It's been a while

It's been a long while really, and I'm heartily ashamed of myself. Though, if I don't get any comments on this post perhaps I can console myself that nobody noticed my absence?

Where shall I start?? I know, how about I just dive in and leave aside notions of coherence?

I've nearly reached the next term break now, but in the last holidays I had a visit from a very dear friend and had a lovely time showing her around and relaxing. I remember those days as a blur of chatting, drinking and eating - including several cheese plates. Sounds delightful, non? Highlights included a great mid-week yum cha lunch in Northbridge and a beautiful meal at Greenhouse. Greenhouse is an amazing place built of sustainable and recycled materials and covered with loads of pot plants. It wasn't looking very green when we went in the middle of Winter, but I think it might be worth a special Spring visit to see how verdant it is now. Anyway, the food was delicious. But I think I was most impressed by the toilet. Yeah, you heard me. Check it out! The water from the sink is used to flush the toilet!

Though it seems like years ago now and everyone is moving on to Junior Masterchef, I have to mention the Masterchef finale. I have been lucky enough to make friends with a colleague who has very similar interests to me, including music and cooking. We first bonded over Masterchef, with an in depth post-mortem of every episode the next day, much to the annoyance of those who share our office. So, we staged a feast for the finale with recipes from the show. I cooked Alvin's pork belly, which was delicious, but involved twice cooking, a lot of ingredients and some spitting boiling oil. Not a regular weekday evening meal.

The Fella and I went on a great wine tour to the Swan Valley a few weeks ago with my book club. It was very well organised by a company called Fat Decanter and involved lots of drinking and eating, and even a bit of wine buying. One of our favourite bits was the behind the scenes tour at Sandalford Winery. It was perfect for someone like me who likes to drink wine but really doesn't know a thing about it. Here is an oak barrel that particularly impressed me.

Work-wise things are ticking along nicely with us. The Fella's office has moved to Freo and he now commutes to work (all of 10 minutes) on his brand new, very sexy bike looking all dapper and continental in his suit. Once he gets a pannier I'll be able to ask him to buy groceries from Woolworths which is underneath his office. And he'll get to complain to his colleagues about "picking up a few things for the missus." Won't it be great?

I've only been working four days a week this term (times are tough in the international student sector). I have Fridays off, many of which I used to help the Greens in the recent Federal Election (you know, the one that was only just decided in a nail-biting cliffhanger...) I had a big map, 50,000 leaflets and a bunch of lovely volunteers to wrangle. The end result was a 17 point something percent vote in the Fremantle electorate, a Senator re-elected, roughly 47,000 leaflets distributed, some new friends for me and a cosy sense of belonging to the community. Here is the Pusscat helping me with the big map.

I've also been tutoring a year 12 student once a week for a bit of extra cash with a 4 day a week wage. And last Friday I had a day of relief teaching at the Catholic school I taught at in term 1. When I say teaching, I should say 'teaching', for it was in the maths faculty.Those of you who understand my fraught relationship with basic arithmatic will be forgiven for sniggering at that idea. It was a surprisingly pleasant day, and nice to see some the year 12 students I taught in term 1. Being asked, "Miss are you coming back now? Can you teach our class?" is always a nice boost to the ego. And of course shows their refreshing lack of understanding of how employment works. "Um, no I don't get to teach your class just because you want me to. That's your teacher's job. Not mine." Bless them, they'll figure it out soon enough.

So I mentioned another term break approaching. I just have to get through a week of exam marking and report writing and then we're off to prove our WA credentials by holidaying in Bali. The only thing saving us from stifling in a throng of fellow Perth residents is the fact that my holidays start a week early so it won't be school holidays then. That, and the fact that we will stay the hell away from Kuta.

Alright, I think I'm out of words but I have a few random photos to share.

To show you how windy it really is here:

I've never seen hang gliding on basically flat ground before. Aren't you supposed to leap off something high??

Cottesloe looking all iconic and stormy. Just beautiful. Shame about those sharks...

And finally, welcome to Spring. Feels good, doesn't it?