The first half of October

On Friday 5th I went to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the city centre
to get my name changed.
Being Portuguese I have two first names and 4 surnames!! We usually get surnames from both parents and then add our husband's surname when we get married!
When living in Portugal it's all good, as you are only called by your last surname anyway, and all sites, etc are capable of handling all those long names.
But in Australia it's different and I get called by my first surname and not my last one (husband's) and when booking a flight for example I have to join all my names without any spaces or it doesn't fit.

From the time I took my ticket, was called, handed in paperwork, the lady photocopied all my original documents and was told it would take 2 to 3 weeks to be done and left, took all of 11 minutes! I was very impressed with the efficiency of the services.
And yesterday I received the certificate with my new name in the mail, just a week and a half later. That's service! 

In St George's Terrace, right by the office block where I went for the name change these colouful kites hung above the canopy.
As well as the flowers and the gigantic bird cages on the pavement of Hay street mall, they were part of the #Spring in the city, which included a lot of activities for the kids during their school holidays.

Kite canopy at Brookfield Place

Flowers on Hay street Mall

That day I also saw a lot of Star Wars characters which delighted the kids and the RSPCA also had a lot of volunteers out on the streets of Perth collecting donations.

I noticed that the volunteers that had dogs with them were more popular and seemed to get more donations, as people wanted to pat the dogs 👍

Last week it also became official that our second grandchild due at the beginning of April is going to be a girl 💗 We are all thrilled, a boy and a girl is just great!

On Saturday 13th my South African friend Geraldine celebrated her 50th birthday with a great party with the theme "colour and glamour".

Some of the ladies present at the party. The birthday girl is in the white dress and I'm next to her in the purple dress

The starters table was amazing with a huge choice of cheeses, cold meats, dips and crackers as well as some fruit and nuts.

Then followed dinner of vegetarian lasagna, goat curry and grilled chicken and salads.

Afterwards followed some dancing to great music from the 70's and 80's and there was even live music from the father of one of the guests. He was visiting from South Africa and happens to be a band singer.

After dancing the birthday girl made a speech and cut the beautiful cake.

I and 3 friends that had gone with me left at around 10,30 pm as we still had about 45 minutes drive home.

Just 10 minutes after we got on to the freeway we were caught by a massive downpour and I had the drive all the way home at 60km/h and sometimes less as I could hardly see ahead with all that rain. 

But we got home safe!

Birthday balloons, birthday cake, the singer and the starters table

And to end the fortnight I've booked flights to the Philippines to visit our daughter in December. As well as being happy that I'm going to see my daughter I'm also excited to visit a new country.