0010 A few days in Perth

18th November 2019
We go to Perth for a few days.

Unfortunately a good friend and work colleague from my Perth days died a while ago in the USA where he recently lived, and his wife arranged a Celebration of his Life in Perth for all his family and West Australian friends.  This was scheduled just before we were due to set of to Tasmania, so was good timing for us, and also provided a good opportunity to catch up with Damien and Meisha and the kids.  So Janet & I flew over there - My first ever flight on Virgin !   A virgin on Virgin, you might say !


Damien met us on arrival, and took us back to their home where we will stay.  Not a lot of room in the house, but such a happy home !  The next day we were at field Neale's Celebration of Life, and this was held at City of Perth Surf Life Saving Club - Our old surf club when we lived in Perth, and just down the road from our old house.  While it was in itself a sad occasion, it provided a wonderful opportunity for me to catch up with several close work friends who I haven't seen since I retired.  I also gave a short talk about our Perth office days together, and spent a very pleasant afternoon remembering a good friend, and some good times during my working years in Perth.  The fact that it was also held at our old surf club made it even more memory-provoking.

Poppie exits the swim

The next day we were up VERY early, and Damien, Meisha, Poppie, Charlee and Janet and I piled into a rented 6 seat van, together with bikes etc, and headed off on the two jour drive to Busselton where the girls were participating in their age group triathlon. The main World Championship International triathlon would be held the next day, but it was exciting for the

Breakfast time

girls to have all the international infrastructure set up during their event.  They did really well, and it was great fun to be able to see them in each of the 3 legs - swim, cycle, and run.  Poppie gets such a determined look on her face when she is competing !   Afterwards we went for the most important activity of all - Breakfast - or perhaps it was lunch ? A yummy and fun meal before we set off for the long drive back to Perth.  It was then a relaxing afternoon watching the movie Christmas Chronicles - Much enjoyed with the kids.

Willie Wagtail

Back in Queensland, we feed magpies and butcher birds (amongst others), but in Perth they have little Willie Wagtails that are super tame and come in for their daily feed.  These friendly little chaps are like ours in that some of them are much tamer than others, coming in to sit on your hand, while others hold back.  The other similarity is that they are also black and white - there must be something about black and white birds being the most friendly ?  These wagtails however seem to prefer mealie worms (instead of mince meat like hours) which makes maintenance a bit more expensive, although fotunately they are smaller birds than ours, so don't eat so much !!

The next day was Sunday,and that meant it was Surf Club Day (We did

Surf Club in Perth

that every Sunday during the summer when we lived in Perth !!)  So another early morning and it was off to the City of Perth SLSC again.  Cambel was with us today, so all 3 of the kids were in their age groups, and spent the

Charlee at surf club

morning practicing their surf skills with so many other kids - It seems more popular than ever.  I found the sun to be much hotter than it used to be when I was younger (!!) so opted to sit in the shade much of the time, but with the club buildings just at the top of the beach, that didn't reduce my pleasure at watching all the kids having fun on the beach.  A great morning - Followed by the obligatory Sunday morning sausage sizzle put on by the club (I used to be the one cooking the sausages !!)


I had arranged to meet some of my ex-work colleagues for lunch at a restaurant right beside the surf club, so we went straight up there and had a great couple of hours remeniscing about the fun we used to have.  Really good to catch up with them again.

Meisha and D have plans to build a new house on the grounds of their current one during 2020, so we enjoyed going through the projected plans with them and seeing how it would fit on their block.  Going to be a busy year for them !    Monday was the last day of our 4 day stay as we were to leave at 11 pm that evening on the midnight red-eye back to Brisbane.  Meisha, D, Janet and I had an excellent seafood lunch down beside the river in Fremantle at the Left Bank pub before heading back to their house for a leaisurely pack up.  D then dropped us at the airport for our flight home.  A great 4 days catching up with them all, and perfect timing  as we were able to spend time with them with Christmas approaching.

Once back in Queensland, I only had 2 weeks to prepare Troopie for the drive to Tasmania.  Due to working on the VW, apart from a full workshop service, I haven't really touched her since she came back from her round Australia trip with our French friends Joel and Brigitte,  so I had lots of small things to do.  But more of that later !!

Rest of the pics are here :-  https://photos.app.goo.gl/nuoRPnYCS4oukvtJ8