COLOURFULWORLD

Friday 9 July 2021

June Wrap-up

June, the start of Winter. Bbbrrrr, not my favourite season for sure, I would hibernate if I could 😉. 
Luckily our winters aren't too cold, with mostly sunny days and maximum temperatures that might reach 18 to 20C (64 to 68F). We had a couple of days this month when an Arctic wind blew and the minimum temperature dropped to 1,9C, luckily well before my time to get out of bed in the morning.

On Monday 31st May, I woke up with a sore throat, messaged my colleagues if anyone could work for me, and from the 3 colleagues who didn't work that day, the reply was "they had other appointments". Oh well, I got dressed and went to work!

When I got there my boss was already there cancelling appointments for one of the Doctors who had called her to say he was sick. I told her I wasn't feeling too well either, but no one could work... She just sent me packing and said she would work at the front desk with the other colleague. 

My colleagues must have felt guilty, as eventually two of them volunteered to go and work. 

I went to the Doctor on Tuesday 1st at my clinic, and believe or not he sent me off for a covid test!  I couldn't understand why, when at the time we had not a single case of Covid in the State, nor had I been anywhere outside Perth. All he prescribed was rest and hot liquids.

Both my colleagues saw one of the other Doctors who did not send them for a Covid test...  Anyway, it was negative as I expected.

I returned to work the following Monday 7th.  In the meantime 2  colleagues had fallen ill with flu over the weekend and I had to work every day for 9 to 10h a day to cover both their shifts! No fun at all, out the window went my restful week replaced with a lot of stress.

On Saturday 5th, feeling better I joined a group of 30 ladies, members of the WA Portuguese Women Association, for a screening of a French movie with English subtitles, and a couple of sentences in Portuguese - "La cage dorée- (The guilded cage), about a Portuguese family of immigrants living in Paris, who inherit a property in Portugal and decide to return home.  The main actors are all well known Portuguese actors, and we all enjoyed it.

Actors from "La Cage Doree:  (photo from net) 

On Sunday 6th Jose and I went to Burswood Park, by the Swan river and Crown Casino to join in the celebrations of WA Day (Western Australia Day) which is celebrated on the 7th, a public holiday. It was a wet day, but still lots of people filled the park. We arrived at about 2pm and spotted a South African food van -  Big 5 - where we bought meat samoosas - I so missed these, and they were delicious.
We then shared a waffle with ice-cream from another van. 

Big 5 food van, food area, swan people walking around, waffle with ice cream

Mince samoosas (photo from net)

We walked around checking the music stage, the various kids entertainment tents, the petting zoo, the massive fire van, etc.



A music box VW, more swan at one of the entrances, a swan statue and Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh
Panorama view of the Swan river from Burswood park

Then we sat at some benches by the water's edge with a bag of popcorn admiring the sunset... 

Sunset - the Matagarup bridge with 2 swans gliding by, and stadium on the right



And to end the night's celebrations there was a 10 minute firework display. Magical!





Jose started a new job  on Wednesday 9th.  He hadn't been working for a while waiting to go back to his old company in Perth who had been awarded a new rail project last year. Somehow almost 10 months later they still haven't started recruiting for this project...  
He could have gone back to Sydney where he worked for the same company on other projects during 18 months, but neither of us was keen on the idea - it was expensive for us, and Jose had enough of the big city stress and I didn't want to move there either.
He's now working for a smaller company also in Project management for rail projects.
That evening we went out to dinner to our favourite Japanese restaurant - Yuki - to celebrate the occasion.



On Saturday 12th we went to a dinner/dance at the Portuguese club to celebrate the Portuguese national day. We booked a table for 9 which included one of the Doctors from my clinic.  The food was great, the music by "Carbon Taxi" with Portuguese singer Chantal Basilio (on the right in the video), was fabulous and we danced the night away, leaving at midnight!

Prawn entry, Codfish, potatoes and rice, and a pineapple cake I baked to take

The hall, the band, the dancing floor and our guests at our table


Thursday 17th someone from St Johns Ambulance came to the clinic to administer a CPR course to all of us at the clinic from 5,30. Our boss arranged for snacks to be eaten midway through the 3h course. This was needed for the clinic's Accreditation in July.

Saturday 19th my colleague Suzanne from French class delivered a chest of drawers to be painted. It belonged to her brother who passed away about 6 months ago and she wanted it to be revamped to pass onto the brother's partner. It wasn't in a very good state, drawers needed gluing, the back panel had to be removed and replaced with a sheet of plywood, an extra support was added to the back and I had to add another top too as too damaged with stains to be able to be stained.
Apart from the top and drawers the rest was painted in black. 
Not yet finished as I still need the cup drawer pulls, so I'll show it next month.



Sunday 20th we drove about 30min north to go to Ikea, to look for a desk. 
You can see the stormy weather we had that weekend ...
The following Sunday we went into a 5 day lockdown because a person came from Sydney with the virus and one of the exposure sites mentioned was a couple of hours at Ikea on the 22nd.  Uff, we escaped!!



Saturday 26th we went out to dinner with friends to the Italian restaurant Ruocco's  in Fremantle. The food was fantastic, service was tops too.

Jose's chocolate and orange mousse, starters, my Creme brulee, my octopus and chips dish


Monday 28th we started administering the Astra Zeneca covid vaccines at the clinic. We just book about 10 people a day, but it makes a lot more work for us receptionists - booking, rebooking 12 weeks later, phoning patients from a list to ask if they would like to book, charging Medicare...

Jose and I picked olives from our olive tree, about 7kgs of them! They are now curing in water which gets changed daily and then will be put into bottles with brine.




We've had plenty of rainy days, and as I roll out my painting projects from the garage to the backyard there hasn't been much of a chance to paint.

Apart from the yet to be finished chest of drawers, I painted another bedside table, this time in pink :)


Shelley and Twiggy ....

And I end the month of June with a visit to Bunnings, a hardware warehouse after another big downpour that left the parking lot flooded, but the sunset sky was pretty.



25 comments:





  1. Summer here. 17C. Cloudy. Since days and days.
    Sorry you were sick, but you have a great boss for sure. Can you take the hours off later?
    The meat samoosa sounds yummy (I had to google that. Rock. we live behind a rock!).
    Looks like a lot of fun on WA-Day and the pic with the swan and the river is wonderful! As the sunset/bridge! Great fireworks.
    Yay for a new job in Perth - "weekend" or "month-end" relationship are not worth the work. (cities, btw, you can visit Braunschweig tomorrow :-)...)
    OK. I´m hungry now.
    I did such a course, too. It didn´t help, I couldn´t turn Ingo over when he collapsed, he was just too heavy and lying in the door.

    Oh, can you come over? I cannot open the drawer of our old kitchen board. Opened the door and uuuups - the panel had given in! OK, it was a cheapy. But I hope we can repair it!
    Corinna is everywhere. Bummer.

    Wow, olives, and so much!
    Cute table. And cats.
    Bunnings. We got a TV antenna from there. Because ours was broken. Yikes, I wonder how the Caravan Park is "next time"

    Quite a great month you had!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. We are entitled to 1 paid sick leave -1 day a month, and more if we have a medical certificate, which we don't really need, first because I went to see a Dr at the clinic and also because she trusts we do the right thing, and speaking for myself I hardly ever take sick leave.
      It's very difficult to get a meat samoosa here, the Indian here mostly do the potato samoosa which I don't like. They are very traditional with the Indian community in South Africa and even in Portugal.
      I'm becoming quite a handy woman with power towels, except I won't touch the electric circular saw!
      All over Europe the cases are up but you have a higher vaccination percentage than we have here - at the moment 9%, with a very low 2nd dose percentage, lack of Pfizer vaccine for the under 60's... No wonder we can't leave the country!

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    2. Same here with the sick days. And vaccinations... one (I don´t recall which one) was identified as not safe and less and less people are willing to get vaccinated.
      LOL. Sorry, I know what you mean, but I had to think of The Simpsons, in one episode Homer has a towel and with power "hit" his colleague :-)
      Reckon we will not have a food festival this year, either. So sad, not only for our taste buds but especially for the sellers.

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  2. Replies
    1. I love fireworks displays, thanks William.

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  3. Replies
    1. Obrigada Francisco, bom dia de semana.

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  4. You had a busy month with lots of dining out, Sami. Life is good. And thank goodness you didn't have COVID. I know that there have been sporadic outbreaks in other parts of Australia, with consequent lockdowns again. I had to cancel my visit to Australia in July last year and again in July this year (I would have been there right now) and I am starting to wonder whether next year is even viable.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Australia is sadly locked to the outside world for probably until mid next year. Right now all States are even closed to New South Wales as they are in hard lockdown with over 350 people infected. I wish I could travel too...Our vaccine uptake has been slow, until we have probably 70 pee cent vaccinated, borders won't be opened. But with these lockdowns and the Delta strain, all of a sudden more and more people are wanting the vaccine.

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  5. ...a colorful fun month, once on to July!

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    1. Thanks Tom. To a better July 😀

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  6. While your month started badly with your illness, it sounds like it got better and better, with lots of good food, friends, and even fireworks! Have a great July, too.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. That is true Mae, thank you:) Have a nice weekend.

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  7. Other then being sick for a bit it looks and sounds like it was a fantastic month for you, and so much delicious food too!

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    1. Thanks Martha, lots of great food indeed :)

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  8. Dearest Sami,
    You end with perfectly relaxed Shelley and Twiggy! We could learn from our kitties.
    Aha, that is where in your previous sign post the photo came from: South African food van - Big 5! For you fond memories no doubt.
    The WV should be VW of course, for the music box...
    Congrats to José for being able to start a similar job close to home!
    Reason to celebrate.
    Hugs,
    Mariette

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that was the van I used. I didn't realize I had swapped the letters, fixed now thanks Mariette.
      Have a nice weekend.

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  9. Apart from being unwell for a while, it looks like you had a terrific month, with lots of delicious food!

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    1. It all ended very well with great food indeed. Thanks Veronica :)

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  10. Being so unwell is not great. It must have serious to have a week off.
    The photos of WA Day are great and you found the 'Firework' setting on your camera, haha.
    It seems you had quite a social month.
    I don't feel too sorry for you with temperatures in the high teens while ours languish in the low teens.
    Even allowing for the weight of the pips, 7kg of olives sounds like a great harvest.
    It amazes me how drainage levels are so often wrong.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I hardly ever get sick, but this time it was bad, but even my 2 colleagues had one whole week off.
      I started taking pics of the fireworks with my camera on fireworks setting, but took too long to save them, but my mobile is way better with night photos and no special setting needed, so just changed to mobile. You are right about drainage levels...yesterday we had about 40mm of rain in one day and some of the streets in our area were overflowing, drains couldn't take any water either. Thanks Andrew, have a nice weekend.

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  11. Wow! No one there had ever had Covid? That's pretty amazing and awesome, but I sure hate to hear that you were sick and not feeling well. Thankfully it weighed in on someone's heart to cover for you. I clearly need to get into someone's suitcase and come visit you! You go to some amazing places and eat great food! Yay to fireworks! I enjoy looking at the display, but wish they could find a way to minimize the sound so as not to bother our furry friends. You take wonderful pics! Sending lots of hugs, RO

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    1. We have been very lucky in Western Australia, in total only just over 1000 cases and only 9 death at the beginning of 2020. We have strict quarantine for anyone coming into Perth and borders with other States close when they have infections. I know fireworks aren't very good for our animals, I wish too they could be made without sound. That RO. Have a lovely week ahead.

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  12. Gosh Sami that was a bit tough that you had to go in when you weren't feeling well and then you had to stand in for them, you must have been exhausted! Huge congratulations to Jose, I'm so glad he found something here, imagine if he was in Sydney now, they are in a dreadful state. Looks like it was a month of highs and lows but you always weather the storm so graciously. Talking about storms, I'm really nervous about tomorrow, talk about battening down he hatches! We'll have to catch up again soon, when we aren't in danger of being blown away in the wind xx

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  13. I'm so glad you didn't have Covid! Apart from that bumpy start it looks like a fabulous month. Oh, the food! And your fireworks look terrific along with all the other fun things you did.

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