Monthly Wrap-Up - February & Signs

For other signs from around the world please visit Tom.

Thursday 1st - had a scan of my right hand, as I had been feeling pain (especially at night interfering with sleep) and difficulty bending 2 of the fingers. I thought I was getting arthritis, but my doctor suspected it was carpel tunnel.  Scan was indicative of fluid around the joints due to repetitive work. I can't avoid all the typing I do at work, but I will had to scale back my time on the keyboard at home!  The radiologist recommended a cortisone injection, the Doctor said it's not bad enough for that, but I wouldn't want it either at this stage. Right now I use ice-packs over my hand when I can.

Saturday 3rd - we went to a kid's birthday party at the Maylands Water Park, where I found the spider and dragon fly mural and subsequently the other murals in Maylands on our return home.

Maylands Waterpark - part of the water fun park, some bugs painted on poles and the birthday cake

Wednesday 7th - Our fellow blogger Iris and husband Ingo had arrived in Perth from Germany at the end of January. I arranged to meet up with them after my work, outside the Underground Perth Station, then we walked to Hay street, to Espresso & Prosecco Cafe.

On the way to the station in Murray Street, in the city - Chinese lanterns

Thursday 8th - I went to the nearby Carousel Shopping Centre and it was decorations for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Our City of Canning council organizes Mid-week Eats every Thursday during the month of February, at the sports grounds behind our local library. That evening we invited our neighbour and young son to come along to the - Asian Flavours week,  because of Chinese New Year. 

The Lion ladies on stilts :) for Chinese Mid-Week Eats

Saturday 10th - Had to work this Saturday. I'm not a fan of working Saturdays, luckily one of my younger colleagues' does it all the time because of the higher pay rate, but she had an event on.

Thursday 15th - Another terribly hot dat in Perth with a high of 43C. Luckily we don't usually get humidity, but it's still hot!!

                  

Friday 16th - a visit to the dentist for a dental clean.... hate it, my teeth are so sensitive, and specially my back teeth...that I have trouble brushing my teeth for about a week or eating or drinking anything hot or cold.

Saturday 17th - I invited Iris and Ingo, Grace and husband P to come and have lunch at our place. It was again a very hot day at 38C so we had lunch indoors.

Iris brought me some goodies from Braunschweig - my favourite Mon Cherri chocolates, a few small bottles of  the herbal liqueur Jägermeister, which is made in the neighbouring town of Wolfenbüttel, where both my kids were born. She brought me stamps for my collection, a book about murals in Braunschweig and she already been to the Perth Children's Hospital to collect the yearly Firefighters calendar and she bought one for me too :)

A refreshing yogurt pudding and fresh fruit for dessert

                                                                                                                                      Sunday 18th and Monday 19th - again 43C , beating a record of 7 consecutive days with temps over 40! It's been the hottest summer in Perth since record keeping began over a century ago.

Thursday 22nd - The Mid-Week Eats had been cancelled the week before due to the high heat, but today we went and had fun with the 80's style band and nice choice of food. 

No hot dogs for us, but the sign in the food van was cute

Friday 23rd -  I picked up Iris at Bayswater train station at 10am and then drove to Caversham Wildlife Park. 

We stood in lines to takes photos with the wombats, koalas and finally tried feeding the already full bellied kangaroos, who just wanted to hide from the heat.

Birds and a possum in the middle

Iris and I with the wombat and keeper

Barking owl, Kookaburra, Tawny Frogmouth owl, The Lesser Sooty owl, who wouldn't look at people

Iris and I and Lindsay the Koala

Right and middle kangaroos with joeyes and kangaroos eating on right

The Penguin feeding was very cute. The Little Penguins are the smallest species of penguins and are native to Australia and New Zealand. The fish was thrown into the pool, but the two youngest ones would only eat when fed by hand.

Then it was the turn of the 2 pelicans to be fed a bucket of fish. They can be very picky apparently and wouldn't eat one of fish they were offered, they just wanted the smaller fish.

A couple of black swans in the nearby pond

Bathroom signs at Caversham Wildlife park

When I picked up Iris at the train station, I knew she had been bitten on a foot, but I noticed her foot was swollen, her leg was red up to the middle of the leg, she had band aids covering the bites that had pus.  She needed to see a Doctor, so after a light lunch at the wildlife park I drove her to Caversham Village Medical Centre and the receptionist was kind enough to fit Iris in once she saw the state of her leg.

The Doctor gave her a script for antibiotics and a couple more things, which we filled up at the chemist around the corner.

Then we drove about 30 minutes to Subiaco, an inner-city suburb so I could show Iris, the only "wooden giant" closest to us. The other 5 giants are in Mandurah, about 70km south. Done by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, they have been a great attraction in Perth. On the way to drop Iris at the Subiaco station I showed her a couple of murals too.

Saturday 24th - at 7,30am I was at my friend Maria's house, joining 5 others to start with the preparation for Passata day. 

Maria had ordered 130kgs of tomatoes, so 2 of us started by cutting up the already washed tomatoes, taking them to 2 others on duty at the Fabio press machines, where the discarded peels would then be put through 3 times. Another 2 people would then fill up the already sterilized bottles with a funnel. When ready they were put into the gigantic pots set up in the carport, to boil for 45 minutes.  After boiled, the bottles were left in the water until cooling.  We got about 23 bottles each, although of course it took us 5 hours of work.

At 4,30 Jose and I drove South Fremantle Football Club in Fremantle for the Carnival dinner organized by the WA Portuguese Women's Association.  Dinner served by Benny's restaurant was delicious, the Brazilian band was fun, even though the singer wasn't the best, but he had charisma and got people to dance and sing along. 

Jose had been invited to be the Portuguese Master of Ceremonies, and we another a young Portuguese lady who is a journalist who spoke in English.

We committee had been asked to wear a pink wig and I bought a long curly wig for fun.

We always have a few door prizes given by sponsors, and I won a $100 voucher for a hotel in Fremantle. Might be enough for a meal at their restaurant for both of us.

Dinner at the Carnival gala

Cutting the cake to celebrate the Association's 4th anniversary

Jose and I

Sunday 25th - We had been invited to a lunch at Rimondo's on the River Restaurant in the posh suburb of Dalkeith, by a Portuguese friend who organized with the Portuguese chef to serve a goat stew for lunch. I don't eat goat meat, so I chose a seafood risotto from the menu.

Goat stew, Seafood risotto and the complimentary Portuguese tarts

It was a very gray day, but you can still see the marina outside the restaurant

Thursday 29th - we again went to Mid-week Eats when Jose arrived from work.  The family band played jazz style music. We had a curry from the South African food van.

Big Five Food Van - Samoosas for me and Lamb curry for Jose

A beautiful sunset seen from my backyard

We finished eating the last of our mangoes. This year the tree produced about 35 delicious and so, so fragrant...

Some of the birds that come to my front garden to eat

White cockatoos, my cute magpies, pink galah, and 2 gallahs pulling rank on the crested doves :)

Some of the number plates seen this month:

Hard style, Signore 1, Love coach, Never fold