Time Machine

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Ok 80's babies... Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be in your teens or twenties during the 80s? I've finally figured out what's so weird about Perth - It's stuck in 1985 (give or take a year or two). Seriously. I realize this is an isolated city in an isolated part of the country, but they seem to have access to current American and Australian television. I mean I watched the new season of House last night!

However... rat tails and mullets run rampant (probably about 80% of men here have one or the other or both). Mr. T is the spokesman for literally everything over here. They are really into wearing neon clothing (although to be fair, it's apparently the law for labourers to wear neon yellow/green/orange to work).

But back to hairstyles... I literally have never seen so many different types of rat tails. Dreaded, off the top of the head, off the side of the head, bleached, dyed, in a fro, greasy, braided, any combination of the above. Seriously. The best was the guy whose hair was a fro and then his fro had a fro rat tail. Think poodle. Stephanie and I have literally lost it walking behind people. Probably not appropriate but then neither is their hair. And mullets! We saw the most majestic mullet the other day. Red and flowing.

I digress... Anyway, so we haven't been up to much as the weather here has kept us indoors. We did spend an interesting evening at the greyhound races. Talk about a real Australian experience. Australians LOVE to gamble. Poker, slots, races, lotto, anything. The next day we went to the Perth Royal Show. The show is like a huge state fair. On Monday there were 80,000 people there. We watched wood chopping competitions, sheep herding, tractor racing... You name it, they have it. My favorite was the commentary at the cattle competition: "This cow here is a little lean through the flank but he should fill out in the next year or so. He's very maternal as he grew up with his mom and sisters..." What? Seriously, what? Anyway, it was amazing how much money they must make. It was $24 to get in and then $8-10 if you wanted to go on a ride. Luckily all of the agricultural happenings were free 😉

Sunday sessions are taken very seriously here. Every bar/restaurant that's even remotely cool is packed on Sunday afternoons when everyone in Perth in their 20s and 30s gets dressed up (like cocktail party dressed up) and goes out and gets smashed. We went to this huge brewery in Fremantle (Freo) called Little Creatures which only makes 3 beers (pretty lame for a brewery, no?) and sat outside and ate $20 nachos and $8.50 pints. That's right folks - the average pint of beer in Western Australia? Eight dollars. The cheapest I've seen is $6 and that was for shit beer. I guess the alcohol taxes are pretty high here. But then everything is extortionatly expensive here.

Yesterday we went to the aquarium. We were told to take the train to the Warwick stop and then get on the 423 bus. We thought we had gone terribly wrong when the bus took us on residential streets too small for a bus for 20 minutes, but we got to the aquarium which pretty much puts the Monterey aquarium to shame. They have this tunnel that's 100 meters long with a moving walkway and there are a ton of sharks and rays and fish swimming all around you. Apparently you can pay a lot of money and go snorkeling or diving in the tank if you're adventurous, but Steph and I were plenty happy to have a think layer of glass between us and them. The aquarium also had some sweet sealions that were being trained.

Anyway, that's pretty much all we've been up to as the weather has been unpleasant. Not terrible, just showers and overcast and little cool. This weekend is supposed to be nice and we're planning on going to Rottnest Island which is home to the quokka which is something like a tiny kangaroo. Apparently they roll up into a ball when they get scared and mean people have been said to play soccer with them (quokka soccer, get it? I think it's a quokka shit that anyone would do that...) hahaha. Anyway, I am going to go shower as we have met a brit here in the hostel that has offered to cook a gourmet meal for us for dinner (we were admiring his food a night or two ago). Chinese stirfry or something delicious. No new photos to post.

Still don't miss you, but maybe soon!

XOXOXO

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Comments

[Lisa]

Take a picture
of the quokka! esp. if ppl are playing soccer with it. i feel so sad just thinking about it... :(