A day in Perth before heading home

Well, this morning was an early start. We left the house at 5.15 to get to the airport on time to make my 6.30 am flight to Perth. At the airport, I had to pay $10 for 1kg of extra baggage but I didn't think that was too bad. As Dad and I were going through the scanners, the Virgin check-in guy came running up to give me my passport wallet - thank god he did otherwise I would not know what to do!

By the time we got through, the plane was pretty much ready to board so we headed to the gate and I said goodbye to Dad. The flight was pretty painless and I enjoyed my yoghurt and blueberries that I managed to smuggle on board :-)

We arrived 45 minutes early in Perth so I sat myself in Dome and had a coffee while waiting for Lisa to pick me up. It was already hot by the time we left the airport at 7.30. It was so nice to see her again and also Colin and Alita who had turned 1 not too long ago. Lisa's other daughter Ashlee was at her grandparents place.

We chatted for a while and played with Alita before heading out for brunch at one of the cafes in the Swan Valley. It was an awesome breakfast! And the weather was great for sitting outside - not too hot yet. Colin took Alita home and Lisa and I went to have a look at a few galleries around the Swan Valley.

At one gallery, this guy was making 3D art out of stainless steel. It was quite amazing! As you walked from left to right past a piece, the landscape or patterns seemed to jump off the metal. Incredible! But definitely out of our price range with nothing under $4000.

We also went to an Aboriginal gallery and I picked up some gifts for Sonja and Brian. By this time it was so hot - 36 - so we decided to go home. We sat chatting for a bit longer, I took another shower and then we headed back to the airport for my flight back to KL.

Lisa came in with me and we sat chatting again at Dome before it was time for me to board. I said goodbye to Lisa and headed through immigration.

On the plane, I ended up sitting next to a Belgian lady. Although she had lived in Perth for 38 years, she still had a strong Belgian accent. I normally don't talk to people on planes and prefer to listen to my iPod and read a book but from the second I sat down, we were chatting away about everything from organic food to the oil industry. We talked non-stop for 5 hours! The only break we had was when she went to the bathroom! It did make the flight go quicker though.

Back in KL, I was so happy to see Ross again. We drove home and I pretty much collapsed into bed after my 21 hour day. So great to be home.

Today's photo is of sunrise over the wing on the plane to Perth.

What a day

After the drama of yesterday, we woke up feeling pretty shitty but I had put our names on a team for a mixed netball tournament so we headed out to Mont Kiara School about 8.30. Sonja was told yesterday that visiting hours were from 6-7 and 12-1. So we had agreed that if she woke up and wanted to go to the hospital she would call us to take her or take a taxi. I advised her not to drive as she didn't know where the hospital was and it would be too stressful for her.

We didn't hear anything so we continued to play in the tournament winning the first few games. I gave her a ring about 11 to see how she was doing. She was OK but Brian had got worse over night. She had caught a taxi out in the morning to see him. She said that her and the girls would catch a taxi out at midday and visit him again.

We finished playing about 1 after coming 6th and we raced home where I showered and literally threw some clothes in a back for my trip home. I rang Sonja once I was packed to check how things were going. She said he was OK but that they were still concerned about the bleeding and were going to go into surgery again tomorrow morning. She said that she had tried to drive out that and had got lost but eventually found her way to the hospital. We talked through a few of her concerns and Ross and I made some suggestions on things to do. I wished her all the best for her, the kids and Brian and said that I would call when I got into Aus. I felt completely shit for having to leave and that I couldn't be there for her but I knew Ross would be there and would do anything that she needs.

Ross took me out to the train station and I headed to the airport for my flight to Perth. It was an uneventful flight and I landed just before midnight and headed to the Holiday Inn for a few hours sleep before catching my domestic flight to Adeliade tomorrow morning.

Back to KL

This morning the alarm went off indecently early at 4.30am. Ross and I stumbled around getting ourselves organized before heading to reception to catch our taxi. Instead, we found a mini bus waiting for us with a bunch of blokes looking pretty miserable inside. We jumped in with our stuff and waited for a few more people (who, when they rolled up, were still drunk from the night before and were asked to catch a taxi) before we headed off.

The minibus dropped people at the domestic airport first then onto one of the smaller air carriers running flights to the mine sites before we were on our way to the international airport. At the airport, check-in was painless and we pretty much walked through passport control and straight to the gate to board the plane. We picked up some breakfast to take on board before we finally boarded the plane.

After our last experience with Air Asia, Ross and I had it sorted. We loitered around at the back of the plane until almost all the passengers were on board and then took seats so that we had a free seat between us and the next person. Although we weren’t sitting together it was great to have a bit of free space.

The flight passed pretty quickly and we landed 20 minutes early. We grabbed our bags and jumped into the car waiting for us and drove through the rain pretty much the entire time on our way home. At home, we were greeted by Black and Blue who seemed pretty excited to see us (see photo). We spent some time with them before we got too hungry and we drove over to Pavilion for some food.

We scoffed down some sushi and picked up a few essentials from the shops before heading home. We showered and hopped into bed and we both fell asleep for a few hours. Ross busied himself with putting things away before we got hungry again so we heated up a frozen pizza and spent the rest of the night on the couch with the cats.

We had a great time in WA but it was great to be home.

Start of the road trip! Perth to Kalbarri (589 km)

We woke up about 8 this morning to get ready for our road trip. We had breakfast then headed back up to the room to pick up our stuff and check out of the hotel. We jumped in our taxi and headed to Britz to pick up our campervan. After watching the 15 minute DVD on the campervan and doing the routine checks, we were on our way.

Ross drove and we headed out through Midland and onto Highway 1 for our trip north. Today we had to get to Kalbarri for our first night. It didn’t take long to leave the city behind and soon we were on the open road watching the scenery change as we headed further north. Our first stop was at Eneabba (about 200km north) where we filled up and had a quick break for lunch before switching drivers and heading on.

We had the iPod cranked and continued driving up the inland road until we started to move to the coast at Geraldton. We headed through Geraldton without stopping and continued up the coast to Northampton before heading west on the scenic route to Kalbarri. We swapped drivers again and Ross drove the rest of the way. By this time it was about 4 and so we had managed to get to Kalbarri in daylight. Before heading to the caravan park, we stopped off at Red Bluff for a look at the red cliffs that surround Kalbarri (see photo). It was nice to get out of the campervan and stretch our legs!

We found the Anchorage Caravan Park by the river and checked into our spot. We plugged in the power and were happy to still have a bit of daylight left to get things organized. For dinner we walked next door to the local fish and chip shop and ordered up some grilled coral trout. The place was super busy with school holiday tourists. We picked up a six pack and headed back to our campervan for dinner.

We set up out table and chairs outside and enjoyed our dinner before it got too cold. We packed everything up and headed inside to try and figure out the bedding situation. Once we figured out that this inside table was used as a base for the bed, it was pretty easy to set it up. The downstairs bed was huge! The size of a king bed. Ross and I played some rounds of “shithead” – a card game our friend Dee taught us and Ross set up his tranni radio to listen to the ashes. We kicked back and relaxed until about 10 before turning in for the night. A great first day on the road!!

Catching up with old friends

This morning started reasonably early. I had to be up and at the bus stop before 9am so I had a quick breakfast with Ross before he walked with me in the rain up to Barrack Street. It was raining so hard that Ross and I had to stop off at the newsagent to buy a couple of dodgy umbrellas.

I didn’t have to wait long until the bus came and I was on my way to Morley bus station for my connecting bus. On the way we passed through Dianella where Ross and I first lived when we moved to Perth. It was funny being back there after so many years. It was great to see the Sizzler was still there – many bottles of Houghton’s White Burgundy were drunk over a meal there!

At Morley I waited about 15 minutes for my connecting bus to Ellenbrook. The bus took about 50 minutes to get out to my friend Lisa’s place (we went to Uni together). I walked for about 10 minutes once I got off the bus. At Lisa’s place I met Alita for the first time (she’s now 11 months) and saw Ashlee for the first time since she was about a week old – now she is almost 3!

We spent the morning just hanging out being entertained by the girls and catching up over a cup of tea. We were going to drive up to the Chocolate Factory in the Swan Valley for lunch. It took a while to get the girls organized but eventually we were on our way. It was a beautiful day and so a lot of people were out and about making the most of the school holidays. We managed to find a table and enjoyed our lunch with Alita while Ashlee slept soundly for most of the time.

Of course being a chocolate factory, I had to buy some of the local product so $50 later I walked away with a block of Cookies and Cream, Chocolate Chili and Dark Choc Mint chocolate as well as two types of fudge – caramel and Irish cream. My excuse for buying all this was that it was for our road trip (although it didn’t take long to break into).

After a nice lunch, we headed back to Lisa’s place and it was about time for me to catch the bus back to Perth so she dropped me off at the bus stop and I said goodbye to the girls. The trip back was uneventful and I read my book for most of the way.

It was about 3 when I got back into the city and I met Ross back at the hotel. After dropping my stuff off, we headed out to buy some supplies for the road trip. We returned to the hotel stocked up and hungry so we walked around the corner to King’s Street Café for dinner. Although we were just looking for something casual, we ended up with an amazing meal of gourmet pizza and great wine by the glass to match. Being on holidays, we felt justified in sharing a dessert so we had a slice of flourless orange cake with two glasses of dessert wine to finish off the meal – yum!

Back at the hotel we packed our stuff up ready for leaving in the morning. We watched the cricket for a while before we fell into bed.

A great day in Perth!

This morning we woke up just before 10 after a great night's sleep and felt pretty good. We got into our trackies and donned our trainers for a walk up to King's Park.

It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining - a great day to visit King's Park. It was a good walk just to get up to King's Park with a steep hill to warm us up. Once in the park we followed the Law Path around the edge of the park with great views over the Swan River.

The park has changed a fair bit since we were last in Perth. A major fire had been through the park a few years ago and parts of the park were still recovering. There was also a new suspended walkway through a part of the park (see photo). Ross and I really enjoyed being back there again. The walk took about 1 3/4 hours - a good bit of exercise.

We headed back to the hotel, showered and headed straight out again to catch the train to Fremantle for lunch. Down in Fremantle, we had lunch on the sidewalk outside Benny's cafe - the place where we had our going away do before we left Perth 8 years ago. After lunch we wandered around the shops for a couple of hours before catching the train back to Perth.

Back in Perth, we found the information center to look for bus timetables so I could go out and see Lisa tomorrow. We also walked around and sussed out the shops so we can get our supplies for our road trip on Friday. We found a great little coffee shop and stopped for tea and cake before heading back to the hotel.

I spent the evening catching up on my blog. Ross and I headed out for dinner at the pub down the road and we sat watching the first Ashes game and enjoying a counter meal. Back at the hotel, we watched the Michael Jackson tribute concert on TV amongst other things.

A great, relaxing day in Perth.

First day in Perth

We arrived in Perth at 6am and got to the hotel by 7. As we expected, our room wasn't ready yet despite us calling them yesterday to check. Anyway, the receptionist did manage to find us a room for a few hours until our room was ready.

We scoffed down some breakfast and then crashed out until lunchtime. Once we woke up, we made our way out into the city for some lunch at Dome. We wandered around the shops and did a few chores for a couple of hours before we headed back to the hotel feeling exhausted and in need of a nap again.

We woke up around 6 and headed a couple of doors down for a drink at Carnegie's while we waited for our friend Lisa to arrive and meet us for dinner.

Once Lisa turned up, we walked to the Indian restaurant 9 Mary's and had a great time catching up after three years over great Indian food.

We walked Lisa to her car and headed back to the hotel to bed. Not much happened today!