Perth Royal Mint

The Perth Royal Mint is literally just up the road from where we are staying. We have no idea what used to happen inside because we have been too busy working to go and visit!

You can see the gates are firmly closed!

More information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Mint

Mike enjoys a nice Green Salad

After being told by our client that he was 'piling on the pounds' Mike has gone on a diet. You can see him enjoying a nice green salad for his tea.

"Fishing Trip"

My line manager asked what we where going to achieve on this business trip and I replied that we were planning to go 'big game fishing'. During the last couple of days that is exactly what we have been doing! You can see myself and Mike after a hard days graft 'out at sea' out at Fremantle Harbour.

The Perth Skyline

The Perth skyline is seriously impressive with many sky scrappers in the central business district.

The Bell Tower

The Bell Tower is an impresssive piece of architecture down by the Perth waterfront.

This historic ring of bells was gifted to the people of Western Australia as part of the national Bicentennial celebrations. The Bell Tower includes the twelve bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields which are recorded as being in existence from before the 14th century and recast in the 16th century by Queen Elizabeth I. The bells were again recast between 1725 and 1770 by three generations of the Rudhall family of bell founders from Gloucester in England, under the order of the Prince of Wales who was later crowned as King George II. They are one of the few sets of royal bells and are the only ones known to have left England.

A taxi driver told us the structure cost $6 million dollars to build and it cost the politician who wanted to build it his job! I must admit to rather liking the structure.

More information can be found at: http://www.swanbells.com.au/

Trip to Perth Western Australia

After some 10 hours travelling myself and Mike, one of my colleagues, arrived in Perth in Western Australia. We had a few problems connecting with our shuttle bus but we eventually arrived at our accommodation and we both jumped in to the pool to cool off.

Mike is showing how many times he tried to blag our way into an Air New Zealand Koruclub lounge. Needless to say he was successful on at least one occasion.

I have to take my hat off to him for his determination and effort!

The Mighty Waimakariri

One of the major landmarks that you see flying out of Christchurch is the mighty Waimakariri river. The Waimakariri is a threaded river teaming with fish and other wildlife and flows from the Southern Alps to the Pacific Ocean just north of Kaipoi.

Air New Zealand Empty Seats

Flying out of Christchurch on the international connection NZ90 brought home to me the scale of the current slowdown in the travel industry. The back of the Boeing 777 was just about empty with plenty of spare seats. I hope my former colleagues at House of Travel are all doing okay.

Two Jags

My brother and my sister-in-law have been to stay for a couple of weeks on their world tour. Andy has been working as a political lobbiest for a homeless charity and often meets with senior politicians in the UK and Europe.

On our obligatory day excursion to the 'West Coast' we called in to see his mate 'Two Jags' between Reefton and Greymouth. The two Jaguars have been up-ended and have been used as gate posts.

Sky ride

One of our neighbours has a helecopter and Jake and his mate Jordan have been promised a ride. Today was their lucky day and they were taken for a flight out towards the Torlesse mountains.

Our house can been seen on the top right hand side. If you look hard enough you will see me on my red tractor mower!

Papabear sets up Blog

After the very successful JOTI 2008 camp this weekend, papabear has set up his own blog. This can be found at the appropriately named http://oldbearnews.blogspot.com ;0)

Please feel free to pass on your comments!

JOTI 2008

It is hard to believe that the Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI) has come around yet again. We have again been back to Cotswold School this weekend and have been using IRC to contact scouts and guides around the world. We have had over 80 people attend the event.

A great time has been had by all and a big thank-you goes to the Bishopdale and Harewood Scouts team who have organised the event on behalf of the Torlesse scouts zone. I personally haven't laughed so much in a long time!

I have been running a seperate blog for the event which can be found here:

http://joti2008.blogspot.com/

I have a nasty feeling my colleagues are going to 'get me back' for some of my posts at the annual zone scout camp in January! I'll keep you posted on what happens.

The Vegetable Garden takes Shape

After a lot of hard work over the last few weeks the vegetable garden is starting to take shape. I decided to use raised beds because it makes it much easier to look after and it gives the plants some protection from the wind. I have been using some of the firewood that I bought earlier in the year so it has only cost me price of the nails to put together.

Real Compost

Rangiora Landscape Supplies do a 'veggie mix' compost which is ideal for putting on your garden. The compost is a mix of wood chippings, horse manure, chicken manure, pig manure and mushroom compost. It is a real wholesome product and it helps your veggies to grow. It costs NZ$15 (£5.25 ) per 1/3 cubic metre scoop and four scopes just fits in my trailer nicely.

The thing I like about this product is it is totally natural. It does NOT contain chicken blood, feathers, hatchery waste, meat products, food waste, human sewage or any of the many other unsavoury ingredients that DEFRA allows to be composted in the UK.

Rainbow

A weather front has just passed through and we have been left with clear blue skies and a beautiful rainbow.

The Veggie Garden Starts to Take Shape

The firewood has again been put to good use to make raised beds for the vegetable garden. We now have some 7 raised beds in production with another twelve cut out and ready for construction. The wooden frames provide protection from the nor'wester winds which can burn the leaves of the seedlings.

This box is a metre square and is about 30 cm high; it contains red cabbage and celery. The stones have been collected from digging the ground.

Fruit Bushes Planted

Over the last couple of weeks I have been busily planting the fruit bushes. To date, I have planted gooseberry's, red currents, black currents, raspberry's (early and late varieties), boysenberry's, blackberry's and blueberry's.

Roll on the summer!

Dining Room Sunsets

The sunsets from the dining room are breath taking ... absolutely fantastic.