Wednesday and Thursday, 29th and 30th November............

 It is Thursday evening and I am updating newsfromjude in a short post. The last 2 days have been very quiet and relaxing.

Wednesday was a work day for Barry with time at his laptop. I did some washing and domestic duties. We have been rather frustrated with our internet supplier as emails were not coming through for a few days. They have made some changes within the company. Barry spent some time on the phone to them, and they assured him that the problems they were having would be sorted soon. From today things seem to be working as emails seem to be coming through again. How we seem to be relying on modern technology. 

I do confess to a nana nap in the afternoon and also sorted some more photos for a blog post. The weather has been lovely this week.

We spent the evening with Barry's family and enjoyed a delicious meal at Coventry Village at Morley. Pop was able to spoil his grandies with an icecream before they had their main course.

Today (Thursday) has also been a quiet day. My morning was spent on the computer doing the post from Monday and Tuesday. Barry had more time today with work tasks.

This afternoon I spent reading a book. I had started one a week ago, but found it hard to 'get into', so today I gave up and picked up another one, (Tricia Stringer)  which I am enjoying.

I have discovered how easy it is to spend days doing not much. This has definitely been a very relaxing time as we have not been out and about every day. I have been to Perth a couple of times before when DD3 lived here, and as Barry has family here, he has visited many times, and thus we have seen quite a few of the touristy places.

Tomorrow is pack up and depart day, due to the park being booked for the Robbie Williams concert. The van has already been hooked up to the car. Our intention is to head south, although not definite as to where?? There are a couple of options, so will see which way the car decides to go. We did debate going north a bit before turning east, but it's probably not the time of the year to head north. That might be another trip for sometime. 3 weeks have gone and we have 2 weeks to go. Neither of us is in a hurry to go home.

Be back another day.

Blessings, From Jude

Monday and Tuesday....27th and 28th Nov

 MONDAY

After a night of lightning, thunder and a little rain, we woke Monday morning to much cooler, although quite humid temperatures. The cool change had arrived and promised to stay with us until the end of the week.

After breakfast we headed into the city to check out Elizabeth Quay and surrounds. We wanted to visit the Bell Tower and thought to catch the ferry. Parking nearby was not easy, but we eventually found a spot, although it did cost quite a few gold coins in the meter.

All looked promising.............

..............until we found this sign!!!

Oh well, let's see what the ferry is doing.............but it wasn't our day, because it had just departed!! Note to selves, check out things before you drive anywhere, and we have discovered that Monday is not a good day for touristy venues to be open.

But all was not lost, as we walked around and enjoyed a lovely lunch at the wharf.

After lunch we booked seats on the ferry for Tuesday afternoon and then drove around the city a bit before heading to the suburbs for some shopping.

On the list was a new tool box for Barry to organise his collection of tools and spare parts. Note, he is well prepared for almost anything that might break down or need fixing and the tool box he was using was too small and a bit crowded!!

Later in the day we enjoyed a cuppa and chat with Sarah and Glenn at their van.

TUESDAY

After breakfast, I made some phone calls to my mum and a couple of other friends from home, and then we were on the road by 9.30. Destination Perth city again. More money in the meter, and the park was very close to the square. You can only put in 3 hours at a time, so this meant a trip back to the car later to top up the meter.

We were on a mission to tour the Bell Tower and this was a very popular place. This was opened in 2000 as Western Australia Millenium project.

The bells come from St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, one of London's most famous churches. The bells of St Martin's have rung out over the past 600 years to mark historic occasions in England, and more recently they ring for ANZAC day, Australia Day and WA Day.

The photo below is of the Anzac Bell, sorry about the photo, it was hard to get without the reflection of the glass. Information below re the Bell, which weighs 6,500kg!!!

Barry took a video of the Anzac bell ringing, but I can't seem to get the link onto the blog. It sounded amazing.

We had a turn on the ropes, but don't think they will be asking us to join the bell ringers society any time soon!!??

On the 6th floor is the Observation Deck with panoramic views of the city and Swan River.

On the ground floor was this Turret Clock............

The intricate workings of this clock was of interest to many.

Following our tour of the Bell Tower, we enjoyed lunch on the wharf again, and then it was time to head back to the car and feed some more dollars into the meter. We were only able to add 3 hours, which would expire before we returned again. There was no notice or ticket on the car when we were more than 1/2 hour late, or perhaps they send it in the mail?? 

Then it was time to board the Ferry for our trip to Fremantle and back again. The weather was perfect and it was a lovely relaxing way to spend the afternoon, and seeing how the 'other half' live. 

 

The amount of boats sitting in the marinas, the huge houses with the views, and "millionare row" was staggering.

This house was sold for $57 million in 2009!! 

                               

Arriving at Fremantle we were able to get a much better view of the ships in the water and all the containers being loaded or unloaded.

                               

                       There was also a couple of car carriers in dock, unloading new vehicles................

...and this Japanese Ice breaker ship.

We shifted seats for the journey back to Perth, and ventured to the front of the boat for a photo opportunity, with the city of Perth in the background.

Our trip back to the van coincided with peak hour traffic on the freeways. We stopped at the supermarket on the way back, and the evening was spent sorting photos again for a blog post.

Be back with the next update of newsfromjude sometime soon.

Blessings, From Jude

The weekend.........25th and 26th Nov

 This will be another shorter post, with few photos. We had intended to check out the city of Perth on Saturday, but when the temperature was forecast to be 39 on both days, we decided to be boring and stay at the van by the air con. 

We were both having a few issues with receiving emails, and spent time unsuccessfully trying to work that out. Another blog post was written, and some time was spent reading a book and I think there may have been another snooze.

A bit of time was spent by Barry, checking out the map book, and thinking about our future schedule.

 We had thought to extend here a few more days, but apparently they are booked out for the weekend as there is a Robbie Williams concert here!! Seems like Perth has plenty of concerts over here.

A phone call later in the afternoon from a friend of Barry's invited us to go out with them to the 8 Napkin cafe at Bassadean for burgers that evening. This was followed by an enjoyable walk around the surrounding streets before Di and Cedric dropped us back to the caravan park.

Sunday morning we attended the Destiny Church with Di, and it was so good to attend church after a couple weeks absence. This was followed by a yummy lunch provided by the members of the church. The temperature was rather hot when we got back to the car. As we had come into Perth from the north, Barry decided to take a drive up into the hills on the Great Eastern Highway and show me the view of Perth as we came up over the hills. And then a drive back along a different highway to the park, where we "vedged" out. (is that even a word??)

At the encouragement of the park management, Barry has been watering the grassed area around our site. When we arrived this was very yellow, but is now much greener. Every so often he will head out the door of the van, saying "just going to shift the irrigation!!" There is another couple of van owners also doing the same thing, and the whole row is looking much better.

While Barry was outside 'shifting the irrigation' later in the evening, he got chatting to a guy in the van across the road. In the course of conversation he asked Barry where he was from, and when he heard Bordertown he laughed. His wife came from Bordertown, and they live at Murray Bridge. What a small world we really live in..... I know his wife, Sarah, and in fact on the bed in their van is a quilt that I quilted for Sarah's mother, Linda, a few months ago. Sarah went to school at Bordertown with one of my daughters. And the world got a bit smaller still when Glen told me he knows 2 of my brothers at Murray Bridge!! Sarah and Glen are touring Australia for 12 months, and it is amazing we both ended up at the same park in Perth. 

The evening temperature dropped considerable and there were a few rain drops, which developed further overnight into lightening and thunder and some rain. The forecast temperatures for the week at set to be much better, so we will be out and about again.

Be back another day,

Blessings, From Jude

Thursday, 23 and Friday 24th...........

 I have stopped numbering the days as we head into the 3rd week, and will sometimes update a few days at a time, or the blog will be overloaded with posts.

The media this morning tells us that it is a record heatwave for November in WA this week. Which means we are very choosy in what we do, and often just hang out in the van with the air con going and reading or snoozing!!

THURSDAY

Thursday we headed to the coast along North Beach road and saw this view..............which reminded me of childhood days and heading to the beach in the car, and there was always a competition to see who could say "I can see the sea" first. Usually it would be Dad!

This was our destination.....Hillarys

                    From the internet ................What is Hillarys known for?

Hillarys Boat Harbour is one of Western Australia's top award- winning tourist attractions offering a wide appeal of day time and night life entertainment. It is home to AQWA – the Aquarium of WA, boasting the largest aquarium and underwater glass tunnel in Australia.

The Aquarium seemed like a good place to be on a HOT day..........

.......lots more photos and once again it was hard to get accurate colours.....

I Though this was rather amusing.............

..and this is the old wives fish!!

This area was amazing, with the fish, turtles, sharks and rays all swimming above, and beside us as we walked through the tunnels..............

We enjoyed a fish and chips lunch at the aquarium, before checking out Hillarys Boardwalk............

............this is the ferry that takes tours down to Rottnest Island.

.........and the swimming area, which was very popular with many people.

Thursday evening we enjoyed time with Barry's son and family again, and a backyard game of cricket.........

FRIDAY....

Apparently this day is Black Friday! And the TV is full of adverts hoping that people will spend their money on all the sale items. 

We started out the day with another lazy morning. I did some washing and housekeeping chores.

It was a very warm day again, and after a salad lunch we headed to the Galleria, a shopping centre at Morley. Not that we wanted to do any shopping, but to wander around in the cool of the centre. We were reminded that Christmas is just around the corner, and I probably need to think about that soon!?

 Although I do admit to some purchases in a clothes shop.

We enjoyed a seat at the cafe, watching the people walk by, and indulging in a waffle and coffee.

(Barry did not eat this all by himself).

During the day we had news from home again, this time of the local Senior school bus that caught fire on it's morning run.....thankfully all the students were able to exit the bus.

That's all the newsfromjude for now. Hopefully the extreme heat will be better by Monday.

Blessings, From Jude