Chris was here

Our first visitor has come and gone; a week we had the company of Chris, our friend from Nijmegen. Unfortunately he visited us alone, since Ryan is busy with the end-of-the-year-dealings at his office. We are pretty sure he liked it, cause Perth is in many ways similar to Nijmegen, just a little bit larger, slightly younger and more crowded. But the lay back attitude is the same and the people over here dress as bad as in Nijmegen, or maybe even worse. But...at least they are friendly which can often not be said for Amsterdammers.

The weather was great, not too sunny and a nice breeze in the evenings. Swanbourne Beach was a short drive (yes, we have a car: Ford KA, year 2000 with 70k on it), but you needed to shelter ones self from the hard wind that kept blowing sand particles. Next time, we're taking a tent with us as protection from too much sun and wind (and maybe a shark shield, cause there have been a few -fatal- attacks lately)

Talking about sun, this week we're getting our first taste of spring:

Preparations have been made: we bought a portable fan which will be on most of the night in the bedroom. Also we've fitted a removable bug screen to a window, so we can leave it open during the night. Living room has airco, so no problems there.
Last weekend was also Pride-weekend, with a parade at night! Probably, because of the weather conditions here, it's better to have the parade starting at 8.00 pm. It was actually not bad at all. The evening gave it a special dimension, together with the city's exuberant X-mas decoration.

More photos of the parade will follow, cause there still on Chris's mobile phone and he's currently in Kuala lumpur. Hmmm...wondering what he's doing there??!!

Beaufort Street Festival 2011

Wir konnten am Samstag das erste Nachbarschaftsfest geniessen, das Beaufort Street festival auf unserem 'Coffee Strip' nicht weit von zu Hause. Die Strasse war sogar abgesperrt fuer Autos und das in Australien, wow. Kunst, Kultur, Musik und viel Kulinarisches entlang ein paar hundert Meter Strasse. Viele Tausende waren unterwegs bei bestem Sonnenwetter. Wir haben es genossen, zumal der Fruehlung in voller Bluete steht, was man entlang jeder Strasse bewundern kann.

Abends sind wir noch zu den Musik Buehnen gegangen, fuer ein Bier mussten wir anstehen schoen in der Reihe und dann nur im abgesperrten Gebiet austrinken. Schon ein echter 'Nanny State' dieses Australien, man wird so richtig an die Hand genommen sobald Alkohol im Spiel ist. Hmm, muss es wohl einen Grund geben.

Mit dem nahenden Sommer steigt die Zahl der Festivitaeten. Schon naechste Woche das Freemantle Festival, dann das Uni Festival welches bis April dauert. Auf dem Uni Campus gibts dann Open Air Cinema, 'fully licened' fuer Alkohol und Picknick unter Suedlichen Sternenhimmel. Natuerlich nicht umsonst, die Dollar muessen reichlich fliessen. Also, an Kulturfestivals fehlt uns echt nicht.

Koalas in the Wild

It is already some time ago that we, for the first time since arrival, travelled to the other side of the continent together. First a day trip (7 hours flight) from Perth via Brisbane to Townsville in Queensland. I was already in Queensland for a mountain retreat meeting of our research group, a kind of team building exercise. We slept in small wooden houses in the middle of the mountain rainforest and all discussions and presentations outside.

After the retreat I met Andrew on Magnetic Island, our main destination for a long weekend. Our goal: Spot Koalas in the Wild. Magnetic Island is a small tropical island 20 minutes by Ferry off Townsville. We stayed in a lovely apartment close to the beach with Rock Wallabies (a small kanguru) and Possums (Beuteltier) in the Trees around us. But the most exciting experience we had was the 2 green frogs in the toilet every evening. Dont ask me how they got there.
Well, second day we went off to the Koala track and yes, we spotted the Koalas, an entire family with baby. Watch for yourself how cute they are.




We have already adopted a koala, we are now proud parents of Kane, born on the 9th November 2009, the 20th anniversary that the Berlin wall came down. What a coincidence.