October Wrap-up

The month started with a lunch on Friday 2nd, at Grace's lovely home north of the river. It's always nice to meet with Grace who a lot of you know from Perth Daily Blog.

On the way home I stopped to visit my friend Vina who is her 80's and had an exposed fracture on her foot when she fell down some stairs and was recovering in a hospital also north of the river. 

Then I had to rush home, change clothes and drive to Fremantle with my husband to go to the WA Portuguese club for the first Friday of the month Codfish dinner. It's always a great opportunity to see friends who we don't often see.

Codfish with potatoes and chickpeas, Custard tarts and Madeira meat skewer

On Saturday 3rd I joined the other ladies from the Committee of the Portuguese Australian Women Association of WA at a coffee shop in the city centre to discuss the Afternoon tea that was held the week before and to plan new events to be held in November.

After the meeting I wandered around the city and loved to see all the activity - lots of young girls being filmed singing and others posing for cameras and Spring rainbow colours in many places, like the Globe lane steps and the city's Information kiosk.

On Monday 5th, I started training a new colleague at work, and on the same day my daughter and son in law left the Philippines where they had been working, so Thomas (my son in law) could start a new 4 year contract in Cologne, Germany.    He was offered a great position, but has to learn German, so both of them have thrown themselves into learning the language with podcasts and also with the help of online lessons from a German teacher offered by the company.

Karina was born in Braunchweig, Germany, where we lived for almost 6 years during the 80's. I'm looking forward to another travel destination and both Karina and I are also looking forward to one day visiting the place where she was born.

And talking about Braunschweig, I received a postcard from the ever thoughtful Iris, from Double-half or One Ten without ham with the town's most well known symbols in an ABC pattern. 

I was given 2 round coffee tables, a desk and Tv unit, by one of our Doctors who is selling her huge house in Perth's best suburb to downsize to a smaller river front townhouse.  Jose hitched the trailer and we went to collect the things and were shown around the fully painted and styled house which was ready for Open House the following day. 

Views of the city and Swan River on the way to Dalkeith. The statue of Eliza dressed in yellow

We had been at her house many times, and as Dr said the house looked like something out of a magazine but too pristine for her, and it certainly looks as if no one ever lived there.  You can check the house here on this link. With the suburb's median price of $3 million it's not for all pockets...

On Saturday 24th the "Buy Nothing Free Garage Sale" was held in our suburb for the second year. I probably had loads to give away, but just didn't have the time to get organized, so as I didn't have many things I joined a neighbour 2 streets down, and set up my table there. It wasn't as busy as last year but I still managed to donate most of my goodies. What didn't go I then advertised on the Buy Nothing FB page and apart from a couple of things they've all gone. 

A colleague was on holidays the week starting Monday 26th, so I had to work 10 hour days for 4 days and a 5 hour day (my normal half day), which was quite exhausting, as I was also training someone, which was already a brain drain... 

On weekends I relaxed by painting furniture of course 🤣

The last week of the month was a lucky week for me as I sold 3 of my painted pieces of furniture - one of the tables I was given by the Dr (the other is being fixed as the table top needed to be glued), and a sideboard and rolltop desk which had been for sale for a couple of months. 

As usually everybody asks for a deal, and even though I don't sell for much and  refinishing furniture takes a long time, as long as the offer is reasonable I would rather sell than keep the stuff in my already overcrowded double garage... but I really can't count on being paid the hours I work on some of the pieces !

After - the sideboard, rolltop desk and small table

Before being painted - the sideboard was in good condition, the rolltop desk required loads of fixing up and the Indonesian table needed wood glue on 2 legs

On Sunday 25th we visited our friend W, who was operated and I baked a Walnut cake to have with afternoon coffee/tea and made a Tuna Casserole to leave for the couple. 

It was a beautiful afternoon and we sat outdoors enjoying the river views. Around 6pm, the husband called the ducks and swans with his usual call and they all came flying in for their evening meal. Being Spring there were lots of ducklings and baby swans (cygnets) around.

bottom photos - 4 cygnets with their Mom

The month ended with a dinner at the WA Portuguese Club to celebrate the club's 51st anniversary on Saturday 31st.  Entree was prawns, and dinner was a plate with a chicken thigh and a steak, boiled potatoes, a bit of rice and vegetables. Not traditional Portuguese food at all, as well as being too much food. After singing Happy birthday everyone was served a slice of cake and there was a self-service coffee/tea table

Dinner was accompanied by entertainment by two local Portuguese artists and we could dance.

The singers (on the left), the room, blowing the candles - the President (in red) and vice-president and the kitchen volunteer staff 

And I end this post with photos of the magpies that live in the park across the road from our house and when they see us in the front garden they wander over asking for food. I give them a couple of walnuts and then they just go back to the park. They are notorious for being aggressive in Spring to protect their young in the nests, but I have read that if you feed them they know you and won't attack you.

Magpies eating walnuts and the doves that we feed in the backyard 

In our garden we are having a bumper crop of delicious mini tomatoes and we are looking forward to lots of mangoes too. The tree first gave mangoes two yeas ago, about a dozen only, but last year due to high winds the flowers dropped and we had no mangoes.  On our walks we always come across mulberry trees on the verge and we stop to eat a few....delicious. And do you know that you can use unripe mulberries to clean your red hands?

Mangoes and tomatoes from our garden. Mulberries picked on our walks