Dunsborough and ramblings

We've just come back from a weekend in Dunsborough to celebrate my 40th Birthday. Dunsborough is about 2 1/2 hours drive south from here, and has some of the most beautiful beaches around. Bunker Bay is a cross between a greek mediteranean beach and the turquise seas and white sands of the carribean. We hired a house which catered for dogs too, so we could take Stella. The house was a 5 minute walk to the beach, which we made the most of, and there were lots of other beaches within a short drive - I think one day we did 5 beaches, and Stella thought she was in heaven. She's learnt how to pose now, and so most pictures seem to have her in view.

Dunsborough is within a short drive of the many wineries of the Margaret River region, and we made the most of visiting those. We had to go to the Amberley winery and buy some of my favourite Merlot, and then we had to sample some of the smaller places too.


For my birthday, I was treated all day - they had done up my office at work with pink tinselly streamers everywhere, cakes in the shape of a 40 and flowers and sparkly wine - They really treated me. John took me out to dinner at Sunsets on the foreshore in Rockingham, he bought me jewellrey and perfume too - what more can a girl want!

We're having drinks here at the weekend for some friends who want to help me celebrate which will be fun. We're getting a small group of friends now, with a few invites here and there to expand our social life, it's weird having to make the effort to make freinds again, when in the UK you just had your friends there. Of course our old friends are still there for us, we just don't get to see them often enough.

We're getting better at fishing now and mostly come back with a catch when we go out - we caught a banded sweep recently which was a good dinner for us both, and often catch sand whiting, skippy and herring, so are getting good at preparing and cooking fish. The other thing I'm having to get good at is cooking Indian food, as we are yet to find a decent Indian restaurant or takeaway, so we generally just do our own.

That will be it for now - I promise I will try and do this a bit more regularly - maybe just short ones now and then.

See you soon

We've been Busy

John behind our bar at Xmas, Yes I think he was singing along to Rolf Harris' 10 White Boomers -a traditional Aussie xmas song, you should listen to it!

Well Happy New Year, we've been really busy, and still enjoying life. Christmas was very odd with it being sunny, but it was great to get time off work and enjoy the sunshine, we just chilled out and went down the beach with the dog to cool down a lot. on Christmas day we had a BBQ breakfast, then took the dog out down the beach, came back home and chilled out for a while, then went back down to the beach about 6pm, we left it so late because it was 40deg. We took turkey butties and a couple of beers and celebrated Aus style, it was great.





On New Years Eve, we went to the foreshore where they put on a free concert and fireworks. We went with Sue, Pete and the kids, and sat by the beach drinking champagne and enjoying the night, again very different from the UK but we had a really good time.



We've been fishing a lot from our boat, here is our latest catch - not very big but tasty and enough for a couple of meals each.

John also got me to my first Cricket match - well 2 actually, the first one was beach Cricket at Scarborough beach, it was all the old has beens from the Aussie, Pommie and Kiwi teams and was really just an excuse to go to the beach, there were some names even I'd heard of - Lilley, Small, Gooch, DeFreitas etc.

The second match was the final of the 20 20 cricket at the WACA, I went along but hate to admit that I really enjoyed it, we got the train to Perth, had a drink in the Lucky Shag, walked along the Swan River to the WACA, then sat in the sun drinking wine and watching the cricket, WA lost to Victoria, but the atmosphere was really good, with a lot of good humoured banter. After the match we walked back along the Swan and saw some guys playing their own game against the city backdrop, really good evening out! See the pictures on the album.

Today we've been off work (I'm loving this 4 day a week thing!) We went up to the Serpentine Falls, about 1/2 hour drive from here, and swam in the pool there, see the video on the front page. It's a natural pool formed from rock with a waterfall feeding it, the shire (council) have put in some steps and a sun deck, and now you can easily just go and swim there really safely. There is a picnic BBQ area aswell and the Kangaroos have realised this is a good place to chill, as they get fed lots by the kids that go there. We managed to go mid week and only saw a group of Mexicans and a young couple, so we really had the place to ourselves.

I've uploaded a few more pictures of just general stuff, but take a look and keep emailing us it's great to here from everyone.