France November 2011

Picture heavy post coming up!

In November, I went across to France to visit my parents. I had such a great time and as it hadn't gotten too cold yet I still got to see the Autumnal leaves! It wasn't warm though so I still managed to have a few fires in the evening and a big bonfire.

Lots of walks:

Lots of OLD buildings (my mum translated a book on churches which is why we went to a few):

And all the other stuff that made it so relaxing:

End of year travels

This year for Christmas we decided to take a mini road trip to the south of this big state. In total we (The A) drove 3000 km, from Perth to Albany and Esperance and back again. Phew!

We camped in National Parks most of the time but at New Years in Albany we had to go for a caravan park as all the surrounding National Parks were full.

If you are going to go that way here are some tips:

We thought Albany looked better in grey weather.

You should get to Denmark and take a drive, lots of wineries and crafty places.

Esperance has a wonderful bakery full of fresh sandwich rolls, pies and yummy sweet things. I tried to take a picture inside but every time we were there it was packed!

Esperance also has the biggest junk filled museum we have ever seen. They must accept everything that gets donated cause in the Anzac 'area' there was a collection of little china frogs from the 80's.

Take bug spray. Lots of mosquitos and march flies. And if you stop and camp in the Fitzgerald National Park (which is a 'Biosphere') expect LOTS of spiders and to get dirty as the dirt is black there.

The Amity Brig reconstruction in Albany is worth looking at and isn't expensive.

Make sure it's hot, cause the Southern Ocean is flippin' cold! But definitely go to the beaches as they are voted the best in Australia and the sand is so fine it squeaks when you walk on it!

Missing

To catch you up here's a summary:

1. We've acquired a cat. His name is George it used to be something really crap so we changed it, but he also goes by Pookie, Pooks, Pookie bum, Pookie face and Pig.

2) We've bought a car. It's old and beat up but totally blends in with all the other beat up cars in Fremantle. I'm learning to drive in it (automatic) and it's actually really fun which I wasn't expecting at all! We took a trip down to Augusta one weekend with it and it did well. Augusta was fun but not much there that can cover more than 1 weekend.

I found my dream house and Ross took millions of pictures of the above as 'practice' with his camera.

3) Really in the TMI sector but the Landlady replaced our water heater to a gas one and OMG it's amazing. I just stand in the shower groaning, it's so good. Plus the dishes get EXTRA clean, and I need to wear gloves otherwise I can't put my hands in the water.

4) Related to the above but in the AWESOME section is that the Body Shop have brought back their banana shampoo and conditioner, so I'm stockpiling it.

5) Started another design related blog, I have lots of drafts and free downloads to put in it but haven't published much. I'll post the link when it's more substantial.

6) My laptop died its final death so we got a new house computer...

TADAA!!!

7) I finished school and currently looking for work. It's not fun and sometimes it's downright depressing but you've got to keep smiling.

8) I lost my knitting mojo but it has recently reappeared but I've decided not pot post any WIPs to avoid disappointment from certain areas. So they will be photographed only after completion.

9) After more than 6 months of endless HOT summer it has finally cooled down. My regular rotation of t-shirts is thankful for the break.

AND most importantly.....

10) The A and I celebrated our 1st anniversary at a wonderful restaurant called Star Anise. We had the degustation meal with the wines. We ended up staying there for 4 hours and it was the best meal and company ever. I wanted to take pictures of the food but it was quite dark so you wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway.

Update in Pictures: Tasmania 2 (food and wine)

No explanation necessary.

Update in Pictures: Tasmania 1

      

1. Hobart 2. Bumblebee (we don’t have them here) 3. The Spindle Tree 4. Hehehe 5. Giant bouncy at our campsite in Hobart 6. Ohhh Geology! 7. Port Arthur 8. Our home for 2 weeks, we called her Martha (The A) 9. The view from Martha one night 10. Priscilla the Beer drinking pig 11. Kookaburra 12. Wallaby 13.  Convict made bricks at the restaurant we went to on Christmas day 14. 1kg of cherries 15. Cradle Mountain 16. A tired Tassie Devil 17. Taste Festival in Hobart