Signs - Toilets

 For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog:

Signs from toilets seen during my recent trip to Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks in the Northern Territory.

Monday Mural - Gurrumul

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks, Sami.

I have to apologize because I was so late visiting and replying to the Monday Mural posts of last Monday, but with the exception of 2 nights, there was no phone reception or internet for anyone who didn't have Telstra (main Australian communications company) as a provider!  So I had a bit of social media cleanse. As I never even had time to watch TV, I was unaware of what was going on in the world either!

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I landed back in Perth on Saturday evening (25th), after spending a week in the Northern Territory visiting Darwin and Kakadu National Park, and oh boy, I was so thrilled to find so many beautiful and amazing murals around the city centre, and then found a few more in Katherine when we visited Katherine Gorge.

On the afternoon of my arrival in Darwin (Northern Territory), from the hotel room window I spotted 4 or 5 murals just a couple of blocks down, so the next late afternoon after we arrived from Litchfield National Park, just before going to dinner I started my mural hunting mission 😉

Painted in 2018 for the Darwin Street Art Festival, on the side of Carpentaria House in Austin Lane, by Melbourne artist Andrew J Bourke and local Indigenous street artist Jesse Bell, the mural depicts Gurrumul (Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu), a famous Aboriginal blind musician who died in July 2017, at the age of 46.

Painted with permission of his family**, the background features lyrics of his song "Baru" (salt water crocodile) chosen by his recording company and family.

**According to Aboriginal culture, when one of their clan dies, their "skin" name, image or voice cannot be spoken, shown or heard for a couple of years until the family decides otherwise. In this case, the Yunupingu family put aside their cultural mourning protocols so that Gurrumul's image could be seen and his voice could be heard.

Next to his mural is a mural with a traditional aboriginal cross-hatch design by Wendy Yunupingu, painted in 2019 for the Darwin Street Art Festival.

I noticed that Western Australian Aboriginal artists paint in dots, but in the Northern Territory they paint mainly in cross-hatch.

Because they were behind an enclosed area I couldn't photograph in more detail

I remember going to one of Gurrumul's concerts at the Perth Zoo many years ago and his songs sung in his language were hauntingly beautiful.

    

Can you spot the murals I saw from the hotel window?

Monday Mural - Masked faces

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks, Sami.

Painted in 2016 by New Zealand artist Askew One, in the town of Bunbury (175km south of Perth) and can be found in the Wittenoom street car park in the city centre.

Not sure what the artist wanted to convey with this mural, with the 3 ladies seeming to have their mouths taped... they almost look as if they are wearing masks.

 

I'll be away this week on a short holiday to Darwin in the Northern Territory.

So excited to be able to fly again, albeit just a 3,30h flight...

I might take a while to visit you all as I'm not taking my laptop and will only be able to check your blogs with my mobile phone. 

But looking forward too all your wonderful murals this week. Thank you 😊

Signs - Purrth Cat Cafe and cat's birthday

For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog:

To celebrate my cats' 14th birthday on the 17th, today's signs are from Perth's Cat Cafe in Rokeby Street, Subiaco, which opened in Perth in 2014.

I follow them on Facebook and see photos of their many cats but I've never booked a visit to the Cafe. Have you  ever been to a Cat Cafe?

They never have more than 2 people per cat, and they adopted 10 cats from Perth's Cat Haven, which rescues and re-homes felines.

For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog.

And talking about cats, it's Shelley and Twiggy's 14th birthday on the 17th 😉

It's not often that they sit together

Twiggy's favourite position, her head against a pillow, she loves her comfort

Shelley sitting on a pillow too, but she's not fussy and will sleep with her head resting on the coffee table :)

To read about how we came to have so many cats at once when Shelley and Twiggy were born click here

I'll be going on a mini holiday to Darwin in the Northern Territory, from Sunday 19th returning home on Saturday 25th.

I'm super excited, the last time I was on a plane (to Sydney and back to Perth) was June 2019. And since our state of Western Australia has been closed to most other Australian states, makes it difficult to travel outside the state. At the moment we are only open to the low-risk states of Tasmania, South Australia and Northern Territory.

I'll still schedule the Monday Mural post for the 20th, but it might take me a while to visit everybody, as I'll be doing it via my mobile as I'm not taking my laptop with me.

Monday Mural - From pain we grow

I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you.  Just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere.  The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks, Sami.

More murals from Hayley Welsh, the same artist that painted last week's mural. 

These photos were taken in Bunbury (a small coastal city 175km/108miles south of Perth) when we visited in November 2020.

It was painted in 2016 and can be found on the walls of the Australian Red Cross building on Wellington street.

Some electrical boxes also from Bunbury, that also have Hayley's art. 

                                                                  

Signs and August Wrap-Up

Linking with Tom's signs:

At work we started the month by interviewing a couple of people for a receptionist job at the Clinic.

A lady in her early 40's with the required experience was chosen, she started on Monday 9th, and after 1 week's training by myself she thought she was ready to go it on her own. We always work in pairs, so even though I thought she needed more training, she was bright and seemed to learn fast, so we accepted her request. Sadly she didn't last long... She resigned on the 31st due to wanting more hours, she thought the job was too stressful, wasn't too happy to take direction if she did something wrong...  

On Friday 13th, we went to dinner at Two Fat Indians Restaurant at Carousel Shopping Centre. We like their food, but this time I ordered some "mild spicy" chicken dish, but their mild is far too hot for me!

I like the Masala Laboratory sign

My French class colleague Suzanne had asked me to paint this old chest of drawers. It belonged to her brother who died last year, and she wanted it to be fixed up and painted so she could give it to his partner. It was in a pretty bad state, with drawers that needed to be glued, the backboard was in pieces, there was a bit of damage to the top, no stoppers on most of the drawers, each drawer had about 10 holes on each side from various handles it might have had during it's life...

It took me many hours to repair it, sand and paint it to give it a masculine but modern look, using "Coal Black" by Fusion Mineral Paint, and an "Ash" wash on the drawers, covered by Cappuccino Stain and Finishing Oil, which helped disguise the various holes and  added new Cup drawer pulls. It got a new wood top stained in Cappuccino, and a new backing board. 

When we delivered it to Suzanne on Saturday 14th, she was very happy with the new look and thought I hadn't asked for enough money for all the work I did, so gave me some extra, which was very kind of her. Hopefully it will now last a few more decades.

After delivering the chest of drawers, we then drove north of the river to have lunch with a young Portuguese family that we met here in Australia a few years ago.

Sunday 15th, with a temperature of 24C we spent the day in the garden doing the much needed job of weeding and repotting some plants. 

And we even had a light lunch in the garden...  Indian meat samosas (that I bought at the South African shop) served with coleslaw salad and a bowl of strawberries and cream with a dash of Port wine.

With the warmer weather the birds are more active in the garden and I managed to get a few (not so good) photos with my mobile.

A pink and grey cockatoo (or galah), a rainbow lorikeet eating our loquats that are now ripening, a Honeyeater, mourning doves and a magpie-lark sharing the dove's seeds

On Friday 20th, Jose with a car full of colleagues picked me up to join them at a very posh Corporate event at Optus Stadium, called the "2021 Rugby Bledisloe Long Lunch" to help celebrate the upcoming game between the All Blacks and the Wallabies, match to be held on the 28th August. 

Jose's bosses bought tickets for a table but then weren't able to attend and offered the tickets to some of the staff members and partners. 

During lunch it was announced the All Blacks wouldn't be coming, but somehow a week later they came, and after quarantine the game went ahead on the 5th September.  

There were prizes, auction of rugby items, speeches, rugby players, music, a three course meal and drinks... and it was also an great opportunity for me to visit the Stadium, which was inaugurated in December 2017, as I'd never been inside.

Signs: at the Stadium announcing the lunch, a signed rugby shirt went up for auction, a petition for the 2027 Rugby World cup to be hosted in Perth and the Wallabies and All Blacks signs on the windows in the events room.

Panoramic view of the Matagarup bridge, the city and East Perth from the events rooms

The starters - oysters and pork...at top, main dish was lamb, and as I don't like lamb I had to order the vegetarian Risotto. The small cakes were divine and so were the gourmet chocolates.

We even got ferried from the Stadium to the car park by a very friendly driver.

After lunch that finished at 4,30, we returned home changed into more casual clothes and drove to the city to watch the winter lights display.

We stopped at Kings Park Botanic Gardens to get night photos of the city, and then to Brookfield Place in St George's Terrace for the lights.

Panoramic view of the city

City views from Kings Park

                 

And the main attraction of the show were these huge balls 

On Saturday 21st I joined a group of women I met through the Buy Nothing group in my neighbourhood and we went to Bloom - celebrating all women, multicultural unity and budding talent, held at the Canning Exhibition Centre.

The invitation asked for people to wear traditional costumes if possible, and I managed to borrow a genuine costume from the Island of Madeira from my friend Idalia. We had dinner, a fashion show, speeches, a display of Irish dancing and a Belly dancer and there were some stalls with products for sale.

A swan made with ribbon

Flags, table setting and starters menu

Me in my outfit from Madeira Island, various ladies in traditional costumes and ladies from the International fashion parade

I Painted a couple of clay pots with a mix of paint and bicarbonate of soda 

A dolls rocking crib that I bought at an Op-Shop for $8, now painted in a soft pink. I've even  sews a little mattress, sheet and mini pillow.

And I was silly enough to dismantle a red kid's kitchen to paint it. 

It's almost finished, but it's been a puzzle to put back together! That has taught me to put all different screws into labelled containers and probably even take more photos of the various components than just this one photo!  I'll show the renovated one in the September Wrap-up.

All in all a great month with lots of unusual entertainment. Now with warmer days of Spring there will be more outdoors activities hopefully.

Hope you also had a great month of August :)