Am sitting on my South Fremantle back balcony, contemplating the sunset amongst a dark moody pre-rain sky, with some cool instrumental contemporary jazz playing on the IPOD and thinking life is good.
Haven’t written a post for a while – we’ve been busy creating our new home. This has included – moving in, very slowly unpacking, finding and being around for lots of tradespeople (we’ve in the main used locals – who are becoming friends) and getting to know the neighbourhoood. Carrying on with life and work during a period of change and transition is full on! We’ve also been incredibly social, with lots of friends coming to ’have a look’ and catch up and had many invites to spend time with people in their own spaces and places too. We recently spent a weekend with our friends Murray and Sue in their ultra contemporary home on the Estuary in Mandurah and recently went down to Margaret River to a surprise birthday party at Vasse Felix put on by Fea for her hubbie Michael – all good fun. This activity has kept me busy and sometimes extremely tired, which I love, as it means I’m living life to the full – I’m also terrible at saying ‘no’! The long weekend at Bunker Bay relaxing did help us rest and re-energise for a final month of finishing off before we move upstairs to our permanent residence.
South Fremantle is a vibrant community hub (which includes lots of children and dogs!) and we are loving it. Working from home has turned out to be a particular challenge however, particularly when trades work being completed is noisey – this has resulted in many hours next door at La Vespa cafe (both alone with my laptop and phone or with others having ‘meetings’). Copious cups of green tea have been consumed (gave up coffee ages ago), as have loads of yummy pasteries (my current favorite being the mapple and pecan danish). John and I have also regularly frequented lots of the restaurants down the road and beyond, as living in a not quite completed house with packing boxes is not conducive to cooking. We really like the local Vietnamese “Song Tam”, which feels like it could be anywhere in the world, is not very fancy but has warm friendly service and hot spicey dishes.
Having old and new friends around us has been a particular pleasure as we bump into each other down the street – although I drive to meetings out of Fremantle, walking and catching the CAT (Central Area Transit) free bus means lots of chance meetings. I’ve even reconnected with a friend from 20 years ago, who is now a neighbour – Annie and her husband Joseph. Our good friends Sue and Steve are just around the corner and last weekend we enjoyed a great dinner with new friends and gallery owners Bess and Steve…
Bess is a renowned glass artist and I’m hoping to include a piece of her work in our new house. Here’s some of her work and if you’re im the neighbourhood do go and visit – Fremantle Contempary Art Gallery. Daily meeting new folk, lots of cultural creatives and global citizens with stories to tell all living in the one big melting pot which is Fremantle. We really feel like we can truly be ourselves here and that it’s ok. Promise to keep up the writing. M
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