Our News, Photos and Videos : April 2016

Here we are again with the monthly news and photos!

Having left Denmark on the Monday after our anniversary and getting home safely, we then picked up Emil from Armadale Station the following Sunday so he could spend a few days with us.

We enjoyed his time with us and we managed to fit in a few things before he left. On Monday Mike and Emil managed to get a bike ride in before the weather changed. It began to rain after lunch so we played Monopoly in the afternoon.

On Tuesday we went to the new Maritime Museum in Fremantle, which was quite interesting, but not as good as the old Museum used to be. I think maybe we should have gone to the Historic Ships building instead! We had Fish and Chips in a café near the round tower.

Mike looking grumpy because we had to wait a while for our order to be sorted out as there'd been a bit of a mix up with it, chuckle!

Photo taken by Mike on his way back to the van

On Wednesday, after a false start with one of the pedals coming off, Mike and Emil managed another bike ride this time towards Maddington. Emil had previously said he would like to see 'Star Wars - The Force Awakens' if it was still on at the cinema, but unfortunately it wasn't. However while they were out cycling I went to get a bit of shopping and found the DVD of it on sale so bought it.

In the afternoon Dieter and Marga came to pick up Emil to take him to Super Golf (slightly larger golf balls and clubs) and he said it was great fun.

In the evening we watched the Star Wars film which was very good, although of course it would have looked even better on the big screen of the cinema.

Thursday Mike's back was playing up, so me and Emil went to Maddington Centro to get some kind of model kit they could make. The kit we got was for making solar powered things - 6 different ones, but you had to take each to pieces to make the next. The boat Emil tried first went OK in the pool after a few adjustments, chuckle, but the rest of them didn't work too well, but still the whole kit only cost $6 so pretty good going really!

Emil making the solar powered boat while Mike fixed up some gutter lights

The boat completed......

.......and running nicely!

Mind you don't fall in, Maisie!

Afterwards Emil mucked about with the models - he eventually adapted the boat to work with a small battery out of Mike's broken tiny quad copter, and made it remote control. It still needed a bit of work on it though, so he left it for Mike to 'play' with, chuckle!

In the evening we watched some 1983 Rochester Festival and Xmas videos of all the Russells (my sister's in-laws families) and my Mum and Uncle Wal, doing their usual 'turns' and pantomime, which Emil thought was hilarious! (We'd previously watched, on another evening, Xmas at our house here in Australia in 1990 - the Star Trekking one! Emil thought seeing his (then young!) Dad in white shiny pants was really worth watching, chuckle!)

Friday we were to meet up with John, Silvia, Maya and Benjamin in Pinjarra so Emil could go with them to the Fairbridge Festival. As it was a lovely day, we decided to take a picnic lunch with us in the van and go to Mandurah first, then drive across to Pinjarra later.

We got to Mandurah about 10.45am and had a walk round the 'new' marina which we'd not seen before, and had coffee/smoothie at one of the cafés there. We then drove round to the 'old' part of Mandurah, which we knew well (over the old bridge) and parked there and had a walk along the Murray River, then back and had our picnic lunch on the banks of it.

We saw dolphins in the water across from where Emil is standing.

We then drove to Pinjarra where we went to the craft shops and museum etc opposite the park which were very interesting. We had a text from John about 3pm to say they should be there soon to pick up Emil. We managed to catch them going past, so John turned round and came and parked where we were waiting. After some quick 'hello and goodbyes' - they wanted to get to Fairbridge to get their tent set up asap - they headed off and we followed a little later to drive home on the South West Hwy, which was a more interesting route and with less traffic than on the Freeway which we'd used going to Mandurah.

While John and Silvia were away for the weekend, Jo babysat their house and 'chooks' (chickens - for those who don't speak Australian, chuckle!) She also cooked them a lovely pork roast for them while she was there.

The Thornlie Bowling Club celebrated it's 50th Anniversary on 17th April. It was a highly successful day. In the morning the club was open to the public for anyone who wanted to have a go at bowls. In the afternoon there was a fun 'drawn' game for any past and present members who wanted to play. A 'drawn' game is one where the 'skips' are selected by the organisers and the other 3 in the team take 'pop sticks' to see who they are playing with and in what position. We were to play 4 ends each, in each position. I was chosen as the first skip, with Jim, George and 'Sticks' in our team. 'A good time was had by all!' - especially our team who were overall winners and each received a special 50th anniversary medal for our efforts!

Here's me, Linda and Ann chatting before the game.............

and me after the game........

....and my medal............

.......and the two cakes, which were beautifully made and decorated by Brenda.

Talking of celebrations, Jo had her 50th birthday while she was staying with John and Silvia. John sent us these photos.

The birthday girl!

The kids made two cakes for her!

Blowing out the candles.....

.....and close ups of the cakes!

She came home a couple of days afterwards and was given a huge fresh Australian Salmon by her neighbour as he had caught a lot. She said it was about 90cm long and sent us this photo after she had cleaned, scaled and gutted it all by herself!