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Cool change
After six days of temperatures above 40C (that’s 104F), we have had a cool change to the lower 30s. We get to enjoy that until the weekend when we start into another heatwave. I think we may have set a record for most continuous days of 40+ temperatures here.
This reminds me that the Scientist and I went to see a friend play music at a cafe about 1.5 hours drive from here. She plays at this cafe about once a month so we take a trip down and enjoy the atmosphere which is lovely. There’s an indoor and outdoor area at this cafe and the artists usually play outside. But it was so terribly hot our friend was looking rather drained after playing for three hours (with breaks). We moved right inside to the air conditioning when she was done. On a good day, we might have stopped at one of the parks on the way home but it was just too hot for any outdoor activity.
On Sunday we went to Fremantle with Lego Lover to visit the Maritime Museum for a Lego shipwreck display. It was pretty cool to see and there were Lego models of some famous shipwrecks and some that are mostly known locally. Afterward, we went to a favorite cafe to have lunch. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t so good this time. I had ordered chips (thick-cut fries) with my sandwich and the chips were really terrible, enough that I left most behind. Also, the menu had changed so that some foods we like are no longer available. It seems we may have to find a new place to eat. We did have ideas of visiting the Fremantle Markets but were wary of crowded places with covid around.
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Random stuff
I’m due to donate blood again tomorrow with a full blood donation. It actually seems a long time now since my plasma donation in February, which seems to be a good thing, I think. Maybe I will increase my plasma donations since I am feeling okay about it. I did manage to get through gym workouts yesterday (just) and today (comfortably) so I will be taking tomorrow off while I give blood. I’ve also decided to do cardio workouts only for a few days to give my body a bit more time to recover from all the new workouts I’ve been trying.
My tai chi class finished for this term this evening and I will be on to level six next term. As I was telling the Scientist, it feels really great to feel up to speed on the moves at the end of term for a change. Usually it takes until well into the following term before I start to get a real handle on new moves. Next term will be mostly moves I know but will be done on the opposite side. I imagine this will be a big challenge for me, particularly because there are a lot more moves to work on each week this time. But there are a few new moves to look forward to and at the end of next term I’ll be done with level six…which means I will know all the moves in the tai chi set (108 ). I went to re-enroll for next term online and my usual location says it’s sold out of spaces. I find this rather difficult to believe as there aren’t that many people attending regularly right now so surely there is still space. I also wanted to do a workshop focusing on level four and that wasn’t available at all in my choices. I sent an email to the owner and she has already replied saying she was going to rectify the problems and to try again tomorrow.
There are appointments to take Game Fanatic to this week on two afternoons. We see his clinical psychologist on Wednesday and it’s on to the psychiatrist he saw last month to continue the assessment for autism. I was a bit perplexed last time we saw the clinical psych as he seemed concerned about fitting GF into the current criteria for autism due to the fact he had no language delays. The language criteria in place currently does not require a delay but does require one or two other criteria to be met. Lego Lover was diagnosed without a language delay so I don’t see the issue. Apparently the new criteria, which goes into effect with the new DSM V next month, isn’t a problem for diagnosis…Since it’s likely to take that long to reach the conclusion of this process, I suppose it doesn’t matter in the long run.
We seem to be in a bit of an autumn heatwave right now. Today the temperature unexpectedly reached 37.6 locally which is somewhere close to the 100F. Apparently the heat will continue through the week. Just when we thought the new air conditioner will start being run less regularly, we are getting a full test of it’s ability to cool the house in summer conditions. Not to mention higher electricity bills…
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Happy New Year!
Since I last posted, Lego Lover had a birthday and it went well. He woke up very early and stayed up quite late to experience as much of the day as possible. No disappointments at the end. This is fairly typical but it still pleases me every year. Such a contrast to his brother on his birthday too. There’s still a small chance I will write up a post for his birthday, even though it’s been nearly two weeks now.
Christmas went pretty well  aside from it being the first day of a week-long heatwave. We had a family gathering at the Scientist’s mum’s house. We all ate quite well on all the food prepared. I’d made my usual vegetable and chickpea patties for my MIL and a potato salad for Game Fanatic. The Scientist cooked a small turkey and his mum made heaps of curries plus a salad. Plenty of food was eaten. I was last to get my food and I made the mistake of having a couple veg patties and was filled way too soon. Almost as soon as dinner was finished, dessert was on. To be fair, it’s also my BIL’s birthday and the Scientist had made a cake so it was time to serve it and sing happy birthday. But I didn’t eat any of the cake because I knew it would be way too much after all the food. Another BIL’s family had brought along four or five things for desserts and it seemed like they had gone a bit overboard. Later on I remembered she told about several family members being sick and missing out on Christmas at an earlier gathering with her family. I can only assume some of that was meant for the other gathering and had gone uneaten so they brought it to ours. Still it was way too much and it was too hot to enjoy so much rich food. I did have some jelly (gelatin) that my MIL had prepared with a little bit of a couple desserts but could eat no more than that. We’d also taken along some chocolate and raspberry brownies we’d made a few days earlier and they weren’t touched at all…just meant we were eating them for days after Christmas.
The rest of the year was hot and hot and hot. Everyone just stayed in cool places as much as possible…Then it cooled off a bit and became humid earlier this week. Not a lot better, really…then a couple days of lovely mild weather. Meanwhile the heatwave seems to have gone east and they are now sweltering there. It’s heated up again here for the weekend but it seems we will be okay for next week.
We stayed home on New Year’s Eve, which is pretty usual for our family. Our clock was slow so there was some uncertainty when midnight rolled around so our happy new years were a bit delayed. The Scientist managed to stay awake that long and then was off to bed almost at once.
The next day our dog Maromi had to go to the vet to have a grass seed abscess removed from his paw under surgery. He has a bad relationship with the grass seeds…usually, though, they get into his ear…which is a lot less costly to treat than surgery on his paw. :( He’s recovering just fine. Managed to pull the bandage off a bit early and it was impossible to get it back on where it would stay. It’s all fine though and the stitch comes out in a week which means he can get rid of the cone.
We also bought a couple of new gadgets at the end of the year sales. We started off looking at one thing but ended up looking at food processors. We have an older one that I’d been using once a year for my veg and chickpea patties and it pretty much is a piece of junk. I had to hold things together to keep it working this year so it was destined to be removed from our house in the near future. Anyway, all my research turned up that there were really no lower end models that rated well at all. Maybe this is an area where you just have to pay for a decent machine. The one we finally chose was cost $435 on sale. I haven’t used it yet but it seems quite solid and has a lot of attachments that are stored in a separate case. The other gadget is an air fryer that uses very little oil to cook foods in. We’ve used it a few times now and it works wonderfully. Mostly it’s nice for making chips (french fries) and they come out nice and crispy in far less time than the oven takes.
I almost forgot we have another expense coming up in the bathroom. Seems that the light switch is now shocking when turned on so it’s not to be used until fixed. We are hoping to have a couple extra plug points installed in the house when the electrician comes out as that’s been on the t0-do list for a while now.
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Royalty in Fremantle
A couple Sundays ago, an event that we’ve waited more than a year or more for finally arrived: the visit of Cunard’s Queen Victoria to Fremantle. Lego Lover and I saw the final visit of the Queen Elizabeth 2 a couple years ago and we found it to be a truly majestic ship. Last year we went to see the Arcadia. which was quite big, but failed to capture our interest. So we have been counting down for the QV, which arrived on February 28th and also for the Queen Mary 2, which will visit Fremantle on Sunday.
The day finally arrived and the forecast was for yet another scorcher, in the middle of our third heatwave of the season. It was again just Lego Lover and me for the journey. (The Scientist had been to the beach in the morning and saw the ship on its way into Fremantle so he didn’t completely miss out.) We packed a few requirements then headed off to the station to catch the train to Fremantle. We had to change trains in Perth and had our first look at the new underground train station that opened a year or two ago. It felt a bit like a maze finding our way to the old part of the station where our next train was.
The train to Fremantle was fairly crowded and we ended up squeezed in between other people along one side of the train. Lego Lover was pushed up against me the whole time, trying to avoid touch the lady sitting next to him. I wasn’t able to get any photos of the ship as we arrived in Fremantle. We were sitting across the train from the appropriate windows, which were terribly scratched with grafitti, and there was just no way of getting a decent shot of it. Still, it was very exciting to see the ship as we arrived at our destination.Our first business upon arrival was to buy a couple 1.5 litre bottles of water. Ideally we should have taken our own…although lugging around heavy bottles of water while getting around on public transport wasn’t all that ideal for me…Anyway, there was a grocery store near the station so we got the water, some bananas and a chocolate bar each. We could have done without the chocolate but it was a favorite and heavily reduced… I couldn’t resist. The water was quite heavenly after the short walk to reach the shops.
Our next objective was finding some place to have lunch. Typically, Lego Lover insists on eating fast food wherever we go, making a simple meal into a major undertaking. It’s been something of a sore point for the family for some time. Anyway, I was eager to have something a little less fast food than usual and somehow persuaded him to try something at one of the big fish and chip restaurants. The walk there was pretty excruciating, even with several stops to drink water. It was 40+ C (104F) and our tempers were high. We pretty much limped into the one place that offered chicken strips and chips in addition to all the fish offerings. Lego Lover refuses to eat fish now, so this was the best we could find. For Lego Lover, it wasn’t worth an argument if it meant he had to go back into the heat. I sent him to find a table while I placed our order. When I reached the table he was already feeling a lot better for being able to sit down in a cool place. Our food didn’t take all that long and the portions were large. My grilled fish and salad with chips plate was good and Lego Lover’s chicken strips apparently were quite tasty. We left feeling somewhat revived.
One of first looks at Queen Victoria
The walk back to the quay again seemed to take forever because it was just too hot to move that quickly. We finally reached the Maritime Museum of WA just before closing time. Our membership from last year had expired so I went ahead and renewed that before they closed. We’ll have a proper visit when we return there this weekend. There wasn’t a lot to do at this point so we found a bench along the quay and watched the ship and the harbour. The ship was due to depart around 7pm and we had a couple hours to wait…So we sat and watched and baked…and baked. There was a ferry dock almost next to the main passenger terminal. The ferries were returning with passengers from day trips to Rottnest Island. It got really crowded in the area and the sun seemed like it was searing us.
I suggested we try to find a shady park instead of sticking it out in the sun. We walked off along the pathway parallel to the quay but we never quite reached anywhere appropriate. We did get a few better photos of the ship but eventually turned around. Just in that time, the crankiness level for both of us was on the rise. Lego Lover was resentful that I had dragged him off in the direction we’d gone…and ultimately for no purpose.
I suggested we stop at the E Shed Markets to find some sort of icy cold drink for both of us. The E-Shed Markets still had some food places open so we stopped in there and found a place that sold smoothies and bubble tea to drink. Lego Lover opted for a banana smoothie, which surprised me. Then I chose a strawberry bubble tea. I’d never had it before and though it might be refreshing on a hot day. While I was waiting, Lego Lover informed me the smoothie tasted bitter. I had a taste of it and it was, a litte. I think the bananas were a bit green…I ended up drinking the smoothie because it was too expensive to dump. I didn’t mind the taste of it at all and it was refreshing. I just wish I hadn’t already order my own drink.
Bubble tea
Anyway, once I had my drink we sat down in a quiet area away from all the other people. The bubble tea tastes like fruit syrup mixed with ice and the balls of jelly that are added. It was just so sweet that it was hard to get it down. I should have been forewarned when the lady in front of me at the counter returned soon afterwards to ask hers to be diluted. I still had my water bottle so kept diluting it after every sip I took and it eventualy did taste alright. By the time I’d finished, I was ready to burst.Lego Lover and I moved to another table and I got him a canned soft drink and left him to find the toilets. What a nasty piece of work that was. It was filthy and there was a small scrap of toilet paper remaining. It was a relief to get out of there and I hope to never need those facilities again. I returned to the table where Lego Lover was enjoying his drink. There was tv showing the local news, which happend to have a story about the Queen Victoria. It was strange to be watching that and almost be able to see the ship as we looked out the window. (We actually had an experience like that in Canada when the they showed the ships getting ready to go off to war on tv (in 2001) and we could see the ships from our townhouse window.)
We finally did get back outside and found a spot on the quay to watch. The temperature had finally dropped a bit and it was much more comfortable although there was no sea breeze. Fremantle is known for its afternoon sea breeze so it was very odd to miss out on the relief it might have offered. It wasn’t too long afterward that we heard the great ship’s horn sounding shortly before it started its journey out of the harbour. Lego Lover and I had had our cameras ready and snapped heaps of photos as the ship moved away from the shore and slowly made its way past us. It was quite a different affair to the QE2, which required assistance from a couple of tug boats to get moving. This was far more efficient but we rather missed the excitement of seeing the tugs at work. Before we knew it, the ship was sailing into the sunset and was soon turning into the Indian Ocean. While it didn’t compared to the QE2, we both agreed it was a pretty awesome sight.
The QV makes its journey out of the harbour
The ship had departed earlier than planned so we got a bit of a head start getting back home. When we got on the train, we managed to get a seat at the end of the long row so that Lego Lover would only have me sitting next to him. That made the journey a lot more comfortable for us. In Perth, we again had to change trains. The new section of the station was a lot less crowded and we were able to to take in a few more of the details as we moved along. We luckily only had to wait about five or six minutes for the next train. There were crowds pushing onto the train so we moved into the next car and the next until we found several empty seats in the car at the front of the train. It was a particularly boisterous crowd of young people on the train, which Lego Lover didn’t particularly like. But the seats were comfortable, it was cool and we were forward facing for a change…and no grafitti on the windows, so Lego Lover managed it rather well. It took no time at all to get to our car once we arrived at the station and then it was a twenty minute drive to reach home. It was definitely home, sweet home after a long and memorable afternoon away.
Fremantle train station at night
Perth train station (new section) stairs and art
