I could have stayed in Singapore for another day in a hotel, with an extra 400 dollars in my hand, but I was by no means fully awake when this offer was presented to me on check in at 7am. This was after waking up at 5am, whilst another bloke woke two new girls in my dorm with the harsh main light. We were both headed to the airport. I apologised and disappeared as he was clearly taking his time...

In my haste of the past few days, I hadn't actually contacted Dave, who was my host for a few days, but luckily we'd made some plans before then. He met me in town and even cooked for me. I was already starting to love Perth.

I slept until midday, which showed just how tired I must have been the day before, so after making myself feel normal again I had a couple of hours to get into Perth and get a mobile phone. That was when I had to go to the petrol station to get change, and I was staggered to see that a two relatively large bags of crisps cost FIVE dollars! My brain quickly recalibrated and I prepared for a financially painful stay in Perth!

You need a passport to get a mobile number in Australia. That's the first thing I learnt. Secondly, the shops all shut at 5:30pm. Perth people are morning people. And beer costs a lot. I went to Fremantle on my second day after watching a lot of the cricket on Channel 9. The weather has been spectacular, dare I say even colder than I'm used to, so I'm happy. The cricket also ended well with us cruising after bowling Australia out. I cooked expensive salmon for Dave as a thank you, and got set to go to the pinnacles the next day.

Dave let me borrow his car! I gave him a lift into work, got lost three times getting out of Perth and was finally on my way. Another beautiful day, the skies were blue and could play music from my iPod. Three to four hours of driving and I was there, being bothered by flies so much that I had to use the fly net in my hat for the first time. Drove around the pinnacles drive, and it was seriously hot. Lovely. I drove back along the Indian ocean drive that had been open for only two months and wasn't on the gps map. That was gorgeous too, and a much shorter and nicer drive than the way out. Ended up in Perth for a drink with Dave.

On Saturday (yes I could remember what day it was) I cooked the saltiest scrambled egg and black pudding for Dave and we went to Erik's for a barbecue. Lovely day, where we drank a bit, ate a bit and relaxed. Then it was off to a hostel to stay for two days.

I don't think I did much the next day other than watch England's final horrid capitulation at the hands of the Aussies. The afternoon was taken up with the museums of modern art and plain old art. The plain museum was pretty good and shed some light on the feelings of the aboriginal people at having their lives taken over during colonisation. Yes, apparently we, the British, took over a country and shat on its inhabitants. I'm pretty sure this is the only time we've done that...

Monday was the day I finally went to visit and stay with Warren and Amy, who I met while trekking in Nepal. It basically rained all day and I had a bit of time to look around the main museum before they picked me up and treated me to a great barbecue with their family. I loved it! Though I did spend too much time playing IT support with a misbehaving Eee PC. I hope I'm not missing my job too much! For the first time I really felt like I was having a christmas dinner with friends. Cheers, you two!

On Tuesday 21st, Amy took me to the beach! Happy days! We spent an hour or so there and that was long enough for me to get a bit sunburnt and to lose the pair of sunglasses that Warren had given me, to replace the ones I lost in Perth less than a week ago. Good form, Matt. Then Amy was even nicer and gave me a lift to AQWA, the aquarium where I spent the rest of the afternoon until she picked me up on her way back home. I told myself to look out for a white car, until I realised just how many white cars there are in Perth: loads. They'd stick out like a sore thumb in England.

We watched a good bit of Wife Swap while I introduced Waz and Amy to the very British toad in the hole. They seemed to like it!

And on my final day in Perth, I met up with Louise Spry, who just happened to be here. Good old Facebook! We spent the day wandering from the bell tower through kings park. It was a gorgeous day, and was only slightly spoilt by the mould on the hummus we bought. Amy continued to be amazing by cooking for me. Yet more Wife Swap on the telly reminded me of how disappointed I can sometimes be with my own country...