Just when you thought it would never happen...

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...I'm flying today! The Welsh wonder that is Julia Gillard (I'm sure she loves being reminded she's Welsh, not Australian) told me yesterday afternoon that the Qantas debacle was over for now and that my flight would be taking off as planned. OK, so she didn't quite announce to the world that my particular flight would be bound for Perth but she might as well have. Made up - Perth was always my destination of choice on this little adventure. I just decided to add a few stops, or make that countries, on the way there and back...

I'm up and about at 3am as my taxi is coming to get me at 5.30am (the taxi in question doesn't know it at the time but more on that subject later). Having cleaned the apartment yesterday, I still needed to give it a quick once over in the morning - mainly to change my bed and give the bathroom a polish, but more importantly because I malt more than any shaggy dog you will ever have met. By rights, I should be bald - I swear I lose more hair from my head every day than the average person loses in a lifetime. A quick inspection of the apartment backs up my argument - I hoovered everywhere yesterday afternoon yet by this morning, enough hair to make Elton John a lifetime of toupees has gathered on the lounge floor...

Back to my mention of taxis above...Singapore taxis are great. You phone one centralised number, and the automated service remembers the last place a taxi picked you up. You confirm that this is the address you wish to be collected from and the voice at the end of the phone tells you it will be 3-5 minutes until arrival. Worst case scenario it says 5-9 minutes. Total efficiency. I'm told it's 3-5 minutes for my taxi. Just enough time to lurch downstairs with the two-tonne suitcase...

The flight is 5 hours from Singapore to Perth and I'm at the airport in plenty of time to get some breakfast and have a quick nosey at the incredible shops there. I'm lulled into a false sense of security when I'm directed to the Premium Economy check in desk (wishful thinking of an upgrade), but the flight itself was pretty good. I was asleep the whole time...

Into Perth Airport and I get the warm rush of being somewhere familiar, and somewhere that I know I love. I sailed through immigration and then customs - safe in the knowledge that this time, I had no illegal items, ie packets of Schwarz Cheese Sauce powder, that I attempted to smuggle in last time. The Dutch guys next to me weren't so lucky - happily backpacking around the world, they were met at immigration by a former UK school teacher, who made it crystal clear that they needed to inform him of all their intended stops in Australia. For the next year. My immigration officer was laughing at how horrendously strict he was being until she had a panic that I too might be a school teacher and her mocking could end up offending little old passenger me. We laughed a lot - particularly when she saw on my immigration card that I was actually in a far more loathed profession - the dreaded HR Manager...

The reality of the strong Aussie dollar/weak English pound hits home quite quickly - everything seems so expensive compared to last time - so rather than grab a £25 taxi into the city, I opted for the £12 shuttle bus. The sun is blazing and it's got to be 30 degrees. The Dutch guys, freed from the tormented hell that was immigration, sit next to me laughing at their naive close shave with detention. As I look out the window I'm reminded why I love it here so much - aside from the sun, everyone's smiling, the parks are well kept and the city more like a small town than a sprawling urban mass.

I made it into town and to Lindsey's office. I worked with Lindsey for a couple of years at Towers Perrin and she's made Perth her home, so I'm very lucky to be staying with her for the next few weeks on and off. We head back to her beautiful house, and into nearby Northbridge for dinner. It's Melbourne Cup day so the pubs are packed. The first pub we went into, I had a strange sense of deja vu until I realised that I'd been to the same pub last time here but with different friends. I hadn't managed to correlate the location of Lindsey's house versus where I went out last time but it was like someone switched the light on! We go for pizza down the road, and I'm delighted to see a wine list. Thai beer has been lovely but I've missed my red wine! It didn't take me 5 minutes to polish off my half of the bottle as a result...

Tomorrow Lindsey's working so I'm off to check out old and new haunts. The weather is due to be even hotter although a storm is a-coming. Perth in spring - a few seasons in one day but it doesn't dampen the spirit. I feel like I'm properly on holiday now :-)

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