30

. . . headed back to Adelaide on Friday night to celebrate my 30th with family and a few friends with a brunch at mum 'n dads. The trip coincided with Sam & Kim returning from their holiday in Vietnam, Aaron kindly picking them up early Saturday morning. They came straight over to help put up all the decorations they had created before leaving for their trip. Sam painted a fantastic canvas for guests to write on which I will later hang up in Perth.

Brunch was held outside in the unbelievably perfect weather. Guests arrived and quickly helped themselves to the buffet of western & eastern offerings. We had almost everything from the continental breakfast with stewed fruit, and home made muesli, to bacon'n eggs with hash browns, mushrooms and tomatoes. The chinese porridge (congee) prepared with dried scallops and served with ginger, spring onions, 'fried bread sticks' and fried bacon pieces was surprisingly popular. We had minimal formality with the day's proceedings, just the cutting of a delectable chocolate mud cake and a poem/speech prepared by my artistic brother describing me to a T!

As quickly as the brunch had started, it ended with the last person leaving just before 2. Sam & Kim went straight to bed having put in a mammoth effort to stay upright after their long flight back helping with the brunch and serving of all the food. The day wouldn't have been possible without the effort of both my dear cousins Kai Tian & YJ who stayed overnight so they could make an early start. My parents of course were the organisers of the day allowing me to just fly in and enjoy the party.

I was blessed in receiving many generous gifts, although with the alcoholic persuasion of a good portion of them, I was surprised not to have received a trial membership to AA. The evening was spent at home catching up with family and going through the weird and wonderful things Sam & Kim brought back from Vietnam.

Sunday was equally as rushed with lunch at Bravo with a few close friends then one last look at my Burnside property before the much needed tenants move in on Monday. A quick stop by a friends place to pick up my gorilla pod and see the latest in big screen displays, I had to rush on home to pack my bags to head back to Perth!

Boarding the plane back to Perth, the chap checking tickets at the gate looked awfully familiar, but I couldn't quite pick where we might have met before. As it turns out, he used to work at Myers with me many moons ago, and has since moved onto the airline industry. Once the plane had levelled out after take off, he came around to have a chat and catch up on old times, and just like in the movies, offered me free drinks throughout the flight. Had I not had to drive home, I might have indulged in his free offer, but limited myself to just 2 . . .

. . . it was a good thing I didn't bring the canvas Sam had created with me back to Perth as it would have been ruined with the torrential down pour I came back to. I somehow had to navigate from the domestic terminal to the security parking lot without being run over by all the suicidal motorists. Long story short, there were no signs or foot path to follow so I had to trudge in the dark with a trolley full of luggage with fogged up glasses towards the not so bright lights of the security parking depot. Not a highly recommended experience.

The trip back to Adelaide was short but sweet. Here are the photos from the day thanks to my photographer for the day (thanx Keng!) on Flickr.

Rottnest Island

Planned a weekend away with 2 friends who like me, have only just arrived in Perth. Decided to visit Rottnest Island like the locals for a bit of R&R. Rottnest Island is kind of like SA's Kangaroo Island, only smaller (7km x 4km), closer to the main land (half hour from Freemantle) and unlike Kangaroo Island, visitors cannot bring their car over, which makes it a perfect place to cycle about. This place is apparently so popular with the locals during school holidays that they have a 'ballot' system for allocating accommodation! Anyway, our adventure began even before we even left for the island . . .

We had agreed to meet at McDonalds for breakfast before catching the ferry from the Barrack st terminal. My bus didn't arrive till I called Transperth asking where the scheduled bus was, and they then sent one out from their depot! Reliability . . .

Quokka's. Have discovered that there is no upper limit for girls commenting on how cute these little rat like critters are. Spent most of the first day looking for these creatures, only to find out later on that these nocturnal animals come out in swarms after dark.


Bikes. The bikes rented as part of our package turned out to be of the rusted, single gear, foot brake variety. Quite frustrating. Even more frustrating was to see other people who had rented bikes of a higher grade, not knowing how to use the gears! Will definitely have to get better bikes next time.



Lighthouses. There are 2 on the island, one covering the entire island in one revolution, the other half the size and only covering a quarter with each revolution. The larger one (Wadjemup) sits pretty much in the centre of the island, the smaller one near Pinky Bay.


Kingstown Barracks. Our luxurious accommodation for the weekend. The old disused army barracks has been converted into YHA lodging and dormitories. Quite remote from the main 'township' of Thomson Bay, it's extremely quiet in the evenings. Plenty of quokka's roaming around at night in the centre quadrangle, kind of eerie :)

Rottnest really isn't a 'must see' place in WA, aside from beaches, quokka's and other cyclists there are probably more exciting places to visit. But it was a great weekend away from the 'mainland' to just chill out and enjoy the serenity. Will probably try and organise to go scuba diving around the island next time with the local dive club, there are plenty of wrecks (hence the light houses) and reefs teeming with fish life.