Birds on the iPhone

I've been trying to take pictures of birds using my iPhone. This involves a lot of cropping, enlarging and enhancing. Here are some that almost worked out, despite the limitation of the technology and the picture taker.



Australian ravens, Kings Park



Red-tailied Black Cockatoos, Kings Park

 

Pacific Black Duck, Mounts Bay Pond




Black Swans (for which the Swan River was named), Mounts Bay pond




Australian Magpie, Heirisson Island in Swan River




Eurasian Coot with chick, Mounts Bay pond



Rainbow Lorikeet, Mounts Bay Road



A Trip to Banksia Woodland

Peggy Fiedler, Director of the Natural Reserve System, has long time friends in Perth. She sent an email of introduction to Kingsley Dixon, who is the Director of the Science Division of Kings Park. He and Ben Miller, who works for Kingsley, invited me to accompany them to a Banksia woodland site about an hour north of Perth near the small town of Gin Gin where they needed to conduct some surveys.  

Kingsley and Ben picked me up at the Mounts Bay Waters and we drove out to a wonderfully diverse woodland site with eucalyptus and banksia and wide variety of otherworldly plant species from Gondwanaland and beyond.



Christmas Tree (from http://www.willgoto.com/1/145032/liens.aspx)

My favorite is the Christmas tree. This species is a mistletoe that has re-evolved the ability to make a trunk, but like other mistletoe, it's a parasite. Its roots grows out towards the roots of other species. When it reaches them, it surrounds the roots (up to a pencil in diameter) and within 3 hours cuts through the root and grafts onto it, collecting the water and nutrients. So each of these trees is actually connected to all of the plants nearby. Needless to say, it stays greener longer than the rest.



termite mound



I really had a wonderful trip. Practically a personal tour of a beautiful woodland. We saw 2 kangaroos and 2 emus, my first in western Australia!

Kingsley and Ben at the end of the day



A Visit to Woodside



Woodside outside

This week, I had a few projects for work that I needed to complete while in Perth, so I spent most of the week glued to the computer in the hotel room. Turn....work...brain...back....ON! uhnn.....aaarg.


Woodside ground floor lobby

At the end of the day Thursday, I met Chris in the lobby of the Woodside building for a tour of his workplace.
 
Like most other major companies, Woodside is high security where everyone is working on highly confidential projects. So in order for me to get in, Chris had to meet me in the lobby, get me a visitor badge at the mothership desk with the transporter beam lights, and escort me around the building. I wasn't able to take a picture of his desk in cubicle land or they would have had to forcibly remove me from the premises. 
 

Brick building (in first photo) from umpteenth floor

In cubicle land, everyone speaks in hushed tones. Chris quietly introduced me to few people that he works with; they were very friendly, in a quiet way, and we all spent a few minutes chatting about Perth, quietly. 

Chris took me up to the umpteenth floor where we looked out on the Swan River. (Yep, all that blue is river, no ocean). You can see the Mounts Bay Waters apartments (where we are staying) just across the Hwy on the right, the pond in front of our apartment where we often walk, and the beginnings of Kings Park (the cliff side and top). 

Swan River from umpteenth floor




 




Cottesloe Apartment!



Outside of Broome Street, Apartment on top floor

Oh we got sooo lucky apartment hunting. This 2 bedroom fully furnished apartment (top floor of home) is located one block off the beach in Cottesloe. It has beautiful high ceilings, a bank of windows along the front of the house looking out towards the green lawns of a tennis club, a front garden with native plants, and a back garden with vegies. Heaven.  


Lucky man standing in kitchen

Chris took off from work in the middle of the day so that we could meet with our prospective landlords, Harry and Robin. We had a very nice time chatting and everyone agreed that a our next step should be to formalize a lease. Harry and Robin have a house in Margaret River and will be spending most of their time down in wine county where their grandson goes to school.

We knew we were lucky to find such a great place. Georgia, our real-estate agent (standing to the right of Chris in the top photo) had shown us many apartments on our first day of apartment hunting, but nothing like this in our price range.



Living room (curtains are drawn)

However, it has been the reaction of other people that has really made us realize just how amazing this opportunity is. Universally, people are amazed that we found anything at all in Cottesloe since it is such a desirable place to live. And that's even before they've seen it. 

The apartment is being fitted with air conditioning and will be ready for us to move in on Jan 21. Which is also just about the time that our air freight shipment (with Chris's bike and other things) will arrive. This will also give me time to help set up a few things before I have to take off on the 27th. 

Partial view from front deck



I am really relieved that Chris is going to have such a wonderful, uplifting place, relaxing place to live. I would have really hated to leave him in Perth in a small dark apartment (some of the other places we looked at). Now it's as though he's on an extended vacation, except that he has to work really hard. 



Park 1/2 block from house on way to beach



Aquarium of Western Australia

On Sunday we went to the Aquarium of Western Australia, which is on the coast about a half hour drive north of Cottesloe. The aquarium was a great introduction to the coastal marine communities along the entire coast of Western Australia. Their main feature is a walk-through tunnel with gigantic sharks, stingrays, and loggerhead turtles. We took lots of pictures which didn't turn out but spent about 45 minutes making our way slowly through the moving giants.

It's a bit hard to comprehend the size of Australia. It just looks like a little round island that you might be able to drive around in a week or so. In actuality, the western coastline is about 3,000 miles long and reaches from very tropical waters down to the cold antarctic. So there was an amazing diversity of species that were in the aquarium.

Beautiful anemone

About 10 years ago, there was a major survey of a spot on the coast about halfway from Perth to Darwin and they spent all their time describing new species of marine life.

Watching sting rays

Communing with dangerous animals



Claudia, in her blue period

Weekend Discoveries

Kakulas Brothers in Perth

We found two really wonderful places to buy groceries. Kakulas Brothers in Northbridge, just north of the CBD. It was like walking into the best bulk store in Berkeley. The place was not only alive with smells of grain and dried fruit and vegetables, but there was an aromatic shelf of incense. And the prices were finally reasonable, at least they are now at what we are used to in Sonoma.


Subiaco Vegi Market

Subiaco (Subi) is a neighborhood northwest of the CBD, really only about 10 blocks away. The market is an grouping of asian vegetable sellers and a variety of other businesses. There's an Indian food stand there whose samosa's are highly recommended; they were out of them unfortunately.

While some of the prices are still pretty high (see photo), there are many deals on vegetables that are very reasonable. We finally found broccoli ($1.99 for a head), onions, and bell peppers at fair prices. Lovely lovely lovely. But so jammed packed that you could barely move. We were very impressed by a woman that we stood in line with a child in a perambulator.

We were there at the end of the weekend and some of the places were trying to move their products. Two apple pies for $10. Three eclairs for $6. Unfortunately we have a very small refrigerator and couldn't take advantage of the specials. Only one apple pie and one eclair for us. So sad.

Chris and Claudia Start Living

Chris's hair could not be hidden under a hat to go to work.

Perth massage place

Claudia, on her way to Woolworths for groceries, stopped at this place for a 1/2 hour massage. (There are actually massage places all over the place, so they must be very popular.) The slight woman behind the counter took me into a booth, threw a small towel over my back, and started walloping away. First a rough walk on my hips and upper bag, followed by some pommeling around the back and neck. Ow. Ow. Ow. Sore yes? Sore yes? You will feel better now.

I thought it must have fixed that knot between my shoulderblades because it hurt so badly.  But after a few days when I could breathe more easily and sleep through the night, there the knot was, still in place. Hmmm... Not sure if I just need another go. Or if the whole thing is over rated.

Checking Out Places and A New Job



Cottlesloe Beach

We picked up the rental car that Woodside is giving us for one month (beauty!), and then Chris got up his courage to actually drive the thing around. With the steering wheel on the right side of the car, the distance to the left side of the car is a bit of a mystery. Move a little to the right. No, stay to the left! Stay to the left! Can you turn left on a red light? Is a U-turn here legal? What's that sign mean? That way! That way!

Anyway it all worked out. No accidents. No worries. And we got our first look around at some of the outlying neighborhoods and took a nice walk on on the world-reknowned beach at Cottlesloe.    


  

Paperbark eucalyptus at Herdsman Lake

We also went to Herdsman Lake, one of the parks north of the CBD near Wembley. The sandy and limestone shores of the southwest region (dominated by eucalyptus and banksia forests) are followed inland by a series of wet marshes and lakes.



At Herdsman Lake

  

Chris inside the Woodside building (7th floor)



Tuesday was Chris's first day at work at Woodside. The first couple of days were all about filling in new employee paperwork. A very interesting company with interesting colleagues and stimulating projects.

I've been staying at the Mounts Bay apartment for most of the day. First, I watch Midsomer Murders which is on from 9 to 10 am. Then when 3-4 people have kicked the bucket and the guilty one is brought to justice, I play around on the computer (figuring out this blog) and look for apartments. Then I take a walk into the CBD to buy food and odds and ends. I'm getting pretty good at finding the good deals at the grocery store (here Woolworths sells groceries). Chris also found a store called Kulkulis Brothers which sells grains, nuts and dried fruit in bulk and has good prices. So the strategies for surviving the high costs of living are gradually surfacing. The most productive part of my day is making the bed, cooking dinner, and ironing. Which is just about the right speed for me. Hey! I'm a wife!

First Days in the Central Business District (CBD)



Perth from the top of Jacobs Ladder

We spent the first couple of days exploring the CBD (only a 10 minute walk from our apartment) and venturing into Kings Park. There's a 242-step staircase called Jacob's Ladder just around the corner from our apartment that takes you from the banks of the Swan River up into the Park. Some of our early impressions of the city were of people running, biking and sweating.

Sense of Direction: Way off. I started seeking help from the compass on my iPhone. Something to do with the curviness of river (it really doesn't run east-west only) and possible the fact that the sun is in the northern part of the sky.

 

Central Business District Mall

The CBD runs primarily along two streets, Hay and Murray. Various sections are blocked off to vehicle traffic. A couple blocks have free wifi so we ended up gravitating back to those areas a few times to send photos and emails. Mostly though this was a time for recovering from jet lag (no small task).

At first everything in the CBD was quiet (too quiet....). There was a 50-70% sale in most stores for Boxing Day but the streets were practically empty and many of the restaurants were closed. In America, the lack of crowds would be a catastrophe. In Perth, it was to be expected since everyone was on holiday.


 

Coffee



More coffee (see tiny Chris at bottom)

Groceries!! 

Crisis averted

 One of the first things we did was to find a grocery store (there's a kitchen in our apartment). As you can see, rumors about the absence of peanut butter (from our dentist who visited 15 years ago) were greatly exaggerated. Chris will be able to survive in Perth.

The greatest shock has been the price of food. We knew it was going to be expensive, but weren't prepared! Not only is the beer expensive ($10 at a restaurant; $2.65 for a beer in a can from a grocery store) but the vegetables are outrageous. It's hard to find anything less than $4-5/kg. Right now the exchange rate is about 1:1 so it's easy to do the math. Of course, this is the city and we've heard that things are a bit cheaper in the surrounding areas.



Chris BEFORE

Hat Hunt

The sun really does feel more intense here. One of the first things we bought was a tub of 30+ sunblock. We began searching for hat that would cover Chris's neck and face. Lots of strolling through stores until we found it. Now he has nothing to fear from above.
 

Chris AFTER



Park at a Hwy Interchange across from the Mounts Bay Apts

 Beginning to Explore Kings Park 



Kings Park is a 1,000-acre natural area and landscaped park on the Swan River in the middle of Perth. It is a central place for public functions on holidays (picnicking, playgrounds, lawns, visitor center, etc.) and a place to see and learn about native vegetation of western Australia. We have a lot more to explore. Especially natural bush areas. I love that dry stuff! The Boab tree is native to the Kimberly region (far northern area of Western Australia and are relatives of the more well-known Baobab tree of Africa. The nuts on the tree are reported to taste like sherbet. What kind of sherbet they didn't say (and note that they did not say that they tasted like sorbet). They (there's an even larger one estimated at 750 years old just behind this one) were saved from destruction during a highway project and shipped all the way to Perth.



Kings Park trail in the bush

 

Boab tree at Kings Park



The First Day of Journey to Perth



Business class booth

12 am flight from SFO to Singapore. My first experiences with business class although Chris had done some before. Not something to get used to. The cost is frightful!

But wonderous. You can lie down completely in these little booths and choose any movie, TV or radio show at any time you want.

Chris kept feeling bad for turning away the stewardess's offers of food. Every time you eat and finish eating, a hot towel appears. Wine and fine dining. Tasty! One of my favorite things was a button you could push so the flight attendants wouldn't wake you up.

We had a 7 hour layover in Singapore. The picture was taken in the Kris Lounge of Singapore Airlines. Chris learned that it has one of the highest ratings of any airport comfort lounge in the world. We took showers in their posh bathrooms and had a couple of beers (well, Claudia had a couple of beers) from the free bar (all this free stuff was new to me).

The airport in Singapore is amazing - lined with ritzy shops on either side of huge concourses.  It's like walking down Rodeo Drive.  The airport is clean and carts are free, with waiting lounges for all ticket classes. The highlights of our sojourn there were visiting the butterfly gardens and the koi ponds,  The gardens were especially lovely - a multi-story enclosure teeming with color from the many species of butterflies.

After a 5 hour flight from Singapore to Perth, we arrived at the Mounts Bay Apartments at 2 am. I took this picture standing with the suitcases and looking towards the front door where Chris went to check in. Only later did I see the sign on the Woodside building towering in the background.