Swimming with Sharks

Two doves in our garden recently became parents. Their eggs hatched a few days ago and their babies are already quite big and their eyes have opened too.

Here's mum or dad (can YOU tell the difference?!) who came back for some feeding. During the day they don't really sit on the nest anymore. It's very warm so they babies won't get cold.

We went to the post office to post stuff and pay bills.

It was a very warm day (27C inside our flat!) and in the evening I just wanted to swim in the sea. I just had to. It was calling me :-)

Right. I was going to write about a fin that we saw in the distance. About twice as far away from the beach as I was. It was definitely not the dolphins but we didn't think it was a shark either. They spotted a great white last week but that would've been gone by now and you don't get many great white's here.

So out of curiosity I check the news and guess what?

It was a f*cking shark. And not a toy shark either. Actually even bigger than the one we had last week aparently. It must've been about 100 metres away from me. Check the story in our quality news paper or look at more photos.

It also explains why we saw a speed boat racing towards the area where we saw the shark. Probably police or something. The scary thing is that there was also a guy on a jet-ski that we couldn't find anymore when we left.

Scary.

WTF?

I just happened to come across this picture. If anybody can PLEASE explain to me what the f@*k is going on here that would be much appreciated.

We have sun

Guess...

Someone dumped 500 kilos of bread in the park. I think all the pigeons in 1 square mile must have come over for the party.

Speaking of pigeons, the one featured in yesterday's blog got buried at the crack of dawn today. It indeed died before we went to bed last night, in peace, under the tree.

For some reason there were TV crews around the place. This one is from ABC.

It may have had to do with this bunch of people. I have no idea what it was about. I heard something about poverty...

After work I waited for Nicole outside at Victoria square and spotted another one of her ads driving past.

We drove down to Henley beach to get some Thai food.

The ground floor of the building in the distance houses the Thai Orchid, our new favourite Thai restaurant as of late.

This is the view from there.

After dinner we walked up the jetty and we saw this dude going for a swim with his two dogs.

The beach was actually quite busy. Funnily enough I was saying to a colleague this afternoon how few people there are at the beaches here usually. I think this is the second time I jinxed myself this week.

Looking down the jetty.

Looking to the North.

Sunset.

The railing of the jetty is worn by ropes from fishermen pulling in their crab nets.

Farewell Mr/Ms pigeon

Lunchtime was spent at Victoria square again. Just because it's awesome. It's sunny, warm, dry and peaceful. And the sound of the water is soothing, it makes you calm and relaxed. I ate a baguette with salami and I had a bottle of Nippy's orange juice.

When the benches are full, people plonk down in the grass. Under a tree, nice in the shade.

At home we've had a bit of a drama since the beginning of the week. Last Sunday this pigeon all of the sudden showed up with a broken leg. It managed to hop around on one leg the first few days but as of yesterday it was officially going down hill rapidly. When I came home it sat under or near the apricot tree and I gave it a bowl of water but he/she didn't want any. We went to the beach tonight to breathe some fresh sea-air and when we came back I checked and I think there's no life in it any more. I'm not a big fan of the pigeons in our garden coz they shit all over the place but I am still sad for this one. I hope it will reincarnate in to something nice.

Defeated by 250 years of experience...

After yet another productive but unplanned (and hence we're not happy with it) day at the office I took the bus down to Modbury around 17:00. I had never been on this one before which I liked a lot. I love riding on public transport.

This ride was especially cool because it drove over the O-bahn (why is this named in German?!?). The O-bahn is a stretch of road where only special equipped busses can drive. The driver just needs to operate gas and brakes, the steering is done automatically. Even better is that at most stretches the bus is allowed 80 or even 100 km/h.

The ride only took about 25 minutes and took me all the way to the other side of town. Super quick,
After only a five minute walk I reached the bowls club. Deceased members with a special status seem to get an entry or a green named after them. Not uncommon.

I got there early and waited for Nicole who maaged to flee work in time for dinner which we had at the bowls club. The day-time players were just rounding up.

Our team played a team of four older ladies. Old(er) but good. This is me with the ladies' team skipper. The 'skip' is the last one to bowl and usually it's the best bowler. However, we choose to rotate positions so that we all can experience different pieces of the action.

It was tough bowling against these ladies. I reckon there was about 250 years of total experience in their team. Neither team made many points and even though we came back pretty good in the second set of eight ends we lost by 12-9.

Well done ladies.

Afterwards we had some lucky draws. The most entertaining part was the microphone that kept cutting out. Here you see the four ladies against we played.

This is the free newspaper available. I guess they know what age group to target.

Ticket failed to validate and was ejected.

Crossing Grenfell street after work. It was warm and sunny, which reminded me of why I moved here :-)

I bought a new wallet the other week and put my bus ticket in a different spot. It got crushed a bit by the coins and now it wouldn't work. The bus driver gave me a "Ticket Problem Courtesy Slip" so I could get the remaining trips on it (8) refunded tomorrow. Their office is very close to my work.

At home I saw the dove sitting on his/her nest. You never know which one it is.

We went to Woolworths during dinner time. There was hardly anybody. Nicole explained someone where to find the vinegar after he asked two girls who worked there. They were clueless. I guess you actually have to pay good staff.

The PJ terrace

My colleague Mohit (left, other colleague Steve on the right side) celebrated his birthday today. He bought a big delicious cake and samosas. The samosas were also very nice and also original.

The cake and one samosa were enough not to need to get any more lunch.

I did go next door to get an orange juice though. Opposite the street the window washers were doing some abseiling once more. I think I've seen them do the windows there 4 times now while we are in our building and I never seen anybody washing our windows. Which explains why they are so filthy. Like our toilets. But that's a different story.

After work we went to P.J. O' Brien's. We sat outside for the first time there which was nice. We had a view on to the park across the road.

Nicole enjoying daylight savings. It's so nice to be able to sit outside again and it's still light!

When we came home I found a present from Gavin. An ORANGE cloth to polish my orange bowls!  (Not bAlls!)

Kaput

On Wednesday there is a national "Ride your bike to work" day. I was really looking forward to riding my bicycle to work. I was gonna give it a test ride this morning, just to see how I'd cope because it's not as flat as in The NL here. Especially in our suburb.

Well, I nearly passed out. I'm going to have to pass on riding to work I'm afraid. If I wanna stay alive, and I REALLY do, it's best if Nicole drops me off just like normal.

The roads here are just too steep for my bicycle. Certain parts incline at 20% even.

I have nothing else to report about today. It's very warm, nearly 30. The change from winter (10C) to spring(28C) is a little bit too sudden. I guess we'll get used to it this week.