January Wrap-up

On the 1st of January Jose and I went for our almost daily walk around the neighbourhood and on the way home came across a beautiful sunset. I love sunsets!

We had a BBQ with our friends W and L on Sunday 3rd, at their house by the Canning River. We met the future in-laws of their daughter who just got engaged on Christmas day.  Feeding the ducks and black swans is always a highlight at the end of the day.

On Sunday 10th, we were once again invited for a BBQ, this time at the house of the newly engaged couple on the outskirts of Perth.

I took two weeks's leave from Friday 15th and returned on the 1st February.

Even though we had nothing planned I just needed some time off work as I've been stressed, and tired with training a new person, etc.  

The lady I've been training is due to finish her probation but sadly she hasn't been able to cope well with work, and that means we will need to hire someone new and start training again. With 3 months probation period, a young colleague back at Uni leaving her with less availability to work, I figured that I better take leave now or otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it until June or so...

As it was, I had loads of furniture in the garage awaiting to be painted, and that's what I mainly did.

I managed to finish 3 projects, have 2 half-way and 2 others sanded and awaiting to be painted, so I consider I did well.

Back in October I had been given two of these tables, one in a good state, the other needed repairs. So once Jose glued the crack on the table top and broken leg, it was ready for my magic. Because the top wasn't in such a good state I had to stain it instead of sanding and waxing it like I had done to the other table, but I think it came out well.

I can't even remember when Grace gave me this bookshelf, but it was ages ago!        It had trim on one side only which I had removed, but when I finished painting it I thought it looked too unfinished, so bought a bit of pine and asked Jose to cut some trim to fit the bottom and top on each side.

This rolltop desk was given to me by my boss, as she was demolishing her parent's house, to build a new house for her family.  She had seen a very similar desk I had painted so asked if I wanted it on the condition we had to collect it one or two days later, which we did. 

Unlike the other rolltop I had painted, this one was in a fabulous condition and didn't need many touch-ups during preparation.

Now it looks very cute and feminine I think, and I even found knobs to match the coral interior.

The still to finished pieces are - the pine corner entertainment unit, from the "Buy Nothing group" already looking much better in olive green and inside stained to look like a light wood, and the long entertainment unit, given to me by the Doctor who also gave me the two small tables (one above). The blue unit I want to put some feet and I've asked Jose to make me 2 doors for those open display areas, so it can be used as a dining room buffet. 

On the 15th I took Fluffy to the vet as he had been having an eye infection due to cat flu. He was just given eye ointment. Four or 5 days later his eyes were ok but the sneezing continued.

Jose is the treasurer for the Cod Fish Academy of Perth, and on Saturday 16th, we were invited to dinner at the house of the President of the Academy and his wife, and joining us were the Vice-President and his wife, to discuss the organization of the Association's 10th anniversary, which will hopefully be celebrated on the 13th March. 

I made two puddings, one for this dinner and another to take to lunch on Sunday 17th to a young Portuguese Mom and her Australian husband that I met at the Clinic where I work. They have the cutest 6 month old girl.

As we were near the area, after the Sunday lunch, Jose and I went to the South Perth foreshore for a walk. The place was full of young families relaxing on the lawn, others doing their daily walk next to the river...it's such a beautiful area with fabulous views across the Swan River to the city centre and lots of street art to admire.

On the right are temporary pieces from the Fringe World festival 

A giant rhino made of tools, car parts and metal by metalworker Jordan Sprigg

The gigantic yellow metal sculptures - the Numbat (23,5mt long, 6,5mt high and 5.6mt wide) and the Frilled neck lizard (21m long, 9.2m wide and 9.7m high) greet visitors arriving by ferry from the city across the Swan river, and acknowledge the nearby Perth Zoo's commitment to preservation of endangered species

The 3 Emus by artist Russell Sheridan and the family of meerkats, crocheted in polypropylene were created by artist Mikaela Castledine, at the piazza as well as a few of them along Mends Street help guide visitors to the Perth Zoo.

Numbat and Frilled neck lizard

3 bronze feathers, boat?, meerkats, emus and giant chair from where I almost couldn't get out :)

The meerkats with the city as a backdrop. To the left of the city is Kings Park

On Monday 18th, we met up for dinner with a South African friend who used to live in Perth but now lives in Tasmania. She came to Perth for a couple of weeks to visit her daughter, and she always tries to meet up with old friends.

We drove to Rockingham, about 40kms away and had dinner at "Steel Tree at the Foreshore" restaurant.

Before dinner was served Charmaine and I still had time to go outside and take photos of the sunset.

Steel tree restaurant is the corner building across the grassed area

Sunset at Rockingham beach, my salmon dinner, the beach, a rainbow towards the Kwinana refinery

The Christmas decorations and lights were still on in Rockingham on the 18th January

On Tuesday 19th I drove to Port Kennedy (not far from where I was the night before) to meet up with Jan, a former colleague who lives that way, so that we could buy our Fusion mineral paints at the "Upcycled Barn".  Afterwards we had lunch nearby and chatted for a while before I drove home. I managed to get a few photos for the "signs meme".

 On Saturday 23rd we went to the Portuguese Consulate in Fremantle to vote for the Presidential elections in Portugal. We went at about 4pm, with the idea that after voting we would then go to the beach in Fremantle and just sit, read and load up on some Vitamin D. 

We knew 2 of the 3 people there and when they were confirming our identities against their lists, they discovered that neither of us was registered to vote in Perth and upon consulting the website both of us were somehow registered to vote in Sydney ...we weren't the only ones apparently, as they had on the Perth lists, people from Sydney, and Brisbane.

Jose did work in Sydney for 18 months, and at one stage we both went to the Consulate in Sydney to issue our daughter with a Power of Attorney so she could sell our apartment in Lisbon (we had no Consular representation for about 2 years in Perth, when our Consul died).

The staff asked if we wanted to write a letter of complaint so that our names would be put under the correct Consulate, which we did and then instead of going to the beach and just stayed on and chatted the rest of the afternoon, and were even offered coffee and cookies. It was almost 7pm when we looked at our watches and realized how late it was, and they were meant to close the voting boxes at 7pm.

Needless to say no one else came in since we had arrived either...in fact voting was very, very poor with only about 65 votes out of the 1100 registered to vote, but we have about 10 thousand Portuguese in Western Australia...

On Thursday 28th, Jose and I drove to Kalamunda in the "Perth Hills" so that we could have a "Access Bars" 1h session each. 

A Christmas present from Karina, we had never heard of it, until she said that a Dutch friend of her's who she had met in the Philippines was back in Holland and was an Access Bars practitioner. The Nervana Chiropactic clinic had a community vegetable garden outside which was quite nice.

Access Bars is a hands on energy healing process that uses energy centres or bars located on the head, and unlocks them using gentle touch. The therapy will relax your body, soothe your mind and recharge your vitality. We loved our session, felt much more relaxed and the stress seemed to have evaporated. The following day we were both exhausted though, not sure if it had anything to do with it, but after that we felt great.

Nervana Chiropractic clinic and their community garden and flowers

Friday 29th - took Fluffy back to the vet, the eyes were cleared but he was still sneezing and seemed very listless, just sleeping and not too interested in food, would only eat the jelly food that comes in pouches.

The vet weighed him and said he had lost 300gr in the last 2 weeks and she thought he might actually be suffering from kidney problems.

She did blood tests and I brought home a special non-absorvent  sand and had him closed in the bathroom the rest of the day so that he could pee in the sand box so I could collect some urine. He only managed to do it at night so on Saturday I dropped the urine at the Vet.

Later that afternoon the vet called me to confirm it was kidney disease and that he would need special food and medication and I could pick it up on Monday.

I spent the weekend researching the problem and sadly it's a very debilitating disease... 

Saturday 30th was the Portuguese Australian Women's Association 1st Anniversary, an event that was held at the South Fremantle Football Club, the same venue where we had the 1st Gala in January 2020.

The event was attended by 120 people, the food and service by Benny's restaurant was top notch and the entertainment which included Samba, dancers from Timor, two female singers and a DJ, with plenty of dance music was fabulous.

31st - Sunday afternoon, we were just chilling at home when news came that there had been a security guard at one of Perth's quarantine hotels that was infected with Covid19 and Perth would go into a 5 days lockdown from 6pm Sunday to 6pm Friday. 

Locations and times where that person had been were broadcast and people that were in those locations were requested to get tested.  Just on Monday over 16 thousand tests were performed which was a record for Australia! 

Three days later we have had no further cases....so let's hope we can get back to normal soon.

I hoped to talk to the vet on Monday to ask her opinion about homeopathic medicines, about an appetite stimulant, etc, but due to the lock-down they wouldn't even let me inside the clinic, and was asked to stay outside. The nurse brought out the food and medication and the eftpos machine and that was it! Quite disappointed and sad. I also work in a clinic and patients go inside, we all have to wear a mask for the 5 days when outside and at work...