Showing posts with label Busselton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Busselton. Show all posts
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Uproar in the House
As we very kindly paid for an advert in the programme, we got 2 free tickets to the show. Unfortunately we had already paid for tickets so we happily gave two to a couple of friends of ours who were celebrating their 50th wedding aniversary, their tickets are for the last night on April 1st!
We went to the preview night which was fab, funny and started before kick off with free pink champagne and a rather bizarre auction in which I am fairly sure they sold off the jetty for a handfull of 20 cent coins.
It was a very funny evening, our picture was taken a few times for the local paper, not sure if we will make it in, we will have to wait until the paper comes out.
Thoroughly recommend going to see the show!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Busso sunset
This was supposed to show a lovely sunset, but the pictures are backwards. So scroll up for the full effect :o)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Fishing Trip with Scouts
Tuesday night is Scout night and off went the intrepid 3 to the Jetty.
Armed with absolute inexperience, Marisa caught one fish. I think only 3 were caught between around 15 scouts. It was a beautiful night and Ian and I enjoyed a coffee under the stars before he cycled home and I collected smelly offspring. We left the dead fish for someone else to take home!
Armed with absolute inexperience, Marisa caught one fish. I think only 3 were caught between around 15 scouts. It was a beautiful night and Ian and I enjoyed a coffee under the stars before he cycled home and I collected smelly offspring. We left the dead fish for someone else to take home!
Monday, February 14, 2011
More picture, still not much typing
Fairly bored looking Scouts at a recent Scout Medallion Presentation.
Yeah, we go to Breweries to drink soft drinks.
Yeah, we go to Breweries to drink soft drinks.
Busselton Jetty Re-opens
Kristian finishes the Jetty swim!
A beautiful big bow for the Jetty.
More people than Busselton sees most days.
A beautiful big bow for the Jetty.
More people than Busselton sees most days.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
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
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
Friday, October 15, 2010
Panto Season
It's all about Missy at the moment!
With the run of one act plays not over yet, performances this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, Missy has auditioned with the adults for a part in Snow White and has earned a speaking part. She is very happy :o)
We find out tonight which part it is and how much of our lives will be taken up with rehursals, she has some lovely friends through drama and we are glad she will get to spend more time with them.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Never judge a book by its cover
unless it looks like this!
Ian found this gem in the second hand book shop in Busselton while we were searching for something in particular and I couldn't resist. It is also an interesting read in case you were wondering.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Merry Christmas and Apologies
Early November to 24th December 2009
Firstly, to anyone out there who is still remotely interested in what we are getting up to, or whether we are still alive and kicking, we apologise for the lack of regular blog over the last six or seven weeks.
The last few weeks have been manic for us with regard to work and play and we just haven’t had the time to sit down and blog on a regular basis, and you know what it’s like, get a few days behind and you’re looking for a gap in your life when you have enough time to blog about those few days in one hit.
Don’t find enough time to blog about a few days for a few days and you are looking for a gap in your life when you can blog a week etc, next thing you know 7 weeks have gone by and it’s time to hold your hands up, apologise, say Merry Christmas, and promise that it won’t happen again.
That is to say, the lapse in blog won’t happen again, not the say Merry Christmas won’t happen again, after all we would hope that we would still be around next year to say it again, the merry xmas bit that is.
We will from now on be eating allbran for breakfast in an effort to get a bit more regular, and if we don’t manage it every day we’ll try to make sure we keep you in touch with our movements at least every couple of days.
The Café has been very busy over the last 7 weeks, this has also coincided with us staying open until about 5’ish Monday to Friday, which invariably means that Ian isn’t home before 6pm and as he starts at about 7am most days and is trying to get fit enough for this bike ride that he wants to do from Busselton to Augusta at the end of the summer, we are not normally in the mood to do anything other than relax after dinner.
The bike ride is the one that he had planned to do at the end of November, but because of the longer hours in the Café and the fact that we are not going to have daylight saving this year, Ian wasn’t getting a chance to practice and he felt that although he was pretty sure that brute force and ignorance would get him through it if required, he wouldn’t enjoy it and he wants to be able to enjoy it, so it has now been put back to the end of the summer.
Over the last few weeks the kids have had loads happening as well, there seemed to be something extra to do with Scouts every week, Bowling, Billy Cart Racing, Garage Sale, Meetings, Camps, Fundraising, getting ready for the Scout Jamboree in January, and all this on top of their usual meetings.
The kids have all done well at school, with Marisa being one of a select few to be in the “One Club”, you only get in it if your results are predominately “1” and definitely have none below a “2” for effort, but then she would wouldn’t she.
Kristian has been taking it easy at school and doing just well enough to keep everybody happy, but he didn’t break into a sweat all year over his class work so we will be pushing him a bit next year to try and get a competitive edge to is work and get him into the “One Club”. He knows he can do it, it’s just that nobody told him that’s what they wanted him to do, so he kept his head below the parapet and had a nice life, in which all his teachers think he is so wonderful.
Fraser has really come along great guns in the second half of the year, after a few misunderstandings between Fraser and his Teachers in the early part of the year, they have worked out how to keep him interested and motivated and he has really come on well, finishing the year top of his class in Science and well graded in Maths, while also working extremely hard to get good results in most of his other subjects.
We are very proud of all three of them.
The school packed up a week before Christmas and we have tried to work it again this year that Carolyn is able to stay at home with the kids, looks after the house, reads the instruction on how the Hoover (Vacuum to you non-English types) works, that sort of thing, while Ian slaves away in the Café, and so far it has worked quite well, the Hoover got switched on on Christmas eve.
The Saturday before Christmas we went round to some friends house for a few drinks in the evening, that is to say Ian went round at 6pm as he didn’t want to go to the Carols by Candlelight service in Busselton, he might have gone if it was going to dark but the thought of Candles in daylight didn’t really do it for him, Carolyn and the kids turned up after the show and the kids played computer games with our friends kids while we had a beer and put the world to rights until about 1am when we caught a taxi home.
On Christmas Eve we invited a few friends and neighbours round for drinky-poos and nibbles, including the kids there were 19 of us and it turned out to be a very relaxed, pleasant evening.
It was the first time that we have had people round for drinks since we have been here, quite sad really, but it is something that goes back to our days in the pubs back in England.
As a landlord of a pub, everybody wants to know everything about you, you don’t know everybody in the town, but everybody in the town knows you and it is quite unnerving at times, you just don’t have a private life except when you are locked away in your own little flat with the curtains drawn, so we have always tried to keep ourselves to ourselves and it has been hard to get out of the habit.
We are only a couple of months short of being in Busselton for 2 years now and up until these last couple of weeks we have still been using the pub as our place to unwind at the end of the week, as we would have done in England.
As in England, a night in the pub over here can be expensive, whereas a few drinks with a few friends sitting under the patio over here can be just as much fun at a fraction of the cost, you just have to drop your guard a little bit and let people get to know you, it’s taken us nearly 2 years to work that out, positively frightening really, but we’re confident we’ll get better at it from now on.
We hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy and Prosperous New Year
Firstly, to anyone out there who is still remotely interested in what we are getting up to, or whether we are still alive and kicking, we apologise for the lack of regular blog over the last six or seven weeks.
The last few weeks have been manic for us with regard to work and play and we just haven’t had the time to sit down and blog on a regular basis, and you know what it’s like, get a few days behind and you’re looking for a gap in your life when you have enough time to blog about those few days in one hit.
Don’t find enough time to blog about a few days for a few days and you are looking for a gap in your life when you can blog a week etc, next thing you know 7 weeks have gone by and it’s time to hold your hands up, apologise, say Merry Christmas, and promise that it won’t happen again.
That is to say, the lapse in blog won’t happen again, not the say Merry Christmas won’t happen again, after all we would hope that we would still be around next year to say it again, the merry xmas bit that is.
We will from now on be eating allbran for breakfast in an effort to get a bit more regular, and if we don’t manage it every day we’ll try to make sure we keep you in touch with our movements at least every couple of days.
The Café has been very busy over the last 7 weeks, this has also coincided with us staying open until about 5’ish Monday to Friday, which invariably means that Ian isn’t home before 6pm and as he starts at about 7am most days and is trying to get fit enough for this bike ride that he wants to do from Busselton to Augusta at the end of the summer, we are not normally in the mood to do anything other than relax after dinner.
The bike ride is the one that he had planned to do at the end of November, but because of the longer hours in the Café and the fact that we are not going to have daylight saving this year, Ian wasn’t getting a chance to practice and he felt that although he was pretty sure that brute force and ignorance would get him through it if required, he wouldn’t enjoy it and he wants to be able to enjoy it, so it has now been put back to the end of the summer.
Over the last few weeks the kids have had loads happening as well, there seemed to be something extra to do with Scouts every week, Bowling, Billy Cart Racing, Garage Sale, Meetings, Camps, Fundraising, getting ready for the Scout Jamboree in January, and all this on top of their usual meetings.
The kids have all done well at school, with Marisa being one of a select few to be in the “One Club”, you only get in it if your results are predominately “1” and definitely have none below a “2” for effort, but then she would wouldn’t she.
Kristian has been taking it easy at school and doing just well enough to keep everybody happy, but he didn’t break into a sweat all year over his class work so we will be pushing him a bit next year to try and get a competitive edge to is work and get him into the “One Club”. He knows he can do it, it’s just that nobody told him that’s what they wanted him to do, so he kept his head below the parapet and had a nice life, in which all his teachers think he is so wonderful.
Fraser has really come along great guns in the second half of the year, after a few misunderstandings between Fraser and his Teachers in the early part of the year, they have worked out how to keep him interested and motivated and he has really come on well, finishing the year top of his class in Science and well graded in Maths, while also working extremely hard to get good results in most of his other subjects.
We are very proud of all three of them.
The school packed up a week before Christmas and we have tried to work it again this year that Carolyn is able to stay at home with the kids, looks after the house, reads the instruction on how the Hoover (Vacuum to you non-English types) works, that sort of thing, while Ian slaves away in the Café, and so far it has worked quite well, the Hoover got switched on on Christmas eve.
The Saturday before Christmas we went round to some friends house for a few drinks in the evening, that is to say Ian went round at 6pm as he didn’t want to go to the Carols by Candlelight service in Busselton, he might have gone if it was going to dark but the thought of Candles in daylight didn’t really do it for him, Carolyn and the kids turned up after the show and the kids played computer games with our friends kids while we had a beer and put the world to rights until about 1am when we caught a taxi home.
On Christmas Eve we invited a few friends and neighbours round for drinky-poos and nibbles, including the kids there were 19 of us and it turned out to be a very relaxed, pleasant evening.
It was the first time that we have had people round for drinks since we have been here, quite sad really, but it is something that goes back to our days in the pubs back in England.
As a landlord of a pub, everybody wants to know everything about you, you don’t know everybody in the town, but everybody in the town knows you and it is quite unnerving at times, you just don’t have a private life except when you are locked away in your own little flat with the curtains drawn, so we have always tried to keep ourselves to ourselves and it has been hard to get out of the habit.
We are only a couple of months short of being in Busselton for 2 years now and up until these last couple of weeks we have still been using the pub as our place to unwind at the end of the week, as we would have done in England.
As in England, a night in the pub over here can be expensive, whereas a few drinks with a few friends sitting under the patio over here can be just as much fun at a fraction of the cost, you just have to drop your guard a little bit and let people get to know you, it’s taken us nearly 2 years to work that out, positively frightening really, but we’re confident we’ll get better at it from now on.
We hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy and Prosperous New Year
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Petra Olive Oil Estate
Sunday 25th October 2009
Having had an early night we were able to wake up early and go out for breakfast, the weather was absolutely gorgeous and at about 28c, the perfect temperature for not doing a lot.
We went for breakfast at Petra Olive Oil Estate in Yallingup, or at least somewhere near Yallingup, it was recommended to Ian by one of our suppliers, so with only one child in tow we thought we would give it a go.
It is a bit out of the way, but we found it in the end and after tasting a few dips and oils we ordered our breakfasts.
Ian had had the Olive Pickers Breakfast which was basically a big breakfast with a twist, the scrambled eggs were mixed with an Indian style chutney to give a very tasty and interesting flavour, the only downside was the Yallingup Wood Fired Sourdough Toast, which didn’t seem to be as fresh as some that we have tried.
Carolyn had the Poached Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon and enjoyed it apart from the eggs being a bit under cooked, she doesn’t really do runny poached eggs.
Kristian had Toast and Jam, except he didn’t want it toasted and that was fine, it was the same Sourdough and he did struggle to get through it a bit, but he did enjoy the jam, although his favourite part was probably making friends with the house dog “Gemma”, but then he is young and has never been hungry enough to really appreciate food.
It was a very nice setting with a good ambience and a nice dog; we will try it again sometime. They also have dog friendly accommodation, just in case you are interested.
After breakfast we drove to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse so that we could go for a walk down to the Whale Watching area, it is Whale Watching season, we haven’t seen any in the wild and we wanted some of it.
As we walked round the headland we saw a couple of spurts of water going into the air as whales surfaced or submerged or whatever they were doing, when we got to the Whale Watching platform we saw a few more.
Unfortunately they were quite a way out and there weren’t any Liverpool fans around, so no beach balls to play with, they were barely breaking the surface and even with binoculars we could only see the water breaking as they came up for air or went under, but based on the position of them we reckon that they were Humpback Whales as they don’t come too close into shore.
After that we went to a school fete in Dunsborough, talk about a professional job with plenty of local business backers, this was an event that was going to raise a fortune, just not out of us, we wasted a couple of dollars on a wine raffle then headed for home.
We got home to find two manic puppies, starved of attention for more than ten minutes and desperate to get outside to relieve themselves, so we let them do that, put out some washing to dry and went down to the jetty for a coffee in the sun.
After coffee we went for a walk round Busseltons two art galleries, before stopping at Gelato for the obligatory hot weather indulgence, ice cream.
From there we went home to wait for Fraser and Marisa to come back from camp, when they arrived we were informed that Marisa was grumpy because she didn’t get much sleep, no surprise there then, she never does on theses things then wonders why she is tired.
It’s been a very enjoyable day for us and we weren’t going to have it upset by grumpy kids, so we stuck them in the shower, fed them and sent them to bed, peace by 7.15pm, not bad.
We watched a couple of episodes of guff that we had recorded and had an early night ourselves.
Having had an early night we were able to wake up early and go out for breakfast, the weather was absolutely gorgeous and at about 28c, the perfect temperature for not doing a lot.
We went for breakfast at Petra Olive Oil Estate in Yallingup, or at least somewhere near Yallingup, it was recommended to Ian by one of our suppliers, so with only one child in tow we thought we would give it a go.
It is a bit out of the way, but we found it in the end and after tasting a few dips and oils we ordered our breakfasts.
Ian had had the Olive Pickers Breakfast which was basically a big breakfast with a twist, the scrambled eggs were mixed with an Indian style chutney to give a very tasty and interesting flavour, the only downside was the Yallingup Wood Fired Sourdough Toast, which didn’t seem to be as fresh as some that we have tried.
Carolyn had the Poached Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon and enjoyed it apart from the eggs being a bit under cooked, she doesn’t really do runny poached eggs.
Kristian had Toast and Jam, except he didn’t want it toasted and that was fine, it was the same Sourdough and he did struggle to get through it a bit, but he did enjoy the jam, although his favourite part was probably making friends with the house dog “Gemma”, but then he is young and has never been hungry enough to really appreciate food.
It was a very nice setting with a good ambience and a nice dog; we will try it again sometime. They also have dog friendly accommodation, just in case you are interested.
After breakfast we drove to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse so that we could go for a walk down to the Whale Watching area, it is Whale Watching season, we haven’t seen any in the wild and we wanted some of it.
As we walked round the headland we saw a couple of spurts of water going into the air as whales surfaced or submerged or whatever they were doing, when we got to the Whale Watching platform we saw a few more.
Unfortunately they were quite a way out and there weren’t any Liverpool fans around, so no beach balls to play with, they were barely breaking the surface and even with binoculars we could only see the water breaking as they came up for air or went under, but based on the position of them we reckon that they were Humpback Whales as they don’t come too close into shore.
After that we went to a school fete in Dunsborough, talk about a professional job with plenty of local business backers, this was an event that was going to raise a fortune, just not out of us, we wasted a couple of dollars on a wine raffle then headed for home.
We got home to find two manic puppies, starved of attention for more than ten minutes and desperate to get outside to relieve themselves, so we let them do that, put out some washing to dry and went down to the jetty for a coffee in the sun.
After coffee we went for a walk round Busseltons two art galleries, before stopping at Gelato for the obligatory hot weather indulgence, ice cream.
From there we went home to wait for Fraser and Marisa to come back from camp, when they arrived we were informed that Marisa was grumpy because she didn’t get much sleep, no surprise there then, she never does on theses things then wonders why she is tired.
It’s been a very enjoyable day for us and we weren’t going to have it upset by grumpy kids, so we stuck them in the shower, fed them and sent them to bed, peace by 7.15pm, not bad.
We watched a couple of episodes of guff that we had recorded and had an early night ourselves.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wyndham Resort
Sunday 14th June 2009
We got up earlyish this morning, it’s Ians birthday tomorrow and Carolyn had booked a table for the five of us at Toby’s Restaurant in the Wyndham Resort on the way to Dunsborough, for breakfast.
We arrived there at exactly 9.30am which was the time Carolyn had booked the table for, we walked through to the restaurant and were met by a waitress who showed us out to a table on the patio.
Admittedly the sun was shining, but the wind was cold and those people who were out there were wearing their winter coats.
Carolyn pointed out to the waitress that she had booked a table for five in the restaurant and we were not going to sit outside in the cold.
The waitress apologised for the mishap saying “but we had a big group come in unexpected so we gave your table away” needless to say we weren’t impressed, why bother taking bookings if they aren’t going to honour them.
The waitress said that she would try and organise something for us and asked us to wait in the lounge, but the place was packed, they were running out of things and after about ten minutes Carolyn let them know we weren’t happy and that we were leaving.
We then drove to Dunsborough where we had a good breakfast at ArtiZEN Café, it was almost like they were waiting for us, the only table available when we got there was a table for five.
After breakfast we went for a drive back towards Busselton but via a Nursery, they had some quite interesting, reasonably priced as well as massively over priced bits and pieces there and if we ever get the time to do up the garden we’ll go back there for some ideas.
We decided to take the long road from the Nursery back to home, down the country lanes, as we drove along we came across a field with a herd of Kangaroos in it, there were hundreds of them and we didn’t have a camera with us.
When we got home we picked up the new Microwave that we bought on Thursday and took it into work, it was a bit of a tight fit getting it on the shelf but it got there in the end.
From the Café we went to the foreshore fore a coffee and read of the papers, we had just sat down when the heavens opened so we drank up and went home again.
This afternoon we decided to have the ultimate family, dossy afternoon and sat in front of the telly watching films all afternoon.
We watched Jurassic Park III and Godzilla, the kids had total leisure time with us while watching films of their choice and loved every minute of it.
This evening after the kids had gone to bed we watched a couple of episodes of Shameless, not a show for the easily offended it has to be said but in some of the less salubrious parts of Manchester it is probably fairly close to home.
We got up earlyish this morning, it’s Ians birthday tomorrow and Carolyn had booked a table for the five of us at Toby’s Restaurant in the Wyndham Resort on the way to Dunsborough, for breakfast.
We arrived there at exactly 9.30am which was the time Carolyn had booked the table for, we walked through to the restaurant and were met by a waitress who showed us out to a table on the patio.
Admittedly the sun was shining, but the wind was cold and those people who were out there were wearing their winter coats.
Carolyn pointed out to the waitress that she had booked a table for five in the restaurant and we were not going to sit outside in the cold.
The waitress apologised for the mishap saying “but we had a big group come in unexpected so we gave your table away” needless to say we weren’t impressed, why bother taking bookings if they aren’t going to honour them.
The waitress said that she would try and organise something for us and asked us to wait in the lounge, but the place was packed, they were running out of things and after about ten minutes Carolyn let them know we weren’t happy and that we were leaving.
We then drove to Dunsborough where we had a good breakfast at ArtiZEN Café, it was almost like they were waiting for us, the only table available when we got there was a table for five.
After breakfast we went for a drive back towards Busselton but via a Nursery, they had some quite interesting, reasonably priced as well as massively over priced bits and pieces there and if we ever get the time to do up the garden we’ll go back there for some ideas.
We decided to take the long road from the Nursery back to home, down the country lanes, as we drove along we came across a field with a herd of Kangaroos in it, there were hundreds of them and we didn’t have a camera with us.
When we got home we picked up the new Microwave that we bought on Thursday and took it into work, it was a bit of a tight fit getting it on the shelf but it got there in the end.
From the Café we went to the foreshore fore a coffee and read of the papers, we had just sat down when the heavens opened so we drank up and went home again.
This afternoon we decided to have the ultimate family, dossy afternoon and sat in front of the telly watching films all afternoon.
We watched Jurassic Park III and Godzilla, the kids had total leisure time with us while watching films of their choice and loved every minute of it.
This evening after the kids had gone to bed we watched a couple of episodes of Shameless, not a show for the easily offended it has to be said but in some of the less salubrious parts of Manchester it is probably fairly close to home.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
275kms closer to the South Pole
Saturday 15th March 2008
We were all up early today in anticipation of shoehorning all our worldly possessions into the car and to make sure that we say goodbye to Sharon and Malcolm before they went to work.
We managed to leave at 10.00am which was the time we had planned and set off towards the Freeway and beyond. We had been driving for about 10 minutes when Carolyn announces that she couldn’t remember bringing in the washing off the line, so after doing a U-turn and heading back we found ourselves locked out of the house because we had to leave the keys behind and too short to be able to see over the fence, Marisa to the rescue, and delighted to help as usual if only to make sure she is not left out of the loop, Ian picked her up, she looked over the fence and confirmed that the washing line was empty and we were able to start our journey all over again, if only life was always this easy!
So on our way again and looking forward to the 3½ hour drive ahead the kids decide it is time to let us know how much they enjoyed their Indian meal last night, the smell is horrendous but the kids think that the sight of their parents retching in the front of the car is great fun. After the fist ½ hour the mist started to abate (I hate to think what their Easter eggs are going to taste like) and the rest of the journey went by quite peacefully and 275 kms and 3 hours closer to the South Pole we were driving into Busselton, the sun was shining, the air was clean and we felt good to be there and starting the next chapter of our adventure in Australia.
We headed straight for the letting agents to pick up the keys for the house that we are going to be stopping in until our house purchase goes through. The agent Kay was very helpful and 20 minutes later we were outside the house, keys in hand. Unfortunately the keys in hand are not the ones that fit in door, so off to see Kay again, she explained in detail how the owners of the property had mixed the keys up when they stayed last and promptly gave us all the keys associated with the property and asked us to bring back the ones we don’t need. This time we’re in and a nice little house it is, a small 3 bed house on the edge of town but tidy and comfortable, we would need a bit more room to be able to live hear permanently but this is just what the doctor ordered until we move into our own place.
We unloaded the car and while Carolyn, Marisa and Kristian were unpacking Ian and Fraser went shopping to get the essential supplies, remember we are getting rural now and if you don’t get your shopping by 4pm on a Saturday afternoon you are in danger of starving by Monday. It’s not that bad really it just feels like it has got its priorities right, and on a Saturday afternoon everything starts closing up early because the people working in these places have got a life and intend to make the most of it. In truth you can go shopping on a Sunday in Busselton but it doesn’t feel like the sort of place where you should.
After Ian and Fraser had dropped off the spare keys with the agent and had returned with the shopping we went for a walk down to the seafront to stretch our legs, on the way we stopped at a park and let the kids run wild for ½ hour or so before continuing to the front and a route march along the Jetty to build up an appetite. Busselton is famous for its Jetty, at 2000 ish metres long and with an underwater observatory at the end is the longest Jetty in the southern hemisphere and by our reckoning which may or may not be that accurate, must be about as long as Southend Pier.
There are however some major differences, this one doesn’t appear to burn down as often although it does look like it has had a few lumps taken out of it over the years, this one only has railings on one side (and it was probably the Health and Safety Executive that made them put those up), this one wobbles a lot more than the one at Southend but only when people are walking on it or the water underneath is washing against it. And alas some similarities, despite this Jetty being a major part of the tourist attraction to the area it does need
$25 million spent on it to restore it to its former glory and the government appears to be doing everything it can to ensure that it isn’t the one that pays. Perhaps politicians don’t like these things to be too long just in case they are ever made to walk the plank for their sometimes misguided attempts at ruling us poor minions and don’t want to have to swim too far to get back on dry land.
After our stroll we went out for dinner, it had been a long day and we couldn’t be bothered too cook, we went to the only Pub/Restaurant in town and had a lovely meal. Fraser finished his meal first and on the table next to him were a couple out for a meal but with a baby that didn’t want to sleep, so Fraser stood there and pushed the baby back and forth whilst singing to it while the couple enjoyed their meal in peace. When we left to go home they gave him $5 so he was quite chuffed as he hadn’t expected anything.
The walk home was a bit slow because by this time the kids were a bit tired but we got there in the end and they all flaked out very quickly.
We were all up early today in anticipation of shoehorning all our worldly possessions into the car and to make sure that we say goodbye to Sharon and Malcolm before they went to work.
We managed to leave at 10.00am which was the time we had planned and set off towards the Freeway and beyond. We had been driving for about 10 minutes when Carolyn announces that she couldn’t remember bringing in the washing off the line, so after doing a U-turn and heading back we found ourselves locked out of the house because we had to leave the keys behind and too short to be able to see over the fence, Marisa to the rescue, and delighted to help as usual if only to make sure she is not left out of the loop, Ian picked her up, she looked over the fence and confirmed that the washing line was empty and we were able to start our journey all over again, if only life was always this easy!
So on our way again and looking forward to the 3½ hour drive ahead the kids decide it is time to let us know how much they enjoyed their Indian meal last night, the smell is horrendous but the kids think that the sight of their parents retching in the front of the car is great fun. After the fist ½ hour the mist started to abate (I hate to think what their Easter eggs are going to taste like) and the rest of the journey went by quite peacefully and 275 kms and 3 hours closer to the South Pole we were driving into Busselton, the sun was shining, the air was clean and we felt good to be there and starting the next chapter of our adventure in Australia.
We headed straight for the letting agents to pick up the keys for the house that we are going to be stopping in until our house purchase goes through. The agent Kay was very helpful and 20 minutes later we were outside the house, keys in hand. Unfortunately the keys in hand are not the ones that fit in door, so off to see Kay again, she explained in detail how the owners of the property had mixed the keys up when they stayed last and promptly gave us all the keys associated with the property and asked us to bring back the ones we don’t need. This time we’re in and a nice little house it is, a small 3 bed house on the edge of town but tidy and comfortable, we would need a bit more room to be able to live hear permanently but this is just what the doctor ordered until we move into our own place.
We unloaded the car and while Carolyn, Marisa and Kristian were unpacking Ian and Fraser went shopping to get the essential supplies, remember we are getting rural now and if you don’t get your shopping by 4pm on a Saturday afternoon you are in danger of starving by Monday. It’s not that bad really it just feels like it has got its priorities right, and on a Saturday afternoon everything starts closing up early because the people working in these places have got a life and intend to make the most of it. In truth you can go shopping on a Sunday in Busselton but it doesn’t feel like the sort of place where you should.
After Ian and Fraser had dropped off the spare keys with the agent and had returned with the shopping we went for a walk down to the seafront to stretch our legs, on the way we stopped at a park and let the kids run wild for ½ hour or so before continuing to the front and a route march along the Jetty to build up an appetite. Busselton is famous for its Jetty, at 2000 ish metres long and with an underwater observatory at the end is the longest Jetty in the southern hemisphere and by our reckoning which may or may not be that accurate, must be about as long as Southend Pier.
There are however some major differences, this one doesn’t appear to burn down as often although it does look like it has had a few lumps taken out of it over the years, this one only has railings on one side (and it was probably the Health and Safety Executive that made them put those up), this one wobbles a lot more than the one at Southend but only when people are walking on it or the water underneath is washing against it. And alas some similarities, despite this Jetty being a major part of the tourist attraction to the area it does need
$25 million spent on it to restore it to its former glory and the government appears to be doing everything it can to ensure that it isn’t the one that pays. Perhaps politicians don’t like these things to be too long just in case they are ever made to walk the plank for their sometimes misguided attempts at ruling us poor minions and don’t want to have to swim too far to get back on dry land.
After our stroll we went out for dinner, it had been a long day and we couldn’t be bothered too cook, we went to the only Pub/Restaurant in town and had a lovely meal. Fraser finished his meal first and on the table next to him were a couple out for a meal but with a baby that didn’t want to sleep, so Fraser stood there and pushed the baby back and forth whilst singing to it while the couple enjoyed their meal in peace. When we left to go home they gave him $5 so he was quite chuffed as he hadn’t expected anything.
The walk home was a bit slow because by this time the kids were a bit tired but we got there in the end and they all flaked out very quickly.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Amazing Avocados
Wednesday 12th March 2008
Had a call this morning, the bit of paper that has been flying back and forth with the offer details for the house is now unreadable so the agent has got to send a clean copy, express post, to the Trustee who will return it, express post on the same day which means that in theory we will receive a scanned copy on Friday which we will then have to print and take over to the Mortgage advisors office so that we can fax it through to FIRB and hopefully save ourselves a couple of days. If this does manage to go through on time it is going to be tight.
We have managed to find a Furnished house in Busselton that we can rent until the house sale goes through and will be moving in on Saturday, that will give Sharon a chance to recover before the next lot of family move in at Easter for 3 ½ weeks.
The weather is hot today 33C, so we went out for the day to a place called Maze (guess what we did there?), it was a cracking day out, we walked round a few mazes, and saw some Koalas, Red and Grey Kangaroos and Emus, before lunch. After lunch we played a couple of rounds of crazy golf, the first of which was played using Frisbees instead of golf bats and balls and was extremely amusing and time consuming and bearing in mind it is not something we would normally do I think we did well before the park closed. The second game was just ordinary crazy golf which Ian won.
Its Malcolm’s birthday tomorrow and he wants an Avocado tree so on the way home we took a diversion down the Wanneroo road looking for nurseries that might have them for sale but there seems to be a shortage of them because everywhere we went they said they would normally stock them but they just can’t any at the moment, so on the way home as a last resort we stopped at Bunnings, the Australian equivalent of B&Q and although they didn’t have any and didn’t know why they didn’t have any the old boy who was serving us did point out that you shouldn’t have Avocado trees near children because the branches drop off for no apparent reason, and what good is a child with no branches, but more importantly from Sharon’s point of view as it is going to be her garden that it would be planted in, they grow up to 25-30 feet tall and 7-8 metres wide within a couple of years and her garden is not the largest in town. Did you like the way I managed to use imperial and metric in the same sentence? Is that what they mean by Multi tasking?
After that we needed to freshen up a bit so we went down to the beach for a couple of hours, the surf was great for body boarding, probably a bit like back in the UK at the moment.
Sharon did the cooking again tonight, she’s starting to get very inventive all of a sudden, tonight’s culinary delight was last nights Chilli leftovers mixed with sliced Pepperoni, plastic coating and all, stirred through with a jar of Dol Mio and served with Pasta, it was different and I bet Jamie Oliver would never have thought of it but it was very tasty.
Had a call this morning, the bit of paper that has been flying back and forth with the offer details for the house is now unreadable so the agent has got to send a clean copy, express post, to the Trustee who will return it, express post on the same day which means that in theory we will receive a scanned copy on Friday which we will then have to print and take over to the Mortgage advisors office so that we can fax it through to FIRB and hopefully save ourselves a couple of days. If this does manage to go through on time it is going to be tight.
We have managed to find a Furnished house in Busselton that we can rent until the house sale goes through and will be moving in on Saturday, that will give Sharon a chance to recover before the next lot of family move in at Easter for 3 ½ weeks.
The weather is hot today 33C, so we went out for the day to a place called Maze (guess what we did there?), it was a cracking day out, we walked round a few mazes, and saw some Koalas, Red and Grey Kangaroos and Emus, before lunch. After lunch we played a couple of rounds of crazy golf, the first of which was played using Frisbees instead of golf bats and balls and was extremely amusing and time consuming and bearing in mind it is not something we would normally do I think we did well before the park closed. The second game was just ordinary crazy golf which Ian won.
Its Malcolm’s birthday tomorrow and he wants an Avocado tree so on the way home we took a diversion down the Wanneroo road looking for nurseries that might have them for sale but there seems to be a shortage of them because everywhere we went they said they would normally stock them but they just can’t any at the moment, so on the way home as a last resort we stopped at Bunnings, the Australian equivalent of B&Q and although they didn’t have any and didn’t know why they didn’t have any the old boy who was serving us did point out that you shouldn’t have Avocado trees near children because the branches drop off for no apparent reason, and what good is a child with no branches, but more importantly from Sharon’s point of view as it is going to be her garden that it would be planted in, they grow up to 25-30 feet tall and 7-8 metres wide within a couple of years and her garden is not the largest in town. Did you like the way I managed to use imperial and metric in the same sentence? Is that what they mean by Multi tasking?
After that we needed to freshen up a bit so we went down to the beach for a couple of hours, the surf was great for body boarding, probably a bit like back in the UK at the moment.
Sharon did the cooking again tonight, she’s starting to get very inventive all of a sudden, tonight’s culinary delight was last nights Chilli leftovers mixed with sliced Pepperoni, plastic coating and all, stirred through with a jar of Dol Mio and served with Pasta, it was different and I bet Jamie Oliver would never have thought of it but it was very tasty.
What do you mean Busselton is full?
Friday 22nd February 2008
Ian went on line this morning determined to find something for this weekend and found a 2 Bedroom Chalet on a Holiday Park in Margaret River, we left this morning and don’t go back till Tuesday.
While we were driving down Carolyn rang the agent from Bunbury who couldn’t tell us about a business to see if he could now tell us anything about it and he couldn’t.
She then rang Kevin the agent dealing with the Olde Chapel Café and arranged to meet him when we got to Busselton to look at a Lunch bar and a Juice Bar both of which were not right for us and we explained to him what we were looking for and the only thing he had on his books at the moment that fitted the bill was The Olde Chapel Café but he said that as far as he could see the sale was going to go through. We parted company and he drove off while we had a walk round the town.
It was lunchtime and the kids were hungry for a change so we decided to go to the Olde Chapel for a bite to eat, however as we were about to walk in we saw Kevin the agent chatting to the Owner so we thought better of it and went elsewhere.
After lunch we drove to the Holiday Park in Margaret River it is about ½ hour further south of Busselton and we are beginning to wonder when we are going to run out of land, Perth is supposed to be South West and only ½ an inch away from the South Coast, we have been driving South for over 4 hours and we still haven’t reached the Southern Ocean, the size of this place is going to take some getting used to.
On the way to Margaret River Ian remembered seeing a Cafe on the Internet, it was originally on about the same time as the Olde Chapel, looked like a good bet, a bit expensive but good returns and it had gone under offer at about the same time as the Olde Chapel, a couple of weeks before we came out here but it had just come back on the market again because the sale had fallen through.
The Café is called Sails, is right in the centre of Margaret River and as we drove past it on the way to the Holiday Park we see it looks quite presentable, so we have decided to go there for Breakfast tomorrow Morning to check it out.
We booked into our accommodation early evening and got unpacked before going out to do a bit of shopping, we didn’t need much, just Milk, Tea, Cereals etc. When we got back we got a call from Kevin the agent who said that as we are not normally in the area what he can do is take an Offer for the Purchase of The Olde Chapel Café from us subject to the existing sale failing to go through, which we think is a bit funny but if it gives us first dibs we will do it and have arranged to meet him in his office in Cowaramup just outside Margaret River at 9.30am tomorrow.
Carolyn has started to panic because while she has done some research into the Schools in Busselton she has only had a quick look at them to see if there is something obviously wrong with them she has not done the thorough research that she would normally do and we could quite possibly be committing ourselves to a future in Busselton tomorrow. On the Holiday Park there are no wireless connections for computers so we had to go and find an Internet Café in town where Carolyn had just finished checking out one school when the system crashed and she could not get into the other schools sites so it looks like an early start tomorrow to try and get through again.
We went out for a Chinese meal tonight, it looked like quite a nice place and it was busy but we should have realised it was not going to be a great experience when we saw a white waitress, nothing personal, but you should have a Chinese waitress in a Chinese restaurant. There was however a glimmer of hope, we had got a glimpse into the Kitchen and as well as being clean there were 3 Chinese looking people in there.
We were shown to a table by the waitress but not offered a drink or anything because she was too busy dealing with other customers and she was the only one Meeting, Greeting, Taking Orders and Serving. The people on the table next to us got up to pay after we had been sitting for about 10 minutes without so much as a glass of water and when she had finished taking their money she came over and said “if you can just hold on a couple of minutes I will lay up that table for you because can get more people on this table”, she couldn’t cope with the number of people she had so I can’t imagine why she would want more.
Anyway, table cleaned we sat at it and she brought us over a couple of bottles of water and disappeared again, as we were looking round the restaurant it was like watching a sketch from Farty Towels. The table of 4 behind us were receiving their meals one at a time instead of all together, obviously the chef couldn’t cook more than one meal at a time and the other 2 Chinese people in the kitchen must have been there for moral support, as the meals were getting to the table the 4 of them were sharing the one meal before waiting for the next one to come out. We waited over an hour for our food and while we were waiting we must have seen about 20 people get fed up with waiting and walk away.
Unfortunately for Ian his meal came out first and turned out to be by far the best but the kids ate most of it while they were waiting for their food to come out.
Meal finished it’s off to bed for an early night because we’ve got to get up early in the morning.
Ian went on line this morning determined to find something for this weekend and found a 2 Bedroom Chalet on a Holiday Park in Margaret River, we left this morning and don’t go back till Tuesday.
While we were driving down Carolyn rang the agent from Bunbury who couldn’t tell us about a business to see if he could now tell us anything about it and he couldn’t.
She then rang Kevin the agent dealing with the Olde Chapel Café and arranged to meet him when we got to Busselton to look at a Lunch bar and a Juice Bar both of which were not right for us and we explained to him what we were looking for and the only thing he had on his books at the moment that fitted the bill was The Olde Chapel Café but he said that as far as he could see the sale was going to go through. We parted company and he drove off while we had a walk round the town.
It was lunchtime and the kids were hungry for a change so we decided to go to the Olde Chapel for a bite to eat, however as we were about to walk in we saw Kevin the agent chatting to the Owner so we thought better of it and went elsewhere.
After lunch we drove to the Holiday Park in Margaret River it is about ½ hour further south of Busselton and we are beginning to wonder when we are going to run out of land, Perth is supposed to be South West and only ½ an inch away from the South Coast, we have been driving South for over 4 hours and we still haven’t reached the Southern Ocean, the size of this place is going to take some getting used to.
On the way to Margaret River Ian remembered seeing a Cafe on the Internet, it was originally on about the same time as the Olde Chapel, looked like a good bet, a bit expensive but good returns and it had gone under offer at about the same time as the Olde Chapel, a couple of weeks before we came out here but it had just come back on the market again because the sale had fallen through.
The Café is called Sails, is right in the centre of Margaret River and as we drove past it on the way to the Holiday Park we see it looks quite presentable, so we have decided to go there for Breakfast tomorrow Morning to check it out.
We booked into our accommodation early evening and got unpacked before going out to do a bit of shopping, we didn’t need much, just Milk, Tea, Cereals etc. When we got back we got a call from Kevin the agent who said that as we are not normally in the area what he can do is take an Offer for the Purchase of The Olde Chapel Café from us subject to the existing sale failing to go through, which we think is a bit funny but if it gives us first dibs we will do it and have arranged to meet him in his office in Cowaramup just outside Margaret River at 9.30am tomorrow.
Carolyn has started to panic because while she has done some research into the Schools in Busselton she has only had a quick look at them to see if there is something obviously wrong with them she has not done the thorough research that she would normally do and we could quite possibly be committing ourselves to a future in Busselton tomorrow. On the Holiday Park there are no wireless connections for computers so we had to go and find an Internet Café in town where Carolyn had just finished checking out one school when the system crashed and she could not get into the other schools sites so it looks like an early start tomorrow to try and get through again.
We went out for a Chinese meal tonight, it looked like quite a nice place and it was busy but we should have realised it was not going to be a great experience when we saw a white waitress, nothing personal, but you should have a Chinese waitress in a Chinese restaurant. There was however a glimmer of hope, we had got a glimpse into the Kitchen and as well as being clean there were 3 Chinese looking people in there.
We were shown to a table by the waitress but not offered a drink or anything because she was too busy dealing with other customers and she was the only one Meeting, Greeting, Taking Orders and Serving. The people on the table next to us got up to pay after we had been sitting for about 10 minutes without so much as a glass of water and when she had finished taking their money she came over and said “if you can just hold on a couple of minutes I will lay up that table for you because can get more people on this table”, she couldn’t cope with the number of people she had so I can’t imagine why she would want more.
Anyway, table cleaned we sat at it and she brought us over a couple of bottles of water and disappeared again, as we were looking round the restaurant it was like watching a sketch from Farty Towels. The table of 4 behind us were receiving their meals one at a time instead of all together, obviously the chef couldn’t cook more than one meal at a time and the other 2 Chinese people in the kitchen must have been there for moral support, as the meals were getting to the table the 4 of them were sharing the one meal before waiting for the next one to come out. We waited over an hour for our food and while we were waiting we must have seen about 20 people get fed up with waiting and walk away.
Unfortunately for Ian his meal came out first and turned out to be by far the best but the kids ate most of it while they were waiting for their food to come out.
Meal finished it’s off to bed for an early night because we’ve got to get up early in the morning.
From Perth to Mandurah, or not
Thursday 21st February 2008
Had a meeting this morning in East Perth with another Business Agent who not only would not let you have any details on a business until you had signed a Confidentiality Disclosure Document but would not let you have the details until you had signed it in front of him. The business in question was a Café in Mandurah, we had walked past this Café before when we went to Mandurah so we knew where it was.
After the meeting Ian started driving towards it while Carolyn was reading the details, it turns out that the Café is open 7 days a week and long hours, we were tired and thought that if we went down there today we would not see it in its best light so decided to go home, chill out and maybe look at it another day.
Ian spent the afternoon on line trying to find some holiday accommodation in Busselton for the weekend so that we can have a break but also have a better look at the town but everywhere is booked up, apparently it is boat race week. We would also like to give Sharon and Malcolm a bit of breathing space, it can’t be easy having 5 people who you wouldn’t normally see more than once a year suddenly invade your space for so long, still hopefully we will get something sorted soon and one of Ian’s other sisters is coming over at Easter and there is 6 of them so we will have to be gone by then.
Had a meeting this morning in East Perth with another Business Agent who not only would not let you have any details on a business until you had signed a Confidentiality Disclosure Document but would not let you have the details until you had signed it in front of him. The business in question was a Café in Mandurah, we had walked past this Café before when we went to Mandurah so we knew where it was.
After the meeting Ian started driving towards it while Carolyn was reading the details, it turns out that the Café is open 7 days a week and long hours, we were tired and thought that if we went down there today we would not see it in its best light so decided to go home, chill out and maybe look at it another day.
Ian spent the afternoon on line trying to find some holiday accommodation in Busselton for the weekend so that we can have a break but also have a better look at the town but everywhere is booked up, apparently it is boat race week. We would also like to give Sharon and Malcolm a bit of breathing space, it can’t be easy having 5 people who you wouldn’t normally see more than once a year suddenly invade your space for so long, still hopefully we will get something sorted soon and one of Ian’s other sisters is coming over at Easter and there is 6 of them so we will have to be gone by then.
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.
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.
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