6th June -11th June 2 warm eggs, 2 more power cuts, hurricane winds and a fire!!!!

Saturday afternoon having spoken to Edith(the neighbour) we decide to ride into Rockingham town to get some 'clearskin' wines. They wines that have had their usual expensive brand labels removed and are sold really cheaply to protect the brand, often as result of poor sales (too expensive). So off we trot and what a lovely drive, all along the esplanade, then we park up and have a walk around... see piccies... we buy 6 bottles for about £15, and they are really lovely... Home we come, DVD's in hand ( we bought two for a couple of dollars..... lol...) The presidio and parachute jump film with Wesley snipes in and we settle down in the cinema...  to start off with The adjustment Bureau... Brilliant...John is the projectionist and now has it off to a fine art.  We have a great and relaxing Saturday nite, which is just as well when you read what is coming next.!!!

I kid you not.....does it never stop.??? Look.. this is the story so far. We stayed at Dawesville and had 4 power cuts in as many weeks. What did they say??? We haven't had one in years!!!! We move to Waikiki and have 2 power cuts in 2 days and what do they say ' we haven't had one in about 10 years'! we visit friends in Banjup and what happens??? yep a flipping power cut. What do they say.... Yes ...... well I say no more!!!!

We went out to lunch at Banjup yesterday (Sunday) which is where we will be staying for the month of July.  Its in the middle of Bushland and much nearer to Fremantle and Perth.  Kouy is coming over to stay for a couple of weeks during that time too. They are so lovely, both teachers and have said they are also leaving us their car to use.... how lucky is that?. So there we are, sat having a home made chicken curry, drinking wine and tucking into fresh fruits, apple pies and fresh cream, all chatting and laughing and then 'woof' ......The chairs fly across the patio, the trees are bending in two....out goes all the lights and once again theres no power.... and here no power is NO power..... Eventually we have to leave for home, theres no lights anywhere, trees are down, there is debris on the roads , no traffic lights, no motorway lights, the garages are shutting, the shops are in darkness and actually it all looks quite surreal... Even though its not even 6pm its already pitch black but on we drive on the motorway and eventually arrive home. Do you know that wherever you go in the world, there is always some bloody idiot who thinks they know better and can drive at any speed they like and on any part of the road....? It would have been easy to punch a few lights out (not the electrical kind either) of various drivers, pigging idiots some of them... All I can say is that if you drive, please check for the BIKES..... we are there... Anyway we got home and into the darkness of the house we went, no power here either. I knock next door for Edith to make sure she is ok, but she has gone over the road to the B and b... Eventually giving up on candle lite.. and with the laptop, IPod and phone all out of battery, we went off to bed by torch lite.  In fact the power was off for a complete 30 hours. It got restored today for a brief  3 hours this afternoon then 'woof.....and the story above unfolded...

So there we are today (Monday) having just survived a 30 hour power cut, dinner in oven, lights on, all going well and then 'woof' and no its not the dogs, its another flipping power surge. The noise it makes is really eirrie and then everything goes black and we are again without power.  Then John hears fire engines, we open the front door and the bloody telegraph pole attached by electrical wires to the house WE are living in, is on fire...... The traffic is being diverted, the side road closed off and the fire services all here....and we have a fire crew on our front garden... (they did't even knock the door) . The flames are spitting out from the top of the pole and small sparks are flying everywhere. "Are we ok I ask John ?'' "yeahhhhhh, don't worry, the fire brigade are dealing... come on lets go in''  'Go in ???, I can't go in, I have to stay out here... that pole is attached to this house'' 'OK' he says, and off he pops indoors, cool as cucumber... So I wander over to the lead officer  "" are we safe here?" I ask...' Yes you should be ok, its been raining for a couple of days... we are just waiting for the energy board to turn up and turn off the remaining power still going through it.. then we can put the hoses on it and put the fire out''.  Then up rocks the Western energy guy, out he gets with a very long pole, he does something with his pole from the ground to all the wires linking the telegraph poles and then up goes the hoses. The pole gets a good old dousing......  I catch the attention of the energy company man and ask what will happen next... " well... we will have to wait for daylight to see what damage, but proberly new pole, and then they will get you all reconnected....'How long will that be?' 'well'' he says work is really heavy, you know with the bad winds (the worst in 15 years!) and all that,, properly/maybe a couple of days" ....  So there you go back to no power. But we are lucky in that we have a gas hob (although electric fan oven) so we can use a match to lite it and cook in pots on the top and the water comes through via its own gravity. Whereas some people have pumps to pull their water through. We are washing, drinking, and using only rain water that is collected from the roofs here.. so we have water, although it may not be warm for much longer as the solar panels are supported by electric in the winter months... and guess what??? yes its winter. But hey ho, never mind...we'll survive.

So here comes the pictures , just to show you whats going on...

John the projectionist...sorting out The Adjustment Bureau.. Excellent film and well worth watching. AND Anthony Stamp is in it, who is the cousin of Zac my practice teacher , when I was training as a Social Worker.  (This is the cinema in the front of the house).

The ride along the esplanade towards Rockingham and Clearskin wines....

more views....

Me and a dolphin.... in Rockingham Town...

The house we are in now ( the shutters are a feature on many Ozzie houses!!)

Now I am going to own up myself because if I don't, I know that he (John) will only spill the beans. As you know we are looking after three chooks called Roxanne, Kouy and Billee-Jean lol....... So yesterday as usual, out John goes to see if they have laid any eggs (usually 1-2 a day) and in he comes " here" he says  ''hold these they are still warm"  well that was it!!!!!, there I am retching and up chucking all round the kitchen, ''no don't'' I am shouting,'' uruuuuuuupppppg, uuuurrrrruuuuup, I can't hold a warm egg from a chooks bum!!! tears are rolling down my face, with fear and also laughter..... "the're not from its bum ' says John 'the're from its ......" NO I scream 'no more, don't tell me any more' Well I must have led a very sheltered childhood cuz I thought they come from the chooks deirrie'... what can I say?, I just can't think about it.  I love my bacon eggs, so I don't want to talk anymore about it anymore !!!!!  Think I might look up a short biology course when I get back, till then the subject is 'STUMM, comprende ?

So here we sit in the candlelight, me on the blog and John making a cuppa with the camping kettle....

Life is basic once again, never mind, we are still laughing...

Branches down, apparently the winds were unto 140km per hour!!!! and the worst in 15 years (Tail end of a hurricane , they tell us!)

116,000 homes without power, and the area affected covers all the way up to Perth...

Tree through fence, bet they did't expect that....

Cant see Humpty Dumpty, buts the wall is definitely down....this si the house just round the corner from us.

And the piccies of the telegraph pole on fire came out PANTS, so we won't be bothering with them..

Well guys, nite to you all, fingers crossed for no drama's tomorrow..