We've been in Perth a while now

Everything written here for outsiders includes something along the lines of 'Perth is the most isolated capital city in the world', 'WA is beyond huge' or 'About as close to Southeast Asia as Australia's East'. The problem is that these statements are all too pithy, and while yes, it does take a bloody long time to walk/ride/drive/fly to anywhere over East, once you start living here it's just like being in any other neighbourhood. Well, not quite any neighbourhood:

- it's hot- always sunny, with burning sun and effectively no rain since we arrived in early December (proof: Dec, Jan)
- people are generally friendly
- they don't sound that Australian here
- there's actually a decent public transport system!

We'd have a view like this if we stood on the roof... but normally we just walk 250m to the park for it

We're in South Perth, which is just over the estuarial Swan River from the CBD. The black swans on the river (hence its name) and foreshore had their cygnets recently, which with their grey fluff looked just the same as the standard (white) swan cygnets. The dusty moorhens, coots and ducks add to the similarities with home, though the paperbark eucalypts and palms they use for shade are quite distinctly not British. It's a green city away from the river too, though for a city facing collosal environmental challenges around water needs, low rainfall and flood planes / rising sea levels, they do seem to use the sprinklers a lot. Perth appears a microcosm of Australia as a whole, trying to accommodate every citizen's 1/4 acre dream plot scrubland bungalow, while realising that the 90km continuous suburban sprawl along the coast is very expensive, inefficient and not sustainable. It's pity there's so much mining wealth propping up the expansion.


Have you heard of quokkas? The internet would have you believe that they are the happiest animals in the world, but though they seemed interested and not at all shy, I didn't see them smile when we went cycling on Rottnest Island. A trip to Rotto, as the locals know it (and which my spellcheck wants to amend to rotfl - how lols) is a fave for many Perthites, who appreciate the traffic-free cycling and walking, and the pristine beaches - unpopulated once a few kilometres from the accomodation areas. There's a boat trip to get there; we departed from the CBD jetty and got a waterborne city guide in the bargain.

Much earlier in our trip, we watched the AFL Grand Final (Aussie rules football - confusing and played on a cricket oval with four goalposts at each end) in Melbourne. The losing side was the Fremantle Dockers, who along with the West Coast Eagles comprise WA's contribution to the premier league of this unusual antipodean sport. The city of Fremantle is historic, with several original buildings from the first few years of the settlement, but also fun and friendly. Oddly enough, the presence of a university doesn't really help the feel of the city - too many stale office-like buildings that could be flats and shops, but thankfully the market and cafés compensate really well. Freo (most things are abbreviated here) is just a light railway ride from the CBD, and also quite close to the place I've just got a job at, a bit up the coast in Mosman Park.


Finding jobs here is hard, unless:
- you're fully qualified in whatever over-specific niche is required
- you've 3 years experience doing the job for minimum pay
- you're AMAZINGLY OUTGOING and LOVE serving customers in an EXCELLENT happy mood all the time


Somehow, we've both managed it. I'm the bartender and general wait staff for an upmarket Japanese restaurant. I'm not sure how I fangled this job, though admittedly I'm on just over half of nothing per hour and still in a two week trial period. Annie is doing much better, with a job at a local Italian deli called Scutti, decent hours and a commute that doesn't involve a 25 minute drive each way. Needless to say, the eponymous owners haven't yet been apprised of the colloquial English meaning of 'scutty'.

Going back to where this entry started, we're in South Perth. We're staying with Annie's first cousin once removed (Simon), his wife (Nicci) and dog (Mosey) in their lovely old house. We've been made to feel very welcome, indeed part of the family, and have even gone surfing with one of their friends. Their twin sons Ben and Andrew are great, and I'm sure the esteemed Winthrop Professor (Andrew) would (secretly) appreciate a shameless plug here for his book, 'Will Mozart Make My Baby Smart?' (Hint: ... umm, actually I haven't read it yet, oops).

One of the strange things in Perth is that despite its size, everyone seems connected here: Simon and Nicci know random baristas in town, and my colleague also works at Annie's workplace. Strange though, I thought she didn't know this suburb when I said I was living in South Perth - guess she was just taking the piss out of my accent! There's a nice small-town feel in Perth that comes with the urban sprawl and low-ish population density, and the coffee shop culture that Britain has tried to adopt over the last decade or so really doesn't come close to what Perth has. There are some chains, sure, but outside the malls it's mostly little independent places with top-notch modern Italian coffee machines and speciality blends from a variety of regional and local roasteries - favourite so far is Mano A Mano at the Gordon Street Garage in West Perth. Simon and Nicci are regulars at a certain place on Angelo Street near Annie's work, and are on first name terms with not only the serving staff but also several other customers and their dogs. There are free communal BBQ stations in the foreshore park. A local school backing onto Angelo Street also opens the gym and pool when school isn't on. There are lots of things that contribute to the coffee culture, and even if Britain misses the point, it's a pretty good thing to aim for.

Planning is hard work, and remembering to keep well hydrated is key

 We started planning the next big section of our trip yesterday. Roughly, we're just going to follow the coast road, Highway 1, with a few big detours to Darwin, Uluru and Cairns and probably lots of smaller detours like we've written about previously on our coastal journey from Adelaide to Melbourne. All-in, we've probably another 15,000 kms before we get back to Melbourne, and are planning to leave Perth around the end of March, giving us around 6 months - plenty of time! I'm particularly looking forward to driving through the Pilbara (have a look at the photos on this blog!), seeing crocs (from a distance!) in the Top End, visiting the Riversleigh fossils in Queensland (and thus completing the World Heritage listing it shares with the caves in Naracoorte, SA), and especially trying to get to the tropical paradise of the Whitsunday Islands . There's lots more to see and do on the way of course, and Annie is excited about all the Big Things the Queenslanders have made, though less excited when we read about the man-made termite mound in Mataranka, NT.