Brits arrive in Perth. Look out Australia!

Monday July 28^th

Woke up quite early this morning and took Callie up Tall Hill. When I got back Laura had got up and made breakfast (bacon butties) she often does this. We then Skyped Suze in Wranbro to tell her our flight itinerary and to give her notice of our arrival time again. I was all for catching a bus to Freo and then the train but she insists she wants to come and pick us both up so I agreed. She has a new car she wants to show off too. Our plane is scheduled to land at 5.35 pm so there won’t be much point in her being there before 6.30 at the earliest. She is not brining the girls with her despite their protests as the car might not hold five of us and our luggage. I asked her how much luggage she thought we were bringing, and when I explained there would just be a suitcase and a small rucksack each she relented and said they could come too.

Laura is a bit worried about the flight but I tried to allay her fears by telling her about how we could get a free meal, drink and shower in the Business Lounge at Dubai airport because the turnaround time to our connection was about two and a half hours. She was gobsmacked by the idea of taking a shower. I did it each way last year, having packed spare undies in my rucksack to change into. Towels and everything (hair drier, soap, shower gel, shower caps, after shower moisturiser – the lot) were provided free of charge too. There was even a free wi-fi connection so we could Skype home or Australia from the lounge. [I suppose you pay for it in the price of your ticket but it is silly not to avail yourself of what is on offer there.]

I think she is a bit worried about a variety of things: the length of the flight; meeting my Sister and her children; whether we can get frisky with each other; jet lag; having enough money for six weeks; will she get sea-sick on Suze and Pete’s yacht. They are understandable worries and I have done my best to reassure her. I did say we had better not get frisky at Suze’s house at night or when the family are at home, as we do get a little bit noisy during our passion and that might be embarrassing, but while we are in the camper by ourselves there will be masses of time to indulge ourselves. Also we will have the house to ourselves for most of the day during the week so we can have sex everywhere if we wanted to.

What she really wanted to know was if we could still cuddle and kiss and be lovey dovey around the house, like we normally do at home. I said I didn’t see why not? I am sure Suze and Pete will have discussed our sexuality with the children so that no one feels awkward about us being a couple. If she hasn’t she’s a bloody idiot!

We went for a drive into Cockermouth this afternoon to see the mess they were still making of the town and to walk Callie round Harris Park and down by the River Cocker. I also wanted to put on eight weeks’ worth of Saturday Lotto tickets for while we are away. You never know your luck, do you? Laura split the difference with me so if we win we can split the winnings. I reminded her that Mum had won $5000 last year in Australia and we would try and do the same while we are out there.

Back home we phoned Errol and he pretended not to know about driving us up to Glasgow tomorrow (prat); then we phoned Dad and he reminded me to pack Callie’s bed and stuff – which I had completely forgotten. Good job he mentioned it.

After our meal we watched more Commonwealth Games on the TV and had a relatively early night. Well, we went to bed early anyway!

Tuesday July 29^th and Wednesday July 30^th – All in one (obviously).

Journey Day.

We had everything brought down to hallway and ready by about 8am. By this time we had walked Callie, had sex, showered and eaten breakfast. Errol arrived at about 8.30am and we piled everything into his car. Callie had to share the boot space with one suitcase, but the boot was huge. It is even bigger than the boot in Dad’s car. (Errol drives a Passat Estate.)

Arrived at Glasgow airport at about 11.00. We parked up and I texted Dad. He was already there and found us in a matter of minutes. We walked Callie around the car park and then set off into the terminal building. Dad and Errol said goodbye when we went into the departure lounge and we sat and waited. We bought our usual duo; The Times and The i plus The Scotsman. We read them while we waited for our flight to be called and then headed off towards the plane.

First Class and Business passengers had their own dedicated space so when we were called we hadn’t realised all the economy lot were already on board. We were shown to our seats and I watched Laura’s amazement at the level of comfort and luxury we were getting in Business Class. I have travelled like this before so I was less astounded.

We were served our first meal after take-off and I assumed once we reached cruising height. It was delicious. I think Laura was just so excited about everything, I tried to read the paper but she kept telling me what she had found and looking at the view and generally being totally overawed by the experience. She eventually calmed down and watched one of the in-flight movie selections, while I completed the Times, the i and the Scotsman’s crossword selections.

I will not continue with the minutiae of the journey just to say it was dark in Dubai so we missed the sights of the construction and oil-money wealth being profligately wasted as we came into land. The heat was as usual for these latitudes but it was a surprise to Laura who told me she assumed it would be cooler at night. We showered and freshened up in the business lounge, as planned, and afterwards even managed to procure a pot of tea to drink, even though it was 1am!

Once again we were called to our flight after the great unwashed had embarked and we swapped seating positions this time, so I had the window seat and Laura had the inner one. When I booked I had assumed that seats in rows 23 to 26 would feel quite spacious (which they were) but I hadn’t realised my two seat choices were on either side of an aisle! We dumped the newspapers in the airport and I was going to read my book after the breakfast was served. Laura was still as excited as a school girl about everything even more so when she came back from the toilets and told me they were big enough for both of us to fit in there and bonk each other! If I had chosen side by side seats we could have fiddled with each other to our heart’s content when we reclined the seats into a bed! [Travelling alone you don’t usually think about these things.]

We did sleep even though we probably didn’t really need it and the seats are brilliant when they become beds so it sort of overcame us despite ourselves.

 We flew along the West Australian coast line from about 4.30pm and we had a great view of it from out cruising height. It looks wo green, sandy and empty. There are so few settlements to pass over at all. I spotted Geraldton as we flew over and told Laura we’d be landing in a few minutes and sure enough that is what happened.

I had a dilemma at passport control, did I stay with Laura and go through foreign visitors or through Australian passport holders? I was told to go through Aus passport holders so I had no choice really. Luckily Laura was through pretty quickly too and we didn’t have to spend long in baggage reclaim.

In the arrivals I spotted Suze and the girls before they spotted us and we had a joyous, tearful reunion. I formally introduce Laura to them all, even though we have Skyped it is different seeing the person in the flesh, and we wandered out to Suze’s new car. I was gobsmacked. It is a copy of mine. She’s only bought herself a white Kia Cee’d just like the one I bought. There is a difference, hers is the Pro-Cee’d GT which has only just gone on sale in Australia. It is petrol, not diesel and 3 doors not five. It is pretty swish though and may be really quick but Australian roads, in the metropolitan area aren’t designed for fast driving.

We fitted everything in the boot easily enough and Laura squashed in the back with the girls despite huge protests from Annabelle who had been clinging to my hand since we hugged and kissed in arrivals. She wanted me to come and sit with her in the back but in the end we decided as Laura is a fair bit slimmer (skinnier to quote my sister) than me she went into the back seat with them. I spent most of the journey from the airport to Warnbro half turned in my seat so I could speak to the girls who were full of questions.

We arrived at Suze and Pete’s at about 8pm and had a really nice hot cup of tea and a lamingtons. I has specifically asked if we could have a lamingtons on getting home and they duly obliged. Pete was his usual laconic self, greeting me with, ”Hello, you reprobate! How ya doing?” I told him I was fine and I had reformed thanks to this young lady. His actual words were, “Strewth she’s bloody fit. Sorry, I mean… sorry… how are you?”  Suze whacked his arm and the girls went “Daaaad!” Even Jeff had a fit of the giggles at his Dad’s crassness.

Laura smiled and told them she looked fit because I was slave driving her into becoming a swimming champion at the local pool. I thought she neatly avoided the awkward moment and nicely brought us on to swimming. [She is the one who is driving me to do more than 100 lengths per day now, BTW!] Annabelle told us she would take us to the pool in the mornings like we do in Sheffield if we wanted. (She did this last year) We agreed we’d try to start as we meant to go by swimming tomorrow at 7 am – jet lag permitting.

We attempted to go to bed at around midnight long after the kids had been dispatched and the four of us “adults” had polished off a bottle of Happs ‘Fuchsia’. I found it tricky to get to sleep and sat for hours configuring my tablet to work on Telstra (we stopped to buy a Telstra sim on the way home).

I had a few hours kip, though, before being ultra bright eyed and bushy tailed at swim time.

Thursday 31^st July

We did make it to Aqua Jetty by seven and had our usual 100 lengths swim. The girls took us as promised as Suze was on early this week and had been dropped off by Pete at 6.30! They actually tried to keep up with us with our lengths but both of them dropped out at about 50 and went to sit in the Jacuzzi instead. Jeff decided he wasn’t going to tag along with four silly girls (his words) which was a pity. I don’t get to talk to him much over Skype as his sisters tend to hog my time. I sort of thought he may have wanted to come along and ogle our bodies in swimsuits but maybe I am being unkind about him and tarring him with the same brush as the rest of the males of the species.

We had brekkers and then I drove the kids to school in Rockingham in Suze’s new car. It is pretty nippy and full of bloody dials and gadgets and screens. When I got back Pete and Laura were discussing going to Rotto in the yacht on Friday. She was really worried about getting sea-sick and Pete was attempting to allay her fears. He zoomed off to work almost as soon as I got back.

I drove us round to my favourite spot this morning; Point Peron. I went there the long coastal way round along Warnbro Sound Avenue, Safety Bay Road and then through Shoalwater. I could tell Laura just loved the views across the bay to the limestone rock formations, they are so eye-catching and break up the view really well. Penguin Island was closed for the season but I think they do run occasional trips over on a weekend. The car-park at Point Peron was deserted and we had the place to ourselves for over an hour and a half. Laura was a bit worried about snakes and spiders but I told her there were hardly any nasty ones around here anymore, plus they would be more scared of us that we are of them. I am not sure she bought my last statement.

I tried to persuade her to let me finger her while we were sat at the end of the promontory, she agreed but when I began gently rubbing her through her shorts she suddenly got cold feet and asked if we could go back to the house and do it there instead. That is what we did and for the next hour we gave each other orgasm after orgasm. It was as though a cork had been pulled from a bottle the way we just went mad for each other. Fortunately we had stopped and got dressed again when Suze go back from her early shift; half an hour earlier and she would have found us on the family room floor, naked and entwined with our fingers inside each other, making a hell of a lot of noise in the process.  

I cooked a chicken and pea risotto for tea which was much appreciated and we discussed what we’d be doing with the yacht tomorrow. Pete, Laura and I will drive to Freo on Friday morning and get everything set up and checked (plus making sure we have enough diesel in the tanks). We will stay in Freo and Suze will bring the kids over after school. We will have time to get to Rotto, even under sail, before it goes dark. Our mooring in Stark Bay will be fairly quiet as hardly anyone sails across to Rotto during the winter. In fact if the wind is wrong we can even tie up at a mooring in Thompson Bay if necessary.

Laura spent some of the evening seeing if she could get into any of the spare wetsuits in the house. She was able to get into one of Jill’s without much bother so that means we’ll be able to swim, snorkel and even scuba dive over the weekend. I have planned that we will stay on the island from Sunday night for five nights, coming back to Freo on the Friday ferry. That way we can have a really good chill out and get work etc completely out of our systems. We packed a joint suitcase for that purpose before we drove over to Freo. The reservation is already made for a unit which is just south of Bathurst Light in Thompson Bay. If the family decide to come across in the yacht again next weekend we will simply stay there and meet them.

Loll and I got very sleepy after tea, so we had a mega early night. We hit the charp at about 8 pm. It was definitely the jet lag. We should be OK tomorrow.

Posted from Rottnest Island, Western Australia. 3.45 pm.