The Weekly Blog! Sorry for the delay Irene and Ben! Photos to follow.

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Day 22 - Thursday 16th March

Fire Awareness Course! This saw us dressed in overalls, goggles and hard hats learning how to put out fires. Is there no end to our new skills.

Later on we met up with Aunty Elizabeth at Cottesloe Beach (our favourite beach) to watch the sunset and have a fish and chip supper. Mind you it was like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"! At dusk all the birds congregate on the trees and the noise is horrendous.

Day 23 - Friday 17th March

St Patrick's Day. And where else would you be but in Durty Nellie's drinking pints of guinness! We met up with some other Woodsiders and OMVers and enjoyed a spontaneous evening out which resulted in us playing Rock, Paper, Scissors as no-one could agree on which wine to order in the restaurant. The waitress thought we were mad.

Also today Ollie performed in his Choir Concert in Wimbledon. Uncle Martin came to the rescue and agreed to drive to London, watch the concert and then return to Kingswinford with Ollie in tow. What a feat that was. Four and half hours in the car with Ollie saying "Are we there yet" is not to be underestimated. Anyhow he scored lots of "Uncle" Brownie Points. Ben was also there for the weekend so they both had great fun playing with the train set in the roof and taking Kim and Nikki for walks in the wet and cold. Poor loves! By all accounts Ollie has set up camp in the roof and is refusing to come down, even for meals. They are now sending them up on trays. Anne, of course, is the real mainstay behind all these arrangements. Thank you Anne for everything.

Tom went off on his School trip to Italy for the week, Nanny Jacqui has gone on holiday for the week (hence the need to get Martin on board) so this just leaves Jamie "home alone"! Oh, Oh! Party, Party!

Day 24 - Saturday 18th March

Mandurah. Today saw us heading south with the Carle Clan again. With Uncle Reg, Jim and Lyn driving we set off to see some sights along the coast and then inland to look for the elusive "kangaroo"! All these stories of kangaroos bounding down the streets are totally untrue and just a story to get the tourists into town. By late afternoon Jim had had enough of us being whinging poms so after a quick cup of tea back at the ranch we all piled back into the car (Uncle Reg at this point wasn't quite sure what was going on) and we headed off to the Swan Valley where upon arriving at the Vines holiday resort, what did we see on the golf course? Yes loads of Kangas. At last we could cross that one off our list.

Day 25 - Sunday 19th March

Cottesloe Beach again!

We can't keep away can we. This was the last day to see the Sculptures in the day light so we spent a lazy day wandering around and being bemused at how enterprising the Aussie's are. It's amazing how much shade a large sulpture can give you on a hot sunny day. We rounded off the day at Joe's Fish Shack where we took Huda and Asma for supper (the female Libyan Engineers who are going to be working for Steve). Alf (a German who has also just started working for Woodside as a Facilities Engineer) came along too and kept us all amused with his German/English translations. Table cloth being translated into "table blanket"! Nearly forgot to mention that Sylvia got stung by a jelly fish. Well at least it wasn't a shark!

Day 26 - Monday 20th March

A quiet day. Think we overdid it on the beach and had too much sun. We managed to summon up enough energy to have another walk around Kings Park, a quick supper at the beach (Cottesloe again) and then home to bed.

Day 27 - Tuesday 21st March

Made up for yesterday. Spent a lovely morning shopping in Subiaco. Later on we met up with Aunty Elizabeth to play Association Croquet. Of course Steve was top dog at this because he's a grade A student and has lots of logic brain cells! We enjoyed a lovely supper at Aunty Elizabeth's and then home to finish the Blog. Phew another day over.

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Comments

[Irene]

Back in action
Sorry I missed you phone call. Its good to see the travelogue back in action. Haven't actually heard if Martin has survived????? Irene