the witches HAT

yes. i spelled it like that for a reason. the witches HAT is a frisbee tournament that my ulti team organized this past weekend. primarily as a fundraiser to help with the cost of going to nationals, it was an all around good time. save the weater, which was crap. really. crap!

HAT tournaments in ulti are fun because you register as a player, state your skill level and are then assigned to a team. the point is to keep it fun and to keep the teams well balanced (ie, your team won't likely dominate every game). the only real factor that played into not doing well, was the weather. honestly!

living in australia, i feel that i am allowed to expect warm, sunny weather. really, am i so wrong to think that? i didn't think so. perth has had it's first real winter in about 5-10 years or something (so i'm quote ALLLLLLL the time) but "we need the rain" so you feel a bit guilty saying anything about it. well, it's now officially spring time and it's supposed to be getting nicer. ie, less rain, more sun. and it has on occasion, but a day here and there does not count as sunny and hot weather to me. no siree. needless to say, the weather last week was cool and sunny leading up to the weekend, where it proceeded to blow a gale, rain and be overall aweful. it hailed, if you can believe it. only for about 1 minute, at which point it all melted away. but still! anyhow, the wind took over many a game at the tournament and caused quite a few dropped discs and such.

our team made a bit of money off of it (we hope) and even better, i won a case of beer (for john and elliot) in the raffle. i only mention this because i have NEVER won ANYTHING, other then the occasional free lottery ticket when i buy one. john and elliot were happy when i brought it home. i'm happy because i feel like my luck may be changing. apparently it's time for me to buy the lotto ticket again...

interesting thing about halloween here (to change the subject)... it's not very popular. at all. at no point did i see signs up anywhere about halloween parties at bars with prizes for best costumes. nor did i see any "halloween sized" candy bags at the stores for sale to give to trick-or-treaters. nor did i see any pumpkins for sale (proper ones. not squash- refer to a lesson in australian-ese). no scary decorations outside houses. nothing. which, to tell you the truth, doesn't really upset me all that much. whilst i loved halloween as a child, i became less and less of a fan of it as i got older. and seeing how unpopular it is here reminds me what a gluttonus (sp?) country we live in. i do feel a bit bad for amy, because apparently she's a big fan of halloween. ah well, there's always next year, right?

john's friend gregor (from scotland) came to visit with his *new* wife. they got married 3 weeks ago and have been on tour / honeymoon in australia ever since. they managed a few days in perth before flying out, so we managed to spend a bit of time with them. not too much, unfortunately, as john is swamped with school and i'm excessively busy during hours that people like to hang out (that's what happens when you work mornings and nights...)

that's it in a nutshell (no, this is me in a nutshell: "how did i get in this nutshell")
xo

be our guests!

2 weeks ago, john made a treck out to the airport and came home with 2 friends, some luggage and some champagne. the friends are elliot and amy from pei. the luggage is because they'll be here with us for 6 months. and the champagne, well, that's obvious no? celebrating our first guests!

in the days leading up to the move-in, john and i reorganized the house and tried to make it a bit more cozy for the new roomies. this included moving john's school stuff out of the spare bedroom and furnishing it for them. a few trips to the ikea "as-is" section later, and we manged to find a steal of a deal on a great wardrobe. (well, i think it's great. i haven't asked them about it...)

we also scored a bed for them. well 2, technically. one of john's clients had informed us a few months back that they were looking to get rid of a double bed (queen, in reality) from the guest room. unfortunately for us, they kept forgetting about it and we had no idea. so john and i browsed through the quokka - our local "for sale" newspaper- and managed to find a "free double bed". a bit sketchy, i know. but we figured it was worth the risk to go have a look. if all else failed, we'd just leave it and pretend we never stopped by...

turns out, the bed was actually ok. we got it home safely, put it in the basement and then got a phone call from his client asking if we were still interested in a bed. we decided to go have a look and see if it was better quality. turns out, it was (mostly because it was a queen, not a double). the downside- the bed hadn't been moved from the room for some time, because john's clients had renovated and it could no longer get down their stairs. john and i weasled the matress down the staris but decided the box spring wasn't going to make it. so, with a bit of rope, some straps, some muscle and a bit of an engineering feat, we slowly lowered the bed down from the 2nd floor veranda (john i and lowering, his clients catching) and got it into the ute we'd rented. the process took us about 40 mins or something. but i think our guests are thankful!

so now, the house is cosy and full of people. elliot and amy seem to be enjoying themselves. we've had pretty nice weather sicne they've arrived, which is nice for all of us! spring is in the air and it's only going to get better! we've hit the beach a few times already and i'm sure we'll have many more occasions.

more guests on the way: john's friend gregor and his wife lucy will be stopping by (staying at a hotel though) for a few days as they tour through oz. and in december, we welcome the macphees (who will be housesitting our friend's place). we still have 2 couches and a bed in our (slightly eerie) basement, if anyone's interested.

xo