cervantes

for easter, john and i decided to skip the crowds and head north for 4 days. we ended up in a small fishing community of cervantes(i'd say village, but then it sounds quaint...)i was told that it's pronounced sir-VAN-tease (ideally with a nasal tone) not sir-vaughn-taise.

cervantes itself is nothing flash. a small suburb 2.5 hours north, right on the water. it has a general store, a liquor store, a post office and a fish and chips shop. that's it. it takes all of 15 minutes to walk around. we stayed at a nice hostel, which had a large kitchen and ridiculously overpriced rooms. but we had a room and a private bathroom and that's all that mattered. the plan while we were up there was to do nothing but sleep and read. which we did successfully.

at the suggestion of the hostel owner, we took one afternoon and drove a few more kms north to a small national park called lesueur. the adventure consists of an 18km drive around a surprisingly lush park. apparently it's quite stunning during wildflower season (spring). we got out at "mt lesueur" to do a short 6.5km bush walk (i've stopped saying hike because it's deceptive). we didn't see much wildlife whilst walking- i was hoping for emus and echidnas- but we did startle a cute little 'roo near the end of the hike. they never stop being funny.

after the hike we drove a bit further up to jurien bay- a slightly larger community. we'd assumed that it would be a little more built up then cervantes and have more to offer. we were wrong. jurien bay must be slang for "bogan-town" (see previous posts on aussie-lingo). we had lunch by the beach and a coffee at the campground cafe (yes, that's what i said), before driving back and holing up in the hostel for the rest of the time.

while we were there, cervantes held its "easter fair". it was described as a fun little event, so we sauntered over. bah! the "fair" consisted of 4 carnie-type games, one large bouncy castle for kids only (we checked) and a "showbag stand" where you can buy cheap candies. that's it. nothing else. no rides, no mini-donuts. nothing. it did seem to attract the locals, probably because there's nothing else to do up there, generally speaking.

luckily, we didn't care. we had our books, our food, a few drinks and 4 days of not working. it was a perfect little getaway!

xo

the rugby

a few weeks ago, my friend gill and i went to see "the western force" play rugby. or as australians would say, i went to "the rugby". i find it odd that they say it like that, because it makes me think i'm going to a place rather then an event, but i've been living here long enough to know that it's just a silly aussie-ism.

anyhow, one of my clients just happens to be a member at "the rugby" and also happened to be out of town for a weekend. she was kind enough to offer me her pass and luckily one of her mates scored me another one. we had pretty prime seats, what with being in the member section. we were essentially centre field and only about 8 rows away from the pitch.

the western force are WA's contribution to the Super 14- the largest rugby union club championship in the southern hemisphere (thanks wiki...). it consists of 4 australian teams, 5 new zealand teams and 5 south african teams. and it's rugby as we know it (different from rugby league, which is a whole other ball game... literally).

i would relate the force to being like the leafs. it doesn't matter how badly they do during a season, the game is still sold out and the fans are still incredibly hard core. the stadium was packed with blue jerseys and hats, and fans were vehemently cursing the refs for "bad calls" and unwarranted penalties. i think it's funny that the loudest bloke there is always the one who looks the least like he's ever touched a ball in his life... but who am i to judge?

needless to say, they lost the game. it was pretty close however, and if i am to be a true perthite, i'll even say that they were robbed. they had 2 tris that were declared false, and they lost the game by one tri.

the event itself was good times. i laughed when the crowd heckled the "old guy" on the opposing team (an aging 30...), i looked on nerdily when the team physio was dealing with the injuries (and boy, there were a lot!), was amazed when the players hoist their teammates so high during a line-out and never stopped being fascinated by the fact that men of that size can run so fast for so long.

will i go see another game? probably not, i'm too cheap. but i did enjoy this one.
xo