Saturday, September 30, 2006

I have been violated!

Some bugger is fleecing my English bank account to the tune of $4000.

So far they have spent $450 on the Heathrow Express and the rest has been debited from my account but the bank can't tell me where it has been spent yet. The last time I used my card in the UK was at Heathrow.

@%*#

I am not happy.

If it was not for internet banking I would not have found this out so soon, they used the "card" on the 30th of September.

Now I have to go through all the inconvenience of cancelling my card, claiming the money back, making a voodoo doll of the bugger that is riding up and down on the Heathrow Express with tickets paid for by me... in the meantime direct debits will bounce, I won't have any card for my account until I go back to England in December, it will eat away at me until I go craaaaazy and I had just used my card to buy a pair of shoes online and now I can't get them because the card has been cancelled... hmm... oly did ask if he could do anything to make me feel better!

Em

Friday, September 29, 2006

Henry Progressing (OJG)

Hey everyone,

Well this is actually the second time I am writing this, thanks to the less than responsive computers we were using at a gaming Internet cafĂ©. I suspect some spotty 11 year old kid thought it would be fun to “frag” my machine after 2 hours of writing. I was not a happy bunny. On the plus side, I am sure writing it a second time will make it an even better read. Ha.

So, first of all I just wanted to update a part of my last blog which stated how wonderful the library Internet access was… it is now less wonderful. I discovered the process in which new people come to use the few machines they have. Said new person turns up and asks to use the Internet, the officious Librarian takes out the diary, asks them for their name, and then slowly writes down their details into the current time slot. The Librarian then comes over to a random machine and tells the person sitting in front of it that their time is up, to which the person usually replies something like “oh, no warning, ok give me a minute to close things down”. At which point the librarian starts to get all flustered and says that the new person booked and you need to move now. Anyway, I think you get the picture, the exchange carried on for a bit longer, and I was tempted to just sign up again in the diary but thought that I had probably been there long enough.

Since my last blog entry, which I think was Thursday a week ago, Henry spent the day at the Electricians, so his spot lights now work, the inner fluorescent lights work, and he also has two new 12v sockets up front. I also got Ross the electrician to add a battery meter, which was a good thing as there might be a problem with one of the batteries, but we will find out more about that in due course.

Henry has also spent the day with Mitch at John’s Motor Trimmers, where he got a new pop-top fabric (much sturdier than the last one), some new vinyl for the bed and a new tough vinyl floor (easier to clean). Mitch will also be making seat covers for the two new seats that I will be making. Henry is looking great!

On Sunday last we went to visit Robert, Lil, and Ben who live on the edge of the Swann Valley. They have a truly beautiful house which sits on stilts overlooking a small valley. The view from their very long veranda is breathtaking (they probably thought I was a little mad as I snapped away with the camera). But… believe it or not, their view is not the most amazing thing about the house. Nope, even better than the view is the multitude of wild animals that come up right to the house. Specifically kangaroos.

So, I now have 200 or so shots of roos as they got progressively friendlier and closer to the house (now they positively knew that I was mad). If you look at some of the pics, you can see a female roo with her Joey in the pouch. There were in fact 2 females with joeys although one of the joeys seemed to be upside down in there, and it just looked weird. One thing that I noticed is that roos cannot actually walk. They can obviously jump for long distances, but for shorter distances they use their tale to prop themselves up just enough so that they can move their hind legs forward.

As well as the roos, we saw several beautiful birds flying up onto the veranda. So there we are having afternoon tea in a beautiful National Park valley, with roos below us, and parrots on the veranda. For comical value we had Gus, Ben’s puppy big puppy!), who loves nothing better than trying to find new friends by clumsily walking over to the birds with mild curiosity only to be constantly disappointed as they repeatedly fly away. At the end of the day we went for a 5 minute walk to catch a view of the Perth skyline from afar. The sky was quite hazy, but that is not the norm. Apparently it takes 45 minutes by car to get to the centre of Perth. After the walk, Ben showed me his workshop, a room under the house, the size of a very large living room with tall ceilings and a central square workbench probably 3m long on each side. I gotta get me one of those!

So speaking of workshops and tools, you probably all want to know how my own progress with Henry is coming along. Well, no wood has yet been cut, but the plans have been coming along well, some of which I have included as a picture below, so you can see what I am up to.

I have bought a significant number of tools, and to be honest I am a little embarrassed at doing so when we are supposed to be on such a tight budget, but in my defence the prices have been very good. In fact, I found the following quite funny (and hopefully so will those of you that also have a workshop full of tools). The Multi Sander cost 40GBP, the 18V Cordless Drill with Bits cost 40GBP, the Laser Guided Jigsaw cost 40GBP, and the 1550W Plunge Router with 50 bits…. yep…. cost 40GBP! Now as any of you know, the Router with bits should be several times more expensive than the little sander. It makes no sense! And all this is from GMC, a middle of the range make, there were much cheaper!

All in all I think I have spent 300GBP for all the tools, and 100GBP of that was just for the Router Table… which will suit my needs now, but will be improved at a later stage J Already the projects are building up.

So, plans are mostly done, tools are all bought, wood is mostly bought, a few fixings still need to be found, and with any luck the next 3 days or so should see a ton of wood being lovingly cut, mitred, sanded, drilled, fixed, and if all that fails, cursed at (still lovingly)!

With regards to the colours we have finally both agreed on the following scheme, although modifications have already been made… but more on that later!


Well, I think that is it for the moment, there are a lot of other things to write down, but I don’t want to turn this into a novel. As I have mentioned many times before, please leave comments, they are important to us. Also, we do try and keep the blog entries regular but with no permanent Internet access, it can be difficult.

Oly

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The da Vinci effect

Hi, sorry its been so quite from us lately, this time we have been very busy.

The last few days I have been painting Henry. He is no longer the extremely dirty bright blue interior, he is now Wild Mustard and looks very dashing with it too.

Last week he had his pop-top, floor and back seats done by Mitch at Johns Motor Trimmers which took two days. He spent a day with the mechanic and the electrician, all that is left to do now is the storage and the curtains.

We are in an internet cafe right now which is more like warehouse it is so huge. I have just looked around and they have camouflage nets on the ceiling to make the LAN/internet gaming experience a little more authentic. You wouldn't want to think you are in a industrial park building in on the Albany highway in Cannington when you are fighting zombies, orcs and warlocks, you're half dead and there is not a health potion or druid to be found. At least you have camouflage.

On Saturday we are looking forward to watching the AFL (Australian Football League) match between the West Coast Eagles (thats us) and the Sydney Swans who beat us by a feather last year... so it will be GO EAGLES from noon. ----->

Finger crossed!

Em

Friday, September 22, 2006

All quiet on the western front

It's been a while since I have added anything to this blog, sorry about that. It's not as if I have been busy.

Oly has already told you all about Hamlyn Bay, which is where my last post left off, and the fateful bike ride to Foul Bay and back. It was the worst bike ride or any type of day out that was meant to be fun in my whole life. I thought I would never get back to the camp, I was starving, we didn't take enough water, the hills were really steep to the point where we both had to get off our bikes and push even on the proper roads and the whole trip I had a view of the back of Oly peddling furiously in the distance, except when he was sliding towards me on one of the many impossible sand dune hills. Never again!

Apart from that Hamlyn Bay was pretty special, and Foul Bay was idyllic. We soon settled down and enjoyed the tranquility whilst our neighbours with a veranda, portable toilet and shower, struggled to align their satellite dish.

Speaking of toilets and showers, ablutions as they are called in the camp sites, they are really scary, I swear I have watched too many slasher horror movies. When I am washing my hands and I look back up to the mirror in front of me I expect to see candy man or someone with a scythe and a scream mask on. I won't go to the loo in the night so I have to stop drinking any liquids a few hours before I go to bed. When I do go in the dark (it gets dark at 6pm) I take the big 6 cell mag light as protection and make sure I am really quick! I am certain it is something I will get used to over time, either that or develop a bladder of steel.

Well we are still in Perth, preening Henry and getting ready for our launch out into the outback. I am dying to get back out there having disastrous bike rides and showering in flip-flops (UK) thongs (AU) All good things come to those who wait...

Em

Aussie slang for the day
Dunny = an outside toilet, lavatory.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Back in Perth (OJG)

Hi everyone,

Just typing away at a local library (which has pretty good, fast, and FREE Internet access, but no ability to attach USB drives, so no pics... yet), and I wanted to let you all know very briefly what we are up to at the moment.

After our great week in Margaret River, we decided that we would in fact spend a little bit of money on Henry and spend 2 weeks in Perth getting him ready for the adventure ahead.

On Monday I took him to see Kurt at V-Dub Repairs in Freo, and he sorted out the wipers, horn, indicator switch, new seatbelts, a few engine bits, wheel alignments, and several other things. Henry honestly feels better drive for it. Thanks a lot Kurt.

Today, Henry is with Ross (an Electrician in phoenix Rd), who is sorting out the spot lights, fluo lights, additional 12V adapters and a battery charge indicator. Next Monday Henry should be going to get to the John's Motor Trimming, to get a new pop-top fabric (no more leaks) and possibly sort out a couple of other little fabric problems.

In the meantime Emelie is working on some new curtains, although she can't get past the initial obstacle of "what colour", and I am completely re-doing all the storage inside Henry. Well all of it except the bed and it's under storage area.

I have gotten pretty far with the plans, of course as many of you who know me will realise, I usually take months to ponder, draw, ponder some more, re-draw, ponder yet again, start again from scratch, and after many months and many brainwaves, I usually come with the ultimate and most perfect design! Which of course is completely impossible for me to actually make and I usually get stuck and then bored early on when I hit the 2nd or 3rd hurdle.

I am hoping that the immediacy of this particular project will mean that plans never life long enough to get too complicated, and therefore will be totally within my grasp and within the time limit of 2 weeks. I can hear some of you laughing with doubt, but we shall see who laughs last!

I of course am also slightly suffering from a colour conundrum, and although I have now 100% decided how the outside of Henry will be painted (although we have decided it is not worth it to paint him now), the inside is proving a bit more tricky. Add to that the complexity of what material to finish the units in, and also if any additional surface styling is needed. It might sound like I am falling into old habits again, but if I am going to do this, it needs to be good, or at the very least I need it to have potential to be good!

So... on the bright side of all that, I know have Carte Blanche to buy a ton of new power tools!!! YEEE-HAW! It is possible to rent power tools, but the price of some of the tools are so cheap it is actually more economical to buy than rent for more than 1 week. So Router (my fav), Drill, Sander, Jigsaw, Workbench, and corresponding bits are all a must. They can all be bought for about $100 each = 40GBP. The tricky one is a Router Table which is a real necessity (I think anyway), but you just can't get them cheap (probably the only item that isn't made my China, yet). So, with any luck I will be cutting away this weekend. I will post sketches and ongoing progress pics as soon as I can (unless of course the progress is negative, in which case I will just show pictures of somebody else's Kombi).

That is it for the moment, sorry for the delays in posting stuff, but there s nothing like a slow connection to sap your blog writing energy :)

Oly

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Diving with Sharks (OJG)

Ok, I have somehow forgotten to mention the afternoon I had at AQUA, the Aquarium of Western Australia. For this particular blog I will just let the images do the talking with a few comments next to each one...


<-- Some jellyfish against a blue background. They are so alien-like! Well this is what greets you as you enter AQUA. People stand in front of them for ages just watching them "push" themselves upwards just to sink bak to the bottom and then repeat.



3 Moray Eels, looking their usual pissed off selves (they cannot help it, that is how they breath).


<-- Cuttlefish, I believe a close relative to squid and octopi. I am sure this one was watching me! The movement is so graceful.
Where is the deadly poisonous rock fish? This is a trick question (answer at the bottom).

<-- A picture of some Sea Dragons (I think), members of the Seahorse family, except because of the low light it all got blurred. However I quite liked the pic so here it is.
A seal showing doing his best impression of the red Barron!


<-- The 2 seals together, getting ready to play up to the camera again.
Apparently they like to swim upside down, and for some reason it just looked hilarious every time they did it.


<-- A Nurse shark, I know she looks fearsome, but she has no interest in humans at all. Alegedly.
Yep, several sharks and a stingray, which up until recently was not even considered a danger. Think you can guess the most dangerous animal in the tank?


<-- Grandma, what sharp teeth you have?! Nope not the most dangerous.
Yep, believe it or not, this is the most dangerous animal in the tank! Apparently their poor eyesight means they can bump into you, panic, and start pinching away with their huge beak.


<-- And here I am along with a few other divers in the shark tank. Unfotunately there is very little interaction with the sharks, and we are instructed to steer well out of their way. Sigh.
Me again, with a shark nearby. Half way through my 30 minute dive.


And a nice final pic of a shark. Perfect :)

Oly

Friday, September 15, 2006

Hello from Hamlyn Bay (OJG)

Hi all (makes a change from everyone),

We have just spent a couple of magical days in a very small place called Hamlyn Bay. I think we were a little lucky with the weather as both days were gorgeous, but it really was an idyllic location for a break. The bay itself is 16km North of Augusta through beautiful National Park forests.

On our first day we got there quite early, so we decided to have a nice long bike ride in the afternoon to the 3rd bay along. After a brief walk in the water we headed back and Emelie thought it would be a good idea to take the bikes via the "Cape to Cape" path which should in theory be a more direct back to our camp site. More direct it was, however we had endless hills going up and down, and often with sand underneath us. As anyone will tell you going a steep hill on a bike with sand is no fun (brakes make no difference at all), and going up a hill with sand is even worse.... well basically impossible. I can't remember how many times Emelie moaned to me that she was "not having fun anymore" but it was a lot!

We did see some amazing sites (including a couple who thought they could get naked on a deserted beach, then suddenly see us and get dressed very quickly), and I am sure we got an amazing workout from all those hills, but after the 3 hour ordeal we were both completely drained.

Back at the camp site we were able to relax, as can be seen in the picture to the left. Yes those are my feet! And that is the view as taken by me whilst relaxing in my chair with a glass of wine and some of that Belgium chocolate! (Yes I decided to have my first bits of chocolate since arriving in Oz, and it was great).

I made friends with a few of the birds in the park (no, not those type of birds), and we sort of got to an understanding very quickly. They land on the bike handle bars, and I throw them a piece of bread. And so this carried every 30 minutes, until half way through day 2 Emelie saw how much bread we had gone through and had a small fit. So there was only one thing for it, top notch oatcakes imported from Scotland! And I can only judge that they frequency change to 20 minutes was a sign of how much they appreciated the new food.

Not sure what else to say about Hamlyn Bay, it was incredibly relaxing, and easy going, and I for one could easily let the days just drift by whilst enjoying the scenery, sunsets, wildlife.

As a final testament I share with you this picture of sunset (taken with a high zoom). When Emelie saw this on the computer she asked what effects I had applied to the image, I replied that I had done nothing at all, and in fact the image we were looking at was still the raw file on the camera memory card! And even then, the image does not do the sunset justice.

Oly

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Hello from Margaret River - Part 3 (OJG)

Hi everyone,

Last post from Margaret River. Since part 2, we went on a wine tour which was great fun! First of all we went to a couple of "Boutique" vineyards (Boutique applies to wineries that have vaguely less than 70 acres of grapes). Then we had some cheese and after that some chocolate. Then back to 2 more vineyards, and then top it all off with a brewery. We were both fairly pished.

Other than that we cycled a fair bit, and we spent time feeding the ducks and their ducklings at the camp site. It was very impressive watching the duckling's parents be so protective of them at all times. That image to the right in any Australian nature program would probably be quickly followed by a crocodile lunging out of the water. Luckily for this duckling, crocodiles cannot afford to live in this river. Unluckily for this duckling, he did decide to plunge in, and when he had had enough of the cold water, had real trouble finding a bank that he could climb back onto. He succeeded in the end, much to the relief of the parents!

Walking, and site-seeing around Margaret River I cannot help but feel the place is very much "nouveau riche". I'm not sure exactly why I feel this, possibly it is down to the new European cars people drive, the slightly exclusive food shops with imported Belgium chocolates, the trendy cafes with delicious croissants and Swiss cheese. I just want to say, there is nothing wrong with this at all, in fact it makes the place quite an attractive place to be, as you can have the best of both worlds. However land prices in Margaret River are going up like crazy, and probably with good reason, as any product with "Margaret River" in front of it can add a premium to the price tag.

What is especially nice though is the number of people here who decided they had had enough with their jobs, bought some land here, and 10 years later they make wine and enjoy every minute of it. And who wouldn't?!

Oly

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A quick rewind...

Lets catch you up to my last post in Margaret River...


We left Perth very late on Sunday after spending the afternoon catching up with my cousins that I haven't seen in 20 years. We had a very nice Sunday roast and the last thing we wanted to do in the end was drive 3 hours to Margaret river, but if we didn't make a start we would never leave Perth!

When it started to get dark, which is 6PM without fail, we called ahead to a camping site in Bunbury and booked ourselves in for our first night sleeping in the van (well second night for Ol) It rained and it rained, the winds wailed and beat against the van and we woke up every 30 minutes. However it was comfortable and I quite like my feet hanging out of a bed that is about a foot too short (no pun intended)

We set off south again the next morning and decided to spend the night in Yallingup, which is Aboriginal for Place of Love. There is nothing there except for the fantastic view and this time we even had hailstones battering down on the roof.

It was not looking good for camping!

Our luck was better in Margaret River, the weather was sunny at times but at least there was no rain.

We went on a wine tasting trip. After the first winery I had to start using the spitoon to tip my wine into as I started to feel a bit queasy. All was forgotten when we arrived at the chocolate factory! I think Oly and I have been on a chocolate high ever since, we will come crashing down when our meager supply runs out, then there will be tears!

There were seven in our group, three girls from the east coast and a couple that have just emigrated from Ireland. We had a really nice day and we were very lucky to have such a good group.

Oh, I decided to do some washing that morning and the tumble dryer was really useless, taking ages to dry the clothes, so I ended up doing the tour in my pajama bottoms... luckily they were plain black and they were clean on, I had not just woken up in them, unfortunately they were too short for me and flapped around my ankles. I am sure nobody noticed.

All the people who invited us to taste their wine were so nice and friendly and really made you feel as enthusiastic about their wine as they did just by listening to them. It really is another world here in Australia, we have yet to meet someone that is rude or unhelpful, it is going to be a shock when we come back to the UK for a holiday!

Em

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

I told you so

We had our first outdoor cooked meal today. It was beef burgers and carrots with sesame and sunflower seed bread... Even better than nandos!


I cooked while Oly did a bit of camper van envy with the van next to us. I am sure he will tell you all about it... by the sound of it we were coming out on top. Every time we see a kombi we get excited and have a peek inside, it could be a little embarrasing if we get caught.

The van is very comfortable to sleep in and as we have so many gaps in the curtains the sun streaming through wakes me up bright and early. This morning I thought Ol had been dribbling in his sleep quite severely, but it turned out that we have a leak in the pop top somewhere. Quite possibly the one that Alpha pointed out to us that day in Freo... kids nowadays, they just don't listen! Oly gaffer taped it up this afternoon so lets hope it rains again so we can test it.

I have ten more minutes left to write this before they throw us out of this internet cafe, I am suddenly feeling the pressure. I am also talking to James on MSN at the same time which doesnt help.

Talking of weather... I really thought the van was going to tip over last night, I hardly slept it was very scary, I swear wheels were lifting off the ground.

Gotta go... times up

Em

Hello from Margaret River - Part 2 (OJG)


Ok this is a sort of continuation from the last Margaret River blog...

Right, a few other things that I wanted to mention. First off, I went into a shop the other day bought a card at the till and saw this funny little book at the counter... "Aussie Slang Dictionary".. hmm... probably a waste of time... unless I bought it for the blog and added a word each day, perfect! So I bought the little book, and then put it in the back of Henry somewhere. And where do I suddenly see it again?! Emelie had grabbed the book and added Aussie Slang of the day onto her blog... pfff! It is just wrong! Anyway, I had to get that off my chest. And I won't even go into the text that I had prepared for Oodle ending dogs!

Also, I think I have mentioned this before, but people in shops over here are so friendly, I mean really truly friendly! And if you are looking for something in particular which they do not have in stock, they will immediately tell you the name of a competitor who might have it in stock. It doesn't help the guilt at all! We have found this to be particularly true of nearly every camp shop we have been to, where all sorts of conversations (non camping) have taken place.

I have noticed that an awful lot of restaurants and cafes sell Florentines (which is good) but that they do differ quite a lot not only from our typical European (and original!) Florentine, but also from each other. And whilst I love the original as one of my all time favourite foods (can it be classed as a food?), I am quite enjoying tasting all these variations. Some are very peanuty, whilst others are almost all chocolate. Some have all sorts of extra bits added on such as raisins and large dried fruit. Perhaps a chart of "Florentine of WA" will appear soon, with appropriate names given to each sub-class!

It is a really terrible thing to say, but I am starting to notice that our English accents do in fact sound drab and maybe a tiny bit depressed. I know the Australians love to end their sentences on a high, which makes things sound a lot more positive than they necessarily are. And I know that this is an annoyance to a lot of us Pommys, but when in the middle of a conversation, I can hear myself talk and the tones just don't sound as exiting as the rest. I notice this the greatest when saying hello to someone, they just sound so much more cheerful and enthusiastic about it! I have tried to deliberately sound over-cheerful, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it. I am not giving up my English accent that easily but something somewhere has to give!

Well, I think that is it for the moment. As we are out and about on camp sites at the moment, it is a lot more difficult and expensive for us to post to the blog, so it might end up being a bit more sporadic than the previous posts. Please check often and be patient :)

Also thank-you to everyone that has posted comments, please keep them coming, even if it just a "hi from me", it is great to know that our friends and family (and friendly family) are in some way still in contact, it really makes a huge difference to us.

Ok, well off for a cycle ride and then back to the camp site.

Oly

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