A lazy day in Perth

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DAY 175


Another beautiful morning here in Perth, woke up slightly later than usual as we had a late night last night after watching the film and a couple of glasses of wine. It is a little chilly to start with but the days do warm up quite quickly here.

This morning after breakfast we all jump in the truck and head off to Anaconda, just another large outdoor store here in Australia, it will make a change from visiting Bunnings and BCF.

The roads are busy but the traffic is moving and we pull into the car park with ease. I have been looking forward to visiting this store as a lot of people have mentioned it to us as a good store to buy camping gear or anything for the outdoors as a matter of fact.

However, we have a good look around and believe it or not Andy and I find that there is nothing that we need, we are fairly well kitted out at the moment, the only thing that might be a useful addition is something to give a little bit of privacy while showering in the bush.

Andy comes up with a useful suggestion, one that says that Sue and I should go shopping while he goes back to the house and catches up on a few things, in other words that generally means, I have no objection to Caroline shopping as I could do with some peace and quiet and a good rest.

Well who am I to argue? The chance to be let loose in the shops which is something that I have not done often on this trip and the chance for a girlie shop.

So with Andy dropped off at home Sue directed me to Karrinyup a shopping centre, which is fairly local to Scarborough and very easy to find.

The first task is to find a parking space big enough for the Patrol, as with most shopping centres car park is premium so to wedge everyone in the parking spaces are small, but we manage to find a space to squeeze into in this busy shopping centre.

So with Sue’s new word we begin “mooching” around the shops and although we walk past those lovely shoe shops full of gorgeous shoes, I am not inspired to buy any as I don’t really need shoes like that at the moment, the only shoes I am likely to replace are my hiking boots or flip flops (thongs). So we walk into Witchery, full of lovely Autumn and Winter clothing, I wonder briefly if I will need a lot of woolly jumpers up North, only in the evenings I guess when it gets cold at night, but as for the lovely sequin numbers, well, I am not sure that they would look that good by the camp fire, they may sparkle a bit though, but highly unpractical.

We grab a coffee and contemplate life and politics before resuming our mooching.

You may have seen me mention before about the cost of books out here, one of my favourite authors for example would cost in excess of $30 but Sue told me that I should shop at “Big W” for books they are heavily discounted, so we went into Big W and browsed through the book section, the book that I wanted, Marian Keyes latest novel cost only $16 a huge difference. I also picked up a Biography by a woman who fought and overcame struggles in the outback to become one of the largest owners of a cattle station “Diamonds and Dust”, so I have plenty of reading material for the coming months of dark evenings.

Armed with my small shopping purchases we stop by the bakery, I spy some Iced Finger Buns, they are iced with Pink icing which is always a bonus, they are donating funds to Breast Cancer Charities, so doing my little bit for charity I buy us each a pink iced finger to complement our lunch.

Back at the ranch we have lunch and an easy afternoon is on the cards, Andy has enjoyed his morning of peace and quiet and decides to help out doing a few chores, not to mention drinking copious amounts of tea.

Andy had been doing some blog maintenance and a little bit of work on the timeline, i.e where we have been and when, just so that our records are bang up to date when we look back on our journey.

It is easy to relax here in this environment; the inside of the house feels cool against the heat of the day, but sitting outside in the covered verandah and listen to a bit of music, “Raising Sands” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

It is Friday night so it is curry night, we go out and get a take away curry for tea and enjoy while we watch “Taken” with Liam Neeson and to make it a really bumper Friday evening we then watch another film “Wanted” with James McEvoy. Trouble is it did make for a late night again, but it was great to sit and watch TV as we don’t get chance that often, once we leave here I am not sure when we will get to sit and watch a film again.

I did not really want to go to bed too late tonight as I have arranged a Skype call for 7.00 in the morning, some of my girlfriends are having one of their regular get togethers (which of course I used to attend religiously) and as we are now only 7 hours ahead that means having to Skype them at midnight UK time.

I am looking forward to Skyping them and catching up on things, but if I will get any sense out of them at midnight is another matter (tee hee).

My phone is set for a 6.45 alarm call to make sure that I am awake and I fall into bed exhausted.

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