New Year's On The Beach

We did go to the beach that afternoon, and I did go into the water with our one remaining mobile phone stuffed into the bra area of my swimming cozzy, and James did look very disappointed with me. Not having much luck with phones on this trip.

That meant the next day, Tues 29 Jan, we went into Perth town again to purchase a new cheap phone. We visited Target, a fabulous shop, but there was no one serving behind the till, to we eventually left and bought it from Dick Smith's. We are now contactable again.

While in town we tried to book our train to Adelaide and buy the train pass that would get us around Australia, there are no available seats to Adelaide until 13 Jan. That isn't an option for us. So James and I sat huddled over the laptop the next day re-planning.

In the end we booked a flight direct to Alice Springs, and another to Cairns, with plans to do some sort of backpackers organised tour to Sydney. Also booked a super cheap flight from Sydney to The Gold Coast (with Tiger Airways) where we fly out of on 11 Feb, so Australia's nearly sorted.

New Years Eve, Thurs 31 Dec, we walked over to Jo and John's house in the evening. It was a fun evening. James, me and John put bets on when Jo would fall asleep. I said 5 to 12, other bets were a bit earlier, but we all lost cos she was asleep by 11, totally missing the new year.

We had options to either go to the races or Rottnest Island on New Years Day. Both would have been rather expensive so in the end we decided to snooze off the effects of the night before. It was the right decision. I'm 36 now. I can't party like I used to.

Fri 1 Jan we had to be out of the house-sitting house, so we cleaned like billy ho, fed the cats and left a bottle of new year's bubbly for Gila and Pasquale, and were out by 9pm. We walked back to jo and John's with our bags where we'd be staying for the weekend.

When we got there the house was in darkness and we presumed they were out. Apparently they were sound asleep and recovering from New Year's but they did not wake up when we arrived. On the way in we struggled a bit with the key in the lock, I felt gossamer on my arm and wiped it off. We dumped our bags in our room and James stood very still while he surveyed a spider sitting on a carrier bag. He decided it could be poisonous and I decided he was being dramatic.

I went for it with a pint glass and an unopened letter. James was not happy. In the end we found a hoover and used the extendable part to put through the bag handles to hook it up and take it outside. We left it there all night.

In the morning we told Jo about it and she said it did sound like a redback. We checked on the internet. Argh! I had a redback on me! Fortunately no one has died of a redback bite since 1956. That made me feel rather less of a hero.

Sat 2 Jan the four of us went to Cottesloe Beach. Apparently Cottesloe is the most expensive suburb in Australia. We thrashed about in the waves and lay in the sun for a couple of hours. Later we went to Left Bank pub for a couple of beers and walked along the river front. We saw dolphins jumping and black Swans. We arrived at Eat Greek and had the best meal I've had in a long time. It was a Greek buffet, with fresh fruit and veggies, lots of seafood, including giant prawns. We had to really pace ourselves. John discovered baklava - a taste sensation!

Sun 3 Jan we went to City Beach. The waves were absolutley enormous, and carried loads of sand. The sign said 'dumping beach'. I was battered about when I first got in but eventually got the hang of it. It still a bit terrifying tho when you see a huge wave coming towards you.

Sun evening we made Mexican for John and Jo to say thank you for putting us up, and watched Troy.

Mon we walked into Fremantle for the day. My face was all pink when we arrived. Was 34 degrees. We had a rummage thru some charity shops, went to Benny's for lunch, and printed off all the e tickets we'd need for the next few weeks. We're staying at Dale and Lisa's again until we fly out of Perth on 6 Jan.

Lisa's little chicks are soooo cute. They constantly cheep. There are 8 of them and they are growing really fast. Dale did a great job on their house at the end if the garden.

So it's our last full day in Fremantle. We're sat in an air conditioned house watching Magnum PI, keeping Bella company, while Lisa and Dale are at work. Gila and Pasquale sent us an email the other day saying thanks for looking after the cats and would we like to go to Little Creatures tonight. Looking forward to it.