We arrived in Perth on Friday 27th November and waited to be picked up by Mike and Elese, (Tony’s friend from school and his girlfriend). We went straight to the house and had a relaxing day settling in and unpacking which was nice and just what I needed after the flight. Found it a little scary at first being at Mike and Elese’s place as they have this big, scary looking dog named Tyson; and not being a dog fan (despite my dog purchase last yr) I wasn’t too impressed especially as he loved to lick and greet new guests! Anyhow, after a few days I grew quite fond of Tyson. I won’t be buying a dog anytime soon but appreciated him being around especially when Tony went to the golf range or to do laps in the nearby swimming pool.

Out of all the places we visited in Australia I must say Perth is the nicest. I know that might be met with disagreement by some Australians but its my personal opinion that weather wise, city wise and outdoor wise, Perth is very beautiful and a nice place to live and/or grow up and if the opportunity arose in the future I would definitely go back to visit.

We spent most of our time in Perth relaxing with Mike and Elese’s friends and family who were all very welcoming, especially Elese’s mummy who is one of the most friendliest and easy to talk to mums in the world – really enjoyed her company, probably become I’m missing my family so much! We went swimming, shopping and golfing a couple of times and I found myself catching up with Gossip Girl, Masterchef and my old favourite Sex and the City which is what I needed after months of no regular TV watching – yeah I’m sad, but I don’t care!!

One evening we all went to the casino to watch the big boxing match between the American and the Australian and unfortunately for me the American lost, after less than 2 minutes as well – how crappy is that! Another evening, Tony, Elese and I went out to a nearby bar ‘the queens’ and then they humoured me as we all went to a club and I danced to the very poor and infrequent mix of R&B- not very impressed! If I moved to Perth I would build an R&B and Hiphop nation hehe.

We had a couple of barbeques on the beach, in the park and at the house and Tony tried his luck on the water doughnuts and both of us on another occasion gave sailing a go on our small catamaran session. We visited the famous Fremantle Prison which shut its doors in 1991 and was a prison to the English Convicts back in the day. We spent an afternoon watching how gold bars are formed and had a tour of the history of gold mining. It was here in the mint that we made our friend Monkey Mike a birthday present!

A few days before we were due to fly out, Mike’s mummy Penny and Aunt Carol arrived so it was a full house. Especially on the Saturday when the preparations began for Mikes belated 30th birthday bash. It was themed ‘Best of British’, so Tony dressed up as Robin Hood, Mike as Frank Spencer, Elese as Amy Winehouse and I was Little Red Riding Hood. There were a couple of spice girls. Austin Powers, a thunderbirds member, Alice in Wonderland and Noddy amongst many more. It was such a fun night and with the drinks flowing the night of course became quite messy with the changing of costumes becoming the new party game. I became Austin Powers and Tony and Mike changed so frequently I couldn’t keep track of who they were until of course Mike decided to become little red riding hood and use the dog brush to comb my hair!!!!

Overall, our stay in Perth was a lot of fun, a little bit of everything; relaxing, drinking, partying and catching up with friends new and old. My highlight apart from my 4 R&B tracks at the club was finally after 3 months having a girl to chat to. You don’t realise how much you miss a girly chat until you get to offload, so thank you for coping with the strange girl who flooded you with gossip!! It was very sad to leave Perth but the next chapter of our travels in Asia has begun. Missing you already Monkey and Elese!!!