Catching Our Breath

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Catching our Breath 26/12/2015



Hi everyone we hope you have all had a Happy Christmas and New Year, and this is the first time since Christmas Eve we have had to catch our breath as it has been a whirlwind.

Today is the 5^th January at 6.45 PM and all is sort of quite, so have lots of blogs to share with you all on what we have been up to.

You may or may not know that we moved out of a great little Holiday Chalet in the Fremantle Holiday Village on the 24^th December as we would be house sitting a 5 acre property in Forrestfield until the 20^th January for some people who are in the Toyota Landcruiser Club Members Trevor and Rea and their two bogs Ricky the Rottweiler and Flick the Beagle, along with numerous, Budgies, Chickens and Wero’s and two Horses, Oscar and Spirit who do not belong the Trevor and Rea, they are just here on agistment and we only water them and give them Carrots.

So the 24^th December was our last day at work for this year, we had been invited out to Andy and Karen’s house for Christmas drinks and nibbles, it was our intention that we would not be late to bed on the 23^rd as we had work but, you know that old saying about the best laid plans of mice and men.

We got home and it was too late to finish packing so I said I would get up at 4.00 am and finish off as once everything was in the land cruiser we would not be coming back to the Fremantle cabin for a good while.

I must have woke at about 3.15 am I have this very overzealous body clock that wakes me without fail if I have something to do, though I do always set my alarm for 5.00 am just in case.

I sprang out of bed and quietly finished all the packing and loading and was even on time to place Caroline’s coffee by the side of her bed at the usual time.

I would drive Jack to work and Caroline was taking Jill, as I knew Caroline’s Company would let her go around midday and I wasn’t sure what time my organisation would let me go.

We had already taken Roobie the camper trailer over to Forrestfield the weekend before so that didn’t even fit in to our equation.

I was out of “The Company Door” at 1.00pm and on my way to the new house and arrived at the “house” at around 1.40 and Caroline was already there and had unloaded some of our gear from the car and made herself comfy.

When I arrived we placed all of our remaining bits and pieces in the shed and got ourselves sorted.,

We were finally on Holiday, it has been a really busy year and all we thought about doing was catching our breath.

Trevor and Rea were still here and did their best to make us feel welcome they were off to New Zealand on Boxing day to visit family then we would be left to pick up the mantle so to speak.

It was early to bed on Christmas eve and woke to a beautiful day, we did not do presents or cards for each other this year, not because we consider Christmas “Bar Humbug” but because we just didn’t feel the need.

What we were looking forwards to most was doing our Christmas lunch for the two of us, Trevor and Rea were going over to family and we would be on our own, which believe me was a novelty, yes we had had offers of being with people it was just the thought of being on our own was really appealing.

We had purchased what we had wanted for our Christmas dinner earlier in the week and had picked up the fresh fruit and vegetables only yesterday, we had some jobs that needed to be done on Roobie, which we needed to get done before we had our lunch and before the sun was to hot the temperature was to be 38 degree’s so being out of the sun was what would be required.

With our jobs done, we set about cooking our dinner, and we sat outside under the veranda and enjoyed the fruits of our labour, we had made our own pigs in blankets, so we made sure Ricky and Flick both had some of our Christmas dinner.

Once our dinner had gone down, we had a leisurely swim in the pool to cool off the day was scorching hot, so only 20 minutes in the pool and that was enough sunshine.

We had been invited over to Trev and Peta’s house only about ten minutes from where we were as they live in the Kalamunda Hills, they were on their own for various reasons so we would go over and have some fun, It was another hot night so It would not be under the doona tonight, when we finally got in to bed.

We were up early on boxing day morning as we were taking Trevor and Rea to Perth airport as they were flying to new Zealand.

We dropped them off then went back to the house as we had to prepare for our visitors tomorrow as John and Hilary and Jim and Dawn were coming to stay with us for just over a week from the UK (Our First Visitors) in just over seven years.

This was a really big wow event for us and we were delighted they were making such a massive effort of flying over 16,000 Kilometres to be with us.

They had left the UK on about the 16^th of December and flown in to Sydney where they would spend a few days, then would fly on to Alice Springs, do Uluru (Ayes Rock) then fly on to Perth.

With the house prepped, sheets washed, and so on, we had a little afternoon nap-(Et) as we were out tonight for dinner with friends, we had booked a table at our favourite Indian Restaurant the Copper Chimney in Fremantle, with Andy and Karen and Chris and Jan Fenton who live in New South Wales, so this was a big event for us,, we also had the pleasure of having “The Kids” Peter and Leigh Walker join us, since they were in town as they had driven up from Jacup which is a five hour run to spend a Christmas Day with their son Mike and family in Scarborough Beach Road, so this dinner out would be a very special one

Chris and Jan had been due over last week but due to some very sad news Chris had to remain ‘Back at the Ranch” whilst Jan came ahead, to carry out her Nana duties.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Jan for a leisurely coffee at the pickled Fig, it was a gorgeous afternoon and we sat inside just watching the world go by.

So when we all went out as a gang of eight it was awesome, all of these people have a very special; place in our lives and even though they are not always around, its great to know they are there.

The food as always was amazing and a fairly late night, we ended up all going to Andy and Karen’s for late night drinks then eventually went our own seperate way, though Peter and Leigh were staying with us.

Another very warm night, we slept in Roobie as we didn’t want to sleep on new sheets that had previously been washed that were for or next set of guests, when Peter and Leigh got up we did them a cooked Breakfast and we sat outside and enjoyed the morning, with copious amounts of tea.

Peter and leigh left by about 09.45, we had the final set of bed sheets to wash and put on the line, ready for the Benton’s and the Keeley’s then it was in the car to wiz across Perth to the airport to collect our UK guests.

We went through security, and went in to the arrivals hall with a banner we had made to welcome our friends to one of the most remotest cities in the world-Welcome to Perth

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Photos

Catching Our Breath
These are the Kids, Peter and Leigh Walker (We will always make a bed available for you)

Catching Our Breath
Ready for the journey back to their next adventure

Catching Our Breath
Sherman, Peter and Leigh's truck

Catching Our Breath
Leigh Chatting to Oscar

Catching Our Breath
Welcome to Perth