December Wrap-up and Signs (Part 1)

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

It was a month full of events as per usual in December...

Friday 1st December - a busy day, that started with a coffee at Praline - a French Cafe, with the daughter of a friend of my Mom's who has lived in Perth for a couple of years, but only recently did my Mom let me know. It was a lovely meeting with someone who was also born in Mozambique and who also travelled the world with her husband's job.

In the evening we attended Jose's company Christmas dinner at Optus Stadium.

Jose has been working in that company for 3 years and it was the first time partners were invited to the Christmas dinner, and it was a huge event with about 100 people. A young man played the guitar and sang, while we had dinner. We sat at a table of young people, most from South America and we had a pleasant evening getting to know them and what brought them to Australia. 

Fish for me, meat for Jose and chocolates and cakes for all

Sunday 3rd - We attended a picnic organized by the Codfish Academy of Perth, at Woodman Point, in the suburb of Coogee, with just over 50 people attending. Meat, rice and salads were provided by the Committee and a lot of the ladies brought desserts.

Jose in charge of the grill and the many Portuguese delicacies on display

That same day, in the evening we had the Clinic's Christmas dinner at Rambla on the Swan Restaurant in South Perth. A fancy venue for 22 people.

Monday 4th -After work coffee with my former French teacher and colleagues (I gave up my lessons in April, as I felt I just had too much on - at the Dome Cafe, at Deep Water Point, in the suburb of Mt Pleasant.

Friday 8th - a very long appointment at the Dentist for the orthodontist to start my implant procedure. With local anesthesia I didn't feel a thing. Will return mid January to check if all going well and bone is fusing and then 2 months later for the final implant.

Saturday 9th - Jose had been working about 14h a day plus a 1h commute each way, plus he had worked during 2 weekends as the end of his project approached, and this day before leaving work he called me to book a restaurant as he felt like going out. 

I looked online and found this little jewel just 10 min from us - "Little Gan's" - a tiny restaurant, great service, a limited menu, but beautifully presented and tasty food. They opened in April 22 and they had great reviews and I can say they are well deserved!

Scallops, Fish with cannelini beans, Beef Cheek Agnolotti, Muscovado Tart, Basque Cheesecake

On the way home we drove by one of the streets in our neighbourhood where they had a row of Christmas decorated houses.

Friday 15th - I took the train to Whitfords station (in the northern suburbs, and Jose picked me up, as he's working further north in Yanchep), and we drove to Hillary's as we had an invitation to have dinner with friends we hadn't seen in a couple of years. John's parents and my parents have known each other from Mozambique, since they were all single, and we kids were childhood friends.

Later both families moved to South Africa. His parents had a game reserve in the province of Natal, and he has Africa and wild animals in his blood. 

He moved to Perth later on and we connected again. Even though he works in mining, he also has a safari company and once in a while does guided tours to some African countries. He's also an amazing photographer who hopes to publish a book with his fantastic animal photos. We dined at Eccolo Italian restaurant in Hillary's. Again, nice, tasty home-made style food.

Seafood and squid ink linguine, beef tortellini in creamy sauce, Tiramisu and Berry Panna-cotta

Signs seen at Whitfords Train station:

Same addictive poison with new mango taste - See vaping for what it is

Saturday 16th - A friend who was going camping for a week, asked if we could babysit Cody, their very energetic 18-month-old Labrador.

He was obsessed with his ball, luckily we live across the road from a park, so I would take him there 3 times a day and play throw for about 20 minutes. 

He never seemed to get tired! At home he would follow me everywhere, never sat quietly. At night he would sleep in the laundry with a baby gate to the kitchen and he was quiet. The first night he destroyed his brand new blanket, ate part of a rubber ball... One day when I arrived from work, he had dug out a whole row of plants, broke some branches of taller plants... Boy, was he a handful :)                  Very clever, very cute, but he was hard work, give me 10 cats any day!! 🐈            I suppose he still needs to grow up and have more good behaviour lessons in dog school😆.

                                     

That same evening we had a Dinner/Dance at the Portuguese Club. There was a Portuguese singer who was on his Australian tour - Ze Amaro (aka The cowboy). I had no idea who the singer was, but his show as lively and everybody had fun.

His introduction singer was Catarina Viegas, a young Portuguese/Australian singer, who is well known in Perth.

          

Tuesday 19th - this date marks the 5th wedding anniversary of our daughter Karina and her partner Thomas. I can't believe it's been 5 years since we flew to the Philippines to attend their beach wedding. Where does time go?

Quite a few years ago we decided to stop gifting Christmas gifts to family or friends, only kids get gifts. But I always try to at least give some friends and neighbours a home-made gift. This year it was a jar with biscuits and my glycerine soaps.

                                            

More signs:

Some bottles get a refund of 10c

Appropriate for Cody, lol

Next week I'll continue with the rest of December which will include our holiday photos.