The weekend

A busy weekend but mostly fun. Work as usual on Saturday morning, then home, fortunately I had bullied the kids into packing their bags before work so after a quick rest I dropped them ALL off in Busselton so they could go away, ALL of them, to Bunbury with Scouts.

Bowling followed by Pizza, except the service was so slow they cancelled and went to some disgusting burger place then I will not advertise for them! They slept in the Scout hall at Bunbury Sea Scouts, well some slept, some stayed awake all night talking and then watching a boy sleepwalking around who had to be kept away from the smallest boys as he was in danger of squashing them!

Nope, the poor, sainted Scout Leader didn't get any sleep!

They then spent the day sinking rafts, sailing and messing around on a canoe.

Ian and I spent the evening out to dinner with friends, a novelty for us, and it was lovely, really good fun. After dinner we tried to go out in Busselton but, quite frankly, it was lame, so we went home. The high point of the after dinner evening being our amusement at having to use a fingerprint to get into a rubbish pub where we only stayed for one drink, blech.

By eleven the Vasse was closed and the Ship too noisy outside and empty inside so we went home.

Sunday started out fairly lazy, our friends from last night were in Busselton at 6am to run a stall at the market selling off china and bits and bobs they no longer need, a shame they couldn't set up until after 7 though really :o) we sauntered around the market and drove to Bunbury. We stopped at the Marsdon Waterfront to wander around but the market there was almost empty aswell, a running theme. In to town to do a little shopping and check out a food and wine show that we decided was too expensive to bother with so drove a little further on and looked for somewhere to have lunch. After checking out every menu in the street we decided on chinese and it was the most authentic tasting chinese meal we have had in Australia in nearly 3 years, well done China City in Bunbury.

Being rather full we went back to the car and drove around to the waters edge and did what all elderly types do and nodded off.

We did check the 3 kids were still alive first!

About 45 mins after we hoped to leave we had all our sunburnt (gah) tired but happy children back and drove home. All 3 were asleep almost instantly :o)

Missy went to bed by 6, guess who had stayed awake all night, and the boys who sensibly got enough sleep, went later.

Lovely weekend, but what is this??? no pictures??? this will not do.

Kristian brought the garden buddy home, a little dog who visits your garden, has his picture taken and details of the plants in your garden get noted down. It is very sweet, here is a picture that for some reason didn't make it into the school book!


And the returning energetic scouts/cub

Happy Birthday Kristian

Today Kristian is 10, so yesterday we filled the car with children and went to Bunbury for the day.

First stop was a hill near the ocean with cardboard boxes. For sledging. See, you don't need snow, just a grassy hill and boxes. It was really good fun and Kristians friends hadn't tried it before so we stayed for over an hour.
Just as well there was decent coffee near by.


After disposing of the boxes, to the disgust of Kristian who wanted to take one home, we went to watch the waves which were huge.


We managed to Get Kristian and Dom soaked tee hee, and went to the car to refill on chocolate muffins.


Next was bowling, Kristian and his friends had an alley and the rest of us were on another one, too funny. Just as well the sides were blocked or there would have been tears before bedtime :o) and, no, in case you were wondering, all those games of skittles in the pub made no difference to my game and Ian still beat us all, almost twice over!

Next was the annual trip to Hungry Jacks (Burger King) which was no less dissapointing than usual, dirty tables, dirty floors, dodgy microwaved tasting bread and very small burgers, I don't know how the big chains get away with such small, unappetising meals. The other facilities were dirty too.

Home to play for another hour or two and then feet up in front of a cheap ex-rental copy of the last Indiana Jones film and all is well with the world.

It was a grand day out :o)

and then we.....

Whistlestop tour through our week.......Monday 22nd February to Monday 1st March

Marisa was poorly on Monday as were almost all her friends...hmmm not good, I had to work so fortunately a good friend had her for the day, Tuesday still poorly so at home with Mum and couldn't go to Scouts, Wednesday still ill so another day at home. Enough already and back to school please :o) Well enough to go to the pool Friday night though!

Busy morning on Friday for Carolyn, monthly pilgrimage to see the accountant while the children enjoyed games and crash test dummies and kite flying and cooking etc etc for Jubilee Day at school, K had a friend round after school which was fun, nice chap.

Saturday night was WOMUBU a music festival held on a local estate called Broadwater Farm great music and free tickets for us which was fab. The children climbed the local travelling climbing wall and we listened to music till long after dark. Good times.

Late start on Sunday, I wonder why? trip to Bunbury as nothing better to do looking for odds and ends and stuff for Ian, another pair of sunnies to be replaced for our offspring who seem to lose or break sunnies regularly. Fish and Chips on the Marsden Waterfront which wasn't great, have had much tastier one there before.

Monday was a public holiday so like all sensible people we went to the Beach at Meelup, stopped at a coffee shop based at Ngilgi Cave on the way home to drink coffee and read the paper while various kids, not all ours, roamed around eating ice creams.

At home the children watched a film while we sat out front of the house and enjoyed a light breeze as we read till it was too dark, popped some fish in the oven and chilled out. No cubs this week due to public holiday but back again next week.

Goat Pie

Sunday 1st November 2009
We went to the market down at the foreshore this morning, there were quite a lot of people about but we didn’t find anything of interest so we drove to Bunbury, to have a look round up there.
We drove straight to the waterfront at Bunbury and found a small market that we hadn’t realised existed, again there wasn’t much that interested us, apart from a pie stall, it was manned by a lady of African decent and she offered us a taster of a few pies, they were great especially the Goat pie and if we had got a cool box in the car we would have brought a few home, as it was we weren’t hungry enough to eat one then and we didn’t have a cool box in the car, so we didn’t get any, but we’ll be ready next time.
Whilst in Bunbury we managed to find Marisa some cheap boardies (shorts) that will do her through the summer, for a girl she’s not that bad to buy shorts and trousers for, she is so small and skinny that they last for years, the shorts she was wearing today were for age 7-8 and they were only just starting to get tight.
On the way back we stopped off at the Farmers Market and loaded up with fruit for the week, we were hoping to grab some bunny Veg as well but there must have been someone just in front of us that had emptied all the bins.
When we got home we took the puppies for a walk along the beach, we had intended to go for a coffee at the beach shack, but as the warm weather is here and there are plenty of people wandering around, they have closed it for refurbishing and we haven’t got a clue when or if it will be reopening, so we had a coffee at Broadwater Bar and Grill (stilts).
After coffee we walked home and watched Escape to Witch Mountain with the kids, quite a good film and ideal for the kids.

Reach For The Sky

Sunday 12th July 2009
We didn’t do a great deal today, we had a lie in which was good before going up to Bunbury, just for something to do you understand, it’s good to go there from time to time, just to remind yourself why we didn’t move there.
We had a wander round the shops while we were there, the City has only allowed Sunday opening in the town since the beginning of the year and we had not been there on a Sunday since then, so it was with interest that we went to see how Sunday trading was doing.
The people of the South West of Australia are not going to embrace Sunday trading if they can avoid it, that is the impression we got based on the number of people out and about.
The big national stores where the opening hours are decided by the shareholders were all open, they were all empty but they were all open, the shareholders obviously don’t see the wage bill. We felt sorry for the stores so we bought the kids a Wii game out of solidarity.
Virtually all the small shops were closed, even most of the eating establishments were closed, our conclusion was that it’s going to take a few more years and maybe an influx of expats who are used to Sunday shopping before it takes off in this neck of the woods.

In the evening we all sat down together and watched Reach for the Sky, the story of Douglas Bader, the kids thought it was a great film, they seem to love these old war films.

Check out the flies in Bunbury coz everything else is closed

Monday 24th March 2008
We went out early’ish today and on the way to the petrol station noticed that despite it being a Bank Holiday most of the small independent shops were open which seems a bit strange bearing in mind all the tourists are going home today and on Friday when there was an abundance of tourists with money to spend and no shops open to take their money, it’s going to be a long time before this place turns into the Aussie equivalent of Southend on Sea.
Because the shops are open today we decided to go to Bunbury because there is a wider selection of furniture type stores within a fairly small designated commercial area. Unfortunately either Bunbury knew that we were coming or they think that we have enough time to shop throughout the rest of the year and see no reason to open on public holidays, because everywhere is closed, the place was dead and this is a big town that we are talking about. The only shop open was Australia’s answer to B&Q, you guessed it Bunnings and it was heaving, there were so many people there that they were using the surrounding shops car parks.
Having not done the tourist bit to Bunbury we decided to go to the waterfront to have a look at some of the places that have been rammed down our throats in the form of TV adverts since we have been down here and we weren’t disappointed the places concerned looked almost as uninteresting as the adverts and having to fight off flies for an hour or so while we were looking around didn’t improve the ambience at all, although if you are into fly fishing this is the place to come because there are millions of them and you would be sure to catch something, you just have to hope it isn’t contagious.
After that we took the scenic route back towards Busselton, visiting all the beaches on the way back but not getting out of the car to have a close look at them because every pathway down to a beach has a sign at the entrance warning of the danger of snakes apart from other things and we don’t do snakes.
We got home and had lunch before and had a lazy afternoon giving the kids a chance to catch up on their reading and giving us the chance of an afternoon nap.
We remembered to put the bins out tonight, it is recycling and ordinary bins this week and we had to make sure that they are the right distance from the road and facing the right direction because the rubbish truck is fitted with arms that pick your bin up and turn it upside down, hopefully in the truck, but will not touch it if it is facing the wrong direction and the driver does not get out of his cab to move it if you have got it wrong.

The importance of remaining a Bunbury

Monday 18th February 2008
Had to get up very early today because we went to Bunbury to have a look at a couple of businesses and meet a Business agent that had apparently got a couple of businesses for us to view but couldn’t give us the paperwork or tell us where they are because we need to sign a Confidential Disclosure Document.
It was a long drive to Bunbury, it took nearly 3 hours to get down there and it’s only Freeway (motorway) for about half the journey but the funny thing is when you get off the Freeway and get onto the main road south, a lot of which is single lane, the speed limit jumps up by 10 Km per hour to 110 kmph.
We arrived in Bunbury and met the Agent who got us to sign the all important Confidentiality Disclosure Document before giving us details of a Business in Busselton, the next large Town down the coast and then going into great detail about how he expects to sign up this other business which he couldn’t tell us where what it was, where it was, how much it was taking, nothing, he could tell us absolutely nothing about this business but it took him about ½ hour to do it. We left him, promising to return the details of the business in Busselton within 21 days as per the Confidentiality and Disclosure Document, unless of course we were buying the business in which case we could keep it.
It was lunchtime so we had a quick walk by of the couple of businesses that we had details for in Bunbury, decided that they were not for us and went for lunch.
After lunch we headed for Busselton which is about 40 minutes past Bunbury and as soon as we drove into the Town we were thinking ‘what a lovely little town this is’ and it was, very old fashioned and quaint. We parked up and walked to the first Café that we had details for, had a cup of Coffee and while we were in there reading the local paper we came across a ½ page write up on the business by the agent that was selling it, so realising that everybody in town already new that it was for sale we decided to approach the owner to see if we could get a viewing straight away and he duly obliged. The Café was quite busy although in his best salesman’s pitch he did point out that it wouldn’t normally be this busy on a Monday and he couldn’t work out why it had been today. The Café was presentable but we had noticed that there used to be a Coles Supermarket virtually opposite and it had relocated to somewhere else in the town so presumably a fair amount of passing trade was now passing somebody else’s Café. The figures were good but we don’t feel that it is quite right and there are no toilet facilities for customers nearby which would be one of the criteria in our ideal business.
When we were still in England Ian had picked up on a Café in Busselton, The Olde Chapel Café, that he liked the look of and had contacted the Agent about it, monitoring it from afar, finding out as much as he could about it, even to the point of signing a Confidentiality Disclosure Document and faxing it back so that he could see the figures and see how it was trading. Ian was convinced that it would make a good business but about 2 weeks before we left the UK the agent said if we are interested we need to say so now because somebody had put in an offer, obviously we had to let it go because we wouldn’t be able to view it for at least 2 weeks and even then we would have to view other ones to know what we were comparing it to, but we told the agent that if it fell through he should let us know.
Well the agent has not been in touch but Ian wanted to find it anyway, Ian had seen it on the map before so it didn’t take long before we found it and it still looked as unloved as it did on the internet, it was closed so we had a look through the window and then walked into the Shopping Centre to look at it through the main door and both thought that it needed a bit of work but the fact that it was closed while every other shop in the Centre was open meant that there was obviously room for growth. By the door there were stickers on the wall saying Café for sale with a couple of phone numbers, we couldn’t understand this because the agent new that we were now in Australia and hadn’t contacted us to say it was back on the market so we decided to ring and find out. We rang the first number and got through to a firm of Solicitors who knew nothing about it so we rang the second number which was on ansaphone, the third number was answered by the Owner of the Café who said that although technically the business was still under offer she had doubts as to whether it was going to go through. We explained to her that we were only in town for the day and asked if we could have a viewing and 10 minutes later she was showing us around, we think the agent must have mentioned us in the past because she seemed to have some idea as to who we were.
The place was a bit untidy, in need of a good clean and generally in need of some TLC but there was obvious potential there and it is right opposite Coles the Supermarket. She made it perfectly clear that she did not want to be there and also that she did not particularly like the potential buyer that she was selling to at the moment, we made it clear that we may be interested in taking it further if the sale fell through so she gave us as much financial details as she had on her and also the agents number and said that she would contact the agent herself. This Café looks like it could be promising. We rang the agent who said that it was still under a period of Due Diligence at the moment and that it might fall through but that there was also a local family that were also interested so he would keep us informed.
We then went for a walk around the town and had a look at a couple of other sites but neither of them tick all the boxes although one of them, which we got from the agent in Bunbury is in a great position but it is a Franchise and we haven’t read through the Terms and Conditions yet.
From there it was time to take a look at the seafront, we parked up in this immaculate tree-lined car park right by the waters edge and took a stroll to the beach we are right by the Jetty (probably the most famous part of Busselton) and we have fallen in love with this town, everything this afternoon that we have seen with regard to the layout of the town, the ambience, the Jetty and parkland close to the beach, the free parking, the cleanliness it has all gone towards convincing us that this is where we should be. Obviously there is a lot more to a town than this so before we came home we drove down as many residential streets as we could find looking at the quality of the housing in the area and we looked in quite a few Realty Agents windows and could see that we could afford property down there although by this time the agents were all closed so we couldn’t pick up any details. Carolyn will go on line and check out Schools tomorrow because we know that there are at least a couple of businesses out there that might fit the bill.
With that it was time to drive home, we drove to Bunbury and it was getting close to 9pm, now bearing in mind that it is virtually impossible to get any food over here after 9pm we thought it might be prudent to grab a take-away and also it might shut the kids up. We stopped at a Chicken Treat (a bit like KFC) and we were the third from last people to get served, talk about cutting it fine.
We unwrap all the food so that the kids can see what they are doing and then set off; the kids soon finish eating and nod off and we were just driving along pitch black country roads, relatively straight but without catching up with or being over taken by a single vehicle we supposed that everybody else must have been keeping to the same speed limits as Ian. We got home close to midnight absolutely shattered but glad that we have still got the courtesy car because we are certainly clocking up some mileage, sorry kilometerage in it and at this rate if we were using our own car we would be needing to service it every month, it might drive like a dog but it is doing us a favour at the moment.