Love Freo

I was down at the Rottnest Island Visitor Centre in E-shed today sorting out a permit for Rottnest and I noticed a little community has sprung up on its doorstep.

Accommodation for Rottnest 2010 goes on sale next Tuesday and demand is high as you can imagine. Some people have already been queuing for three days. It all seemed very civilized with cozy blankets, kettles for hot drinks and ice-cream.

Good things come to those who wait.

Camping Out = Hard-core

I’ve seen posters around like this for dogs and cats but never birds, it’s kind of sweet.

Lost Bird

Every time I walk past Numen Barbers on the corner of Leake and Market Street I look at their sign and I read hymen. Maybe it’s because they’ve used a v instead of a u I’m not really sure why it reads that way.

Update 23/11/09: OK I’m a tool I’ve been told it reads N V Men, envy Men, ahhhh ok, all this time I’ve been calling it Numen. However it still reads hymen

Hymen Complete Grooming

Not a catchy name, but these little blighters are a pain in the a**e when trying to swim lengths along South Beach. Seems they swarm about in the shallow waters, which might explain why I see people swimming much further out. And it’s not like there’s anything to worry about out there. So I’m sitting here resisting the temptation to scratch, and unable to frown or smile because my face has been involuntarily botoxed.

Surf Lifesaving have dedicated a whole fact sheet to them: at least the sting is only minor.

Stinger Missile

Yesterday the Port of Fremantle invited Love Freo up to the viewing deck of their building to get some pics of its latest acquisition: a massive new crane. The Port sees a number of weird and wonderful vessel bringing in their wares from all over the world, but the delivery of a new crane is a relatively rare event, and quite an unusual thing to watch.

Big Crane on a Big Ship

The crane, which weighs 918 tonnes, arrived on the Happy Buccaneer from Brisbane just after lunch. It was due to be unloaded today and installed at Berth 7, where it will spend its days shifting containers about.

Crane Ship Manoeuvres its Way In

I always thought these cranes were assembled on site like some sort of enormous Meccano project. But actually, like everything else that it is steel, it was made in China. It was a great thing to watch, and from probably the best view point in the whole of the Perth area. This made me think what a great location the Port’s viewing platform would make for a cocktail bar; in fact can you think of a better place to watch the sunset and sip on a margarita? An express elevator to the top floor, some attentive cocktail waitresses, a DJ in the corner = Fremantle heaven.

View From the Top

Many thanks to the Port for the invite, thoroughly enjoyed it!

Port of Fremantle
1 Cliff St
Fremantle WA 6160
(08) 9430 3555

Halloween is my favourite day/night of the year and in honour of this glorious occasion I made some festive cupcakes. Now I must hurry away and put the finishing touches to my costume.

Halloween Cupcakes

This morning I went down to South Beach Village, to check out the new developments. Gosh, South Fremantle is going to be a busy place with all those new apartments. I just hope it’ll keep its quirky beachy charme, like this display of floatsam and jetsam on a house at the southern end of South Terrace.

It’s always nice to just stroll through Freo and have a look at the various different houses. Today I came across some nice doors. I love the red one, but I think my favourite is the cricket door – what a great idea.

If you’re looking out to sea from Fremantle on Monday morning at about 10am, you might spot the RAC rescue helicopter ‘Rescue 65′, doing some training with Fremantle Sea Rescue. These are some pics from their training run last week, taken just off South Beach.

The folks at Sea Rescue work hard all year to pull boats back to safety, and they do it largely without any government funding. You can learn more about them or make a donation at searescue.com.au

Man on a Wire

Man Gets Plucked from the Ocean

Yellow Chopper

Rescue 65

There are lots of good causes, charities and non-profits in Freo. Tell us which ones you support and why and we’ll look into giving them a spot on the blog.

info@lovefreo.com

So this is another of my guilty pleasures. Not because it’s bad for me but because as a man in my 30s I should be doing other things on a Saturday morning. This is a kids programme, as you can probably tell from the name (by that I mean it’s aimed at tweens and teenagers, not toddlers) but there are a few things about it which make it curiously addictive.

Firstly, it’s filmed entirely in Fremantle, and it’s always nice to see the place you live in and love to be on the TV. Secondly, the chap who plays the lead role, Vinnie, slightly over-delivers each line, which gives the show a sort of urgency where you feel you shouldn’t switch over, as if something is about to happen. The other thing I love, given that it’s aimed at younger viewers, is it’s not facile or patronising. Implausible (maybe), bizarre (slightly) but always thoroughly entertaining, even with their recycled story lines.

One thing I wondered is why I have never seen this programme being filmed. I am in Fremantle all day every day, and not once have I seen a camera crew pottering about. But now I’ve learned they filmed all this a few years ago. You can bet your ass though, that if they come back for another season, I will be trying to get into the background of every shot.

StreetSmartz –  10am Saturdays on Channel 9

info@lovefreo.com

StreetSmartz Cast (Image from the Streetsmartz.tv Website)