Slow with fish, fast with speed

Today is the third day of 40+DegC day in Melbourne, but the bay felt cooler. Thrice I drenched myself with buckets of seawater. Fishing was slow most of the day. Watching heavy smoke billowing from two major bushfires around Melbourne was the highlight. The smokes were thick and high so they were easily spotted in the clear sky from my boat. With such high temperature and low humidity, bush fire is a real danger. Two homes have been burnt today. The worst bush fire was in 1982, when Ash Wednesday destroyed more than 700 homes in Victoria, and Adelaide.

Fishing was slow, much slower than wednesday when I went out with Bill. This was a day when stong rays kept breaking my lines. Up til 2pm, I had just a whiting to consol myself. Even though I caught 6 more king george whitings at a different spot, it was a frustrating day. On way back to marina, stopped by a deep spot. Two gummy sharks surprised me, taking small baits on light tackle meant for smaller trevally and jacks. Both took a while to bring to surface and I was lucky to land both of them without line breaking. Both were legal size. My first.

Was happy to head home, thirsty and hungry. Somehow I let my guard down on the freeway, and followed a few cars exceeding the speed limit. A police on motorbike sneaked up behind me and took a photo. Then he sped on to another car over the limit, and another, and another. Gone are the days when they pulled you over and issue a summon on the spot. Now it is less emotional, and much more efficient. He zigzagged the lanes behind vehicles over the speed limit, at least 10 vehicles my eyes could see. Thats $1420 for 1 min's work. Super efficient.

1st photo is a 'Banjo shark'. It came back and rehooked itself after I released it. Must be hungry. The other photo shows two gummy sharks, highly priced fish.

Melb Museum

A family favourite. Kristine will always revisit Phar Lap, and Human Body. Kimberley will always revisit the children playground. The modern building is next to the old National Parliament House, before it was shifted to canberra. Thats where I was conferred my citizenship.

The sahdes around my eyes are the price I pay to bring fresh fish to my family and friends!

CNY

Chinese New year/Spring Festival falls on the same day as Australia Day this year, Everyone gets a chance to celebrate CNY on a public holiday.

We went to Grandma's temple for lunch, then to ScienceWorks with kristine's ex-schoolmates for tha afternoon. Highlight of the day was BBQ in the evening by the pool. Dorothy.YowNeng and Faith came by later to share some open fire as it was a cool evening. YuanYuan and Mike provided soem really nice bbq lamb (yang rou chuan). We all ate too much.

Hottest Week in 100 Yrs

We are into our second day of 40+degC. Tomorrow is another one above 40DegC. Melbourne seldom has two days of 40+ in a row, even less for three days in a row. Usually, a cool change will end the heat, but this round, the 'cool' change are still 35degC, 31, 34, and 29, 29.

Public transport services are melting down, with domestic air conditioners demanding huge load of eletricity needed to run trains. Our internet connection has been down since yesterday. I even have to attend to a 'help' call to Cai Yan's home as her safety fuses have malfunctioned.

Kimberley and Kristine made the most use of the pool, soaking no less than 3 hours each day under a hand-tied canopy as shade. The heat, or the pool, makes Kimberley sleepy by dinner time. She has been falling asleep by 7pm the last two hot evenings.

More New Year Smiles

from Kristine, Kimberley, Kylie and Holly (known to Kimberley as 'Wawa')

Year of the Ox

From the Home of the Fish, we wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year of the Ox!

Fish = Golden Perch, aka Murray Perch, aka Yellowbelly. This one measured 46cm, 1.8kg.

Out with Grace

Grace graced our boat and attracted some good fish on Jan 18. Photos show our catch, and Grace at back of boat with a flock of flamingoes in the background.

My Friend Bob

Bob, the one in burgundy shirt next to me, is a friend of mine who shares similar interests in Western Port Bay: a nice day out amongst the seabreezes, seagulls, and hopefully some nice fish taking our baits. I have known Bob for almost 5 yrs now, since our boat was brand new, when we werent sure how to use it. We met one fateful afternoon at the marina while I cleaned my boat and he was tidying his saliboat next to mine. I got to know him easily through a book he wrote on how boaters and non-boaters alike can enjoy Westernport Bay. I bought the book and he autographed it for me. On the contrary, he didnt get to know me that easily. He confessed during a dinner at his home a fortnight ago that he was worried he was dealing with a 'drug dealer' when he first met me. He described me as a person who 'obviously has some spare money (to own a toy boat yet was not sure how to use)', 'could go out fishing any day in the week', thus his suspicion. Now the boat is no longer expensive after 5 yrs of depreciation, I can now steer the boat as easily as driving my car even alone at night, and he is no longer worried about who I am....
Until recently Bob has been a key writer for a boat magazine. He is now writing another boating book which when completed will be available for download online for a small fee.
His wife Joan, cooked us a fantastic dinner after Bob bbq several King George Whitings as entre, caught that afternoon. Mango Chicken on rice as main course, vanilla ice cream with fresh bluberries for dessert. Plus a white and a red to wash everything down. I was totally spoiled that evening.
Also attached are two photos of whitings Bob and I caught before my move to Beijing.

Kimberley's Immunisation 2

Her temp went as high as 40 overnight and again this afternoon at the local clinic. No lunch, no dinner. Just 'fairy bread' and water. The doctor she saw today looked young, a graduate of Melbourne Uni, but he was patient, knowledgeable, and thorough. Kimmie's usual doctor has moved on while we were away. The replacement is notorious as a revolving-door doctor, churning through a patient every 5 mins or so. So it was time to establish a fresh local medical contact.

Kimberley's Immunisation

Just 6 months overdue, Kimberley had her 4 yr old immunisation done today by local council nurses. She did not cry. She loved the Strawberry syrup (Polio), and Kristine, who coaxed Kimberley not to cry, was given apple flavoured syrup by the nurses for a job well done!

A long Break from Beijing - Fishing Part 1

We are taking a break from Beijing. Being the first to arrive on Jan 1, alone, I went on a fishing spree, spening 5 nights at our Melbourne home out of the 10, mostly just to deposit the catches, replensih supplies and clothings, before Grace returned with Kristine and Kimberley on Jan 11.
The 3-day trip to the MurrayRiver supplied just two Golden Perch and a Redfin, but the 3 overnight trips out to Westernport Bay supplied a good variety of fresh marine fish. King George Whitings remain the key target but snappers, trevally, Australian Salmons (a marine fish unrelated to the Atlantic Salmons), rock flatheads were also landed. Plus 3 kgs of fresh, live, pippis from Ken, variety of seafood served for dinners has been rich.
More to come in the next few weeks but strong wind has been making the sea choppy the last few weeks.

Kristine's new uniform

After term 1 in her new Beijing school without school uniform, Kristine has been supplied new uniforms for Term 2 when she returns to Beijing. Compared to her local classmates, her uniforms look very western.

Kimberley's Kinder Habit

Folding and stacking winter coats each morning at Kimberley's kinder is a routine that she loves. All her kindermates will fold and stack their coats outside of the classroom as shown in photo. Upon reaching home after kinder, Kimberley will fold and stack her winter coat on a sofa in living room. She has some trouble putting the zips together, and that can be rather frustrating for her, and therefore to all of us, but that is a daily routine she follows religiously. She also folds and stack Kristine's coat, a deed Kristine does not appreciate because that means Kiristine has unzipping and unbuttoning to do each morning before she can put her winter coat on, usually with just seconds to spare before leaving home to meet her school bus.

Kristine Skiing near Beijing

A drastic change from Beijing where daytime temp struggled to hold above zero while Melbourne was hit with 37 and 39degC two days ago. Grace took Kristine, Kimberley skiing outside of Beijing before the trip back to Melb. While Kristine enjoyed having a proper coach and did rather well on the snow, Kimberley chose to stay totally safe.

Lighting Spectacles On Li River

The creative director of the Olympics ceremonies operates an open theatre in Yangshuo by the Li River, which offers daily performances by hundreds of extras. Grace's original intention was to get us tickets to the evening shows. Our local tour guide could get us Y180 tickets at Y138 which sounded reasonable. Then she suggested it would be even cheaper, with transfers included, if we watched the show from the frontyard of a farmer's home in a village across the river from the theatre. Grace fell for that, the allure of watching a lighting spectacle from a farmer home in a farm by the river. The tour guide collected us from the hotel, passed us to another guy who took us 500m down the main street of Yangshuo to a parked tricycle, a two-wheel motorcycle with a covered van on two wheels behind. Reason for the walk was that vehicle was not allowed to enter the city. When we arrived at the river frontage, there were several other people as well. The tourists were generally very quiet. The locals were chatting away in their local dialects that we couldnt understand. The show started on time, and it was a spectacle alright, with strong lights luminating the landscape features by the river in front of the theatre. However, the kids and I got bored rather quickly, and I spent most of the evening entertaining Kristine and Kimberley so they didnt disturb the other tourists beside us. A lady 'hostess' with a small kid on her back and an 8yr old daughter was kind enough to lend Kristine a pair of binoculars which kept kristine occupied rest of the show.
As the show ended, we were ushered by our motorist driver to our transportation. A minute after I took that photo and hopped onto the back van, a young man abruptly stopped his motorcycle in front of our vehicle, slapped our driver on the face and screamed at him in a dialect we could not understand. The driver did not respond physically, but just persuaded that aggressor to calm down. This went on for a while and I started to worry. As the tourists departed in their respective vehicles, a lady tour guide sat on her motorbike and watched the incident. I stepped up to her asking for help in getting us out to the main road. She replied to let the men settle their issues and someone would send us back. It surely didnt seem safe to us. Much later, two motocycles came to pick us up. Kimberley and I sat in one and Kristine and Grace hopped on the other. We were eventually taken back to the edge of the city by the two motorcycles. Too cold a ride but we were happy to get out of the place safely. Apparently the aggressor was a local bully. He claimed the tricycle driver 'scared' hom along the village track and he wanted Y300 as compensation.....

We spent the next morning cycling around Yangshuo. The adventure previous evening was too much for Kimberley and she came down with fever all of the next day. The trip back to Beijing was uneventful. We were happy to have made the trip to Guilin, and we were also happy to return to Beijing.