre Dame cathedral, taken from the cruise boat

On the way home and because it was on same underground line 2 , I jumped out at Blanche station and crossed the road just to take a photo of the Moulin Rouge. Many, many years ago when my husband and I first visited Paris we had gone to see a show there.

Then it was time to go to the apartment, collect my bags and get on the train again to meet with my daughter at a certain underground station at 5,15pm, where we would then get the bus to Orly airport.

Well, this is where things went pear-shapped. The train stopped two stations before the required one and the driver requested everybody leave the train. As I didn't understand what was going on, I asked a young man if he spoke English and to explain what was happening.
He said there had been a power failure and there would be no trains for a while. I panicked!!!
How could I get to the station I wanted? I had no mobile to contact my daughter!!! He said I would be able to get a bus just across the road from the Metro station and I followed him. We managed to get on to a very crowded bus, with me carrying a large suitcase...
A few stops later he indicated I should get off as that was the stop near the Metro station I wanted.
Off I got but then I couldn't see any station entry on the corners where they are usually located.
I found a restaurant instead and asked the waitress for help. She indicated a station on the next block, and I could see the Orly buses in front, so I walked as fast I could dragging my suitcase.
When I got to the station I couldn't see my daughter anywhere and I paced the entrance up and down already in a sweat. I had got there 40 minutes later than the arranged time.
Eventually I asked a lady from the Orly buses where I could find a public phone and she started walking with me towards the phones and she must have sensed my panic and asked where I wanted to call.
I said I wanted to call my daughter's mobile, and she asked if it was a French one and I said yes.
She kindly said I could call from her phone. My daughter answered and said she was in front of the station, to which I replied - "I am also in front of the station"!
Conclusion: She was in the Underground station and I was in the Long distance train station nearby.
In two minutes she was by my side, very worried, as she had thought I had fallen down some stairs at the Metro stations while carrying my suitcase. (PS: there are no lifts in these stations, because they are ancient, and no one thought of these modern technologies).
We got on the Orly bus that departed within 10 minutes, the traffic was heavy so instead of the normal 20min it took 40min.
We got to the airport counter at 6,50 when the flight was at 7,10pm. Luckily they had tickets for the next flight at 8,40pm, so 300euros later we were issued with 2 new tickets!!!
We phoned my niece in Lisbon where we were expected for dinner at 9pm to tell her we would only be there by 10,30pm. My brother in law picked us up at the airport, traffic was still heavy but we managed to get there at 10,30h where the rest of the family was eagerly waiting our arrival.
So it was a very late dinner and another very late night.

I will not be posting for a while as I have lots to do sorting out the apartment in Lisbon and will not be able to do any sightseeing probably, but I will certainly try and take some pictures of the beautiful monuments too.
Hope you have enjoyed my short trip to Paris as much as I did.

Paris - day 3

2011-11-17T05:44:00.002+08:00

Grey skies again!! The temperature should be minimum 5C, but it feels a lot less, it's really freezing!

Back on the blue line to get the underground train to the "Opera" to start day 2 of my bus tour.
I'm starting early today to take advantage of the hop-in and hop-out facility and visit as much as I can of the places I haven't yet seen.
First stop - The Arc de Triomphe to photograph the Avenue des Champs Elysee. This is the longest avenue in Paris, and is one of the 12 leading to roundabout where the Arc de Triomph is.
Traffic is crazy, I don't know how they manage to cross all those lanes, and there are no lines on the roads either!!

Back on the bus, the next stop was the Eiffel Tower, so I could go see "The Statue of Liberty".
Yes, there is one in Paris too, a smaller copy of the New York statue, given to the French by the american community in France. It faces New York too and is in an island in the middle of the river.

Next stop - the Louvre Museum, so I could go to the Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel in the Tullerie Gardens next to the Louvre. The gardens are lovely, full of golden statues and well cared for.
Across the road over the Seine is a pedestrian bridge - Pont de Arts - full of lockers that young lovers leave to symbolize "eternal love".

Millions of lockers on the Pont d'Arts bridge

View from the bridge

Next stop - Notre Dame church for a visit to the Latin Quarter nearby and the Sorbonne, a famous university. This is a very hip area, full of young people, small restaurants and cafes.

I got on the bus again and stopped at the Musee d'Orsay on the left bank.
This used to be a former railway station. It's now an art museum, very interesting, with various galleries in 5 levels according to the different art styles.There is also sculptures and furniture.
Entry costs 8 euros and you can rent and audio guide for 5 euros.
The only drawback is "no photos allowed", what a pity as my favourite painting from Monet and Renoir were on display.

The clock from inside - I managed this one photo as I saw other people photographing it.

By the time I left the museum it was getting dark outside, so I hopped on the bus back to the Opera and just crossed the road into the "Galeries Lafayette" for a quick peep into the deparment store.
It is an amazing shop on 9 floors and a few more floors in another 2 buildings, not cheap though!
Their Gourmet foodstore is just delicious and they have a spice bar that smells a mile away!

After 1 hour in the shop it was time to get the underground back home as I was by now feeling exhausted and it was now past 6pm.

The windows of the Galleries

All decked out in Christmas lights

The inside of the shopping

The spice bar

The macaroon bar - look at that colourful macaroon tower!

Paris - day 2

2011-11-16T06:08:00.001+08:00

I woke up to grey skies and temperature of 1C.!!!
I felt like staying cuddled up on the sofa watching a film, but I would be wasting a day of sightseeing in my 4 days of Paris, so I put on a couple of layers of clothing and set out to the underground station nearby.
I decided against first going to the Eiffel Tower as there would be no visibility due to the foggy day. I took the "blue line" train to Anvers station to visit the Sacre-Coeur Church in the highest area of Paris - Montmartre.
After exiting the station I followed the crowds along a narrow lane and soon the church was visible.
I climbed over 260 steps to the top, with a couple of stops... but there is a funicular available that takes people almost to the top if you cannot climb the steps or are very unfit like me.

Over 260 steps to climb...

A bit overcast

This church was financed by two businessmen who promised to build a church if France escaped the Franco-Prussian war. Its dome is Paris's highest after the Eiffel Tower. Unlike Notre- Dame, taking photos or filming is not allowed inside this church, which is a pity as the painted dome is beautiful, as well as the stained glass windows.
The one thing I didn't like is the dozens of salesmen trying to get your business from bags to key rings and postcards, as well as a few beggars - but unfortunately these are everywhere.
Back to the underground station, I again took the "blue line" train to Charles de Gaulle Etoile station to the Arc de Triomphe.When I got there I noticed a Red double decker tour bus and inquired about their tour of Paris.

Rue Champs Elisees

I bought a 2 day ticket with a boat tour for 32 euros and jumped on the bus. You get a map of the circuit and earphones to plug into the side of the seat and the commentary is transmitted in 8 different languages, and you get out and jump in at any of the 9 stops.
By the time we drove up to the Eiffel Tower the day had cleared slightly, and I joined the long queue to buy a ticket to the top for 13,40 euros.
The lift ride was quick with a stopover on the first platform for a change of lifts.
Right at the top the views are magnificent, but due to the overcast day you couldn't see as far as the 70km they say! Still, the climb is worthwhile. If you don't want to pay as much you can climb up the stairs, or just take the lift to the first level.

View from above. Isn't the shadow of the Eiffel tower interesting?

Ticket prices

Back on the tour bus, I was already freezing and decided to just stay on the bus until we reached the Opera house and the department stores "Galleries Lafayette" just behind it.
Here I caught the train back home to "defrost" with a cup of hot tea.
Tomorrow I will again board the bus for my second day of the tour.

Bonjour Paris - 1st day

2011-11-15T06:38:00.002+08:00

1st day in Paris -
After a long flight from Singapore to Paris, and only a few hours of sleep, I arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at 6,20am with a temperature of 5C.

After quick passport formalities due to my European passport, it was time to collect the luggage.

When I exited, my daughter was waiting for me, then we descended to the train station, bought a stack of tickets to be used during my stay and took a train to her area of residence.

I was amazed at the minute size of the apartment where my daughter lives – lounge, 1 bedroom, kitchenette and bathroom in only 30sqm - the apartments are extremelly expensive.
I later saw an advert for a 17sqm apt for sale at 199,999euros!! A 14sqm one for rent at 665 euros per month. It's not a cheap city to live in!!

K had to leave to go to work and I was left with the house keys so I could go out and explore. I made myself a tea and some toast had a bit of a rest and by 10am, armed with a map, I was at the underground station which is 300mt from the apt.

I decided to visit the Louvre today and see how I would go with time and energy.

The famous "Venus de Millo"

Amazing painted ceilings

A super huge painting

I bought a 14euro ticket that included the Museum and the Napoleon suite as well.

The Louvre with the Pyramid built in recent years

The Louvre was packed with people from all over the world and it must be one of the most popular museums in Paris. It is huge and I walked for many hours from floor to floor, room to room.
I had so many WOW moments and felt quite humble and just a speck in the universe compared with the grandiose works of art and so much talent.

Many modern day artists sat in front of the masterpieces painting their canvas. Very talented people.

My feet were already killing me after so much walking around, but the church of Notre Dame wasn't too far away and I decided I might as well visit it.

Cathedral of Notre Dame

The back of Notre Dame cathedral

It was now time to return home by underground train.

I loved all I saw - the monuments are majestic, there is plenty of space around them, a few green areas around the city bring in some colour. So many interesting things and almost 200 photos taken.

On the downside I found the French not too friendly, although I stopped at a few corners with my map trying to decide where to turn, no one approached me to offer their help. At one stage when I was worried I was on the wrong track I actually stopped an elderly man and he told me which direction to take. And just like me I saw plenty of wanderers with their maps, but no good Samaritans...Even the Louvre security people sitting in almost every room had grim faces.

Tomorrow I'll go to the Eiffel Tower...see you then.

Preparing to travel

2011-11-12T21:08:00.002+08:00

This was quite a stressful week - I´m going to Portugal tomorrow, flying via Paris where I will stop to visit my daughter for 4 days. The decision was made quite recently when we heard the sale of our apartment in Lisbon had been approved. The apartment is furnished and we will have to get rid of the furniture and our personal stuff before the handover at the end of November, so I decided it would be a good idea to fly there and sort things out.

Of course this was actually not the best time for me to take this trip, as work wise I have 3 colleague writing University exams so their availability is not ideal. So after many hours working on a roster that would suit everyone I was happier with the situation. As usual there are a thousand and one things to finish off at work, which took me a few days to finish, but I´m pleased that I could leave it all sorted out.
Then on Thursday a huge tragedy struck when we heard that the daughter of one of ours Doctors had lost her life in a car accident. She was only 28, and it must be every parents nightmare to lose a child.
We had to cancel two weeks of appointments for the Doctor, not yet knowing if and when she will return to work. Calling all these patients was a very draining and emotional experience for me and my colleague, as most of these patients have known the Doctor for about 20 years and were very emotional and touched when told what had happened. This is no consolation to the family, but I know many, many people will be giving them their support and prayers.

On Friday evening hubby and I got together with another couple and went to a movie session booked with "Gold Class Event Cinemas" gift vouchers. This was quite an experience, probably the first and last though, unless we get given more gift vouchers!!
We watched "Midnight in Paris" - a romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen in the beautiful city of Paris, quite fitting since I will be in Paris on Monday.
But let me tell you about the experience!!
We collected our booked tickets from the ticket booth and were directed to a lounge with dimmed lights, a few seating areas with small tables and a counter. We were given a menu each to choose our dinner, then went to the counter to order it, and were asked when we would like each course to be delivered.

Choosing our dinner

We ordered a sea food platter for 2, a dessert each, and some sparkling water, and just 1 glass of wine for hubby. We then went to sit down in the theater and played around with our reclining chairs.
Shortly after the movie started our dinner was delivered and we started to eat. The only light was the movie screen but the food was visible enough.
After about half an hour they collected the trays and then brought our desserts. They were huge and I wish we had known as each bowl was enough for 2. I was disappointed though that I had to settle for a Malteser Sundae when I had ordered something else, but was told it they had run out.

Just 34 seats in this theater

We had a good time, it was a lovely experience, lovely for a romantic night, but I think we would be better off eating that sort of food in a nice restaurant than sitting in a lounging chair while watching a movie.
On the way home I was adding up the value of the vouchers we had spent on the movie and dinner and it came to $320 for the 4 of us, that is $80 each.
I´m glad we both given that as gifts.

Putting my feet up! Glad we weren´t the only ones taking pics.

Today I spent the day washing, ironing, changed the linen on the beds, gave a general clean to the house and still cooked 2 meals.

Now I still have to pack my suitcase as tomorrow morning I
want to just sit and have a relaxed morning before going to the airport at 1pm for my 3,30h flight to Paris.
I will try and post some lovely photos of my trip, if I get some time in between packing and visiting family and friends.
See you in PARIS!!!

MEN´S SHIRT REFASHIONED

2011-11-08T21:48:00.003+08:00

Recently I looked at my sewing pile growing bigger and bigger and thought that I had to start doing something on a weekly basis to reduce the pile.
First on the pile were 3 or 4 of my husband´s discarded shirts.
Some of them had a threadbare collar, others had small holes where the collar buttons used to be....

So I unpacked my sewing machine, that hadn´t seen the light of day since last December when I had sewed some home-made goodies for Christmas and started the transformation.
I have now refashioned 3 of them, after looking around other blogs and library books for inspiration.

Here are the photos and instructions on how I did it. My sewing vocabulary isn´t probably very correct, but I hope you will be able to understand the basics.
Hope you feel inspired to do some refashioning too.
Next time I will post photos of the others, as I have done each of them in a different style.

The original shirt, note the threadbare collar

I bought some ribbon and sewed it around the collar for a nicer finish.

I had lace that I had removed from a bra I threw away a while back, and when rummaging around for something to cover up the holes the collar buttons had left, I thought these bits would be the ideal finishing touch around the collar, adding a bit of femininity too.

At the back I sewed the middle pleat right to the bottom and made side darts too (is that the right word?)
It actually looks a bit skew here, but it´s in the middle.

I had cut the sleeves below the elbows, but after putting the shirt one, they felt too long...

Here the sleeves are shorter and the tunic looks better, I think!!

The finished tunic

Bacalhau (cod fish) Night at the Portuguese Club

2011-11-04T23:28:00.004+08:00

Every first Friday of the month, the Portuguese Club in Hamilton Hill, (Fremantle), holds a traditional dinner with "Bacalhau grelhado" grilled salted Cod, served with jacket potatoes and chick peas.
After that, and if you are still hungry you can eat the "Espetada Madeirense" - meat skewer, made with diced cubes of rump steak flavoured with bay leaves, garlic and coarse salt and cooked over a charcoal grill.

The dinners are usually attended by over 120 people, are very, very noisy, which is not to everyone´s taste, but I find that it´s a way to eat a typical meal and to meet up with old friends or meet new people on a monthly basis.

My friend Kei is always the one who reminds everyone of the monthly dinner sending out emails to all her Portuguese friends and she then books a table accordingly. Most times we get about 20 people sitting at one of the long tables.

Delicious Cod fish, potatoes and chick peas

The food is good and plentiful, and you can always take a container to bring home your leftovers, as most people are unable to finish their overfilled plate.

After all that if you have a sweet tooth don´t forget
to order a "Pastel de Nata" or Portuguese Custard tart to end off your meal with an expresso!

The metal bars from where the "espetada" or meat skewers are hanging

Pastel de Nata (custard tart)

Starter - Portuguese Bread, olives and butter

Even the olives are well seasoned

MOVEMBER - raising awareness of men´s health issues

2011-11-02T05:00:00.004+08:00

Movember - this is a movement that started in Melbourne, Australia and is now a global movement that inspires over 1 million Mo Bros and Mo sistas to participate in raising awareness to men´s health issues with Prostate cancer and depression, in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and South Africa.

The Movember movement tries to change habits and attitudes that men have about their health, educate them about the risks they face, increase their knowledge about the chances of early detection, diagnosis and treatments of prostate cancer and depression.
During November each year, men start to sprout moustaches around the world.

The appearance of a moustache on a usually clean shaven man prompts questions from those around them - "why the moustache?" So the Mo Bro, needs to justify the new look with an explanation about the challenges men face with their health, and key messages about prostate cancer and male depression.

Does Movember make a difference?
- Yes it does! Research confirms the campaign is working to raise awareness having a positive impact on making men think about their health.
In Australia the research reveals that:
- 90% of participants spent time thinking about improving their general health.
- 86% of participants visited a doctor in the last 12 months.
- 67% discussed men´s health with their family, friends or colleagues during Movember.
- 53% carried out personal research into men´s health issues.
- 50% cited prostate cancer as the first issue that comes to mind when thinking of men´s health.
- 89% understood that their health depends on how well they take care of themselves.

In 2010, over 130 thousand people in Australia got on board and raised $25million AUD, that supported the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and BeyondBlue (Depression).

My husband is participating at work, where all the men have joined.

Although such a movement wasn´t known when these pictures were taken, my husband has sported a moustache once in a while, but last year was the first time he joined Movember.

1987 - with our son Michael

1997 - with me

Movember 2010

Melbourne CUP - the race that stops a nation!

2011-11-01T00:57:00.004+08:00

The Queen of horse racing in Australia is the Melbourne cup, the race that stops a nation!

It has been held every year for the last 151 years, since 1861 and is now part of the social and sporting culture of Australia. It consists of 4 days of racing, but the biggest race is held on the first Tuesday of November - The Emirates Cup - it is also the richest handicap race in Australia, and the prize money, over 6 million dollars, and trophies - the main one being a gold cup valued at 175,000$, make it among the richest horse races in the world. Local and overseas horses, jockeys, trainers and gamblers all vie to win the big prizes.

singer Olive Newton-John, former Miss World Jennifer Hawkins and Rebecca Twigley (both Myer models)

Since 1877, Melbourne Cup day has become a public holiday in the State of Victoria.
The race is held at Flemington Race Course, and since the beginning it´s been frequented by the socialites, politicians, the rich and famous, and it´s an important social venue to show off the latest fashions and hats.

It´s estimated that 30 million dollars is spent on fashion for this event alone, with new dresses, hats, purses and shoes, so the fashion industry really gets a kick out of this for sure.

In Sydney festivities and races are also held, and although they don´t have a public holiday, many people still enjoy a full day of racing fun with lunches and events held in clubs, hotels and racecourses, where you get a chance to wear the big hats and fancy clothes like in Melbourne.
This is certainly the place to see and be seen!
So put on your brightest frock and fancy hat and enjoy yourself!!
I´m no gambler and this is all a bit overboard, but tradition is tradition.

Pudim Flan - Portuguese Creme Caramel

2011-10-30T20:36:00.004+08:00

This is a traditional pudding served the whole year round. In Portugal it will be hard not to find a restaurant that does not have this Pudding in it´s dessert menu.

There are hundreds of variations of this recipe as well, but this one is pretty easy as only a cup is used to measure ingredients.

It is usually baked in a special tin, but if you don´t have it use a cake tin with a hole in the middle if baking in the oven, or if using a pressure cooker use an ovenproof glass bowl and cover the top with a double layer of tin foil and a lid if the bowl has one.

Ingredients:

1cup sugar (for caramel)

1 cup of eggs (usually about 6)

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of milk

10ml grated lemon rind

25ml Port wine

Make the caramel by placing 1cup sugar in a heavy saucepan and melt over low heat until it turns golden. Pour into the pudding tin or bowl and move it around until all sides and middle area are covered.

In a bowl beat the eggs, sugar, milk, lemon rind and Port wine until sugar is dissolved. Do not overbeat.

Pour this mixture into the caramel lined tin. Place in a bain-marie containing enough hot water to reach half way up the side of the tin. Bake in the oven at 140ºC for about an hour until firm, or cook in a pressure cooker for 5 minutes, then leave inside the pressure cooker until it is cool.

If oven baked, remove from oven, let cool, then place tin in the fridge overnight.

Invert on to a platter with high sides, just before serving.

(Do not take it out of the tin before it is cool, it will break easily).
- You can substitute orange or pineapple juice for the milk and add orange liqueur instead of Port wine.

My pudding tin

The pudding in the tin , note the caramel coating

Pudding cooking in a bain-Marie

A bit of the top (previous bottom) stuck to the tin, maybe too little caramel coating the tin.

Saturday in the Kitchen

2011-10-29T21:03:00.001+08:00

After a well attended Barbecue on the Perth foreshore, the Queen and the Duke departed Australia this afternoon. I didn´t attend the bbq, as I´m not too fond of crowds, although it would have been a fun and memorably occasion.
Instead I did my weekly shopping, then prepared and cooked 2 meals for the week - one of them being the Spinach tart, that I previously blogged about, as my son who is not too fond of vegetables liked it very much.

Spinach Tart

This time I added a few slices of Chorizo cut into cubes, 1 teaspoon of Mustard, 1 chopped onion and half a dozen chopped mushrooms. Don´t forget to squeeze the spinach very well after it is cooked, otherwise the tart will be a bit runny.

I also baked a Christmas cake - I will have to try it first as it was a new recipe from a Gluten free cookbook I have, far too easy, so the verdict is still out. Right now I have poured a bit of Port wine over the cake and will let it absorb it for a couple of days. If it is good I will post the recipe.

Christmas Cake

I then did a bit of weeding in the garden, and for the first time in months went for a brisk walk around the neighborhood for half and hour before the sun set. All very quiet except for a couple of people walking their dogs.

Photos taken on my walk

Hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing weekend too. xxx

Perth welcomes CHOGM 2011

2011-10-25T23:42:00.006+08:00

Chogm = Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Every two years the Commonwealth leaders meet to discuss global and Commonwealth issues, and agree on collective policies and initiatives, working together to improve the quality of life in their countries and to build a better world. This year 53 member countries have been invited to attend this meeting, including delegates of my birth country - Mozambique.

This year it´s been held in Perth (Australia), and will include a visit to by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, giving West Australians a rare chance to see the Royal couple.

Queen and Duke arriving in Perth

The Queen and the Duke are already in Australia, having already visited Canberra and Brisbane, and will fly into Perth on Wednesday 26th.

During 11 days, a lot of cultural and sporting events will be held, more than 70 of these events being free.

Most of the city centre will be close to traffic due to security reasons, but all public transport will FREE on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th, to encourage people to leave their cars at home and come and enjoy the festivities. Friday will be a public holiday in Perth.

On Saturday 29th, there will be a huge community barbecue on the Perth foreshore where everyone is invited to join Her Majesty on her final public engagement of her Australia Tour. The barbecue will run from 9am to 12,15pm, and the Queen will arrive at 11,10 and depart at 11,55am.

Around 120 barbecue stalls will be located along the river front with volunteers selling $2 sausage sizzles and $1 drinks, and the funds raised will be distributed to various charity institutions.

A lot of the representatives started flying in last Sunday, and when we drove my husband to the airport on his way to Adelaide, we noticed a lot of police activity around the roundabouts leading to both the International and the Domestic airport.

An exciting time in Perth !!

A commemorative stamp issued for Chogm

A 1$ coin issued to commemorate Chogm

10 Things You Didn't (need to) Know About Me

2011-10-25T11:27:00.003+08:00

It´s meme time and I was lucky enough to be tagged by the world traveller Amanda, and that means that I have to write a post about 10 things you didn´t (and don´t need to?) know about me.

Hope I can think up of 10 interesting things to tell you!!

1 - I have always been shy, but the last couple of years I have been making a big effort to participate more in group conversations or to even make small chit-chat to strangers. (Maybe hitting 50 helped me unwind!!)

2 - I can´t use chopsticks although I love eating Chinese food. I have been shown mountains of time but just can´t seem to get the hang of it. And Chinese restaurants never give you knives, so I have trouble just using a fork to eat. Because I´me now gluten intolerant and don´t eat all Chinese foods anymore, I eat mainly rice and vegetable dishes.

3 - I like to have more than one craft project on the go at all times, I seem to get a bit bored doing just one thing until the end.

4 - The same for books - I usually start reading 2 or 3 books and alternate reading a few chapters from each.

5 - I have a sweet tooth, and would rather eat sweet than savoury food.

6 - I am a great dessert maker, and whenever we get invited to friend´s houses they always ask me to bring dessert. Somehow my cakes rarely turn out well. They get eaten nonetheless, mostly by me!!

My chocolate Mousse

7 - I´m not a sporty person, hated participating in sports in school and don´t follow much sport on TV either, apart from the Olympics which I enjoy.

8 - I love necklaces, have probably over 50 of them in various colours and always wear one matching my outfit. I have been collecting them over many years and a lot of friends knowing of my penchant give them to me as gifts.

9 - I like to move furniture around all the time and redecorate, but because I try to do too much on my own, I then get backache from all the pushing and shoving, so I have put a stop to that....unless I have willing help.

10 - Just like Amanda, I have never been to Bali. When you live in Perth, it´s like saying you´ve never been out of your city. It´s cheaper and quicker to fly to Bali than to any other Australian city. I have heard good and bad things about Bali, so haven´t yet made up my mind if that is a place where I would like to go.

Finally, such a meme requires that I tag other blogging friends to have a go at the same thing.
So, taking inspiration from my meme write your own post on 10 things we don´t know about you!
- http://bananarunkin.blogspot.com/
-http://emaleecrochet.blogspot.com/
-http://withoutcomplexities.blogspot.com/
-http://presepiocomvistaparaocanal.blogspot.com/
Good luck, hope to read some interesting things about you!

Spinach Tart

2011-10-21T22:50:00.005+08:00

I have been gathering some tips on green living from a very interesting and informative book, that I borrowed from my local library - "Green Living" (eco-friendly homes, natural gardening, organic, food, energy saving and recycling), written by Sarah Callard & Diane Millis.
Apart from some very important information on various topics, they had a few recipes, and one of them caught my eye as it was easy and didn´t need any pastry and it was gluten free as well.
So yesterday, I whipped it up in a few minutes and as I had a lasagna to put in the oven, I put both in at the same time saving some electricity as well.

SPINACH TART

500gr ricotta
5 tablespoons sour cream (I used fresh cream)
1 egg, lightly beaten
a pinch of nutmeg, salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped dill (I put other herbs)
2 tablespoons pine kernels, chopped and toasted (I left this out)
50 gr grated Parmesan cheese
500gr baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 160ºC. In a bowl smooth the ricotta with a fork, and combine with the sour cream, egg, nutmeg, pepper and salt.
Wilt the spinach in a pan with the water for 1 minute, drain and chop them finely.
Stir the spinach, Parmesan cheese, pine kernels and dill into the ricotta mix.
Spoon into a greased pirex dish, and bake for 25-30 minutes until firm and golden.
Let it cool for 5 minutes before serving.

* * * * * * * * * *

PS: I didn´t have spinach, but I had about 400gr of rocket, so I used that instead, and it tasted good as well.
Next time I might make some changes such as adding bits of ham or some slices of chourizo cut into tiny pieces.

Saving lives with CPR

2011-10-19T23:36:00.003+08:00

As part of our ongoing education at the GP clinic where I work, a colleague and I took part today in the St.John´s Ambulance Basic Resuscitation course.

The course lasted 4 hours and we learned how to do CPR - Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation technique, by doing compressions and mouth to mouth breathing in the manikins.
As we were doing our first tries someone came running into the hall asking for help as just across the road an elderly man had fallen off his motorized scooter and was lying on the road.
Our trainer ran out, pulled on his gloves and started checking the man. We could see across the road that he was bleeding. A few seconds later a couple of the trained volunteers crossed the road to check the injured man and an ambulance pulled up to drive the man to hospital as he had deep lacerations to his legs and arms.
The scooter was brought for safe keeping to the St John´s premises.
So a bit of fun (not for the injured man of course) was had with a live rescue.

Follow the DRS ABCD

Doing compressions on a manekin

Renovating Weekend

2011-10-16T22:14:00.003+08:00

I had been thinking of changing the look of my dining room chairs from the brown leather type material to something with turquoise blue to match the wall colour, to bring it more up to date with the look of the renovated kitchen. I felt that the kitchen being so modern, the dining room looked far too austere and out of place. The dining suite is made of solid Cherie wood, and we brought it with us from Portugal, so it´s the type of furniture that will last a while, so I didn´t want to change it.

On Friday I went to Spotlight and decided to buy 1mt of a furnishing fabric that would match the wall perfectly. Maybe I should have gone for something a bit bolder, but I didn´t want to start too bold, baby steps first...

On Saturday, while my husband was putting the finishing touches to the laundry, like securing the bench top to the cupboards, drilling holes for the handles, etc, I started dismantling the chair seats by unscrewing the four screws underneath - in fact except for 1 chair, all 5 others only had 3 screws, they must have been saving some pennies, but as my husband said "If they saved 1 screw for each chair they made, it would add to many thousands and that would be a fair bit of money".

I then cut the material in 6 matching bits and with the help of a hand held stapler, I stapled it tight over the original cover material. One hour later I had my brand new chairs.

My husband thinks I should add some covers for the back too, so I might by a bit more material and make 1 cover and see how it looks...

Boring brown chairs

Unscrewing the chair seat from the frame

The old and the new

I also decided to add to the art collection on the wall. I had hung 3 pictures originally, but I found two more in the garage that would be suitable for the dining area - (this was a little seating area before, although I had already changed the dining area to this room when we finished renovating the kitchen). I first cut newspaper to match the picture sizes and hung them on the wall in various positions until I was happy with the outcome, then after much measuring I finally hung the 5 pictures.(if you look closely the picture on the left is closer to the middle one compared to the picture on the right, even after all the measuring). A bit too much art for the small wall perhaps, but I will live with it for a while and see if it grows on me.

The original 3 pictures and former seating area

Trying out the newspaper cuttings

The final choice - except for the top right picture in a gold frame, all others were painted by me

The dining room with the newly covered chairs and picture gallery

What do you think, does the dining room look a bit more modern now?

The newly renovated laundry:

This is how it looked when we bought the house

The start, the fridge is out and now we have a broom cupboard and wall cupboards,
same washing machine that we inherited from previous owner.

The finished laundry - new front loader and sink.
Still missing 2 small shelves over sink and to glue some black laminate in the
benchtop corners that were cut at an angle

On my mind - PERTH TELETHON weekend

2011-10-14T20:42:00.004+08:00

Fat Cat hugs one of the kids

For the non-Australians and for the non-Perth residents, Telethon is a yearly event that takes up a whole weekend on Channel 7 TV station, who is a major sponsor, and is broadcast from the Perth Convention Centre.

It´s an event dedicated to raising funds to help improve the lives of children throughout Western Australia, by supporting research into children´s diseases, supporting children´s hospitals and other charitable organisations.

It was first started in 1968, and it has to date raised over $103 million.

Throughout the year the fundraising team have various projects to raise money, such as The Lexus Ball, Telethon Christmas sizzle, selling Fat Cat dolls at the Friendlies chemists, Viva kids photo album, Monopoly and Bingo games at Burswood Entertainment complex, etc.

Apart from this, a lot of West Australian companies support the charity, such as building companies and their suppliers who build two houses, one in Perth and another in a country town, to be auctioned on the weekend, and all the money raised goes to the Telethon charities.

Other big sponsors are the Sunday Times Newspaper group with their call centre and information technology department.

This is a fun weekend on TV, with a lot of high profile personalities, singers, dancers, actors, offering their services by manning the phones and performing for the huge audiences both on the local and via the tv broadcasts.
This year TV stars from the series "Home and Away", "Packed to the Rafters" and "Winners and Losers" will be making an appearance, plus some impressive musical acts such as: The Ten Tenors, Deff Leppard,
Shannon Noll (Australian Idol winner 2003) , Jack Vidgen (Australia has Got Talent 2011 winner), Mark Vincent (Australia has Got Talent 2009 winner), Stan Walker (Australian Idol 2009 winner) and Emmanuel Kelly, a favourite, but now eliminated contestant of Australian X-Factor 2011).
Many radio and TV personalities will also be participating.
The TV coverage starts on Channel 7, on Saturday 15th at 6,30pm and ends on Sunday 16th at 8,30pm.
Donations can be made via phone on 1300 737 507.
Australians are a very generous nation, so I´m sure that once again Telethon will be a big success.

Will you be watching Telethon and who are your favourite stars appearing this weekend?

On my mind is a Friday link-up photo feature linking from Rhonda at Down to Earth.

The Yanchep house being auctioned for Telethon on Sunday

Sunday 16th - PS: Just to let you all know, the Perth Telethon weekend raised the sum of $13,473,159.00.
This was the most amount ever raised, and this was raised in West Australia alone.

Very busy weekend - lemon cordial, soap and dinner/dance

2011-10-09T23:04:00.005+08:00

This weekend I managed to achieve quite a lot on my to-do list.
On Saturday I made 4 litres of Lemon Cordial using lemon juice and a syrup made of 1 litre water to 1 kg sugar for every litre of juice. A lot of juicing, but worthwhile, natural and refreshing.

A nice glass of cordial with mint leaves

Then after a bit of preparation I finally made the soap from Rhonda´s recipe. It was easier than I had anticipated and today I have already taken them out of their silicon moulds and they will now dry for 6 weeks until they are ready to use.

Here is the recipe :
204gr caustic soda or lye (sodium hydroxide)
540ml rain water, or if using tap water let stand for 24 hours before using. (I used distilled water)
750ml olive oil (the cheap kind)
500 ml Rice bran oil
250ml Copha (block of vegetable fat made from hydrogenated coconut oil)

Materials needed :
measuring jug, stainless steel pot (do not use aluminium pots), stainless steel, plastic or wooden spoon, kitchen thermometer, scale, mixer or electric blender and moulds.
Preparation:
- Measure all ingredients beforehand.
- Work in a well ventilated area, as when you mix the caustic soda with water, the mix can burn you or the the bench tops, and it emits fumes.
- Make sure there are no children or pets around when you are working with the caustic soda.

PS: Animal or vegetable fats can be used to make soap. All soaps are made using caustic soda, but when they go through the chemical process (saponification) all ingredients come together over the course of a few weeks and the caustic soda is neutralised making the soap safe to use. Home made soap contains natural glycerin unlike the commercial soaps where it is extracted and other chemicals are added to counteract this, and the glycerin sold as an expensive product.

Preparing and measuring the ingredients

1 - Measure all ingredients and oil the moulds first. Cover the counters with newspaper. Wear gloves and goggles.
2 - Pour all the oils and copha into a stainless steel pot and heat until the temperature reaches 50ºC.

Add the caustic soda to the water, not the other way around

3 - Pour the caustic soda into a jug and mix until dissolved (careful with the fumes). The mix will
heat up, so you have to wait until the temperature comes down to 50ºC.

4 - Using the thermometer check the temperatures of both the oil and the caustic soda and when
both reach 50ºC you can mix them, pouring the oil into a mixing bowl first, the the caustic
soda.

The oils and caustic soda mix are now together

The soap mix reaches trace

5 - Mix with a hand blender, I used my Kenwood mixer. Start in the lowest setting so the mix doesn´t splash, and when thick increase the speed, until it reaches trace, that is when the soap thickens, if you drizzle soap it leaves traces that don´t disappear into the mix.
It could take about 10 minutes, but it all depends on different oils used.
If you want to use essential oils or essences you can add them at this stage.

The moulds are already oiled

I used a soup ladle to pour into the moulds

6- You can use silicon moulds (used for cakes) or well washed milk cartons or plastic containers.
(Again - use no aluminium) I used a soup ladle to help pour the mix into the moulds.
7 - Wrap the moulds with some towels or blankets to keep the mix warm.
8 - After about 15 hours unmould and cut into bars.
9 - Let dry for 6 weeks before using.

Ready to dry for 6 weeks

Some interesting sites with soap recipes (they are in imperial measurements, you would need to convert to metric if using these recipes) - http://www.millersoap.com/
Saponification - scientific explanation http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/soap.html

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
After the soap making session it was time to get dressed and ready to go to a Dinner/Dance at the Portuguese Social Club. The event was being held at the Stirling Bowling club.
The dinner was Beef Curry or Beef Stew, and both were very tasty.

Hubby and I after a dance

The party theme was "Madeira Island", but not many people were wearing the Madeira traditional dress, I don´t think it would be easy to find such an outfit in Perth. Entertainment was good, starting with various talented young singers and then the DJ carried on with dance music until the early hours of the morning. We had a big group of 20 people sitting at two tables and it was a very pleasant evening.

The hall before the party started

The traditional Madeira house - a miniature on stage

The traditional Madeira outfits

On the Sunday morning we woke up at 6AM with some loud noises on the roof of the house, and I
realized it was hail. I quickly jumped out of bed, went to the linen cupboard and grabbed some bath towels and ran outside to the driveway to cover our car.
As we had arrived home after 1am we left the car in the driveway as the garage door makes a huge noise when opening. I certainly didn´t want to get some dents in the car, as some unlucky people had when Perth was hit bit a big hailstorm last year. It hailed for about half an hour before it stopped and a couple of hours later the day was sunny and warm. Of course I came back inside dripping wet as not even the umbrella covered me properly as I ran around throwing towels over the car...

My son who woke up later hadn´t even heard the hail and found it strange that I had covered the car and that there was an umbrella open outside the front door when it was such a sunny day.

My car covered in bath towels

The grass covered in hail balls

All in all we had a very busy and fun weekend. I hope your weekend was great too.