Friday December 27th – Sunday 12th January 2025!
Apologies for the lackof posts!
We’ve been out and about doing stuff, whilst Anita has been here.
After a lovely Christmas we had a few days just relaxing and enjoying the weather and the pool. 💙
Anita got to enjoy the fabulous Cinema in Busselton when her & Chris went to see the new Robbie Williams Film, good feedback.
Rebecca had organised a trip to a beautiful Winery, about an hours drive inland, near a place called Pemberton.
The drive there was lovely, we took the scenic route which was beautiful. We got to see Emu’s wandering about and even one casually crossing the road in front of us!
The Winery was called “Ampersands” and it was fantastic. We had booked a delicious picnic lunch which came with both sparkling wine and a yummy Chardonnay. The food and the winery, were gorgeous. It was such a lovely relaxing
Rebecca was only off work for the Christmas period, so,sadly went back on the Monday, Chris had a further week off and was busy trying to get jobs done.
Anita and I did lots of relaxing, reading, pool dipping and going out for coffee!
We even managed to get ourselves a Baileys Latte from a great little Café down by the beach 🏝️😍
Our New Year’s Eve was wonderful.
We all went down to the beach and watched the last sunset of 2024 with some Champagne.
As the sun was setting, exactly where the light was shining across the ocean a Dolphin jumped out of the water! Honestly, it was amazing! We were then joined by the cutest little dog, called Frank!
Back home and a great few games of dice (6 dice and first to 10,000) it’s a really good game, that Rebecca & Chris taught myself, Georgia & Grantley. As usual Chris won!! 😂 Then we watched the totally insanely impressive Sydney Fireworks (although we watched online as we missed them live! 🤦♀️)
2024 had been an interesting year and for me definitely a year of change. Selling the fabulous Coffee on the Corner, selling my home and going off on an adventure has been exciting and also a tad scary!
I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions, I’ll just try to live my best life and not be a dick! 😂
On New Years Day we went on a trip to visit a place called Penguin Island.
There are actual Penguins on the Island, sadly a lot fewer than there used to be. The population is fall is mainly down to the changes in Ocean temperature following an extreme marine heatwave in 2010. This forced the penguins food to migrate further east to cooler waters.
The Island is just off the coast an hour away from Perth in the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park.
When we arrived in Shoalwater we were told that due to the temperature being above 35 degrees the Island was closed to visitors. Apparently the Penguins are shedding their feathers and they need to be undisturbed so they can go in and out of the water to cool down.
We were disappointed until we were told that they had changed our booking to an hour long boat trip around the various islands and a free lunch! 😍👍 Result!
The boat trip was brilliant, we got to see lots of different sea birds, and a particular Tern that migrates from Borneo, it flies non stop! It also has the ability to convert sea water into drinking water! Impressive.
There were also 2 pairs of nesting Ospreys on a couple of the small islands, which was exciting to see.
On one of the larger islands there was a biggish colony of massive Sea Lions and the even bigger Pelicans, in fact the Pelicans were so big they looked prehistoric! 😳
All in all it was a fabulous day, which I really enjoyed.
The whole coastline along the WA coast is stunning and diverse.
This was re enforced when we had another visit down to Busselton and a walk out along the nearly 2k long jetty! We then had a viewing in the underwater aquarium, so stunning! The colourful coral and sea life that grows on the pylons was absolutely gorgeous.
The Busselton foreshore is so well maintained and offers so many family safe areas to swim and play, all free! It really is a beautiful spot.
I’m pleased to say that following on from the disastrous end to our Esperance trip and the vehicle breakdown. The Ute is fixed and up and running! Thankfully the Head Gasket didn’t blow it was just the alternator and fan belt. This is a huge relief for Rebecca & Chris as they don’t have to worry about the cost of replacing the truck. 👍
Anita has her birthday on 3rd of January, which means we get to celebrate and do more nice things!
In this case it was a lovely lunch down by the bay for Anita & I and then a few drinks and a meal out all together in the evening, which were lush.
The. On Saturday 4th we visited the most amazing pizza place, called Ferguson Falls, I’ve been there every time I visit Bunbury and it never fails to deliver! The pizzas are delicious. They make their own pork & fennel sausage and that’s what I have on my pizza, it’s the best! 😋
Anita and I also planned a little trip to Perth, as Anita has never visited the city. We planned it to coincide with Anita’s flight home.
We took the bus from Bunbury on Wednesday morning, arriving in Oerth at midday. Our hotel was a short walk from the bus station, handily through some indoor walkways.
We didn’t have much planned just a mooch about and for Anita to see and experience the city.
As Cities go, Perth CBD is quite small and it’s also beautifully calm. Very little traffic, not many people, nobody rushing around (possibly due to the heat) It is actually a very pleasant place to be.
We spent our time walking around, doing a little bit of shopping, admiring the beautiful views, eating nice things, the nicest of which was a wonderful, comforting Risotto at the hotel.
We visited the Art Gallery of WA and saw some fantastic exhibitions, a ceramics one by an artist called Sandra Black, which I loved.
There were also some very thought provoking indigenous art, which offers a powerful visual representation of their stories, history & subjugation.
It was a great trip and I feel that I get to experience and appreciate Perth more with each visit.
Anita and I went to the airport together, after some convoluted shenanigans trying to download a bloody Uber App! The difficulty was the result of the bloody ridiculous WiFi situation in the hotel (a Hilton, so very bad form) and Australian WiFi in general and us not being teenage technology experts! But, once downloaded (by a 18 year old member of staff! ) we saved ourselves $40 so worth it 😂😂
It has been so lovely spending time with Anita over the last month, we’ve had some laughs and really enjoyed our time together. So it was sad to see her leave. Thank you for your company darling. It was fabulous.😘❤️
I got my bus back to Bunbury to spend my last weekend in Australia and with Rebecca & Chris oh and Curly of course! 😻
My time here in Australia has been fantastic, we have seen and done so many amazing things. It’s also been amazing just spending time with Rebecca & Chris in their home, seeing how their lives are.
They have been wonderful but I’m sure after 3 months they will be pleased to get their home back and have some normality! 😍😘
Thank you my beautiful best big girl for looking after me. ❤️❤️
So my last day in Bunbury on Monday 13th Jan. the plan was to have a love,y chilled day with Rebecca, who,took the day off, get some lunch before driving to Perth.
Unfortunately that’s not the way the day has gone!
I really needed to get my Indian e Visa application in before I left and today was the first chance I’ve had. I have tried numerous times before but it was too early. I assume you can only apply 1 month before arrival.
So, having gathered all the relevant information, including my parents names and dates of birth, Thank you, Kathleen, Ruth & Paul! As well as all the addresses of hotels, all the countries I have visited in the last 10 years!! 😳 I settled down to get it done at 9am.
OMFG!! 🤬 It was an absolute nightmare. I had to upload a picture of myself against a white background, I’d done this a few weeks ago and saved them, but No! They were not the right size, or too big a file!! I tried everything I could think of and eventually Rebecca had to download an app to compress the picture!! So, that was 4 hours in! Then it needed my passport details, but they have to be in a pdf format, I have a pdf of my old passport (thank you Cory!) but unfortunately not my new one. Again Rebecca managed to download an app to convert and compress the picture to the right size and format. Then the session timed out and we had to go back in and try again. My first payment attempt failed! Then we had to wait 15 excruciating minutes to try again!
Finally after 5 horrible hours my application was submitted!! I was so stressed, and very agitated and there is absolutely no way I could have done this on my own!
Now I have to hope and pray that the visa is granted or I’m pretty F..ked! 🤞
I now feel very hot, bothered and anxious so lunch is a no go!
I will now be limiting my travel plans to countries that don’t require a sodding visa!! 🙄🥰
So, that’s it for now.
I will update you when I get to Sri Lanka (fingers crossed that visa is OK! )
Have a great week. Love & Miss you.
💙🩵❤️💚🧡
Books Read.
Twisted. Steve Cavanagh. My brain is fried, but I think it was OK!
From the Ashes. Damien Boyd. Did Nick Dixon series book 14. Good.
Hereandthereclaire.com 