It's been so long since I've blogged! I'm not sure what to write about. Even this update has taken 4 attempts over 3 months. Farley Mowat, a Canadian author who recently passed away said, "I've never enjoyed writing. I have enjoyed written. The completion of the exercise is marvelous!" Sums it up neatly. I find uploading albums and posting a quick daily status on Facebook satisfactory. For the non-FBers, I had tried starting a colorful newsletter but my...

One of the latest news outcries was about the proposed minimum wages on holidays to be increased to rougly $47/hour. Some restauranteurs were stating that they weren't going to be opened on holidays then because they can't pay the wages and make a profit. Forget the servers! What about other professions getting $47/hou r on holidays - a grocery clerk, for example?!? WOW! I like cities that provide free public transportation. Perth had 2 CAT routes to ...

We caught a fun ferry ride from Perth jetty to Fremantle. There is money in this city! Fancy homes, boats, cars, etc. The little blue shack in the photo below is registered as a yacht club. Even though it has only 1 member, it is on the market right now for $1.2 million. (It can moor up to a 40 foot yacht though.) Many Asians are buying up expensive seafront properties, which makes sense since they are spending their new found wealth. Loads of Asian tourist...

Carnarvon's claim to fame is that it was a tracking station used for the Apollo moon landings with its communication satellite dish. In 1987, the station closed after assisting in tracking Halley's Comet. In 2012, Dr. Buzz Aldrin opened their Space and Technology Museum. Outside of Carnarvon was a blowhole. We drove 2 hours to see this small spray! Perhaps it was the wrong time of the day. Much of travelling is this, eh? Frustrating.

We were attracted to Yanchep National Park in the guide book because it said it had a koala boardwalk. We thought that it would be amazing to stroll through the eucalyptus trees spotting wild koalas. However, we should have known that it would be an enclosed area like the rest we have seen in sanctuaries and zoos. Since these types of koalas are cared for, regularly fed, and no predators would ever touch them, we have named such areas 'koala spas'. Disapp...