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Anniversaries
Three days ago, it marked one year since our cat died from injuries likely caused by a dog attack. In some ways it seems a long time ago then it doesn’t seem so long ago. There are still the occasions when I return home and expect to see her lazily walking down the driveway, making me wait to pull the car in. :) I changed my Facebook picture to one with her in it last year but I think I will soon change to something new since it’s already been over a year.
Today would have been my close friend’s birthday if she were alive. This is my local close friend who died four and a half years ago from bowel cancer. She should be 54 now. She is still on my mind a lot of the time but so it’s kind of weird to think it’s been so long since we talked now.
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Wet, wet, wet
NOTE: This was meant to be posted last week but I didn’t finish it. Too much time has passed so I have posted it as it appeared last.
I seem to recall a group called that here in Australia, possibly a one-hit wonder, or perhaps more than that. I am pretty sure I don’t know any of their other music though.
I will just comment, not complain, that we’ve had rain pretty regularly this month and I am in no rush to send it packing at this point in time. That said, the winter (aka weedy) grass is growing tall throughout our yard and when we do get a new lawnmower, it will be electric. Would be good to have that cut down when it dries out for a day or two. It certainly is nice to have the rain around here and we haven’t even had anything dramatic so far. We have had threats of storms but it’s been pretty benign where we live…although not so great in other areas of the state.
I don’t know if there’s an association of any sort, but we’ve had our power go off twice in a week recently. I know this is pretty common for many areas but here we almost never have anything more than a brownout or the power flickering off for a moment or two. This seems rather a remarkable coincidence and I can’t help wondering the causes of the outages. We probably will never know but it is curious. Only the first outage was after dark so the effects weren’t too troublesome for us.
Last week the Scientist and I marked our 21st wedding anniversary. It was a really nice day and the the stormy weather that had earlier been predicted never eventuated. In fact, it was rather warm that day, and we managed to walk around to some of our favourite places without the need of any extra clothes. We even did  a repeat climb of the DNA tower in King’s Park around sunset. It’s really nice to have our kids now old enough we can go out and do our own thing instead of dragging them along or including them in our plans.
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Catching up
I keep procrastinating about writing posts and never get around to them. Maybe I need to make a list of things I want to write and tick them off as I do it.
Life carries on as usual at the lorikeet household. Last week, the Scientist and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. We’d been together a few years before that but this was the official date. It was a very good day, starting with a gym visit and shower before going out to a mid-afternoon meal at Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant here in Perth. This is one of his Italian restaurants and it was absolutely lovely there. The complimentary bread was some of the best I’ve had. The olive oil and balsamic vinegar served with it were just wonderful. I had a pasta dish with prawns and linguine which was quite nice. I only ordered an entree plus a salad on the side…plenty of food for me. We did have a starter of baked mushrooms and the music bread with that was also rather addictive. For dessert I was brave and tried the pannacotta. I’ve tried it many times before and was always disappointed. But I had hope that Jamie’s recipe would work and I was right. Strong vanilla flavors and fresh fruit and sweet and creamy. It’s not part of the usual menu but I hope to have it again. The best part of the meal is that it didn’t cost a small fortune to eat there and was reasonably priced. Not bad for a celebrity chef restaurant in the city. Add to that the great dinner companion and I couldn’t ask for more. The Scientist and I enjoyed a stroll through King’s Park afterwards and probably worked off a few calories from the meal. We climbed the DNA tower, which is two spiral staircases designed to look like DNA. It has a good view at the top and it was sunset so we were both snapping away with our cameras. I made it up and down the stairs without much problem, which was a nice change…funnily enough I had more trouble on some other stairs and steep paths along the way…strange. It’s weird to think it’s been 20 years since our wedding day…sometimes it seems so recent and other times it’s a lifetime ago…
I’ve been out in the garden this week, cutting branches off a tree I want to get rid of. I don’t know how we will get the trunk removed ourselves as it’s very big but I plan to cut as much off as I can. It’s a shame since the tree has been there since we planted our first shrubs…but it was taking up a massive part of the garden and was too big for the yard. We have another one in the front yard but will leave that as it is for now. Aside from many piles of branches, there is a lot more space in the side/backyard than there’s been in years. Little Maromi won’t be able to hide as easily when this is cut down like he does now. I also noticed today it gets so much more sun in that area now. I’m thinking of trying to plant a hibiscus and see what happens…but we may think about a few other plants too.
We’d truly gotten into the chilliness of late autumn/winter this month but the last few days have been a bit warmer and even the nights haven’t been quite so cold. Last week I went outside to hang wet clothes and even with a warm robe and bed socks with shoes I was feeling chilled. A couple nights ago, it felt more like a summer night and the clothes didn’t even draw damp. We’re supposed to get some rain but I haven’t seen much evidence of it so far. I did, however, see a beautiful moonrise on the way back from tai chi. It was hidden behind clouds at first but came into full view by the time we were home. I noticed a little while ago it’s still quite bright although much higher in the sky…no clouds blocking it at the moment so I wonder when this rain is due to happen…
I had more games news to add but it turned out to be so long I will make it into a separate post.
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Anniversaries
It occurred to me just now that the Scientist and I have known each other for over a quarter of a century. When we met, I wasn’t even that old and wouldn’t have fathomed knowing anyone for that long. Wow!
So it shouldn’t really come as such a surprise that we’ve been married (as of Sunday) eighteen years. I remember it was a gorgeous, sunny day with deep blue sky. And I remember passing by Saturday grocery shoppers as we arrived at the “church”, which was temporarily located in the shopping center while a building was being constructed. The ceremony itself is a bit of a blur in my memory, although remnants of a talk about the Velveteen Rabbit stick in my mind a bit. There was a reception at a small country club (ironically, the temporary home of another church our family attended before it was built). I remember a Glenn Miller song or two playing and my a speech that which sounded a bit alien from rather quiet father. Then we were at my parents’ house, being waved off by family and friends as we left for a honeymoon in my car, which was covered with writing in chalk (I think) which left its slight mark long after the message was gone. After driving three hours, we arrived at our bed and breakfast in Asheville and were rather impressed by the grandeur of our accommodation for the next couple of nights. Just the two of us for the next couple of days relaxing and enjoying each others’ company. And before we knew it, our brief honeymoon was over and we were headed back. All the excitement was over in a relative flash.
We celebrated this year by another Fremantle visit with lunch at the Mexican Kitchen. We’d never been there before although it has been calling out for us as many years as I can remember. Lunch was delicious, with the food being pretty close to what I associate with Mexican food back home. I had a  Mexi-plate with a taco, enchilada and flauta while the Scientist enjoyed a burrito. Dessert was pretty underwhelming, with a flan listed on the menu that didn’t seem to exist and a “Mexican mud cake” that was just a chocolate cake with some nice vanilla ice cream. We followed with a visit to the chocolateria where I think I reached my chocolate limit. No disappointment in my churros or the Scientist’s black forest trifle. All yummy! A long walk back to the car helped work off a tiny fraction of the calories and we were on our way home again. It’s very nice that the boys have reached an age where we can leave them home and go out alone. A freedom that I know I never appreciated until it was gone for several years and then regained.
Anyway, I am quite thankful for all the memories the Scientist and I have had together, in the eighteen years and for the many years before. Happy Anniversary to my dear Scientist!
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Fifteen years
The Scientist and IÂ had our fifteenth anniversary today. In some ways it seems so much longer…probably because we’ve unofficially been together for several years longer. Other times it doesn’t seem so very long ago. But the time when we got married was before I came to Australia and that seems a long time ago. I find that my life seems divided between my life before and since moving to this country. Anything from before now seems like a lifetime ago…In reality it’s only been fourteen years next month.
We ended up not very much today but will go out for a bit tomorrow when the scientist’s mum will come and stay with the boys for a couple hours. We had planned to go see the movie U2-3D but it seems we have missed out. I’ve heard speculation it won’t be out on dvd so I hope we haven’t completely missed our chance. We are trying to figure out a different movie but most that interest us are ones that the games fanatic also wants to see so we may just go out to eat instead.