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Published: December 18th 2006
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HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE FROM SUNNY PERTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's been a fun twelve days here so far catching up with new friends and old friends. It really is a beautiful part of the world out here. There is so much space! The beaches go on for miles, the sky is brilliant blue, and the sea is turquoise. Absolutely baking hot here though, Hotter than anywhere I've so far been. It was 40 degrees in the shade at the cricket yesterday - 50 degrees on the pitch! Lots of very sun-burnt poms staggering around looking very sweaty!! I'm aiming to join my remaining freckles together over the next few weeks!
Let's get the depressing bit out of the way first - the cricket. We are getting hammered out here! My dad and I went from joyous optimism on day one(Australia all out 244; Monty awesome) , to despondency on day two (England all out 215; dire batting display), to humiliation on day three (Australia 500+; Gilchrist extracting the urine), to believing in miracles on day four (England 265 for 5; Cook and Bell brill), to crying into our stubbies on day five (England all out for 350; Warne cock-a-hoop). It was a
great experience to be there though - after seeing the WACA ground so often on telly over the years, to actually witness an Ashes match with my dad will be something I'll always remember. I know people don't read this blog to get a sports report, so all I'll say is that Australia were just too good and wanted it more than us. Maybe Monty should've played earlier, and Jones should be replaced by Read, but I don't think it would have made that much difference to the scoreline. The Aussies just have an awesome team.
One of the best things about being at the WACA was sitting with the Barmy Army England supporters. They are completely bonkers. It was great sitting near the organisor, Jimmy "One Song", singing "WE ARE THE ENGLAND! THE MIGHTY MIGHTY ENGLAND!" accompanied by a trumpeter! We were also told to upstanding for the Australian national anthem - "God Save YOUR Queen"! There were flags and banners everywhere - the poms really made it a great atmosphere inside the ground. They seemed to have a song for every player, including singing "Monty Panesar" to the tune of Hawaii-Five-O. The best one though was to
the aging aussie pace-man Glenn McGrath "There's only one Glenn McGrath, There's only one Glenn McGrath, With a pension book and a zimmer-frame, Glenn McGrath has pissed himself again!" Cruel but funny!
Anyway that's enough cricket for now - I have done other things in Perth too! My first weekend was spent in the fine company of Lynley and Rick, my good friend Marnie's folks who live near Fremantle. They took me to a few of the sights over the weekend, including lunch by the Swan river (amazing fish and chips!), a few beers in Little Creatures brewery in Fremantle (aka Freo!), a trip to Applecross (where Marnie's brother Dean got married), a walk around Kings Park, and an amazing Italian restaurant (my pasta came with gigantic king prawns!). It was a really great weekend. They have a lovely house 5 minutes from Fremantle, and two lovely golden retrievers -Toby and Tessa. Lynley also showed me some great photos of Marnie in her younger days - don't you just love it when mums do that?! Sorry Lynley - I shouldn't be telling tales!!
I also met up with Camille and Tim - some old friends from England. Camille
came and picked me up from my hostel on Monday with her daughter Liberty - who is now 5 and very different from the little toddler I last saw around 3 years ago! It was lovely to see Camille again. She and Tim immigrated to Australia nearly 2 years ago - he now works for The Water Corporation in Perth and she has started up her own company selling (amongst other things) pashminas, scarves and jewellery. It's great to see them all so happy and enjoying life out here. Camille is doing really well and is setting up her own website soon - I've promised her a big plug on this blog - the things she is selling are beautiful and I don't mind giving her a free advert here!
We took the kids to Cottesloe beach, which is absolutely perfect with golden sand and crashing waves to dive into to cool down. The kids, Hugo, Flavia and Liberty are fantastic and it was great to see them all again - they really are fun kids. We had a lovely lunch in the Indiana Teahouse on the beachfront, and then Camille kindly came with me to pick up my
dad from Perth airport.
It was great to see my dad again after over 3 months. Typical Doogans - we had verbal diarrhea for the first few hours! We had a fun first day - another trip to Cottersloe beach, a few beers in the Ocean Beach Hotel, and then a trip to North Fremantle to meet up with Tim and Cam and watch the English RICS take on the Western Australian RICS in a game of cricket on a lovely ground by the Swan River! It's a small world though - who should be part of the English team but my old cricket team-mate from Grosvenor, Will Bax! Good to see him - and good to hear the English RICS had not lost a game during their tour of WA! At least one cricket team know how not to lose!!!
I had a night of high drama that night though when we got back - I woke up in the middle of the night in my hostel to find a someone rummaging around in my rucksack! Once I realised it wasn't my dad, I shouted "OI!!" and he made a bolt for the door. I chased after
him out of my room, down the corridor, past the hostel reception and into the street, and gave chase for another 500 metres down the street. It then dawned on me that I had been chasing this guy with no cloths on!!!!! I looked down at my feet and they had been cut to ribbons from me running in the middle of the road!! I was so determined to catch the bugger it didn't occur to me I was stark naked! Reason suddenly returned to my half-asleep brain and I scarpered back to the hostel. My dad was waiting at the hotel gate to protect my modesty - luckily I didn't see anyone else on the street! "Are you bloody mad!?" he said. "I nearly caught him" I said, but then it dawned on me that if I even if I did catch him, what would I have done?! I must have scared the guy to death chasing him down the street starkers - it was purely instinctive though - I just wanted my ipod back! The thief had somehow got into the hostel, and dad had forgotten to double lock our room door. Just one of those things but
very annoying. My Ipod and my specs had been stolen - it could have been a lot worse - I had my camera and wallet on the bedside table that remained untouched. All covered on insurance so no worries though.
So Perth has basically been a lot of drinking, eating and cricket watching. Dad and I had another nice meal (Vietnamese) out with Lynley and Rick one evening, and we had a nice Greek meal out another night with dad's friends Chris, Winnie and their son James who are over for the cricket also. I had another trip to Little Creatures brewery (a converted crocodile farm - great place and easy to see why Dean thinks its the best beer in Perth!) with Lynley, Rick, Chris, Win, and some friends of Deans from Tokyo, Akiko and Makaka, and lats night's culinary delight was a barbie at Cam and Tims place in Dalkeith (the posh side of Perth apparently!).
Me and Dad are off to Rottnest Island (or Rotto as they call it here) from some cycling and some snorkelling tomorrow, then it's off to Melbourne on 20th Dec for Christmas and the test match starting Boxing Day. Hopefully
England can salvage some pride there!
Looking forward to seeing my friends Erica and Fraser who now live in Melbourne, as well as Alexy and Vince who are having Christmas dinner with us. I'm also meeting my old mate from Grosvenor, Sylvia - she's off to India and Nepal so we'll be exchanging lots of stories I'm sure!
Have a fantastic Christmas everyone - think of poor me having to survive 40 degree heat waves here in Australia won't you?!
Take care and bye for now.
Sean
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Melony Hutchinson
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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
MERRY CHRISTMAS DOOG! How does it feel to be upside down!? Love from the Hutchinsons xxxxx