Cousins, Future Perth, and A Cheesescake Miracle

 12 Vieway, Nedlands, Monday 27 Oct, 2025

We have had a full house. Jess, our niece, has been staying on and off all year while she completes her Certificate in Child Care, so she came for a week. 

Then Didi (also niece) had to leave her student house because it flooded and went moudly so all the lodgers had to move out. Mean time, Didi has gotten unwell, with liver stones in her transplanted liver, so Kayelene was staying to help her with medical appointments with a trip to Bali in between. Very sadly and scarily, it looks likely Didi might need another transplant if the antibiotics she are on do not flush out the stones. Anyway once again the campervan has starred because Kaylene and now Didi are staying in it. Suzy will be home in 2 weeks so it just gives a bit more space for everyone. 

Dinner time: Sharon, Melissa, Kaye, Mark, Jess, Talia in front

Kayelene and Didi

Last week I gave a talk to the Perth 2050 Summit about AI and work. Unusually for these sorts of events, the summit was interesting! Perth is growing fast - it is the closest Australian city to the Indo Pacific, which accounts for 60% of the worlds population. In the next decade, there is going to be a huge development in Perth from a Defence perspective - with new submarines being stationed here and ships to be built. Putting aside any politics, it means there is to be a whole new industry here in Perth, with lots of jobs created. Plus we have Perth Film Studios getting going, and talk at least of some new cultural developments. I admit I felt quite excited about the prospects for Perth! 

The Perth Summit CEO, not me by the way

Ok this one is me!

At the summit we heard from a very inspiring urban designer who talk about major cities around the world that have transformed themselves, such as Glasgow, Bilbao, Aukland, Singapore, and London, and what it takes. I came up with the idea of taking Suzy to one of these cities when she finishes her urban design degree so we could look at how the city was transformed. As you can imagine, Suzy is quite taken with that idea! (By the way she got 80% in her economics class, so is doing well)

Socially, we were pretty busy. On Thursday we went to the opera, La Trovitora, which was very good but not good enough to keep us beyond half time (Mark and I tend to leave in the interval as we fall asleep, and this time was no exception!). We do not understand how all the oldies who attend manage to stay awake all the way through... Mark did comment that it was surprising, given the average age of the audience, that no one has ever died whilst we have been at the opera. Its like he was psychic because about 15 minutes after he said this the lady behind us was groaning and moaning, and saying she wasnt well.  She made it alive to intermission, fortunately. 

Mark and I at the opera - we are awake as its before the start

On Friday, I went with Jane and Kayelene to see "The Travellers" - a movie filmed in Perth and York. It was fun spotting local places. Anyway before going to the movie, I made a cheesecake for bookclub, which we hosted on Saturday night. Now the reader may not appreciate the significance of this statement, but it is close to a miracle event....

For the ten years that book club has been going, I have been promising to make desert but never delivering... I have even cheated - paying the daughter of a friend to make one for me and trying to pass it off as mine. So finally I actually made a desert!!  A lemon cheesecake which had fresh lemon curd to go on top! Admittedly, I nearly chopped off my finger in the process (I was scooping out the biscuits stuck in the blade of the blender, and accidentally turned the blender on...).  There was a lot of blood! 

 I did wonder a lot whilst making it the cheesecake was worth it, but everyone at book club was very appreciated and admiring (whilst also quizzing me on ingredients to check I wasnt faking making it). Just maybe I will try again some day. Watch out fingers!

My lemon curd. Forgot to take a photo of the cheesecake or indeed bookclub! 

To end the week, Carol (Cheney) came over on Sunday and chatted whilst we ate left overs from bookclub and whilst I continued to sort mosaics out from my long-running still-unfinished cubby project. 

And now, we are playing a waiting game, which is quite awful... In the next two weeks at some random point in time, we will find out if we got our Centre of Excellence via a phone call from the Deputy Vice Chancellor Research. Last time (3 years ago), the phone call came literally ten seconds before I was to step on stage to give a public lecture to a full room in Melbourne. I had to do everything in my power to get through the talk when all I wanted to do was go hide somewhere and cry! I am REALLY hoping for a different outcome this time.

PS Melissa doing much better. Has quit job with crazy lady - just working out some notice (even though she doesnt have to), has finished her assignments, and has started sorting her clothes :-)