It's all over
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Tuesday, 10 June 08 - 08:19 PM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in General |
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Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since the last post. The wedding has happened and so has the honeymoon - we got home last night and have been busy cleaning the car and packing away the camping gear today.
The wedding day worked out perfectly: all the guests got along well, the food was yummy and there was plenty of it, the ceremony went well and the weather glassed off so the trip back was smooth as a mirror. I've put a few photos in the gallery if you're interested in having a look.
I don't find being married any different from any other day in the last two and a half years; apart from the surprise in the change of status, and seeing an extra ring on my hand. I haven't gotten around to practising a new signature yet (yes I'm changing my name), or contacting banks etc to change name details...
We've spent the last two weeks trotting around the gorges at Karijini and diving in Exmouth.
Karijini was fabulous. I've been before but David hasn't and he was gratifyingly impressed with the rock formations and the pools (though we both agree the backpackers could disappear and we wouldn't complain). We managed to find a nice quiet place in Kalamina gorge which we had to ourselves for a couple of hours though so that made up for noisy, squawking backpacker morons that infested Dales gorge the day before.
We went to see Hamersley gorge the next day (a fuel shortage and lack of space at Savannah "if-you-don't-have-a-booking-bugger-off" Campground meant that we missed Hancock, Joffre and Weano gorges). We did the walk down to the Grotto and found a bat skull (yay...), then wandered back and floated around in the Spa pool for a while before heading for Millstream/Chichester national park.
We figured out the shortest distance to fuel was this way, unless we went back to Tom Price over ground we'd seen before, hence the apparent detour. The countryside looks great at this time of year - it's all green and looks like there has been plenty of rain. There are heaps of flowers blooming at the moment like Sturt's pea and Mulla mullas, and the contrast between the colour of the ground and the greenery is awesome.
We've decided on making return trips to both Karijini and Millstream so we can do more exploring and maybe even some overnight hikes!
Hey I was amazed too, but the boy agreed!!!
After the national parks we headed over to Exmouth (bypassing Nanutarra, the most expensive place in Australia to buy fuel I think $2.22 per litre!!! 
What a shocker!!)
We went for a dive on the Navy Pier which was fabulous as usual, though we lost the light and we thankful for our torches. I got shoved several times by pushy gigantic cod who thought I was spotlighting munchies for them, a bit freaky I have to say. Got heaps of photos of nudis though, plus good shots of a frog fish and some wobbegongs. The next couple of dives were meant to be at lighthouse bay but weren't because the weather went all to hell. Instead we dived off the west coast. The site at Nicks was really good with some nice big coral gullies and plenty of different fish species, a few nudibranch species, a turtle and lots of different corals. Unfortunately we didn't have too much luck with the second site - there was a really nasty current and despite some promising country and an octopus early on in the piece the effort required to swim against it gave me an horrendous CO2 headache and we had to abort the dive so I could get to the surface to throw up 
Yes I know, gross but thats what happens to me if I work too hard underwater.
When we got back on the boat a couple of other people surfaced behind it because they'd aborted too, unfortunately the woman was too far behind the end of the mermaid line and couldn't get back. David went bounding off the end of the boat with snorkel and fins to help keep her calm while keeping her company (the current was really strong) until the boat arrived to pick her up. Talk about a knight in fuzzy armour...
I couldn't dive the next day as I was too crook (CO2 hangover) but David went out. He liked the diving but the group were moving too fast for him; we like to take our time so we can take photos. We were trying to go for a night dive at the Navy Pier and extended our stay because of it but no luck; the weather didn't want to play and we had to come home.
It was all fun but we're glad to be home.
Photos are in the gallery like I said and if anyone wants to see more just let me know and I'll post them.
Toodles.
Four sleeps to go...
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Tuesday, 20 May 08 - 09:57 AM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in Wedding |
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Well most of the shopping is done, the booze is bought, the clothes are bought, the rings are picked up, the photographer is organised, the cake pickup is delegated blah, blah, blah...Now we're just waiting for the day.
Got a hell of a fright on the way home on Sunday - usual story, 10km out of Denham and a suicidal roo decides it might be fun to materialise underneath the car. Killed him instantly (thank god, I hate having to kill paralysed animals) and only a slight bend in the roo bar and a small dent and scratch in the bodywork. Just when I thought the expenditure was over! 
My hens party is tonight. I think a bunch of my friends are going to take the opportunity to get me horribly drunk and take advantage of that fact. I wasn't going to have a hens party. But got informed to the contrary... I might post the photos on here but then again, maybe not.
I need to spend a little time deciding how I want my hair to look and whether or not to bother with makeup: WHAT?? Not makeup at a wedding?? Well the trouble is that I don't much fancy getting splashed while on the boat and spending the rest of the day running around with panda eyes, so the jury is out on that one. 
Doing a run to Gero this Thursday with Karen (David's mum) to pick up fresh fruit and veggies etc and then it will all be over bar the shouting. Friday will be preparation for a few salads and things (no I don't have caterers; too much fuss), and a chance for a few more wines with my friends. 
Toodles
18 days and counting
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Tuesday, 06 May 08 - 09:06 PM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in General |
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Mainly only because I'm desperate for a break. I'm trying to fit everything I'm behind on into my last week - as you do. I finally managed to find someone to fill in while I'm away, but poor Colleen will have to train her because she can't start until next week; my first week off.
It's been great working out at the pens full time. I hadn't realised how much I'd missed it. I feel like I am able to actually achieve things unlike how I usually feel when I'm answering emails and shuffling papers from one side of the desk to the other.
This week I'm catching Mala at the soft release pens. It means long days but I get to spend time out in the bush which is a treat too. There are heaps of birds out at the moment and so many of the plants are flowering because of the rain. The place smells like honey, it's amazing. I can't wait until later in the year when more plants start to flower.
Still have a fair bit to arrange for the wedding (sposed to be doing some now, ie catering ew, which is why I'm procrastinating, you'll note there have been two posts tonight.) but most things are under control. We're off to Perth on Monday to go pick up rings, buy clothes for the boy, boardies for both of us, bathers for me (mine are indecent) and do some shopping for green things and nibbles for the day. I can't wait until it's over and the day finally arrives because then I don't have to worry any more.
Anyhow enough moping. More beer and perhaps a little guitar practise...sorry Spud 
Nudibranch freak
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Tuesday, 06 May 08 - 08:10 PM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in Diving |
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It's been a little while since we christened our boat with a visit to Steep Point - two weekends in fact - but I really do need to brag...
The day started out like this:
...and finished up like this:
Poor us hey?? 
We hadn't taken the boat as far as Steep Point before - I'm not sure how far it is but it took an hour and a half and we were doing 25 knots (shame the boy isn't here he'd be able to tell me).
We looked at diving off the cliff at Steep Point itself (for those interested in the whereabouts of this place Google Steep Point Tackle which has a map...I'd recommend Google Maps, but according to them Steep Point doesn't exist). Unfortunately there was quite a swell coming around the corner so we decided to stick with the bar. It's a ridge of rock that connects Steep Point at Monkey Rock, with Surf Point on Dirk Hartog (I wanted to add a map with all this stuff on it so you didn't have to look for it but I can't cut and paste with Google maps - fascists!!! - so no go). It extends right across South Passage as far as we can tell with our sounder, and it actually is visible on Google maps in the satellite photos. The bottom drops away from 10 or so metres here on a grade down to about 30 metres over about a 200 metre interval. It's a great spot because you can see reef fish and pelagics in the same area. Not many people dive here because there are no dive charters running out of Denham and only recently has it become possible to even get tank fills in town (see www.sbts.com.au ) so most people free dive if they come to Steep Point. Not many bring their own compressors which is great for us.
We saw heaps - lots of baldchin groper, what I think were yellowtail demoiselles, lots of different wrasse species - moon wrasse and king wrasse included, mostly acroporid corals (kind've stag coralish or platy corals) some nice big crays (the boy caught a Jumbo - see gallery - and I got something that looked pathetic next to it but was still size! We didn't have catch bags so we had to practice our bouyancy while clutching crays to our bellies and completing the dive. Mine made a bolt on the safety stop and headed for the reef, but I'd held onto it that long I wasn't going to let the rotten thing go so I chased it and caught it again), lots of nudis (ahh forgot my camera , Chromodoris westraliensis, and a Chromodoris I'm not sure of. It was a beautiful pure white with orangeish gills and rhinophores and a narrow violet edge to the upper mantle. Once again: arrrgh no camera!!!!!!!! Can't find anything similar in '1001 Nudibranchs' but in 'Sea Slugs of Western Australia' there is one that is similar and from the same site but shows it with a bold red dorsal stripe.
From this I learn my lesson. My camera is hereby welded to me the moment I get on the boat, and doesn't leave my side until I get home again.
I did get some good shots though, they're in the gallery, but I'm just going to include my favourite:
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This is Jorunna funebris - Funeral Jorunna, pretty ordinary name for a pretty nudi I reckon, but anyway. I am quite certain of that id but I can't see his rhinopores so take it with a grain of salt if you're interested, disregard if you're not. If you don't dive you'll never understand...in fact there are those that do dive, and still don't understand.
Oh well. I was stoked because this is the first nudi shot I've managed that really turned out well. Simple things I guess.
After that dive we headed over the 'The Chocolate Blocks' also known as 'The Lamingtons' which is a patch of rock reef that has segmented in rough squarish shapes and looks like the names. It's usually a good shallow dive or fun snorkel but it was pretty murky and surgy this day. Thats where I got my Jorunna shot up above. I saw another couple of nudi species and some Banded Coral Shrimp (always a treat with amazingly long white antennae and bodies that look like Ronald Macdonald's stockings). I was a bit jumpy though because I was guiding an inexperienced diver around and because of the shallowness of the dive it was really glary which made me pretty blind when looking under ledges. More than once I got a shock when a pair of eyes appeared out of nowhere under a ledge and then turned into a fish as my eyes adjusted. Another 'must bring' is a torch.
Nic and Sam (the two people we took diving with us) had a ball though and have been thoroughly converted to the dive side.
That night we had fresh barbequed cray with butter and garlic in the shell mmmm and homemade yummy pizza (yay Nic - your pizzas rock! 
) to stretch the meal, though with Davids jumbo there was plenty for everyone.
Okay so I was hasty about the flies...
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Monday, 21 April 08 - 09:16 PM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in General |
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You know when you say something and shortly afterward wish you'd kept your mouth shut?? Thats me bagging the flies. When I got home from work I had to sit for half an hour having a blood transfusion to replace what I lost to the mozzies at work this afternoon! Being outside right now is like having your head in a box with Tardis sound effects going constantly - WOM WOM WOM... - or like some kind of martian mind meld, the mozzies are so loud.
Finally getting myself into a routine at the breeding centre - won't say life is back to normal but at least now I know what I'm doing on what day so I can settle down a little and not worry as much about what I'm forgetting. After all it's been a while since I've been full time out there.
I'm advertising in Denham to hopefully find somebody who can fill in while Carolyn is away so I can go on my honeymoon. Keep your fingers crossed folks! 
Finally the bilby costume that Sherry and I made is nearly finished - mostly just need whiskers now. I'm going to get some photos of it on the site I promise! Looks great though, and if you happen to be in Japan you might see it on telly there because we had a film crew in filming us giving a 'Meet the Bilby' presentation at Monkey Mia. I got all hot and bothered; I've been doing it for ages but put a camera in front of me and I go bright red. The volunteer being the bilby today did a champion job though (except when she made the baby cry 
). Only one more bilby show and also a Reptile Encounter - though they may not need me for that one, fingers crossed.
Been associating with some bods that work in zoos lately and it's been making me wonder if it's time to come back to Perth again. Hmm pay cut, nasty people, shitty traffic.....big decision...
So much has happened in the last month and being told that it's time to start training for the 2nd dan black belt is a big one. Went well for a week and then fell in a hole; David and I were trying to get up early and go for a run at 5:30, but when you're working split shifts this is really hard to do. Will try again tomorrow though, assuming I don't drink too much beer tonight...
So, things are mostly under control again. The back patio got tidied up yesterday; incredible as it's spent a week looking like the backyard of a dive shop. All the dive gear got put away (and we might be going out tomorrow if I can manage a decent break in the middle of the day, one good thing about split shifts!), and the boy initiated a major weeding effort in the back yard!!! 
(this is the closest emoticon I can find to one that says OMFG!!). It was only because he didn't want the boat in there on top of all the weeds ;o)
Wow...how exciting a life do I lead huh? Not really but it keeps me amused and off the streets most of the time (except for now - my rocket clock tells me it's time for a shower and a trip down to the Bowling Club for a serve of Shark Bay Talent).
Til next time...
Galleries
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Thursday, 10 April 08 - 09:48 PM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in General |
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Just a quick note: I've just realised that some of my pics in the galleries are not in chronological order. Stupid me, I just assumed it would end up that way because of the photo dates but it won't because obviously that information wasn't included when they were imported. 
Finally
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Thursday, 10 April 08 - 08:54 PM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in General |
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It's happened at last; I've got the invitations done and out. It took a marathon night last week (I gave up at 1am and the boy soldiered on until 2 waiting for a slow printer to finish our little 'what to bring with you' notes). So far I've had one RSVP....just one!..and that's from mum, hell I knew she was coming anyhow so it doesn't really count. What's going on folks, lets get them back so poor Nic can finish arranging the rest of the thing.
Last weekend I had a fun trip up to Carnarvon for the kid's karate grading. Not my kids, but the kids I teach. I've been practising karate here in the bay since 2000 and two years ago myself and the other two adults training went to Melbourne to undertake a black belt grading. All three of us passed which we found amazing having convinced ourselves we wouldn't. It was certainly a memorable experience, if not a particularly pleasant one. I retain a single pleasing memory of that grading and that was throwing an obnoxious teenage girl to the floor after she'd punched Janine in the face for the umpteenth time that day. Janine hates being punched in the face with a passion but was too polite to snot the girl back so I did it for her. Charming aren't I (oh and I wasn't picking on someone littler than me she was close to 6 foot and had 20cm reach on me).
Our other reason for being in Carnarvon is that we have been informed that it is time for us to undertake our second dan grading; ie the next level of black belt. Oh joy. Our sensei from Melbourne is always entertaining to spend time around and he took great pleasure in telling us that we needed to work much harder than we already were. He's a great bloke though and very encouraging. I think he wants us to succeed so he can brag about us in Japan because they find it impossible to believe that a) we started doing this using video lessons from Sensei Lil in Carnarvon and b) that we don't have a senior male person teaching us in the North West.
So expect lots of updates where I whinge about how I'm having trouble dragging myself out of bed to go running at sparrers in the morning - so far the boy and I have been three times out of four mornings!! - and how I'll never manage to get this kata to work the way it's supposed to, and how I can't remember everything that I need to. It's like being back at uni for exams.
Other fun news is the hunt for someone to act in my assistants role so that I can actually have a honeymoon. Needless to say if I can't have my long service leave I'll not be very impressed.
I think that's about all for now. Interested parties will be happy to know that the wedding organisation is coming along nicely: rings are ready, cake is ordered, half the catering is sorted - just the vege section to go, need to make a trip to Gero to shop for snackies and booze, celebrant is sorted, boat is sorted, I'm sorted but unfortunately don't have wedding clothes for the boy so, sorry folks, he's going naked.....
Just kidding.
Have a good week (whats left of it)
Flies, glorious flies
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Thursday, 03 April 08 - 11:03 AM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in General |
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In the wake of cyclone Pancho there has arisen a plague of biblical magnitude and origin: flies, flies, flies!!! Noone with a braincell is going outside for more than the time it takes to turn off a tap without a fly veil. If the neglect this fashion accessory they are at risk of invasion because these little suckers are horribly persistent - they climb up nostrils, into ears and eyes and fly into mouths. Their favourite trick is to fly in behind your sunnies while you've got both hands full with a complex task that can't be left. Needless to say, I'm counting the days until it is too cold for them and they all bugger off. Here's a shot of me modeling this seasons offering (it's actually designed for guys with thinning hair - it comes with a camo print fabric disk on top which is designed to hide that nasty premature bald patch).
I took a couple of pics at work today to show you my office, as some of you haven't had the opportunity to visit...
This is Gustav taking his medicine - I kowtow to the person who thought to invent fruit flavoured medicine...
This next one is of the buildings at the Peron Captive Breeding Centre, they incorporate a kitchen, laundry/loo, storeroom, hospital and a lab. 
Not much to look at but great to have the extra space. We used to have to drive the couple of km's down the hill to the homestead to prepare the fruit for the dinners and so we could go to the loo (if we were uninclined to go in the bush). Oh, here's the wallaby food for tonights meal:
they're getting a seed/cube mix as well and browse/hay on alternate days to keep them from getting bored and to remind them what they're s'posed to be eating - not just fab fruit salad.
Pretty boring post huh? I'm actually just waiting for an addendum to the wedding invites to print. I have to get them sent today otherwise noone will come (hmmm.....just kidding) and the boys printer is slower than a wet week.
We actually spent about 5 hours the night before last getting them printed and cropped and stuck together. I should keep a copy for myself, but I don't know if I want to look at one ever again.
Anyhoo, I want to go and import some more groovy pics into the gallery because it's more fun than today's uninspired offering.
Toodles.
Goodbye and Good Riddance
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Sunday, 30 March 08 - 09:28 PM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in General |
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Woo hooo hoooo!!! Daylight savings is OVER! Thank crap for that. It'll be nice to not have the body clock completely confused about eating dinner during daylight. I think we've eaten no earlier than about 9:00pm for the last three months because by the time we think it's dark enough to eat it's actually nearly bedtime. Stupid, I know, we could look at our watches but for so long we've been relying on the light level and hoiking everything forward an hour stuffs things up a surprising amount.
Well it's been a poxy bloody day. Just as we were thinking about going to the workshop to work on the boat trailer that David broke a week and a half ago (description will follow in later issue) Sherry phoned from the breeding centre - "um...I've got no power and the whirly bird thingy has flown off the roof..." thereby letting lots of water into the roof from Panchos rain that the wiring circuit had snuffed it. Arrrrghhh!! We went out and checked the generator, checked the inverter, checked the safety switches in the genny shed, checked the safety switches in the building (this is called trouble shooting, by the way 
) then David ran around with his little magic box and checked which power points were munted. The result of this was us having to empty the fridge and move it to the other building as we have no power in the kitchen....double arrgh! I had to go and get ramps so we could use the sack trolley to move the fridge, then as we were ready to go we discovered the trolley wheels were flat! I then had to go down to the homestead and reinflate the tyres. Then we moved the fridge and filled it back up with meds and critter munchies and then we went to get comfort food because by this stage Nicole was feeling somewhat agitated and extremely profane. 
It was at this time that we noticed that the boat we had put on the mooring of a complete stranger due to David killing the boat trailer (which we are now rebuilding) was listing near to swamping. Oh joy! We galloped home, guzzled our comfort food, donned our bathers and galloped back down to the foreshore to swim out to the boat and pump the rainwater out of it. There was a huge amount of water in that little boat - someone had told us that Denham had had 6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours (I think that's more than we'd had all last year) - it took about 45 minutes for the bilge pump to clear it.
After that David went to do a job and I tidied out our pigsty of a shed as a prelude to moving all the crap that has accumulated on the patio back to the shed where it belongs, oh, and did the washing (I didn't know if it would dry though because it's been so humid). Shed looks good now though - lots of usable workspace so I'm happy about that.
Then.....but wait there's more.....it was back down the shed to do some more work on the demon trailer. I really need to get some piccies of it to show you. We've salvaged the usable bits of the trailer and scrounged steel from the tip to replace the bits that are too rusty to save. The trailer is going to be bloody heavy when it's finished and you could probably park the Titanic on top of it without bending it. The steel we could find was pretty hefty stuff but at least it's free; the same amount of steel to buy would've cost us $1000!! Stupid hey, but apparently prices for base metals have gone through the roof lately, so heres a big thankyou, thankyou to Denham tip and the little man who runs it and doesn't charge scrounging fees. 
So we've spent our day running around like blue arsed flies again, but I guess we never get bored. I'm enjoying working on the trailer, it's really satisfying and I'm learning lots, but it is taking a lot of time. Now we just need to get the house tidy because we have an inspection this week....Arrrgh again!!
We love you Pancho
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Friday, 28 March 08 - 06:15 PM (GMT +08:00) By Nicole Noakes in General |
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Yay....Cyclone Pancho, you're our hero! Can't remember the last time we had this much rain! I think it's been going for 24 hours now. Will have to find out how much. The other good thing is that the cyclone is passing out to sea, so we're getting all the rain but nearly no wind at all.
Here's the track map of what BOM thinks he's up to. Also a couple of piccies I took at work today - had to go out and feed critters in the soft release pens ~1hour round trip out from the breeding centre. Lucky me I had Natt giving me a hand and she opted to do the real work - feeding the bilbies and wallabies, so I only got wet, not sopping.
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Anyhow, it was just a quickie for today because some loverly people have invited us out for home made fish and chips for dinner - they must know how lazy I am; I'd eat rocks if someone else prepared them for me...
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