I can’t really remember a great deal of what we did in Perth for the first couple of weeks – I really should have posted something much sooner but I was pretty lazy (it’s like tidying my room… Mum will understand).
On the first night we had a great barbeque with Gem’s Grandpa, cousins, Uncle and three of his friends who were all really nice, and still are! The food was brilliant: we had homemade hummus; sausages; seasoned lamb; potato salad; and lots of other stuff that my memory fails to remind me of. Unfortunately, that’s been our only BBQ here!! Very depressing, indeed.
Over the next couple of weeks we went out with Gem’s Uncle and Grandpa to a few of the sights of Perth and its surrounding enclaves. During the first week we headed off to play around of nine-hole golf at a local course. The course is owned by the council and cost about $10 per person to go on. Pulling up to the clubhouse, it was pretty quiet which was a bonus seen as we weren’t all seasoned golf veterans like Roy Young.
Involved in the round were Gem and myself; Grandpa Jim; Uncle Mick; Cousin Dave; and the venerable John, our tour guide. Gem last played golf when she was a young un’ and I had stopped playing about two or three years ago. Dave and Mick seemed to dabble with the game and I have no idea about Jim’s golf experience but going on his performance that day, I doubt it’s a very good one.
The day was a beautiful one; the type you get once or twice a year back in the UK. We began playing about two o’clock in the afternoon when the temperature was around 32 degrees Celsius and you could feel it! We plied ourselves in sun cream and then took a quick swig of water and teed off.
The course was really nice with brilliantly green fairways and greens and trees dotted around in the rough. It was made up of mainly three-par holes with a few four-par ones to make things interesting and it was a joy to go round even after so long without holding a club.
Apart from John, I think we all played a zigzag kind of game frequented with clean shots and shots that topped the ball and sent vibrations through your hands as the club smacked into the ground. We had a gay old time and Dave sent numerous balls into the surrounding houses – I was amazed that we didn’t hear any glass smashing as he really hit them far.
At one point Gem sunk a twenty foot putt (I think, it was a long way away) which made her day. The greens were pretty decent and this putt glided towards the hole leaving eveyone dumbfounded as to how Gem had achieved this.
However, by the sixth hole and about three hours into our round, I think we had all had enough and were ready to finish. And… we were holding up about five other groups of golfers! Seen as we were playing as a six (a bit hypocritical of me as I hated it when people did this at Rother) we were going really slowly. By the eighth we let a couple of fat blokes play through and they played even slower than us, further pissing off the people still behind us.
I gave up on the last hole; I just couldn’t be bothered after it had taken so long to play the first eight. Gem and Jim stopped playing as well and probably Mick as he and Jim were sat on a bench with their backs to the ninth green as two security officers for the City of Bayswater turned up after we’d been reported for slow play and especially for playing as a group of six. The two officers headed for Mick and Jim and they had a short chat about how the rules state that four people is the maximum for a group. Mick and Jim pleaded their innocence and the two officers then just had a quick joke and headed off, slowly, mind you, as they were carrying a bit of excess baggage – think of Chief Wiggum from The Simpsons.
By the time we had finished, the sun was beginning to set and we were all ready for a beer, some more than others. After we parted ways with John, we headed back North to our humble abode and I really can’t remember what we did for the rest of the day but it’s not really worth mentioning.
Sunday 13 June 2010
Arrival in Perth
We arrived in Perth, WA, at around half six in the morning on Saturday 20th February. Looking through the window of the aeroplane was an interesting sight. Completely different to anything I had seen: the land was red and brown with little dots of green around. As we got closer to the airport, I could see more one-storey houses and dirt tracks leading to and from them. Then the buildings became denser as we finally hit the metropolitan area of Perth. Looking down on the suburbs and the city, the place made me think of the America I had seen on TV – no offence to any Aussies!
Wide roads and square blocks were evident in the landscape of Perth and its suburbs. But the main thing that hit me was the dryness of it all, don’t get me wrong, I knew we were heading for a place on the edge of a desert, but I guess I didn’t realise how different it would be to what I have seen before. Sun-baked buildings; millions of pieces of glass reflecting the sun and the brown, dead-looking grass could be seen for miles around as we dropped altitude and landed in Australia. My first time here and Gem’s second!
After departing the plane and passing passport control, we headed for border patrol and I had brief flashes of travellers being searched for hours on end from watching Australian Border Patrol on TV! I had noted on my immigration card that I had soil on the soles of my gym trainers so we were directed to a different queue where most passengers seemed to be. After about forty minutes of waiting we went to a table and a lady asked us why we had been sent down to her. We showed her the card and gave her the reason, and she sent us on our way without checking our bags after I described the extremely small amount of soil on the trainers. A great waste of time for peace of mind: I didn’t want to be fined thousands of dollars and blamed for bringing Foot and Mouth Down Under!! Gem wasn’t too pleased, mind you.
Walking through to arrivals, I met Gem’s uncle and cousin for the first time and immediately became suspicious of their Southern English accent (they moved to Perth about seven years ago from London).
After an hour on the freeway via a McDonalds for Gem’s cousin, I still kept being reminded of America: the wide, open roads (there wasn’t much traffic) and the huge amount of fast-food joints; ‘drive-thrus’ (including drive-thru coffee…); and retail outlets dotted around every few miles with vast amounts of car-parking spaces.
We arrived at our new home (for about 5½ months) and after been given a tour of the place, we headed off to a patisserie across the road that is famous in Perth for serving some great pastries and cakes. ‘We’ included us two and Gem’s Grandpa, Jim and we thoroughly enjoyed our croissants and coffee before going to the Lakeside Shopping – we always like to do something different when we travel.
(The picture above shows the patisserie across the road from our house)
For the next couple of hours we wondered around the shopping centre and then Gem and I had a quick walk around the centre of Joondalup ‘city’ (they have a few ‘cities’ dotted around the metro area of Perth that aren’t the size of cities as we know them, more like suburbs of cities – like Wincobank and Beighton back in good, old Sheffield). As we walked I had a mix of emotions: I was nervous about living here for a few months – would I find a job and would I like it here? And I also looked forward to being in Perth with the nice weather; Indian Ocean so close by; and the chance to sample life somewhere else.
Wide roads and square blocks were evident in the landscape of Perth and its suburbs. But the main thing that hit me was the dryness of it all, don’t get me wrong, I knew we were heading for a place on the edge of a desert, but I guess I didn’t realise how different it would be to what I have seen before. Sun-baked buildings; millions of pieces of glass reflecting the sun and the brown, dead-looking grass could be seen for miles around as we dropped altitude and landed in Australia. My first time here and Gem’s second!
After departing the plane and passing passport control, we headed for border patrol and I had brief flashes of travellers being searched for hours on end from watching Australian Border Patrol on TV! I had noted on my immigration card that I had soil on the soles of my gym trainers so we were directed to a different queue where most passengers seemed to be. After about forty minutes of waiting we went to a table and a lady asked us why we had been sent down to her. We showed her the card and gave her the reason, and she sent us on our way without checking our bags after I described the extremely small amount of soil on the trainers. A great waste of time for peace of mind: I didn’t want to be fined thousands of dollars and blamed for bringing Foot and Mouth Down Under!! Gem wasn’t too pleased, mind you.
Walking through to arrivals, I met Gem’s uncle and cousin for the first time and immediately became suspicious of their Southern English accent (they moved to Perth about seven years ago from London).
After an hour on the freeway via a McDonalds for Gem’s cousin, I still kept being reminded of America: the wide, open roads (there wasn’t much traffic) and the huge amount of fast-food joints; ‘drive-thrus’ (including drive-thru coffee…); and retail outlets dotted around every few miles with vast amounts of car-parking spaces.
We arrived at our new home (for about 5½ months) and after been given a tour of the place, we headed off to a patisserie across the road that is famous in Perth for serving some great pastries and cakes. ‘We’ included us two and Gem’s Grandpa, Jim and we thoroughly enjoyed our croissants and coffee before going to the Lakeside Shopping – we always like to do something different when we travel.
(The picture above shows the patisserie across the road from our house)For the next couple of hours we wondered around the shopping centre and then Gem and I had a quick walk around the centre of Joondalup ‘city’ (they have a few ‘cities’ dotted around the metro area of Perth that aren’t the size of cities as we know them, more like suburbs of cities – like Wincobank and Beighton back in good, old Sheffield). As we walked I had a mix of emotions: I was nervous about living here for a few months – would I find a job and would I like it here? And I also looked forward to being in Perth with the nice weather; Indian Ocean so close by; and the chance to sample life somewhere else.
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