Leaving Perth A.S.A.P......finally

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Bonjour family, friends and curious strangers

Looks like my one week stop in the beautiful city of Perth, which stretched into two months, will soon be over. Yumi's visa problem is on the verge of being history so we are almost free to move again. The stay here was starting to bleed the travel funds pretty badly, but i managed to find work fairly easily when my diminishing bank account provided enough motivation. If anyone thinks the Albertan economy is flying high at the moment you need to check out Perth. Things are pretty wild here with China's expanding economy fueling a huge mining boom. Every industry is completely starved for labour. I am working two jobs at the moment. During the day I work for a furniture removal company. There's something I hadn't planned on doing in Australia. It sounds like difficult work but to be honest it's a damn cushy job. Lift a few couches and desks for an hour then sit in a truck for two hours. Money is great as well. I am also serving in a restaurant during the evenings. First time of ever tried the whole service industry thing but it's going alright. I'd never want to serve in a restaurant full time though. Especially here in Australia where tipping customers are less common than siamese twin customers.

The jobs are keeping me fairly busy but we still have time for a bit of travel on the weekends. Last Saturday Yumi and I took a trip up north to a crazy place called Namburg National Park. The big draw of the park are the pinnacles; a red sandy dessert with thousands of rock pillars climbing out of the ground. It was a pretty unique bit of site-seeing, but the arduous 3 hour drive both ways in 40 degree heat was damn near unbearable. A tire exploded on the way back as well but thankfully I am the master driving champion of the universe and there were no fatalities. The pinnacles were cool, but the absolute highlight of the trip was the radio. The number one insider travellers tip to Australia you will ever here is as follows... Whilst driving between the Nambung National Park and the small town of Gingin, be sure to tune the radio dial to FM 90.1. Here you will find a radio station which plays nothing but the audio from episodes of the old care bears cartoon. There's no better way to cap of an Aussie road trip than with Beastly's maniacal laugh.

Not much else to report. We also went to the zoo the other week but it wasn't anything spectacular. I did get to watch an elephant paint a picture which was interesting to say the least. Most of the exhibits were Australian animals which I've already seen in the wild anyways.

That's it this time around. The next blog will be in a few weeks; whenever we get to Adelaide i guess. Take it sleazy.

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Photos

Sleeping koala
Picture added to increase the cuteness factor

Comments

[Mel]

Opposite scenary
You're in a desert and I'm a snow-covered, forested town! Still planning on heading to Tasmania? Can't wait to head up to Lapland, near the arctic circle! Take care!

[aunt k]

hmmm...40 degrees eh?
Yeah. well I hope that wasn't a complaint about the heat. You'll get very little sympathy from us folks back home. About the blown tire, definitely sympathy and admiration for your masterful driving. Simon mentioned the lack of tipping in restaurants in Aussieland, but he said the wage for waiting tables is considerably better than here. At least that way you have a pretty good idea how much you'llend up with. Take care. We're enjoying the blogs.