Perth (27th Jan - 1st Feb)

Day 5 (Tuesday) was my first full day in Perth and didnt really do too much! Not that I was complaining though as I was absolutely exhausted from the weekend. Tao had been complaining of a sore throat so I went with Deb in the morning when she took him to see a doctor. He had swollen glands so was given some medicine and Deb was told he couldnt go to daycare for the rest of the week, which meant I got to see lots of Tao this week! Which was in no way a bad thing as the boy is absolutely amazing, 90% of the time though. The remaining 10% he can throw some incredible tantrums and make things very hard for Debby. Deb had warned me of this but he behaved pretty well whilst we were in margaret river, so i wasnt really prepared for his first tantrum as we were leaving the doctors! He flipped out and refused to let us put him in his car seat and it was a full on battle with him for at least 15 minutes. Theres no reasoning with him during it and he will scream, cry and hit. Plus there never seems to be any real reason for the tantrums to start! Anyways, the rest of the day was just spent food shopping, getting a phone and spending time with deb and tao.

On day 6 (Wednesday) Deb took me to Caversham wildlife park (which looking at ashby and christines photos is the same place they went when they were in perth). Best petting zoo ever. In england you get to touch sheep, goats and other lame animals, but here you get to feed and pet kangaroos, koalas and wombats (very fat, very odd looking animals). Also in the park was a farm show where they showed you how to shear a sheep, milk a cow and crack a whip among other things. They needed a volunteer to try and crack a whip and Deb sent me up against my wishes. Apparently its pretty hard to do first time and most ppl make fools of themselves but i managed it! Seemed pretty easy as well, until some chinese guy got up and tried to do it. Completely fucked it up twice and on his third attempt hit himself in the head and took his hat off, the whole audience laughing at him! Exactly what id been afraid of happening to me! Oh and then I spent time annoying a donkey and getting him to pull faces at me, got a fucking jokes photo out of it tho, pretty sure that shud be your new profile pic dan...
That evening Deb took me to Kings Park, which is also the best park Ive ever been to. Absolutely massive with amazing views over Perth, great places for Tao to play, and then brand new, perfectly clean and free bbqs everywhere in the park for ppl to use. Oh and an outdoor cinema in the middle of the park as well, where you can just chill on the grass or rent beanbags. Really did make the heath and brandon hill look a bit shit (well impressed with the photos of Ferg snowboarding down brandon hill tho! doubt theyll ever be able to do that in perth!)

Day 7 (Thursday) was supposed to be my last day in Perth, as I was supposed to leave on a 10 day tour up to Broome at 7 am Friday morning. But carly and ray (the kiwi couple i met in margaret river) had invited me to go with them and their friends to watch Australia vs. New Zealand in a one day international cricket match on the sunday. So I rescheduled the tour so I left on the monday (day 11). This day wasnt too eventful, Deb dropped me downtown and I spent the afternoon wandering round. Pretty boring stuff really, its a lot like any other city centre. Shops, offices, restaurants. Went and had sushi by myself tho, which was probably the highlight of the day. The evening was spent with Debby watching a really good american show Brothers and Sisters. Sounds like a pretty gay show but I really enjoyed it and over the course of the week we managed to watch the whole second series together.

Day 8 (Friday) Deb was gonna take me to Fremantle but we ended up not going after she told me I had overstayed my welcome and had a go at me for not being a good guest. I was pretty stung by what she said and told her i didnt want to go to Freo anymore. I hadnt meant to be a bad guest and didnt think id been too bad but looking back on it I cud have helped out a lot more. Id cleaned up after myself but hadnt made any effort to wash up anything else, what id been used to doing at uni! So if youre reading this Deb, Im really sorry and I hope I made up for it before I left. Anyways, everything was better by the afternoon and I helped Deb and Tao to make Tao a pirate outfit using the pirate book Nicole had got him for xmas.

Day 9 (Saturday) I went to Freo by myself, a much cooler place than downtown Perth with a bit more culture and old colonial buildings etc. I convinced myself that I was gonna go to the Fremantle Prison and go round the galleries and museums but after spending ages walking to all of them I decided I couldnt be fucked to spend the money to go into any of them. So I went to the harbour and had a fish and chips and a beer instead, much better. That evening I went out with the 2 girls I met on the winery tour in Margaret river (Jodi and Christina), they took me out for dinner and then to a really nice bar in town where one of their friends works. It was a fancy cocktail bar where each drink shud have been at least 10 bucks but their friend was giving us each round of 3 cocktails for just a tenner. Plus he wud make us a different cocktail of his choosing each round so obivously ended up pretty battered before heading on to a club in northbridge. Super cheesy live band playing but we were all definitely drunk enough to enjoy it. Sick night out so cheers girls!! Will obviously return the favour if and when youre ever in London!!

Day 10 (sunday) Cricket!! I woke up with a horrendous hangover and for a while wasnt sure id be in any fit state to go to the australia - new zealand game, especially considering that all there is to do at cricket is drink more. Carly and Ray came to pick me up at 11 from Debs house and I spent the next hour moaning about how sick I felt. Went round to carlys place first where I met the other two friends coming to the cricket, Tai and his girlfriend (cant remember her name). Turns out I was 5th wheeling it to the cricket! Not a problem really though, Ray and Tai were both absolute jokers and I also got on well with carly. Got to the stadium at like 12 30 and was there for the next 10 hours! Cricket is long! Not only that but we were sat on grass with no shade on the hottest day in perth since id been there 38 degrees! I didnt piss all day which is apparently a pretty strong sign youre dehydrated! It was an awful game of cricket, and both teams were shit but the banter in the crowd was fucking hilarious. I was there with 4 kiwis so supported NZ but we were next to a group of very funny aussie fans. Unfortunately they were capable of some pretty racist banter as well. The securtiy were mostly pakistani and in the crowd lots of beach balls were being knocked about. If they ended up on the pitch security took them and wudnt give them back, which led to lots of stick and threats from the fans about getting them deported etc. Worse though was finding out the racist/funny group were all school teachers! Barely watched the game, but apparently thats what happens at cricket. NZ won on the very last ball so at least it had an exciting ending.

Got back quite late to Debs and had to pack my stuff so I cud get on a bus to town at 6 in the morning to leave on my tour to Broome. Leaving in the morning was sad saying goodbye as I dont know when Ill next get to see Deb or Tao, especially cos I think Tao had got used to my company and as I was leaving the house he got upset and was asking Deb where I was going and if I was coming back. I had such a good time staying at Debs and it was so nice getting to know Tao, such a great kid. But it was time for the next bit of my travels and the end of home comforts, the 10 day tour from Perth to Broome, which is what I just finished a couple of days ago.

Ive run out of credit on the internet now but will hopefully get a chance to write up this bit of the journey soon. This is my last day in Broome though, and Im flying to Brisbane tomorrow evening where I will be meeting up with Chloe (my housemate from Bristol last year). Very excited to see her. Gonna be staying in Noosa with her for a few days but then shes off on a tour with her sister so not sure what im gonna do just yet. Oh and sorry no photos yet, internet here is fucking slow at uploading them but ive got a flickr account and all shud be sorted soon. Safe!!

Margaret River (23rd Jan - 26th Jan)

Hey everyone, sorry to have taken this long to get this blog started. A mixture of my own laziness, having shit/no access to internet, and having too many better things to do than sit indoors by a computer. But today its raining and I dont know anyone here in Broome and cant be fucked to meet anyone seeing as i fly to the east coast (brisbane) tomorrow.

Well starting from the very beginning, I landed in perth at 2am on friday 23rd of jan after leaving london 2 days earlier. Got a taxi to Debs house and after soring out my bags and shit maybe got an hour of sleep before Deb drove me to margaret river, a small town in the very southwestern tip of australia. In case you dont know Debby was my nanny when I was younger and she now lives in Perth with her (nearly) 3 year old son Tao. She had a wedding to go to on the saturday in margaret river and was staying at her friend Hollys house who kindly let me stay as well. I spent my first day wandering around the nature trails in margaret river by myself and playing with my new camera. Then back at Hollys house I met her cousin Carly and her boyfriend Ray, both 22 and Kiwis who recently moved to Perth. They were staying at Hollys house for the weekend as well, cos it was australia day weekend. Basically a bank holiday weekend in which aussies try to drink as much as possible for 3 days in a row. Australia day is the day when we the british landed, so some indigenous people also call it invasion day. If you dont know the history its pretty shocking what the aussies have done to the aboriginals over the past 200 and something years! Anyways, first night i had some beers with ray and carly and fell asleep in an armchair with a beer in my hand.

Day 2 (saturday) was the day deb had the wedding so she very kindly had booked me on a winery and brewery tour. Margaret river makes the best wines in australia and it was a pretty fun day out getting pissed. Plus I got to meet Jodi and Christine on the tour, 2 aussie girls from perth who were also down in margs just for the weekend. After the tour I spent that evening back at their hostel where they took me to the beach and made me dinner, very nice of them! Was fucking knackered tho and passed out after dinner whilst watching a film in their hostel.

On sunday, ray and carly took me out for a fry up for breakfast and then straight to the beach. Its a hard life in australia... Fell asleep listening on the beach listening to my ipod tho and got a great tan line of my headphones which still hasnt quite gone. Then back to hollys house for a bbq and more beer with Deb and Tao, Holly and her husband Reese and their 2 young kids plus Ray and Carly. Another great day.

Day 4 was the actual date for australia day and I spent it with Deb and Tao, Hollys family and lots of other couples with young kids at this really beautiful beach in a place called Yallingup. Really nice to spend time with Deb and get to play with Tao in the sea, but also odd being around so many small children! Not used to being around so many kids!!! Anyways, that was the last day spent in margaret river and deb drove back to her house in perth that evening. A really nice start to my travels, nothing too hectic.

Hmmm there shud be photos with these posts but the computers are shit at this place as well. Will hopefully solve that soon!