Our House, Our Castle and Life at the Mad Monk.

Well, its hard to believe that we've been in Freo for around a month now - the time has really flown by and we've met some great people.

Our Housemates

We are living in a wonderful house in Fremantle in the suburb of Hilton, living with Shona, Roberto and little Bella, who is such a gorgeous character.

Bub number two is on the way and we will be staying here until its arrival around mid-August.

Ohhh, such a lovely family!!!

Dave is loving the fact that there is a piano in the house and enjoys breaking out some tunes with Bella:

We also had Bella's 5th birthday party a week ago and the pinata was brought out....

So as you can see, we've been lucky to get such a great place with such lovely folk AND so close to work.

And speaking of work....

Life at the Mad Monk

We have been working for the last month in a brewery / restaurant in Fremantle. Its a micro-brewery and Justin the brewer does a great job producing 5 of the nicest beers we've tasted (and we've tasted a lot of beer!) The Head Chef Mitch has done an awesome job with the food menu too - our favourite being the sticky pork belly and seared scallops...

About a week after we started we had a staff party to farewell a few staff and have a generally fun day. Work was closed for the day (a Monday) and everyone turned up in their M-Theme outfits before we headed on the party bus, first to a brewery in the Swan Valley and then to play Super Golf. We then headed back to do a bit of a pub crawl in Freo. A very long day!!

The M-Crowd (click to enlarge):

Back: Max - Mime, Flick - Matador, Alexei - Mexican

Middle: Adam - Mr T, Nick - Mormon, Jacqui - Miss Muffett, Sarah - Mad Scientist

Front: Jen - Muscateer, Rhys - Mother Teresa, Manon - Mobstress, Justin - The Mask, Jenna - Mile High Club, Bec - Minnie Mouse, Nick - Macgyver, Ness - Miner, Edel - Mary Antoinette, Dave - Miner.

Dave "Mr T" Miner and Mr Incredible Mitch:

Party Bus:

Good times!!!

Toodyay

Dave and I took an overnight trip to Toodyay - a quaint little town about an hour or so North West of Fremantle, in the Avon Valley.

We called in at a sweet shop where we were struck by the size of the gobstoppers...

.... and Jelly Babies (this ones for you Foo)

We also stopped by a local winery called Coorinja Wines. We were met by the loveliest man ever, who was celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary the next day. Dave and I told him we were celebrating our 6 month anniversary and he was happy to give us some advice on a long and happy marriage, bless him!

Coorinja is one of the few wineries from last century still in operation. The historic brick and stone cellars date from the 1870's. His father bought the winery in the 30's and its been in their family ever since and still retains this charm (and prices - $7.50 - $10 for a bottle of table wine and $14 for a flagon!!). He had about 8 ports to try and of course we gave them all a go. We ended up with a few bottles of wine and a bottle of the 1980 port which cost about $28 but I'm sure a port this old from anywhere else would have cost a fortune!! It was lovely and we had to buy it since it was from the year of my birth!

When we walked out I said to Dave - "Did he remind you of anyone?" and Dave's quick reply was "Your Dad!" - and he so did remind me of what Dad would be like in 20 years time - we just wanted to give him a big cuddle.

Dave and "Dad Senior" with our purchases:

Next Blog:

• Our trip back to Dwellingup with Bec and Adam


• Dave's birthday and our "Buena Vista Social Club" experience


• Our flatwarming / flat birthday party (this Sunday)


• and maybe a few other bits and pieces....