Back east and online!

For starters, here's my apology for such a long gap in the blog! We arrived back from 10 days in Western Australia late last night and we are now back online....rather than update you in one mammoth post, I thought I'd do several, so hopefully you'll hear from us slightly more regularly over the next week!

 

Tony and Lesley (who loaned us their lovely Brisbane pad) had warned us from the beginning that they had guests coming to stay for 10 days in mid-October. It seemed silly to pay for accommodation and stay in Brisbane, when we could see a bit more of Australia, and Perth was an obvious choice as we have Uni friends living there and neither of us has ever made it to WA! So flights booked, off we went....by way of, er, Brisbane!

 

Well, the guests were arriving Monday, but it was far cheaper to fly on the Tuesday, so we booked a room on the other side of town, close to Roma St Parkland, which Crack loves! Good job we ended up hanging around on Monday as Pie discovered on the Sunday night that his laptop wasn't charging and he desperately needed it fixed before we left! Luckily Pie found the aptly named Geeks To You (no really!!), and they came to the hotel and fixed it on the spot! So for just $207, they saved the day (and Crack is no long allowed to practise his typing on daddy's laptop!).

So we went to the park in the early evening (after nap time!), and shared a dimsum dinner before trying to get some sleep....unfortunately, despite having emailed to request a quiet room, we were next to the lifts, so although the boys slept, I was a little short of shut eye by morning! But the staff were nice and gave Crack a stuffed monkey when we checked in (I'd happily have wrestled it off him and traded it in for a quieter room, but oh well!)

The next morning we made the flight with lots of time to spare, which gave Crack plenty of time to spot airplanes! It was a full flight and not short (5 hours!) but he was well behaved and we arrived and took a taxi to our cheap, but dark aparthotel. We mainly pottered that afternoon, picking up the hire car (which Crack referred to as Daddy's new car, for the whole trip!) and arranging to hire a baby backpack for the duration as well! Got slightly confused at one point when we appeared to be in Ireland....

I've always wondered what my mum did in her spare time......now I know! She clearly makes a great Sausage roll!

Dinner in an award winning Vietnamese restaurant, which had us all a little on edge as it was quite posh and Crack was starting to show signs of jet lag! It may only be a two hour difference between Perth and Brisbane, but it certainly shows at baby bedtime! There was a benefit to the time difference though, as we were in the same time zone as Mum and Dad in China, so we got a couple of quick Skype calls in before we left the land of wifi! (And an added benefit now we're back and sleeping late with the time change!)

Next morning we got in the car to collect the baby backpack, switched on the sat nav which we'd brought with us from Brisbane, then laughed our asses off for several minutes whilst it hunted for a satellite in the right time zone!

Once the errands were done, we headed to King's Park as we were told by so many folk that it had to be done! Well, they were all right! What an amazing park - very big 400 odd hectares, and with lots of native bush land, canopy walks, playgrounds, statues, botanic gardens etc etc etc. I could easily have spent a week getting to know it, so a few hours just wasn't enough....but we made the most of it!

 

I'll let Crack tell you about the playground. I'll just say that I could have pushed him on that swing for hours (normally I hate pushing him on the swing, too boring!), but you rarely get a view like this:

Beautiful bush, filled with birds!

We also went on the canopy walk, which is really well designed, beautiful, lovely views!

As you can see, the park is really close to the city (left) just on a bend of the Swan River.

Yup, that's me pushing Crack in the pushchair! That is what I mean by well designed! Very accessible despite being in the treetops!

Swan River Brewery in the foreground, Perth back left.

Back on the ground we headed uphill, through the botanic garden, and past the particularly striking Kangaroo Paw plant, before reaching the DNA Tower.

Crack cried a lot on the way up, but it was the first time in his hired backpack, so maybe he didn't feel very safe - I know I didn't!

At the top....shame about that big tree blocking the view of the city! Good job it's part of the Botanic Garden or they'd probably cut it down so the tourists can get better photos!

On the way back to the car we found a very friendly Australian Magpie......

And a lamppost that must have got cold at some point?! In any case, it was wearing a knitted jacket!

That evening we met our friends from St Andrews, Jon and Jen and their lovely daughters L and K, at their place, just south of the river. We strolled to a local burger restaurant and had a great night, catching up but also menu-planning for our weekend excursion to that famous wine region, Margaret River!.....but more of that later!

Thursday we got up early, not just because of the time change!, and headed south to Penguin Island. As a kid I saw the Little Penguins coming home to their burrows at Philip Island south of Melbourne which was magic, but as we don't yet know if we'll have time to visit P.I., we decided to visit one of the few colonies in WA. We didn't see any wild ones, we were only there for a few hours in the middle of the day, and they spend the whole day out at sea fishing. But we did see lots of wildlife....but before we got on the boat there was time for a quick paddle!

Eventually, we made it to the boat and headed to the island.

There was a lot of bird life about...silver gulls and their chicks...

A breeding colony of Australian Pelicans (biggest pelicans in the world!)

A pair of nesting ospreys (look closely!)...

Little Pied Cormorant....

And on nearby Seal Island, a bachelor group of Australian Sea Lions.

Not to mention the stars of the show....the Little Penguins. These ones had all been rescued from various trauma, often fishing related...and weren't able enough to fend for themselves in the wild. They have perfected the art of posing though!

A great island to visit, Crack got a bit crabby, so we didn't stay as long as we'd have liked to, or manage a swim, but we saw a lot in a short space of time!

We headed back to Perth and wandered over to Chinatown for dinner, where Crack scoffed loads of honey sesame chicken. On the way we saw some statues of the Gumnut Babies who are quite famous amongst Aussie kids

 

Next stop.....Margaret River..... But that'll have to wait til next time....

 

Some like it hot....

And some like it a little cooler.......

We've had several days at 35 degrees or hotter! It's a little bit too much for us, although I think we're pretty much getting acclimatised to 30 degrees! Hotter in Sydney though...forecast for today is 39 degrees!

 

I've been trying to plan activities that have Crack and I inside during the heat of the day, which has been working out ok! We took another trip to the cinema (turns out Crack prefers racing planes to snails winning the Indy 500!), been to two more music groups and spent the coolest morning of the week at the shadiest playground! Another hot one forecast for tomorrow, so Pie might drive us to the nearest indoor play centre, as I am still too chicken to drive the enormous automatic car through city traffic!

 

We had a lovely day on Sunday, meeting up with our St Andrews friends Tom and Ali and their two little boys for a picnic and a very hot walk near Mt Coot-tha on Sunday. So great to see them, after 10 plus years and the boys had a great time! I forgot to take many pictures but here are the few I did take! First one is a baby Lace Monitor...the following ones are of some silly boys....I couldn't decide which pic I liked best, so I put them all in!

Tom and Ali gave us a few top tips for weekend countryside excursions, so when we get back from Perth, we'll be looking to get out of town and see some Highlands and Islands!

 

In others news, I finally gave Crack a much needed haircut....sorry to say he looks less like a surfer dude now....but I think I've done an ok job....before and after below, plus a few extra as he's such a poser at the moment:

Haircut, plus demonstration of just how much he loves sweet and sour chicken!

I had a much needed afternoon off yesterday, and treated myself to some new nails, a spot of shopping and some piece and quiet (with my kindle, some calamari, a Stella and a river view!). Felt much better afterwards, Crack, although great fun, is so tiring to be with at the moment, non-stop chatter and mischief! Of course by the time I got home, 4 hours later, I was missing him already!

 

He's been so cuddly recently, it's lovely. Now if I could just get him to stop kicking me!

Excitement today has been largely provided by the window cleaners! Good job they aren't scared of heights, it's a tall order round here!

 

We're off to Perth for 10 days on Tuesday, not sure whether we'll have wifi, so may not be able to post until we get back. Should be awesome though! We hope to meet some quokka maybe some dolphins, and visit Margaret River with virtual locals Jon and Jen, so will at least be drinking some lovely plonk with some good friends! Perth seems to be at least 10 degrees cooler than it is here and they even have some rain, so doubtless we'll soon be complaining that it is too cold......I'm starting to worry about coming home in December already!

Finally, a slightly random thing that got me thinking.....I walked past a bloke yesterday who was wearing a t-shirt that said "I wish I was nicer". Apart from the niggling grammatical error, what struck me was how this sentiment (which could/should be virtually universal) becomes a bit threatening when you put it on a t-shirt - it basically says, "I am not a very nice person".......note to self....must ponder my own t-shirt slogan choices more carefully in future!

 

Walking the streets

Well, Crack and I continue to walk the streets in search of new playgrounds and Op Shops (charity shops - want to get C a few toys cheaply!).

We've found a cracker of a playground at New Farm Park, which is downstream and across the river from us. If it's not too hot, there's a lovely riverside path that takes you nearly all the way there, but when it's too hot to be out in the sun for that long we can take the fast ferry -the CityCat

They are much much faster than the free red ferries that we normally take (this is the one that Pie takes to work), and Crack absolutely adored his rides on the "big boat"!

He especially loved it when he realised that the captain was in the bridge up behind us and happy to wave back whenever he did!

Just realised it looks as if I've chopped off my hair in these photos - I haven't, the boats just go really fast!

New Farm area is a really nice leafy suburb, lots of traditional Queenslander homes (must remember to take a photo), some gorgeous tree-lined streets, and one or two posh houses!

The view looking back towards the city across Kangaroo Point from the ferry dock isn't bad either!

Our building is the left of the two identical cream and blue buildings. You can see Story Bridge in the right corner and the tallest buildings are in the Central Business District across the river from Kangaroo Point.

New Farm Park is so called as it was the New Farm set up to grow the crops needed to feed the convicts at Moreton Bay Penal Settlement (as Brisbane was then!). Then it was used for horse racing and now is filled with rose gardens, open lawns and awesome playgrounds, with the skyscrapers peeking over the trees in the distance!

The main bit if the playground is built in and around some huge Moreton Bay Fig Trees with their amazing aerial roots! One of the best playgrounds ever (mainly cos it is big and there's a lot of wobbly bridges, so I have to go with Crack!), we've been several days in a row and might even go back again this afternoon to show Pie/Daddy.

We also found the oz version of man with a van for hire:

Found an amazing "do it yourself dog wash" outside the RSPCA Op Shop:

And finally, 3 phone shops later located both a phone charger for our borrowed oz phone and this brilliant example of Aussie attention to detail and exemplary customer service!

Also discovered what happens to your feet if you walk miles in a city in your flip flops! Gross!

It's been pretty chilly today compared to normal (24 degrees rather than 30). Pie says its because it is cloudy:

Off to the meeting room this evening for be Friday night drinks and nibbles with our neighbours......we've not met many of them yet and we thought I might be good for them to see how cute C is, not just to hear how loud he is lol!