Many games provide fun, but Bridge grips you. It exercises your mind. Your mind can rust, you know, but Bridge prevents the rust from forming.”Omar Sharif.

Having gained a basic understanding of the card game Duplicate Bridge some years ago in Perth, and prior to moving to Busselton, Paul and I had rarely had the chance to consolidate our learning. For those of you not familiar with this card game, there are many systems that one can use to play the game. The system we first learned to play in was called, Acol. That was the preferred system played in Western Australia at the time, whilst the Eastern States played predominantly in a system referred to as, American Standard. In the years between us first getting a basic understanding of the Acol bidding system of the game, and returning to the game in recent years Western Australians have changed their preferred system and now also play predominantly in American Standard. When we decided to return to the game we undertook some refresher lessons with the Busselton Club, but this time using the American Standard system for our bidding.

The Busselton Bridge Club doesn’t have its own rooms. On Monday afternoons they rent rooms at the Dunsborough Community Centre, and on Wednesday afternoons they rent rooms at the Busselton tennis club. The club has a newish member who, like many others, has become an addict to the game of Bridge (yes, be warned the game is super addictive). Recognising the adverse effect that both Covid, and Bridge on line has been having on the game, reflected by dwindling numbers in Bridge clubs throughout the country, this dedicated Bridge Player has been diligently conducting Bridge lessons and co-ercing newbies to the game to jump in the deep end and to come over to the club sessions to play.

At this point in time I’ll relate a little about my introduction to the game of Bridge. I learned to play in Perth some years ago, and was one of more than 50 people in the class. Following on from 18 x 3 hour classes, the club conducted follow up, supervised play sessions to enable the learners to consolidate their learning. Less than half continued on with the supervised sessions. To my knowledge I was the only one from that class who eventually ventured into playing in the club sessions, and that was only because the partner of the teacher who taught the lessons saw some potential in my play and offered to mentor me into ‘real play’. Those first times of playing in normal club sessions are up there amongst the most daunting experiences of my life. I relate my initial experience so as to be able to relate the differences between both learning in a big city club and learning in a smaller regional centre, and also the introduction to playing at club level.

Because the big city clubs have their own club rooms, the rooms are constantly set up with the tables ready to play. Most of the city clubs are able to be sectioned off so as to allow normal play sessions to be conducted alongside supervised play sessions, and as the club rooms are for Bridge exclusively, multiple numbers of sessions can be held over a week. Most city clubs run approximately three week-day games, 1 – 2 week-end games, and 1 -2 week night sessions, as well as a few learners and supervised sessions. It’s these learner and supervised sessions that enable the clubs to grow, or at least to sustain numbers.

Compare this to our Busselton club. We have to pay rent to hire the rooms for our twice weekly club games. Our tables and computers have to be set up, and taken down before and after each game. If lessons or supervised sessions are conducted this means hiring yet another venue. The lessons, along with the games are literally, ‘all over the place’. It would be lovely if the Busselton Council recognised the contribution that the game of Bridge made to the mental health of many of its residents and supplied us with our own club rooms to rent on a permanent basis, as is the case in many other areas throughout the country. But alas to date that hasn’t happened.

As I mentioned earlier Covid caused a massive decline in the numbers of Bridge players, and I think this has been the case all over the world. When people couldn’t attend the sessions due to isolation rules many started to play on line, and some have never returned to play in the clubs. With many never having returned to play in the Bridge Clubs, I fear the numbers could be dwindling all over the country, if not the world. Due to the dedication, tenacity and sheer single mindedness of one particular Busselton Club member though, I’m pleased to say, our club, my club, The Busselton Bridge Club, is growing in numbers.

I applaud Linda her tenacity, her dedication and her ability to persevere when I’m sure at times she must feel like throwing in the towel, so to speak. I applaud her ability to get her learners to ‘jump in the deep end’, and with only a sketchy knowledge of the basics of Bridge, she coerces many of her Bridge students to commence playing at club level. Similarly, I applaud all of the new comers who do take the plunge and who come up to play. I appreciate how daunting it must be for you all. Your bravery astounds me!

If you’d like to learn Bridge and you live in Busselton or the south west area of WA, please make contact with our club. Our contact details are:

Phone	0417 981 585
Email	bussbridgesecretary@gmail.com

If however you already have a basic understanding of the game and aren’t currently playing at a club level, we’d love to see you come along to one of our sessions.

But we can promise we’ll do our best to welcome you to our tables, to our club, The Busselton Bridge Club.

I’m pleased to say we found ourselves a little place to buy. Finding anything at all in the current market is a bit of miracle. Most places are listed with an ‘under offer’ notice already attached. Investors are buying anything reasonably priced for their self managed superfunds, or to minimise their taxes with the use of negative gearing. I feel for anyone trying to buy their first home. I don’t think I’ve ever seen times as tough for buyers as these in real estate.

Not only have we manage to secure a place but the place we found ticks not one, but two of either/or wants. We wanted to be either within walking distance of the beach, or walking distance to the shops. We found a triplex that meets both criteria. It’s small, and only has one bathroom, but the main bedroom is a good size, it has a reasonable sized guest room, a third bedroom that we will probably use as a study, and a small open plan living area. We’ll be able to make it work – as I’ve said before, ‘wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home’. We’ll make this place our next and hopefully our final home. We’re getting to old for all this moving caper.

Here’s a bit of sneak look:

The bathroom is an okay size with ensuite access, but most of the space is taken up with a bath, a bath we’ll most likely not use. In time I’d like to remove the bath, add a bigger double vanity and possibly a toilet (there’s only one toilet in the villa, it’s off the laundry). Until we get to that though, I found some inspiration for how to make use of the bath in a way that will provide more storage. Ours won’t be the same but you’ll get the idea from the photos below.

It’s close to town, so it’ll be less than a 15 minute walk to supermarkets, pubs, restaurants, and cafes. The beach is 500 metres away. I had hoped to find a place that was light and bright, but sadly I don’t think this place is going to fit that bill as well as I’d have liked. It has white gauzy curtains at the windows though, windows that face to the east, so maybe, just maybe, if those curtains are pulled back it may let in some early morning sun. I hope so. In the current market though, one has to take what one can get and make the most of it.

We’ve been really busy since finding the house. We don’t move until 8 May, so it’s quite a long wait, but as we don’t want to be moving surplus furniture into the villa we’ve been busy listing and selling what we know won’t work. It’s been a crazy time. A garage sale over Easter saw off most of what remained after two weeks of listing all the bigger items on Facebook Buy and Sell. We’d been contemplating selling off our up-cycled dining suite, but had decided we’d wait and see. It’s an 1800 long table, and we figure a 1500 long table would fit the space better. However someone attending the garage sale came inside to look at a chair we had for sale, spied the dining suite and wanted to make us an offer. We agreed on a price and said good-bye to our suite.

The very next day we found ourselves another one to up-cycle. It’s a 50 year old Tasmanian Blackwood suite, with a 1500 long extension table and six comfortable, low backed, red velvet chairs. Yes – red velvet! Take a look – I wonder if you’ll be able to see the potential we can see in it.

The wood is very good, and the size perfect for our new dining space. But mmm – those chairs! Well believe it not, it was those chairs that attracted me the most. We had some similar styled chairs last century with the low back that hugged and supported our lumber region better than any chair before or since has. I loved them, they were just soooo comfortable in a way that higher backed chairs never are. The chairs will be painted white (sacrilege I hear my brother saying, who thinks good wood should never be painted). The turned legs and base of the table will also be painted in the same white semi-gloss. The table top, along with its extension piece will be sanded back and refinished showcasing its natural grain. And that red velvet – well that’s going too. We’ve found a nice navy and white furnishing fabric and are in the midst of re-upolstering the seats. I can’t wait to show the before and after photos when the project is complete.

With most of the selling of our surplus now complete, we were feeling like we were in limbo, so although the dining suite isn’t a huge project, it will help to fill the time over the next couple of weeks as we hit a lull – the calm before the next moving house storm! It’s been a tough couple of months, and it’s not over yet. Hectic as hell for weeks at a time, then a lull, then hectic as hell again. We don’t have family nearby that can help and support us, but fortunately we have a wonderful group of friends who help to prop us up when the going gets tough. I don’t think I could have coped with all this without the wonderful moral support that comes from such a good group of friends. You all know who you are. You mean the world to us! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Our lovely little home in the not so lovely retirement village is now sold and settled. We’re comfortably living in a little rental house, a house which we’d love to buy, but sadly it’s not going to be for sale any time soon. In the not to distant future the owner plans to move in when her circumstances allow. Our rental is on a periodical lease. It suits us not to be tied into a longer lease while we look for something suitable to buy, and it suits the owners because when their circumstances do change, which is expected to happen in the near future, they don’t have to wait out a tenants long lease period. This, of course means we have to find something suitable to buy sooner rather than later.

We hadn’t planned on falling in love with the rental house, we were just appreciative of finding a place to rent. As with any house though, we’ve learnt a bit more from having lived in this one, and have added another ‘must have’ for our next house, and this one is the reason we’ve fallen in love with this house. The house is by no means any palace, but it gets amazing north/east sun through the living area, and it gets amazing air flow through the home when the cool breezes start to blow in the late afternoon. We’ve owned and lived in lots of houses, but never have we lived in any before built so suitably to capture the best of weather. The house is light, bright and airy, which lifts the spirits and immediately makes the place feel like a home. I can understand why the owners are keeping it for their retirement house.

So we look. Hourly we look through the real estate sites searching for a suitable place to buy. It’s definitely a seller’s market, so it’s clear we’re going to have to pounce on anything suitable that comes up quickly. It’s also clear we’re going to have to pay top dollar. Houses are being sold before they even hit the market. We have our list of ‘must haves’, which now includes preferably a north/east aspect for the living areas, but if not north/east, then at the very least an easterly aspect so as to capture the early morning sun. We have our list of ‘wants’ too. We’re trying to keep the ‘must haves’ list small, and to be flexible with the list of ‘wants’.

We thought we had found a potential house yesterday and are due to inspect it along with 20 or more other people tomorrow. However, the house is tenanted until October. Our initial thoughts were that this wouldn’t pose a problem, but after sleeping on it overnight the potential pitfalls have scared me off somewhat. Firstly, the rent the tenant pays is small, so we’d be getting a smaller return for our investment for six months than we’re getting with our money left in the bank. That’s no big deal in the scheme of things, but added to that is losses to be factored in from Centrelink (we get a pension, so are eligible for rent assistance – we’d lose that), again, no big deal in the scheme of things. Then the really scary things came to mine – our rental house is unlikely to be available until October which will probably mean another move. In a market where houses to rent are as scarce as hen’s teeth that could prove to be a nightmare. We could end up homeless.

Next the house is close to the area where we’d like to be, but it’s not actually in our ‘perfect area’. The ‘perfect area’ though is only on our ‘want list’ so is something we’re flexible with. With such a long wait until we can take up residence there, what if something in our ‘perfect area’ became available in the meantime, what if several came up – how disappointed and cheated would we be feeling. Paul says this can happen if we have moved into our new home already, and I have to agree. Somehow though I think I’d feel a lot more cheated if we hadn’t had a chance to put our stamp on any home we’ve purchased. As I said in my last post, ‘wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home’, but I do need to be able to ‘hang my hat’ there.

I’m certainly not known for being cautious in real estate. I’ve always trusted my gut, and we’ve always landed on our feet in past dealings. We’ve never purchased before though in any market that compares to this scorching, hot, ‘seller’s market’. At any time the bottom could fall out of the market. If the market pushes us into a panic buy, this time there’s the potential for us to get burnt badly. This time my gut is telling me to be careful, not to panic buy, to assess the potential pitfalls. Just like jumping into the mighty Murray River on a scorching hot summer’s day, the roots under the surface have to be carefully assessed for safety. Yes, I want that swim, but not at any cost. The scorching conditions doesn’t mean caution can be thrown to the wind – no, I think we need to be extra careful. I think it’s time to pay careful attention to my gut. We need to make sure the waters are safe before diving in.

We moved all the shed stuff into the rental house. Then we hired a truck and moved our larger items last Monday. It was hard work, and I’ve told Paul that for the next move we really must hire a removal company, at least for the big heavy stuff. I don’t mind hiring the truck, like we did this time, one with the lift on the back, and moving the smaller items and the heavy plants. Things like double fridges, front loading washing machines, and big latex mattresses though – that’s just too much to ask of two old codgers. The fact that neither of us sustained an injury was sheer good luck rather than good management, although I do have to give it to Paul, he does think things out carefully to minimise the risk. He’s a bit of a ‘do it yourself’ type person, but there’s sometimes when things are definitely best left to the professionals.

The house we’ve been lucky enough to pick up as a short term rental on a periodical lease, has in fact been leased for years. Consequently, the gardens have been badly neglected. It’s rather sad that tenants don’t put a bit of effort into maintaining a garden. We’re not like that – I can’t ignore a garden, and this garden has so much potential. Since moving in almost two weeks ago we’ve trimmed the worst offending overgrown branches off the beautiful old, but very neglected rose bushes, we’ve weeded the beds, and we’ve given them some wetta soil, a bit of fertiliser and lots of water. Almost overnight they rewarded us with a few buds, and have been providing us with roses for our dining room table ever since. I love old roses. They reward any TLC threefold.

The bare garden in the centre of the rose garden to the west of the house has given me a place to leave my potted succulents, rocks, driftwood and garden critters which are awaiting their next permanent home.

The rose garden is adjacent to what is supposed to be the alfresco area. The air conditioning unit is in the alfresco area, and it gets the hot afternoon sun from the West, so we’ve chosen a verandah at the front of the house on the north east corner for our outdoor area. The dedicated alfresco to the west makes a good shade house though for my shade loving pot plants.

To the south of this area is another patch of lawn. The whole garden is wonderfully laid out into lots of different ‘garden rooms’. Whilst this area to the south of what I’m using as a shade house for my plants is just plain lawn, it has me dreaming of a better use – a fire pit area for in the winter. If it were my house this is what I envisage in this area.

To the rear of the house on the south side is a pink, double hibiscus, much in need of being cut back a bit. It’s quite spindly and has lots of dead wood. I made a bit of a start on it today, but it’ll take a bit of time to get everything into any sort of shape. Underneath the hibiscus are the most gorgeous pink centred bromeliads. The soil was as dry as a bone, but a bit of wetta soil and a good soaking has that on track. The flowers dropping from the hibiscus is providing good mulch so that’s probably helped keep the bromeliads alive.

The garden to the east is perhaps the most neglected. I don’t know if we’ll get to that while we’re living here. We’ve pulled some creeper out that had been choking the two frangipanis, and we’re making sure they get some water, but apart from that I’m not sure what I could do with this garden as a short term tenant. Saying that though, we’d absolutely love it if the owners had a change of plan and decided to sell the house. We’d buy it in an instant. It’s just the type of place we could sink our heart and soul into. We can see so much potential in the garden. A bit of love, and a lot of hard work could transform what is a rather neglected garden into a virtual paradise. This bit of garden to the east is just begging for raised vegetable beds.

We’ve done a lot of work this week in the front garden to the north. All of the gardens were choked full of couch grass. It’s been hard work to get all the dead plants and the couch grass out, but I think we’ve broken the back of it. From now on we should be able to keep on top of it. We’ve rescued some almost dead agapanthus and have dotted them around the garden beds, and have added some white vincas, and blue salvias. In a month or so I imagine they’ll start to put on a bit of a display. Our potted blueberries have found a temporary home in front of our outdoor table and are helping to fill the gap until the plants start to thrive. There’s a lovely mature olive tree in the front garden with a mass of Elk Horn Ferns attached. The Elk ferns were almost dead when we arrived, but they’re starting to look good now.

It’s a lovely place to sit in the late afternoon with a drink after a hard days work in the garden. As I look out at the now well cut and fertilised lawn, the freshly weeded and planted garden beds, the elk ferns on the olive tree, and the little space I found for my much loved Buddha, I realise that I can make almost any place home. However, this particular house – well this one really has me day dreaming…..

After two and half years we’ve decided that living in the close knit confines of a Retirement village isn’t for us. It’s time to move on….

We’ve done all we can with the small garden. We chose succulents for our front garden. Most of the plants came with us as small cuttings from our last house. From just a small piece poked into the ground, two and half years later it’s grown to be full garden. The rocks have been gathered from various places, and the critters have mainly been gifted to us from family and friends.

All of the rocks and critters will come with us, along with potted cuttings from each plant. I’ll love watching the little cuttings form the basis of a new succulent garden one day.

Our rear courtyard garden was bland walls with brick paving up to the walls when we moved in. It took a while to get this garden right. We ended up with trellis, and mirrors on the wall to create a feeling of space. We started off with fake greenery, but preferred the real thing. Bunnings raised garden beds went in with scented jasmine to ramble around the mirrors. For the adjacent wall we chose clumping bamboo. With miniature strelitzias, tropical greenery, and colourful impatiens we’ve been very happy with result.

The birdbath in the corner of the garden will come with us, as will the Buddha.

Where our own next garden will be is yet to be decided. The real estate market is manic at the moment. No sooner does a house go on the market and it goes under offer almost immediately. We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve found a rental with a periodical lease. We can’t take to long to find somewhere permanent though as the owner expects her circumstances will change in the not to distant future, a change that will allow her to move into the house herself. Once that change occurs I expect we’ll need to be ready to move within 6 – 8 weeks. In the meantime if we find something suitable to buy, we will also be able to give a similar amount of notice to allow time for settlement of our new house. We’re not tied to a lengthy lease.

So, why the move I hear you ask? A few things attracted us to the village two and half years ago. The quality and size of the house is not what one would expect in a retirement house. It’s a spacious house with beautiful hard wood Marri floors. It has a really good sized living area, a king sized master bedroom with a good sized ensuite, a Queen sized guest room also with it’s own ensuite, plus another good sized living room which can be used as a study, craft room, third bedroom, or in our case, a theatre room. This, together with parking for our caravan at our rear gate attracted us, so we thought it was worth giving it a try. (0ur caravan is now long gone).

We did, however, have reservations about living in such a close knit community. Our plan was to keep pretty much to ourselves. Ha! So much for plans. We did start getting involved, and then the problems started. We tried to back track, but that just put us a ‘damned if you do, and damned if you don’t’ situation. It became quite stressful.

I’m sure it’d all have settled down, but once bitten twice shy. We decided to cut our loses and move on sooner rather than later. Fortunately there’s a waiting list for homes in our village so it only took a little over a week for the offers to start coming in.

We will be moving out prior to settlement. It’ll take us a couple of weeks to fully move, then we’ll have to remove all the picture hooks, give everything a fresh coat of paint, and get the carpets cleaned for the new owners.

Over the past two days we’ve taken succulent cuttings and our garden rocks to the rental house, as well as a good bit of shed stuff. The house we’ll be renting has been vacant for a little while now. It’s all been freshly painted, and has had new floor coverings laid. So the house is fresh and lovely. The garden needs some work though. Yesterday paul mowed lawns, and we’ve pruned back roses and creepers and watered some very dried out stag horn ferns. It feels good, really good to have a decent sized garden to get my teeth into. Of course, we won’t be planting a lot in the new garden. But we’ll tidy up what’s there, and will get it all thriving, and we’ll get all our cuttings thriving in pots ready for our own new place – when we find it.

So here we go again, yet another move! Clearly it wont be our last, and quite likely wont even be our second to last. With the current shortage of available homes to buy, getting a house that perfectly suits us would be almost too much to hope for. Fingers are crossed that, even though the perfect home may allude us in this current housing crisis, at least a suitable roof over our head will eventuate before we have to vacate our temporary rental house. Scary eh!

We arrived back into Bali for the second time this year three nights ago. For this trip we have chosen the Padma, approximately 40 minutes drive north of Ubud.

The Padma, chosen after being highly recommended by a friend has lived up to expectations. From the misty outlook over dense tropical forest, to the steep, 1 kilometre walk down the winding paths to the tranquil, babbling creek that runs below, it’d be hard not to find this place, relaxing, impressive, memorable……

But as with our last trip to Bali earlier this year, it’s the people that impress me the most. The Balinese people are extremely family orientated, and proud to be so. The Balinese tradition is that at least one of the sons should marry and bring his bride into the family home. As the son’s parent’s grow old, it becomes the son and his family’s responsibility to care for them. No-one seems to resent this, in fact everyone I speak to seems to accept this as both an honour and a privilege.

What happens though to couples who aren’t fortunate enough to have sons – girls seem to accept, albeit sometimes with sadness, that they will move into their husband’s family home, even if it means leaving their parents without any offspring to care for them as they age. When this is the case I believe the responsibility of caring for any son-less couple as they age falls to the father’s brother’s family, (the daughter’s uncle).

Elta, who seems to be our main hostess tells me she married this year in February. Elta is the oldest of three girls and has no brothers. Apparently, there can be (but not always), a certain amount of social stigma should a newly married couple take up residence in the home of the wife’s parents, as apposed to the son’s parent’s home. Elta’s parents spoke with her during her teenage years suggesting that any prospective partners in the future be sounded out for their acceptance of moving into Elta’s family home. So that is just what Elta did. She told me that one of the happiest moments of her life was when her chosen partner indicated he had no reservations about this change to tradition. They’re now living happily in the back of her parents home in what’s called a Bale, which I think is a seperate abode on the same property. Her parents and her two younger sisters live in the main family home. It seems that both Elta and her parents hope the younger sisters will follow suit and also find partners that will happily live on the parents property. It sounds like there’ll be space found for them all either in the family abode, or by building a seperate bale on the same land.

I asked Elta about crime in Bali. Apparently there is not much of a crime rate here, however, like everywhere, Cyber-crime is on the rise. We ourselves fell victim to Cyber-crime twice just getting to Bali, the first time when we attempted to complete our Electronic Visa to enter Bali on line, and the second time when we attempted to do our Electronic Customs Declaration, also on line before entering the country. It wasn’t till we arrived into Denpasar airport that we became aware we had fallen victim to scammers. Fortunately though, when we return to Australia, I think we’ll be able to lodge a dispute with our bank, and I think we’ll get our money back. We’d like to lodge the dispute earlier, however to do so is likely to result in cancellation of current credit card, and that would leave us in a precarious financial situation for the rest of our holiday. So for now we’re just monitoring our account, and hoping we don’t see any unexpected money leave it.

During this conversation with Elta I was almost brought to tears as she related how she’d attempted to book a villa in Kuta for a few nights for herself and her husband following their wedding in February. Living in an inland village, they had been looking forward to a couple of nights by the seaside. However, they fell victim to scammers when booking their villa, and it seems that as they didn’t book through the safety of a travel agent, they have no recall. They lost their money, and so had no honeymoon away for a few nights at the seaside on their own. I gather they are now saving hard, hoping that one day before children arrive that they can treat themselves to a short holiday somewhere nice. I so hope she gets her wish.

I love getting to know the Balinese people. In Australia we ourselves are considered at best, comfortable financially, but by no means are we considered wealthy by Australian standards. Yet we can afford trips to Bali staying in luxury resorts, and we have travelled to many overseas countries. For most of the Balinese people, a few days holiday in a different location on their own island is the most their modest incomes can stretch to. Yet these people never fail to impress me with their genuine smiles, their happiness, and the pride they take in their jobs. By comparison, hospitality staff in Australia are often ashamed of their jobs, and their attitude when waiting on clients tables, or making up a hotel room bed can sometimes be resentful.

I often consider myself to be truly lucky to be living in Australia, but when holidaying in Bali, I wonder…… Are we really that lucky after all in Australia. Will I still feel lucky if I end up living the final years of my life, as many Australians do, in the lonely ward of some aged care facility. Will I be thinking in the final years of my life that it would have been nice to have been born into a financially poor, but family rich Balinese village. A holiday on this gorgeous Island certainly provides food for thought……

Having sold the caravan last year, long holidays chasing the sun are no longer an option for us. When we sold the van we decided on a two fold plan to help pass the winter months without having to feel the misery of months and months of dismal wintry weather. Our plan is to fly to Bali once or twice a winter for short breaks in the sun. We’ll only go for a length of time we’re happy to leave our pooch, Mr Tilly, with someone else, which will only about 2 – 3 weeks at most for each trip. The other thing we had planned on doing was embracing the cold by renting some dog friendly accommodation in the cold south west forest areas. The two essential criteria for the accommodation is a fire, something we don’t have in our retirement home, and the other essential criteria is that there needs to be forest walks near by, walks that don’t prohibit dogs because they go through national parks. So many of the forest walks in WA are in national parks where dogs aren’t allowed.

My son said, “yeh, good luck with finding a decent place that allows dogs mum”. I’m pleased to say, he was soooo wrong. We struck gold first time.

Using the Stayz website we started looking. Blue Wren Lodge near Denmark looked pretty good to us. So we booked it. After an enjoyable four hour drive down through undulating farming country, and forest lined roads we arrived at our destination.

We let ourselves in using the locked key box. Wow! How wrong our son was. The house is one of those lovely old character cottages, the type that have been added onto, and changed in all manner of ways. I’ve been trying to work out what the original cottage would have been, and I think it could well have originally been a small two bedroomed cottage with a country kitchen, a small lounge, and a back porch that may have held a small bathroom and a laundry. It’s no longer that small cottage. It’s now a lovely three bedroomed, two bathroom cottage that has two living rooms, a big kitchen, and a seperate dining area over three levels.

Upon letting ourselves in we explored the layout of the house, deciding which bedroom we’d use. The well equipped kitchen was our first welcome surprise. It has a dishwasher and a coffee machine, and the owners have thoughtfully added coffee, tea, sugar, a long life milk in the fridge, and glad wrap, alfoil, and baking paper.

There are two lounges, one with a gas fire, and the other with a slow combustion fire box. The fire was set ready to light, with enough wood for the first night. Outside there’s a wood pile, so although we did bring some wood with us, we didn’t need to. There are also column heaters in two of the bedrooms. We’ve been as warm as toast since we arrived.

There are three bedrooms, one with a queen bed and its own ensuite. The other two, one also with a queen bed, and the other with a set of bunk beds, (bottoms is queen, top bunk is single), share a bathroom. I think these two bedrooms were probably part of the original house. The bathroom they both share has a quirky slate lined shower accessed down several steps. I’ve been trying to work out how the bathroom fitted into the original design, and I think the shower has possibly been added into what may have been a verandah space . If only these walls could talk – but then I wouldn’t have the fun of trying to work it out!

And yes, the owners of Blue Wren Lodge have included shampoo, conditioner and shower wash too. Being a ‘dog friendly’ place has by no means meant we’ve had to rough it. The owners have thought of everything, there are little touches of all sorts of things to make our stay enjoyable. It’s all just lovely!

There’s a few areas outdoors to sit, and every one of the areas looks out to beautiful trees. I think the house is probably on about an acre, it’s all fully fenced so Mr Tilly is safe to wander around exploring. Beyond the wire fences are more trees. I just love it.

The back gate leads to walking tracks.

This morning the skies were blue so we went exploring down the track. An 8 1/2 km circuit (we took a few wrong turns) took us into town where we found the most amazing looking sour dough loaf for our lunch. Home again, and we enjoyed a simple lunch of sour dough and cheese. I diced a few dried apricots and simmered them until they had re-hydrated, then added a big spoonful of home made marmalade to it. With a glass of red, and sitting outside overlooking the trees, we were happy.

Hopefully tomorrow’s weather will also be kind to us and we’ll be able to explore a little more on the walking tracks. I believe the Wilson inlet is not far away. But for now – I found a jig saw amongst the many games and books in the bookcase. I’m less than 1/2 way to completing it, so that’s me occupied for the rest of the evening.

We recently had a friend visit from Mount Isa. Kerriann was coming to Perth for a work conference and as this was her first visit to the South West of WA she tacked a few days on so as to be able to do some site seeing with us in the Margaret River Area (3 hours south of Perth). We were honoured to play tour guide for the two days and one night she spent with us.

Knowing she’s a lover of both nature, and of good food we planned our itinerary accordingly. The tall Karri trees in Boranup forest were a must, as was Canal Rocks, a geographical feature that showcases the best of the rugged coastal scenery that borders our Cape to Cape walking track. Bussselton Jetty, the longest wooden pylon jetty in the Southern Hemisphere needed to be factored in too, and we decided to incorporate a short bush walk along the more gentle coastline on the Dunsborough side of the Naturaliste cape. A picnic would sustain us on the first day, and we chose Rustico on Hayshed Hill for a dining out experience that we knew would give her a pleasant and somewhat different experience to remember our little neck of the woods by. The two day itinerary follows:

Day 1 Map

Kerriann caught a South West Coach Line bus from Elizabeth Quay in Perth to Busselton arriving at 11.15am. We spent the morning putting together a picnic lunch, then met the bus with take away coffees from a nearby Cafe.

Our hellos quickly said, suitcase stashed into the boot and we headed south. First stop was the beautiful Boranup Forest. We headed down the Bussell highway driving through the pretty town of Cowaramup, then the township of Margaret River before cutting across to Caves Road to continue south until we reached the track that would take us into Boranup forest. The tall Karri trees are an absolute must see for any lover of nature visiting the area.

As it wasn’t a long week-end we knew the campground in the forest wouldn’t be full, so we used a picnic table in one of the camping spots. In our opinion it’s a much more picturesque and tranquil area than the day use area in the forest.

We treat any picnic like an occasion. Table clothes to suit the environment we’re picnicking in are always in our basket, crystal glasses for our wine, and silverware for our eating utensils. Todays fare was warming mulled wine to accompany a hearty minestrone soup with thick sliced fresh wholemeal bread, a caramel & macadamia nut slice and fresh crunchy red apples to follow, along with a thermos of boiling water for our tea and coffee.

Picnic over, we headed up Caves Road to Canal Rocks. Canal Rocks forms part of the rugged west coast, which showcases some amazing rock formations. The rocks in this particular area form a canal into which the waves crash through the narrow channel of water creating a spectacular and mesmerising show of nature at its best. Both Paul, and Kerriann have a bit of mountain goat in them and it didn’t take them long to start bounding over the rocks looking for the best vantage point to snap their photos.

It was freezing, but one brave teenage girl was doing back flips into the swirling water as it crashed through the channel below the walk bridge constructed to make viewing of the spectacle safe. Paul and I have visited Canal Rocks countless times but we never tire of it. It’s beautiful on a calm day, but on a stormy day it is absolutely amazing. This particular visit it was inbetween, just enough fury in the Indian Ocean waves to showcase the wild-ness of the region.

Next we headed over to the bush walking track that runs from the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse down the north east side of the Cape. Even though only a few kilometres separate the rugged west coast from the north east coast of this peninsula area it provides a great contrast of countryside to see. We had time for a short walk from Castle Rock to Meelup beach and back. Unfortunately June is a bit early for the whales that come down the coast on their way back to Antarctica. A few months later and it could almost be guaranteed that whales would have been seen just off shore.

The sun was dipping in the sky, so we had just enough time to head back to Sugarloaf Rock on the west coast. Sugarloaf Rock is amongst the most photographed geographical features in the area. Both amateur and professional photographers flock to the area on a cloudy night at sunset, although saying that, it’s never really crowded. It wasn’t at its best this night, but we still managed to get some reasonable photos as the sun dropped over the horizen.

That wrapped up Saturday. We came back to our place, cooked an easy dinner of chicken and vegetable stir fry with steamed rice, and followed it with Ice cream and warm blue berries. Then a sound night’s sleep ready to fit in as much as we could the next day.

Day two map.

Sunday saw us off to a good start with a light continental breakfast of muesli, yogurt, fruit, toast, and croissants before we headed out to see the Busselton Jetty. Being 1.8kms in length the jetty is the longest wooden pylon jetty in the southern hemisphere. It was almost completely destroyed by Cyclone Alby In 1978 and lay in ruins for several years before the townspeople decided they’d raise funds to rebuild it. It’s now the pride and joy of the coastal town of Busselton. There’s a lot of history attached to the jetty, but on this whirlwind trip there wasn’t time to delve too deeply into it. We did walk the length of the jetty though, and when at the end, almost 1.8kms out to sea we went down into the underwater observatory to see the colourful display that lies beneath.

We had booked into one of our favourite restaurants in the Margaret River region for lunch at 12.30pm. The degustation tapas served up at Rustico on Hayshed Hill certainly didn’t disappoint. With our visitor having been living for a number of years now in Mount Isa, Rustico is that little bit different to anything Kerriann will have seen for some time, so was a must do in showcasing what our little area has on offer for visitors to the region. Rustico suggests their patrons should allow 2 1/2 hours for their five course degustation tapas menu, and believe me 2 1/2 hours is needed. Each of the five courses is, in fact, two courses. So in reality it is 10 small courses. We managed to eat all of the food presented, but we did see some tables having their cheese course packaged up to take home for later. Bordering on fine dining, it’s rare in that although the courses are each quite small, together the ten courses provide a substantial quantity of quality food.

There was only a couple of hours left before we had to be back in Busselton for our guest to meet her 5.30pm bus to take her back up to Perth. We drove out to the surf beach near the Margaret River mouth. This area is home to the Margaret River Surf Classic, part of the world professional surfing circuit, and held in November each year. There were a few surfers out there trying their luck on the waves, but the waves were quite small and tame compared to what they are later in the season.

We arrived back in Busselton with about 15 minutes to spare, just enough time to head back to the Jetty area for some photos of the area taken from the shore.

It was a whirlwind two days, but we managed to give Kerriann a great snapshot look at the Margaret River Region. Kerriann gave us a whirlwind tour of her home area in the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland a few years ago. It was such a pleasure to return the favour. I do hope she has taken some lovely photos, and some lovely memories away with her.

For our final five nights in Bali we decided to try out Nusa Dua. Some say they’d never stay in Nusa Dua as it ‘s to full of hotels. and some say they wouldn’t stay anywhere else. We chose the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel and Spa to try out the area for ourselves.

We’ve been very happy with our choice of accommodation, with one exception. We ended up somehow with two packages, the first being the Palace Club benefits. We wanted to stay in one of the Palace Club rooms as it has the Palace Club dining room away from the crowds which we’ve used for breakfast, afternoon tea, and pre-dinner drinks. The available food at each of the three sittings is substantial so purchasing any other meals is completely unnecessary, but sometimes a bit of added variety can be nice. However, we purchased this stay through Luxury escapes, and ended up with a second package also – all inclusive dining across all restaurants, plus free flow drinks at the bars from 3pm – 6pm, plus 4 spa treatments. It took us a couple of days to realise how stupid trying to take advantage of both packages was. The photo below is Paul on the first night after afternoon tea, pre-dinner cocktails and canapés in the Club Room, several cocktails at one of the many bars dotted around the place, and then dinner in one of the restaurants.

Yep, definitely too much to eat and drink that night. We’ve been trying to cut back each day but it’s not been easy. I’m sure I’ll go home at least 3 kgs heavier, my clothes are definitely fitting a bit more snugly.

The Nusa Dua Beach hotel and spa has proved to be a pleasant and comfortable place to stay. The grounds are expansive with beautiful gardens, some magnificent curtain trees, and there is a variety of pools and restaurants dotted around. Whilst most of the buildings are in Western type hotel style, there are still a significant amount of Balinese style thatched roofs, and soaring bamboo structures to give a pleasant Balinese feel to the place. I haven’t at any time during my stay felt that I could have been anywhere in the world, no, our choice of hotel has enough Balinese character to let me know I’m in Bali. It’s been a really good choice.

They have a few special dinners each week, with one of them being a seafood buffet set up on the lawn for the occasion. They had a live singer throughout the evening, (every night they have some sort of live entertainment), and at the seafood buffet they also had a special fire dance performance. We watched them transform the expansive lawn overlooking the beach into a huge special dining area complete with white table clothes and draped chairs. By the time it commenced at 7pm there were several huge buffet tables set up around the perimeter, each laden with so much food I’m sure they could have fed the whole of Bali. I couldn’t begin to remember what was on offer, I’ve never seen so much food in one place before. I loved the ice, and fruit carvings. The fire dance floor show was pretty good too.

The hotel runs along a public beach front. When we came to Bali more than 25 years ago the hawkers proved to be too much for us. They are a lot less demanding now than they were then, but even less demanding in Nusa Dua than elsewhere on the Island. Below is a video of a hawker displaying his kites for sale as he wanders down the beach. He’s not in anyone’s face at all. In fact, he provided a bit of something to see whilst we we were eating our lunch in the Italian restaurant.

While here we have had a reasonable look around Nusa Dua with a couple of morning walks. On one occasion we walked almost the length of the beach and hotel area right down to the Mulia. Bali is humid, so we walked slowly, taking almost two hours to get there, and we taxied back. We had wanted to check out the Mulia for future reference, as we thought we’d love it. However, we weren’t that impressed, it was too big for us, and too pristine. When we returned to our own hotel, it felt a lot more intimate, and we appreciated the gardens and green lawns even more. It felt like ‘coming home’.

There were definitely a few things that did impress us on our walk though. Firstly, everywhere was clean, and well maintained. Bali in general isn’t like that – in fact, excuse the expression, but for most of Bali once outside of the hotels, it’s pretty much a ‘shithole’. (That’s Paul’s expression for it). The footpaths are in bad repair, the drain covers broken, and rubbish is everywhere. Nusa Dua isn’t like that. The uncrowded footpaths are in good repair and shaded by beautiful trees, with lawns and gardens alongside. There is hardly any traffic on the roads comparatively too. This is the Bali some people aren’t impressed by – me, I love it! I’m happy to stay in clean Nusa Dua, but yes, I’ll still venture out to see other places on future trips, and there will definitely be future trips.

We leave before sunrise in tomorrow, so today we rose early and headed to the beach to see a final sunrise. It was beautiful. We’ll definitely be back.

I’ve heard it said that, ‘there’s something in Bali for everyone’. We have really enjoyed Sanur, Lembongan, and Nusa Dua. Of the three places though I suspect it is Nusa Dua, and in particular the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel and Spa (in the quieter Palace Club Rooms) that will likely be included in any future Bali trips. It’s been a real pleasure!