Perth....food, wine, laughter and sunsets.

We were picked up in Perth airport which is considerably bigger than the Sunshine Coast. It was lovely to see Andrew. He hadn’t changed at all and I can still remember him as a teenager in a Japan T shirt, when he used to visit us in our first flat in Basingstoke. We went for a drive around Perth which is a small very modern city. Went to see Debbie’s lovely pop up shop called Wickes collective, which not only has her hand made candle collection, but also other crafts made by friends of hers, including jewellery, wooden signs and textiles. All lovely stuff. Ended up buying a number of things.

She shut up shop putting up the closed sign and we went to the most British pub I’ve seen in months where I had a ½ Guinness and very nice it was too. There are English, Australian and Irish large flags on the wall. Deb and Andrew go to a pub quiz there every week and said that as there are so many Brits there that many of the questions are about Britain.

It was lovely to see their beautiful house and see Elliott, Scott and Harry again. They have cute dogs too, spaniels Maddie and Oliver and a very adorable Terrier called Dodger.

We were thrilled to watch the last GOT with them and enjoyed debating the end throughout and at the end. It’s the only way to watch that type of TV really.

Day 15

The next day we went to Hilary’s Boat Yard which is a beautiful marina filled with huge yachts. I have seen so many yachts this holiday, what on earth do these people do to be able to afford a yacht???!!!!

We had a lovely lunch and then watched and saw canoeing and swimming in the bay. The sun was shimmering on the water and it was a crystal clear aquamarine blue sky, I can see why they would never go back to the UK. Heaven!

Andrew and I as usual talked politics. He doesn’t agree with me, nor I with him, especially about Brexit, but I think we listened to each other. I wonder if Australian life and politics has had an impact on his UK and world views, it’s bound to isn’t it? I suppose in the same way that watching CNN and FOX news will influence my views on US and UK politics.

There is a Westfield Mall in Perth too, but it hasn’t got the same feel at the LA one with the high end shops like Gucci and Cartier, but is more like Camberley Shopping Centre in England.

We picked up Debbie from her shop and travelled home via the extremely large off licence. There is even a drive through off licence here for your large orders. 😊

On the drive home we saw the most spectacular sunset. It was blood red to orange – so beautiful.

We had a lovely dinner of Lasagne cooked by Elliott and played the Dog Bingo I had bought them (not sure what I was thinking) – Scott won and then played Game of Life which Scott also won.

Day 14

Mark, Andrew and I walked dogs in the huge local park, where there was a lovely skateboarding area teaming with kids- no drugs in site. We also walked along the coastal path, 2 streets away from them. It was really breathtakingly beautiful.

As Debbie was at work, the 3 of us drove into the city which is 1/2 hour away; same spread of buildings as parts of Sydney, but it appears much less crowded with way less people. Later someone said that they keep building these huge restaurants in the city, but that they go bankrupt as there is not enough people to go to them.

We arrived at the beautiful King Park and botanical gardens which are high on the hill looking over the bay of Swan River. We could see the old Swan cigarettes factory, which looked very Victorian.

We followed a trail past a beautiful large fountain and looked at plants which were planted in world zones. Many native plants were very unusual and brightly coloured. It is their autumn so a number of the flowers had gone unfortunately, but on the plus side the weather was a perfect mix of sunny but not too hot.

We had a Steak sandwich with Little Creature local beer which was lovely. There was an Aboriginal who approached the restaurant, who seemed well dressed, but could have been drunk. He was ranting loudly about being overlooked by government and said he doesn’t recognize them as his authority. Apparently, it is a normal occurrence in the park. He of course, probably had a good point.

On the way home I was fascinated to see that the train runs in middle of the motorway with stations and people walking under the traffic motorways or over bridges – it looked really odd. Andrew said Perth has a really good transport system.

In the evening we all got into our glad rags and took a taxi into the city. We met Debbie and Andrew’s friends in a very loud bar Hadiqa, which had a London type vibe. We met Pauline, Jim (who Andrew said were called ‘wogs’ which I smarted at, but apparently it’s the name for Italians and Greeks there – I certainly won’t be using that term), Glen, Lisa, Simon & Theresa.

We then moved onto a restaurant called Garum. The whole development reminded me of the new development in Tower Bridge area in London.

We had a good chat about Perth and how people in the outskirts don’t come into the city much as there is a good infrastructure outside in the suburbs. Most hadn’t been in for over a year and said that the city is changing constantly with lots of new building going on. I was amazed they didn’t travel in as they were so close. I was always going into London in the UK as I love city life.

We had a really good laugh with loads of stories going back and forth…. Kangaroos coming up to them in the wild ... swingers parties with weird neighbours…..trips to the homeland Greece. I told some stories about working in my UK school and actually became quite nostalgic.

We also chatted about Australians slang words and ending words in ‘o’. Too numerous to remember especially after 3 glasses of Prosecco, but here are some examples: FOMO -fear of missing out, salvos – Salvation Army centres, bottleos - drive through booze shops, servos - petrol stations, garbos - garbage men, avos – avocados, smokos - unionised tea breaks and a deviation from ‘o’ were bickies - cyclists, , sunnies- sunglasses, thongs - flip flops and a word that fascinated me, Bogan - a “stereotypical” Australian – someone who is loud, brash, drinks a lot and is probably the one causing the loudest ruckus. Basically the equivalent of a US Redneck or UK Chav. They even call themselves it. The people of Perth call themselves Sandgropers.

It’s a whole other language!

They all said that they feel left out when it comes to the arts and concerts as these are always in Sydney or Melbourne and rarely come their way. On the plus side the airfare to Melbourne is only 150 bucks they said.

The Italian food was fresh and fantastic with sardines, marinated fish, octopus, red snapper, and muscles, we had a tapas style dip in entrees. All rounded off with a delicious tiramisu…… 😍😍😍

We came home via taxi and had a whiskey together. It felt like old times and we’d fallen straight back into family who lived around the corner from each other.

Day 15

I woke up early that morning because my poor old arthritic knee was killing me as we’d walked so much the day before. I put my newly bought tiger balm on all over my leg which certainly helped, unfortunately Mark turned for a cuddle and shall we just say it caused him some discomfort. 😳😳

Each morning Galahs (Rose Breasted Cockatoo) swarm and squeak very loudly outside bedroom window. Its amazing to see and hear so many freely flying around.

Debbie didn’t open on Sunday (or Mondays) so was able to come out with us for the day. We drove to the city edge and walked around the beautiful Elizabeth Quay Docks with Elliott too.

There was a bar there called the Lucky Shag, which Debbie told me was the name of the Perth bird – the Shag – hilarious!

We went to the Swan Bell Tower which are a set of 18 bells hanging in a specially built 82.5-metre-high copper and glass campanile in Perth. They are the second largest set of changing bells in the world. The St Martin-in-the-Fields bells were donated to the State of Western Australia as part of the 1988 Australian bicentenary celebrations. It’s a lovely structure and the bells sounded wonderful. Leading up to the tower is a small bridge filled with padlocks with engravings of love on them.

We left there and set sail for our Captain Cook Cruise up the Swan River. It is a huge expanse, but unbelievably only 4 metres deep in places.

We travelled past amazing houses and mansions set up on the hills overlooking the bay and also the docks where huge freighter ships were moored with their containers stacked precariously high. We arrived in Fremantle, which is a lovely small town filled with very picturesque colonial buildings. We had a very tasty lunch at Cicerellos, which is famous for its fresh fish. You could even pick your choice of fish, lobster and crab from the large tanks by the order area. I personally am in denial where my food comes from, so didn’t do that. Debbie, Andrew, Elliott and I then had a lovely time looking around the wonderful craft markets. After walking for ages we decided that we would get a train, which I really enjoyed and realised I actually miss my UK train journeys.

Day 16 Debbie and Andrew took us to the most wonderful area of brewers and wine country about 45 minutes form them. Everything is so close.

As we drove along you can see all the artisan wines and beer centres, each making individual brands.

We went to a lovely winery called Mandoom, that had a restaurant and a chocolate tasting centre called the Margaret River chocolate factory – perfect!

The vineyard had a beautiful setting by a river.

We did the Chocolate factory first at my request and after tasting the chocolate button samples, I also went and had an iced chocolate milkshake with cream. I can hear you scream at me ‘what about WW!’. Well by now I knew I’d put on weight, so it was gloves off time and I was all in, to taste everything and anything – in for a penny and in for a pound or several lbs in fact! 😊

At the next door Mandoom estate we had a very lovely lunch and I did try and be good by having the veggie option of roasted cauliflower which was delicious, unfortunately it came with a goats cheese sauce. Mark ordered a paddle of 5 local beers which were also good.

We then went to the tasting rooms and tasted 2 sparkling and 3 red wines. Wonderful stuff.

On the way home we stopped at Mualloo beach, which is a few minutes from their house and walked along the beach while the sun set into bright oranges and deep reds. It was truly magical and I feel choked up thinking about it now.

The evening was filled with yet more drinking and playing games of Trivial Pursuit and Pea-knuckle which is a game much like Uno that Mark and I learnt from another couple when we were in Corfu and it rained for 3 days straight. It was very much a case of Debbie and I just laughing and singing and forgetting it was our go and Mark and Andrew determined to win. Andrew won in the end, but only at 1am!

Day 17 Well it was yet another time to leave someone and be sad, and sad we both were as it had been such joy and fun to see them.

We visited Debbie in her shop before we left and yes, through tears of goodbyes I bought something again, then Harry and Andrew drove us the airport.

When we got to the desk I discovered that my name was put forward for ‘random’ checks at security. Well that makes a change, its usually Mark who has that. The boarding pass says SSSS, this means that my bags were more thoroughly checked at each point and I was swabbed and patted down each time. It did feel somewhat intrusive actually. The same happened after our flight and changeover in Singapore too.

Now you know how much I loved Singapore and the airport, well we got the train to terminal 3 and actually saw the breath-taking Jewel from the train window, so we hadn’t missed it. We also visited the Butterfly garden and the Enchanted Garden there. I tell you, it’s a really amazing place. Why can’t all airports be like that?

After a 1 ½ hours of queuing just to get through the LAX immigration and the hour long drive through the 405 and 101 traffic, we were glad to be home again, but it did feel strange and I feel Ive taken a step away from LA life. I’m sure once I get my routine back, I’ll be fine, but that night I did dream of boat trips and beach sunsets.