Joining Tom's signs on Wednesday at: https://backroadstraveller.blogspot.com/
Wednesday 1st - Jose and I had coffee with a recently retired Portuguese couple. He used to work with Jose a long time ago, and we met them again recently at a birthday party and rekindled the friendship. We even discovered that when they lived in Johannesburg (South Africa) they lived in the street behind ours! Small world!
That evening I was invited to have dinner with my friend Maria and other of her friends at Tiramisu Pizzeria near our place.
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| Panna cotta :) |
Thursday 2nd - Spark Club at the Riverton Library - "Way out West" - an entertaining 2 hours with the Jukebox lady who talked about important events in Western Australia from the 50's onwards and sang an Australian song for every decade. A great way to meet people and sing.
Saturday 4th - Jose and I joined Dr S and her husband at The Windsor Cinema in Nedlands to see one of the French movies from the 2026 French Film Festival - "The richest woman in the world" with Isabelle Huppert. After the movie the four of us went to Dr S's house for snacks and drinks, and sat on their balcony overlooking the Swan River.
PS: I've discovered there is a Netflix documentary about French heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who died in 2017, one of L'Oreal's principal shareholders, on whom the movie is based.
Monday 6th - Easter Monday, a public holiday here in Australia, and we had friends over for lunch. One of them, John was a childhood friend and his parents were friends with my parents ever since they were young too.
Friday 10th - Codfish dinner at the Portuguese Club.
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| Grilled Codfish, potatoes & chickpeas and grilled meat |
Saturday 11th - I drove to Mt Lawley, one of Perth's northern suburbs to pick up 2 elderly friends - one of them visiting from Portugal, and had lunch with them. We dropped Vina off first and sat on her balcony having tea and biscuits and a curious Kookaburra joined us on the balustrade :)
Sunday 12th - Jose and I drove to Mandurah, about 1h south of Perth to pick olives from their 3 trees. The four of us picked about 75kgs in 3 hours which was amazing! After that, pizzas were ordered and we sat on the patio facing the canal enjoying the rest of the 31C day.
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| Mandurah canal, black swans and a Willie-wagtail by the pool |
On the way back home we swang by South Perth to attend the "No more blank walls" mural inauguration party at the Karawara Shopping Centre.
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| At the "No more blank walls" inauguration party |
Monday 13th - Drove to the Swan Valley and Jose and I joined Angela to pick olives in the Swan Valley at a farm of a friend of hers. The olives were tiny hence it took ages to pick 2 crates, about 50kgs.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I again picked olives from houses in my suburb, as well as from our prolific olive tree in our garden, this time with Jose's help. Angela picked elsewhere closer to her house.
It was about 3pm by the time we finished picking and there was a pub nearby where we had "lunch" before driving home.
PS: We kept some olives to cure but most were taken by Angela to an olive press to be turned into olive oil. We picked 166kg in total and we got 22lt of olive oil in return, to be divided by Angela and I.
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| Olive crates in Angela's truck on the way to the press |
Thursday 16th - A visit to the dentist for a clean, then a visit to the Medical clinic where I used to work to say hello to my former boss and colleagues. Then a quick drive to see 4 or 5 murals still being painted in South Perth, where I found the mural of the owls by Amok Island, which was the first one to be finished, just had someone putting a protective coat on it.
At home we had a roof crew cleaning the roof and gutters and replacing broken tiles. It was a hell of a racket and of course the surrounding area was full of 40 years of gunk! They did a good job and the house can now withstand the next big downpour!
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| Left - the cleaned roof/ Right - the dirty roof |
The laundry which had a window that opened from the outside and not the inside, and had ugly security bars, was also replaced. Again this guy did a great job, left everything clean and even changed the slightly damaged mosquito net on two small windows in the front of the house.
Now we only need new gates on the side of the house and if the neighbour agrees to pay half, we will replace the fence on one side - as when they demolished and built a new house the old asbestos fence started leaning towards their side...
While I stayed home with the workers, in the late afternoon Jose had to go to the Portuguese club to help with preparations for the anniversary dinner of the Codfish Association being held there on Saturday.
Saturday 18th - After lunch we both went to the Portuguese club to help with the dinner preparations. It was a long, long day of standing up cooking, washing, putting butters, bread, olives on the tables. Then after a rushed dinner lifting plates from the tables... then taking fruit platters, and anniversary cake to the tables...
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| The committee of the Codfish Academy- Jose and I to the left of the President who is cutting the cake |
After the wonderful band finished playing at 11pm, and the guests left, we cleaned up the hall, helped putting the kitchen stuff in order and we got home at 1am! A very tiring 12 hours of work!
Sunday 19th - after a very restful and long sleep my friend/neighbour Maria picked me up to join her at the temporary exhibition "With love from Nonna" at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle. We also attended the Q&A with 5 lovely nonnas, hosted by the beautiful Tina Altieri (from 7 News Perth) who is of Italian descent. Her proud Mom who she introduced to the audience was also there.
It was a wonderful celebration of tenacity and resilience and the audience laughed and shed some tears too listening to the emotional stories of their experiences in Australia since their arrival many decades ago.
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| Maritime Museum in Fremantle |
When Maria and I were walking around the exhibition I saw a familiar face, and a second later placed him in the "Piano" episode I had watched the week before on ABC TV.
I went back and spoke to 19 year old Louis, who represented Perth and was chosen as one of the 5 finalists. He told me the final would be shown on TV the following day, so I made sure to watch his Elvis performance on Monday 20th.
It's such a great program with emotional and loving stories.
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| Louis Rebeiro on "The Piano" on ABC Tv |
Wednesday 22nd - Met up with my friend I, who I hadn't seen in a while, at the Cioccolato Cafe in the suburb of Applecross. Had a wonderful hot chocolate and almond croissant :).
Our friend Rita was visiting from Queensland, and at her request I had arranged a dinner with a group of common friends, so that same evening we went to dinner at "7 Spices Indian Restaurant" a few doors down from the cafe where I had been in the morning.
Friday 24th - Took the bus to Fremantle and had lunch with 2 ladies from the Portuguese Women's Association. After that took photos of a new mural and some statues on the way to the bus stop.
Thursday 30th - Last minute things to do before our flight to Europe next week -pick up foreign currency ordered online, finish planning our 3 days in Istanbul, etc.
We are trying to just fly with carry-on suitcases - have tried out the "Sudoku" method of packing - 3 tops, 3 bottoms, 3 layers, that can apparently create 27 different outfits. Will see how it goes, if needed can always wear Mom's tops or buy a couple of things and leave them at my parent's house. Have you heard of this packing method?
At night we met up with our friend's Wendy & Lido and Dr Y for dinner at the Subiaco Hotel and then went to see the "The Light Within" a free, immersive, and giant floral, inflatable lantern installation at Market Square Park, that will run until Mother's day on the 10th of May.
I managed to get in some painting done - a small chest for toys and a small box and another bedside table that Jose found in our neighbourhood, which went into the bedroom I recently painted and renovated.
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| Toy chest and small box with butterfly collages |
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| The middle one painted in April - the one on the right painted in March |
Saw lots of personalised number plates this month.
