Fuel's Not Cheap In Perth

Quit complaining about the price of fuel where you are and think about we poor buggers in Perth - check out the price this morning! Oh, by-the-way, there wasn't anybody filling up either.

Busy Night For Making Memes

I have been a little inspired tonight. Not sure why.

Not sure who is making ghostly howling noises meme

7 Day Forecast for Perth meme

Tomic to consider his future meme

Felix Baumgarnter - new diving champion meme

Don't Trust A Forecast Predicting Rain In Perth

The weather forecaster who predicts rain in Perth can never be trusted. I've seen it happen before whereby rain was predicted all week and we didn't get a drop. This week they've forecast wetness from Tuesday to Sunday. Let's see if they're right, even if it is winter.

There's an old saying - "Everyone talks about the weather but no-one can do anything about it." Perhaps that should be updated - "Everyone talks about the weather but no forecaster can ever predict it correctly."

Let's see if anyone trys to steal credit for this meme of mine.

Perth's Weather Forecast meme

Melbourne-Tassie Holiday 2011 - Day 15

Overnight it was pouring with rain which made me very glad that I looked at Cradle Mountain last night as it would be shrouded in cloud and an utter disappointment today. And so it proved to be. After breakfast I looked for some fuel but it was $1.965/L at the visitor centre and I asked if fuel would be available in the town of Moina, some 24 kms away. A woman who lived in Perth but worked at the park said that it would be.

In a bid to conserve fuel I drove at 60-70 km/h which was a good idea as the cafe/servo at Moina was closed for winter. Winter which finished six weeks ago mind you. The nearest fuel was, you guessed it, at the visitor centre 24 kms back up the road (and up the mountain). I decided to drive to Staverton and was a little disappointed to find only three or four houses and one antique fuel bowser. Knocked on a couple of doors to ask where the nearest petrol station was and one guy told me that it was 15 kms down the road (in Sheffield). Drove very slowly until we reached Sheffield then discovered a petrol station that was completely automated. I must have driven for close to 25-30 kms with the low fuel light coming on and off.

On the journey to put fuel in I'd noticed a sign for a town called Nowhere Else and decided to backtrack to investigate. Turned out to be nothing more than a couple of farms. Bit of traffic about though.

Nowhere Else sign

Back in Sheffield I found murals all about the town. No wonder they call it the Town of Murals. Very pretty and a great tourist attraction. Bought some souvenirs and asked for directions to Marakoopa for the caves to which the shop owner quickly provided a map.

As I approached the turnoff for Marakoopa Caves I noticed that we only had a few minutes until the next tour started - but we weren't the last to join. Brian, the guide, gave a great tour complete with stalactites, stalagmites, mightytites, flow, melted cheese, straws, pendutites, two rivers and glowworms! He has done more than 1755 tours. We went 400m inside the cave and weren't disappointed. The fine for breaking off some of the furniture for a souvenir is $15,000 and they've fined three people to date. Tour finished at 1pm and we headed to Perth, Tasmania. I drove quite slowly as fuel was getting low once again.

By the time we arrived in Perth it was raining quite heavily. No postcards available, except at the post office which was closed, so we hunted for food. I ate a wallaby sausage at Utsi - a cafe made from a converted church. The lady at the visitor centre at Cradle Mountain had said to try the food there. Finally found a place that sold food, the restaurant at the petrol station, and we had nachos and a King Island pie. Not bad.

Asked for directions to the airport, as there were two ways to go. They told me the quicker way which was about three kilometres further - not that I had the fuel for it.

Well, I'm sure that the car was out of fuel. My rental agreement was that I purchased a tank of fuel and any fuel that was in the vehicle was free for Avis. They weren't getting any freebies from me, not after the insurance incident at the start of the car hire. At Avis' desk the girl tried to inform me that the total price payable would have fuel added to the rental/insurance, etc, but I pointed out that I had paid for a tank of fuel. After telling her she was then able to inform me that I was correct. Their slogan, "We Try Harder", may be correct in that they try it on. Not a pleasant experience, really.

Quite a queue for the check-in for Qantas Link. And right behind us was a Japanese family that took the cave tour with us. Down in the waiting lounge there was a Jetstar flight that was delayed for 30 mins. We started boarding at our scheduled departure time and so were some 20-25 mins late in leaving. With a 150 km/h headwind we weren't going to make up any time into Melbourne. No probs as we had four hours to kill anyway.

Melbourne-Tassie Trip 2011 Photo Album No.3 - See photos 105-162.

It's Almost As Though Perthites Have Never Seen Rain

It's rained on 14 out of the last 18 days in Perth. A few days back I tried to buy a replacement umbrella as my expensive golf brolly had bitten the dust. The local Bunnings warehouse had all sold out. That meant getting wet a couple of times before purchasing a travel brolly. I was unable to find a proper umbrella at another Bunnings warehouse, at Kmart, at Coles, at Officeworks or at Woolies. You'd think that people in Perth, Perthites, had never seen rain.

With another four days of rain forecast it looks like I might get wet a couple more times yet.

A Walk Down Wellington Street In Perth

Had a bit of time to myself the other day and went for a walk eastwards along Wellington Street in the city. I was interested to have a gander at the old buildings and the new. Especially wanted to see the new stadium although I don't know exactly what it is going to be used for as it is a bit on the small side. Construction seems quite well advanced though.

I realised a few things. There are some ugly old buildings in Perth. There are some ugly new buildings in Perth. And Perth isn't such an inviting place in the middle of winter on an overcast day (the days leading up to it were bathed in pleasant sunshine). Actually, I found it a bit depressing and wondered why any tourist would bother to visit. I giess that it didn't help that I was without a plan to see anything in particular. Still, I enjoyed seeing some of the older buildings which were in good nick.

A Walk Eastwards Up Wellington Street Then Up Pier Street Photo Album on Facebook.

Qualifying Rounds of the Red Bull Air Race 2010 in Perth

I attended the Red Bull Air Race in Perth today thanks to the generous hospitality of a couple of blokes I spend a lot of money with for work. They didn't skimp on the tickets and purchased Race Club tickets which entitled us to all the drinks and food we could eat along with seating in a grandstand. And we were right up close to the planes near the chicanes just after the start/finish gate.

It was a beautiful day full of sunshine and reached 26.7°C. The hosties did a wonderful job and you couldn't fault the hospitality. Red Bull puts on a great package. Managed to grab a few videos and nearly two hundred photos. That was nothing compared with the one-legged Japanese tourist who sat next to me. His camera was capable of taking 5-8 shots per second and boy did he take some photos.


Hannes Arch's 2nd Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th. Quality commentary from the Red Bull commentary team.


Matt Hall's 1st Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th.


Matt Hall's 2nd Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th.


Peter Besenyei's 1st Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th.


Peter Besenyei's 2nd Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th.

Dorky looking bloke in the stands.

Red Bull Air Race control tower.

Red Bull Air Race commentary team at work.

Red Bull Air Race advertising.

Japanese tourist with a serious camera.

Starting the second lap.

Paul Bonhomme's smoke is definitely on.

Nigel Lamb successfully advertising for Breitling.

Nice shot through the start gate.

Nice rounding of the chicane.

Just missed the competitor in the Red Bull Air Race.

I think the race stewards can see the smoke quite clearly.

Approaching starting gate on second lap.

Appears to be heading straight for the pylon.

This pilot has the best job.

Qualifying results.

Excellent vantage point.

Not sure what this plane was but his jet engine made for a great display.

The Roulettes in action.

The Roulettes in formation above Perth.

Mirror image formation by The Roulettes.

Candlelit Dinner - But Without The Romance

On Sunday afternoon the weather forecast was for a thunderstorm to hit Perth's northern suburbs at around 8pm. They were expecting 20-25mm of rain and the storms could hang around until Tuesday morning. Surprise, surprise but there was no storm and no rain on Sunday night.

I took the umbrella to work on Monday though. Just in case. At 4pm, when I left from work, there was an eerie light outside. And the street lights were already on. The clouds were foaming and I was in half a mind to video them. Only minutes later and it started raining and reasonably hard too. As soon as I got on the bus it started hailing. The hail was only the size you normally see though. By the time I reached my stop it had ceased raining.

The Boy and I went to taekwondo training. It's a fifteen minute drive south of our house. All of the traffic lights from Carousel Shopping Centre down to the taekwondo centre were out. We parked the car and walked to the centre. It was still dry. Within 10 minutes, before our class started, the wind was blowing fiercely and the driving rain was incredible. You could barely see house lights only a few hundred metres away. I was very glad to be commencing my training and not leaving in that weather.

Minutes later I spoke with my instructor. My words were, "All of the lights are out from Carousel to," and blooomp!! All of the lights went out. I continued, "From Carousel to here!" He sent me to the back corner for being a jinx. The lights didn't come back on. They grabbed a couple of torches and we trained in torchlight. The instructor even mentioned that "It doesn't matter if you're not doing your exercise properly as I can't see you." It would have been interesting had we been able to do sparring in the dark. I guess the risk of injury was too great however.

No rain at the conclusion of training so it was a dry walk back to the car. As I was heading home in front of the council depot near our house I thought to myself, "I'm not driving my wife's relatively new car through that." The roadway was flooded whereas just an hour and a half previously it was dry.

Water is a bit deep on the roadway.

Would a temporary bridge be too much to ask?

Someone wants to go aquaplaning.

Miky had been battling a flood in the sewing room whilst we were away and there was no power. The sewing machine had been doused in water so it will be interesting to see if it has survived. Amazingly she still managed to cook a marvellous meal of bulgogi that was hot when served. We ate dinner by candlelight but it wasn't entirely romantic. Not that having the power on would have necessarily added to the romantic aspect but I think that it may have helped.

Complete lack of power meant that The Boy got out of having to do some homework. For a kid that is still apprehensive about the dark, which has a lot to do with a horrible video on YouTube that one of his classmates showed the class, he took it pretty well. We watched a few music videos on the laptop and had an early night.

Perth had 40mm of rain overnight and 23mm came within one 30 minute period. It was only a storm but you'd think that a cyclone had hit us. Apparently there is some A$100m worth of damage that's been suffered and somewhere between 75,000 and 150,000 homes lost power. Perth is not equipped for even a little storm.

Oh yeah, it took Western Power 25 hours to return power to us. Just enough time to almost defrost the freezer.

Branch-laden power lines.

Power lines seem to attract branches.

Fallen tree.

Is this a knock-down sale?

Pedestrians watch your step.

Watch your step alright.

If you want to see some of the real damage that I didn't experience then check out the following Websites.

Perth Now - Storm could rival 2005 deluge as one of the worst to hit the State

ninemsn - Freak storm dumps on Perth

ABC - Photos

Herald Sun - Thousands in the dark as storm batters Perth, Western Australia

ABC - Damage bill mounts as storm causes chaos

The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Shoes On

This morning I just experienced the most fun you can have with your shoes on. At least if you don't wear shoes within your abode, that is. On the way to the bus stop, following an overnight shower, I noticed that the snails were out in force. I managed to squash a total of 47 snails and 3 slugs during my 10 minute trek to the bus. That's one snail every 13 seconds you know.

There are rules to squash by:

- Snails on footpaths must be squashed.
- Snails on grass next to footpaths are fair game if you have the time.
- Snails on walls and fences are generally safe. You don't wish to pull a muscle or be seen to be acting like a weirdo by passersby.

We've had a wet start to spring. So far we've experienced rain on 17 out of the 18 days of September. The average is for 15 days of rain for the month (although stats I found indicate that it's 11.6 days with greater than or equal to 1mm of rainfall). And the forecast is for showers every day the next week.

And still the snails keep coming. There's no end to them. And now you can see why I'm not allowed to wear shoes in the house.

Perth Forecast from Bureau of Meteorology


Perth Monthly Figures from Bureau of Meteorology


Perth Climate Statistics from Bureau of Meteorology

Bureau of Meteorology

Cirque du Soleil

We attended Cirque du Soleil - Dralion on Friday evening. I've never been before but have seen a little bit on the telly. A few people from my office caught the show this year and they all had good things to say about it. Tickets weren't cheap but they were worth it. In a word: magical. To use a few more words: enthralling, wonderous, spectacular, blah blah blah. It was fabulous.

Now, if one of the guys at work hadn't pointed out that the theme was East meets West, Dragon meets Lion hence the name Dralion, I wouldn't have known. I couldn't tell what the story was. Nevermind. See it if you can. I'm not going to spoil it for you. It's only in Perth for another week or so (March 25th, in fact).

Cirque du Soleil by day.

Cirque du Soleil bin nacht.

South Perth Foreshore View

Last night we had a meal at Dome Cafe in South Perth. Very nice food and served quite quickly also. The girl who served me had very difficult English to understand and it surprised me to find that she was Korean. Miky wanted to take her sister along the foreshore after tea to get some photos of the sun reflecting off the buildings in Perth.

The view was quite nice and the new Wheel of Perth was clearly visible. It was a lovely evening and the mozzies didn't start to bother us until close to 9:30pm.

Photos - follow the link

Perth from South Perth Foreshore album on Facebook.

Perth's Newest Monument - Italian Abruzzese Association Statue

For several months during our lunch time stroll we have overseen the construction of what has become Perth's newest monument. It is a statue depicting an Italian family arriving as migrants in Australia. The Italian Abruzzese Association spent five years planning, building and fundraising for this monument and the finished product is quite appealing.

Italian Abruzzese Association Statue, Lake Vasto, Perth
Front view of Italian Abruzzese Association Statue, Lake Vasto, Perth

When we first noticed the construction work one of our group asked what was going on and we were informed about the plan. Apparently there was one town in Italy of 25000 inhabitants and 8000 of the townspeople migrated to Australia. I don't think they all came to Perth as that would account for all the residents of Mt Lawley and Wanneroo.

Taiko Drums For TaikOz

Here's a video I prepared earlier. March 2006 earlier. Just thought that I'd put it out there on Youtube.



It's some Japanese Taiko drum players and they were fabulous. I'd go to listen to them again should they return to Perth.

Hot Couple Of Days

It usually starts heating up in November and this year is no exception. Still spring time but that doesn't seem to be the point. On Sunday it was going to be warm and so that meant an ideal opportunity to clean the air conditioner. And it needed it. And we needed it a bit later on in the day as the temperature climbed to 37.0 degrees (98.6 F). I also replaced one of the garden sprinkler heads and the aerator on the bathroom tap. Didn't get around to fixing the laundry tap but that will happen.

Yesterday, the start of the working week, was even hotter. The mercury rose to 39.8 degrees (103.6 F) which meant only a short walk at lunch time. By the same time next week it's supposed to be only 22 degrees (71.6 F) so things can turn around quite quickly.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth

Yu-Jin and I attended the Red Bull Air Race held above, only just, the Swan River yesterday. It features daredevil pilots racing at up to 400 km/h only 15m above the water and carrying out loops, knife maneouvres and perhaps a few barrel rolls afterwards if you're lucky.

We had a reasonably good spot although we were in the sun. Bringing a tent next time would be a good idea. There were two formation flying displays prior to the elimination round whereby the 12 pilots who had qualified would be cut down to eight who would then be matched in quarter finals, semi finals and the grand final.

Yu-Jin lost interest before the elimination round was finished. Following that I let him play on the playground where he met one of his classmates. He then joined some boys playing football. We then had an ice cream each as it was approaching 30 degrees.

Back to racing by this time for the quarter finals. The two men who could still win the world championship, Paul Bonhomme and Mike Mangold, were paired against each other. Mangold won this duel, after trailing by 0.05 seconds at the last marker, and went on to take third place and the world championship on countback.

Time to go home. I didn't have intentions to stay the whole day anyway and could watch the rest on television. Luckily it was being beamed live to the eastern states and so was on a two hour delay to Perth.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 held above the Swan River in Perth.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 Low Flying by one of the Red Bull team, probably Peter Bensenyei.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth knife edge+manoeuvre between the quad pylons.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth Red Bull Plane between pylons.

Plenty of dunnies on hand.

Interested spectators with a decent view in South Perth.




Michael Goulian in the Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth elimination round.




Mike Mangold in the Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth elimination round.




Mike Mangold vs Paul Bonhomme in the Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth quarter final.




Paul Bonhomme vs Mike Mangold in the Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth quarter final.

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