Living in or around Kinross

[MARYROSE02]

Naturally, I would love to have the money to be able to afford to buy in a posh area but I would not like to live i one of those burbs (thereby condemning myself to be a pleb?!) I don't care if I could afford to buy a Bentley I still hate needing to drive to get to the shops.

In my English village the shopping centre was 150 metres away. In Surry HIlls, they were right outside my front door, and it's the same in Surfers Paradise.

Now, if I did have the money I would be buying a place in Surry Hills, another at Bronte or Clovelly, and a third at Narrabeen on the Northern Beaches where I lived in the 1980s..

In Perth it would mean a place near Mends St and another in Cottesloe. 

[Paul1Perth]

On 08/12/2020 at 10:16, Marisawright said:

Depends on your definition  of fun, surely

Let me know your definition and I'll check if there's anything happening. 

We were over in Rottnest for 3 nights. For a 1.6km swim which we do every year. Half hour swim and lots of pub time with lots of friends, bike riding, lazing around. 

Big festival, castaway, on at Whitfords nodes park next to the beach. Not my music taste but great for youngsters. 

 

[Paul1Perth]

5 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

Is it safe to swim in the Swan River, Paul?!  I sometimes went for a paddle in South Perth where there is a bit of a beach, plus the wonderful view over to the city, more like a lake than a river. I just consulted my atlas again and remember I could walk around the water to Heathcote and on the other side of that promontory. (I had Xmas lunch in the restaurant there) but I never swam. In fact, my only swim was on Xmas Day in Cottesloe.(which would probably be my pick if I was going to live on a beach.)

I don't know why I only had the one swim in seven weeks over December/January. I remember last year on 1st September, thinking "I'm going to start swimming today" and I drove to Bronte (7 km) and went into the pool -  temperature 17 or 18 degrees I think, not unbearable but chill going in. Then Then I started going every evening for a month or so. Bronte has hot showers which is rare for the Sydney beaches I've been to.

Used to take the youngster for a dip in the river when we rented in Como. Did a triathlon with the swim in the river and the world championship Tri swim was in the river. 

Not the nicest place to swim though. Loads of jellyfish, like swimming through frogspawn. 

Been for a board and ski training session at the beach this morning at 5:30. Beatiful morning and had a swim after that. Much nicer to swim in the ocean.

[newjez]

4 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Used to take the youngster for a dip in the river when we rented in Como. Did a triathlon with the swim in the river and the world championship Tri swim was in the river. 

Not the nicest place to swim though. Loads of jellyfish, like swimming through frogspawn. 

Been for a board and ski training session at the beach this morning at 5:30. Beatiful morning and had a swim after that. Much nicer to swim in the ocean.

Apparently you get bull sharks in the swan but I've never seen one. I've only ever seen dolphins.

[MARYROSE02]

21 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Used to take the youngster for a dip in the river when we rented in Como. Did a triathlon with the swim in the river and the world championship Tri swim was in the river. 

Not the nicest place to swim though. Loads of jellyfish, like swimming through frogspawn. 

Been for a board and ski training session at the beach this morning at 5:30. Beatiful morning and had a swim after that. Much nicer to swim in the ocean.

Are those jellyfish poisonous?! I was thinking more of sharks in the river! I remember going for a swim at one of the Botany Bay beaches in Brighton-le-Sands and seeing signs warning of rays I think, and maybe telling you to stamp your feet as you ventured in - carefully. Then there are bluebottles not that I've been stung - yet.

I did have a look at Como a couple of times - just consulted my atlas again - the motorway runs along the water there so I guess you have to cross a bridge? I am revealing my wimpiness with every post.

[MARYROSE02]

22 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Let me know your definition and I'll check if there's anything happening. 

We were over in Rottnest for 3 nights. For a 1.6km swim which we do every year. Half hour swim and lots of pub time with lots of friends, bike riding, lazing around. 

Big festival, castaway, on at Whitfords nodes park next to the beach. Not my music taste but great for youngsters. 

 

I Googled Rottnest, and Garden and Carnac islands for good measure. "Tiger Snake" sounds like a better name for Carnac? 

[Paul1Perth]

On 09/12/2020 at 15:35, newjez said:

Apparently you get bull sharks in the swan but I've never seen one. I've only ever seen dolphins.

Yep. All the first recorded shark attacks were in the river by bull sharks.

Been a few shark sightings this week, just off the beach from where we go ski paddling and swimming most mornings. Went at 7:00 this morning for about an hour then swam around the buoys about 100m out from the surf club. Sat having a coffee at about 9:00 and one of the guys I was paddling with tells me there was a sighting at 8:15 100m of the beach. We must have paddled right past it.

[Paul1Perth]

On 10/12/2020 at 09:21, MARYROSE02 said:

Are those jellyfish poisonous?! I was thinking more of sharks in the river! I remember going for a swim at one of the Botany Bay beaches in Brighton-le-Sands and seeing signs warning of rays I think, and maybe telling you to stamp your feet as you ventured in - carefully. Then there are bluebottles not that I've been stung - yet.

I did have a look at Como a couple of times - just consulted my atlas again - the motorway runs along the water there so I guess you have to cross a bridge? I am revealing my wimpiness with every post.

Mostly the jellyfish in the river are big slimy things with very short tentacles that don't sting. 

You see the odd ray but skating along the bottom mostly. See heaps in Rotto, you would have to step on one or really annoy one for them to hurt you. 

A few small bluebottles in the sea, just stingers we call them. Bit like a light nettle sting and itch mostly. Goes off in about 10 mins.

Anyway, nice evening so down the beach now for another run, swim and a few beers.

[Jon the Hat]

there are worse places to Swim than the river.  

This is canning River actually but a nice spot!  Looking forward to getting back there.

https://www.kids-around-perth.com/deep-water-point-mt-pleasant.html 

[MARYROSE02]

6 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

there are worse places to Swim than the river.  

This is canning River actually but a nice spot!  Looking forward to getting back there.

https://www.kids-around-perth.com/deep-water-point-mt-pleasant.html 

So long as sharks cannot get up there!?

[MARYROSE02]

13 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Mostly the jellyfish in the river are big slimy things with very short tentacles that don't sting. 

You see the odd ray but skating along the bottom mostly. See heaps in Rotto, you would have to step on one or really annoy one for them to hurt you. 

A few small bluebottles in the sea, just stingers we call them. Bit like a light nettle sting and itch mostly. Goes off in about 10 mins.

Anyway, nice evening so down the beach now for another run, swim and a few beers.

Down the beach for a run, swim, and then a few beers? Sounds like "living the dream" to me, but for others it is "enduring the nightmare!?" I just went out for an early walk around the block - it's spitting with rain and cool so I went back for my top. If only there was ocean pool within walking distance. 

It's hard to get everything in the one spot which ticks all the boxes. If I want the convenience of being able to walk to every facility I need, then it's got to be Surfers Paradise, and specifically around Cavill Ave but that means a unit. I saw a villa type place, almost semi-detached in UK parlance, a little dear for me, 100 metres from Budd's Beach, which is a nice park on the river opposite Chevron Island, and no more than ten minutes walk to the beach proper. Quiet streets too but there are no longer shops, cafes, bars on my doorstep.

[Marisawright]

8 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

Down the beach for a run, swim, and then a few beers? Sounds like "living the dream" to me, but for others it is "enduring the nightmare!?" 

I wouldn't say it would be quite "enduring the nightmare", but I would be bored to tears fairly quickly.   A nice place by the beach with a good pub nearby are great when you've been working hard all week and just want to relax on the weekend, but even on holiday, it's not enough for me.  I do like a walk along the foreshore but you can't do that all the time.  I know that a lot of Brits would think it was paradise though.

[MARYROSE02]

4 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I wouldn't say it would be quite "enduring the nightmare", but I would be bored to tears fairly quickly.   A nice place by the beach with a good pub nearby are great when you've been working hard all week and just want to relax on the weekend, but even on holiday, it's not enough for me.  I do like a walk along the foreshore but you can't do that all the time.  I know that a lot of Brits would think it was paradise though.

You need Surfers Paradise Marisa!?

[Marisawright]

52 minutes ago, MARYROSE02 said:

You need Surfers Paradise Marisa!?

Oh no, definitely not.  I was happy in inner-city Sydney apart from the weather.  I'm in Melbourne now and haven't been to a beach once since I've been here - I don't miss it.  This year has been a washout, but next year I'll be back to my usual week's routine. That means at least one tea dance, some kind of dance class, the U3A Writers' Group and Walking Group, maybe a play/musical/concert.   Plus a walk to a nice café for breakfast most mornings.  If I go out in the evening it's to a dinner dance or dancing to a band, not the pub.

[MARYROSE02]

On 12/12/2020 at 21:31, Marisawright said:

Oh no, definitely not.  I was happy in inner-city Sydney apart from the weather.  I'm in Melbourne now and haven't been to a beach once since I've been here - I don't miss it.  This year has been a washout, but next year I'll be back to my usual week's routine. That means at least one tea dance, some kind of dance class, the U3A Writers' Group and Walking Group, maybe a play/musical/concert.   Plus a walk to a nice café for breakfast most mornings.  If I go out in the evening it's to a dinner dance or dancing to a band, not the pub.

I have wondered about the U3A myself although I've been studying with the Open University (Australia) on and off since 2015, and I've done a number of writing units. I like them for two reasons: Firstly, I like writing, and secondly, I hate having to write essays and write footnotes, and with Creative Writing units I can avoid essays, and keep footnoting to a minimum.

I stopped studying after I'd done nine units, I think, when I went back to work, and then I started again a year ago. I don't know if you familiar with OU, but with most of the participating universities there is a new unit every three months, with the new one starting the week after the old one concludes. Some of the participating unis do stick to a three semester pattern, e.g. Macquarie University.

Since November 2019, I've done a short story unit with Griffith University in Queensland, and three successive writing units with Curtin University in WA - Writing Poetry, Experimental Writing and now Creative Writing. The current unit is I think a Level one unit covering short story writing, then poetry, then script or screen play writing.

When I first started I was sticking to the "usual" BA degree pattern - so many level one, so many level two, so many level three units (to make 36) but now I just pick units I fancy. So far as I can tell the Open Uni does not care and neither do the participating unis, as long as you are enrolling.

You don't have to pay fees up front and it goes on to HECS. So long as your salary is below the threshold (55K?) the ATO does not come running for your HECS bill. It is about $800 for each unit I do.

Actually, you don't  need all that information I just typed! But I cannot bear to delete it once I've created it, unless the "Computer God" decides to delete it for me. Just one wrong key is all it takes.

I went off to research U3A Gold Coast and there are some interesting classes at three or four venues. Definitely cheaper than the OU, and more social, Covid permitting. It reminds me of some of the courses I used to do in England at various community colleges - typewriting, backgammon, shorthand, car mechanics, badminton, creative writing,  I will have to see what happens in 2021.

All the OU units are online with not even "Educating Rita" residential courses. I've been trying to teach myself Japanese for two years now using mostly the Duo Lingo app but face-to-face conversation would be useful, and social.

I did do dancing classes a few years back in Sydney - bought "proper" shoes, "learnt" (gilding the lily) fox trot, waltz, cha cha cha, rumba, learnt to appreciate Frank Sinatra too "Songs for Swinging Lovers" but I still loathe Latin music. (unless it is rock!)

[Paul1Perth]

Interesting weekend. On the run swim Friday I saw a guy with a couple of big sea rods fishing. He was pushing something with his bucket back in the sea. Few people watching so I went over to look. He'd hooked a big stingray, about a metre across and was pushing it back in. 

On patrol Saturday, been lots of shark sightings with a huge 5m white pointer off Cottesloe, which they caught and tagged. We had a report that a 3m+ shark was close to our beach. The guys in the southern tower spotted it cruising past, heading towards the surf club. First time I've known anyone see a shark from the tower. We closed the beach and had to get everyone out the water. There were loads in as it was a nice day. The shark had swum by some people, didn't bother them but carried on up the beach between 50 to 100m out.

A few people chose to ignore us and went back in, albeit not very far. Then a couple of kite surfers turned up and went out.

We had the beach closed for 1.5 hours. Never heard so much chatter on sightings on the radios. No attacks though

Hope they buzz off before the Rotto swim in February.

Been down the beach for a ski paddle and swim this morning. Probably 50 people out as normal. Just have to accept they're always there and mostly aren't going to bother you.

Shark never broke the water BTW. No fin sticking out like you see on TV, just looked like a big moving shadow according to the guys that saw it.

[Jon the Hat]

Which beach are you on Paul?  

[s713]

I saw someone catch a shark beach-casting at Quinns once. Was a tiddler but his Mum might have been lurking for all I know. There is a shark net there now I think.

[FOL]

On 12/12/2020 at 12:31, Marisawright said:

Oh no, definitely not.  I was happy in inner-city Sydney apart from the weather.  I'm in Melbourne now and haven't been to a beach once since I've been here - I don't miss it.  This year has been a washout, but next year I'll be back to my usual week's routine. That means at least one tea dance, some kind of dance class, the U3A Writers' Group and Walking Group, maybe a play/musical/concert.   Plus a walk to a nice café for breakfast most mornings.  If I go out in the evening it's to a dinner dance or dancing to a band, not the pub.

And you can't do that in Perth (or more specificaly the Kinross area) you reckon??

 

 

Edit: we've looked at buying a property in Kinross. Ended up buying in Beldon. We now live in Wanneroo (south), so close to oceannreef road basically.

 

We like it here, it has everything we need closeby. Wife works in Joondalup, I work at home and can drive outside of peak traffic to clients. Scarborough beach for a surf at 20 min away in the weekend. Pinjarra motorcycle area at 20 min away, plenty of restaurants within 20 minutes radius. Things to do with the kids, a great little estate we live in with a fabulous street where we have a street get together every couple of weeks. We walk our daughter to daycare, the playground, etc. But other than that we take the car. 

Edited December 23, 2020 by FOL