City to Surf

The boys had the opportunity to participate in an even bigger run than the TC10k today. The Perth City to Surf run includes a 4km, 12 km, half and full marathon. This year 47,265 people ran.We couldn't really avoid running it, since the 4 km run started at Rio's school and ran past our house down to the beach. Rio's school team had the highest participation of any school, and managed to win $5,000 for their school sports program. It took Sol 21 minutes and Rio 22 minutes, with some energy to spare though not quite enough to go to squash afterwards. I unfortunately mis-timed my walk down to the finish line and Sol (red shirt, number 10 Rooney) passed me when I was just half-way there, so I didn't capture their moments of glory. But I did see at least half of the Manchester United team run past me along the way after Rooney and Ferdinand went by...

And Chris ran an alternate route to the finish line so he managed to catch the back of Rio's head as well.

Yesterday we went to our first Aussie-rules footy match between one of the two Perth professional teams, Fremantle Dockers, and a team from the east called Port Adelaide. Chris, Sol and Rio knew a bit about the rules beforehand, but I was a complete newbie. Luckily, I had our neighbours Glenn and Trish to explain things so that by the end, I could follow what was going on. The local Freo fans are very enthusiastic, in purple and white, with inflatable white anchors as their symbol - and they had good reason to cheer as Freo dominated the opposition 136 to 60. It's an extremely athletic game, with lots of running, jumping, kicking, tackling and catching. The players are tall, muscular, and can jump incredibly high (sometimes climbing on each other to do so). Though there is a lot of tackling, it didn't seem like a particularly violent game compared with North American football or rugby. The crowd was well behaved too, even though we had a crowd of Port Adelaide supporters nearby to exchange friendly jeers with. Sol wishes that we were staying for another season so that he could play Aussie-rules football. He had the opportunity to play something similar in gym class, when they did Gaelic football, which is very similar but with a soccer ball.

Last weekend was a sporting one as well, with the boys in a squash tournament all day Saturday at a club in downtown Perth. It was different from our usual tournaments, as it was one-day only. Matches were scheduled to start each hour, with 8 courts, but really you had to be there the whole time because they had more than 8 matches scheduled at a time so you never quite knew when you would be on It flowed fairly well but it meant that our heads were ready to explode from being in the squash court environment non-stop for 7 hours. Chris and I had to escape for a walk along the riverfront, which is very beautiful. Perth has done a good job of keeping riverfront and ocean front accessible to the public rather than privatising it off into housing lots, so there are lots of wonderful paths for walking, running and biking along the water.

We managed to get some city sightseeing in this weekend as well. Yesterday we went to the science museum, Scitech, where we enjoyed full access to the hands on exhibits because most people were out enjoying the sunshine instead. That was well worth while, because there were lots of great exhibits and all very interactive. (Dave Porter, I think you would have approved, although the Periodic Table they had wasn't nearly as much fun as yours at the Royal Institution.) Of course, the exhibit the boys spent the most time at involved kicking a soccer ball at a target and then watching your kick replayed on a screen in slow motion.

Today we were intending to go to the Perth Mint but didn't leave ourselves enough time to do that along with the shopping we needed to accomplish. We should take out shares in the local sports shop, Jim Kidd, because we can't go past it without picking up new cricket equipment. Today it was thigh pads and bat grips.

I was happy to finally show the family my office building and the lovely square that it sits upon. The Auditor General's Office is in the 7th floor of Albert Facey House.

And if they ever come downtown to meet me, they will easily be able to find my office by the unmistakable landmark in the square. Big metal tulips in Victoria, great green cacti in Perth... pretty representative of our respective ecosystems, I guess! (Is the photo quality good enough to spot the spies peeking out from behind the cactus?)

To finish off the day, we stopped at my favourite fruit and veggie market, in the neighbourhood of Subiaco. This picture shows some of the more standard produce on offer, but there are also all kinds of cool Asian and Oceanic fruits and vegetables that we have yet to explore fully. Plus several nice bakeries, tasty food stalls, a health food store with good bulk offerings, and the best - and cheapest - pita breads I've eaten. Haven't tried the Chinese massage yet, which is reputedly great, but Rio did get his haircut at a hole-in-the-wall barber today.

My last picture of the day is another creature, this one not quite as cute as the others we have seen. It has been a long time since I have lived in a climate that supports a large population of cockroaches, but this one gave Sol a good fright when he spotted it in the mirror, on the bathroom wall behind him. He didn't look long enough to realize that it was not a spider, though it certainly has hairy legs.

Baby lizard on the patio

The wildlife theme continues... the animals just seem to make the catchiest blog post titles. This little lizard (who may or may not be a baby - might just be a small species of lizard) caught my eye as it ran across the patio outside our bedroom this afternoon.

We have had a busy week since I last posted. Last Saturday it was sunny and warm, so we went to the beach again and this time Chris and I ventured into the water even though we haven't got wetsuits like the boys. I have to say that with the breeze off the water, I didn't find it that warm, so I splashed about a bit and then stretched out on the beach and watched the boys jumping the waves. Rio was keeping up a steady stream of conversation with the ocean, while Sol was working on his boogie boarding. Sunday we had the usual soccer in the morning, and then we went out to Bayswater where we saw the finish line of a big kayaking race down the Swan River. The finish line was pretty calm waters, so not as exciting as watching them come over the rapids. Since many of them looked quite beaten up (blood even!), it seemed the race was challenging.

This weekend we got down to Fremantle on Saturday. The kids played each other at the squash courts and I played someone I had been matched up with for a fun hit. We went to the Fremantle Harbour front and had fish and chips, for which the area is famous. It was rainy so the kids didn't go on the big enclosed ferris wheel/London Eye type thing or the massive trampoline; they are vowing to get back there when it's sunny. We explored the Fremantle Market, which was full of funky little stalls selling everything from local artwork to boomerangs to vegan Thai food. The boys were offered a job wearing morph suits and walking around the market, but we didn't have time so we've promised to come back another time to try out the wacky suits they had on offer. We spent the rest of the day with Georgina and Fedele and their 3 boys, who had come from Perth to Victoria last year on the same secondment program. They have an amazing backyard, with 5 olive trees laden with olives, a mandarin tree, two orange trees and some lemons, as well as a beautiful swimming pool and a garage full of lobster pots (Fedele is a lobster fisherman). The kids played cricket and their gorgeous dog Patch joined in, until it was too dark to see the ball. We looked at their photos from their time in Victoria and it made me realize that our part of the world looks just as exotic to them as their country seems to us. They felt that a year wasn't enough time to really experience everything they wanted to, and wished they had been able to stay on. It also reminded me that we don't do enough exploring of our own 'backyard' - they may have seen more of B.C. than we have!

Today after soccer we finally took the kids into see more of Perth city. We went to King's Park, which is an amazingly large and lovely park that has a panoramic view over the river, the downtown core, and all the way round to the south and Fremantle as well.

We walked through some of the botanical garden, which contained the vegetation of all of the regions of Western Australia. So impressive to think that someone carefully analyzed, named and catalogued each of the thousands of species, checked and cross-checked it all. Chris played with the camera's macro setting and got a few nice shots. The boys were most impressed with the bottle brush, which was so strong they could brush their hair with it.

There was a really cool glass bridge through the tree canopy. To Rio's disappointment, I managed to convince my brain that I wasn't going to fall through the tiny cracks, so that I could walk across with only slight vertigo.

By the time we had gone several kilometres around the botanical garden and looped back, we had only covered a very small portion of the park. I foresee many more visits in the future, perhaps with a picnic next time.

I don't think we'll get to Uluru on this visit, but at least they've had a chance to hug a big red rock.

Chris turns 40 and there is a rose-breasted cockatoo on the lawn

Yes, Chris has caught me up again, with the big 40 today. His family managed to get their birthday cards to all turn up yesterday and today, which I found very impressive. The boys scrounged some bits of paper and made their own cards, with strong focus on the ageing aspect of the birthday. (We didn't bring paper with us, and haven't stocked up on craft supplies as part of our essentials shopping - I guess we're trying to figure out what we can live without for 6 months. It's kind of liberating, being free of stuff and having to improvise - although I have to admit I succumbed and bought a cookbook holder and apron today as they turn out to be essentials for me.)

It was a beautiful day today, at least the two ends of the day that I experienced outdoors. It was the perfect temperature for cycling in to work this morning, with enough sunshine that I didn't need to wear my jacket but not so much that I felt hot by the time I got to work. It was lovely and sunny at lunch when I went for a walk from the office, and still sunny at the end of the day for the ride home. In between, I could see some very dark and magnificent clouds passing through, but they didn't result in more than a passing shower. We do get good views of the skyscape from our 7th floor office space.

And what did I see on the lawn when I arrived home? A Galah, also known as rose-breasted cockatoo or Eolophus roseicapilla, happily chomping on a worm or some such.

Chris took the boys to their soccer practice after work, while I made black bean burritos, guacamole and chocolate mocha cake. The avocadoes are very nice here, and it's exciting to have lemons right in our garden - I'm trying to find lots of recipes involving lemon or substituting it into anything and everything. 

The few weeks here has made us realize how lucky we are in Victoria to be close enough to our various activities that the boys can get themselves to and from without us. Here, Chris has been doing lots of chauffeuring. Soccer is a 15 minute drive away, so he goes and stays there from 4:45 to 7:00 for the two practices. Yesterday they went to squash for the first time - it is the closest club to us with a junior program, and it's half an hour drive away (40 minutes on the way home as the traffic was bad). I'm back from work later than usual because it takes me a bit longer to get home and also longer to get out of the building once I leave my desk at 4:30 (bike locker and changerooms 8 floors down in the basement, with lots of swipe-card controlled automatic doors to get through). So I'm not able to do any of the chauffeuring, unless I work from home which I may request to do in a few weeks' time. I am very impressed with how accommodating the workplaces here seem to be with respect to flexible working schedules to allow families to meet their needs. At least half of the people in my unit have developed their own working schedule, and there is a complete acceptance of this at all levels, no sense of pressure or concern.

The soccer and squash have been interesting so far. Sol is on a Division 2 team, largely because that was the team that had room for him part way through the season (although this leaves them with 15 players and they are only allowed to bring 14 to each match, so if everyone is fit and available, someone will have to sit out). The team is mid-table, but I would say the level of play is not nearly as strong as his team from last year in Victoria. They would be the equivalent of a Division 1 team in this system (above it is the premier league, equivalent to HPL). Rio's team is in the top league for U9, the "A" level, but the level of play is lower than he is used to as well. But what they lack in skill, they make up for in equipment - the kit is quite impressive, with a special shirt for training and one for matches, a jacket, and for Sol, a kit bag. (Registration is a lot more expensive, to cover all of this stuff).

The squash is a select group of juniors, which will provide the boys with some challenge. The club has a Friday junior program, a select program on Wednesdays, and a round robin on Sundays - which is a bit similar to Cedar Hill, but far fewer programs. There is a one-day tournament coming up in a few weeks sponsored by Prince, called 'bronze' level, so hopefully it will be competitive. The boys found the courts very different, with very low bounce off the walls. 

I went to squash myself for the first time last night, and also found the courts really unusual - low bounce, and also the T is further back than I'm used to and the court is slightly larger. It will take a while to adjust, but suffice to say that low drops are highly effective in this set up. The social night was quite friendly and well organised, and we had the right number of people so no one had to sit out. This meant that after an hour and a half, I was pretty wiped out, that being my first squash in a month. I thought I would be very sore today but I did enough stretching so that I'm only a little bit sore.

Chris is intently watching the Ashes Third Test match at Old Trafford, which is a big news item here at the moment, with Australia trying to redeem its dignity after two losses. I hope that England give him a good birthday present and perform well, but at this point, the Aussies are looking more promising than they have for a while.