Family arrives…

Wednesday was a beautiful day. It was sunny and besides work the day was promising. I spent some fun hours with Jase and then made my way to the airport around midnight. There I waited another hour and then they finally came – Sylli and my mum. It had been months since I have seen the two and it was so good to see them. After we packed their belongings in my car, we were off “home” and made an attempt to sleep in one king size bed. Knowing my sister that wasn’t going to be easy and after a while I most certainly found myself without a blanket and without any means of recouping a piece of it since the blanket hugger had done her best to roll herself up in it.

Slightly frozen I awoke the next morning and made sure I was at work on time just to take off again after my client meeting and have breakfast with mum and Sylke. The weather was shite and so I decided to drop them off at Hillary’s harbour so they could visit the aquarium and go shopping. It was pouring rain all day and at around 4pm they had had enough and texted the taxi service for pickup. So I took off and brought them home, frozen solid but safe. After a quick warm up we were off to Coco’s restaurant on the Esplanade. The restaurant had some great reviews and the views of downtown Perth were spectacular. Food was excellent too although the place was heaving with people and the cocktails were terrible (they had no alcohol as far as I could tell and the Red Corvette was more like a strawberry sorbet) My sister and I had fish while my mum had a really nice soft steak. After so much food we were too tired to do anything else and went home (with me taking off to sleep in a different arrangement to forego the blanket stealing)

The next day was nicer so, I gave them my guidebook and instructions for a city walk. That kept them occupied most of the day and around 5:30 we met back up at home. In view of mum’s bday we went opal shopping and found her some nice black opal necklace. She was rather timid in saying what she wanted but stood in front of the necklace for such a long time that it was obvious she liked it. (price didnt matter at that stage) After all that we felt like spending even more. Funny enough, there was a to us rather well known restaurant in Perth just on Hay Street. The chain of restaurants closed all its Texas locations, for whatever reason, but they are the best ribs in the world. Yes, I am talking Tony Roma’s. It didn’t take long for us to decide. Of course, we ordered an onion loaf as starters though the bbq mayo was so minging that we had to get some original bbq sauce instead. The ribs were just as good as in Dallas. Baby backs and St Louis style did us rather well. It was also a good basis to meet for a few drinks later, so we went to the Vic in Subi and met up with Rutchi, Jenna and a couple of guys. My guy was there too which made me very happy. He was rather jolly too and had brought his friends Eileen and Alex who are awesome. As it got later and later more and more people went home, so did mum and sis. I stuck around and in the end it was just Eileen, Alex, Jase and me left and besides trying to not get kicked out of the Vic for apparent misbehaviour we had an absolute blast.

The next day, Sylke and mum took off to Ayers Rock. Before that though, we had brekkie in Freo, drove up the coast along the beaches and then I dropped them off the airport before going to the cricket club for the AFL final.

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The last weekend…

Time flies to fast, I have always known it and my time here in Perth just proved it once again. It was my last weekend and what better way to spend it than with friends. The weekend started off with Director’s drinks in Subi. As there were quite a few people in the office the turnout was actually really good and the beer diminished at a rather fast pace. Result was that once only Cascade (don’t try) was left in the fridge two or three handfull of us moved on to the Vic down the road from the office in Subi and after we had exhausted our welcome there, we went to the Bar at the Subiaco Hotel. Of course, that also shut at some point and our search for more drinks resulted in … nothing, though we did have a good kebab. Deja vu!

As noone wanted to serve us, we ended up at Rutchi’s new place in Subiaco. She is sharing with two housies who are awesome and the house is also quite cute – except the, I believe it is a, goldfish in a rather murky tank. It is alive though, I saw it move. Around 3am I was done and all I wanted was my bed, so Jenna and I took a cab home.

The next morning I was up early to take a walk to work, as my driving skills were rather impaired the night before and I had left the car in Subi.  Couple of hours work and a pizza later, I was back home getting ready to paint the town red yet again. Beforehand though we met up at Rutchi’s for some authentic Indian food. Rutchi is an awesome cook. The food was excellent and the company too. As there were several parties going on, we started our night out at some house party in Subi of some people that had invited everyone that had previously interviewed for a room. Rutchi didn’t take the room and now I know why. When we got there, everyone was sitting in a circle in the backyard and it was a little weird. Very hippie-style. The people were the most colourful mix I had ever seen - all ages and backgrounds. After an hour, we decided to move on. Since Lisa had her moving in party, we went there. There were heaps of people from the office and it was a really good turn out. Jordan’s “home made” mince pies were also great. (really though, he should have hidden the package) From Lisa’s we all went on to Northbridge to go to the Shed. Now the Shed is more like a meat market, pretty similar to the Sherlocks and Carlton’s of this world. After the Shed it was Mustang and then the Library. In Mustang we danced quite a bit, in the Library Jason and I had some very lengthy and interesting conversations about life, traveling and how life is too short to not enjoy it. I got to say, he is really one of the niecest guys I have met. As we were also the last ones left at the end, we waited for a cab in the pouring rain for at least half an hour. I believe when I finally closed my eyes it was already sunlight outside.

Sunday came around and there was one other thing on my list that I had not done so far. It’s a very Aussie thing and really only something you can do here… I had to watch an Aussie footie match. As it was the WAFL final, I had of course already bought tickets and had the whole thing planned out. The girls met at Rutchi’s to finish off any leftovers and then made our way to the Subi Oval, stopping at a local gelateria for some icecream. The match was in full swing as we arrived and the atmosphere was great. I do not get the rules though. There was a lot of pushing and running and kicking involved. Aussie footie is a very fast paced game and the guys that play it are quite fit. In the WAFL final it was Subiaco FC versus the Swan District. Of course we were rooting for Subi and…. of course Subi won with 148 to 91 or something like that. It had gotten quite cold in the meantime and so we stopped off for some coffee on the way back.

Sunday went as quick as it came and I am becoming quite sad to leave this place behind.

Rotto #3 – the morning after

yes… we felt old the next morning. Rather weak we woke up to make it out of our house by 9ish. We dropped off the bags at the lockers by the ferry terminal and went to get some breakfast. As there were random rain showers coming down and the birds had already spotted us again as well, we found a table inside a little cafe. As an added bonus this also helped us escape any meetings with the Wests. Jenna had “found” a rugby ball the night before. Though she swears it was lying on the road, I am pretty sure it was rather close to one of the rugby players’ houses. That besides other things was a good reason not to cross paths. Once the Wests had walked to their ferry and we had finished our brekkie, we came out of hiding. First, I had to rummage through my bag to find the key to the bike locks. As I had in the process of stuffing my bag into the locker jammed the locker door, this was a rather tiring experience. The locker door would not budge to pushes nor kicks – which I was advised to dish out by the lady in the tourist information. It stayed jammed. The same lady tried a rather odd looking tool to unlock the thing as well. We figured out that even 3 meters of plastic do not open a locker. After several attempts to unlock the door using our code it finally gave up its resistance and I could retrieve the key.

Next we made a rather sorry attempt to ride our bikes for a while but gave up after about two kilometers and decided to turn back to find a quiet place to lay down. We also changed to an earlier ferry to get home at a decent time as we were not feeling like being too active and some of us were somewhat ridden by guilty conscience.

The 2:30pm ferry came, we got on, went right back to sleep and found ourselves back in Freo. I was so tired I could not even feel sea sick – well, Trevlyn’s Kwells probably helped quite a bit too. From Freo it was just a short train ride to Subi, a walk to the office and as we were starving, we also stopped by Lannah Thai in Subi for some yummy Thai food. The rest of the evening was spent vegging.

Seriously though, Rotto was a good laugh, I had too much fun and it was actually pretty cool hanging with the Subi Wests boys. I’m a fan.

Rotto #2 – wet and windy

The next morning after we had woken from a good night sleep, the first decision was of course a good brekkie. The breakfast was great until we found ourselves in one of the scenes of the movie “birds” as sea gulls started attacking our bacon and bread. A couple of attempts were sufficient for us to leave. As the best way to get around the island was by bike, our next stop was the Rotto bike hire. Since Trevlyn wasn’t a bike rider, we rented only three. Believe me, we tried to convince her but apparently our arguments weren’t good enough to make her believe that we could in fact teach her to ride a bike. In hindsight, that may have been a smart decision by her – it could have gone really well or really wrong. After a stop at the local general store to buy some food, tea and chocolate, Jenna, Rutchi and I were off for a ride around the island.

During the bike tour we found some pretty nice beaches and also the Bathurst light house were a lady in pink decided to have her wedding – with her husband of course. It didn’t look like much fun as the wind was blowing and she looked like she broke out of a Disney cartoon. The wind was so hard that it at times made it impossible getting up the Rotto hills on bike. We passed Pinky Beach, Geordy Bay and plenty of other bays. At Rocky Bay we met up with Trevlyn who decided to take a bus around the island, or should I say the bus as I am pretty sure there is only one. As the bus was running only hourly, the beach sounded like a great idea. Yet dark clouds were looming in the background. Said clouds also decided to move in and we got completely soaked. And here I was thinking I would finally get to go snorkeling. I’ll have to wait a little longer for that, did get my feet wet though and I have to say – it was freezing cold. As Trevlyn was getting back on the bus the rest of us did not feel like biking back either, especially as more clouds were appearing at the horizon. Thanks to Trevlyn who had made friends with the bus driver earlier, we were allowed to take our bikes on the bus – something that generally is not allowed. High and dry we enjoyed our ride back to the Settlement.

Back at home and after some hot tea and showers, we started our first (and probably only) Aussie barbie. I am not sure if I am allowed to call it an Aussie barbie considering there were no Aussies around. The food was of course excellent and I showed off my German barbie skills. Before, during and after the bbq we got ready for a night out in the settlement. Beforehand through, we opened a bottle of bubbly as we had something to celebrate.

Since we couldn’t quite finish the bottle so quickly it accompanied us half way to the same bar as last night. An empty bottle, a tree climb and a swing around a street light later we were at said bar ready to party. So were plenty of other people. During the evening at the bar we met way too many guys including some of the Wests Subiaco rugby team. Go Wests! The 21st birthday was also going on. We had heaps of fun with both groups of guys. *here goes as you might have guessed another censored section* It was a rather fun night out and pretty dead we ended back at our place sometime during the early morning hours.

Rotto Night #1 – watch out – the old people arrived

After a hard weeks work, Rutchi, Jenna, Trevlyn and I had planned to take off early Friday to catch the last ferry to Rottnest. For that we first had to get to Freo though. As I was sitting waiting in the office waiting lounge for Jenna and Rutchi, my lovely coworkers decided to tell me about Pinky beach – a must see in Freo. Knowing not to believe a word these guys say, I crossed Pinky beach off my list of things to do while in Australia.

Once the two girls came round the corner we were off to Subi station to meet Trevlyn. We just about made our train with a good effort in running stairs with heavy bags without losing anything. On the train we were filled in by the locals on where the ferry terminal was and what a ride we were in for. Thinking that nothing can touch us, we first went to the E Shed Markets to have a bite to eat. E Shed Markets reminded us rather much of Blackpool – cheesy and cheap. There was a guy playing a keyboard and I was beginning to wonder if the musicians actually had to pay to be allowed to play in such classy establishment. Rutchi and I found out about half an hour later that sweet crepes and big waves do not go very well together. It was a heck of a bumpy ride and we made good use of the paper bags that were handed around on board. Trevlyn and Jenna did not feel like joining our pain.

On the other side we left our bags in the hands of the capable baggage handlers and made our way to our little hut, unti 503 of the Bathurst in the Settlement on Rottnest, or Rotto as called by the Aussies. Rotto is just off the coast of Freo and is something like an island getaway from the big island. From what I was told, it’s the party place. Of course, it was somewhere on top of our list of things to do. Our coworkers had told us though that September should be better to go because the weather will have improved. Little did we know that September 08 was actually going to be one of the wettest Septembers in Western Australia.

After our bags finally made it to our unit about an hour later, we went off to find something to eat and drink. During our walk we saw our first quokkas – rat like maruspials – thus Rottnest or Rat’s nest. Trevlyn and I thought they were rather cute while Jenna and Rutchi were over the quokkas after about 5 of them had crossed our way. I was also scouting out trees – Rottnest has some awesome trees to climb in.

The only place that seemed to be open on the island was the Waterside. We ordered our food and finally some beer and decided to sit on the patio. The wind was pounding the patio walls – some plastic sheets. We were people watching and apparently too close because while we were watching one skinny girl trying to attempt to move a heavy wooden bench her guy friend (I wont make assumptions here) decided to tell us “you were young once too”. Angrily we ordered another round to drown our sorrow of old age. Once the kids had moved, we decided to take over their table which was closer to one of the patio heaters. The bouncer – who by the way also did not feel the need to check our ID (that’s what public accounting does to you!)  – did not want to move the heater to our nice round table. So we occupied a longer one with more space. That meant that it was relatively easy for others to join us. One girl – called Caramel or something like that – came over rather quickly and joined us. She must have been 16. She also called over her friend Matt who then called over his friend Beverly and soon we were surrounded by youngsters. *here goes a censored section*

After Matt and Beverly had buggered off, we were joined by some other rather cute guys who were closer to our age (thank god!) They invited us to a 21st birthday party the next night for their brother. *there be another censored section*

After we had had enough for the night as we were rather tired and felt really old, we went back to our little house and made our way to bed.

Sunday Sesh

Sunday we had a bit of Aussie culture. Beforehand though, Trevlyn and I went shopping in Freo in a couple of surf shops. Jenna, Rutchi, a KPMG expat from Houston and another one from the UK with her cousin from Kenia joined us for mussels at Sandrino’s. The chilli mussels were awesome, so were the garlic prawns. All accompanied by a beer and good company made this a perfect lunch.

Afterwards, our next and actually final stop was Little Creatures for Sunday Sesh. It’s a pretty easy concept. Find a bar or in our case, a brewery, pick a sunny spot around 2 or 3pm in the afternoon and stay until you are ready to fall asleep. And that’s exactly what we did. Since Jenna sent out an email the week before to the whole of audit, some decided to show up which was great. So did Rutchi’s roomie Jason. When we got too cold (and it was freezing by the time the sun went down) we moved to the Lounge next door. Around 8pm even the last crusaders (guess who that was) were ready to go and so we walked to the train station just to find out that the trains had been replaced by buses. We waited around in the cold for another 20 minutes and finally caught the bus back home.

Paper daisies, kangaroo paws and Scottish thistles

I am sad to say that I am in fact getting very used to Perth and now that I am settled in, it is almost time to leave again. Of course it helps when you find it easy to settle in and the Perthites have certainly done their part to make this even easier. Today I got up and once again made my way down to Freo to read my book in one of their quirky little cafes. By the time I was done with my book the stores had opened and I finally bought some new boots and a couple of souvenirs which I will be shipping across the big pond pretty soon.

Today we decided to be rather lazy and as the day promised to be sunny and warm, Rutchi, Jenna, Trevlyn and I met up in Kings Park for a light picnic around lunchtime. Kings Park is about 1000 acres of bushland, grassy bits, lakes and botanical gardens with some sporadically strewn barbie pits and memorials. All the barbie pits were taken and it appeared all of Perth had gathered in Kings Park. We planted ourselves in front of the war , munched our lunch and lazed around in the sun for about an hour. After that we went for a little walk in the botanical gardens and Trevlyn finally saw her wild flowers. They were very pretty, especially the kangaroo paws and paper daisies. We strolled along taking pictures, making plans and enjoying the awesome weather and views of the city center. On the way we passed one grassy bit where there was a trio playing classical music. Tres Classique! We decided to stick around and listen to excerpts of the Phantom of the Opera, Wizard of Oz and several other musical master pieces. A perfect way to spend an afternoon.

Since we had arranged dinner with Lisa from work around 5:30pm at the best Indian restaurant in Perth, we slowly made our way there – walking. It was quite a walk but totally worth it. The food at 2 Fat Indians was excellent and plentyful even though the service was lacking a little bit. I had a very nice lamb rogan josh with rice and palak paneer. By the time we were done we had gotten so sleepy that we had a coffee next door, then dropped Trevlyn off home since the Indian food didn’t sit too well with her. The rest of us was off to Rosie O’Grady’s shortly after to watch some good old European footie.

Scotland was playing Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier and Jenna, Lisa and Lisa’s boyfriend Jordan were quite keen on going to see their team (Scotland that is) beat the s*** of out the Macedonians. The pub was packed with Scotsmen including some from work who were loudly egging on their team and some very cute guys in skirts … ah, I mean kilts. The Scottish footie chants include quite a bit of swearing, so I got my fix of f bombs and other niceties for the next few weeks. The usage of coarse language increased massively after Macedonia scored – in the 5th minute. After that not much happened, a few fouls but nothing major. The game overall was rather dull but I was amazed at the spirit of the Scottish. I actually wanted them to win. And they did have some good chances but did not know what to do with the ball once they were in front of the Macedonian goal, so unfortunately, they didn’t win and the game ended with the 1:0 for the Macedonians. Shame! Germany on the other hand beat Liechtenstein as expected. Go Joachim Loew, Poldi and crew! 6:0

and they still love me…

Addendum

One might have guessed that the weekend adventures would bring a certain amount of consequences. For one thing we all felt pretty bad and as you age you can’t just brush these hangovers aside as easily. Unfortunately age does not appear to equal wisdom. Besides that I hereby amend my earlier post from the weekend. We did in fact receive complaints, through our realtor, who heard from the landlord, who heard from a tenant and so the story goes. Apparently we had the wildest party till 4am and the music was loud, things got smashed and cars broken into. As we left at 11:30pm the first point is completely mute. As to number 2, music was playing out of a laptop. How loud could it possibly have been, considering also that we were completely incapable of attaching the tv speakers to said laptop. To 3 and 4 I can just say, it wasn’t us. Since one of our cars got broken into I do believe we have a pretty good case. All our guests were either accountants or geologists – not your most likely crowd to be sifting through cars for some pocket change. I was somewhat worried that I may have broken into something as I woke up with scratches on my arm but after examining the paparazzi evidence I apparently tried to climb a tree at some stage during the early morning hours. Technology has certainly come too far and I just hope I never run for president because these photographs may just miraculously reappear.

By about midweek everyone was back on their usual accounting high. We put in quite some hours as deadlines are looming and the Subi office most certainly has more than their fair share of public clients. It seems to be a trend for any size mining company to go public to raise money. The realization that this entails a whole lot more work comes usually later. I did take a little bit of time one evening though to position myself across the Swan River from downtown Perth and take some awesome pictures.

Downtown Perth from Millpoint

Perth isn’t called the City of Light for no reason. In 1962, on February 20 to be exact, austronaut John Glenn passed over Australia in the Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft to become the first American to orbit Earth. The Perth people decided to greet Mr. Glenn by switching on the lights. He apparently saw it, which I do not doubt for a minute, considering Perth is one of the most isolated cities on Earth - a spot of light in pitchblack darkness.