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!