Dr J

Jonathan’s impersonating a doctor again… Who needs Dr Carter and Dr Kovac?!

hottest january in fifteen years!

This was the wee statement I heard today! Lucky us. I tell you what is great though is putting on your togs, heading to the ocean and running in. The water is warm, the waves gentle and FINALLY I begin to feel a little cooler. Jonathan’s been on nights these past few nights which is weird for me – he sleeps during the day so our eating, sleeping and living is all out of sync. Bizarre. He did wake up about 3pm and suggest the beach trip though in between his naps. It’s all good and makes me appreciate our extended honeymoon all the more!!

a hot afternoon

Thanks for the suggestions for what to do with that wee box outside our front door! Some of them are a LITTLE bit impractical… Jonathan has suggested putting out a bowl with sweets in it and a sign saying to take one. I like it but if I walked past someone house who I didn’t know I doubt I’d take one of their sweets… We’ll see! Friends gave us a cactus as a housewarming gift (and petunias which are thriving!!) maybe a cactus would work well out there? Well, Jonathan started nights last night. He tried and failed to sleep yesterday during the day so when he came home this morning he’d been awake for 26 hours non-stop. I’d literally be falling asleep on my feet. Not him, he comes in and makes french toast!! Anyway, he’s sleeping now (I hope – well, he’s in bed at least) So to give him peace I decided to go and visit one of the massive malls here in Perth. It was huge but I saw NOTHING I wanted to buy – what’s with that? I would like a wee summer dress and you’d think with all these shops but no, they make clothes different over here. Anyway, I got a shirt for J (he only has one and wears it everyday to work – thankfully clothes dry very quickly here so it is being washed regularly but I don’t want him to be the doctor they talk about as only having one shirt!!) 

what to do with this space?

We have this space outside of our door (everyone does) and I’m just not sure what to put in their. No one else has anything there but I’d like to make mine look friendly! All suggestions gratefully received! 

Jonathan’s Study

So, Jonathan has his part two exams in August which means that as well as working full-time he has to study pretty hardcore. Thankfully he enjoys studying and has a supportive wife who loves to make up fictional emergency room problems to quiz him on (who said watching ER and House was a waste of time?!) He’s made a little study space in the laundry and today we bought a proper chair for it and I put a picture on the wall! 

 Note the iron and washing machine in the background – just in case he gets bored!!! 

Recipes

You can run but you can’t hide. Now that we’re settled in Perth I’m turning my attentions to the recipe book. If you made something for our wedding and haven’t emailed me the recipe please do so!! If you know someone who made something for our wedding and they haven’t emailed it to me please ask them to get on the case!! I only have SEVEN recipe so far!!! This will make a short book! Thanks to those of you who have emailed – you get a gold star!

Australia Day/Weekend

One of the strangest things here in Perth (apart from the weather and deadly animals) is that most of the shops are closed on Sundays. The local supermarket is never open on a Sunday. I think that’s probably a good thing but I realise how much I’ve gotten used to being able to shop when I want and also everything is closed by 6pm every other night and sometimes earlier. This means if you suddenly remember you need something for your dinner at 6:05pm it’s too late! It’s bizarre. On one of our daily evening walks, however, we found another supermarket not too far away which is open until a wee bit later which is good to know! Yesterday was a holiday for Australia Day (which was on Saturday) and everything was closed (except for this awesome fruit and veg shop which is run by foreigners!) I think I like that the pace of life here is a wee bit slower. So, to celebrate Ozzie day I went round to some Kiwi friends and had pancakes for breakfast (J was working – the hospital stays open always!) It was lovely. Then to enter into the spirit of the day I abandoned most of my productive plans and settled down with a novel they lent me by a local Perth author – this is one of my favourite ways to spend a day! After having skype chats with both parents (technology is amazing!) I met J off the train from work and then HE suggested we watch Monarch of the Glen – I LOVE it!!

Church

Jonathan here. Morv is busy dusting the shelves on the sabbath so I am the blog-master today. She is dusting because the kitchen is filthy (to my mind simply a little dusty). The reason for this is we have to have the kitchen window open all the time to get a through breeze but there’s a load of dust which comes with it.  When it’s consistently 38 degrees it’s probably worth it though. Morv may have a dilemma on her hands tho – as any of you who know her will guess. Stuck between the Skylla and Charybdis of dirt versus heat – which way will she sail? We shall see. Anyway – enough rambling  the good news of the day is we’ve just come back from church and think we’ve found our spiritual home for the next year or so. We both love it and it hasn’t been hard to decide to make it our church. I think the words we said as we left were “so that’s why we’re in Mosman Park”. It’s Mosman Park Community Church – a 2 year old church plant, 3 minutes walk from our house. Originally a baptist church it seems to be similar to what a baptist church in the UK or NZ would be like (I think a little different from the US but not too sure). When we arived they were singing all the songs I would play if I were leading – a lot of Matt Redman and Tim Hughes with an old hymn and a classic Turn your eyes upon Jesus – so we felt immediately at home. Most of the people seem to live near us and we’ve already been asked round for a meal next week. We feel genuinely grateful to God and as usual have felt led through the whole process of where we’ve ended up. Thanks to those who prayed.   Bye for now,  J  

old photo

I was going through our photos yesterday and came across this one which I love and haven’t posted before. Thought I’d share it (and it reminds me of NYC and the Cates and getting engaged – all great memories!!!)

Hot Hot Hot

Oh boy, it is HOT. And I don’t just mean those mildly warm days I used to find hot in Scotland. I mean at 7:30am this morning when I was out walking I was HOT (and those of you who know me know that’s not because of my strenuous walking!!) Yesterday I managed a two hour walk after walking with J to his train. Today it was 30 minutes. Neither of us slept well last night – it’s just too hot!!!! Bring on the air con (it’s being fitted very soon but unsurprisingly the man who fits air cons is very busy at the moment!) The trouble with the heat is that I wilt and just don’t cope very well. Jonathan made the wise suggestion last night that we go for a swim in the sea as the sun was setting. And so with nervous thoughts of jellyfish and sharks I agreed (J rightly pointed out that sharks couldn’t get that close to the beach – we were hardly out from the shore – and we didn’t see any jellyfish – that’s just to reassure my mum!) It was awesome and so so nice to not be roasting. The water was warm but really cooled us down. Maybe we’ll do that every night! And so today I’m going to try and be as still as possible – I have Walter Bruegemann’s OT book which I’m really enjoying, my teaching registration form to fill in, sudoku and AUstralian Open tennis to keep me out of mischief while this heat wave rages on. I’m meeting J in Cottesloe after work to go for at least a paddle and then eat fish and chips on the beach – it is Burn’s Day!! Oh and my hair has gone crazy curly because it’s too hot to use a hairdryer!!! One thing we have found incredibly helpful is to keep a bag of watermelon chunks in the freezer. Any other helpful ‘keep cool’ tips will be gratefully received – cold showers, wet wipes and cold towels have already been suggested and are being used!!One of J’s smoothie creations – this one was mango, rockmelon and lemon with iced watermelon chunks – very tasty!!This is me at our nearest train stop (5 minutes walk away). See it’s called Victoria Street which is the street where Jonathan’s granny lives in Aberdeen and where he lived for the last 18 months!The steps to the beach. Interestingly I read the sign at the top of the steps yesterday which informed me that deadly snakes live in the grass in the sand dunes. Needless to say, I’ll be for sure sticking to the paths!! Me just after our swim  Just beautiful!!