Lunar Eclipse

Last night we were suppose to see a lunar eclipse. Apparently this was the longest total lunar eclipse in 7 years. So we got all ready - bought fish and chips and settled down at a nice spot in Mosman Park overlooking the river and the city. But instead of seeing the moon turning in this dark coppery-red – we just saw clouds :-( And we couldn't really tell whether the light red shimmer around the clouds was caused by the moon or the city lights.
But later at night we could catch a glimpse of the moon between two clouds. And even though the lunar eclipse was over and the moon turned back into its normal deep golden yellow, its light was incredible bright. I have never seen such a bright moon before. It was hard to identify the dark grey spots on the surface that you usually see. It was just too bright!

Kookaburra

The other morning we were woken up by a two kookaburras sitting in a tree very close to our bed room window. I actually love these birds and their laughter like singing – but not at 4am in the morning at max sound volume! This is a video of a kookaburra near our house the next morining.

City to Surf

Well... what shall I say... I didn't do it... But I was actually highly motivated! Even though the weather forecast was pretty crap, I felt good and was ready for the challenge!

FORECAST FOR SUNDAY
Showers, heavy at times in the morning with the risk of a thunderstorm. Strong and squally NW winds shifting W/SW during the morning then easing during the evening.

But when I got up this morning my friend rang me and said that she called the bureau of meteorology and they gave out a weather warning with wind speeds up to 120km/h. And it was in fact very windy outside and it just started to rain. So I called up another friend of mine who I was suppose to meet in the city before the run. And she was also happy that I called her because she wasn't too keen either. So we kind of talked each other out of it – persuading us that we were keen but that it wasn't worth the health risk – the HEAD wind, the rain, it was cold ... :-) I then checked the internet and they gave a weather warning this morning.

ROAD WEATHER ALERT
Issued at 4:15 am WST on Sunday, 26 August 2007
Heavy showers and strong and squally winds are expected to increase the road hazard this morning throughout the metropolitan area.

So instead we enjoyed breakfast at Barchetta on the beach and a long girls chat – hihi
I guess in the end we are just wimps and sunny-weather-runners. But for my part – that is alright!! :-)

Ossi Girls or Aussie Girls

The other day I had lunch at uni with a girl from Dresden, a girl from Naumburg and a girl from Halle; these are all cities in East Germany, the region where I come from. It was really nice to hear those accents again – just like home :-)
It is actually quite funny because people from East Germany are sometimes called Ossis (from the German word for East - Osten). But Ossi is pronounced just like Aussie. So we are Ossis girls and we now become Aussies girls ;-)

City to Surf

I am going to do it again! Just like last year I registered again for the city to surf. This charity road run is held annually and you can do a 12km run or walk, a 4km walk and new this year a half marathon (21km). I registered for the 12km run and just like last year my aim is just to 'survive' and cross the finish line :-) Maybe I can beat my last years time of about 1:25h – and hopefully I won't be overtaken by young mums pushing a pram! How embarrassing!! ;-)

Renovations Stories
No, we still don't have approval to do the renovations but yes, we nonetheless do little bits and pieces to see some progress!

We found bricks!!
In order to do the extensions to the unit we need bricks that match the existing. But unfortunately these bricks aren't produced anymore. So we always look out for them. Last weekend we spotted exactly these bricks. They were used to build a little wall surrounding a tree, but this wall was half broken down. Ian asked the owners and they were actually glad to get rid of them :-)
So this weekend we borrowed a trailer and went there to demolish the wall and pick up the bricks. And we discovered that they used these bricks as well to pave. So we dug out perfectly fine bricks! We are really happy about this because we got them for free and they are exactly the ones that we need! In the end we recovered more than 200 bricks, cleaned them from the mortar and washed the dirt of.

Gas Hot Water Heater
At the moment we use an electric instantaneous water heater but every time we open the tap we will have to wait patiently for about 2min. to get hot water. What a waste! So as part of the renovations we bought a gas hot water system which will hopefully work much better. But we had troubles to find a place to put it. We wanted to put it in the back, so it is not visible. But this thing has to be at least 1m away from any window each side. So there is no room in the back. So we decided to replace the old air condition with the new hot water system. We wanted to pull the aircon out anyway and this way we didn't need to find bricks to fill the hole in the wall. We have done this some weeks ago. But unfortunately the gas meter is just underneath now... which is too close... so we need to move the gas meter. I think only one company is allowed to do this and they charge a ridiculously high amount for this but anyway this will hopefully be done soon.

2 flight tickets

A friend of mine once told me that you should always have at least 2 more flight tickets, i.e. 2 more holidays booked, otherwise work gets much too stressful and you don't have anything to look forward to. ;-) So we finally have 2 more flights / holidays to look forward to!! The first one will be in the beginning of December. We will fly to Queenstown and do the Milford Track, one of the most famous walking tracks in the world, and the Routeburn Track. I am really looking forward to this, I saw the pictures and they look fantastic!
The second ticket will get us both back to Germany for Christmas and the ski trip in France is already in its planning stage. So I am highly motivated at the moment to finish my current project until then! :-)

Weekend Stuff

Our weekend was actually very productive. We did a lot of cleaning, washing, gardening and because the weather was warm and sunny it felt a bit like spring-cleaning even though it is still winter. And Ian used the plane that he bought last weekend in Lancelin.
The weekend was also very sportive. We ran about 6km on Saturday and cycled about 40km on Sunday – so on Monday I had to rest :-)
On Sunday evening we went to see “La vie en rose” - this movie about Edith Piaf. I saw the shorts and read the critics beforehand and it was indead a really good movie. But it was sooo sad!!! There was hardly and bit of her live that was really happy (according to the film) – her boyfriend died in a plane crash, her little daughter died, the man who discovered her was murdered... And instead of showing her live in chronological order they jumped in time which was really good, so her dead wasn't the end of the movie. Also the actress playing Edith Piaf was amazing and she looked quite like her. So this film is definitely worth seeing but don't expect it to be happy!

Toy Shop for Men

Imagine when you were a child and how great it was to visit these huge toy shops with aisles and aisles of brand new toys. I think this is what men feel when visiting the WA Wood Show – Ian probably does :-) He went there with his father and spent about 4h or so exploring all these fantastic, new, I-must-have wood working tools – he also spent a fair, fair, fair bit of money, too!
Anyway the plan was that his dad would come to our place and they drive there together and I have some Annika-time to do stuff. But his dad was late and his mum came along as well. So when they arrived they quickly shuffled cars and off they were. Well... and I was standing in the garden with his mum and didn't quite know what to do. It was probably a very funny situation for both of us :-) In the end we had a nice afternoon together, sitting in the garden, chatting, having lunch,... but I also got these comments of her saying “I wonder whether Ian will ever have kids” - I choose to ignore this comment of hers and change the subject ;-)

Garden Creatures Big and Small

Brekky in the Garden

What a great way to start the weekend! Pancakes, maple syrup and freshly squeezed orange and grapefruit juice - bloody good!

Chinese Stir Fry

Ian makes this really great Chinese stir fry. It is one of my favourite dishes.
He told me that when he was a student, he was living together with this Asian guy and this guy taught him how to make proper Chinese stir fry.
So tonight we had stir fry with prawns and chicken, veggies (capsicum, pak choy, baby corn, snow peas, bean sprouts) and rice – very yummy!!!

The End of the Rainbow

Did you ever wonder where the rainbow ends? I did! I always wanted to be at one end of the rainbow… and the other day I was…
We have really patchy weather at the moment. This means rain and sunshine change literally every 5 minutes. And so the other day we even had rain and sunshine at the same time – this was really weird! It was raining down from this small dark cloud above us but around this cloud was nothing but clear blue sky. So it rained while the sun was shining and a rainbow formed in front of clear blue sky and in front of this tree. I never saw a rainbow in front of something else – I usually see them far away at the horizon. But that day this rainbow ended just outside my office, in the middle of the lawn, behind this little building and in front of this tree. It was really beautiful!

Lancelin Close Up Shots

On Saturday morning we got up really early to go surfing. But the wind was quite strong and it was bloody cold!!! So I just took a few pictures at the beach instead :-)

Lancelin

It has been much too long since we’ve been away for the weekend. The last trip is already 2 months ago – we have been at Rottnest first weekend in June. So this weekend we drove up to Lancelin - there is even a wikipedia entry ;-)


I really enjoyed driving up north again - out of the city and into the country / outback. Life, nature, people, beaches – everything is so much different from Perth even though it is just about 100km up north. And everything is green – I mean as green as it ever gets ;-) It is late winter, the wet season and all lots of the native plants start flowering.


We drove up to Lancelin straight after work and arrived just in time for – red wine and nibbles on the balcony watching the sunset! And we picked a great weekend, too! The weather was just fantastic, blue sky, sunshine and about 20°C. It was sooo good to walk barefooted again! All in all the whole weekend was a good mixture of sport and relaxing.
Surfing – I did what I can do best – knee boarding, just like last time :-)
Jogging – along the beach when the sun sets
[I actually don’t understand why so many people prefer the Australian cities on the east coast like Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane. At about 4pm in the afternoon they only have the grey shadows of the skyscrapers at the beach because the sun sets in the west. Over there you can’t watch the sun set in the ocean! ;-)]
Wine tasting – buying several different bottles of wine, hide the labels in paper bags and try to guess what wine, which year,…
Watching DVDs – as we don’t have a TV we really enjoyed laying on a comfy couch and watching movies on a big TV screen :-) So I broadened my horizon and got to know The Goodies (British comedy from the 70’s) and the Army of Darkness (one of the worst movies ever – boys probably love it)
Star Gazing – I am always amazed about the number of stars you see when you are just about 100km out of Perth. It is just great!
While strolling through the little village we met an old women selling home made marmalade and old tools and stuff from her husband. I bought strawberry marmalade, really yummy and it reminded me of home and strawberry marmalade my grandma makes every summer. My grandpa requests at least 30 jars, which take him through the year :-) And Ian found these old planes that he bought straight away. He does a lot of wood working and will probably use them himself. Otherwise they will sell on ebay for double the price ;-)

Great Weekend Forecast

The forecast for the weekend looks just great!
House booked at Lancelin - yes
A bunch of good friends - yes
A couple of surf boards - yes
And a great weather forecast - yes!!

Wednesday A few showers. Fresh SW'ly winds moderating in the evening.
Thursday An early shower or two then fine. Mostly light S'ly winds.
Friday Fine, sunny. Min 4 Max 19
Saturday Fine, sunny. Min 5 Max 21
Sunday Fine until a late shower. Min 6 Max 22

It will be awesome!!