Nice weekend

Friday - 09/12/08


We had a great weekend with Jessica and Todd showing them some of the sights in the area. It was a rainy day Friday when Jessica, Todd and Bruce took the train in to Perth to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. Norma stayed home because the cold that she has been fighting for over a week was being a little worse again so rest seemed a better option. The exhibition was in a tent on some open park space down by the Swan River in downtown Perth. They have wooden models showing how the designs worked. In some cases you could play with them others just look at them. You begin to see how many other things he worked on other than art work. He developed cannon balls that had fins on them to make them more stable. He had a mobile stairs that could be pushed up to a castle wall and provide cover for the soldiers to get to the top without being speared or shot with an arrow. I have a picture of a car that you tightened down some springs and released them to drive it along for a distance. I think you can see that this might not be very helpful since cranking up down the springs every little distance was not make it move rapidly but it was ingenious for its time.

This is the car that he invented. You can see the leaf springs that he used to store the energy but you had to crack it up tight and then release it.

Here is Todd showing the proper amount of contemplation of one of his inventions. There is a boat with a crane coming out of it, which was another invention.

This is the Bell Tower on the water front in downtown Perth. You can see the amount of rain that was coming down at that moment. Fortunately, these were short lived showers and we walked into the business district to eat without getting soaked.

As we walked back toward the train station, we decided to eat rather than face a full train during rush hour. The Lonely Planet guide came to the rescue by suggesting a Japanese restaurant that was maybe six or eight blocks down Hay Street (a major street in the downtown). Also the price seemed to be better than usual and when we walked up to it there was a line waiting to get in. Now they were just opening so that seemed to be a good omen. We got in and the waitress asked if we had a reservation, which we said no. She said “Can you be finished eating by 7:00?” It was just a little after 6:00 at that moment but we said certainly! Everyone was getting the same treatment and we didn’t get our food until 6:40 but we did finish not long after 7:00. It was very good. We caught a train back into Freo at a reasonable hour and did not get wet in the process. We managed to be some where there was cover whenever it rained heavily. It was an interesting day.

Saturday

Saturday, we had a car from the university so we headed up to AQWA again. The main draw for Jessica and Todd was the leafy Sea Dragon which I showed in another an earlier message. They would have loved to see one in the wild while diving but they did not have the time. We took our time and looked at all the exhibits. We had fish ‘n chips in some shops near the marina. The fish was good and it was its usual greasiness. This is not a low fat meal. We ate with everyone else in an area under a roof that was open to the outside and with a view of the boats in the harbor. Now this is an idyllic setting except that there are aggressive sea gulls lurking. If people just left their trash sitting on the table, the gulls would move in quickly to have a food fight. At times they will fly just past your head almost touching it. Picturesque to being obnoxious changes in a moment!

This was a shallow tank at AQWA. You can see the sea anemone in front at the center left. The colors of the other animals were quite striking.

We were heading south from AQWA to turn left at hwy 3 to cut over to Caversham but we never saw the sign and didn’t know we had missed it until some way down the road. With Todd navigating while I drove, we got through the northern part of Perth, closer to the downtown than was planned; finally back on the right road. Because we were late in the day, there not many people present. We ended up seeing more things than we had the other two times that we have visited the park. I will include more pictures later.

A family picture with a wombat! There is nothing quite like it.

I have a picture of the baby of one of the koala's but it is a little hard to see so I am not including it at this time. Most of them were awake, which is unusual since they sleep 20 hours a day. The female with the baby sat on the head of male and finally he got cranky and bit her. After which they both vocalized their disapproval of each other. It was quite exciting for a moment.

This is a pair of young gang gang cockatoos who are posing well in this shoot but started fighting shortly after I took the picture and they had to be separated. They are really quite lovely even if they were busy fighting.

That is all for now.

B.

accident report

09/13/08

It is rarely dull!

As we were driving up the coast from Freo, we noted all the wind and waves and thought about Peta with the students who were going out to Rottnest Island for a field trip in her seashore geology class. We figured it was a rough boat ride.

As we let Caversham Wildlife Park late in the afternoon, I got a call from Peta that there had been an accident with one of the students while riding a bike. The phone reception was poor and I first thought she said she had fallen off the boat. But clearly Peta seemed to indicate that she was safe but at that momentI lost phone contact. I handed the phone back to Norma told her call back while I drove. It turns out that she had gone over her bike and hit her nose on the front basket. It did not break her nose but it did gouge it. She needed some stitches in her knee and had abrasions on her arms and some outstanding bruises. There is a nursing station on the island so Peta got help for her but she had to wait until everyone was finished and they caught the boat back. She said that many elderly women stopped and offered help and would take her back to their flat if she wished. It turns out that the rear brakes were poor and as she came up on two student one swerved into her lane and she braked harder but the front one worked best. That was too bad since it sent her over the top.

Norma took her to the doctor Monday morning to get the bandage changed. It is a type that promotes healing and should be able to avoid a scar as long as it gets changed every day this week. She was less sore than she and we thought she would be. She is doing well and will go on the trip to Broome next Monday. She is a plucky young woman.

I think the doctor could open a clinic at the P&O!!!

At this moment all is well but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

B.