With restraint and on the road again :)

It has been a hectic few weeks as per usual.  I began last month with a four day course which involved learning how to do restraints in a crisis situation.  We learnt how to deflect someone coming at you to hit you - very easy when in practice when the person goes through their movements slowly thus allowing you to respond in kind, lol.  Then there were the two person restraints where you had a co worker who would assist in the restraint.  The upshot is that shortly, my ID card will reflect that I am licensed to do a standing two person restraint and a restraint on my own.  We had to pass a practical and written test for this. I am licensed to level two as I did not attempt a floor restraint - I would not have the strength or the ability to kneel while attempting this move but I am ok with where I got to.  The trainers were brilliant and kept me engaged for the whole four days and it was a nice break from actually being on the floor.  

Last week I had the extreme good luck to be able to get to Perth for four days, woohoo.  Gerard, the WMH, had several Macca's meetings that coincided with my days off so I tagged a ride down and back with him.  At the end of  three night shifts - two 12 hour ones and then a 10 hour one finishing at 0715, I was home and  ready to go by 8.00am.  Gerard had put a travelling selection of music on his ipod and away we went.  I thought I would get some shut eye on the way down, but between chatting and having the music at nose bleed levels we pretty much rocked our way to Perth before I knew it.  We had one stop on the way down for a toilet break and a quick grab of something to eat and drink and we were on the road again.  We reached Midland around 12.30 which is a major bus/train station north of Perth city, where I got out and then caught a train down to Warnbro just south of Freemantle and Rockingham  to catch up with friends Shelly and Maurice for the night.  

I have decided I love travelling by train over here and it is a shame you can not travel from Geraldton down by rail.  I had no idea what I was doing initially but most of the bigger stations have customer service people and in each instance that I needed help, they were brilliant.  I played the slightly bewildered tourist, and had someone get my ticket for me and all bar putting me on the train, at Midland, lol.  Shelly was there to meet me at the station in Warnbro and within 5 mins we were at hers and wow.  Shelly and Maurice moved over here three years ago and a year ago bought a house after selling theirs back in Hamilton, NZ.  When they first moved over here they lived the first few months with their 12 yr old son( at the time ) at a cousins.  For $390,000 they have got themselves a four bedroom brick home, with three lounge areas, two bathrooms, walk in linen closet, huge kitchen, office, and a swimming pool.  One of the bathrooms had a roman bath with a shower over it (completely tiled bath) and the other bathroom had a shower each side of the bath area - all this plus a walk in closet - be still my beating heart.  The kitchen, two lounge areas  and office have  tiled floors  with carpet in the one lounge and bedrooms. The house is 10 mins away from Joel's school, 15 mins away from Shelly's work and 5 mins away from the shops and is at the bottom of a cul-de-sac   There is also a large area out the back of the house with a covered patio area so indoor outdoor flow is brilliant.  I am thrilled to bits for them and they are still pinching themselves for doing so well.  It had been over a year since I stayed with them last, when they lived in Rockingham,  so we had plenty to catch up on hence it was midnight before I got to bed thus making it 30 hours without sleep.  Needless to say, I slept like a rock.

The following afternoon Shelly dropped me back at the station on her way to work and I caught the train back into Perth and then changed to the Armadale line getting off at Kelmscott where Donna lives.  The next station which is Challis is actually just around the corner from her house but I didn't get that bit of info until after the confusion of us being at two different stations when she came to pick me up.  All good though but she had to walk home from Challis to get the car to pick me up from Kelmscott, lol.  Donna too has just bought a house and is still unpacking so it was exciting to see where she now resides as well.  We decided to go on a mission into Perth and on to Harbour Town the following day.  I was on the hunt for bell pull ends for some embroidery I have completed so before we headed to Harbour town we tried several local embroidery shops first.  We ended up at a place called Pioneer town somewhere in Armadale I think, that used to be set up like a village shopping centre with people in period costume but it has since been sold off for housing and the odd shop still going.  Found a delightful embroidery shop there that I will visit again.  I had no luck with the bell pull ends but did get plenty of ideas for new projects, lol.  

Harbour Town is a huge two storied shopping centre that has mainly clothes shops that have lots of bargains where you can get labelled clothing etc very cheaply.  We walked round each floor shop by shop, mostly window shopping but did find some bargains - clothing for the grandchildren, and bits and pieces from a book shop, stationery shop and dribbled through the Royal Doultan shop resisting buying anything thinking I would be lucky to get it back in one piece but OMG there were some bargains in there.  The hit of the day for me was trying something new to eat. There was in the food hall area, a shop selling gozleme - this is Turkish I think, and if you think of something like roti filled with spinach and feta, folded over and cooked pressed flat like a quesadilla and served with a slice of lemon.  Wow is all I can say, it was delicious.  They also do chicken filled and meat filled gozleme but I think I had the best of it with the spinach and feta.  It was very filling and for around $10 - good value for money.  After we had nearly worn our feet to our knee caps we decided to finish off the day with an ice cream from the gelato bar - I had a scoop of pistachio icecream and a scoop of macadamia and white chocolate - tasted divine,  followed with a coffee to give me enough energy to make the trip back, lol. We had walked from the station to the shopping centre however to my astonishment we were able to catch a free bus back to the station.  Apparently there is a free bus service that goes through the city - so note to self for next time I am there.  We had got a day tripper ticket for the train for $11.50 which I thought was hugely reasonable and so much better than trying to find non-existant or very expensive parking if we had driven in.  

The trip back to Donna's was very entertaining as there was a KISS concert on in town that evening and many of the prospective attendees who were travelling in by train had their faces painted in black and white to get into theme for the night.  Still on the hunt for bell pull ends we thought that Spotlight might just have them so out we headed once we got back to Donna's to see if we could find some.  No luck there but OMG, it was twice the size as the one in Geraldton and it was like being in an Aladdin's cave..... needless to say, I did have to purchase a few things that I didn't know I needed before I got there, lol.  Donna scored some new curtains for her lounge on sale so she was a happy customer also.  We were slightly hungry again ( nearly 7.00pm by now) so we ended up at the Gosnalls Railway market in the foodhall area.  The market is a huge covered space,  like going into a large shed,  with an old locomotive sitting in the middle of the foodhall. The rest of the market which has stalls round the corner (we didn't go there) I think is open in the weekends.  I decided on Chinese getting a mixed plate of goodies and was extremely thankful to return back to Donnas for feet up and a coffee at the end of the evening.  

The following morning I packed and we headed back to Midland to meet up with Gerard again.  We decided to catch up at Midland Gate which is a large shopping centre opposite the train station,  and I am just glad we had so little time to go as there was a KMart, book shops, furniture, clothing, you name it,  plus a great food hall with other coffee shops sprinkled around.  I could have done some serious damage there but had to suffice with a small extra bag of goodies from a bookshop and a couple of selections from the old time candy shop to hold body and soul together on the trip back to Geraldton.  

This time we had company travelling on the way back as two others from Macca's had flown down for the day before's meeting.  After a quick bite to eat for them, we were on our way.  Gerard and I had travelled down the Brand highway to Perth and had decided we might try the coast road on the way back - a decision we had no other option of taking in the end as the Brand highway was then closed because of bushfire burning at Bullsbrook and Bindoon which had burned something like 12000 acres over the previous two days. We got directions from Donna but something must have got mixed up in the translation and it wasn't until we were nearly back at Midland we realised we had pretty much done a circle out of town and back again - this when we had a Sat-nav in the car!!!!!!! - What is it about guys asking for directions,lol.  With the sat-nav finally,  we set off again and this time got it right.  I have to say either way the road is fairly boring to travel with miles and miles and miles of scrub land followed by more of the same.  It was interesting at one stage to be on a piece of road that had about two metres on the side till the Indian Ocean - you cannot get much more to the edge of Australia than that!  We had a quick stop at Jurien Bay to grab something to eat for late lunch - I had hoped to score another meal of fish and chips there but as we didn't arrive until 3pm, they had closed for the afternoon, sigh.   It was on 5.30pm as we got back into Geraldton so not a quick trip back, nearly two hours longer than on the way down.  It was a total tonic to get away for a few days and great to catch up with friends as always.

I had hoped to be heading back to NZ this month for the No 1 son's 40th birthday and the double 90th birthday's of my extended family (wave to Lorne and Noel,) over Easter but I have not been able to get the time off, even though I asked to have it off without pay ,grrrrrrr.  It seems that with being sick last year, and my two trips home, I have used up all my leave. Am not impressed needless to say.  The irony is that I have days off over both occasions but it is the bit in the middle that tripped me up and it is a long way to go for a weekend.   It has made me think that maybe my time in Geraldton is nearly over - will have to put some thought into it as my lease finishes in November and the house has a contract on it at the moment as of last week, so possibly time for a change all round.  Perth could be an option too so will just have to wait and see.  Which ever, I will need to find work which could be the deciding factor where.  Have typed this at work - am on the last of three nights in a row and now I get the weekend off and what is left of today that I do not need to sleep. I had hoped to post some photos but my computer does not have enough oooomph when I am not am home hooked into wireless or whatever makes it faster lol.  Will try for next time instead :):):)