Nanna's 80th

We flew down to Melbourne, the day after moving into our Perth house, to surprise Nanna on her 80th Birthday. We arrived in Melbourne, where Deb picked us up and took us back to her house where we would be staying for the weekend. Ian had been unwell, so he waited for us at home. Saturday morning, we had a little sleep in (to help with the time zone shift) then headed to the hall to help with final details. On the way, we rang Nanna to wish her a happy birthday because she thought we were still in Perth. When she arrived and saw us in person, she was shocked and overjoyed. That was only the first of a number of surprise visitors that day, including a favourite singer of Nanna's, Brendan Scott. Mum did a tremendous job and did not leave a single detail undone. The day was a huge success!

Perth - The city

We spent a day in the city of Perth having a look around and doing a bit of shopping. Perth is a nicer city than Sydney and is much, much smaller. We walked down by the Swan River and saw the Swan Bell Tower, which houses bells presented to WA from London to commemorate Australia's Bicentennial.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch in London Court, a mall in the heart of Perth, built identically to a street in London. The small shops, narrow street and the type of shops make you feel like you are stepping into a London street.

Goodbye Warwick Rd and hello to life in Perth

We were sad to leave our house in Tamworth (above) because it was a fantastic house and perfect for visitors (as anyone who visited would know) . However...
Today we moved into our new home! After two weeks in a hotel and a week travelling before that, we were more than ready to have a house of our own again. We have been blessed with another nice home (with four bedrooms to accommodate visitors). We already have a number of people booked in to visit, but we'll always welcome more. We miss having friends nearby and are going through the steps of establishing new friends - always a hard process.

Our first two weeks in Perth

When we first arrived in Perth, we were put in a hotel right on the water. There was a King size bed, beautiful views but no kitchen. We had already been on the road for over a week and we were ready for some home cooked food.



Scott soon rang up to get us moved to a different place. The air force apologised as they thought they had booked us a hotel room with a kitchen. Much to our surprise, we were moved to a different hotel and given a room with a kitchen, a spa and even better views. The view, by day or night, was spectacular.

Just near to our second hotel was a place called Hillary's Boat Harbour. A popular tourist destination with lots of restaurants and souvenir shops, but best of all there was an ice creamery. In Tamworth, there is no ice cream shop at all! We had a couple of walks during our stay, to try out some of the local food. One of the greatest things about Perth is the weather. It may sound strange to eat ice cream in winter, but Perth is so much warmer than Tamworth, it only feels like autumn. Hillary's is also home to AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia). We enjoyed an afternoon wandering the aquarium watching the seals entertain us and learning about some dangerous sea creatures.