My hybrid bike

I’ve had a mountain bike for about 8 years.  It has knobbly wheels and a comfy seat and is great for any off road cycle.  It has been on the Munda Biddi track, gone on just about every camping journey with me and has done a lot of cycling around town too.

But…… last year my sister’s J & P and I decided to have a ‘girly day’ every other Friday.  In order to substantiate taking a day off of work we thought we’d use the excuse of excercise.  We all enjoy cycling and at the moment it seems to be almost all the excercise I get on an ongoing basis.

For our ‘girly day’s cycles we plan which direction we are going to head where it will be between a 25 and 40km circuit that has a cafe of some description along the way where we stop for lunch.  As these trips are all roads and cycle paths I

Rest time - Evening cycle along Swan River.

found keeping up with J & P was exhausting as they had ‘road’ bikes that had slick wheels so trying to stay up with my knobblies took be about an extra 25% effort.  On top of this my mountain bike does not run on when I’ve been peddling and when the other two stopped peddling and free wheeled it, I needed to keep peddling or lose ground.  It seemed a good excuse to buy a hybrid bike!

Cliff and I also cycle quite a bit on the weekend.  We generally do around 40kms per trip but sometimes do a longer 70km trip to and from Fremantle using cycle paths both sides of the river.  Recently we cycled from our place to Cannington which has about 10 kms along the freeway or roads and 28kms using cycle paths through river and wet reserves (which have no lighting at night).  It is quite beautiful cycling on the cycle paths through the wet reserves and cycling at night was just amazing and so relaxing.  We try to keep our speed at around 20kph so that it is not only enjoyable but good for us too!

Mahi in the bath

8 years ago when our golden retreiver Jessie was very old we decided to get another dog to keep her company while we were at work.  We chose a small dog, a rough coated Jack Russell.  I had never had a small dog before because I always thought they were yappy ankle biters.  So when Mahli joined our family in June 2000 (she was born 15th April 2000)we were soon to discover that the supposid “almost non-moulting” dog was a bit of a stretch of the truth by the breeder.  In fact, for a dog so small she would be the most moutiest dog we have ever known.  Her wirey coat not only moults constantly but the hair is long and pointy and not only sticks onto your clothese but penetrates it and even washing your clothes does not remove it!

Mahli out of the bath and ignoring me

She is very ‘un’ Jack Russell like as a dog.  We put most of these down to the fact that in her first year with us she had Jessie.  Jessie taught her all her good habits - no barking, the love of beaches and walks, to not mind baths (too much), to love being towel dried after a bath, to love human food and not like dog food to much.  The no barking trait is just the best… Mahli, like Jess, simply does not bark.  It sometimes is weeks before you hear a little yip and this is usually for good reason.  She does not bark at passers by, or people coming to the door, or dogs passing.  This is such a good thing and is what I HATE about smaller dogs, or any dogs really.

Mahli drying off

Mahli’s wirey hair is just so long and it stands about 6 or 7 cms in length on her body.  When she is rubbed with a towell it tends to stand on end.  She loves being towell dried and loves getting chased around the lawne to dry off afterwards.

She however doesn’t like having her photo taken and kept turning away from me when I was taking these photos!

Mahli lives between homes nowadays spending half her life at B’s and half of her life in our home….. however, she comes to work with us every day much to the amusement of anyone who comes into our office.  Mahli has several favourite delivery people and customers and can tell when their cars enter the carpark (the other side of the building) before you can even see the vehicle and then she bounces around all over the place waiting for them to come through the door.  We even have had a delivery man who brings doggy treats with him to give Mahli when he delivers to us!

B, S & C at the football (Feb09)

I’m an Eagles fan (West Coast Eagles) and have been since the beginning.  Cliff however is a Dockers fan (Fremantle Dockers) and has been since the beginning.  This leads to exciting games when our two teams play each other however, if either team is playing a non-West Aussie team then we barrack for the WA team.

We have attempted to become members for the Eagles in the past but the membership is so huge that there is never availability and due to a full take up of membership there are never any walk in tickets available for WA based games which has been a frustration for years.  The dockers do have walk in tickets available but these are generally for bad seats.

This year we decided to try to buy membership tickets for the Dockers so at least this would give us a whole season w

orth of designated seat tickets.  We’d  be guaranteed the same seat for every single Dockers home game and would get to see a Dockers vs Eagles game.

With the pre-season currently playing in February we decided to do a ‘practice run’.  These tickets were just walk ins and B, S, C and Cliff and I decided to attend for the Sunday night game between the Dockers and Richmond.  There were over 14,000 in attendence and we caught the train from home to the ground and back again.  It was a fantastic night.  The game was good and the Dockers stayed ahead until the last 30 seconds of the game (much to our disgust!).  However, even with the loss we all had a great time and are looking forward to the season proper. We plan taking Cliff’s dad to a few games and we may now have competition for our 4 tickets from the kids!

Phantom of the Opera - Anthony Warlow, Perth 2009

Until recently I had not seen any musicals.  I do not like opera but there are several more modern musical scores that I love - Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Phantom of the Opera.  A couple of years ago I saw Les Mis but it was only showing at the Regal Theatre which is a very small, old theatre in Subiaco so the sound was not that good and the stage set had to be small.  Last year Miss Saigon came to town and played at the Burswood Theatre, a newer, sound superier theatre in Burswood Perth.  The stage set was just magnificient and even if you didn’t like the music it was well worth watching the stage set changes and special affects.  I absolutely love the music of Miss Saigon and I saw the show a couple of times.

February 2009 saw Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Phantom of the Opera” came to town at the Burswood Theatre.  I booked two lots of tickets and went with B, P & J one night and with Cliff, I & C on a second night. Anthony Warlow was the Phantom and his voice was wonderful.  The stage sets were amazing and seeing it the second time around made it even better.

10 Feb 2009 - News.com.au - The devastated township of Kinglake. Picture: Mark Smith/ Courtesy of Channel 10 helicopter

The past weeks have had devastating consequences for two states in Australia.  Normally, we all sit there, night after night, month after month watching tradegy around the world unfold on our TVs.   We see Children who have never known anything but war, famines, fires, floods etc.  The world trade centre was the first thing that had an instant affect on me as I sat watching the late news.  Not the fact that it was the USA and not ‘just another war’ in some far off country I’d hardly ever heard of… but the fact that it was caused by a handful of evil people, so selfish and mindless that they would take the lives of people they had and never would meet, men, women and children and not only affect the lives of all who were lost on that day but also affected the world with a brutal attack on something which the world, until that day, though impenetrable.

Whilst much of Queenland has been flooded affecting tens of thousands of residents, business and homes it wasn’t until the Victorian Fires first made the news here in WA on Friday that we really were personally changed by the tragedy that is slowly unfolding for thousands of our fellow Australians. There have been over 30 separate fires burning over the state.  Some of these have 100km burn fronts with winds of 100kmph.  So far over 170 people have lost their lives… people who stayed to defend their homes and pets, some who put their kids in their car to flee, some who were trapped by fires burning on all fronts with no escape possible.  There are just not enough tears left yet every picutre I see, or news report I hear makes them flow again.  There are townsites that do not even exist anymore, like the area of Kinglake where just one building remains intact.  But, these fires have not just affected people with the loss of life, loss of homes but also loss of livelihood, loss of flora and almost a total loss of fauna that stretches of tens of thousands of hectares.  While homes and communites can be re-built it will take much more time for trees to re-forrest these areas.  Whilst millions of insects, birds, animals have already lost their lives there will be many more lost in the days, weeks and months due to injury, thirst and hunger.

The saddest part about this tragedy is that, for the most part, it was man made.  Most of these fires have been lit by arson.  Arson has been an increasing problem in our Australian communities over the years.  Individuals who light fires, who enjoy watching the flames, the smoke, the fire brigade and police sirens and people fighting the fire.  They enjoy even assisting putting fires out and saving people.  These people are not mentally deficient in as much as suffering a disorder that would render them so lacking in feeling for trees, animals, property and fellow humans that they are incapable of not setting fire.  But instead that they are so lacking in morals, so selfish, so evil that they could contemplate such a thing as to purposely light a fire.  Everyone who lives in this country, no matter how young, is fully aware of our forests, gum trees, farm lands, animals and that any fire that is lit is easily out of control within minutes, particularly in summer when everything is so dry.  What is more astounding to me is the fact that even while this devastation is happening and people are dying that this evil person or people are continuing to light fires.  Obviously they must be deranged.

Here in WA we have had fires in Kings Park over the past few weeks.  Several, deliberately lit fires yet again.  I took the train into the city last week and was shocked to see that the left half of Kings Park down onto Riverside Drive is now just a scorched area where the granite rock shows through and a few blackened trees remain when before a thriving bush area once stood.  Every summer the media give reports on the news about the danger of fires in particular areas and low and behold within days there are fires in these areas.  The arsonists in our midst are an evil bunch and not until this govt decide to treat these people with what they deserve will be be able to be rid of them.  As far as I am concerned lighting a match or dropping a cigarette butt is as dangerous as driving a vehicle while knowingly under the influence of drink or drugs.  It is not a surity that an accident will occur that will cause damage, injury or loss of life that there is a known risk of these things.  Both are just as dangerous and we now know the devastating that the resulting fire can cause.  My thoughts go out to anyone who has been affected by the Victorian Fires.  I hope that all Australian’s will give items, money, time to help re-build these people’s lives and assist in the re-building of communities, flora and fauna.