To Perth, and back again

Left for Perth on Mon 14th Nov, early morning.. MAS business class comfort to start the whole journey off well. Plane landed on time (!), got picked up by J, and headed straight back to their house, in a suburb of Perth called Edgewater. G&J have a most amazing house! It is very pretty when seen from the outside, nice and spacious and yet cosy inside, all pretty normal so far, but the "amazing" part is the view out the back.


They are on the top of a cliff, overlooking Lake Joondalup, and the view, as you can see from the picture, is amazing!!

Had dinner at a restaurant called "Hogs Breath" our first night. Totally non-halal, as the name implies, in fact it is an unprepossessing name but the food was excellent, HUGE servings, totally impossible to finish, but we did try our best. No space left for desserts, unfortunately. Hmmm, wonder how a restaurant with a name like that would survive in KL?

G&J have 2 cats (Beanie and Jonty) and a dog (Sophie) who is still a pup. Beanie is a really affectionate cat, loves people and loves being petted... very different from Jonty who is verra macho and only comes for a pet when he feels like it. Mind you, if you stop petting him before he is ready, he will push at your hand until you continue. You do NOT stop till HE is done with YOU!

Sophie is FULL of vim, verve and vigour, and LOVES to lick - which is something I hate - so half the time was spent in trying to stop her from licking me. She is adorable though, very friendly, very loving, loves people (which dog doesn't?), and loved having my husband around as he, like G, loves to rough house with the dog.

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent in driving all up and down Perth, with both G&J.... Hillary's Harbour (Sorento Quay), all around Fremantle, up and down the coast, stopping in many places to have a wander and to take many photographs. Both evenings we vegged out at G&J's home, relaxing with them, watching movies, yakkety-yakking, enjoying the pets, eating chocs, having a couple of glasses of GOOD port. AH, that IS the life :-)

Thursday was a relaxing day at home - barbecue steaks with stir-fry for lunch - followed by icecreams for dessert. Off to Hillary's Harbour again in the evening to catch up with an old friend of my husbands. Not a late night though as he and his wife had brought their kids along and needed to get home at a reasonable hour so they could get them to bed. G&J had kindly lent us their car to get us to and from Hillary's Harbour, so we had no worries about transport. In fact, their house is only about 10 minutes drive from there, so it was very easy for us.

Friday morning was spent on a last "stuff ourselves" and photo walkabout. All the way to Burns Beach for a delicious breakfast at a place called Costa del Sol. Then walked down to the beach to go walking in the water - COLD, you would NOT catch me going swimming there. The water all along the Perth coastline is so incredibly clear and clean, and the most vivid turquoise and blue colours. Crystal blue skies, not a cloud in sight, beautiful breezes.... Anyway, back home by 11.30am so that we could pack up, and then G&J dropped us off at the airport early afternoon, to catch our late afternoon flight back to KL. Sigh.. holiday over.

For those of you who know G and want some more specific news - he is definitely holding his own. Having some tests done this week based on the latest bone marrow samples taken, hopefully the results will show something positive. Despite that he is still the same, lovely, "absent-minded" professor person that he has always been, with his inimitable sense of humour. He and J are taking life as it comes, enjoying it as much as they can. J is totally the same gorgeous lady - loving, caring, cracked sense of humour, still the totally fantastic teacher. They were both absolutely fantastic - made us feel so much at home. I would put them on the short-list of people I would happily be marooned on a desert island with. They did a fantastic job of "showing off" Perth to us as well... consider that my husband has always been totally anti-Perth, and now, after spending the last week with them in Perth, he has actually said he would like to go back, for a longer holiday, and spend more time there! Whoa....is this the same person who, when first asked by J 2 years ago to go to Perth, he said "NO WAY"? Maybe he got kidnapped by aliens and I got someone else instead??

One last interesting tidbit about Perth - I had a book with me when we left for the airport (to read on the flight back). By the time we checked in and got to the MAS Business Class lounge, I didn't have it with me! I thought I had left it in the car, so figured that it was too bad, and tried to forget about it. Then, when we eventually got to the departure gate I saw this very familiar looking book lying there, and realised it was mine!! The staff told me that I had left it behind at the check-in counter, so the staff at the counter sent it to the departure gate! I was most pleased with that! Ian Rankin's The Falls - which I would have been sad to have lost as both husband and I are Ian Rankin fans.

Flight left about 20 minutes late, but same excellent service and food all the way back. Landed 15 minutes late - got through Immigration in record time (20 minutes flat), rushed to the limo counter, and were told that we might have to wait a while for the limo as the train (which a lot of people DO take) was not running to KL due to the tracks being flooded... so, of course, all those "should have been" train passengers, ended up taking taxis. It wasn't really that bad though - we only had to wait 12 minutes in the end. Finally got home just before midnight.. and that was the end of our holiday.

That's it folks... that was Perth and back again. A thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing holiday.. and now we gird our loins for whatever comes next... what with husband starting work on Monday, and me starting my "exercise and fitness" program on Monday too - to try and shake off some of this excess baggage that has kinda planted itself around my waist (and other parts of my body) over the last few years... and, of course, the job hunt begins. Wish us luck!