Sunny-wet conditions this morning in Perth. Tried to do some weeding in between bouts of rain...nearly jumped out of my skin when I came across what looked like a baby snake (dugite or brown snake, I thought).....went over to the landlord (lives around the corner) to pay the rent and asked him about it. He immediately identified it as a legless lizard....a kinda lizard that looks and acts a lot like a snake....makes sense, cos even though it moved away from me like a snake, I couldn't figure out why it's head didn't look like any snake head I'd seen before!

Anyway, as he rightly poined out, with the cat often camping out just next to the spot where I saw the creature....would be little chance of any snake - let alone a baby - hanging around too long.

So, all we need to worry about now are keeping away from the redbacks and huntsman spiders. At least, we're not living in Cairns......check this out:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24544763-24331,00.html

And you thought Shelob (from LOTR) was bad!!

Anyway, have to turn the clocks forward an hour tonight...WA goes onto DST from 2am....sigh

So....what's cooking, folks? Here I am again...staring a Friday in the face, and wondering just what I HAVE been doing all through his week. I've been very busy all week...just not sure what exactly I've managed to accomplish!

'Tis a dark and stormy night......no, I'm not trying to be Snoopy. It really is a dark and wet and rainy Thursday night in Perth. Storm warnings and heavy downpours predicted for Perth. Even allowing for the wide margin of error with the weatherman, that means it'll be PLENTY wet.

Maybe the cat will sleep inside tonight.....perhaps not, he always ends up nosing his way into the bedroom at 2am and asking to be let out.

Anyway, lotsa blankets and heated room tonight. G'nite!

Talk about a hiatus................

We landed in Perth on April 19....went to work on April 21st. Turned 34 on April 22. We're now in Banksia Grove, north of Perth, slightly north of Joondalup - the up-and-coming second CBD of Perth (according to certain sources). It's a nice quiet suburb....only about 8kms from work for me. Bit strange to be living on a street where almost none of the houses have any fences whatsoever!!

More later....will post a more detailed account of our trip and subsequent experiences.

Back again....tearing my hair out trying to sell the house!!!

Tickets booked...we leave on April 18. Still not decided whether to sink the fortune into a container (although it will be reimbursed, it's still a lot of money to pay up-front) or just take personal effects minus furniture as unaccompanied baggage....will get remibursed for that, anyway.

Here's a secret....when we get to Perth, I'm looking for a townhouse or ground floor apartment - something that DOESN'T HAVE A LAWN TO MOW!!!!!

Talk about a long hiatus! Maybe I don't really take this blog thing seriously!!

Anyway, much water has flowed under the bridge since August 2007 - and that's not just because the electric pumps stopped working in January. (Gee, thanks, Eskom). Yeah, it did rain kind heavy over December,too but we don't really have a bridge in Montana Gardens.....I'm talking about...er....a different bridge. Oh, forget it!!!!

Today...hmmm....dropped off the passports to be visa'ed.....paid 74 bucks each for the privilege of having our visas inked into our passports....rands, that is. Har,har,har! Hope to pick them up by Friday.......if all goes well. Made provisional bookings with IOM......will work bout 4000 bucks less than Singapore...only trouble is we'll have to fly SAA.......AAAAAAAARGHHHH! Of course, they will let us take 40kgs each.....hmmmm.....I can take my books too!!!!

I'm currently on this "thing" for historical and biographical writings.....I'm ploughing through "Rope of Sand" by John Laband, and it's been fascinating so far. Yes, I know this is a fairly old book, but I normally do my book shopping and second-hand stores - it's amazing how almost-new the books are, and at a pittance compared to the cover price!

The next book I want to get is George Bizos' recent one - but I may have to wait a while if I want to get it in a second-hand shop!

"Shades of Difference" - the Mac Maharaj biography is - according to John Robbie and 702 radio - a fascinating read. Wonder how much it's going for.

Joyz is probably gonna make me go to bed without dinner until I get a new bookshelf to stock all my recent acquisitions - we've got books tumbling off the bed every time either of us stirs!!

Joyz and Betsy were in a minor-major motor accident on Thursday afternoon. Betsy is currently languishing at an "insurance-approved" panel beater somwhere out in the west of Pretoria.....haven't been there yet, myself. Joyz had the presence of mind to take some pics of the car while waiting for the tow-truck and me to arrive, in that order. (Thanks to my having to battle the N1 rush-hour from Johannesburg).

Hoping that Betsy can get repaired and restored. Else, Dial Direct might insist she needs to be written off. More than the fact that she's an utterly reliable, 11-year-old Toyota, there's a fair bit of sentimental value to her...lot of firsts chalked up with this one!

If Betsy gets written off...it'll be a great shame. Perfectly reliable car trashed because insurer was unwilling to shell out....same old, same old.