Saturday

VERY early morning, arrived in Perth airport and after the ordeal of getting through customs and quarantine I made it out where I met my Dad's cousin Alan and he drove me back to his house. By the time we made it there I had time for a drink and then went to bed. Around 9am I got up and met some more of the family, once I had eaten, showered and dressed. Alan, Ross (Alan's 4 yr old son) and Geordie the dog went for a walk on the beach. The drive to the beach for me was really interesting as I hadn't been able to see where I was the night before. The beach was beautiful, the pale white sand was warm inbetween my toes and the sea was clear and bright blue. I could feel it heating up already and it was still only morning. In the afternoon I stayed inside with Gill, Tegan and Ross watching a few movies and chatting. It was great to finally be able to talk to them all face to face instead of by email. Now for a relaxing evening in. Have also met the other two girls Georgia and Ellis. Have a day out planned tomorrow so I can see a bit more of Perth. At the moment I'm quite happy to stay in, get used to the heat and spend time with the family.

Sunday

The family and I went out and explored Perth, First stop kings Park, an enormous park with Botanic gardens, tree walks with magnificent views of the sea and of course for the kids most importantly the play park, We had a lovely relaxing BBQ lunch in the park. I soon learned that having BBQs in the park was perfectly normal, should have guessed really. Delicious smells of sausages and steaks wafted through the park. Also discovered Lamingtons and developed a liking for them much to the kids disaproval as they didn't get them all to themselves. Next we took the scenic drive to city and (ironically) Scarborough beach. Couldn't be much more different was my first thoughts. Sunset coast tourist drive brought more stretches of luscious beaches and on the other side all the individually build houses, with superb views of the coast. We stopped at the Sorrento Quay shopping centre and here I was introduced to Cold Rock, The ice creamery. The pick and mix shop of the ice cream world. Dozens of flavours of ice cream from the simple vanila to ferrero roscher, them as many toppings as you could imagine, milky ways, mars, m&ms, fudge, Nerds, foam bananas, thats just some off the top of my head. "If you can dream it, we can ice cream it" all your choices of topping and ice cream are bashed together and mashed and mixed. Personally I couldn't see how mint ice cream and nerds worked but Ross ate it! Got back to the house and once relaxed. Alan cooked up a great meal and amazingly we managed to get the whole family together for a photo. After everyone else had gone to bed, Alan managed to find a photo of Him and I when I was little running in and out of his legs!

Monday

I thought school mornings in my house were mad, these were nothing in comparison! Made me laugh, I kept out the way and packed my bag. Alan and Ross showed me round Perth town centre before heading to the airport. Said my goodbyes and got on my plane to Alice Springs