I haven't written my blog in a few days, but there hasn't really been much to say. We've still been having a good time but we haven't really been able to do anything that exciting during our last week in Mandurah. Andrew and Shirley left the Saturday after we came back from staying in Freemantle as they were going away with their family for Christmas. Because of this, we couldn't get lifts to go anywhere and also the buses weren't running reguarly either as it was the xmas period. If we wanted to get anywhere we had to bike. That sounds ok, but nothing was really very close to get to and it meant we couldn't go outside of Mandurah. We went either to the beach or to the foreshore most days, and it was about a 30 minute bike ride to get to both places.

Luckily the weather had been very good since we got back from Perth; it was finally what I had been waiting for. We didn't really go out in the evenings much as it was hard to get around but it was nice to stay in really. We had the house completely to ourselves, and alhtough we had been made really welcome, I felt I could relax alot more now. The day before xmas eve we decided to bike to another beach a bit further away that we hadn't been to yet; San Remo beach. It was a really hot day and unforunatley we managed to get pretty lost on the way there, but it was really nice once we arrived. It didn't look that different from the one we had been going to though, so I'm not sure it was worth all the effort!

It still didn't feel like Christmas to me at all, even when the day finally arrived. We decided not to bother getting each other a present so it was strage not having anything to open. We left fairly early in the morning after breakfast and biked to the beach. Even then it was hot. As it turns out xmas eve was 38 degrees C, and xmas day was 40. It was the hottest xmas day the Perth area has had in over 40 years. The beach was really nice and there weren't any clouds in the sky as it was such a nice day. It was good being there as we could cool down in the sea. Although the beach was anything but packed, there were loads more people there than usual. It's obviously a bit of an Aussie tradition or something!

We left early in the afternoon and the bike ride back was a bit of a struggle in the heat to say the least. i thought if I wasn't wearing my sunglasses my eyes would have dried up the air was that hot. We didn't have our dinner until the evening but it was still very hot cooking it. I hadn't ever made a roast dinner before and I thought it would be a disaster, but it was actually really nice. Even my Yorkshire puddings turned out ok! We both had a really good day overall, but it just wasn't christmas. There weren't even decorations up as they went away. It was really nice to hear from everyone at home though.

We flew out to Sydney the day after Boxing day, so we just spent our last day packing our stuff and cleaning up really. We definetly couldn't have biked anywhere that day anyway. It was 44 degrees C boxing day, and was the hottest day in December in Perth EVER! Believe me it was hot! Unfortunatley there were loads of bush fires over xmas made worse by the heat, but they reckon most of them are started deliberatly. I just don't understand that though. Also they had a lot of road deaths over xmas too, 20 in Perth alone in the xmas period. That's really all you ever hear about on the news.

Andrew and Shirley's son Luke picked us up early on 27th in the morning and gave us a lift to Perth domestic airport. We got there quite early so there was some waiting around to do, but then we took the 4 hour flight to Sydney. I was excited but sad to leave too. Goodbye WA!