Baggas’ Blog

Local shots 15

Originally uploaded by baggas

Well it’s been a wild, stormy day, but at least we’ve been treated to a pretty spectacular finish

Local shots 14

Originally uploaded by baggas

Well this is part of the memorial to HMAS Perth, a guided missile destroyer that served from 1965 to 1999, including distinguished service in the Vietnam war. Rockingham is the site of a major naval base, which is I guess the reason they put this memorial here. Also nearby there is a huge ship’s gun turret, presumably from the Perth.

In the background you can see the blue CBH grain terminal wharf, where I spent many summer days while I was in medical school. I had a job there most summers shovelling grain, unloading trains and loading ships. The top tower of that wharf has one of the best views around - was a great place to sit and eat my lunch or dinner, or just hang out when there wasn’t much work to be done.

About a month ago, with the aim of working on my health and fitness, I visited our local bike shop and got myself a reasonably good bike. The last one I had was a cheap one that rusted from disuse a few years ago. Well I haven’t been doing so great thus far, being so busy that I’ve only ridden it 3 or 4 times, and only short trips.

Well tonight I went out for a ride along the cycle path near our house, and was well rewarded with some great views of a gentle sunset over the ocean. All too often we don’t appreciate what a beautiful place we live in. I need to work at getting out on my bike more often, and scenes like this are a great incentive to do so.

Local shots 12

Originally uploaded by baggas

Down the park near our house with the boys. Owen is practising his bike riding (doing pretty good too!)

… and flickr is still not co-operating with this blog posting.. the photos make it to flickr, but not to my blog. I have to take the extra step of blogging the photo from within flickr… annoying

Local shots 11

Originally uploaded by baggas

This is in one of the better parks in Rockingham, with plenty for the kids to do - but I have no idea what the point is of these totem pole things. Is it some weird new age thing? Do they hold occult fertility rituals or sacrifices here in the dead of the night? Certainly doesn’t look indigenous to here.. strange.

Speaking of parks, keep your eye on this blog for some upcoming video of “The Best Playground I Have Ever Seen” and it’s right here in WA. I’ll post it up here over the next few days.

Anyway I’m off to dance around the totem poles.. :p

Local shots 10

Originally uploaded by baggas

This one’s from last week - Shoalwater Bay. My friend used to live a street back from this beach so we spent a lot of time down there as kids. I particularly remember one episode where we got freaked out by an angry seal when we tried to swim to Seal Island. We ended up turning around and going back to shore. Good times.

Local shots 8

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Boring looking photo I know, but significant to me. This is the Safety Bay Scout Hall, where in grade 4 in 1984 I was part of the first ever class of students at Maranatha Christian School - we had a combined class of grade 4 - 7 students and around 40 kids total in the school.

Now I’m parked outside the current, much huger, Maranatha College waiting to collect my grade 2 son. I noticed the other day in the office here that they still have a few plaques with my name on up on the wall. Scary how fast time flies. Life is too short…

Local shots 7

Originally uploaded by baggas.

You could call it a beach, or you could call it a sea weed depository … either way Safety Bay is a nice spot.

Now let’s see if this works - the flickr blog posting is a bit inconsistent - the photos I send from my phone always make it to flickr, but don’t seem to then make it to blog every time. It’s a bit hit and miss - so here goes…

[yep - the photo made it to flickr but not to the blog. Although it’s then easy to send it on using one click from the flickr website but it’s a shame the mobile posting is not so reliable…]

Local shots 6

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Whenever my drug pushers disappoint and do not bring me lunch, I like to visit this joint up the road - Perth Noodle Wok. Always very tasty. Today’s meal - Phad Thai noodle box - and it was very nice indeed

Local shots 5

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Coffee, crossaint, ocean, and trees - a perfect breakfast before work… along with a good book of course!

Had a little case in theatre this morning so I’ve half an hour to kill before my clinic starts.

Local shots 4

Originally uploaded by baggas.

Sunset over the park near our home tonight. The photo just doesn’t do justice to how spectacular this was…

Of course using a mobile phone camera doesn’t help. 

Originally uploaded by baggas.

I’ve never spent a huge amount of time here, but for some reason this park has always appealed to me..

Any locals want to tell us where it is??

Local Shots 2

Originally uploaded by baggas.

My favourite shop in the local area. No prizes for guessing why

The kids know this as the “orange guitar shop”

Local Shots 1

Originally uploaded by baggas.

I’d prety much forgotten about remote posting via flickr until I notced ob1 doing it the last few days. Nothing like some fresh photos to keep things interesting.

So here begins a series of random photos of my world as I’m around the traps. To start with, the focal point of Rockingham, where I have spent many many days since I was a kid - Rockingham beach.

Online refrigeration

Originally uploaded by baggas.

I know you can do an awful lot of things on the net these days but keeping things cold? Now that’s impressive! :))

Perth cements spot as Australia’s priciest city : thewest.com.au

I was interested to read in this morning’s newspaper that Perth has crept into first place as Australia’s most expensive place to buy a home. It’s not a huge surprise given the way house prices have gone up over the last couple of years, but it’s still pretty amazing when you compare it to a few years ago. Certainly less than 5 years ago I can remember looking at prices in Sydney and wondering how on earth regular people could afford to live there, and being thankful that our prices in Perth were half the amount. Not so anymore - the median house price in Perth is now $508,900, just passing Syndey’s $507,400. The median monthly mortgage payment is now $3009, compared to $3000 in Sydney. Now that amount seems quite a lot to me, and I’m on a reasonably high income - I don’t know how people on average wages could manage that.

Looking on a broader scale, let’s review the List of most expensive cities from 2006. Back then Sydney was 19th [20th in 2005], and Perth was 93rd [93rd in 2005]. Assuming that housing is one of the biggest expenses to be taken into account, and assuming relative stability of the rest of the list (and these are big assumptions I know!) then this news might catapult Perth into the top 20 most expensive cities in the world! How crazy is that? Especially considering we are the most isolated capital city in the world, but then again maybe that’s part of the charm for some people (that and maybe the little fact of the large supply of well paying mining jobs in this part of the world..)

This is interesting to compare to house prices elsewhere in the world. Jenni showed me the other day some pictures/prices that she had been sent of homes in Nashville. Compare the house on the left in Baldivis (not far from us, 44km from Perth) for A$499,000; with this house on the right from Nashville for A$455,000. I know which one looks better to me! Now I know there’s a whole lot of other factors to take into account when performing such a comparison aside from price and looks, but as a simple visual illustration of how crazy the house prices here in Perth have gone I think it’s quite telling. I’ll be very interested to see where Perth actually ranks on the next list of most expensive cities (FYI - Nashville is not even in the top 144) and if we do make it up to the top 20 or not. Though I guess it’s not a climb we want to be celebrating too much. Anyway I suppose I’d better get back to work so I can afford those mortgage payments…

Earl of Lincoln - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Who would have thought it, but our humble little Western Australian suburb of Warnbro is an earldom! Apparently it is the family seat of the Earls of Lincoln. Our current Earl is Robert Edward Fiennes-Clinton, 19th Earl of Lincoln, born in 1972. Can’t find much information about him but according to Burke’s Peerage his address is a PO Box in Warnbro. Obviously keeps a fairly low profile, since I can’t recall heaing about him in the local paper or anything. Maybe next time there’s an official opening of something in the Warnbro area (shops, schools, churches, or other facilities) we should get him to cut the ribbon, make a speech, unveil a plaque or something. Would be a nice change from the usual politicians they get to do these honours.

I don’t normally comment much on state politics but I was impressed to see on the news just now that the WA governemnt have approved the Port Coogee development, in a which a marina, restaurants and residential lots will be developed. Having driven past that site every day for many years whilst at University I cannot understand why anyone would oppose this devlopment. The area is currently a wasteland composed of dilapidated former factories and fallow land. Why fight to “protect” something so horrible? These facilities will be a big plus to the southern suburbs, especially the coastal strip which really has no decent facilities between Fremantle and Rockingham, being composed mostly of industrial areas. Kudos to the Government for this decision.

On the way up to a GP education session at Claremont today I had my first experience of the wonderful convenient world of drive through coffee (aside from Maccas that is) - I called past Muzz Buzz which is this neat little store on the side of Stirling Highway in Mosman Park. The Tall Machiatto I ordered (complete with cookie) was very nice indeed. This takes convenience to a whole new level, especially for lovers of coffee like myself. Look forward to seeing more of these franchises pop up hopefully. I wonder what we’ll be able to buy at a drive-through next?

The other night, on the way home from church, I narrowly missed crashing into a big red Kangaroo which was jumping aross the road. There’s something about a near-miss with a roo which, after the initial surge of adrenaline and fear subsides, makes me feel so Oz. It’s just such a quintessentially Australian thing to have happen, and less than 2 kilometers from my house.

Speaking of Australians, on the way to Maccas last night to grab some dessert treats I happened to hear the original Moving Pictures version of “What About Me?” on the radio (it was tuned to Jen’s easy listening station rather than my preferred Triple J) - that song is just so superior to the current cover version by Australian Idol runner-up Shannon Noll in every way. It’s a shame when a good song gets ‘replaced’ by an inferior cover version. It’s a very rare thing that a cover is better than the original. The best examples which spring to mind are from the sixties - Hendrix’s version of Dylan’s “All along the watchtower”, and of course Joe Cocker’s version of “With a little help from my friends” by The Beatles. I can’t think of any other recent good covers which spring to mind. The much more talented Idol winner Guy Sebastian did a good version of Prince’s “When Doves Cry” but it doesn’t really eclipse the original. As for Shannon Noll I think he’s quite over-rated, being successful more as a result of his Aussie “battler” persona than from being particularly talented.