COLOURFULWORLD

Linking with Tom's signs. For more signs from around the world please check his post.

Tuesday 5th - We celebrated Jose's 65th birthday by going to dinner at a swanky restaurant - Juniper and Bay, in the suburb of Como. 

It was our first time there, the restaurant was small and intimate, the service was fantastic and the food was beautifully presented as well as very tasty.

Saturday 9th - Another celebration for Jose's birthday, this time an early dinner at home attended by family and some friends, which was hosted in our patio. Luckily we had a nice warm evening.

I had ordered 4 dozens of a much loved Portuguese appetizer - Rissóis de camarão (Shrimp turnovers), from two young Portuguese ladies and went to fetch them on the day of the dinner and fried them before the guests arrived. They are just so delicious, but take ages to make, so I avoid making them.  I'll be ordering more for Christmas for sure!

Frozen Shrimp turnovers

Dessert table - I didn't take a photo of all entrees and mains

Monday 11th - Our verge collection was picked up by the Council. We get 2 hard waste and 2 green verge collections a year. 

A lot of people drive around in their vans looking for things they can re-use or even sell and it's actually sad that so many people discard very good pieces of furniture when there are so many platforms to give or donate them!

I have actually picked up a few pieces of furniture this way, and this time I got Jose to help me bring home a pine chest of drawers, from 3 houses down the street. The only thing wrong with it was 2 of the metal drawer runners had lost their screws... easily fixed, now I just have to prep it and paint it one of these days.

The truck and tractor picking the hard waste from the verge

Sunday 17th - The Portuguese/Australian Women's Association organized a Portuguese movie to be shown in one of the small movie houses in Perth's city centre, so Jose and I drove to the city and joined another 50 or so people for the screening of "Tabu".  A black and white movie, from about 10 years ago, very theatrical, the dialogue was slow.... Jose managed to fall asleep and he wasn't the only one, and I didn't enjoy it either.

Sign from the parking garage in the city

After the movie we walked across to Yagan Square to take photos of the "Perth" sign Spring flower installation. The installation displayed native and fresh flowers which marked the arrival of Spring. The display started on the 1st of September and would stay on for 3 weeks and the artist was Clare Cummings, aka "The flower girl" who is known for her larger than life floral street art.

Flower installation at Yagan Square, Perth

On the way home we stopped at Carousel shopping centre, 10 min from home and had an early dinner at Grill'd burgers.

Bacon burger (no bun for me)

Saturday 23rd - one of the members of our local "Buy Nothing" Facebook group, offered a "Stargazing in the park" event. He's a scientist, very clued up about astronomy and he took his own telescope to a nearby park. Neighbours were asked to take a picnic basket and their own chairs.

I invited my neighbour/friend Maria to come with us and we had a fantastic night. It was a pity not more people participated, but could have been because it was an unusually cold night at this time of the year.  The scientist said that he sets up his telescope in the park every 3 or 4 months, so hopefully with better weather more people will show up. 

It was a nice event to get to know more local residents and I was thrilled to get a photo of the moon and of Jupiter!  He even had a special attachment for mobile (cell) phones, hence the amazing photos!

Moon and Jupiter

Sunday 24th - the staff at the Clinic where I work were invited to dinner at Casa Delizia Italian restaurant in the suburb of Como, to farewell a Doctor who was returning to Queensland. She had been waiting for the completion of her apartment and moved to live with her daughter in Perth and we were lucky to have an extra Doctor 3 times a week for the last 18 months. 

On the way to the restaurant, just as I was exiting the freeway (highway), and just 3km from the restaurant, I heard a strange noise and realized that I had a flat tyre, (back passenger side) so turned into the first street I could, as soon as I exited the freeway.  I called Jose, then called my boss to say I would be late. She offered to come fetch me, but I needed to wait for Jose, who arrived 20 minutes later.

When he arrived he drove me to the restaurant, and went back to change the tyre, then returned to the restaurant to drop the keys and after dinner one of my colleagues dropped me off where the car was.

2nd flat tyre in 2 days!

Monday 25th - public holiday to celebrate King's Birthday (King Charles, that is), and I drove to Kings Park Botanic Gardens, where I met up with the lovely Grace, to visit the "Everlasting Kings Park Festival" - a yearly celebration of the diversity and beauty of Western Australia's wildflowers, during the month of September.

I took over 100 photos in the 3 hours I was there!

Wax flowers from Western Australia

The clock surrounded by wildflowers

Kangaroo Paws - the blue one was released just last year

I love the beautiful views from Kings Park over the city centre on the right side of the Swan River and the suburb of South Perth on the left side.

The Swan River with Perth to the right and South Perth to the left

Paper Daisies

Every year the Park chooses a theme for the Spring Festival and this year they asked people to crochet flowers, which were then used for this blossom arch.

At the entry to Aspects of Kings Park Gallery Shop

More floral creations inside Aspects of Kings Park Gallery shop

On the drive home, almost in the same spot of the freeway, but the opposite side, I once again heard a strange noise and thought : Oh no, that's not possible!!  Luckily I was able to stop immediately as there was a wide verge, got out of the car to find that the right tyre on the passenger side had also gone flat! What are the odds, of 2 flat tyres in 2 days, when I have never had a flat tyre in my whole driving life!!

I called Jose again who couldn't believe it! Anyway, being a public holiday everything was closed and my spare tyre had been used the day before. 

Big Brother is watching the freeway, and a few minutes later he called me to say that "Main Roads" had called him (the car is in his name) and said he should call me to sit in the car with the seat belt on and not stay in front of the car (even though I was miles away from it) and also that a free towing vehicle would come and tow the car to the next exit.

Jose drove to join me and soon after the tow truck arrived and took the car and we followed in Jose's car.  The car was "dropped" right in front of a garage, so we were hopeful that on Tuesday they would be able to substitute the 2 tyres.  

Wednesday 27th - hottest September day in Perth since records started being kept over 100 years ago, with 34.9C, (94.8F) (normal temps would be 23C/73.4F), considering that 2 weeks before we had a cold spell with rain, 80km winds, and maximum temperature of 18C/64.4F!  Talk about climate change!

Friday 29th - the month ended with me picking mulberries gifted by a neighbour on "Buy Nothing".

I went to a Kitchenware shop to buy pans for our camper van for our inaugural trip in October and saw these signs there.

Linking with Tom's signs:

At work we started the month by interviewing a couple of people for a receptionist job at the Clinic.

A lady in her early 40's with the required experience was chosen, she started on Monday 9th, and after 1 week's training by myself she thought she was ready to go it on her own. We always work in pairs, so even though I thought she needed more training, she was bright and seemed to learn fast, so we accepted her request. Sadly she didn't last long... She resigned on the 31st due to wanting more hours, she thought the job was too stressful, wasn't too happy to take direction if she did something wrong...  

On Friday 13th, we went to dinner at Two Fat Indians Restaurant at Carousel Shopping Centre. We like their food, but this time I ordered some "mild spicy" chicken dish, but their mild is far too hot for me!

I like the Masala Laboratory sign

My French class colleague Suzanne had asked me to paint this old chest of drawers. It belonged to her brother who died last year, and she wanted it to be fixed up and painted so she could give it to his partner. It was in a pretty bad state, with drawers that needed to be glued, the backboard was in pieces, there was a bit of damage to the top, no stoppers on most of the drawers, each drawer had about 10 holes on each side from various handles it might have had during it's life...

It took me many hours to repair it, sand and paint it to give it a masculine but modern look, using "Coal Black" by Fusion Mineral Paint, and an "Ash" wash on the drawers, covered by Cappuccino Stain and Finishing Oil, which helped disguise the various holes and  added new Cup drawer pulls. It got a new wood top stained in Cappuccino, and a new backing board. 

When we delivered it to Suzanne on Saturday 14th, she was very happy with the new look and thought I hadn't asked for enough money for all the work I did, so gave me some extra, which was very kind of her. Hopefully it will now last a few more decades.

Sunday 15th, with a temperature of 24C we spent the day in the garden doing the much needed job of weeding and repotting some plants. 

And we even had a light lunch in the garden...  Indian meat samosas (that I bought at the South African shop) served with coleslaw salad and a bowl of strawberries and cream with a dash of Port wine.

With the warmer weather the birds are more active in the garden and I managed to get a few (not so good) photos with my mobile.

A pink and grey cockatoo (or galah), a rainbow lorikeet eating our loquats that are now ripening, a Honeyeater, mourning doves and a magpie-lark sharing the dove's seeds

On Friday 20th, Jose with a car full of colleagues picked me up to join them at a very posh Corporate event at Optus Stadium, called the "2021 Rugby Bledisloe Long Lunch" to help celebrate the upcoming game between the All Blacks and the Wallabies, match to be held on the 28th August. 

Jose's bosses bought tickets for a table but then weren't able to attend and offered the tickets to some of the staff members and partners. 

During lunch it was announced the All Blacks wouldn't be coming, but somehow a week later they came, and after quarantine the game went ahead on the 5th September.  

There were prizes, auction of rugby items, speeches, rugby players, music, a three course meal and drinks... and it was also an great opportunity for me to visit the Stadium, which was inaugurated in December 2017, as I'd never been inside.

Signs: at the Stadium announcing the lunch, a signed rugby shirt went up for auction, a petition for the 2027 Rugby World cup to be hosted in Perth and the Wallabies and All Blacks signs on the windows in the events room. Panoramic view of the Matagarup bridge, the city and East Perth from the events rooms

The starters - oysters and pork...at top, main dish was lamb, and as I don't like lamb I had to order the vegetarian Risotto. The small cakes were divine and so were the gourmet chocolates.

We even got ferried from the Stadium to the car park by a very friendly driver.

After lunch that finished at 4,30, we returned home changed into more casual clothes and drove to the city to watch the winter lights display.

We stopped at Kings Park Botanic Gardens to get night photos of the city, and then to Brookfield Place in St George's Terrace for the lights.

Panoramic view of the city

City views from Kings Park

                 

And the main attraction of the show were these huge balls 

On Saturday 21st I joined a group of women I met through the Buy Nothing group in my neighbourhood and we went to Bloom - celebrating all women, multicultural unity and budding talent, held at the Canning Exhibition Centre.

The invitation asked for people to wear traditional costumes if possible, and I managed to borrow a genuine costume from the Island of Madeira from my friend Idalia. We had dinner, a fashion show, speeches, a display of Irish dancing and a Belly dancer and there were some stalls with products for sale.

A swan made with ribbon

Flags, table setting and starters menu

Me in my outfit from Madeira Island, various ladies in traditional costumes and ladies from the International fashion parade

I Painted a couple of clay pots with a mix of paint and bicarbonate of soda 

A dolls rocking crib that I bought at an Op-Shop for $8, now painted in a soft pink. I've even  sews a little mattress, sheet and mini pillow.

And I was silly enough to dismantle a red kid's kitchen to paint it. 

It's almost finished, but it's been a puzzle to put back together! That has taught me to put all different screws into labelled containers and probably even take more photos of the various components than just this one photo!  I'll show the renovated one in the September Wrap-up.

All in all a great month with lots of unusual entertainment. Now with warmer days of Spring there will be more outdoors activities hopefully.

Hope you also had a great month of August :)