Category: Derby

Counting Down - 12 days until lift off

2/17/2011

Cheesus. It's getting close now isn't it?

Madly trying to get everything down whilst Cassy sits two postgraduate exams and I try to shrug off the ill effects of RaRaVee. There hasn't been any time at all for last minute sight seeing of Derby. Which is a blessing because with all the roads to the good spots closed there is nothing to see here!

Our house is about half packed ahead of the removalists coming on Wednesday. And we have a couple more things to smash the place into tenantable condition. Then we just have to say goodbye, leave and start the journey.

We are taking the slow approach to our travels. Friends of ours (Adam and Vanessa of catching barramundi fame) have just gone to Canada from Derby. They did the drive to Broome, fly to Perth, fly to Melbourne, fly to USA, fly to Canadia all in one long push. I think they said 36 hours of travelling. We are taking a more leisurely route.

In 9 days we drive from Derby to Broome with Sam and Ayesha. We overnight in Broome to take in some fine foods and a last look at Cable Beach. Then we fly to Perth for two nights. We leave Perth at 5am on Tuesday morning and fly to Sydney then on to LA. We then overnight in LA to try to kill some of the jet lag before heading to Vancouver the next day. Basically we are taking four times as long to do the trip as Adam and Vanessa.

But I still reserve the right to whinge about jetlag....

J

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RaRaVee

2/17/2011

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So I picked up Ross River Virus. Probably on our New Year's Trip to Kununurra.

Symptoms include swollen joints, incessant whining, sore eyes, incessant whining, joint pain, incessant whining and lethargy. But not your normal sleep 18 hours a day can't get out of bed lethargy (although there is a little bit of that). More a sloth like inability to get motivated about anything. And a desire to stay firmly planted on the couch where the sore joints get sorer and the mind starts to think that maybe a life frumping about is a worthwhile life.

Sounds like the perfect ailment to have when you are about to embark on a long cycling tour of Europe. N'est pas? (I have still managed to find the energy to read my old high school French books).

But there is a massive upside to the RRV. Now we won't have to fork out for an electric bike for Cassy so that she can keep up with me in the Pyrenees. It is like a handicap system.

J

PS (My RRV hasn't stopped me posting on our website. Unlike Cassy's exam mania...)

P.P.S. It's me, the other. Babe - you totally forgot to mention how the RRV has made you into a MASSIVE whiner! How did you forget that? RRV got your brain?
I will NOT need a motor for my bike. If I hav to - I will break one of your long, long legs to ensure I can keep up.
I ride unaided.
C.

P.P.S.S. What happened to the rule about not spraying graffiti all over the other's blog. I will be showing this to our existential detectives.
J

P.P.P..S. what the hell? There was no such rule! You didn't let me know that rule! Besides - I TRIED to put it in as a comment, but Weebly foiled me (I was too dumb). Is this graffiti too? Or is it coversation now that you've answered? Why can't I put in comments??
C.
P.P.P.P.S. I don't think you're meant ot

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How to Catch a Barramundi

1/21/2011

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Step 1 - Move to the Kimberley. It is logical that fish with good tastes will taste good. Freshly caught barramundi tastes exceptionally good. Fish like that is not going to waste its time hanging around the southern half of the country.
Step 2 - Find some friends with a nice boat. Be extremely kind and complimentary to these friends. Our friends are Adam and Vanessa but it is acceptable to find friends with different names. (NOTE: You needn't be their best friends. If they invite their best friends away for the weekend but their best friends are unavailable then second best is good enough.)

Step 3 - Earn yourself a weekend away with the friends on the boat. (NOTE: if you want to avoid extreme awkwardness over the course of the weekend, and I am speaking from personal experience here, make sure you take plenty of alcohol for you and your friends. And by plenty I mean too much.)
Step 4 - Enjoy the feeling of wind in your hair as you contemplate how you are going to outwit the barramundi.

Step 5 - Get plenty of rest to conserve your energy for the hunt.

Step 6 - Put a lure on your line. Cast early and cast often. Cast late and cast repeatedly.
Step 7 - This is the critical element of barramundi fishing. The cast that catches your barramundi will always be preceded by your beloved partner making a disparaging comment about your casting technique. In my case the comment was "that cast was pathetic - you will never catch anything with a cast like that".

Step 8 - Haul in your barramundi (with a little help from your friends).

Step 9 - Pose for a photo. (Note that I am wearing my lucky hat. I didn't realise it was my lucky hat until I caught the barramundi. Only then did the hat's magical qualities reveal themselves.)

Step 10 - Become really excitable and celebrate a little bit too much while your friend does all the hard work preparing the fish.

Step 11- Enjoy eating the fish the same day that you caught it. Preferably remind your partner of their disparaging comments about your successful cast and insist that they put their culinary skills to work preparing a delicacy. Freshly caught barramundi tastes so good that no-one will be willing to put down their cutlery to take a photo.

J

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Counting down - 49 days until lift off!

1/11/2011

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And so it begins. 49 days left in Derby. 30 days left of work (for some of us...).
Then, the frantic scramble to Perth and away, away....to Los Angeles, and then onto our NY digs and then Europe (to live out my cheese fantasy).
As the rains and wind whip around Derby - we wonder (hopefully) if we can survive any cyclone that comes and make our escape to The World...C.

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