Family - Travels with Verne and Roy

South Perth Birthday Break, 19-21 May 2022

South Perth with its restaurants, cafés and ferry to Perth CBD was the perfect choice for a two-day birthday getaway.

Friday was Roy’s actual birthday, and we drove to South Perth on the Thursday morning. Having parked, morning coffee was first on the agenda. No day has properly started until Roy’s had his coffee – a long mac* topped up, extra-extra hot.

Landmark rhino sculpture outside Coco’s, South Perth foreshore

A long mac topped up (LMTU) is a Perth thing. Anywhere else in Australia, you’ll get a blank look if you try to order such a thing. That’s what happened when Roy tried it on in Queensland. No, a long mac is not a long black… that’s something different. A long mac is a long macchiato (or double espresso) topped up with textured milk. And, for whatever reason, it may not be simply called a strong latte. (Not if you identify as a Perthonality, anyway.)

This is the House that Roy and Verne Built: Part Two – Bricks and Mortar

Apologies and advance warnings; concrete proof – slab, soakpit and sewers; lonely brick storage site; Dino’s dilemma; men at work!; the sacred interstitial space; graffiti message, but not from us

Apologies if you’ve been eagerly awaiting This is the House that Roy and Verne Built: Part Two after the first in the series, Part One: Breaking Ground, which we celebrated back in April 2021. After the slab was laid in May, the site lay cold and abandoned until four months later when – spoiler alert! – the hoped-for, prayed-for and longed-for bricklayer team eventually came on site.

Now that we’re just about up to the second level, here’s the story of the build so far. Feel quite free to gloss over any dreary construction details (I know I would), and simply savour all my lovely photos of Roy.

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Two days in Toodyay WA, 13-15 October

Two days in Toodyay WA is enough to get a feel for this historic WA town – but I could have stayed longer. Here’s what to do in Toodyay, where to stay in Toodyay and where to have a drink or a meal in Toodyay… plus the connection between Toodyay town and Moondyne Joe

What’s in a name?

Surely not, responded my sister in England when I texted her that I was walking around a town called Toodyay. Toodyay may be a funny name, sure. But what about Bishop’s Ichington in Warwickshire, Great Snoring in Fakenham, Norfolk, Wetwang near Uncleby in Yorkshire, or Nether Wallop in Hampshire?

In fact, it is derived from the Noongar Aboriginal word Duidgee, meaning “place of plenty”, referring in part to the reliability of the Avon River on whose banks it sits.

Roy’s Swan Valley WA Birthday Treat, 5-7 August

Guildford and the various attractions of James Street; The Tale of the Stubborn Donkey; Colonial Building, three cafés and Terrace Street; Pinelli’s Wine Estate for tasting and beatific beef cheeks; historic Rose & Crown and its 1840 restaurant; brunch at Padbury’s; Mandoon Wine Estate tour and wine-tasting; dégustation at Wild Swan; B&B at The Colony; summing up and stocking up

After a month of record rainfall, howling gales and unusually low temperatures for Perth, I’d been resigned to our Swan Valley getaway being soggy, cold and blustery. But we needed to use Roy’s Ultimate Mandoon Experience* – a birthday gift from the kids – before the voucher expired. I booked it for a Friday night.

This is the House that Roy and Verne Built: Part 1 – Breaking Ground

Boeries, bangers and snags; sangas, sarnies and sarmies; building malarkey background; turfed from the nest; Cyclone Seroja and quo vadis?

Here we are, celebrating the breaking of ground this week at 543 Burns Beach Road, Iluka!

Child labour is allowed in WA – breaking ground at 543 Burns Beach Road with Sam, Mia and Holly

Surrounded by the family – son Carl, Carrie, Mia and Holly; daughter Blaire, Colin and Sam – we broke ground today, Sunday the 17^th of April 2021. Son Carl brought the spade, son-in-law Colin furnished the Weber BabyQ, and we supplied the snags* and the mimosas. Only Daughter #1 was missing, sadly – cheers, Wendy!

Camping at Coogee, WA: Snorkelling the Omeo Wreck, March 2021

Day-tripping to Coogee Beach; Roy’s first first sea dip in seven years; gratuitous Maldives flashback; back to Coogee; history of the shipwrecked Omeo; where to stay – then and now; feeling disloyal (again)

Is there no end to the magnificent beaches of Western Australia? I’d never even heard of Coogee Beach until a week ago. What’s more, this is supposed to be autumn – yet here we are, frolicking in the surf and bronzing our bods on the very eve of the annual collaboration between Lindt and the Easter Bunny.

Historical York, WA, 13-15 October 2020

A tale of two tiny towns; canola blossom prequel and a soapbox moment; Day Trippers, yeah! – York Motor Museum; Burnley House and Settlers Cottages – this and other cases of apostrophic abuse; where to eat, if you’re lucky

“You should spend a night or two exploring the olde-worlde historical Avon Valley,” son Carl had recommended – not once but several times. York had a great motor museum for his dad, and we should try to catch the spring wildflowers.

So, eventually, we did. I booked two nights’ mid-week accommodation at York’s Burnley House and Settlers Cottages through agoda.com. I’d fancied three nights, but Roy thought two would be enough. So now, not having seen everything there is to be seen, I have an excuse for us to go back there.

Busselton Break, 17-21 August 2020

The WA History Channel: Moondyne Joe advancing Australia fair; Broome or Busso?; Jolly Jetty Tour; Review: Bayside Geographe Bay Resort

It’s now nearly months since Roy and I have been forcibly confined to Western Australia – without one of us even having nicked a loaf of bread or a side of ham. And we’re gradually getting to know a bit about this aspect of local history, courtesy of granddaughter Mia (10).

Tea for Two at The Green Tea House, Subiaco – July 2020

The tea-tabulous Tsutomo Iwasaki; flashback to Kagoshima 2009; of catechins, monks and samurais; a long story; An Innocent Man; Sam-san the barista-in-training

Tasting green tea at the tea-tasting-tabulous Green Tea House, Subiaco, Perth

One Wednesday afternoon in July, after a light bite of lunch at Cranked in the buzzy inner city suburb of Leederville, my new friend Debbie Uller drove me to the Green Tea House (www.greenteahouse.com.au). (Find it at Shop 17, 375 Hay Street in Subiaco; call +618 9388 7425).

Debbie at the Green Tea House – a suburban shopwindow hides a little corner of Tokyo

Love in the time of Covid-19, Part Two: Flattening the Curve, May 2020

Winter whinge; my loser husband; cycling for svelteness; surf ’n’ turf birthday barbie; hallelujah for Phase 3!

Though there’s still a fair amount of sunshine, the weather has drastically cooled here in WA. We set off on our often blustery morning bike-ride to Mullaloo in temperatures of 13°C or 14°C; it might rise to 20°C or so by lunchtime, and in the wee hours it can on occasion drop as low as 8°C.

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What’s in a name?

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