32 years ago!

Thirty two years ago, on the 30th of November we got married in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I cannot believe time has flown so quickly.
We were both very young, but fortunately have managed to stay together through good and bad times, have travelled a lot, moved between a couple of different countries, lived in various houses and apartments, had two beautiful children who are all grown up and have flown the nest...all part of the cycle of life.

Since hubby is working in Adelaide, I´ve taken a few days off work, and after a cancelled flight on Wednesday due to stormy weather in Perth, and then a delayed flight on Thursday due to the backlog of flights, I finally arrived on the east coast late afternoon, to be able to spend our anniversary together. We will also take the opportunity to travel around and get to see some more of South Australia.
See you soon.


My interview with Expatblog went live on 27th, and you can read it here. You can leave a comment on Expat blog if you like too.

Then...

And now.

Weekend in the garden

This Saturday and Sunday were spent in the garden. I had just wanted to remove some invasive grass from the rhoeo plant border that was strangling them and making them brown.

The border edge almost in place, after the grass was removed

The Rhoeo in the bucket, awaiting to be planted

I cut a piece of plastic border edging that we had rolled up in the shed and set about taking all the plants out of that area, putting them in a bucket with water, digging a little trench, putting the border edging in and then replanting the rhoeo.


This of course took me a couple of hours, but by then I noticed that most of the potted plants were actually looking quite dry, some needed to go into bigger pots, others needed new soil...
So off I went to a nearby warehouse, bought soil, clumping cat litter, mulch, and then some colourful flowers to brighten the garden too.
Cat litter? Yes, I went once to a talk about our very poor sandy soils in Perth and how to improve it, and one of the ingredients to add to the soil was clumping cat litter as a wetting agent. (Read link).

Back in the garden in the heat of the afternoon sun...I know I shouldn´t have done it, my back is now very red as I was wearing a strappy T-shirt, but I was full of steam and just kept going and only noticed the burned back when I stepped in the shower after the day´s work.

So, all the pots came off that central area, and I started changing some plants to bigger pots, others was just a change of soil, planted my lovely pink flowers and started putting the pots back in the area.
I have to say the plants have to be in pots as they are on top of a cemented rectangle where the clothes line used to be. My husband thought it was too much trouble to break the cement up, so my alternative was to put down pebbles and pots.

The old wheel barrow with succulents that I grow from cuttings

View from the back. Can you see the passionfruit vine on the side passage, it needs taming too!

The Grapevine is already full of tiny bunches of grapes

The mirror against the fence used to be our old bathroom mirror.

My lovely succulents and some of the new flowers I bought this weekend

  

Today, Sunday, after getting back from the my workplace Christmas breakfast, that we had in a lovely hotel near the river, I changed into my work clothes and back into the garden.
This time I tackled the plants hanging from the old stepladder and the ones in the shady area near the lemon tree.

All the re-potted plants on the ladder

The shade loving plants under the lemon tree

I had some pots on top of various styrofoam boxes at various levels, stacked against the fence, and when I took the pots and the boxes out I discovered enough snails to feed a small French family!!
Then there were plenty of slugs and slaters or roly-polies too. Wow, how disgusting, I hate snails and slugs and all crawly things.
So wearing gloves of course, I grabbed a plastic bag and scooped them into the bag, threw away most of  the styrofoam boxes too, as I don´t want a recurrence of those pests and moved the re-potted plants to the area just under the lemon tree. I need to get some sort of table to have them off the floor, so they don´t get attacked again by those disgusting snails.

Snails anyone?

Tomorrow, being my day off work I will scatter some mulch over the pots and then all is done.
I´m glad the garden is now looking good for the beginning of summer next week and also for our Christmas get-together.

I thought you might like to see some photos of the garden progress since we bought the house in 2007 until now. A little better don´t you think?

In the beginning, this was the back yard - dark, dull, lots of cement, a small wall around the cement pavers...

2008 - work starts - The clothes line was removed, some pavers removed.

2010 - More pavers removed to the side, more plants, looking a little better already

Now - less cement, more plants, some grass to the right. My lovely "Fluffy" in the picture too.

A - Z of Australia - R is for Rocks

I thought of writing about Rottnest Island, is it is for sure my favourite "R" in Western Australia, but I have already written about it under Islands.
There is "Rockingham", a coastal town around 50km south of Perth, where the ferry to Penguin Island departs from, but apart from that there is not much more that would merit a post.
Well what about "Rocks"? They are certainly in abundance all over Australia, big rocks, small rocks, rocks that are considered monuments...so let´s start with the ones I have visited!

Wave Rock - situated in Hyden, a small town about 300km southeast of Perth, this is a popular tourist spot. This grey and red granite rock formed 2,700 million years ago, which scientists believe was created by the weather, water and chemical erosion, is shaped like an ocean wave, 15mt high and about 110mt long. It is located within the 160 hectare Hyden Wildlife park, and you can wander the park to watch birds and native animals - home to the rare white kangaroo, visit the Mulka cave and Hyppo´s Yawn or drive to the rabbit proof fence. During Spring the area is covered with wildflowers.
To get there, you can either drive from Perth, take a twice a week public bus or a tourist coach, or even fly from Jandakot airport.

My husband and I below the Wave. You can also walk to the top of the wave.

Hypo´s Yawn - another natural creation near Wave Rock, this rock resembles the mouth a yawning hippo.

Nearby is a coffee shop and you can buy a souvenir from the Wildflower shop.

My husband and I inside the Hippo´s mouth

Mulka Caves (Bates caves) - just a 18km drive from Wave Rock is Mulka´s cave, a granite rock with a small cave whose walls and ceiling are covered with Aboriginal paintings done about 30,000 years ago.

There is an Aboriginal legend associated with these caves - Mulka, was the illegal son of a woman who fell in love with a man with whom marriage she was forbidden to marry. Because she broke the rules, she bore a son with crossed eyes. This prevented him from aiming a spear and becoming a successful hunter. Out of frustration, Mulka started catching and eating children, becoming the terror of the area. When his mother berated him, he killed her too. He fled south and was tracked down and speared. As he didn´t deserve a proper burial, his body was left to the ants.

Rabbit Proof Fence  - Not a rock, but since it is in the area, and also starts with an R, visit the fence. There are 3 fences built between 1901 and 1907, with a total of 3253km, used to keep rabbits of the Western Australia´s cultivated areas. 

As a point of interest there was a movie made in 2002, called "Rabbit Proof Fence" based on a book by Doris Pilkington Garimara, which tells the story of 3 Aboriginal girls in the 1930´s, who had been taken from their parents as part of the "Stolen Generation" to a mission in Moore River, and when they escaped they followed the fence to walk back to their family in Jigalong.

Pinnacles - situated in the Nambung National Park, just outside the coastal town of Cervantes, these lunar like limestone rock formations were also formed millions of years ago. Only opened to the public in the 1960´s, the area is now visited by over 250,000 people a year.

Located about 245km north of Perth, via the Indian Ocean Drive, you can either drive, or take a tour bus to the area. 

There is a lookout from where you can see an extensive area of these rock formations - the highest stones reaching 5mt high - there is a walking trail or you can drive along the scenic drive, and get out and touch the rocks.

Visit the Pinnacles Discovery Centre and see the story in displays as well as an insight into the plants and animals that have made this area their home. There are plenty of wild kangaroos and some emus roaming around too. 

The best time to visit would be Spring, as the wildflowers are blooming and the days are mild.

A sea of rocks of all sizes, taken from the lookout

At sundown, I stand against one of the huge rocks

Some of the kangaroos we saw - they run away if you get close

Kalbarri - 590km north of Perth, at the mouth of the Murchison river is the small town of Kalbarri, named after an Aboriginal man from the Murchison tribe, and also the name of an edible seed.

The town is now geared toward tourism and fishing, with about 200,000 thousand tourists a year visiting the town´s main attractions - the Kalbarri national park with the "Z Bend" and "Nature´s window", Murchison river gorge, the daily feeding of the pelicans and the Australian Parrot Breeding centre where you can interact the the birds. There are some lovely beaches, but it was winter when we visited, so they were deserted.

Rock formations looking down into the Murchison River (dry at the time)

Nature´s window - it´s a steep downhill walk to get there, but worthwhile.

Elephant´s Rocks - some interesting rocks this time down south, in the town of Denmark, 450km from Perth.

In one of my favourite beaches in Australia (and I´m not much of a beach person!), these granite rocks resemble elephants from certain angles.

They sit in a sheltered bay and are well worth the visit, as well as nearby Green´s Pool.

There is a car park and as you stroll down the pathway you can just make out the elephants in the Southern Ocean.

My husband on top of one of the "elephants"

You can go down a wooden staircase between the rocks into the little Elephants cove beach, but you are are bound to get wet if the tide is high, but you get a beautiful view of the rocks from down below.
The waters are usually very calm in this area

My brother in law, myself and my sister at Elephants cove

What was your favourite rock?

Do you have interesting rock formations around your area?

So just to end the post, I wanted to relate something I once overheard a tourist ask at the Tourist information centre, and I thought it was funny, as only people that live here can relate to the vastness of this country!

He wanted to know if he could visit both the Pinnacles and Wave Rock in the same day, and he was being told that it would be almost impossible. He would have to drive north 245km, then return to Perth and drive east 300km and return to Perth, making it almost 1100km round trip in a day, taking probably around 12 or 13 hours! A very tiring trip to visit some rocks!

A - Z of Australia - Q is for Queen's Gardens

Within the city of Perth´s boundaries there are 18 parks, covering a total of 140 hectares of land.
On the eastern end of  of the city of Perth, right in the middle of the city´s hustle and bustle is a lovely park - Queen's Gardens - opened and named in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria, by the then Mayor of Perth, Alexander Forrest.
Situated near the WA cricket arena (WACA), the park is easily reached with the Red Cat (free bus).
The park is modeled on a London park, with a lake with ducks and a copy of Peter Pan´s statue.

Queens Gardens grounds of 3,3 hectares, were first a common area used as a venue for horse racing, then a brick factory and clay pit site until 1890, later a botanic garden. From the 1900´s new improvements were made, such as new entrance gates, new bridges, installation of electric lighting, so that the garden could be used in the evenings...
Although almost in the centre of town, the gardens are a quiet haven where you can lie down on the grass with a good book, have a picnic, watch the ducks and black swans in the lily filled lakes (the old clay pits), wander to the herb garden in one corner, admire the flowers, watch the bird life...The park has also become a very popular venue for garden weddings and wedding photos.

Queens Gardens - the white towers are the lights of the WACA stadium

Colourful flowers all over the park

To mark the Western Australian State Centenary in 1929, the Rotary club of Perth presented the city with a statue of Peter Pan, a replica of the one found in Kensington gardens in London. 
Another famous, but this time genuine article, is the bench used in the film "Notting Hill" where Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant are sitting at the end of the movie. It was anonymously donated to the city of Perth by a local resident, and it bears a beautiful inscription "For June who loved this garden, from Joseph who always sat beside her" and "June Wetherby 1917-1992".
The park is enclosed by a wrought iron fence, and the facilities include plenty of wooden seats, a gazebo, public toilets, and a drinking fountain.

My daughter sitting on that famous bench of the "Notting hill" movie

Julia Roberts & Hugh Grant on the bench that is now in Queen's gardens (photo from net)

The friendly ducks by the famous bench

A - Z of Australia - P is for Public Transport

Having lived in Perth for just over 5 years, I have used my fair share of public transport and find Perth´s public transport to be very organized, reliable and punctual.

If you need to plan a journey or look up maps of where to get a bus or train, just go to the Transperth site and you will be surprised with the wonderful journey planning tools, timetables, detailed maps with all the roads and the hundreds of bus lines going through them. The buses also carry copies of their specific timetable with a map, so you don´t ever need to feel lost. Apart from that most bus drivers are quite friendly and helpful. The transport system is divided into nine travel zones which are defined by circles around Perth city. Each zone covers an area between eight to ten kilometres wide circle.

In the city centre, Perth is well served by the "CAT" buses" (Central Area Transit) that are free.
There are 3 bus lines - the yellow, the blue and the red -  going in different directions and overlapping at certain points. Fremantle  and Joondalup in the north are also served by a free CAT service. These buses help reduce traffic in the central business areas, as well as being quite handy for visitors and residents, as they go past all the main attractions and you can hop on and off whenever you wish. They run at about every 8 to 15 minutes intervals, and there is no limit to how often you get in and out.

The orange "CAT" in Fremantle, a red cat stop in Perth city, the Busport in the city and the Red cat

All other bus services that are boarded within the city boundaries are also free, in the so called Free transit zone. The main bus stations in the city are Wellington Street or the Esplanade Busport.

On routes where there are more than 1 bus, or very busy routes, you would get a bus stop sign like the one below where you can see the timetable for each of the various buses (which would be at the back of this sign), and a map with all the stops to enable you to choose the best options.

The more comprehensive Bus stop sign with maps, routes, timetables

A simple bus stop sign with no timetable

Tickets: If you are a casual user, tickets can be purchased through the driver if travelling by bus, through ticket machines in some train stations, or ticket offices at the main bus/train stations in the city.

But if you are a frequent traveller, you should rather purchase a "Smartrider", which is an electronic travel card for $10, from a Transperth info centre either at Wellington street or Perth Esplanade station, or other Transperth outlets around the city, as it makes it easier to travel and saves you a little bit of money too, the trips are cheaper, and you will soon recoup the $10 spent on the card. 

The Smartrider card

Then just load the card with the minimum of $10 and tag on (scan into the card reader) when you climb the bus or go through the turnstiles at the stations and tag off at your destination and the correct fare will be deducted depending on how many zones you travelled. When the money is getting low, when you tag on it beeps differently and you know you should recharge with the bus driver or at the machines with your bank card, or online via BPay.
Smartrider gives you 15% discount on cash fares, and if you choose the "auto top-up" via bank transfer, the fares are actually 25% cheaper. If you top up with a bus driver, don´t expect change if you give him a note, the minimum would be $10, unless you have a concession card, and then it would be $5. The driver will give you a paper receipt, but you still have to tag on to validate the trip.

Primary and secondary students can get a Student Smartrider enabling them to pay a 50cent fare, when travelling to and from school regardless of how many zones. People over 60 can get a Senior Smartrider, with reduced fares during peak hours (7 to 9am and 4,30 to 6,30pm),  but free during off-peak hours on weekdays and during the whole day on weekends and public holidays. University students also get a concession Smartrider with discount fares.

Your ticket entitles you to 2 hours of transport in any direction, so if you are quick enough you can zip into a shopping centre for example, do your shopping and get back on the bus to go home, all for the price of 1 ride!
Registering your Smartrider card with Transperth, would enable you to block the use of your card if you lose it (just in case you have it loaded with plenty of money) and you would also be able to view your travel patterns and fares charged, online.

Just don´t forget to tag off  when leaving the bus, otherwise you will be charged with the default fare to the final destination of your bus, the next time you tag on.
If travelling by train, you would be charged the default fare for 7 zones, which can be quite expensive, in my case for example as I only travel 2 zones! Paper tickets or the use of the Smartrider card enables you to use buses, trains, the ferry service, just make sure to tag off and tag on again in the new means of transport. Very simple indeed and a very good system!!

Recently I was in Adelaide where you have to buy a paper ticket with 1 or 10 rides for public transport, but they are soon introducing a card system like ours. People were being interviewed about this future development, and someone was saying "it was time a card system was introduced just like they use in London"! I had to laugh, why London, she didn´t have to go that far, Perth has such a system introduced to the public in 2007,  and they are right next door to South Australia!

One of the most used bus routes in Perth is the Circle route 98 (clockwise) and 99 (anti-clockwise).
They run every 15 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes at night and on weekends, and they stop at most shopping centres, schools and universities in Perth. The maximum fare you pay will be a 2 zone fare, even though you might cross many zones during the full 3 hours and 20 minutes the bus takes to complete the full circle. Another curiosity - around 180 thousand passengers use the circle route buses every week!!

If you use a wheelchair or are pushing a pram, the driver will lower the bus and a ramp will come out to enable passengers to get on board. There are also allocated seats for senior or parents with kids, and passengers on wheelchairs.

Automatic Bus ramp for wheelchair users or prams

Seats for Seniors or wheelchair users in a train

Ferries - there is a ferry running between Barrack Street Jetty in the city to Mends Street in South Perth, it takes about 10min, and it´s a beautiful way to see either side of the river. I always take my visitors on a ferry ride. There are of course other ferries from the city to Fremantle and to Rottnest island, but unfortunately your Transperth ticket does not cover these, you have to spend a bit more!

Ferry that crosses between Perth and the suburb of South Perth.

Apart from hundreds of bus routes, there are also 5 train lines coming out of the main train station in Wellington street in the city centre. Trains run about every 12 minutes, except during rush hour when they run about every 3 minutes.



Most train stations have parking facilities, some that are free which obviously will get full pretty quickly and early, and then others that are paid up. Parking vending machines are being installed and soon you will be able to pay parking using the Smartrider too. But of course taking the bus to the stations is encouraged. Bicycles can be stored at certain stations too, or they can go in the trains as long as they are transported after peak hours.

Bike storage facilities at Bull Creek station

Bull Creek Train station with a train on the tracks (on the Perth to Mandurah line).

Some interesting facts about Transperth:

- they have a fleet of over 1,100 buses, 222 rail cars, 2 ferries.

- they operate over 11,200 time-tabled bus services, 1000 train services and 400 school bus services on a typical weekday.

- Last financial year over 131 million passengers boarded one of their transport services.

                      Transperth fares from July 2012

	STANDARD			CONCESSION
	Cash	SmartRider - cost per journey		Cash	SmartRider - cost per journey
		15% discount	25% discount		15% discount	25% discount
2 Sections	$1.90	$1.62	$1.43	$0.80	$0.68	$0.60
1 Zone	$2.70	$2.30	$2.03	$1.10	$0.94	$0.83
2 Zones	$4.00	$3.40	$3.00	$1.60	$1.36	$1.20
3 Zones	$4.90	$4.17	$3.68	$2.00	$1.70	$1.50
4 Zones	$5.80	$4.93	$4.35	$2.30	$1.96	$1.73
5 Zones	$7.10	$6.04	$5.33	$2.80	$2.38	$2.10
6 Zones	$8.10	$6.89	$6.08	$3.20	$2.72	$2.40
7 Zones	$9.40	$7.99	$7.05	$3.80	$3.23	$2.85
8 Zones	$10.20	$8.67	$7.65	$4.10	$3.49	$3.08
9 Zones	$11.00	$9.35	$8.25	$4.40	$3.74	$3.30
DayRider	$11.00			$4.40	$3.30	$3.30
FamilyRider	$11.00
Student					50 cents - no discount

Hope you have learned a little bit about Perth´s transport system.

Do you find that public transport in your city or country could be improved or is it an organised system? Is it cheap or expensive? You can see above the prices we pay for our fares. (I'm in zone 2, so relatively cheap)

 STANDARD

 CONCESSION

 Cash 

 SmartRider - cost per journey

 Cash

 SmartRider - cost per journey 

 15% discount

 25% discount 

  15% discount

 25% discount 

 2 Sections 

 $1.90

 $1.62

 $1.43

$0.80

 $0.68

 $0.60

 1 Zone

 $2.70

 $2.30

 $2.03

$1.10

 $0.94

 $0.83

 2 Zones

 $4.00

 $3.40

 $3.00

$1.60

 $1.36

 $1.20

 3 Zones

 $4.90

 $4.17

 $3.68

$2.00

 $1.70

 $1.50

 4 Zones

 $5.80

 $4.93

 $4.35

$2.30

 $1.96

 $1.73

 5 Zones

 $7.10

 $6.04

 $5.33

$2.80

 $2.38

 $2.10

 6 Zones

 $8.10

 $6.89

 $6.08

$3.20

 $2.72

 $2.40

 7 Zones

 $9.40

 $7.99

 $7.05

$3.80

 $3.23

 $2.85

 8 Zones

 $10.20

 $8.67

 $7.65

$4.10

 $3.49

 $3.08

 9 Zones

 $11.00

 $9.35

 $8.25

$4.40

 $3.74

 $3.30

 DayRider

 $11.00

$4.40

 $3.30

 $3.30

 FamilyRider 

 $11.00

 Student

 50 cents - no discount