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Published: April 2nd 2013
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Cottesloe Beach
Our favourite Perth Beach Following the arrival of Trish and the girls from Ireland Annie and I had moved into a backpackers hostel in Northbridge, Central Perth for a week. It was good to be in a busy central location again with loads of nightlife, bars, restaurants etc.... Not that we got to use them as we were now so used to early nights!
Our backpackers hostel wasn't as bad as it could have been and most people staying there were working in local bars and building sites so there was none of the madness every night that we had endured in Queenstown, NZ which was our last experience of a backpackers hostel.
It was also easy to get around the whole of Perth using the bus, trains and ferry from the City Centre. The city is growing incredibly fast and the economy is booming with loads of construction work going on and the infrastructure is slowly catching up. There are even free buses that run around the city centre and public transport is so clean, efficient and fairly cheap. The place has changed so much since our first visit in 2008.
Our average day was spent leisurely...... we would meet up
with Trish and the girls for a few hours on the beach ....usually Hilary's, Scarboro (we couldn't find my wedding ring) and my personal favourite - Cottesloe Beach. . . and then we would spend lovely afternoons in the sun with picnics on the beach. John and Andrea still had to work so we would usually catch up with them in the evenings.
Shopping around the city centre with 5 girls wasn't much fun for me but they managed to get most of the presents and souveniers completed in one afternoon so it wasn't too bad.
We enjoyed some nice evening BBQ's together ...we had one lovely evening at Kings Park overlooking the City Centre and another in Hyde Park... we also had a couple of meals at John and Andrea's and another lovely afternoon at their friends Mick and Anne's house.
There are free communal, stainless steel gas BBQ's available throughout Perth in most parks, on all the beaches and dotted around the whole country for anybody to use .... they are clean, well looked after and easy to use, you simply roll up with your food, press a button and off you go.
And then,
as in John's case he then hands the tools over to me to do the cooking!! (John consistently appears to have taken a step back from the BBQ and every time we start the preparations he manages to make sure that I'm the one holding the tongs!)
I can't imagine the same public BBQs available in the UK.... they would be stolen, set on fire or wrecked within a week.
We crammed a far bit into the first week and it was rounded off with a night out in Northbridge on the beer on the Friday night.
Unfortunately Kelly and Lauren had to remain at home .... but the adults went partying!
We hit the 'Universal Bar' - a cool place on William Street with a band and a late bar and Madam and I got 'wasted'!!
I was a star on the dance floor with Shauna (well, I thought so anyway!) and certainly provided entertainment for the rest of the pub's clientel. Fortunately it was only a short walk home but the next day were due to leave the hostel and were rudely awakened by the cleaner at 10am to 'get out'.
From there we
moved out to a campsite on the outskirts of town. We had stayed here in the campervan the night before we had handed it back and they had nice, clean cabins for rent and a pool etc so we had booked a cabin for two weeks.
We had a lovely afternoon in Hyde Park and met some of John and Andrea's friends for another outdoor BBQ and then went over to Florant Beach for some sunset photo's.
One afternoon Trish (Mammy) and Madam had a day out on the Captain Cook Cruise along the Swan River including a trip to a vineyard.
It was nice for the sisters to catch up and have a few vinos.
This left me in charge of the girls for the day so we settled for a day on the beach and a BBQ at Hilarys.
It was good fun and later I met Mammy and Madam from the bar that evening. It was quite a surprise to find them still sober ... quite a grown up day and not the usual booze cruise!
Annie's Hair During the last couple of months since we left the UK readers
of this blog may have noticed the change in the colour of Madam's hair?
You may have been following this blog not to read about our adventures but simply to marvel at the way in which the sun has bleached her hair to a shade of white that the dye box describes as - 'Nordic Blond!!'
Trish had finally arrived to help with giving it some shape and style ('Tame The Mane!'😉 but it is time for the truth to be told!
Well,its been killing me for weeks trying to think who she looks like....but now I have now seen her role model in the world of hairdressing and wow, look at the pictures attached!!! Unfortunately the photo of Annie is slightly out of focus but you get the idea??? What do you think???
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