Monday 5th May - Sunday 11th May Western Oz - Perth

Monday 5th May
I woke up to the sound of children in the house, bit strange so I thought I had better investigate!! Turns out Shawn and Ryan weren’t feeling to well so Julia let them have the day off school. After the second argument about who was playing with what I stupidly suggested going to the park! BIG mistake, you can tell I don’t have kids!! When are we going? How long till we can go? Can we go now? How about now? Are you ready yet??!! Seeing as I had literally just got up I needed a few minutes to remember my own name! Off we went to the park, was quite fun actually, at least I got some exercise playing chase!

In the afternoon Julia took me shopping for some warmer clothes and some much needed socks!! We then went back home and picked everyone else up and went to my other cousin’s house Gary. It was Gary’s birthday so I met his wife Sue (Who I have met before but I was about 13 we think!) and his children Rachael, Lauren and Jarred. Was actually quite strange to be allowed to sit with the adults and have an alcoholic drink. The last time I saw these guys I was probably trying to pretend I was just drinking lemonade! We then came home for dinner and me and Uncle put in a joint effort to make Green Curry and watched Die Hard 4, which isn’t a bad movie.

Tuesday 6th May
We met up with two of Uncle T and Auntie L’s friends Mike and Jean over lunch in the Swan Valley at a place called the Black Swan which is attached to a vineyard. We had amazing food and lush wine, I could get used to this!

Wednesday 7th May
We headed off into Perth city fairly early to try and avoid attractions being too busy, our first stop was the Bell Tower just off the Swan River which I kept wanting to call Swan Lake! It was built for the millennium and had 12 bells which ring out on special occasions, so much smaller and probably more historical than a dome which no one wants to go and see! We managed to get in on the back of a school group who were being taught how the ring the bells and we got to have a go. So Perth city was subjected to S-J Nightingale ringing bells out at 11.45 on a Wednesday morning – poor things! They are a lot harder to do thank you think, the first bit is the most difficult but once you have it going its much easier. After seeing the tower we headed towards the Perth Mint where we had a guided tour teaching us about how they first found the gold and showing us the coins they still make today. It was amazing to see all the different coins that you can buy and who brought them. Apparently I am worth 1.2 million dollars in gold, once you convert that with the current exchange rate it’s a bit crap, I did think about going back and weighing myself after lunch to see if I was worth more but I decided you should be happy with your lot! We went for lunch inside the Mint and I had something called the finger sandwich selection, it was very posh and I tried to eat all of them with my little finger in the air!

Shawn had asked if I could go and watch him play basketball so off we went to the Joondalup sports centre, I got quite involved and I think I put off one kid because he turned around to see who they silly women shouting in the English accent was! Sorry!

Thursday 8th May
I was woken up with a nice cup of tea and told to get out of bed by my Uncle!! I really could sleep for England! We went back into Perth to go on a River cruise along the Swan River up to Fremantle. It was a shame it wasn’t a warmer day but it was warm enough for us to sit on the back of the boat and enjoy the fresh air, it was lovely when the sun came out. We had commentary all the way along, going through the history of the bridges we went under and the yacht clubs around the River, we even got told about the massive houses on the edge of the River. There was one which was apparently on sale for $85million, I’ve been in resorts smaller than that, it was crazy! We then got closer to the docks and came across a hug cargo carrier, I’ve never seen one up close and I couldn’t believe how the smaller boats manoeuvred it onto the side of the Harbour, they must have some good engines on them! After the cruise we headed towards Kings Park, a botanical garden plush with native Australian Flora and Fauna, I can imagine it would be packed on a hot sunny day. As we were walking past the Anza memorial monument there were two ladies one at each end of a wall and they seemed to be trying to hear each other speak. My Uncles asked what they were doing and apparently when one person stands at the end of one wall and another at the other if you whisper you can still hear the person at the other end. Well this we had to try… I nearly jumped out of my skin when I hear my Uncle call my name clear as day. Really spooky! It just jumps out of the wall at you, so clever! We then followed the two women to the look out point and came across an aboriginal talk about their shields, spears, boomerangs and didgeridoos, then two young guys came out and showed us some dancing. To be honest the talk was interesting but I did feel sorry for the boys not wearing much in the rain, I was cold and I had a bloody jumper and jean on! For dinner we went out with some other friends of Uncle T’s, Marion and Mike. We went to the local Chinese which was very nice, it had been a long time since I had Chinese.


Friday 9th May
Me and my Uncle set off for Fremantle just after 9.00 to miss the traffic and went straight to Fremantle prison. As my Uncle had visited the prison 4 times before with previous visitors I left him to have a wander about and set off on the tour. Our tour guide was fairly amusing getting people to stand in cells and closing the doors and almost locking one couple on solitary, I’m just glad I wasn’t the butt of any of the jokes! It was really weird to walk around the prison and I definitely did not like it when the door was close on me in solitary so I could see what it felt like. The gallows were also quite full on, especially when you hear that they hung an 11 year old boy for murder and you see the drop below the noose. Sent a shiver down my spine I can tell you! After the prison tour we took a walk through the market which sold all sorts of things from fruit and veg to sunglasses and foot massages (I was tempted but then I remembered the wooden stick and thought better of it!). We walked along to the old railway station and along to the roundhouse where they used to keep people prisoner and still have stocks in situ. Unfortunately we had just missed the cannon firing, how we didn’t hear it I don’t know, but at least my ears were safe!! We carried on around to the harbour and had fish and chips then walked back through the market tp pick up some veggies. In the evening Julia and I went to the cinema while Auntie L and Uncle T went to a Quiz night. We saw “What Happens in Vegas” with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, I don’t even want to think how long it has been since I went to the cinema, it was good old fashion chick flick, brilliant! As we came out and went into the loos Julia did the loudest sneeze I have ever heard and the entire toilet went silent, problem was this then gave us the giggle and soon the whole of the ladies tolit was laughing at the loud sneeze. There were a bunch of teenagers laughing when we came out but we knew if we said anything they would probably think we were weird so we just kept laughing to ourselves. Some people are so noisy, not like my dainty sneezes which Julia now keeps taking the piss out of!


Saturday 10th May
One of things I wanted to do in Oz is hold a koala and at a park called Cohunu you can do that so in an effort not to look quite so stupid walking around an animal park at 26 getting excited at seeing all the animals and getting to feed them we took the kids with us! As you walked in you got given a bag of popcorn, I’m not sure which of the animals it is supposed to be appetising to the most but apparently the only ones not to give it to are the Emu’s. We soon found though that they aren’t fussy and they actually freaked me out a little bit because every time you turned around there was one over your shoulder. Anyway once we got to the koala area I got to hold one and have my photo taken with one! It was actually a bit smelly but luckily they give you some Eucalyptus leaves for it to eat and that masked some of the smell! After that we went into the Kangaroo enclosure which was very cool, they are just hopping about all around you and actually they do eat popcorn! Some of the bigger ones were a bit worrying when they started to box each other but the smaller ones were all very cute and if you approached them slowly most of them would eat out of your hand. This was definitely the highlight for the kids and probably me too! Although the talking parrots were highly amusing, there was one which made a really high alarm sound when you walked away from his cage and one which danced when he asked “What are you doing?” They had little Daniel in stiches whenever he said Hello and they responded he laughed so loudly, so much more enjoyable with the kids there. We even had to go back to the Kangaroo enclosure after lunch to feed them again, I don’t think they wanted to leave! We went to take the kids home and ended up staying for homemade pizza which was yummy (Thanks again Julia!) and started to play on the Wii. I must say even the adults can get a little bit competitive, especially when Julia’s partner Dave starts pushing me to try and put me off. Me, competitive?? Surprising isn’t it!!


Sunday 11th May
This was Mother’s Day in Oz so my two cousin’s and respective families were coming over for a late lunch/early dinner. We were up early in the morning to go and watch Ryan play Aussie Rules Football which is nothing like English football and I spent most of the gam trying to figure out what on earth they were doing and clapping at all the wrong places! Later in the day the Wii battles commenced again and we progressed outside to a game of piggy in the middle made even more confusing because there was always about 3 people in the middle at any one time and everyone kept changing so quickly it was difficult to work out who was in and who was out. Luckily no one got hurt but it was probably a close call. It was such a good day, it reminded me of when we used to go around my Nan’s for the day and us kids would all be playing and fighting each other and the adults would be eating and drinking, made me very nostalgic and made me miss my family a bit. It was great to be able to speak to Mum and Dad on Skype although I think it got a bit confusing when we had most of the family trying to gather around the camera and all talk at once! Was lovely to see them though!