Watching the Avon Descent Hunks and Swan Lake.

Summer Diary – Week six

Friday August 2^nd

We’re back at Chaos Castle.

We did a mini bike ride this morning out to the bit of the coast we hadn’t done because on our last cycle we rode straight back to Thompson Bay from Wadjemup Lighthouse. We had a closer look at two of the Osprey’s nests that were pointed out to us yesterday. They are shaped like mini volcanos and the Ospreys have quite sensibly built them on small rocky island outcrops to avoid humans getting close to them. They are protected out here, like they are at home, but some people are just stupid about wildlife.

The benefit of a Friday crossing back to Freo meant that the market was open again. So we had a wander round again. We shopped at a bit more of a leisurely pace than when we had Bella with us, this was mainly owing to the fact we had our bloody wheelie suitcases with us. Sadly they looked a bit like Granny Shopping baskets on wheels!  We bought some freshly made fettuccine from the pasta shop as I was planning a prawny pasta concoction for tea. I had already arranged this with Suze before we left Rotto. We had to walk down to Seaways for the prawns, which turned out to be further than I had thought. I was able to point out a huge palatial building on the way which was a notorious brothel. Mum asked how I knew about it, so I told her I had worked there on my Gap Year. She believed me for about 5 seconds until I started to giggle. There was then the ubiquitous question, “Why do you say such outrageous things, Vicki?”

I didn’t have to answer as a bus heading back to Rockingham pulled up right outside Seaways as we stood there, so on the spur of the moment we caught that. We didn’t really fancy pulling our suitcases all the way back into town to get the train.

In Rockingham we got a taxi from the bus station to Suze’s. Pete was home, which was a change. He told us we ought to have called him and he’d have come and fetched us, so I said I had failed my bloody telepathy exam! Sometimes he can be an idiot, my brother-in-law! More outrageous comments from the sassy pom?

The kids were pleased to see us, I think, when they got in from school. Annabelle came and hugged me, like she usually does. Even Jeff wasn’t above having his hair ruffled and a quick peck on the cheek from his lesbian auntie – I think I may just win him over by the time we go back.

Our next jaunt is a River Trip, up the Swan River some day next week. Before that we are meeting Heidi for lunch in Freo on Monday and there is talk of us going to the cinema tomorrow night. Plus there's my talk at RSHS! Should be good.

I Skyped Laura quite late in the evening to allow for the time difference and we had a good cry at each other. I do miss her, but not as much as I thought I would. I suppose I am doing too much stuff to even think about back home. Naturally I didn’t tell her this, it would make her even more miserable – if that was possible.

Dad sent an e-mail telling me that Callie had found out how to open the fridge and had stolen a whole cooked chicken! I told him she wouldn’t do that, but he claims to have found chicken remains in her basket in my bedroom, so she is a convicted felon. They have had to buy a child catch-thing for the fridge door. I bet it is one of Dad’s three that have done it and has framed Callie by putting the evidence in her bed! 

My fettuccine prawny dish was a wow. I made a white sauce with added wine, which was one of my better efforts. I tend to overdo the wine, which can seriously bugger up your sauce. The girls had made a cake for dessert which was really light and very tasty. Their chocolate buttercream icing was scrumptious.

Jeff has an AFL match tomorrow at about lunchtime, so we are all going to troop along to that and give him moral support. The teams play in order of age, so the youngest – Jeff’s age group – play first and then it works its way up to the seniors who play last.

We probably won’t stop for the senior game. I imagine.

Saturday August 3^rd.

Back to the swimming routine this morning. I was quite looking forward to it but Mum said she was pooped! She did come with us though. We spent a lot more time in the Jacuzzi this morning, than we usually do.

We didn’t stop for any of the games after the one my sporty nephew was playing in, the reason? Jeff dislocated his shoulder at the football match and had to go to hospital to get it sorted. Luckily the footie ground is in Freo so the hospital was just a stone’s throw away.  We didn’t know it was dislocated at the time, Suze thought he might have broken something especially from the way he described the pain and winced when she tried to touch him. The X-ray revealed nothing broken but they had already diagnosed a dislocation, the correction of which caused poor Jeff to scream. The x-ray was merely a precaution. I didn’t witness any of this, it was all reported back by Suze when they got home. Mum, the girls and I went straight home in their van, Suze had come to the game in her car as she was on mornings. So she went from one hospital to another with a junior Aussie Rules game in the middle.

He and another boy had both jumped to catch a high ball [there is probably a technical term for this but I don’t know it] but then they clashed in mid-air so his landing wasn’t back on his feet but, sort of, on his side, head and neck all at once. We all thought he’d just bounce back up but he didn’t. The physio was called over and Suze ran on shouting, “I’m a nurse!” She was sent back to the touchline!

The physio did some ministrations to him while he was lying on the ground, then tried to get him to sit up. He could sit up but was obviously in agony and he held his left arm across his chest with his right one. The physio did some stuff which Suze said was a check for concussion. After a few minutes they were able to get him to his feet and he walked off towards the cabin / dressing room. He stopped before the cabin and threw up! That was quite surprising.

We were all for following Suze and Pete to the hospital but they said they didn’t want to look like it was an invasion and we were persuaded to finish watching the game – there was still a quarter to go and then we drove back to Warnbro. Jill kept getting texts from Suze as to Jeff’s progress and treatment at the hospital and when the game was over we went back to Chaos Castle. The texts continued for the next few hours [2] and then Jill announced that they were on their way back.

They stopped at the chippy on the way home and bought a huge pile of Snapper and Chips [Jeff’s favourite meal] as a treat for the fallen hero.

The TV News had Northam on it this evening as Day 1 of the Avon Descent got underway. I could quite fancy doing that one year [120Km ish kayak descent of the Avon and Swan Rivers]. They had to delay the start by almost two hours as the mist in Northam meant the conditions for the power boats would have been too dangerous!

This has inspired us to troop down to Bayswater tomorrow to watch the competitors finish. Should be quite a unique experience. I had heard about the event, of course, but only followed it on the news programmes. It’ll be interesting to see what it looks like for “real”. If it is anything like the comparison between live and tv footie matches, it should be very good indeed.

I wonder if I really could kayak for 120 kilometres? I used to kayak a lot as kid but haven.t done so [in earnest] for years. We’ve been on a few Lakes in the National Park, Dad and I, in our kayaks but this would be real challenging stuff. Mmmm…..

We watched the Dockers on TV, win again. That has moved them up to fourth in the ladder. They have this stupid system here where winning the league means nothing, the top eight play off against each other in a set of “Grand Finals”. It is stupid in my eyes – merely a money making idea for the clubs and the TV companies! There aren’t that many games left in the season and it looks like the Dockers are guaranteed a top eight finish now. The same can’t be said for the Eagles yet.

I will keep quiet about the cricket, as Pete and Jeff finally had something to celebrate, although to these seasoned eyes, the way England have responded and with only two days left I think a draw is the more likely outcome, especially as the weather is set to break over Old Trafford on Monday.

Skyped Laura again and we were much more sensible and less tearful, thank goodness. She is now crossing off the dates on a large home-made calendar in her bedroom until I arrive back on British soil, in Glasgow. Ahh! Isn’t that just so cute?

Sunday August 4^th.

Now then, biology lesson: Canoeists have really well developed upper bodies and small waists. They look like completely perfect specimens of manhood to me, and to Jill, Annabelle, Suze and Mum, it turned out. There were one or two guys completing the Descent whom I wouldn’t have minded helping out of their wetsuits!

The powerboat stuff was just noise and stupid men with their machines. The Aussie males just loved them but you could tell the women had been waiting for the “real men” to appear. To be fair there were some real women among both the powerboat crews and kayakers but they were in quite a minority. More fuel for YT’s little grey cells….

I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of ages and genders at the finish in Bayswater Riverside Gardens. I was expecting it to see  more of the typical Aussie Macho Grunt Brigade being there, flexing their muscles and demonstrating their small brains, but no! It was a good mix all round. The finish line was an imaginary line between an island in the Swan River and the Riverside Gardens shore line. There was quite a crowd gathered to watch the competitors finish. There was TV coverage from one of the Perth Local TV Stations [7 I think it was – they just use numbers randomly out here, unlike back home with your BBC1, 2, 3 & 4 because there are four BBC TV stations!] There were even several large screen monitors set up relaying views from further up the course and highlights from Day 1 as well. There were all sorts of things going on in the gardens with stalls and stand selling food and booze, people doing face painting. The typical sort of Family Fun Day spread you find everywhere I suppose.

We arrived just after 11am and found it quite busy already. Apparently, the first competitors were scheduled to cross the line at about 11.30. One guy yesterday had to be airlifted to Perth hospital with suspected spinal injuries, sustained on the first day. The news did say the competitor was in a  kayak. That illustrates how dangerous the early stretches of the course must be. The last bit is a flat out slog along the wide, flat river in a sprint for the finish line.

The kayak winner was a South African who sounds like an American Scot – Hank McGregor. The next three kayak finishers were all male too. Hank led at the end of Day 1 and just kept the lead. The first woman to finish in a Kayak, was Claire Duncan, a native of Western Australia, who came 15^th overall, she was the first woman to finish for the second year running . The powerboat race was won by “sports” powerboats and the first few were men’s crews. The first “normal” powerboat to finish [this is a separate category] was crewed by women, Yaay!

The weather was relatively kind. It didn’t rain, which was threatened and the wind was quite light too. I think the max temp, was about 20 degrees inland. I was in my shorts and sandals with a t-shirt and fleece. I had brought a sun hat which was probably a bit optimistic, but hey, it’s better to have and not need than need and not have. Plus I had my rucksack / handbag so it squashed up into there quite nicely. The wounded hero still had his arm strapped up and played the sympathy card for all it was worth. I was just happy that he hadn’t been hurt any more seriously, so I helped him with his jacket and cutting up his food [tricky with only one hand] and stuff like that. I was soo disappointed nobody wanted to go and get their face painted with me. There was a kid walking around with a brilliant Tiger Face, I’d have had that done too. I was unimpressed by their lack of enthusiasm for being sliiy.

Back at S & P’s there was major news on the TV. Not about me. The Wanker who replaced Julia Gillard (she was the first female Australian Prime Minister and a brilliant politician even if the scum over here had a go at her) has called a general election! Next month, September the 7^th, I believe. What a tw*t Kevin Rudd is. I hope he gets his f*cking arse whipped this time. It will be no less than he deserves. As I am not on the electoral register over here I am not eligible to vote, even if I was still here on polling day. You have wonder what has made the snivelling little runt call one so suddenly? Perhaps he wants to distract people from the footie in case Freo win the Grand Finals? Mmmm… doubtful.

I have subsequently looked at the Avon Descent website and discovered my kayaking abilities are not suited to the requirements which they demand. You have to be seriously proficient in all sorts of techniques of which I am a relative beginner. It is like me trying to climb an E3 climb as a novice, not only couldn’t you do it, the chance are you might cause yourself serious injury in the process. I would need to get some pretty hard training in on white water conditions to have even a hope of being accepted. There’s also a whole load of wild water swimming techniques you have to be proficient in, too, so I guess I am going to have to remain a spectator and build up to this gradually. However, I do have the germ of an idea gathering snow as it rolls around in my brain. Laura has been looking out for a sport to do which we could tackle together. She’s not keen on rock climbing as it gives her the heebie jeebies being high up in a precarious place, sometimes without a rope. She does like swimming though. I wonder if she could be persuaded to take up white water kayaking as a sport. You can get K2 kayaks. We watched some cross the finish line at Bayswater earlier today. I am pretty sure there is a club at the Uni to which we could sign up. Mmmm… {again}.

Monday August 5^th.

We went to the pool as usual this morning leaving Jeff at home with his poorly arm and his dad. So we had an all women morning! I found out we are having an all women evening on Wednesday as we are going to see Swan Lake at the His Majesty’s Theatre on Hay Street in Perth. Mum is full of surprises! She booked this before she flew out too, but kept it a secret. She’s bought tickets for all of us but Pete and Jeff don’t want to go. It will affect their macho image, according to them. What sad hats they are. Mum offered the spare tickets to Heidi and Sally, they both snapped up the chance. Sally was even able to get another ticket for her daughter Phoebe which will make our party huge! This could prove to be quite a good night out. The only snag is I haven’t brought anything posh with me to wear to the theatre. I will have to see if I can pick something up later today in Freo [that will after I have searched through what I brought for possible winning combinations.]

Freo food court was just as Mum remembered it. She ended up having a mixture of both Thai and Vietnamese items for her lunch. Heidi can’t believe how alike we are – I don’t mean in appearance – I mean mannerisms and expressions etc. Mum told her that she was the original and I was the copy. Thanks Mum! We had a look in Myers and a couple of other clothes shops, but in the end I decided I would wear my long jersey dress, the one with sleeves, which I brought with me. It’ll save me heaps of dosh that way.

Can you believe it, it seems Heidi has never been to Rottnest Island? She’s not been wine tasting at Margaret River nor has she gone to watch the Avon Descent! I couldn’t believe it. I guess people just take what they’ve got for granted and don’t ever get round to going to places or events. She and Mum hit it off like long lost buddies. I sort of supposed they would, especially after she told me she though Mum and I were so similar.

We had a good old stroll around the whole of Freo’s old quarter and even paid a visit to the Roundhouse. Now that is one place Heidi has been. It is one of Western Australia’s oldest buildings and you’ll never guess what its original purpose was? Yup, it was the first prison in WA. It is easy to forget that once Aus was Britain’s largest “Nick”. This convict history is something people out here are very proud to boast about. If they can trace their ancestors back to an ancient British felon they feel as though they are true Australians. Dad’s family arrived about thirty years after the convicts in WA, sensing an opportunity for a bit of wily entrepreneurism. They have done quite well for themselves, I suppose.

Spent the early part of the evening planning what I was going to say at RSHS tomorrow morning. I don’t write speeches, I think they destroy any spontaneity. I gave myself some bullet points on which to expand and then gave myself more bullet points for each of the previous ones. Sounds weird as you try to explain it but it make perfect logical planning.

Suze had some old index cards in the study so I used about a dozen of them: two for the introduction and outline of what I was going to say and the remaining ten being one for each point and one for my conclusion. I phoned Kerry [Ms Chipchase] to check everything was OK for tomorrow morning and to see if she wanted a preview of what I was going to say. She was happy just to hear the bullet points. She did offer me a room with an interactive white board if I wanted to show pictures. This was something that hadn’t been mentioned before. I said, “Yes, please.” Then I hurriedly put together a memory stick full of pictures which I thought would be useful. A fair number came from the ones I had sent Suze over the years. So I am all ready to wow those Year 12s tomorrow!

Final bit of news, gloom has descended over some of the household as the Auusies drew the third test at Old Trafford which means England have retained the Ashes! Yaay! I did try and offer commiserations to all who were upset – that was just Pete and Jeff actually but I was probably grinning too much when I said it. They ought to have known that Old Trafford was asking for trouble, out of 6 test matches between England and Australia abandoned because of rain in the UK, four of them have been at Old Trafford! Mancunian weather is notorious for being very wet! It deserves it too, it is a horrible city. Not one of my favourite cities in the UK at all. Big, sprawling and ugly.

 Tuesday 6^th August

More swimming this morning, sans Jeff again, he is really in some pain with his shoulder at times. Still, if he will play these violent contact sports, what can he expect?

I think I was a wow at school. There were more boys attending than I expected but they were still vastly outnumbered by the girls – the talk was for them really. I got laughs and serious concentration and applause at the end.

The Q & A was by far the trickiest. The asked me all sorts of questions about all sorts of things. I answered almost all of them, apart from a couple of really personal ones which I declined to answer telling them that they were too personal. I did mention my blindly following the usual girly route of finding a man, getting engaged, planning a wedding and family – and how, if an educated girl from an educated family could fall down the slippery slope then anyone could. I tried to explain how it was peer pressure that made me feel like this and how strong you had to be to resist. The group was appalled to learn that despite the fact that my entire class had gone to University only a third of us were still unmarried and even fewer were childless! That is an appalling statistic I suppose.

Some smart mouthed boy asked if that wasn’t just a complete waste of money, educating these girls to a very high standard only to have them jack it all in to become wives and mothers. I was able to tell him that statistically these graduates would ALL find work again once their children had fledged [as it were] and they already had the qualifications to get the jobs they wanted. I used my mother as a good example of this, and explained that in her circle of friends that was the norm.

Others asked about the social life / work balance and I had to tell them the truth – nothing comes for free. Plus, as they were going to be living far longer than their parents it made enormous sense to forgo a few bits of temporary, immediate pleasure for longer term benefits.  You could see the heads nodding to this one.

They asked what I thought about Australia, so I pulled no punches. I showed them my Aussie passport first before I told them what was great about the place and what was terrible, so they could see I wasn’t just being a typical Whinging Pom. They were surprised that I had dual nationality and wondered why I bothered if there was so much wrong with the place. It was hard to explain that the place is sort of my home because of my father and my frequent childhood visits and my Gap Year and my sister living here and the fact that I loved my Dad so much that getting an Aussie passport was a sort of reflection of how much I loved him. They key thing was the sexism. That it still exists in a modern 21^st Century society is appalling. My answer to defeating it was to get as many girls as possible degrees, so they could flood the positions of power in the country so what happened to Julia Gillard would be unthinkable in the future.

I had a cup of coffee [well, they invited me for coffee but I had tea]  with some of the staff afterwards and they were all agreed that the girls need to set their sights higher and compete on level playing fields with the men in society. I was given a swift tour round the school as well, and got discrete waves from the three Rhodes children in their different classrooms. Ms Chipchase seemed very pleased with the input in the Y12 careers lesson. Another coincidence occurred as well as I was leaving, she asked me what my immediate plans were and I told her we were off to see Swan Lake tomorrow – she’s going as well. She’ll be in the stalls while we’re in the Grand Circle. I arranged to meet her in the main bar at the interval so she could meet the rest of the family. I am not going to tell Jill and Annabelle, they will be mortified meeting their head teacher at a social function. Should be amusing to observe their reactions and behaviour.

Mum and I picked them up after school and the girls were buzzing about going to the Ballet tomorrow night. They were even trying to suggest they should be taken out of school about an hour early so they could get ready!

We had a joint venture meal tonight. Mum did the main and I did the dessert. She had got loads of pork pieces which she braised with mangoes, it sounds dreadful but was absolutely yummsville!  We had baked tates and veggie bundles with it. Veggie bundles are where you slice your veggies really thin and then tie them together and boil them in the bundle. My dessert was Tart Tatin and everyone was gobsmacked by the way the pastry rose in the oven! I thought they had seen it cooked before but it turns out they had only eaten it, not seen it being prepared.

I tried on my Jersey Dress for tomorrow and it looks fine. I will wear a shawl over my shoulders and have my straw coloured sandals and raffia type clutch bag. We have decided to drive up the Kwinana Freeway to the city and park somewhere near Hay Street, so that we don’t have too far to walk in what could be a chilly evening. The good thing about the jersey is, if it seems cold before we go I can slip a singlet underneath it and it doesn’t show!

Wednesday 7^th August

We have all been doing dying swans all over place. The Ballet [from St Petersburg] was sublime. The company was huge and they were using the Ivanov choreography. We found parking right by the theatre and arrived at about 7.10. Our seats in the Grand Circle were three rows back on the aisle and marvellous. We had a first class view of the stage and all the dancers. One thing I have learned over the years is never watch ballet from the stalls, you miss so much. The lead ballerina was excellent. I told them all the joke about the little girl pointing to the leading man’s bump and asking her mummy what it was, the mummy replied it’s a step to help the ballerina to get on his shoulders. I am afraid it was an inappropriate joke for a pair of schoolgirls [and me] who had a fit of giggles which lasted almost until the curtain went up. In fact we were giggling so much we started to infect the people around us!

I spotted Ms Chipchase in the stalls, she saw us and waved. I mouthed “Interval One?” at her and she thumbed up. The girls went, “Oh No! It’s Miss…” I explained how I had arranged to meet her during the first interval so she could meet Mum and see Suze again. They were completely aghast. It was as though they didn’t expect their Head Teacher to have a social life or to meet up with people like everyone else does. Perhaps they think she just lives in her office?

Act One was sumptuous. We wallowed in the music and the technical brilliance of the dancers. You can’t beat Tchaikovsky’s music for this ballet. We did meet up with Ms C in the interval and had a swift gossip. The girls were ultra-polite and a bit subdued. Mum and Kerry hit it off big time [both are head teachers so they had plenty in common I guess]. It is getting a bit boring saying how well Mum gets on with those who she meets, but I guess it is her sociable and open manner which helps. I may have tried to base my social interactions on her, to be honest. Ms C bemoaned the cultural desert that  is Western Australia and said she recognised masses of people in the audience as they seemed to turn out for every cultural event that happened in Perth. I thought there seemed to be more events since I was here in 2009/10 and she did agree that it had got better lately, although a couple of theatres had closed down, especially the little one in Freo which did quite a lot of modern productions, rather than putting on crowd pleasing fodder!

The girls eventually overcame their reticence and joined in too. They were quite deferential but a social asset nevertheless. As we went back to our seats for Act Two I told them that if that had just been an exam for them they had passed with flying colours.

The rest of the performance was as good as the first. The dying scene was still as moving (after seeing it about a dozen times) as it was on the first time I'd watched it. I had forgotten that this would be the girls’ first time. Good old Mum reminded everyone how I had cried at the theatre in Norwich when I first saw it, aged about 7 or 8. Thanks again Mum! There and then the Rhodes girls made a vow that they would definitely come and see more stuff at the theatre.

Heidi, Sally and Phoebe really enjoyed it too. We met Heidi at the theatre but Sally and Phoebe came with us in the van. She couldn’t remember the last time she [and Barry] had been to a “cultural” event, which I thought was quite sad, really. Heidi remembered that I had dragged her to the theatre when I was here last time, we went to see a play about Aboriginal Rights and the land grabbing settlers. It was quite political stuff and had sort of put her off going again! I was pleased that both of them have said they will look though the listings more closely now to see if there is something they might enjoy at the theatre rather than just defaulting to the cinema every time.

My choice of attire was not out of place, thank god. You had as many variations on a theme as there were people in the audience and it was a very full audience. The shawl did help though as it had turned quite chilly as we were strolling back to the van. It is one of Suze’s and it has a rainbow pattern, I didn’t realise it at the time but Kerry whispered “I like the shawl, is the Rainbow of Political Significance?” I didn’t get what she meant at the time, but now I think she was asking me if I was gay. The rainbow is starting to be used to symbolise your sexuality, especially in places like say, Russia, where advertising homosexuality has become difficult or illegal. I just blathered on about Greenpeace, which was probably me drastically missing the point or another example of how ingenuous I can be. I blame my Girls’ School education! Lol.

Thursday August 8^th.

Still no Jeffrey at the pool. His arm is getting slowly more manoeuvrable which is a good sign I guess. Like most kids he is really impatient to get it unstrapped and to be using it properly. He can’t even cycle at the moment which has cut down on his after school socialising. I am still taking the kids to school in the morning and occasionally picking them up again afterwards. I am sharing that with Pete as he has changed his hours to be at home from about 4pm onwards. This is because Suze’s are different too.

It is weird at home after they have returned from school, because they disappear. They go into their rooms and either spend the hours until dinner time in there or they zoom off out somewhere after they’ve changed. If they do go out S & P have a white board on which they are supposed to write where they’ll be. This causes great argument if they forget. I think it’s a great system. It gives them both freedom and responsibility. I have started putting where I will be on it too. I did it as a joke but it has become a habit.

Today I went Rockingham Front to walk back home. What that means is I was dropped at Rockingham Beach by Mum [she and I drove the kids to school together] and then I walked the entire distance back to Chaos Castle along the sea shore. I thought it would be about three miles, I think it may have been more like six.

The weather was typical Aus winter. Sunny and warn with a slight offshore breeze. I started at Railway Terrace on the beach front and simply went south. There are three jetties along this stretch but all three were devoid of men fishing today. Maybe it was too early in the morning for the retired brigade to get their butts out of bed! All the car parking spaces were empty too, right along the front. I bought my self a "Tea to go" at the deli by the new nature reserve and walked and drank that until I arrived at the road to Point Peron.

This is where Rockingham Yacht club is based and where S & P are thinking of berthing their yacht, the mooring fees are so much cheaper than those in Freo. They haven’t made a final decision yet and currently there are no “on the water” moorings. They are all on dry land and you need the sling launcher to get in and out of the water. I decided to cut through past the Yacht Club down Point Peron Road to get to Shoalwater.

Shoalwater is the place I would buy a property if I were ever to relocate here. It is glorious. It has a really sandy beach with a sprinkling of small limestone islands just offshore to break up the skyline. These islands are also just far enough out to swim to – I have done so in the past. As is typical with Aussie sea fronts there  are no houses on the shore line. There is the usual arrangement of sea, beach, grassed area, parking spaces and then the road. The first of the houses line the far side of the road. They still have a bloody glorious view, though.

At the end of the beach is a café and the jetty from where, in the summer, you can get the ferry to Penguin Island. It does run at this time of year too but only on weekends. On Penguin Island you can find these tiny, cute little penguins. They are so adorable. I sat and had a rest at the café and shop and I am afraid to say, I had another cup of tea. This time in a more civilised manner than the "Tea to go" from the deli; it was from a tea pot, with a proper porcelain cup and saucer.

The proprietor came out and had a chat with me about nothing in particular. She was surprised to see anyone out walking just for the fun of it. I have to say there were no other pedestrians about so far. I must have sat and gossiped there for a good hour. I even had a second pot full of tea. In all that time only three other people came into the shop. I asked her if it was like this normally and she said that it was very slack at this time of year, during the week. At weekends it picked up quite a lot.

From Shoalwater you turn 90 degrees onto Safety Bay, so called because of its good anchorage. This bay sweeps around and eventually becomes Warnbro Sound Bay. Suze’s house is about three roads back from the coast and right into the distance from the corner! There can be a stinky whiff of rotting seaweed here as the safe anchorage also provides a good place for seaweed to grow. The local council, Rockingham, have a little digger trundling along the beach most days to remove it. Then they compost the stuff and sell it as fertilizer. The amount they make from the sales covers the cost of removing the smelly stuff from the shore. Quite neat, eh?

Luckily for me there are quite a few toilet / shower / changing blocks along here as the tea consumed at the Penguin Island jetty Café had started to percolate through. These blocks are a god send in the summer to come and have a cold shower etc when you’ve been on the beach. The view along here isn’t as gorgeous as the one from Shoalwater but it’s not bad. It certainly beats just looking out at a vast expanse of uninterrupted Indian Ocean for as far as the eye can see.

Along Safety Bay Road a couple of cars stopped alongside me an d the guys inside asked a) was I alright? and b) did I need a lift? I was able to reply Yes and No quite easily to all of them. What a set of drongos Aussie males are, if they have to keep trying to pick up any girl in shorts out for a walk. The road is one of the through routes so there is a lot more traffic and bustle along here, which explains why I wasn’t similarly accosted along the other two sea front roads. By the time I got to where Safety Bay Road and Warnbro Beach Road meet I was feeling rather wan. I do admit. But I wasn’t going to be defeated so I strode out purposefully along WBR which rises gently along the dune tops and has some houses which are equally as nice as those at Shoalwater.

From there it took just less than an hour to make it back to Torcross Reserve and Oval and then Chaos Castle and another, very welcome cup of tea. There, Mum was full of news. I’d had a phone call from Mad Nad. She wasn’t in Norcia, she was in Perth, working at St Mary’s Cathedral and had asked if I could do lunch tomorrow. Mum had said, “Yes” for me. Good old Mum.

I gave her a ring back straight away and we had a brief chat saving all our gossip for tomorrow in Perth. I had completely forgotten about Mad Nad being here too. I will be great to see her in the morning. Mum actually cooked the tea tonight, which was a welcome change. I find cooking such large quantities does my head in and can play havoc with my timing of the dishes. The girls tried to get us to agree to go with them and watch the Dockers play Sydney at Subi this coming Sunday. It’s an afternoon kick off. I don’t think they actually realise how much it costs to get into a match compared to how little it is to watch it on TV. We have decided to think about it.