Pre wedding meet and greet was an enjoyable event at the Garden Bar up the road from where we were staying and we all passed muster I am pleased to say.  Meeting Becky’s family and friends was very enjoyable and it seems that we are all on the same level for conversation and humor and, of course, nice French Champagne and canapés always helps that!  Saturday was wedding day at Millbrook Vineyard in Jaradale about an hour from Perth so we were taken on a coach – a rip roaring coach with the music pumped up to the max by a lady guest who started the party the minute she boarded the coach!  She was onto it and “louder, louder” she was screaming out from the back of ze bus while we were almost digging into the small handbag for the Paracetamol and the event hadn’t even started!  I might add that into this tiny purse I had prepared for almost any medical event!  After driving on the freeway for some time we turned off toward Jaradale and drove through the rural countryside.  The farmland was sad to see with not a green blade of grass to be seen anywhere and sheep and underweight cattle with their noses to the ground searching for food.  The drought here has been devastating and farmers are needing to cull their cattle.  The abattoirs cannot cope with the numbers and the outcome for these struggling farmers will not be good.  It must be very tough being a farmer right now in these parts where unless they have enough food to feed the stock they will perish and you can clearly see the evidence as you drive through this barren landscape.  Thirty per cent of the water that Perth needs is from desalinated plants but unless farmers are lucky enough to have a bore on their land they cannot irrigate their paddocks.

Onto the venue where the grapevines are in good shape and the surroundings are beautiful with the main venue built out over the small lake in front.  The ceremony takes place outside overlooking the lake but no photos allowed of the wedding party who all look amazing – six bridesmaids in different bright pink outfits, four groomsmen and two very tiny shy little flower girls sprinkling white petals in front of the bride as she walks down the grass.  The family photos with this clan are often a circus rounding up the right ones to come forward at the right time and stand in the right place and not act like clowns and today one sister-in-law has wandered off down the path into the venue and gone AWOL!  Not to worry – eventually after getting pinched on our backsides by husbands and bros to make us jump or squeal the ones in charge of the phones to get the photos take about 20 so that we just may get one where all are behaving!  Well that will be a miracle!  Anyway, much fun was had by all with nice food, nice speeches, lovely people and lots of dancing and we all behaved.  Now the dancing was good because it was my hope (and judging by how sore my knees were the next day it worked) that the exercise would help the shrinking clothes which always happen when we travel.  I know this is common – it must be the washing water!  So back on the bus we all climb – a few needed help and one guy boarded holding pink high heel shoes and a pink handbag and I don’t think he was sure if he had been to a wedding or a party or what but let’s just say he needed help to find his seat.  The lady who was in charge of the music on the way lost the job for the return journey (we were not sad about that!) However, she still had enough energy to want ze music turned up louder louder – didn’t happen! We suggested that the new recruit should perhaps play lullabies quietly over the sound system and then perhaps this hour long trip might be somewhat easier to endure now that one or two have sore heads!

Sunday morning was a slowwwww start on account of the fact that we are not used to getting to bed at 1 am and it has already taken us four days to slightly adjust to the four hour time difference from home.  Never mind – we have a post wedding get together at a bar on a Marina in Fremantle so Margaret and I have to endure another journey with Vern and Kerry in charge of getting us there which actually worked out well and just goes to show that practice makes perfect!!  These two have taken themselves off in the car a few times to explore the place and have come back with hilarious stories of how it all went while us girls have occupied ourselves in other ways!  A rowdy bar was probably good to wake us all up!

Dear Jenny then decides we should go and see a few things to keep us awake till dinner as apparently a little tiredness is evident so we 10 are divided into the two vehicles.  It is certainly a lot of fun being with four elderly brothers I can tell you for sure.  Getting into a vehicle driven by Kerry and navigated by Vern is one thing but me (for my sins) being the chosen female to get into a car with the four brothers is quite another.  I do not know why I got selected but perhaps my sisters-in-law thought I could be the one to control this undisciplined lot but that is one impossible task.  Firstly, I sat in the back seat between Vern and Aidan who immediately asked for the air conditioning to be turned up full and the temperature to be turned down.  Next minute I have a full blast of cold air between the legs which was much worse than the blimmin massage chair at the nail bar!!!  Talk about navigation – there were three navigators on this run to the market and the cenotaph turning left, right, twice around roundabouts and so much hilarity in the vehicle that it was like an episode of The Simpsons.  Just doing up the seatbelts with three of us in the back seat was an utter fiasco and I will leave that to your imagination!  I have had more than 60 years with this lot and they didn’t hold back in telling me I should be used to it!  However, I have been utterly blessed to have such amazing bros and sisters-in-law so count myself very fortunate. Onto the cenotaph we go with magnificent views over Fremantle and Rottnest Island – another photo but, as usual, disagreements over where to take it, sit, stand, smile, frown – just blimmin get it over with I am thinking! Then onto the Fremantle Market where all of the population gathers on a Sunday and I can tell you for sure they were there! Now can you imagine four disinterested bros trying to find the passengers from the other car amongst every type of food stall you can imagine, bangles, beads, gypsy outfits, hats, kids, music – you name it – it’s here! Miraculously we bang into each other by the Billtong stand but Jenny can see by the look on the bros faces that they would rather be anywhere but here! Heaven forbid – so we try and navigate back to the car but which way did we come in and which way do we go out and how do we get out and so it goes on!

Righty now we are flying across the Nullibor on our way to Sydney having farewelled the family after a simple and enjoyable dinner at a little Italian restaurant last night.  We now join Georgia, Hannah and Matt for the next week so the bag has the requested recipe folder and I have a feeling I will be donning the apron to get through the requested list which will be fun.  Perth is a beautiful clean and well organized city and we have loved going back there.  It is 16 years since we spent time here when Brendan was doing his surgical fellowship and Oliver was a tiny baby.  We loved it then and we loved it again this time.  The one in charge of the B’s has fallen asleep beside me in his very comfy seat on this Virgin Australia plane after a busy and fun week with his three brothers and the extended nieces and nephews and their kids too.

After an eight hour flight we arrived late afternoon in Perth, the largest city in Western Australia with a population of approximately 2.4 million and the fourth most populous city in Australia. Our trip from the airport to our apartment on the river treated us to the most magnificent sunset lighting up the entire sky with its striking red glow. Darkness appears to happen quickly with a short dusk and suddenly it is dark. After a very good sleep the plan for the morning was for Vern and his brother to go collect the rental car. I had checked the whereabouts of this pickup point and it didn’t seem too far away. I, the one in charge of the P’s (which I had no intention of mentioning to these guys could include “pickup”) decided they could manage this on their own. That was the first mistake of the day because on their return journey to bring the said car back to the apartment they toured the whole of Perth!! My sister-in-law was trying to track them down – she apparently can always find where hubby is by looking at her phone! Heaven forbid – I think the one in charge of the B’s would blow his fooffoo valve if I suggested this would be a good idea for me to do! Anyway, eventually these two grey haired men appeared on the riverside path looking for us two girls after safely parking the blimmin car! It was decided that a trip to the Perth Mint to check out the gold bullion would occupy our minds so six of us – third brother and wife joined a tour. After getting the ferry back across the Swan River, fourth brother and wife thought we could all do with some exercise so a trip to Kings Park would keep us oldies fully occupied. Into the rental car we climbed with Vern and Kerry in the front and sister-in-law and I relegated to the back seat. Now she is busy on Google maps trying to navigate us to Kings Park and Vern and Kerry have already been on their reccie this morning and think they know best so we in the back seat are not so politely told to zip it! After a short visit to the park it was decided by fourth sister-in-law that we needed to go and settle down and have a drink at Subiaco Pub which was just a hop away – actually about 1000 hops but she is onto it – she will come and sit in the front of our car with the Google maps and she will be the navigator! However, unfortunately the other sister-in-law has already put the destination into driver’s phone so suddenly two women in the depths of Google are trying to navigate us to the darned pub! This is doing my head in – Margaret is still trying to locate her daughter’s whereabouts – it seems her phone is tracking the entire family and I am thinking I will put a straw in the wine bottle when we reach this blimmin Subiaco Pub and I might try and drown her phone when I go to the Ladies Room!

Rottnest Island

Yesterday we now ten of us were on the ferry by 7.45 am to get to Fremantle and another ferry to Rottnest Island also known as Wadjemup. However, it appears that today the Freemantle Doctor – the howling wind that occurs here regularly – has decided to make its presence felt to wake us dopey Kiwis up! Some arrive at the wharf having looked at the wrong App to see the temperature and they are ready for ze sun to pop up and scorch us – it doesn’t! The Doctor is fair blowing and I already have three layers on and by mid morning have donned a fourth layer being ze raincoat – no rain though! Rottnest Island is interesting for its history as a military defense embattlement with structures that watch over the sea and bunker in the ground. There is a maze of underground military tunnels and a powerful gun battery. The island was also used as a prison for Aboriginal men and boys and many are buried on the island – the structures they built still stand on the island today. The island sits in the Indian Ocean and the western end is the most western part of Australia. It is a protected sanctuary for the wildlife which are mainly birds and quokkas. The island is made up primarily of sand and it is impossible to grow vegetables or fruit trees in this pumice soil. Samphire, spinifex and saltbush are the plants that cover the island. There are 12 salt lakes and some solar farms and one wind turbine. Our tour takes us on a train ride on the old railroad and then lunch at the embattlement area and then a drive around the lovely bays of the island. Today my dear sister-in-law Jenny heaves a sigh of relief that we have a paid tour guide to reign in this Kiwi oldies bunch which, up till now have had about four self appointed tour guides! I might add it doesn’t necessarily mean they can be reigned in though!

Today is the pre-wedding gathering to meet all the team and I am just hoping we pass muster with the about to be in-laws! I think we all need a short lesson in how to behave appropriately so our invite to the wedding tomorrow is not cancelled and sold to some better behaved troops! Us four girls have just returned from having the nails done and two of us are fair leaping around. The reason for our new found lease on life is that after our nails were completed the lovely attentive nail ladies needed our chairs and suggested to us that we sit very comfortably in the massage chairs while we wait for the other two – good idea – turned out to be great idea! So we sit and the lady comes and turns on the chair and it is set to Auto to get the kneading, flapping, rolling blah blah blah! What we didn’t realize (because I am not sure it happens at home because possibly the Minister of Health has outlawed it) but the the massage continues down underneath where you are sitting and I almost hit my head on the ceiling when the range of options started down there! So it is fair to say that woke us up big time and we literally bounced over to the coffee shop following that little experience! Now we must prepare for ze meeting of the invited guests because tomorrow is wedding day!

An adventure across the ditch

Well, here we are in packing mode once again.  We thought we were so good at this but apparently we need a revision course (think it’s our age).  We go away regularly – we pack the car with our clothes, groceries, Billie the pup with her food supplies, Ivy the cat with her food supplies and it all usually goes to plan.  So we are now off to Perth and Sydney just for two weeks and only have our clothes to think about – all good – very simple!  But why is it then that the spare bedroom is chocka full with clothing for all weathers, medicines for all conditions, shoes for all terrains and we haven’t even finished yet?  We booked seat and bag and seat – looks like we should have booked a freighter!  I made a list because we recently went away for a week and I forgot my lipstick and that caused a mini crisis! We still have things to add to the mountain on the bed because not everything is ticked off the list!  Not to worry – we have scheduled an “edit” meeting in the bedroom!  Heaven forbid – that will cause all sorts of problems I can already foresee but short of us both sitting on the suitcase to get it closed so we can zip it up I can see that an edit will happen.  I don’t know why I am worried actually because Vern is in charge of the “B’s” – bags, buses, beer. Now that is very simple. I, on the other hand, got the short straw when the travel contracts were drawn up and, in hindsight, when the Government changed I should have had the foresight to get the contract redrawn but now I will never get it past the Select Committee! I have the “P’s” – passports, people, paperwork, payments, pills, photos, plugs, purchases, Pinot Gris and PROBLEMS! We are off to our nephew’s wedding in Perth and then to Sydney to see granddaughters.  It will be fun – it always is – and we will keep you posted if you are remotely interested.