Good Morning Europe - February 2012

Liam wearing all his clothes after touching down to -9 in Paris.

After a hectic 48 hours in which we finished work, sold the van, packed up our belongings and donated the contents of our flat to the local charity shop, we spent a sweaty and unusually humid night on the couch at Bruno's.  At 4am we awoke to the headlights of our taxi shining through the window and bleary-eyed we waved goodbye to our home town of the last 7 months and headed to Perth airport.

The first flight was relatively short, about 6 hours, but with an arduous 12 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur before our next flight. After fuelling up on coffee at KLIA we decided to head into the city for the day. After a bumpy bus journey of almost two hours we were regretting this decision, and apart from some dazed wandering around we spent most of the time in cafes. Better than hanging around the airport, but only just. So, very tired and already a day and a half since we graced the presence of a bed or shower, we boarded our flight, homeward bound. Air Asia do a reasonable line in airline food despite being a budget airline, so we were well fed with tasty curry, but there was no TV in the back of the seat or free booze to take the edge off what is undoubtedly the worse mode of travel in terms of actually enjoying the journey. All that was left to do was sleep, and thankfully we did most of the way.

Bright-eyed and excited to be back on European soil, we stepped off the plane into the depths of a Paris winter (Pilot: "On arrival in Paris the temperature will be nine, sorry negative nine degrees") and promptly put on all the jumpers we owned. Charlotte even resorted to socks in place of gloves, but she had handily knitted me a scarf for my birthday. It didn't feel particularly useful at the time during a 40-odd degree Australian summer, but after the 50 degree temperature plunge it was most welcome. Our journey home wasn't quite over, as we were meeting up with friends to go to a beer festival in Bruges (but of course!). One airport shuttle, the Paris suburban metro, a train to Lille (which handily stopped in a different station to our connection only ten minutes later, cue running around in a panic with my 23kg backpack) and one final train to Bruges, we staggered out of the station almost 48 hours after leaving our flat in Mosman Park. But things were looking up; cheese, bread and beer were procured at bargain prices (well, standard European prices, but a bargain compared to WA) from a shop at the station, and a reasonably priced taxi spirited us to the door of our home for the next three nights; a lovely old Belgian terrace near the centre of Bruges. As if on cue for our arrival, snow was falling and by the time we had showered and brought ourselves back to life with aforementioned foodstuffs, there was a substantial covering. A wander around Bruges at dusk was like being in a fairytale but the best part of the story was yet to come; meeting up with Marina whilst wandering the streets plus the imminent arrival of my sister Emily and her fiancé Alex, and of course Mark. It was most excellent to see them all again, and they were the first in a long line of people we had missed while away. That evening we met up with the rest of our friends who had come out for the occasion; Thomas, Sian, Craig and Stiffy. We had a great evening eating out and sampling some local brews. The night was rounded off in a cute little bar seemingly in some guys back room, although the strange choice of Norah Jones on a Friday night sent Charlotte to sleep so we decided to call it a night. We conquered the jetlag pretty easily, although west to east is always easier so they say.

The rest of the weekend was spent exploring picturesque Bruges with a dusting of snow, and of course sampling a delights of Bruges Beer Festival. The event was held in the town hall, in a drafty room with hundreds of beers to try. The Saturday seemed to be largely dominated by English CAMRA members and American beer geeks, the Sunday quietened off and had a more subdued, local feel. We also managed to fit in lots of frites eating, and an excellent BYO buffet at the festival. We spent the evenings in our cosy apartment, drinking and playing games until the small hours. We had a brilliant time catching up with everyone, and it was very quickly as if we had never left!

Our final leg home was fraught with probably the most drama and bad luck we had had in all of our travels! We had to vacate the apartment by 12, and we got to work cleaning the place up, although of course it being Belgium we had to do our bottle recycling and returning (that's not a dig at recycling by the way, I dig recycling!). The bottle bank was up the road and Mark heroically disposed of the remnants of 9 people drinking into the early hours. A returnable case of beer was also in our possession so rather than leave it for the cleaner I decided to take it upon myself to do the right thing and return it to the nearest off license. The flaw in this plan was that not many bottle shops are open on a Monday morning, so my quest for somewhere to get rid of the damn thing led me into the old town centre. By this point the taxi had arrived back at the apartment but I figured they would drive past and pick me up on the way, not taking into account the one-way streets of Bruges. Things were complicated by having only an Australian phone with me that had no credit, and so I couldn't send any texts or make or receive calls. It turned out phone boxes in Bruges didn't take coins so I was completely off the grid! After a while of hanging around the only option I had was to head to the train station myself and pray they would be there, rather than taking the taxi on a very expensive search and rescue mission around Bruges. Thankfully they were and an hour or so later we were reunited. We missed the train we had intended to catch but another one was due, and we were on our way to the airport on the last train that would get us there in time. Craig and Stiffy were nowhere to be seen, and eventually it transpired that they had been even further delayed than we had and ended up taking a taxi from Brussels to the airport to make up for lost time. They needn't have bothered, as no sooner had we gone through the point of no return at security our plane was announced to be delayed by 5 hours. So, stuck in what is arguably the world's crappiest airport, we tried to keep our spirits up and keep ourselves entertained, all the while watching countless other Ryanair flights arrive and depart. Charleroi is basically a Ryanair hub, and we speculated that one way they manage to achieve the highest rate of on-time departures of any European airline is that when there is a delay, rather than shuffling around flights so that maybe a few flights have a tolerable delay, they just leave the customers of one flight to rot. A measly 5 Euro token was eventually dispensed, which didn't even buy a portion of chips at the overpriced restaurant (probably the only time we have ever wished for the presence of a reasonably priced American fast food chain). No reason given for the delay, no actual staff anywhere to explain, just a robotic voice over the tannoy. I suppose it is the price you pay for spending pocket change on a flight, but that doesn't mean I can't moan about it! Months later we got another 5 Euro refund, so in the end the flight cost virtually nothing. 5 hours turned into 6, and eventually we boarded the flight and (finally) received an explanation of why we were delayed - the plane had been grounded in Manchester, so a standby crew and plane had to be flown out of Dublin. Thankfully it was only a short flight and in no time we were in Manchester, greeted by my parents. Bleary-eyed we reacquainted ourselves after the year away, and tried not to fall asleep in the car on the way home!

Despite thinking we'd got over the jetlag, the first week at home was spent recovering. Maybe a weekend of heavy drinking isn't the cure to two days in-transit and trying to shift one's body clock by eight hours. The week was a blur, but we had a lovely time catching up with our families. My parents even laid on a belated birthday dinner for me. We were very spoilt, the Parker's even treated us to a Christmas dinner!

Sophie and Ste's wedding was almost upon us, so we caught up with them in the Top Lock and Charlotte spent a day or two helping out with some last minute preparations. The day itself was fantastic, held in a lovely pub in Laneshaw Bridge near Colne. Charlotte, Sophie and Sophie's sister Lucy arrived the night before and enjoyed a spa treatment and dinner, before an early morning hike on the morning of the big day. The service was beautiful and it was so lovely to see two of the St Michael's gang getting hitched.  Sophie's ludicrously talented family provided the music including an epic version of Elbow's 'One Day Like This' to conclude the service.  The food was great, tasty homemade pie and chips, and the evening do was a raucous barn dance. There's nothing like a good old knees up to get people into things and provide lots of laughs!  Lots of fun was had by all, and the beauty of it was that at the end of the night we could just crash out upstairs in our hotel room.


The rest of the month was spent catching up with friends, first heading up to Dundee to see Katie and Matt. We were treated to 'Matt Chicken' and had a lovely walk followed by Haggis pizza. Scottish food at it's best! Marina came to stay in t'Fold and we showed her the sights and sounds of Wheelton and Chorley, lucky girl! We had a great night away with Mark and Thomas to go to a gig (Dead To Me) in York, and it was cool to play tourist in our own country for once. I especially enjoyed the National Railway Museum, with it's countless old British trains and a Japanese Bullet train. Quality beer was supped in the York Tap, completing a hat-trick of Taps around the country (Sheffield and London being the other two - railway stations and good beer, a winning combination. Who knew?), and we of course enjoyed walking around the walls and old city. Our Dead To Me lust not quite satiated, Mark and I headed to Manchester the next night for round two, the highlight being asked on stage to sing a refrain before the rest of the band kicked the song back in (under quite a bit of pressure after seeing a girl the night before failing badly and singing the wrong words!). A late start for the band meant a missed train and a night spent in Piccadilly station, not the best way to recuperate before Mike's big 60th birthday bash. But I managed to power on through (or should that be hobble on through due to a sprained ankle sustained the previous night!) and had a lovely day, riding an old bus up to a the Parkers Arms, Charlotte taking on the role of conductor, before heading back for a buffet tea back in the Fold. Great to catch up with Charlotte's brother Joe again too.

The end of the month and into March was spent yo-yo-ing between Sheffield and Manchester, staying with Emily and practising for my reunion gig with Sofa Crisis. The first practise was amazing, we played better than we ever had, despite not seeing each other for over a year and me not even having had the chance to pick up my drumsticks! The gig went really well, and we had a good crowd in considering it was a weeknight. Nobody booed us off so we considered it a success! As always a pleasure to playing with Nik and Jimmy, especially at the cornerstone of my Sheffield music 'career', West St Live! We enjoyed reconnecting with Sheffield, even after so long away it still feels like home! And even more good pubs have popped up so that was an added bonus alongside meeting up with our friends. Awesome to see our Sheffield-based friends Fuller, Twibs, Jimmy, Rich and Jess again.  An honourable mention goes to Thomas and Sian again for treating us to a lovely dinner at their house.

In Manchester we caught up with Adam and Suze, they took us to an awesome Thai restaurant and we hung out at the new Port Street Beer House. We also stayed with Laura and John and had a fun evening of Tricksters Scramble, and a scrumptious lunch and catchup with Jess and Emma. Back home we had a night out in Brinscall (there's a first time for everything!) at Mum and Dad's sea shanty singing session in the Oak Tree pub. Enjoyed getting into the maritime spirit and even learnt the real words to Rule Britannia. Good times.

At this point (early March) the original plan was to head back to Australia on flights we had booked months previously, however a change of heart not long before we left Fremantle meant our plans were in disarray. Thankfully we had managed to get a refund on the flights which gave us some time to contemplate our next step. Where will we go? Will the Paris trip originally planned with my parents still go ahead despite no longer catching a flight out of Paris? Will we visit France and Spain, visiting relatives and snowboarding at our leisure, on the assumption that we are due a lottery win? Will our planned trip to Groezrock and Belgium still be feasible? Find out in the next instalment. Stay tuned!

Farewell WA - January 2012

We got a bit behind on the blog as you can see, but since it was mostly written in draft form we figured it might as well be published. This post is from our last month in Australia, since then we have been back in Europe for three months and have been in New Zealand for the last three weeks! So this feels like a lifetime ago but here goes...

HMAS Ovens with Liam's workplace in the background

I guess January has on the whole, just like for everyone else, been a month of staying home and trying to save some money. The weather has been between 32 and 42 degrees, in fact one of the hottest January's in decades. It is very welcome, as so far the summer has been worse than usual (quite a few wet and wild, stormy nights), although to be fair as Brits we have been spoilt with the weather from September onwards! But in this month we were both very grateful for the buildings that we work in having air conditioning, although not in our flat. Some nights the air temperature didn't dip below the mid-thirties, so combined with being on the third floor of an apartment building made it pretty hard to sleep some nights. But generally our flat is very airy and when the infamous 'Freo Doctor' (daily breeze) starts up around late morning most days, the wind whistles through the flat, refreshing the air and sending lightweight items flying. At least it keeps us cool!

Whilst Charlotte worked most of the Saturday's in January, Liam took to his bike to explore the local area a little more. One trip was a 50km-ish ride to Perth up the Swan River, before crossing over and coming all the way back down to Fremantle. The trip was just before the heat kicked in, and generally flat so made for a pleasant ride. It was a great way to get a sense of perspective of the whole local area, and to see different suburbs - and surprising lack of amenities, the worse thing about Perth's suburban sprawl. Away from the city refreshment only came from a roadside petrol station bought iced coffee, which wasn't quite what I had in mind when I set out, imagining that surely there would be a nice cafe to refuel at along the way! But it was on the whole scenic and interesting, and I always love walking or cycling by a body of water. The distance was quite deceptive, as the river winds it's way back to Fremantle. Cycling back home along the coast and diving into the sea to wash the dust and sweat away was definitely a highlight, and an activity we are already taking for granted here.

We had a final trip to Fremantle Arts Centre one Sunday morning, which was a bit of a disappointment as the art doesn't seem to have been as varied or interesting since our first visit there. However, it is free and housed in a beautiful building with a nice cafe, so always worth a wander around. We were going to go onto the Maritime museum but as it was such a lovely day decided to stop of for a 'quick pint' at Clancy's, bumped into a friend and before we knew it we were hanging out in various other beer gardens, and were treated to some Irish dancing in Rosie O'Gradys pub before rounding the evening of at the bowling green. Contrary to how that sounds, we hadn't drunkenly scaled the fence for a bit of night-time bowling, there was a band night on at the bar there. Crown Green Bowling seems to have had a bit of a renaissance here, Liam had even already had some practise at his work's Christmas do, and the club was packed with people substantially younger than your typical bowler. We enjoyed a game or two of Crown Green Bowling which was actually really fun, although a little difficult not in daylight. There were lots of little ones running about and certainly that is one thing that is great about Australian culture - the inclusion of kids and young parents at events (or it could be more to do with the fact that Australians seldom turn down an opportunity to drink beer!). Little Creatures brewery bar has a huge sandpit out the back for kids to play in and the guy at the bar even has a clown horn to squeeze if any of the kids start climbing the fence to make a break for it! So young parents still go out with their friends for some after work drinks, and the kids have a whale of a time. It's not to say this kind of thing doesn't happen elsewhere, but it just felt a whole lot more inclusive here, and the parents and kids were welcome in the day at some of the more hip establishments in the centre.

January was a breakthrough month for Charlotte and some research she'd been doing. She has been working with a psychologist since October devising a piece of research to evaluate his work. After months of tweaking, pilot study, tweaking, focus group, tweaking, tweaking and more tweaking (!) the questionnaire is finally up and running, and - more importantly - people are starting to fill it in! Although there is still a way to go in terms of data collation, analysis and write up this now means that Charlotte can work at her own pace rather than at the pace of a rather nit-picking psychologist, hurrah! To show his gratitude he also took her out for a swanky lunch overlooking a white sands and turquoise water at Cottesloe, which made it seem so much more worthwhile.

Our plan had always been to return to the UK for Sophie and Ste's wedding in February. The plan after that had been to return to Oz, pack up Eric and hit the road for a while. About 10 days before leaving Perth, we had a sudden crisis of wondering whether we actually did want to return to Australia or not. After umming and ahhing and ARGHing we eventually decided not to come back (sob!). We had greatly enjoyed living in Fremantle and experiencing WA life, but ultimately wanted to try somewhere new/different/cheaper. So unfortunately our final week in Australia was spent frantically selling the van, getting rid of possessions and saying final goodbyes. The van proved to be the most stressful aspect of this, and we finally waved farewell to it a mere 48 hours before boarding the plane. A lovely Italian couple took him under their wing and, from what we can see from Facebook, they haven't been left stranded in the middle of the outback... yet!

And so we bid Australia a fond farewell! We have had an amazing time and the general highlights for us have undoubtedly been driving about in Eric the Econovan, hitting the beach after work, Fremantle's lively cafe and bar scene, beautiful camping weekends away, stunning sunsets and skies, and soaking up the relaxed Aussie barbecue and beer lifestyle. The downsides to Western Australian life have been a somewhat backwards culture at times, occasionally unbearable heat, some fly-ridden days, isolation from the rest of the Australia (Perth is closer to Singapore than Sydney and the state of Western Australia itself is almost four times as big as France) as well as from the rest of the planet, and expensive food and drink (so long, £6.50 pints, you won't be missed!).

So, to sum up, our perfect Fremantle weekend would be as follows: evening out at Little Creatures on Friday night with a few pints of Little Creatures Pale Ale soaked up by Seafood Laksa at Old Shanghai, an early morning swim at Cottesloe beach on Saturday morning followed by coffee and Eggs Florentine at Fidels, hopping into the van to head to a National Park Campsite, walk in the bush checking out cool trees and spiders, barbecue and beer back at the campsite, drinking wine under the stars before heading back to Freo in the morning via a dusty little town, imagining a weird Western being filmed there and finishing the weekend at the beach with takeway fish and chips from Amberjacks at Cottesloe beach watching the sun set over the water and wriggling our toes in the sand. And really no matter whatever negatives one can come up with, that is hard to beat!

What we've been watching:

Archangel
The BBC adaptation (aired years ago) of Robert Harris's book about a search for an heir of Stalin's, in 3 parts. It stayed very true to the original story, although needed to be cut down greatly which meant reducing a lot of the suspense and intrigue. A good watch, with some beautiful shots of Russia (presumably!) to make us feel very nostalgic for the time we spent there, but definitely a better read.

Black Mirror
Charlie Brooker's look at modern technology and how it can impact us in the future. It focused on three separate themes; the ability of news to go viral and it being very difficult to keep things under wraps once the cat is out of the bag, shows like X Factor and the adverts that run alongside it taking over our daily lives and rewarding / punishing us for what we do and don't watch, and the ability to look back on all of our memories in the future. A really interesting and thought provoking mini series, well written and produced.


What Charlotte's been reading:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Basically a murder mystery thriller with a bit of romance and weirdness thrown in. A gripping novel that I'm not entirely sure deserves it's hype, albeit being quite a good read. Very much written with further books in mind. It would make a cracking film.

Mad Men and Philosophy: Nothing is as it Seems - Rod Carveth & James B South
Exploring philosophical concepts using the medium of the Mad Men series. It includes some good bits about the philosophy of advertising; and keeps your attention as the authors aren't afraid to let you know their personal opinions, including some critique of the series.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written By Herself - Harriet Ann Jacobs. As the title says, an account of being a slave in America. Eloquently written account of being a true survivor.

Last Man in Tower - Aravind Adiga
Liam and I had greatly enjoyed 'White Tiger' by the same author so were excited when this came up as the Kindle Daily Deal. Although not quite as good, the book starts off slowly and then picks up half way through. A tale of greed and community betrayal.

  

The Book of Nonsense - Edward Lear
I have been delving into poetry now and then to try and bring myself to enjoy reading it. My favourite from this book I shall share with you: 'There was an old man whose habits, induced him to feed upon Rabbits, when he'd eaten eighteen, he turned perfectly green, upon which he relinquished those habits.' Not the most sophisticated poetry but amusing nonetheless!

Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunactic Asylum - Mark Stevens
Mark Stevens has looked after the Broadmoor Hospital archives since 2004 and has compiled this book about the early inhabitants. A compelling read!

The Case for Working with your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things is Good - Matthew Crawford
I like the principle of this book very much indeed, written by a guy who has a Phd in Political Philosophy, has worked in a US Government thinktank, and is now a motorcycle mechanic. However, I do feel he is quick to judge 'intellectual' jobs (he only spent 5 months working in the think-tank) and he can rather laboriously litter his musings with examples from motorcycle repair methods; complete with different lines of enquiry as well as diagrams! An interesting read though.

Fatherland - Robert Harris
Inspired to read this after watching Archangel. A story set in Berlin, with the premise being that Germany actually won WWII. We both read this and agreed that it is a slow burner, but is very hard to put down from about halfway. As usual with Harris, it features some real people and events from that era and references to genuine documents from WWII, making it educational as well as entertaining.

Breakfast with Socrates - Robert Rowland Smith
A pretty cool introduction to philosophical concepts, working through an average day to illustrate the ideas.

Fremantle & Perth, Australia

Christmas in SW Australia (25th - 31st December 2011)

Liam enjoying a burger and a pint at Bootleg Brewery

Our Christmas day began with us loading up the van for the week before heading down to our local beach, Cottesloe, for a morning swim. There were lots of people in bikinis and Santa hats which was a sight to behold, and the outdoor gyms were heaving and lots of people embarking in their usual exercise routine (I know, exercise on CHRISTMAS DAY!). It was a hot, sunny day and the water was clear and inviting (still 'refreshing' as always!), the perfect way to start our first antipodean Christmas.  We then embarked on our journey down south. We make a most excellent driving couple. Liam gets car sick as a passenger so prefers to drive, Charlotte doesn't so was able to read for the whole 6 hours the journey took. Excellent! We stopped for a quick Christmas lunch of avocado salad sandwich in Bridgetown, and arrived at Peaceful Bay soon after 4pm. We cracked a couple of beers and opened our pressies, (a good haul, thanks everyone!) before driving around looking for phone signal so we could make a Christmas phone call home. Despite having two different sim cards (having spent $30 on a telstra sim card that said it covered this area) we could barely even get emergency signal and so screeched to a halt next to a phone box and made the call from there (before realising that there was a pay phone at the campsite, d'oh!).  Back at the campsite we got the stove fired up and enjoyed our Christmas dinner of marinated prawns followed by Porterhouse steak, tabbouleh, potato salad and a green salad, yum!  We walked to the beach and gazed at the amazing stars (no light pollution), and conceded that although it was strange not to be amongst family on Christmas day, we'd definitely made the best of it, and the weather had conspired to make it a very enjoyable day.

On Boxing day we just chilled out at Peaceful Bay at the campsite and the beach.  We had a lovely morning of snorkelling, swimming and making a sandman(!).  Late afternoon we headed out to the nearby Valley of The Giants National Park, to do the Treetop Walk.  It is a walkway amongst the forest suspended 40m in the air, enabling you to get up close with the huge 400 year old Tingle trees which give the National Park it's name. The walkway sways quite a lot in the breeze and really is quite an engineering feat. We also did a separate walk on terra firma where we could get a look at the bases of the trees close up, and walk through some trees which had a hollow bottom due to funhgi, parasites and fire. Pretty interesting stuff!

The 27th was Liam's birthday, so we had a fun-packed day. After the obligatory morning swim Liam opened his pressies and we packed up the van (not before a bacon butty feast). First stop was Bartholomew Meadery where we sample various types of traditional and fruity meads.  We bought a bottle of a sweet-yet-dry mead, with some beer-like qualities as it had been re-fermented in the bottle.  The bee hive was in the shop with a glass wall, so we got to see first hand the bees and thank them for their hard work!  The shop also made ice-cream, so it would be remiss of us not to try some lovely ginger ice-cream on a hot day like this. Liam chatted to the guy working there who was wearing a Rolo Tomassi t shirt, who are a band from Sheffield, small world!  We then moved on before hastily doing a u-turn after seeing a sign for a brewery, it was Liam's birthday after all!  Entering the Denmark Brew and Ales building from the front didn't really build up much expectation as it looked like a caravan park, but in fact it boasted a gorgeous veranda overlooking beautiful countryside, where we enjoyed a tasting paddle.  The beer was drinkable yet unremarkable, but the view on a hillside looking over the coastline was what this place was all about.  The day was hotting up and the locals remarked to us how it isn't often this hot down here (being on the south coast it is a lot cooler and wetter than where we live).  We moved onto Denmark for a quick pit-stop (or should that be pie-stop?) for a lunch of proper Aussie pies at an award winning bakery.  We decided that when people recommend Denmark as somewhere to visit, they mean the surrounding countryside (which admittedly is utterly, utterly stunning) rather than the town itself (nothing wrong with it but it is just a single street with a mixture of tourist shops and cafes).  We visited windswept Ocean Beach but retreated to the car to head to the next campsite at Emu Point in Albany. After a longer than intended walk around the point we wined and dined and stuck some birthday candles in some pieces of homemade peanut butter fudge, and drunk some tasty vintage barley wine we had bought a few months previously from Bootleg Brewery. Splendid!

We then treated ourselves to a lazy day where we sat reading the paper in the front of the van overlooking the ocean, and eating delicious salt and pepper squid from the Squid Shack (an Albany institution). Once it had cooled down a little we explored Albany Town Centre and enjoyed it's high street with many old buildings, as Albany was the first settlement in Western Australia.  It was quite an interesting and vibrant little town and possibly the first town we've genuinely liked (bar Freo, obviously!) in WA.  On the way back we drove up Mount Clarence to the war memorial and fantastic views over the unique landscape of various inlets and sounds.

Early next morning we packed up ready to head back to Peaceful Bay and had a glorious breakfast at Emu Point Cafe. Before getting back on the road west, we drove down a very long peninsular and to the inappropriately named Misery Beach. Oddly named, as after a long drive, followed by a hike down from the car park, the reaction stepping onto the beach is 'Oh, WOW'.  A truly beautiful beach and beautiful azure water, of course the photos just don't do it justice.  There was a huge cliff face at one end, making the scene even more impressive, and lots of huge waves crashing in making it a lot of fun to swim in!  Later in the afternoon the horse-flies came out, so we made a run for it and visited 'The Gap' and 'Natural Bridge', aptly named rock formations which date back to the last ice-age when Australia and Antartica were joined together.  Our last stop of the day was at Greens Pool, a shallow and sheltered, very pretty bay which attracts lots of families due to it being so much safer than many of the other beaches. We played with a new ball (a Waboba) we'd got for Christmas which at times was more like playing fetch, as Liam bounced the ball off the water so effectively it went for bloody miles. Thanks Mark! It was a fantastic day to mark a year to the day since we set off from home.  Thinking back to that chilly December morning when we waved our families goodbye at Chorley Railway station was strange because, in some ways, it feels like an incredibly long time ago, and in other ways it feels like time has just flown by.  We cracked opened a beer at 6.17pm to mark the occasion of our train leaving Chorley station at 10:17am British time exactly a year ago!

The following day, we awoke to damp and wet morning and tentatively tried to coax Eric into life to no avail. A German guy who was camping nearby came over, asked where we were heading, and said 'if I get your car started, can you give me a lift to Walpole?'.  All it needed was a little meths on the carburetter and we were away, and enjoyed chatting to Heigl before continuing on from Walpole to Pemberton.  Heigl had told us about some good climbing trees in Pemberton, and as it was on our way we checked one of them out, the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree in the Warren National Park . We'd read about it and had in our heads an idea of a huge tree with basically a rudimentary staircase leading up it.  Charlotte was indignant when Liam asked if she was going to climb it, and retorted that of course she was going to climb it, "I'm not a wuss". Well, it turned out to be an ENORMOUS tree with metal spokes sticking out of it to climb up and around it. Turns out Charlotte is a wuss, although Liam did make it to the halfway point about 40m up.  Scary stuff! We also enjoyed a refreshing walk through the National Park in the mentholly eucalyptus air.  We then carried on to our final destination, to campsite in Margaret River that we'd visited with Charlotte's family earlier in the year.  We visited Colonial Brewery in the afternoon for a scrumptious tasting paddle - more info on this to come in the next post - 'The 12 Beers of Christmas'!

For the final day of our holiday we walked along the river from the campsite into the town of Margaret River, and had coffee at a local cafe. We then headed to Cowramup Brewery for a tasting paddle, nothing like the taste of beer in morning!  We also visited Tassle Park Wines for a tasting (as Liam felt he couldn't visit the Margaret River region twice without visiting a single winery) before heading to the Bootleg Brewery for lunch.  It being New Year's Eve, Bootleg was heaving and we were almost turned away at the gate, but conceded we were only going in for a drink, but thankfully the floor staff found us a table so we could eat.  Liam had an awesome steak sandwich and Charlotte had a scrumptious Turkish platter.  Gorgeous lunch, gorgeous beers, gorgeous setting for a brewery, amongst the farmland and forest.  It had been a great holiday, with perfect weather, and the stunning scenery of the South West coast.

We then drove home, after a long drive for Charlotte and a hard day's beer and wine sampling for Liam, we were exhausted. By the time we had unpacked it was 9pm and we thought better of our idea to go into Fremantle or to the beach for midnight (Charlotte also had to be up for work before 6am).  We watched Four Lions and went to bed at 11.15pm as we were absolutely knackered.  We were woken up by fireworks at midnight and lay in bed watching a pretty elaborate display towards Perth from the window.

So, 2011, we bid you a fond farewell.  I guess all our blog posts will attest that 2011 has been pretty swell. Yep, swell :)

Christmas '11 - South Coast WA

Monthly round-up - December 2011

Charlotte and Eric in Yalgorup National Park

December was a great month for us and summer has finally arrived, lots of beach days, bbqs and swimming; as well as, of course, working and usual home life.

We were lucky enough to receive some STA Travel Vouchers for our wedding and decided to use them to pay for an experience which we might otherwise be reluctant to fork out for. After exploring lots of options we decided that swimming with dolphins would be a rather fun thing to do! So one Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn and drove down to Rockingham to meet the boat. We were then given a briefing along the lines of  "these dolphins are wild, we don't feed them to attract them, so there's no guarantee that we'll find them but we're determined to spend hours looking if necessary!", zipped into our wetsuits and headed out to sea. Thankfully we found the first dolphins within about twenty minutes and jumped in. Basically we snorkelled while the dolphins swam and played around underneath us. One of the guides (Dolphin Girl as she was known) would zoom about under water using a diving scooter, mimicking the dolphins actions and playing around with them to keep them interested. We then watched them swimming about and dashing at each other playfully, before they got shy and swam off. Throughout the morning we swam with a few different groups of dolphins, but they were gradually becoming less interested. Instead we were treated to the spectacle of them catching a lift in the wake of the boat, jumping right out of the water and belly flopping back in. It was a pretty incredible experience – thank you to people who got us the vouchers!

We had decided to make a weekend of it, so once we were back on dry land we explored Rockingham (pleasant enough but not much to it apart from a beach and some nice restaurants and coffee shops) before heading down to Yalgorup National Park. We spent a little time on Preston Beach within the National Park before heading to our campsite for the night, Martin's Tank. National Park campsites are basic (long drop toilets and no running water) but very convenient to those on a budget wanting to get away from the confines of the cramped family campsites. It took about half an hour down an incredibly bumpy sand track to get there (doing wonders to Eric's suspension, I'm sure).  The National Park was fairly dense forest and bushland, and we saw quite a few spiders in the shrubs behind the van, including a beautiful Jewel spider with lots of colourful spikes on it's back. They aren't poisonous thankfully.  The next day we went down to Bunbury for a picnic on the beach, and a "gosh, I wonder why people have recommended this place" moment (no offence intended, the kind of place which would be fine if you lived there but not much point making a special trip), before making our way home via some thrombolites at Lake Clifton, in Yalgorup National Park. Thrombolites, 'living rocks', are the most common form of microbialites, which are rock-like structures built by micro-organisms. Thrombolites and stromatolites were the only known form of life on Earth some 3500 to 6500 million years ago. Microbes found in both thrombolite and stromatolite formations are believed to be responsible for oxygen production which allowed life to exist on the planet. So they're pretty important things – although it's hard to truly appreciate that as you gaze down at the grey blobs in front of you. As Bill Bryson so eloquently puts it; 'They are lusterless and grey and look ... like very large cow pats. But it is a curiously giddying moment to find yourself staring at living remnants of the Earth as it was 3.5 billion years ago.'

December also marked the seasonal opening of our local outdoor cinema. We went to see We Need to Talk About Kevin, which we thoroughly enjoyed, although Charlotte found it harder going than the book, and was slightly disturbed by Kevin being far too pretty. The cinema itself is very cute, and being set in a leafy walled garden, with a bar selling local beers and a wood-fired pizza oven, plus some live music on before the film. A lovely way to spend an evening.

Quick beer reference: we finally opened the bottle of Brewdog AB:04 that Liam bought Charlotte for her birthday. The AB range is a specialist and limited line of experimental beers from Brewdog, and this one an Imperial Stout brewed with cacao, coffee and chilli. Interesting to say the least! Charlotte noted that as it was dark and very rich it might be more suited to the climate of Perth, Scotland than Perth, Australia.

It was strange in the run up to Christmas as it isn't as much of a big deal over here, but we were baffled that everyone we asked seemed to be spending the day itself inside with the air con on roasting a turkey.  A few people had Christmas lights up, but we didn't see a single Christmas tree.  We enjoyed the usual December festivities – namely pub going with friends and colleagues. Liam had two (TWO!) Christmas work do's to attend, one where he had to sit on Father Christmas's knee to receive a gift of a kangaroo scrotum! Not in its original state obviously, but made into a little leather-style pouch.

We had an interesting experience one Sunday evening as we attended the Town of Cottesloe Christmas Carol Service. It was outdoors, of course, and we arrived to the service already having started and to pretty much nobody joining in with the carols, more interested in chatting and drinking wine, while the kids ran amok. We soon realised what kind of a carol service it was going to be after Charlotte commented "I've not even heard of some of these carols – listen to the lyrics to this one from 1973, 'So here's to you Merry Christmas, Everybody's having fun, look to the...' oh right, yeah now I know it". Determined to join in with the carols despite lack of effort from the rest of the crowd, we cracked open a bottle of wine and were soon joining in with a hip hop We Three Kings and other twists on traditional carols, and frantically waving our LED candle. The evening was interspersed with sketches to celebrate the Christmas service's hundredth anniversary. One of the sketches seemed to be heavily advertising the local tea house and included a young woman putting on a faux Indian accent in a questionably distasteful way. We ended the evening by getting trapped at the end of a car park trying to avoid the masses, and made our escape shimmying down from the car park via a tree, to the bemusement of the people throwing a cocktail party from their very swish apartment looking down on us. It wasn't quite Carols round the Clock Tower in Wheelton, but it sure was a great evening!

Stayed tuned for the the next post about our Christmas week holiday. In the meantime, here's a breakdown of Charlotte's reading:

The Whispers of Nemesis – Anne Zouroudi

An Amazon Kindle Daily Deal, purchased on the basis of good reviews from The Guardian and Alexander McCall Smith. Pretty crappy tale of a poet's body being exhumed in Greece and turning out to now have a pigs skull. The following investigation is rather boring and predictable, and none of the characters are remotely likeable.

The Lieutenant – Kate Grenville

Based on a true story, Kate Grenville writes another excellent book about life in Australia for early Western settlers, in this case about a lieutenant who befriends an Aboriginal girl. Sensitive and informative, an interesting read.

Breakfast at the Hotel Deja vu – Paul Torday

A novella based around the MP expenses scandal. If you like Paul Torday's other books, you'll like this. An intricately woven plot, narrated by someone in a coma with memory problems. There are some genius moments of genuine deja vu on the part of the reader, and the subject of the expenses scandal is very interesting as it explores the rationalisation of those who thought it was perfectly acceptable to rip off the tax-payer. Liam also read and enjoyed this book.

Do you Think You're Clever? - John Farndon

John Farndon answers questions which have been asked in Oxbridge entrance interviews, such as 'Do you think you're clever?',  'What is fate?', 'Does a Girl Scout have a political agenda?', 'How would you measure the weight of your own head?' etc. Fascinating insight into all sorts of topics, and really gets you thinking outside of the box. Brilliant book.

You Can't Say That: Memoirs – Ken Livingstone

I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing read about Ken Livingstone's career, so much so that I can forgive him for barely mentioning his home life and being terribly flippant about his decision to co-parent with someone who wasn't his partner.  He seems like a very intelligent, rational and caring bloke, one can only hope he will unseat Boris in the upcoming mayoral election.

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

Read because, well,  it was Christmas!  The first of a Dicken's book for me to read to the end, more of a reflection of it's short length than it's enjoyability.  Despite me not being a Dickens fan, it was good to finally read what is such a well known tale from the countless televised, film and theatre versions. 

Van Adventures

Fremantle & Perth, Australia

(New photos have been added to the end of these albums)

Monthly round-up - November 2011

Charlotte at The Pinnacles.

So we're desperately battling to get the blog up to date and from now on we'll be aiming to do the blog month by month! As it's the 30^th November (when this was written, blame Liam for taking so long to get it published!) it would seem fitting that we are spurred on to recording a little of what we've been up to this month.

We had a great weekend away up north taking in the Piccacles. Driving up north (and not really that far) certainly gave us an insight into what driving in Western Australia is like, We knew there would be an awful lot of nothing. We just weren't quite that prepared for that much... nothing (and compared to the rest of Australia this wouldn't even register on the nothing-scale).  However, every so often there is a corking view of the coast, or of some amazing white dunes that look like snow capped mountains.   We were also amazed at how quickly the landscape can change after looking the same for hours on end.  We arrived at the Pinnacles just at the right time, as some of the tourists were departing and the sun was lowering and providing some cool shadows. The Pinnacles is just a huge area of, well, rocks, basically, lots of limestone lumps and bumps jutting out of the group in odd ways as everything else around them has been eroded away. You drive through, hopping out every now and again for a wander, and it truly feels 'other worldly', almost as if you're on a film set. Pretty bizarre. Pinnacles done, we drove on a little further to Cervantes where we were camping for the night. The campsite was pretty full but had a BBQ area under a marquee (shelter from the wind was key!) which pleased Liam no end.  Cervantes is a small town with some beautiful coast, we spent our mornings at Thirsty Point and we also drove up to Jurien Bay to bask in the turquoise waters. There's only so much that you can write about white sands and quiet beaches, but it was pretty swell! On our way back home, we took a scenic route inland and stopped by New Norcia.   New Norcia was set up in the 1800's by some Spanish Monks who wanted to 'civilise' the local Aborigine population by making them a self sufficient community.   It includes a few huge old buildings and a Byzantine inspired church; which looks gob-smackingly out of place as you approach it on the highway.   I guess to many Western Australians this may be the closest to thing to old European architecture that they will ever see.  Very interesting nonetheless.

Another weekend we took a day trip out to York. Well, when I say day trip, we drove for about 2 hours to get there and it took about 45 minutes to look around, because most things were closed. Not to say it's not nice, in fact I can imagine if it was bustling it would have quite a feel to it (usually in October they have a jazz festival which would have been a perfect setting for it, but this year it was cancelled). But hey, we bought a pie, looked at the building that reminded us of old American movies, sat a while chilling... all good stuff! On our way back we went to York Wines and did a tasting. It was interesting wine because the vines aren't irrigated, making for a dryer, stronger grape and wine. They also use no pesticides on their plants, and no preservatives or filtration techniques (for all you vegans out there, no nasty fish or egg products).  A pretty amazing undertaking given the dry climate of this area, it means that some years they don't even get a crop.  Unsurprisingly they were actually in the process of selling up!  We bought a bottle of their stuff and Liam is now a firm believer that the chemicals that you usually find in a bottle of red is what gives you a headache the next day. So there you go.

One weekend we threw the bikes in the back of the van and headed out into the Perth Hills for a bike ride around the Heritage Trail. It's mainly on a disused railway track, and is about 40 km. The trail affords some fab views back towards Perth and was pretty quiet considering it was a nice weekend. Despite Charlotte's initial grumbles (my bike's too small for me, my saddle's too painful – nothing changes eh Dad!) we finished on a high having freewheeled downhill for about 7 km – wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

After the last gigs we've been to being pretty small intimate affairs, we were excited for something different and very excited to be going to see Fucked Up (sorry Mum), Tenacious D and Foo Fighters at an outdoor stadium in Perth!  Fucked Up were a great warm up, I think they hardcore punk sensibilities confused most of the mainstream rock fans there but it turns out, if your lead singer is fat and comes out into the crowd to hug as many people as he can (including climbing up into the seating areas), then it makes for an entertaining show. Tenacious D were funny as always, if a little predictable by now.  And of course the Foos, the Foos! Always a pleasure; even though the sound was a bit dodgy at the beginning it was pretty good for most of it and they did a fair mix of old stuff and new stuff (as well as some covers, which didn't really go down that well!). Finishing with Everlong just as it started raining heavily was a pretty epic end to the night :)

Last but not least, let's discuss the WA Beer Showcase. Now, there isn't much to do in WA, beyond barbecuing and sunbathing.  We therefore are jumped at the chance to attend anything which sounds vaguely up our street.  The WA Beer Showcase most definitely fell into that category.  So off we toddled to pay $30 to get into what essentially was a trade show for West Australian breweries. Each brewery had a stand (although there were some glaring omissions apparently due to the WA Tourism Awards being on the same night) and you got a free glass and 5 free tokens for samples as you went in. We attended a talk about 3 different styles of beer, which we could also sample. Follow this with Charlotte being given 3 times as many tokens as she paid for towards the end, and being given free beer by Darcy who was representing the Nail Ale stand who we've met before on a few occasions, and it's fair to say that by the end of the night, we'd had a few. It was an excellent night though, speaking to brewers and randomers alike all who were there because of a love of beer.  As it was the first event, and how paranoid the local authorities seem to be about granting alcohol licenses (especially as it was in a community space right in the centre of Perth) it was lacking a bit of atmosphere, a bit of live music wouldn't have gone amiss for starters.  It was if they were desperate to avoid the beer swilling masses getting wind of the event and turning it into a debauched beer festival.  Somewhere in between would be good!

So that leads us almost up to the present, now for our first Christmas abroad in the unfamiliar surroundings of sun, sand, sea.

Van Adventures

Fremantle & Perth, Australia

Parker Invasion (October 2011)

Charlotte and Joe on the beach at Rottnest Island.

As many of you will have been aware, Charlotte's parents and brother came over to visit us in Western Australia in October. Yippee! It was fantastic to all get together and see them all again, and for us to have a little 'taste of home' for a short time. Liam did a sterling job of continuing his 9-5 whilst partying each evening and going away each weekend, and Charlotte managed to sneak the odd night shift at work to pay the bills!

The highlights included:

A weekend trip away to the Margaret River, where Charlotte and her parents embarked on a winery tour and Liam and Joe hit the beach (and a brewery). The winery tour was interesting and amusing as we learned about why Ozzie wine is so strong, and Dad tried to enjoy drinking white wine (and failed). The top wines we had included a chilled sparkling Shiraz and a white Port. Yum! Liam and Joe went to Bootleg Brewery, 'an oasis of beer in a desert of wine', and enjoyed a tasting paddle. Sat in the beautiful surroundings of their beer garden (it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere). Margaret River is a funny little town mainly catering for the tourism industry which has been created due to the wine region being so good around here. The River itself is less than impressive (think more babbling brook) but we had a great time on a campsite there; Mum, Dad and Joe in close quarters in a cabin and Liam and Charlotte in Eric the Econovan. We also had a walk along the coast, and saw some kangaroos on the way back, and were treated to an entertaining spectacle of Kangaroo boxing - punches in the nose and karate kicks galore, tremendous!

Another weekend trip was to Rottnest Island, visible from Fremantle on a clear day and accessible by boat. The island used to be a prison and has a lot of Aboriginal history because of this. There is one 'settlement' on the island containing all of the accommodation, shops etc, and the rest of the island is gloriously unspoilt, it's car free roads great for cycling. We all got bikes and whizzed round the island, before going back to the most pristine beach for a bit of snorkelling. The weather was amazing while we were there but unfortunately this did attract a rather substantial amount of flies! The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing in the garden, barbecuing and drinking to our hearts content.

We spent lots of time around Fremantle, showing the Parkers the Fremantle Arts Centre, fish and chipping at Cicerellos, breakfasting at Fidels (eggs florentine – swoon!), beering at Little Creatures, $7 beering at The Monk (scarily the most bargainous drinking option going, nice beer brewed on the premises but bad hangovers!) and walking up to South Beach.

By the end of the visit Liam and Joe were BBQ extraordinnaires, and we had enjoyed an array of BBQ delights including burgers, sausages, chicken wings, steak, halloumi, veg kebabs, salmon, tuna and prawns, not all in the same meal! We also showed them around our local area, walking along the beautiful beaches of Mosman Park, Cottelsoe and Swanbourne up to the Naked Fig for a coffee and huge slab of cake.

We did a night tour around Fremantle Prison – a very informative and humorous guided tour around the old prison at night.

Of course lots of days were spent at the beach, swimming in the sea, and watching Joe swimming and being followed by an eager seal that he was utterly oblivious of (despite about 10 people on the beach excitedly pointing our to it and the lifeguard practically jumping up and down with glee!)

We also met up with Charlotte's Dad's second cousin, Helen, who now lives in near Perth – small world! While up that side of Perth we visited Perth Aquarium (AQWA), seeing all the creatures we hoped not see in the sea. Our favourite was perhaps the sea dragon, Google a picture of it – it's bizarre!

For Charlotte's birthday we went out for a curry not far from where we used to live with Bruno, after starting the night with a couple at Little Creatures, of course. On the actual day of her birthday we had a lovely brunch before heading off to Margaret River.

On our last evening together, the family produced an early Christmas present for us! It was an absolutely massive Esky, perfect for filling with beer and food and ice and throwing in the back of Eric (our campervan) for weekends away. An amazing present and one that we've already made use of and will be invaluable when we hit the road proper in March! Massive thanks to Dad who brought it back on public transport, most probably looking quite absurd (it really is huge).

And in the blink of an eye, almost three weeks had passed and it was time for them to go. Although it was sad to part ways again, we look forward seeing them again in February (and everyone else of course!). But for now, back to the grindstone to save up for our future escapades!

Parkers

Touchdown in Oz (20th July - 2nd October)

Charlotte with Eric (the Econovan).

We arrived at Perth Airport on a chilly and dull morning on the 19^th July, the middle of the Australian winter. Being in Western Australia this rarely means much worse than 7 degrees and a few storms. We were due to stay with our old Withnelian friend Bruno, of Lets Not Lose Mars To The Commies (Liam’s old band) fame. After driving from the airport through sprawling, featureless suburbs, we eventually arrived on the outskirts of Fremantle. A knock at the door at 6am and we eventually managed to drag Bruno out of bed, and he welcomed us with bleary eyes and a bare floored room as he had expected us the following day. Having just come from the tropical sweatiness of Cambodia, we were woefully prepared for temperatures of even a mild nature, so we spent the first night shivering in our think silk sleeping bags and unsubstantial clothing. This was compounded by the fact that the houses here are built with baking hot summers in mind, very open and airy with no insulation. We marvelled that this would indeed be a lovely, cool house in the summer, as we shivered the night away.

The first few days we spent acclimatising ourselves and buying some more suitable clothing. Jeans, socks, jumpers and raincoats were the order of the day. As was a dooner - a duvet to you and I. We got the lay of the land in Fremantle and surveyed the various pubs selling myriad beer, a real treat after the limited offerings of the past few months (we like lager but sometimes its nice to have some variation!). We saw Bruno’s band play (Hand Stands For Ants), who were great fun live and met some of his friends. We spent the first month doing not an awful lot, just exploring around and about on the days where the weather was nice, and of course brushing up our CVs and applying for jobs. We got ourselves bikes and cycled up and down the coast paths, and to Kings Park in Perth.

Our first trip out of Fremantle was with Bruno and his girlfriend, Betty, to her parents holiday home in Dwellingup. We had plans for walks in the forest and maybe even some rafting on the river but in the end the weather was so bad we just ended up drinking and playing Scrabble. Still, a great time, and the opportunity for Betty to make us an amazing breakfast of poached eggs and tomatoes (she worked in a cafe in Fremantle that probably does the best breakfast going). Go Betty!

We spent a month or so living with Bruno, it just so happened he had a spare room when we arrived, unfurnished but we managed to find a spare mattress. It was a pretty decent sized house with a big garden and within walking distance from Fremantle. The only downside was that the trucks from the port were up and down the main road outside our window, not particularly conducive to a good night's sleep! Not the little trucks we have back home either, huge American Mac trucks with double trailers, roaring away as they pulled up the hill outside from the traffic lights at 4am. The only other inhabitant of the house was Bruno's legendary cat, Warhawk. We spent many a day with her while she howled for food constantly, and she kindly brought us a dead rat as a token of thanks for feeding her. Lovely!

After failing to get any casual work (winter is much quieter as the tourist numbers drop off), Liam decided to go through an agency in Perth to try and get a job in IT. Luck was on his side and a job at Fremantle Ports was procured, working on the Helpdesk in a similar role as with the NHS in Sheffield (an originally temporary contract now extended until the end of January). Charlotte tried her hand at bar work and charity mugging (sorry, fundraising) before settling into a job caring for people with acquired brain injuries, mainly from car accidents.

At the end of August we had to look for a place to live as Bruno's lease was about to expire and he was moving out. We wanted to get away from the main road and the road-trains rattling the windows all night, and decided to try and live out the Australian dream near the beach. We chose Mosman Park due to its proximity to the beach, although to be fair there are two highways and a railway line between us and the coast for those of you imagining us living in a beach-front tropical paradise! It is also 7 minutes on the train from Fremantle (or a half hour coastal bike ride, great for cycling to and from work for Liam) and about 20 minutes to Perth. The rent isn't cheap but unless you want to live in the back of beyond in suburbia, it wouldn't get much cheaper.

We have been enjoying the weather, although it has been anything but predictable. As we arrived in July, our spirits were lifted with tales of spring in September, but even as I write this in early November, the wind is howling and we have had some fairly epic storms recently.  That’s not to say we haven’t had some good weather too, half the week is usually beach-worthy and even in August we had some days worthy of a British summer, although actual summer here could see the temperatures rising to well over 40 degrees.

September the 11th saw a very special anniversary for us, our first year together as husband and wife. The night before we had tickets to see our Ozzy punk favourites Frenzal Rhomb, a blast from the past as we had both seen them around 10 years previously. It was great to go to a punk rock gig after all this time, and it was cool that another favourite of ours, Teenage Bottlerocket, were supporting. We had a meal at a Japanese restaurant beforehand, and enjoyed a nice bottle of wine in a trendy bar on the way to the venue. Just in case we were feeling a bit above our station, we were happy to be brought back to earth in the more familiar surrounds of a beer soaked rock club. Some things never change eh? The following day was our actual anniversary and the weather was on our side, so we had a scorching hot day down the beach at Cottesloe. Tapas was procured for the beachside restaurant a few minutes further north by bike at Swanbourne, so all in all a lovely day.

At the end of September we had settled into our jobs and decided it was time to buy a campervan, especially since Charlotte had been hiring a car for work. We looked at a few which didn't work out but finally bought a white 1990 Ford Econovan from a friendly German and Swedish couple. The van was basic but conveniently kitted out with a bed which folded up into a settee in the back, and was a little longer than most, giving us some extra storage space. The mileage didn't seem too high for its age and a further bonus was that it was dual fuel, so it also ran on LPG (pretty cheap over here). We bargained them down by a few hundred dollars and set off on our merry way. It was only when we came to register the van in our name that we came a cropper, as it was currently registered in South Australia, so we needed to get it registered and put Western Australian plates on it. We were assured this was an easy process as WA are pretty lax about things and there is no legal requirement for an MOT. However, when the license is being transferred interstate its a different story! So after some very expensive work was carried out to get it up to code (new brakes, LPG tank, tyres seat covers and more) we were road legal and had evaporated what little money we had but were just happy to have a van to call our own. In hindsight we should have been more careful when buying, but this is the peril of knowing very little about cars, from other people who know very little about cars, in a country which doesn't require yearly road-worthy testing. Lesson fully learnt! In reality though, the vans that had good service history and were well looked after were a lot more expensive, so ultimately we probably didn't pay all that much over the odds. The problem is that a lot of vans get passed around the backpacker circuit, and due to them being owned for a few months at a time get very little attention from the owners, who just hope for the best and drive them into the ground. It's like a game of pass the bomb in this respect, and we ended up taking the full force of the blast!

Our first day trip with our new-found freedom was to Walyunga National Park, where we enjoyed a barbecue on one of the ubiquitous public grills found in parks and on beaches all over Australia. On the way back we stopped off for a tasting at Houghton Wines in the Swan Valley wine region. We tasted some of their excellent premium range, and after some very generous measures Liam was drunk enough to buy a bottle of wine for $30, which we are saving for Christmas. Charlotte tasted a couple but was driving back (Liam would like to note that he would have offered to drive but Charlotte was due to pick the Parkers up from the airport later that night). The Swan Valley normally produces fairly cheap wines as it is a bit too hot (this also produces very high alcohol wines, 14.5% whites seem common!), but the wines we tasted were made with grapes from further south, where the climate is a bit cooler and less dry. Liam was blown away by the different flavours, and aside from being quite merry by the end, was definitely sold on the virtues of paying for high quality wine.

And with that, we have belatedly brought you up to date with our goings-on until the end of September. More to follow, covering the action-packed three weeks we spent with Kath, Mike and Joe Parker. A rollercoaster ride of eating and drinking like I was on holiday but actually going into work every day at 8am. Watch this space...

Fremantle & Perth, Australia