Things are much the same here for me. Work's going well, and I work my first weekend shift tomorrow. Today, however, I got bitten by a mulloway (a fish). My finger just looks like I've got a couple paper cuts, so it's nothing serious or painful. Pretty amusing, though. It happened while I was feeding the fishies. Really, the worst part about it was that I had to wear a glove the rest of the day while I helped in the kitchen. Peeling onions and butterflying shrimp while wearing a glove is a challenge!

A Work Update

I've worked nearly every morning this week at the aquarium/restaurant. I've learned a lot about all the fish and the aquarium set-up. Mostly, it's pretty easy stuff (scrubbing the tanks, feeding the fish), with the occasional bit of variety - collecting sea weed from the ocean, teaching the kiddies, cleaning the sand filter out in the ocean, getting soaking wet.

The other staff that I've met so far have been great. There are a few exceptions but they aren't people I have to work with often.

Today, there was no school tour coming so the aquarium work was all done by about 9am. Since it takes me about 30min to get there, the managers have been great about offering to extend my shift on such days. Today, I buttered rolls and made garlic bread for about three hours. Not exactly intellectually stimulating but I was in the kitchen, chatting with the cooks and chefs. Most days it'll either be the bread or the salads that I'll be prepping. And perhaps I'll work my way up to serving, but I'd rather smell like garlic bread than fish and chips!

I'm looking to move down closer to Fremantle in a few weeks. The girl I'm sharing a room with will be moving in mid-April. And the more time I spend in Freo (as the locals call it. not sure why), the more I really like it. There are neat old buildings, and it's got lots of beaches nearby. The markets are really fun on weekends, too.

This weekend, the weather's supposed to be a bit cooler so I think I'll go to Scarborough Beach and watch some of the Surf Life Saving competition. It'll be packed but as I won't have to drive, I'm not too worried about it. And I'm quite excited to see something that's so 'australian'.

Diving!

I had two great dives today around Rottnest Island. Early start to the day as we had to meet in town at 7:30am! But once we got there, just checked in and left to drive to Fremantle by about 7:45. A bunch more people met us at the dock and it turned out we had a very full boat! We finally got to the island by about 9:30 or so. We traded some of the people on the boat (snorkellers) for some more divers from the island and headed off for the morning dive with about 18 divers or so.

Because I was signed up to do a refresher course (I hadn't been diving in 5 years!), I pretty much had an instructor to myself. The other two instructors on board each had four students with him. So my buddy/teacher and I decided we'd be about the last ones off the boat and headed off for dive number one. We were at a reef and rocks area with lots of swim-throughs and big caves. Tons of fish to see, and even more to see on the ground! I won't bore you all with the details because I could go on. And on. And on. But my favourite things this dive were these big bright orange sponges and the Codium, a really neat kind of algae. Also on this dive, I practiced getting my buoyancy (evil fin pivots) and regulator recovery/clearing. Important things to learn. I wasn't going to do a mask clear because of my contacts but then I wiggled it and had to do a partial one anyways. Ah well. Just a little water up the nose. Did about 35min on the bottom, to a depth of 11m (about 35').

Back on the boat, we headed back to the shop for lunch. The shop staff filled up our tanks while we ate and then back on the boat. Where we all got to put on our nice wet wetsuits! I, however, had taken mine off the boat and let it dry in the sun a bit so it wasn't too bad. I thought about leaving it on, but as it was nearly 30 degrees, I really had to take it off.

The second dive had a few things to see - 2 small wrecks and a reef wall. We started at the reef and saw a really really big fish. And apparently there was a ray, but I missed it! Too busy checking out the big urchins dug into the reef. Navigation down there was really tricky because the wrecks had some steel cargo and it messed with the compass. We found the first wreck which was pretty unrecognizable as a boat, but covered in plants and animals. Didn't get to the second wreck but I was happy. We spent nearly 45 minutes underwater on this dive, and only needed to go about 7m to see everything.

Overall, they weren't the best dives I've ever done but they were a great refresher and confidence booster! And I'm really excited to get up to Exmouth and see the Ningaloo Reef. Next month some time, I'm hoping!

And tomorrow's another early day. I have to be on the bus by 6:10 for my first day at work!

Perth photos

In this batch, there are photos of Scitech (the science centre here), the State Museum, the beach, and my house.



I'm all moved in here. Didn't take long! Went grocery shopping today - it's a bit far, but I'm hoping that there'll be a supermarket on the bus route between here and work. I'll find out on Monday.

It's Saturday here, and it's been great to have a bit of a lazy day. And it'll be an early night as I've got to leave at around 7am tomorrow for diving at Rottnest Island. I'm super excited to finally get diving. And the other aquarium staff said they sometimes go diving after work so if I can find a place to rent gear, that would be so fun!

My first day/trial day at the job went really well. A nice, controlled school tour for 55 or so 5-6 year olds. Right! Chaos, but the good kind where everyone's having fun. We talk about sea stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, rock lobsters, and Port Jackson sharks. The kids get to touch everything, even the sharks! We take the babies out, and they actually really like getting their heads scratched! The rock lobsters are a bit intimidating, too, but not as bad as a dungeness crab because the lobsters have no pinchers. I'll try to take some photos of work this week.

And that's about all from me.

So, I move into a share house tomorrow (Friday). It's in South Perth, just across the river from downtown. There are 5 or 6 bedrooms in the house, plus a tv room, kitchen, laundry, outdoor patio/barbeque, etc. It's nice and close to the bus route and other important things like a 24hr convenience store and a video rental place. Since I'm sharing a room (with a German girl I met at the hostel), it's a very cheap place to live.

Also on Friday, I go for a trial for a job. It sounds a bit strange, but I'd be an aquarium assistant at a fish and chip's place in Fremantle. Not looking after the fish for eating but they have a big aquarium set-up and offer school touch pool/beachcombing workshops. Basically, I'd be cleaning the tanks, feeding the fishies, and looking after the school groups. And a few other things that will require snorkelling (collecting seaweed and cleaning the sand filter). The shop is called Cicerello's. It sounds like, as long as I like it and they like working with me tomorrow, I'll have a job starting Monday.

I'm booked in to go for a refresher diving course on Sunday. I'll do two dives on Rottnest Island with an instructor. Since I wanted to dive Rottnest anyways, it works out perfectly. And then I'll be all ready to go for diving up North. And also the other aquarium staff go diving after work sometimes.

That's about all I've got going on right now. Nothing too touristy lately. And once I've got photos of the house, I'll do a picture post with the other few Perth photos I've taken so far.

Happy Spring Break to everyone who's got a break! And I hope all you SW people are surviving it okay!

Perth

Settling in here in Perth, and I'm actually going to look at a room to rent tonight. I'll let you know how it goes but I'm quite excited about it. Over the weekend, I puttered around in a couple interesting places.

Saturday I went to Freemantle which is about 30min away by commuter train. It's an old fashioned sort of place, with cool old buildings and a nice port town sort of feeling. For you Vancouver people, it's a bit like if Granville Island were its own town. And if it had an old prison, which makes the analogy fall apart. But Freemantle's got a couple weekend markets that have buskers around and really good fresh produce. And there are tons of bookshops around town, so lots to see there. I quite enjoyed myself, even though I didn't go to the prison. I think I'll save that for another trip down.

Sunday I headed to Cottesloe Beach. It was very beachy. They had an outdoor sculpture display going on so the beach had all kinds of weird things on it. There was even a giant 8-ball out in the ocean. Odd. Being a Sunday, the place was packed but there were still lots of places to swim and sit. My first dip in the Indian Ocean! It's refreshing! Quite wavy, as well, so I had a nice time bobbing around. Cottesloe's about 30min SW of downtown on the bus. Quicker on the train but a) it wasn't running on Sunday morning and b) the train station's about a 30min walk from the beach. Sunday was, overall, a lovely day on the beach. Except that I left my blue UBC hat somewhere and I'm very upset. I'll have to pick up a new hat today, I guess.

Other than Freo and Cottesloe, I spent a couple hours at Scitech, the science museum here. I saw a really cool planetarium show (in a mini omnimax theatre!) but the rest of the place was quite small and unexciting overall. It looked like they have a neat lab set-up for school programs and after school classes.

If I've been up to anything else, it hasn't been very exciting. I am hoping to get some diving in here near Perth, and then in a few weeks up north. There's a cyclone or three going through right now, though, so I'm not exactly sure when I'll be travelling up there yet.

Random Observations

I'm in Perth but haven't done much exciting yet. I did get up to the gardens on Monday and enjoyed some views of the city and the river. Mostly, I've been just getting to know the city a bit, started looking for a job and other such dull things. I'm in a new hostel now, Governor Robinsons and I love it here. It's so clean and friendly. Best part, though, is that it's got a/c. Fantastic stuff!

So because I have nothing to say regarding my current situation, I thought I'd share with you some little tidbits I've observed the past month:

-No coffee shops or restaurants (other than Starbucks) have drip coffee. It's all espresso drinks and I find it rather odd. In fact, very odd. I miss my cheap refillable coffee at Joe's!

-Speaking of coffee, I've been in and around quite a lot of downtown Perth and haven't seen any Starbucks yet. I kinda feel like I'm on another planet, but I'm not complaining! The only good thing about Starbucks is that it's like MacDonald's - you know exactly what you're going to get!

-There's a nationwide chain of athletic shoe stores called The Athletes' Foot. Amusing!

-There are very few Americans around, at least in hostels. There was one lady from Hawaii on the Kangaroo Island tour and Lindsay and I had a really loud one behind us on the flight from Fiji to Sydney but I'm pretty sure that's it.

I left my notebook with other notes in my room, but I know there are more. Maybe I'll do this more often.

Oh, and for those I told I'd be getting a post office box - turns out you need to have a street address first, so I'll just wait until I have a flat. I can hopefully use the hostel address to get bank and tax stuff started, though. Project for tomorrow!

Glenelg Photos

So, I'm in Perth now, have been for a couple days. I'll save all that for next time because I've got some photos and such from when I was in South Australia.

First up, we’ve got some photos from Glenelg, mainly sunsets but there’s also the town square and such.



This one, with all the trees is kinda neat. The trees are Norfolk pines, very pretty trees and pretty common around here in SA. They were planted by explorers and settlers because they’re really straight and it was thought they’d make good masts. A couple problems with that, though. One, by the time they were big enough to be masts, well, it was probably the 1950s and the demand for wooden masts had kinda dropped off. And two, you can see that all the branches come out radially (all around the trunk at each height) and this causes the trunk to be really weak at all those spots (a really bad quality in a mast). Anywhere you see them down here, though, tells you that there was a settlement there back in the late 1800s or even farther back.



Let’s see, what else is there to say about Glenelg? A couple nights while I was there, right after sunset, I got to watch a really funny hula-hoop show put on by these two girls, Stacey and Tracey. They call themselves, ‘Two chicks with circus tricks and great shoes.’ They change the shoes for the acrobatics but for the intro to the show, they had sparkly heels on. Overall, quite a good show, and they’re local, too.

Oh and the free bus around Glenelg (aka ‘the bay’ to locals) is called the Bay City Roller. I didn’t take it (it’s not that big a place!) but I did grab a brochure because the name amused me so.

Last night in Adelaide, had quite a good time. Watched a four-piece band in the street for a while. They were really funny and talented. They had a show somewhere that night but I’d already made plans to hang out with some girls in my room. One of them, we roomed together a couple nights in Melbourne, and even played Scrabble together. So strange (and great!) that we were in the same room again.



Wandering through town last night, there were lots of people around because of the Clipsal. Justine and I worked it out; Clipsal’s kinda like Indy in Vancouver. Now it all makes sense! Ooh, and I saw a couple of mounted police last night - I didn’t know they had such things here but it was fun to see.

And at some point, while I was in Glenelg and it was 37degrees, I went to see ‘Miss Potter’. It’s quite delightful, even if it doesn’t have much in the way of plot. The drawings are delightful and Renee Zellwegger was less annoying than usual. She’s better when she’s got an English accent, I’ve decided, because the last film I liked her in was Bridget Jones. And Ewan MacGreggor sings, which is never a bad thing. If you love the Beatrix Potter books, then you’ll probably enjoy the movie.

Glenelg

Glenelg is the lovely seaside suburb of Adelaide. It's aboust 30min away by tram and is right on the open ocean (or at least that's what it looks like!). The sunsets here are amazing, the shops are all quite touristy and the fish and chips are fantastic. I'm staying in the only backpackers around, the Glenelg Beach Hostel. It's not quite on the beach but it's quite close. It's also the first place I've stayed that has no bunk beds. The weirdest thing about the place, though, has to be that it's so similar to the house I lived in in Dunedin, NZ. Big old rooms, window seats, the lot. Very cool, actually, but I wouldn't want to be here in the winter!


Glenelg is super busy right now, but not because of the beach. There's some race - Clipsal - happening all weekend just up the hill a bit. I think it's a car race, but I could be wrong. There are loads of middle-aged men in sunnies* and strange racing jerseys around this morning. And the hostel's packed!

Mostly I've been trying to find a bit of shade near the sea (easier said than done), getting up early to swim and lay on the beach and meandering. I also booked my ticket to Perth - I leave Sunday at 3:20pm and get in at 5something pm. I'm quite excited!

Today's plan (it's not quite 10am yet) is to take the tram back into Adelaide and have a shady day, perhaps in the gardens or maybe even inside. I'll be back in Glenelg for the sunset, though!

No photos yet, as my camera just kept forgetting to come along to the beach! But tonight I'll snap a few for you lot.

*sunnies is Aussie/Kiwi for sunglasses (they're not scary!)