And Now We Are 3

Our time markers continue to tick. Patrick has now landed back in Canada. His trip home was one he will remember for a long time I'm sure.

We started at out in Mandurah by leaving an hour earlier than planned. We had to rise at 3:30am to get to the airport in time for Patricks flight. In setting the alarm however, I somehow managed to put the time ahead an hour without realising it. So we ended up rising at 2:30 am and we were well on our way to the airport before discovering my error. And Patricks lack of sleep was to continue as you'll hear.

After a rather lengthy meander at the airport, it was finally time to say bye-bye to Patrick. As expected I choked up and had tears running down my face as I hugged him and wished him "Happy Birthday", "Merry Christmas", and "Happy New Years". He then seemed to disappear very quickly beyond the security gate. I'm not sure if he was embarrassed by his mother, or needed to leave before he got weepy too...

His first flight to Singapore went smoothly as did the connecting flight to Los Angeles. That's when things went awry. After more than 24 hours in transit at this point, they landed about 1/2 hour late. But then they were held on the runway for over 5 hours due to a problem with the customs computers. Since it was Saturday evening in LA, I'm sure that contributed to the lengthy delay. By the time Patrick got into the airport, he had missed his connecting flight and the place was deserted since it was the small hours of the morning. Unlike Hong Kong and Singapore airports, LA has no public internet access computers, so Pat had to make phone calls to let us know what was going on. Patrick left a message with Mikes parents (Marucia and George), but of course they were already at the airport, and then phoned us to give us an update and let us know "I'm not dead...". He had to wait for the Air Canada booth to open at 4 am to make alternate arrangements.
He managed to catch the 7am flight to Toronto and finally was picked up by George & Marucia around 3 pm on Sunday. They of course had been expecting to pick up Patrick earlier and had been back and forth to the airport twice by this time. So after 40 odd hours in transit, Patrick had a nice steak dinner and then crashed. I hope to talk to him later tonight when he wakes up!

And once again, here are some remnant photos to round out the July trip selection. These include the menu at Monty's Cafe in Darwin, Mike donning his dust protection gear, another drive past a bush burn off, and Steve holding a long neck turtle which we encountered on one of our journeys near a swamp.

It's all about Patrick - his Grand Finale

Upon returning from our trip to Darwin, Patrick headed back to Gingin to wrap up his volunteer stint at the Australian International Graviational Observatory. That week he managed to finish up the video and even helped with a display at the Gravity Discovery Centre. With 2 weeks left in Australia, we have worked on filling in the gaps on local tourist visits and getting his university life ogranized.

Patrick missed the cutoff date for applying for residence this year so despite making the deans honour list, he does not have residence. After searching on the Mac website, and with Joannes help to visit, he has rented a student housing room in a house right near the university. Looks like he'll have access to good facilities and be even closer to the Engineering buildings than he was last year in residence.

Rounding out Patricks tourist venues, our first stop was to visit the Perth Zoo and Kings Park where Pat had not been. Patrick and I spent the first part of the day watching monkeys, orangutans and reptiles. Next we had a nice lunch then did the tour of Kings Park, even doing some walks which were off the beaten path and new to me. The horticultural area of the park is quite different now in the midst of winter. The weather has been incredibly wet these days, with rain a daily event, often accompanied by very high winds. But the day held off for the most part and we did not get too wet. We also took a trip to the local stromatolites (which are actually thrombolites here). Not overly exciting to look at, but knowing that the 'rocks' are actually living organsims is intriguing.

For Pat's last weekend here Mike, Patrick & I headed to Rottnest Island. For the first time in many weeks we had 3 consecutive warm sunny days - so even though it was winter, the visit to the island was very pleasant. We enrolled Patrick into an introductory scuba dive for the day. He did not need a diving certificate - just an intro to the equipment and then he dove accompanied by a dive instructor. We headed over to the island on the early ferry. It was almost empty as you can see - and very early as you can see also!

The dive wasn't till afternoon, so we had the morning to explore the island. We stopped by the bakery for a treat and to check out the quokkas. This little fellow (between Pat & I peeking over the bench) was hoping for some food which we failed to give him.

We visited the Kingston Barracks where we had stayed our last visit to see the defence posts set up in the second world war to protect the harbour at Perth/Fremantle. We also showed him the aboriginal prison (now a hotel) and the local cemetaries.

We dropped Patrick back at the dive shop and once he figured out that the wetsuit goes on with the zipper at the back, he was off on the boat to check out the scuba scene.

He used the underwater camera, but it was difficult to manage when loaded down with diving gear. I can certainly concur - just with snorkel gear it was hard enough to hold steady. He had a fantastic dive despite the lack of quality photos and saw many different fishes and corals. They swam through lots of 'gorges' and tunnels and he managed with no problems.

Meanwhile back on the island Mike & I sat back on the beach and relaxed. The beaches were now deserted (it is winter after all), We also checked out the 'Pilot' ship as seen here. Since the approach to the Fremantle docks was so dangerous, between 1848 and 1903 ships would be met by a pilot boat. The Pilot (an experienced sailor) would be rowed out to the ship, board the ship and then guide it into the harbour. The pilot boat would follow into the harbour then return the Pilot to the island. The round trip would take up to 28 hours, with no rest in between. The staff on the boats had a very rough life since all their 'spare' time when not rowing was filled. They had to provide all the fish for themselves as well as everyone at the prison.

Patrick returned and we headed over to the island pub for a drink before heading back on the ferry to Fremantle. We checked out 'the shed's at Fremantle and then headed back home.

We've since returned Patricks guitar - he really enjoyed it and the staff at Crescendo Music where we rented from were wonderful people.

Also this week we attended a guest lecture by Sir Roger Penrose at the University of Western Australia in Perth. We had run into Dr. Blair on the ferry back from Rottnest and he told us of this talk being given by one of the leading mathematician/physicist/philosophers of our time. His talk was titled 'What happened before the Big Bang'. He was an engaging speaker and despite the many times we were each scratching our heads, we all came away with a new view on the life cycles of the universe.

And now we are in the final throws of packing Patrick up for his flight home on Saturday. I think he's had enough of living with the parents again, and he is excited to be going back to see friends and the rest of the family. And while we are ready for him to return also, we'll miss him as soon as he steps on the plane. sigh.

A Fall Storm for Mike's Birthday

Last evening Mike & Patrick headed down to the beach to watch the storm roll in when I headed off for my yoga class. Now that fall is here, the weather is only about 90% 'fine'. Days are generally clear and sunny, but it does get cool in the evening - we have the winter 'doonies' (duvets) on now. If you are watching the temperature, we seem to be toggling thermometers between Barrie and Mandurah now - morning here and evening there are often the same temperature with days and nights opposite. And we are now getting occassional rains as you can see by the storm rolling in here.

At home Mike had a low key birthday other than the storm watch - the boys cooked him a nice steak dinner, and we had cake after I returned from yoga. But he did get to celebrate at school also where they had a cake along with some thoughtful gifts. Lucky guy!!!!

Patrick (aka George - seen contemplating the world above) is also a lucky guy - he has a volunteer position at the Gravity Discovery Centre / Australian International Gravitational Observatory. He will be staying at the centre from Mondays to Fridays (and perhaps some weekends, but he will join us for our July trip to Alice and Darwin) while he is here and will be producing a short film on the research being done at the centre. Patrick is very excited to have such a fantastic opportunity and have exposure to this extremely leading edge physics research.

And for anyone not too fond of spiders (Robin perhaps?) - Beware the next posting!!!

Happy Mothers Day!!! (from the Footie Game)

What a superb Mothers Day present - our whole happy family rejoined here in WA. Despite concerns, Patrick managed to catch all 3 of his connecting flights to make it to Perth for Saturday morning (for those familiar with Pat's simultaneous genius and absent mindedness you will understand our concern). It felt awfully good to give him a big hug at the airport. And I've given him a few more since (I think he's had enough now though, so I better wean off of them). Even Kyle is happy to have Pat to socialize with.

Despite our family reunion here, we do miss our own Mothers and the ability to give them a big hug for Mother's Day. So across the miles, love to you both. And also to our friends and family who are Mums too - hope you have a great day with your families.

Unfortunately, our family pet was not here for Patricks arrival. Our spider, which met everyone (George and Marucia included) at the front door since our arrival here, disappeared a week or so ago. You may remember our spider (golden orb - one of the safe kind) from one of the early postings. We're hoping she went off to have her babies (or else a bird found her too big and juicy to resist - but we're assuming she's relocated :-) Here is a recent portrait of her just prior to her 'relocation'.

We started Mother's Day with a lovely family breakfast out. Michael was lucky enough to again receive footie tickets from one of the teachers. We will be joining the teacher exchange group as a whole family in a couple of weeks, so I was quite happy to let Pat join Mike for the day since he's recovering quite well from jetlag. I think that university practise of late hours has helped.

Freemantle played Hawthorne Hawks today at Subiaco in Perth. It was an exciting game with Freemantle going down early, battling back by the half, back and forth in the 3rd quarter. Mike took his 'good' camera this time and captured some great action shots. Even you don't know the rules, hopefully you can sense the excitement!


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And in the end, Freemantle won, so the hometown fans were very happy!