The first few days in Perth (7 - 9/3/14)

My plan for the first month in Perth is to do a lot of nothing and relax so for that reason this next batch of blogs will be brief summaries. That's for your sakes not mine because I'm going to enjoy doing nothing, but reading about it is, quite frankly, boring. Plus I'm really behind on writing the blogs so a summary will help me catch up.

I'll start with introducing my family so that it's easier to understand the stories that follow.

My Aunt and Uncle are called Sandra and Geoff. They have two sons called Philip, who's my age (33), and Brendan who's 30. Philip is married to Holly and they have a son called Taze. Brendan will be marrying his fiancee Molly in 2 weeks. It is for this reason that I had a suit made in Vietnam. And considering my 'confirmation of posting' email that I received a week ago saying the suit will arrive in 3-4 weeks I'm a little worried that it won't be here in time. Fingers crossed!
I'll be staying with Sandra and Geoff while I'm in Perth except for maybe the odd night when I don't make it home.

7th March

Today I woke up late as I seriously needed the lay in and enjoyed breakfast on the patio in the sun. The family have been invited, me included, to an engagement party tomorrow night so after breakfast I went with my Aunt to the Burswood Casino to pick up a voucher to use in the restaurants there as a present for the engaged couple. We had a walk around the casino but I managed to resist the temptation to try the roulette wheels as I lost a fair bit when I was there last year. During the day I washed all my clothes and finished unpacking. In the evening we skyped home. That was the first time I'd seen and spoken to my parents properly since leaving a month ago. It was great to catch up and we ended up speaking for about 2 hours. After that we finished off last nights bbq leftovers and chilled in front of the TV for the night.

8th March

One of Sandra and Geoff's friends Sheryl came round this morning so I caught up with her for a bit before I went to the local shopping centre called 'Carousel' with Geoff to check out the phone deals for a pre-paid sim. I would definitely need a phone while I'm here and, despite only needing a sim card, all the deals were still more than I was paying at home. I'll have to see if there are any better deals online. Geoff needed a new phone too so we spent a bit of time checking out what was available and I explained to him about touch screens and operating systems and tried as best I could to steer him towards Android and away from Windows. I think it worked. In the evening we went to the engagement party and picked up Sheryl and her husband Mike on the way there. The couple getting engaged are called Amanda and Matt and it's amanda's parents, Rex and Jan, that know Sandra and Geoff. The party was at the WA rowing club, a really nicely restored heritage building with plenty of history on the walls and a stunning view over the Swan River from the open-air balcony. The room was really nicely decorated, with cup cakes as the central display on the main table, tables around the edge of the room, a DJ in the corner, and a free bar. Yep, that's right. So I spent the evening working my way through the bottled beers on offer, in the interests of taste testing of course. During the evening various selections of canapes were brought round which I took great pleasure in trying. They were delicious and very moreish. After these delights stopped arriving we were invited to help ourselves to the cup cakes which were also really tasty. I may have had more than one but no more than four of those! A little later on Brendan and Molly arrived so I caught up with them. The DJ put out some good tunes but I was enjoying myself just chatting to people and catching up with Sandra and Geoff's friends so I didn't throw any shapes on the dance floor. That was probably in everyone's interests to be honest. The party finished about midnight and Brendan and Molly jumped in the car with us, instead of Mick and Sheryl, and on the way home we had some very funny drunken discussions while my Aunt drove. I was crying with laughter over the conversation and my chest ached by the time we got home. I can't remember what it was about unfortunately. Once at home we all had a honey whiskey night cap before heading very late to bed.

9th March

I awoke this morning to a cooked breakfast by Geoff and no hangover. Good times. This I could get used to. After breakfast Sandra, Geoff and I stopped off briefly at Rex and Jan's to drop the presents off that we took home last night for them and then went on to see an exhibition at Cottesloe beach called 'Sculpture by the sea'. Every year sculptors from around the world place their artwork somewhere on or near the beach for about two weeks for others to come along and look at. It's a free event for all to enjoy and the art is massively varied. Some is fun, some is clever and some is just head scratchingly odd. I don't claim to understand art but even I was fascinated by some of the pieces. Rolly was in his element and even his dreams came true on one of the exhibits. The setting is perfect with the sun blazing down on the sandy beach and the vivid blue from the sea and the sky as the backdrop. This only added to the experience. We spent a fair part of the day there as there are over 70 sculptures to see all spread out along the sea front. After the exhibition we drove up to the place where Brendan and Molly are having their wedding ceremony. It was high up on a viewpoint that overlooks the Swan River. The view is awesome and the perfect setting for a wedding. After this we drove back home and I had a swim and relaxed until dinner. Geoff did another bbq which again was really tasty. After dinner I lounged in front of the TV with a beer until it was time to go to bed.