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Published: February 6th 2016
Hilary at Hilary's
Dog Snog, do I have to say anymoreLook closely, you might think I made a spelling mistake, but this is no mistake. It's New Year's Eve and we had big plans for today and a night out with friends to celebrate the New Year ahead.
The week so far had been pretty exhausting, the heat had been tough on all of us, not to mention that one of the bedrooms was so hot, the one without the air conditioning so we had to move a mattress in the living room for our friends to get the benefit of the air conditioning. Meanwhile we spent the night in Roobie to take advantage of the built in air conditioning.
Back up at the house we were greeted by the dogs that we have been looking after, a Rottweiler and a Beagle, an unlikely pair of dogs and very different characters, but always pleased to see us.
Inside we find our guests sat around the dining room table, it looked as if they all had a rough night, it wasn't long before we found out that they had not had a good night and it wasn't because of the heat. Dawn had received some bad news from England
and it was looking likely that they needed to fly home early.
We had breakfast, discussed the possibilities and come up with a plan. Unfortunately because we are 8 hours ahead of England there was nothing that they could do for now, they had set the ball in motion to investigate flights home, insurance and the like and wait to see what the outcome was going to be. In the meantime we knew that we had to cancel our plans to spend New Year with Trevor and Peta and some of our 4 wheel drive friends, as this evening would be spent working out the finer details of getting Dawn and Jim home. After that there was nothing we could do, the wheels were in motion so we planned on making the most of the rest of the day and what little time Jim and Dawn had left in Australia.
Running through the list of "things to do" we decided on Hillary's Boat Harbour, always worth a look for tourists and a great place to look at the ocean, drink coffee and relax, which of course we did without any problems at all, we wandered up and down
Hilary at Hilary's
Sorrento Quay, at Hilary's boat yard the boardwalk, watched the crowds which were ever increasing, despite the fact that we were there early enough to easily find a parking space, by the time we left people were driving around looking for parking.
Heading further south we took the tourist drive down the coast until we reached Cottesloe, I thought parking would be difficult here, but turned out it was quite easy, however a 3 hour limit on parking was noted. Whilst walking up toward the beach, someone mentioned to us that he had been booked for being only a few minutes over the time limit, and I noticed one motorcyclist had been moved out of a parking bay to the proper motorcycle parking area, so we were definitely going to stick to the rules and keep an eye on the time. We couldn't get into lunch where we wanted but still managed to find somewhere nice in the cool and settled on Hola on the beach.
After a leisurely lunch and a stroll around Cottesloe it was back in the cars again and we made our way across to Kings Park where we were lucky to find two parking bays, it was busy. We
Hilary at Hilary's
John & Hilary Benton at Hilary;s boat yard made our way to the war memorial and the eternal flame where we sat and contemplated life for a short spell then went to take some photos. Dawn photobombed me, it makes a change because it is usually Andy, she didn't think I would take it but I did so now I have the evidence for all to see.
Looking over the views toward the city, we promised Hilary and John that we would be back for sunset (not really knowing how we were going to fit that in, but somehow we would), a look around the gift shop and an ice lolly later we were back in the cars and heading home for the day, we wanted a relaxing day and an early finish to get Dawn and Jim back to get sorted for getting home.
Once at home it was all systems go and plenty of phone calls, Hilary helped me with the birds we were looking after and soon after it was time for dinner.
I was not sure if we were all going to stay up for midnight, in amongst phone calls and discussions over flight prices, times and general plans we popped
Hilary at Hilary's
Jim & Dawn Keeley at Hilary's Boat yard a bottle of bubbly open and welcomed the new year in, then it was time for bed which was most welcome. It was going to be another hot night.
It was New Year's Day and despite being on holiday, we were still waking up early and the heat of the day was already showing itself. We appeared in the kitchen and found the others waiting for us and found that the flights had been booked, Dawn and Jim were flying out of Perth in the afternoon, working out what time we needed to get them to the airport decided that we would not waste time and sit around looking at each other, we headed up to the Mundy Regional Park for a walk and look at Lesmurdie Falls.
It was hot, so we were only going to do a short walk to the lookout, of course at this time of year Lesmurdie Falls were dry as a bone, there was an abundance of ants and of course tinder dry scrub. At the lookout we could see for miles, while watching the planes at Perth airport coming in to land and taking off we noted it was time to
head back and get Jim and Dawn to the airport.
The mood was subdued as we loaded the luggage and everyone into two vehicles and took the short journey to the airport. We decided on the drop off area rather than park up and go in for coffee, so Dawn and Jim could get themselves sorted out, checked in and wait for their flight home.
So emptying out both vehicles of luggage and people, Andy was parked right behind me, but I stepped over the white line to say my goodbye's to Dawn and Jim, only to be pounced upon by a security guard who told me not to leave my vehicle, technically I wasn't, but if I step into another bay, they cannot see the driver of the vehicle so therefore assume that it is abandoned. He insisted that if I wanted to say goodbye I should go and park and get a coffee inside. I told him we were dropping off having a hug and sending our friends on their way, but I could not step over the white line, I had to stand with my vehicle, so had to beckon Jim and Dawn back to
Hilary at Hilary's
Coffee time at the Dome Cafe say my goodbye's and 2 minutes later they were on their way.
I chatted to the security guard, I don't remember Perth Airport being quite so strict, but I understand that something was going down in another country that put the airport on high alert, so we have no option but to do what security say, at the end of the day they are doing their job and ultimately their job is to protect us.
Now there were four of us, we headed home, disappointed to see Dawn and Jim go, but we all understood it was something they had to do. We dropped a car off, freshened up and headed out for lunch, deciding on the Parkerville Tavern, only about 20 minutes away from us and we knew we could get a meal there.
I thought it would be too busy to get a table, but we found a table easily enough, we ordered pizza from the guy manning the outdoor pizza oven and waited under the parasol in the beer garden. We had a toast to absent friends, enjoyed our meal. I think we were all feeling a little quiet and eventually the heat of
Hilary at Hilary's
Hilary, Caroline and Dawn on the board walk at Hilary's boat yard the day was taking its toll and so was the pace of the holiday so we headed home to enjoy the air conditioning and have a well earned nanna nap and a swim.
Little later I decided that there was one thing that we needed to do, I grabbed a bottle of wine, a couple of beers, loaded up some snacks and we all jumped in the car and headed toward town. Tonight was going to be a perfect night for sunset at Kings Park and although we had promised this to Hilary and John, Andy and I have been promising to do this ever since we moved here and this is the first opportunity.
Again lucky to park, but as there was only four of us we only had one car and one parking space to find, heading up to the war memorial, it looked crazy busy, there was barely a spare blade of grass to sit on.
Finding a few spare blades we spread out the picnic rug, sat down opened the wine and nibbles and watched the light change as the sun went down, the sky turned a beautiful tinge of pink, orange and
red as the city lights came up and twinkled in the distance.
It was a very pleasant evening and I made a promise to myself that we would do this again, but hopefully not wait to have visitors next time.
That night we made a plan for the morning, I think we all fell into bed pretty early that night.
KJ
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