Tiny Unit

Ian and me are living in this really small one bedroom unit in North Freo. And on the weekend I realised how small it actually is. I plugged in the vacuum cleaner in one corner of the unit and was nearly able to vacuum the whole place without changing the power point ;-) I find this pretty funny!

Daylight Saving - I love it!

Eating dinner in the courtyard / garden while it is still light!
Going for a looong swim in the ocean or the river AFTER work!
The sun wakes me up and shines directly in my face at 6am rather than 5am in the morning!
Now the sun sets at 8.30pm in January instead of 7.30pm!! This feels much more like home where I am used to a 9.30pm sunset during summer time.
The only bad thing is the time difference to Germany which is now 8h instead of 6h. Because both countries started and ended daylight saving respectively and changed the clock in opposite directions.

Summer is near!

And the mulberries starting to turn from green over red to black.

Bird Bath

The birds love it! This little new holland honey eater jumped into the water about 10 times!


[Just ignore the police siren in the background, it kind of ruins the idyll :-)]

Gas Hot Water System

Early July we demolished the old aircon in our unit and put in the plastic box for the new gas hot water system. And it actually took 3 and a half months for the gas hot water system to be actually installed!! The plumbers came in yesterday and ran and connected all the water and gas pipes.
[... and I can't stand Italian looking plumbers calling me 'Darling' or 'Love'!!!]
Anyway, we know have a nice remote which allows us to dial the exact temperature. And now that we know the exact temperature of the water we started arguing already whether 40C or 41C is the best temperature to have a shower ;-)

... and still more funny garden creatures :-)

My famous little scooter

I received a little package from my parents this year for children's day (1st of June). It's great! - it doesn't matter how old I am, I will always be my parents child and thus get something for children's day :-)
So this year I got a little German number plate with my name written on it, which I HAD to put on my scooter!! My scooter just has an ordinary number plate because custom made plates are quite expensive (see here)! But now, after Ian mounted my new 'Annika' plate I have both - and I hope the cops won't mind ;-)
Anyway, yesterday we went out for dinner with a some of friends and friends of them. I was introduced to them and got the following reaction: "Oh, you are Annika! I saw you riding your scooter. It is really a beautiful looking little scooter."
And this is not the first time this happened! Friends already told me that friends of them saw a really nice little scooter with 'Annika' written on it :-) So it looks like my scooter is quite well-known already :-)

... and again, Freo is full of Yanks ;-)

"How to pass your thesis with flying colours"

This is the title of the seminar I attended last week. And it was quite good to learn everything about the thesis examination process BEFORE I even started writing. And the statistics were quite interesting as well...
So apparently about 200 students finish their PhD at Curtin each year. And according to Planning and Quality about 40.000 students study at Curtin from which about 1600 do a PhD. So there is a slight discrepancy between the number of people currently doing a PhD and the number of people actual finishing each year... But if you are amongst the 50% or so that actually submit a thesis then the chances are close to 100% that you actual finish your PhD. I think in the last 7 years only 3 students failed.
Once you submitted your thesis you either pass unconditionally (30%), pass conditionally (60%, minor changes) or you have to resubmit (this figure dropped from 10% to 5% in the last years). And surprisingly there is usually no oral presentation unlike in Germany. But from submitting your thesis to actually graduating it can take up to 6 months or so. So lots of time to travel until I have to start working eventually ;-)

Mirror LCD

We were browsing through some bathroom shops on the weekend in search of dunnies, sinks, tabs, shower heads,... And in one of the more exclusive shops we saw this mirror LCD. It is great and bloody expensive :-) It is essentially a big mirror that suits basically every room in the house - living room, bath room, kitchen,... But this mirror is connected to the TV / PC and once switched on it turns into a nice LCD screen. So instead of clogging up the living room with a big TV one could instead hang up a big nice mirror that makes the room look bigger at the same time. Or placed in the bath room you will never ever miss any part of your favourite film / TV show if you need to visit the bathroom.
I think this is a great idea but much too expensive at the moment! (A$6800 for a 700 x 800mm mirror with a 15'' display) So a projector is still a comparable option that doesn't clog up the room and since we live very happily without a TV at the moment we really need the projector only to watch films.

The very first strawberry in our garden! And there are more to come! :-)

And what a perfect one this is :-)

Summer!!!

It was such a great morning today!! Blue sky, sun shine, only a light sea breeze. I watched pelicans having breakfast on the river - catching fish with their bills. It was really great fun to ride the scooter to uni this morning in this stunning weather! And summer is on its way!! It's nearly here! The forecast for Saturday is 32C - woohoo!! :-)

We still discover funny creatures in our garden :-)

Dentist

Since Ian couldn't remember the last time he saw a dentist and my last visit is 12 months ago we (or better I) decided to check out the new dentist just around the corner from us. We had a flyer in the mail advertising a free electric tooth brush with every first visit :-)
So we went their on Tuesday and since they just opened on Monday we must have been one of the first customers if not the very first.
So everything was brand new. The chair and equipment came from Germany - according to the dentist the best in the world :-) :-) :-) I think I will go back there then :-) And we could wait for each other in the relaxation room equipped with a massage chair and a TV. Bloody great!
I had my teeth x-rayed. I still remember the very first time my teeth were x-rayed. I had to wear a really heavy "lead coat", some bulky panels were placed next to my head and everyone left the room while I had to sit still for several minutes. A couple of years later I think I didn't have to wear the coat any more but the x-ray machine was still in a separate room and I still had to sit still for quite a while. And in either cases I would have to wait about a week or so for the results.
But when my teeth were x-rayed this time he just put a little black disc in my mouth and a the x-ray emitting thing was aligned with my cheeks. It took literally 1sec. and the digital x-ray popped up on the computer screen. Ha! That's German technology ;-)

Pigeonhole

Pigeonhole is the name of Johann's little quirky shop, full of hidden treasure, fashion & gifts, art | life | design. He opened this shop on his 25th birthday this Saturday. So I went there to say happy birthday and to catch up with him as I haven't seen him for ages.
When I first came to Perth in Sept. 2004 I was looking for a place to stay for the next 6 months. And after just one week I found this nice furnished room in 2 Edward Street, literally a 2min. walk from my lab at UWA - it was great! This was Johann's house back then and there were also Mark and Shaun - the two Canadians. I had a really good time sharing a house with them! Even my mum and dad lived there for a couple of days :-)
Johann started his jewellery business back then already and I was very happy to see that after selling his jewellery across the whole world he is now opening his first own shop! I wish him all the best for this!
The official shop opening is the coming Sat 13 October 2007. The shop opens at 11am and closes at midnight!

Evening festivities kick off around 7pm with a little catwalk preview at 8pm displaying the West Australian debut of boys' and girls' threads from Ivana Helsinki and Dusty (Finland), Mine (London), Helena Fredrikkson (NY), Whyzseck and Ulterior Motive (Sweden) and Extinct (Melbourne). Taste test some brand spankin new organic teas courtesy of ORACLE from Sydney along with some smooth local wines and tasty homemade treats.

Art Exhibition

Tonight the art exhibition I was telling you about earlier opened to public. It was a full success!! More than 200 people came to admire the works of Jane Kos, Marnie Beissel, Wendy Tweedie and Karen Cheng. So if you are around come and have look - it is really worth it!

The Old Royal George Gallery
Corner Duke St & George St, East Fremantle.
5 – 16 October, 2007

Thur - Fri : 11am - 7pm
Sat - Wed : 11am - 5pm

After the opening we all meet at Pizza Palace, one of the best pizza places in Perth, just oposite the art gallery and celebrated a bit :-)

New Herbal Garden Bed

Last year on Queen's Birthday we bought pots and plants to create our little herbal garden. And today, by chance exactly one year later, we set up a new garden bed, bought a trailer full of soil and replanted the herbs in there.