Movie night in Northbridge

Last night we went to the movies!

After reading Grace´s blog about Cinema Paradiso in James Street in Northbridge, I managed to convince my husband to go watch "The women of the 6th floor" a French romance/comedy about the Spanish maids working for rich French families in the 60´s.

Outdoor entertainment are in James Street, Northbridge

It has been ages since I last went to Northbridge, the center of Perth's entertainment and night life.

I have mainly avoided it, because it's reported by the Press as being a dangerous suburb at night with drunken, rowdy youngsters (and maybe not so young) coming out of the discos and clubs and getting into fights. I know the Police are always present in big numbers at night to prevent such incidents.

But I must say even though we left the movie house at 11pm, the place was quite orderly, and I didn't see any strange behaviour.

We walked along James Street and then turned into an alley full of Chinese restaurants, part of Perth´s Chinatown area, and sat down for a bowl of Seafood rice.

We had parked our car at the "City of Perth Parking - Roe St car park" and from the 6th floor you can admire the view of the city centre on one side and of James St and Northbridge on the other side - which we did when we went to get our car on our way home. 

We even saw some youngsters with their car parked in the middle of the now empty 6th floor, lying over sleeping bags and having a picnic. Strange place for a picnic, when they could be sitting in a nicer spot for free, instead of paying hourly parking fees. They must have a different idea of the ideal picnic spot!!

So, apart from the movie that we enjoyed, the parking lot view was a lovely end to our visit to Northbridge, don´t you think?

As we left the parking lot just metres ahead the Police booze bus awaited the drivers along Roe st. There were two lanes, one was directed to the "firing line" where they would blow the balloon, the other was free to go. The police must have seen that two middle aged people weren´t their target market, so we were waved by. My husband hadn´t drunk anything anyway...

Inside the lobby of Cinema Paradiso

Chinatown  - the city buildings across (pity the rubbish bins next to the pillars)

Chinatown alley full of restaurants

View to the city from the parking garage - the railway line divides the centre from Northbridge

View of James st, from the parking garage (the entertainment area in a previous photo is shown here from the top)

Police booze bus in Roe st, Northbridge

A blog award - ABC Award

I have been one of the bloggers selected by Alyson at "The thought palette" blog as a recipient of her newly created award for Awesome Blog content. (You can check her other blog too - Algarveblog.net)

It´s exciting to receive and award, to see my blog mentioned in someone else´s blog. How proud I am!

So I graciously accept this award, and pass it on to some other deserving blogs. It´s a lovely way to discover new bloggers that you might otherwise not come across.

Alyson´s aim for this award is to get bloggers to share something about themselves via the alphabet -  by choosing a word or phrase for each letter that best describes yourself, something you like, or a place or thing you dream about. It´s not easy...

When you accept the award, just add the ABC logo to your blog, share something about yourself, then pass it on - no limit to how few or how many you can send it to. Send them an e-mail and the link to this award logo and watch the fun begin!

So here´s my alphabet about myself:

A	Australia	B	Brunette
C	chocolate mousse	D	Dogs and cats
E	enthusiastic	F	friendly
G	Germany	H	happy
I	ice cream, Ikea	J	jewellery
K	Karina (daughter)	L	laughter
M	Michael (son)	N	nostalgia
O	Optimistic	P	Portugal, Perth
Q	Quince marmalade with cheese	R	romantic
S	South Africa	T	travel
U	Uluru	V	violets
W	Women´s Weekly magazine	X	X-box
Y	Yellow	Z	Zebra

I am very happy to pass on this award to some deserving bloggers:

http://seashellbytheseashore.wordpress.com/   - the goals Shell and her husband set to move to the beach full time.

http://emaleecrochet.blogspot.com/ - a young craftswoman and her crochet creations

http://bananarunkin.blogspot.com  - living a simple and self-sufficient life in the Adelaide Hills

http://presepiocomvistaparaocanal.blogspot.com/  - expat life in the Netherlands and travel

http://celestecortez.blogspot.com/   - a blog in Portuguese, from a self-published author

Enjoy, and don´t forget to pass it on!

Sami xxx

Still last year - Carnac Island and New Years Eve

In the early morning of the 31st, the last day of the year, my husband and I met in Fremantle with a friend who owns a boat, and two other male friends.

The occasion was to reunite with a former colleague of theirs, who was here on holidays from South Africa.

We had last seen him just over 20 years ago, when they had worked together in Germany.

It was lovely to catch up on what had been happening in everybody´s life since then.

Leaving Fremantle port

The boat took us to Carnac Island, an island just 10km out of Perth. For the adventurous snorkeling and diving are allowed. But we all just stayed under cover, talking and having some snacks.

Just a few metres away on the beach of one of the bays, a few sea lions lay in the sun.

A pelican, and tiny birds perched on the boat were some of the attractions

A while later two of them went for a swim and a few snorkelers jumped in the sea to follow them.

It was lovely to see them circling the boats, gliding in and out of the water, just so fast and gracious, while when they were lying on the sand they looked like lazy blobs of fat. Last time we were in the island, the sea lion colony was a lot bigger, so I presume they might have migrated to a nearby island.

Later the Marine Parks Protection boat came by to warn the snorkelers not to get too close to the sea lions as they are wild after all. One sea lion lying motionless on the sand was in fact dead - old age, we were told.

It just feels so good to see these creatures frolicking in the water. What a pity we didn't see dolphins this time either. Have you ever come close to these animals? Aren't they just amazing?

Around noon, and it was time to return home.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the evening it was time to get our picnic hamper and head to the Portuguese Social club for our New Year´s Eve dance.

Almost 240 people filled the hired school hall. We were 10 people at our table and each couple had brought their own drinks and nibbles. I baked a Tuna Cake which came out very well and I will be posting the recipe soon. I also took a plate with fresh fruit and a plate of nuts and dried fruit. Everyone is so fed up with eating, that something light and fresh seems to be the best bet.

A good night was had by all with entertainment provided by DJ Paulo and by a group of young singers.

We left shortly after 1,30am, having danced the night away and happy for having joined our friends in welcoming 2012.

May this year bring us all peace, health, prosperity and happiness.

Happy New Year to all my readers, friends and family!

View of the crowd dancing/ the hall full of people/hubby and I/ and almost midnight.

2011 - MY YEAR IN PICTURES

I saw this idea at Sandra´s blog, and thought "what a wonderful idea to remember and celebrate the lovely things that happened during 2011". So here it goes:

DECEMBER 2010
I celebrated New Year´s eve 2011 at the Portuguese Club in the company of hubby, our daughter and her partner, who were visiting from France, our son, and about 14 friends. We danced to the sound of a mix of Portuguese and English songs, and we ate and shared the goodies that we had taken with. (No catering at this club, each family takes their own).

Our family

Almost midnight!

JANUARY 2011
I had the opportunity of visiting Sydney for10 days, giving me plenty of time to roam around this beautiful city. I also got to know an "e-mail friend", and she and her husband were lovely people. They took us to the Blue Mountains and to the famous Bondi Beach.

The Sydney Opera House and The bridge 

The Three Sisters at Katoomba mountains

FEBRUARY 2011
A picture I painted for a friend. I have been very slack when it comes to doing what I love - which painting and crafting - so maybe one of my new year resolutions should be: - to dedicate more time to my art!
Do you make many new years´s resolutions? Do you manage to keep to your promise?

MARCH 2011
The 6th  "Sculptures by the Sea" exhibition was held at Cottesloe Beach. It was my first visit, and I really enjoyed it.

The most popular work of art

View of the beach, with some works of art in the sand area

APRIL 2011
I had a lovely day out with two of my work colleagues, visiting the different garden displays and gathering some ideas for our gardens.

MAY 2011
A fishing trip on a friend´s boat to Carnac Island, 10km off the coast of Perth. Not too successful for any of us, as the fish caught as far too small and thrown back into the sea, but a fun day out nevertheless. We also saw some seals frolicking in the water.

JUNE 2011
A friend from Portugal came to visit. We also celebrated the 5th year of the Portuguese Social club with a dinner and dance.
It was also the start of my blog. I have met many lovely people from all over the world through it, and have got to know how other people live in other parts of the world, and learned some new skills, like soap-making.

My visitor with us at the dinner-dance at the Portuguese club

JULY 2011
I visited Adelaide, a city on the South east coast. As my husband has been working there since June on a long term project, it could be our future home...

Glenelg marina

Riverbank in Adelaide

AUGUST 2011
The weather was warming up and a lot of work went into gardening.

Can you see the difference in growth just a few months later?

SEPTEMBER 2011
Fremantle´s Sustainability Fiesta and Kings Park Spring Festival were the highlights of this Spring month.
My Mom´s second novel was also published in Portugal.

View of the city of Perth from Kings Park

My mom´s first and second novel

OCTOBER 2011
After a few months of tiling, grouting, plumbing, assembling cupboards, etc, etc, my laundry was finally finished!

NOVEMBER 2011
A short visit to Paris to see my daughter, and then on to Portugal, to sort out the sale of our apartment in Lisbon. Of course the highlights of the visit would have been meeting up with family and friends who I hadn´t seen in almost 5 years.

A grey day in Paris

Sunny day in the bay of Cascais (Portugal)

 DECEMBER 2011
Christmas parties, lunches and dinners with friends...
Preparing for the New Year´s eve party, once again at the Portuguese club.
We still have one more boating activity planned for tomorrow morning though, hope it 
doesn´t make us too tired for some dancing later on in the evening.

Some lovely chocolates inside a chocolate bowl, that I was given at Christmas

My "Mommy" cat inside a basket by the gifts table.

Happy New Year everyone!! May you be blessed with lots of health and happiness.

After Christmas gardening

I took a few days off work to spend some time at home with hubby, who is also taking a few days off to relax.
Yesterday and today, we have been taking care of our veggie patch and garden.
Hubby had built a wooden box just under the canopy of our former rotary clothes lines. That in turn was covered with netting to protect the plants from the harsh summer sun.
Yesterday we hired a van and bought  a couple of cubic meters of soil. It took both of us about two hours to put the soil from the van into the wheelbarrow and bring it to the back of the house and dump it into the veggie box...

Later when the sun wasn't as hot we started transplanting some of the veggies that were in container boxes into the new soil.  Vegetable and flower seeds were planted into pots.
I know this time of year is probably not the best to be planting or transplanting due to the heat, but hopefully because they are reasonably protected from the sun they will survive and thrive in their new bigger space.

When it was time to put down tools and prepare some dinner, we looked up to see the last of the sun´s rays disappearing, giving us a beautiful spectacle, and I ran inside to get my camera to capture this beautiful view.

My garden at sunset with the fairy lights on

After dinner we went for a short walk around the neighbourhood and I took some more photos of Christmas lights in our area. Quite an enjoyable and relaxing day.