Arrived in Perth

After emotional farewells at Heathrow with Vanessa and John, we had a stress free flight to Singapore as the plane was only 3 parts full. This was followed the quickest ever transfer to an onward flight to Perth ever, within an hour of landing we were on our way again. On arrival at Perth we were immediately aware of how laid back Australians are. No military style commands as in U S immigration, no orders to stand behind the line, or intensive searches like the U K. We were swiftly into baggage arrival and out of the airport. $50 taxi ride to our apartment, we thought was over the top, only to discover later how much more expensive it has become here.

!8 May 2011
Our apartment is very basic, which is a polite way of putting it. It is reasonably clean meaning no wildlife detectable. Everything is worn out and mastering the shower so as not to flood the apartment is an art. The whole place needs a makeover but it is home for the next few days.
Today was a beautiful day, 22C and we spent most of it wandering around the city. Perth is undergoing major building and roadworks but they still manage to keep the place clean and tidy. Happy to be here and looking forward to visiting places in the city we have visited before.

!9 May 2011
Today we spent the first 2and a half hours in H S B C Bank setting up an Aussie bank account. We think that having Australian Debit cards will make it much easier to replace if ever they get stolen, lost, or gobbled up by an ATM machine or also stopped on the whim of some Asian Bank Clerk with a Glaswegian accent (as happened to us on our first trip)!! Having done that we have to get H S B C UK to let us have our money to put into our shiny new Aussie account.
Later we wandered around looking at places of interest we have visited before and to discover which place of interest sold the cheapest beer. So far the equivalent of £6 a pint is the best we have found!!

20 May 2011
Woke up to torrential rain!!-----is it us?
We have an appointment with Greg of K B Campers at Wanneroo, north of the city .He picked us up at the nearest railway station and took us to his motor home dealership. It wasn’t long before we found exactly what we were looking for, a walkthro 2 berth V W camper complete with shower, toilet,roll out awning--------everything really and we got it for $3000 less than the advertised price.
Back in Perth we were having lunch in a café tucking into our minced kangaroo sandwich and flat white when we were challenged by an Aborigini person to donate money as it was hungry. Not quite sure of the gender, could have been a hairy woman. Anyway the answer was negative which didn’t go down very well and Peter was immediately cursed and told in no uncertain terms “ you won’t be leaving Australia for sure” Not quite sure how to take that. Later we found a very loud Irish bar selling happy hour beer at only the equivalent of £6.60 a pint. Durty Nellies hold the record so far.