Trip to Bright and Falls Creek, Autumn 2011

It's been a while since our last post, so it is about time we have a new post.

As some of you know, we had a very bad month of April, where I lost my job (for no good reason other than I opened my mouth and spoke my opinion), and then all of a sudden Coco went lame in her back legs and couldn't walk due to a disc problem in the back which is quite normal for dachhunds. After an expensive operation, it was initially looking good with her rehabilitation, even though we were looking at 4-6 weeks training. However, she got very aggressive and after a few close calls, I copped a bite in my nose landing me in the emergency rooms for a clean-up and some antibiotics to avoid infection!

This is how you look the day after your dog bites you...

Because of the aggressiveness and the bite, we took the very tough decision to euthanize Coco, so unfortunately we said goodbye to our little friend and family member on April 27.

My nose has gone down to normal size again now, but I have some very nasty scars, so I'm hoping they will disappear....

Apart from the whole Coco affair, both Kasper & I were looking for new jobs, and last week Kasper was offered a job as a consultant for Focus. He starts his new job on Monday 16th May. I am still looking for a new job...

Because Kasper starts work next week, we felt like getting away to experience and see something new (so we could all get our mind on something else than missing Coco) was a good idea before he starts his new job. We decided to take a 3 day trip to Bright and Falls Creek this week and we managed to find some pet friendly accommodation so Bailey could come along.

On Tuesday, we set off on our trip. You can see all the pictures here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=YasminTM&target=ALBUM&id=5606407188149327409&authkey=Gv1sRgCOyehrD_mqrnYA&feat=email

It was a very nice time of year to visit Bright with all the autumn colours, but we also lucked out and got to experience the year's first snow in Falls Creek!! :-) Very cold, though!

That's it for now. Enjoy the pictures!

Flooding in Melbourne

Friday night we had a little storm being pushed over Melbourne by cyclone Yasi, delivering heavy rain, flooding, thunder & lighting. This is how it looked when the sky opened:


The water came down so quick that we ended up with a pool of water sitting on top of our terrace.


The rain continued to fall for most of the night, and I was woken up at 5 AM from the rain just bucketing down again. When there was enough day light, I ventured outside to see how it all looked. Here is our street - this is the house across the road.


This is at the end of our street 50M away - the streets covered in water.


The lake at the end of our street - this time it went over the edge, as you can see here bench and walk-way covered in water.

Luckily, no damage to our house :-) ... or so we thought until I had to leave for work. Opening the garage, water started running out... so as it turned out, water had come from the garden through the garage back door into the garage, and because the garage door was closed, about 5 cm of water was just covering the garage floor. Luckily, no visible damage to anything, but Kasper all of a sudden got a little extra job getting all the water out of the garage.

Compared to the rest of Melbourne, I think we have been quite lucky with all the flooding we have seen on the news.

It seems the wet weather is over for now. The weather looks to be nice and sunny for the next week or so, so we are happy about that!

James' Baptism

On Sunday 30 January, 2011 Rasmus and Richelle had their baby son baptised. It all took place in the Lutheran church in Aberdeen Street in Perth.

Getting ready for church. James is the 6th baby in the Nielsen family getting baptised in the gown to the left.
Richelle, Rasmus, and James ready for church.


Inside the church

James handling his baptism very well eating and sleeping his way through it all :-)

And we all made it through the 1,5 hour long service. On the picture is from the left; Richelle, Peta (Richelles' mum), Rasmus, James, Mogens (Rasmus' dad), Eva (Rasmus' mum), David (Richelles' dad hiding behind Eva), Kasper, Nadine (god parents), and Nadine's boy (whose name I don't remember).

After church we went to Peta and David's place for a reception (it was too hot to go to the park), and we had some brilliant food and wine. Later in the afternoon I went with Richelle, Rasmus, and James back to their place where we jumped in the spa with a couple of cold beers before I had to catch my flight back to Melbourne.

Thank you all for a wonderful long weekend in Perth, next time please don't beat me up in card games - I get so worried ;-)

Visit to Perth

Last weekend of January Kasper went to Perth to visit Peter & Tenny, Rasmus & Richelle who was also having their baby son baptised.

Peter & Tenny had the house full of visitors, and we all had a great time.

Tenny & her mum cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Tenny's mum cooked nice Chinese food for all of us.

Leif & Christian. Christian likes to play with farfar :-)

Peter & Christian. Christian with brand new sunnies commandeering the iPad. It's hard to keep up with a 2,5 year old who speaks 4 languages and knows how to play Johnny Cash on an iPad :-)


It was very hot (36-38 degrees) all weekend so staying and playing in the pool was the best thing to do.

Peking Duck Pancakes

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post a little picture from our dinner tonight, we did homemade Peking Duck Pancakes, and it was YUM :-)


It seems it has finally become spring with better weather and temperatures above 20, so we are now starting to enjoy the new garden, which by the way is looking great as well :-)

Yesterday, we had our first BBQ session of the season with some yummy lamb chops served with Greek potatoes and Greek salad - does not get much better than that! There is something about the taste of BBQ meat, just really delicious so, it is great that the weather is finally good enough for it!

Sales seems to have picked up as well (for me Yasmin). After having a month or so without selling anything, I have sold one per week for the last 5 weeks, which is not too bad at all :-)

Kasper had a few days off this week because it was public holiday in Sydney, so he's been relaxing in Melbourne Monday to Wednesday, but working Thursday and Friday. However, I think we was very happy with the few days off - he has spent the time well and have managed to set up our new office (we went power shopping in Ikea Tuesday morning) with 2 new desks. The old desk has become my sewing table and is now in the guest room, which has also gone through a clean up so that we are now ready for our overseas guests arriving in December :-)

He somehow also managed to test the new patio enjoying some tanning on one of our recliners (all this while wifey was at work...) so looking nice and tanned now!

We have also been busy planning some day trips for our visitors, so we are really looking forward to their arrival now. You will have to check back to see what we get up to then....

Bush walking in You Yangs Regional Park

According to the Vet our two dogs need to loose weight (I'm sure their owners were told the same if they went to the GP), so it was a good opportunity to explore a nearby Regional Park - You Yangs is about 30-40 min. drive from where we live, and is a distinct landmark that can be seen when driving from Melbourne to Geelong.

The You Yangs rise about 350 meters, and offers good views towards Geelong and the Bay. We drove up to the Turntable, and mounted the dogs for a brisk walk in the picturesque surroundings.


Suddenly Coco stopped and stood to attention, she had detected something in the bush. As we went closer we saw that it was an Echidna hiding under a rock.



It was a great trip to the You Yangs, and the dogs slept for two days after wards. The You Yangs are also great for mountain biking, abseiling, and kayaking so we are definitely coming back.

Winter Update

It's been a bit of a wet and cold winter in Melbourne this year, so we are starting to look forward to better weather and warmer temperatures. According to the papers, it's been Melbourne's wettest winter in a decade, which also means it is great for our newly planted lawn (out front) which is looking lush and green.

The winter has given us a chance to update the garden a bit with an outdoor sitting area, which is now looking great! Now we only need to plant a bit of lawn around it, and in another 3-4 weeks, we will have a great back garden, just in time for better weather so we can sit outside and enjoy :-)












Kasper has caught a bit of the travel bug at the moment, as he is working in Sydney every week from Monday to Wednesday, and in Melbourne Thursday and Friday. On one of his many trips, he realised that he could not read the departure boards without walking really close, so as a result now has new glasses!! Very classy :-)























It has been a bit quiet at my work with not many houses being sold across Melbourne, but according to my colleagues it is normal for this time of the year. Apparently sales should pick up when the weather gets a bit better again. So I've had no sales for the past month, which is a bit annoying, but as a good friend of mine says: "It's a numbers game". So hopefully a couple of my good leads will eventuate in a sale soon :-)

On Friday, after 5 weeks of anticipation, I finally had my BRAND NEW car delivered :-) :-) It's a Mazda 3 hatchback, and it's a fantastic little car... Pretty cool colour too - it's called gunmetal blue. Kasper is also excited to have his 4WD back for himself, and even better we each save around 4-5 hrs a week playing chauffeur for each other - oh, they joys of having 2 cars!

Apart from that, we have gone into planning Christmas and New Years, as we are expecting 1st time visitors from Denmark, so Bimse Tours is busy planning a schedule including the most important attractions, which would of course include the Opera House in Sydney, the great ocean road, Yarra Valley and an area called the Pyrenees, which is also a wine producing area in northern Victoria known for especially their Shiraz wines :-)