Wed morning, 18 May 2005
We are now at the lovely big Big 4 caravan camp near the airport, Perth International Cvan Park. A lovely night's sleep in our new motorhome and we are all refreshed and ready to go. Amazingly there is another storm heading towards Perth tonight so let's see what the morning brings.
Since our last blog we have survived the big storms that I am sure you heard about. Our experience was all good. We were quite tired after our big day getting to WA and woke early as our body clocks were still 2 hours ahead. The wind was howling and the rain beating down. It was wonderful to be lying in bed experiencing it all. And our apartment was just wonderful. The twins and I went up the street at 7.30am to go to the bakery, there was a little rain but nothing to bother us. Nice little shopping centre too. Later the twins went swimming again in the very nice pool and also in the big, warm spa. The sun came out at this time so we headed back up the hill, caught the bus and were whisked the quite short distance into the city getting off at Barrack St for those that know it. This is quite near the statue commemorating the cutting down of the first tree to begin Perth. We spent hours in the Hay St mall, lots of fun and shopping. There is a lot to see and do and we still have lots to go. One notable purchase was a Navman GPS unit. It has been amazing as you will see.
Finally home later, grabbed food for the kids and a video for them. We left them safely ensconced in our apartment and Lib and I went to the Karalee Hotel for a delicious meal and movie deal. For $18 we had a calamari, chips and salad meal in an excellent bistro then walked 50m to the Como Theatre, mentioned in the last blog, for the Kevin Costner movie, the Upside of Anger. I ran into Eddie again, the owner, and had a nice chat. The theatre is quite amazing and is pretty much the same as it was in 1938 when it was built. So a terrific experience. Eddie is prob from Sth Africa, in his 60's, wears black clothes, has a pencil thin moustache, black curly hair neatly combed back, looks like a 30's filmstar and has class!! I felt seriously underdressed for the evening. He has an upstairs which he opens only when busy but said he has a well dressed client and wife for whom he chills champagne and allows to watch the movies from upstairs!
Tuesday. Big packup but all our bags etc was able to be left at the Broadwater Resort apartments, they couldn't have been more helpful! We crossed the big Kwinana Freeway to walk out on the Como Pier. Here I set the GPS. I wondered if it would think I was in the water! Met nice couple, Fred and Dianne, who are also heading to Broome.
We walked up to the same bakery and caught the same bus to the city and had the SAME bus driver, what are the chances of that in a big city! Went to the bus interchange in Wellington St, where Curly Ohmsen and I arrived in Perth in 1982, and walked straight around to the train to Bayswater on platform 9. The trains are interesting, seats are along the side of the carriage and you face everyone, very nice quality too. At Bayswater we did not know where to go so I got out the GPS unit and set the motorhome people as our destination. The unit then talked us directly to the depot. It was a long walk but very interesting and good exercise.
We met Sylvia (i think) who took us through it all. It is the same design as our last one, which we had for 60 days, but it is newer and improvements are noticeable in the design. It has an Iveco truck with a 6 speed gear box but it does have cruisecontrol which they don't tell most people about but we are good customers apparently! This will be nice on the long stretches (and it worked well on the freeway).
We set the GPS for the van park and it guided us unerringly straight to the door, no maps and I did not believe it was going in the right direction at times! So this is great. It has ALL of Australia built into it, every street and road and you can set multiple destinations. I have an English male voice at the moment but will try the lady today! Lib's cousin Christine and her hubby Brian had the same type of thing so were very keen to try it.... it is excellent and recommend it to all. You will save the cost in peace of mind.
Spent the night here and we are heading off to the city, maybe the zoo, and then back here again to batten down for the expected storm around 8pm Perth time. Van is very comfortable and the DVD/CD/MP3 player is a nice extra on last time when tv channels were difficult to find in the Simpson Desert!
Best run, sorry for the length. Be in touch soon.
Happy 70th birthday to my mum, Fay, for yesterday (we did speak to her), thanks to sister Jen for the email, it worked nicely. Thanks to Foof and Terry for the advice on the van park, it is excellent. Hi to the staff at BHS, I am thinking of you! Hi to Moyna and Helen and family.
Warwick

Sunday night ... PERTH
time is 6.25pm Perth time and 8.25pm for the eastern states.
hi there all,
It is with great relief that I can inform you that we are HERE!!
It has been a long day. With a 9.15am flight from Canberra, all the baggage and all of us. Thanks to sister Jenny for driving the green van back to Mum's place and to Mum, Blake, Lewes and Hol for seeing us off.
Flight was very nice, just about an hour, nice views of the mountains and room at the back of the flight for moving around.
Melbourne airport terminal is quite comfortable for a few hour stay however our Perth flight was delayed for over an hour which stretched the friendship!
Finally underway about 1.15pm Melb time... this time the flight was full and this makes for a degree of interminability (to coin a phrase). And according to my maths 1 window seat does not go into 3 children equally at the same time... you fill in the rest.. yoiks. A bit of turbulance meant the seatbelts were put on at least twice. This annoyed Brit as she was in the queue for the few toilets and they all had to sit down! Rain in Perth meant that cloud was about all we saw on this flight. Still and all we didn't mind it all too much.
Getting to Perth was interesting as we flew right across the city to land from the south. Then walking out of the terminal hit us with a noticably warmer atmosphere. The airport shuttle went to our South Perth digs via the city so that was an added bonus, a free city tour!! Place is looking green though the locals say it is dry... looked wet as we walked around!
Our apartment, the Broadwater Resort apartments, is very nice. An upstairs loft with 2 single beds, suit 9 yr old twins, 2nd bedroom with 2 beds, just enough room for a teenage girl, and a master bedroom with ensuite. Foxtel, kitchen, spa, swimming pool, tennis court (almost a swimming pool itself right now!) All very nice.
Took the kids for a walk around the block, in the drizzle, (grumble grumble!) up to Como shops. Very nice area, once had trams. Dropped into the old theatre, all done up, to get out of the rain more than anything, and chatted to the couple who run it waiting for the current session to emerge. Very interesting conversation, and very nicely done up inside and out. Then up to the shops to experience the differences in the shops etc... not much differences to report.
Back now, and rain is heavy, restaurant is expensive when we are quite tired, so I am in the reception typing this and waiting for the pizza/pasta to be delivered. It is getting late according to our body clocks so we are looking forward to bed. But will be up early no doubt. Have a 2nd night here to acclimatise then pick up the motorhome on Tuesday. Should be refreshed and ready by then for the demands of living in it! Now, how to cope with tired children....!
Will go now, thinking of everyone back home. Will keep in touch, hope someone reads all this. At least I will have a copy later. And thanks to all those who have, and are, making it all possible for us, and for my classes back at school whom I cannot stop thinking about... perhaps that will come in a week or two!
Email address is our surname and my initial, one word, at acr dot net dot au. Excuse the code but there are programs that troll web sites for email addresses to send spam to and I want to circumvent their activities for us if possible.
Must go, I can almost smell the pizza!!
Regards, Warwick.
PS. thanks to Peter, Emma, Marcia, Paul and Jamie for having a last drink on Fri, sorry to those I didn't get the chance to mention it to.