Joe's Work 2007 Annual Party

Now this was much more in keeping with the lifestyle i would like to become accustomed to!!! The company have a party every year and this year the theme was 007. The guys put on the old Tux, and the girls just had a good excuse to dress up. The hotel itself was lovely, as you can see from the photos, the first a view from our bedroom window and the next is the room we stayed it. The meal was lovely and the fact that everything is paid for by the company, free beer and wine all night, (not the room), made it even more enjoyable, and this time no babysitting fee!!

Boat Trip to Freemantle

Aunt Shona and I took a boat trip down to Freemantle. The first photo shows the old brewery in Perth which has now been converted into luxury flats. The second photo show the most expensive house in Australia, if you zoom in you will see a couple of smaller houses to the left and right of the main house. One of these is for the chauffeur and the other the butler.
The rest of the photos are from Freemantle Prison, which only closed its doors in 1991. The conditions in here were horrific as were some of the practices that went on. Well worth a visit!!

Swan River Dinner Cruise

We got a babysitter, and the five of us headed out onto Swan River for a dinner cruise. The food was lovely and you had great views of the city from the river. The cruise also took you to some of the more affluent areas of Perth, just to let you see where you could stay, if you won the Lotto!

Monkey Mia

Monkey Mia is advertised as a Dolphin resort, however the word resort should maybe be replaced with campsite. The first photo shows our 'Beach Hut' for three nights. To be fair it did have a air conditioning, double bed and two sets of bunk beds. But you know me girls, imagine my face when I seen this from the outside after a twelve hour drive!!! Once we got in and settled though we did have a good weekend. The hut was literally 60 steps to pure white sand and clear blue sea, and the last two pictures with the dolphins swimming round our feet really made it worth it and did reflect what you seen in the brochure.

The Pinnacles - Cervantes

As some of you know mum, dad and Aunt Shona are here for 4 weeks. Mum was desperate to swim with dolphins while here so we decided to take a long weekend at at place called Monkey Mia, about 800k north of Perth.
The Pinnacles is a natural phenomenon on route. The rocks have been carved out over the years by sand and wind.

School Assembly

Ryan had his first school assembly on Fri (9/2/07) There is quite a difference in the number of students in the Whitfords compared to Craigie (Ryan's last school). Ryan got his first merit award for "Settling in well to his new school and being a cheerful class member" so he was happy and is in the line up second from the right.

Ryan's First Day at School

Ryan started his new school this year, Whitfords Catholic School. He seem to have settled in well and is making friends. They have two uniforms, and they wear the sport uniform on gym days so it saves them getting changed, just costs the parents more money!!!!

Australia Day 26/01/2007

All we can say about this was that is was very, very, very hot!! Probably the hottest I have felt it since we have been here. It was 41c at 5.00pm and there was a wind blowing that felt like someone blowing a hairdryer in your face. All the photos are from 5pm onwards. I was still swimming in the sea with the boys at 8.30pm simply because I needed to cool off. It was a nice day though and we had a BBQ at the beach (Sorrento) watched the sunset and then headed over to the fireworks, which Liam was really not happy about. He even turned down an ice cream because he wanted to go home. So we wandered back to the car and managed to see most of the fireworks on the way.

Settling Down

Well we have decided to take the plunge and buy a house. Well build one actually! We have picked an area called Somerly which is up beside Clarkson about 15mins north of where we are just now but nearer the coast. It has a train station within walking distance which is ideal for Joe for work and a fairly big shopping centre also. There are plans for a new primary school and a number of cafe/bistro type places all within the next 2-3 years. So all this considered we decided to bite the bullet and buy a piece of land. At the moment that is exactly what it is as you can see. The boys are standing at the back of the garden at our retaining wall. No problem with noisy neighbours! We should hopefully be able to move in about a year all going well and i will post progress pictures. The grassy area is a park and public BBQ area about 2mins walk from the house. These areas are all over the estate so there are plenty for the kids to choose from.

Sci-Tech

This is a great day out and is a bit like the Science Centre in Glasgow. The area here was really good for both the kids they could see what was happening and how to do things. Some of the other areas Liam was a bit bored as he didn't have the patience to wait to see what happened, so he spent his time running from place to place. In another few years i think they will both thoroughly enjoy it.