Walk-a-Bout Weekend

Some Aussie Trivia for you: Western Australia celebrated June 4 as Foundation day - that was our long weekend just past. Meanwhile, the rest of Australia celebrated the Queens Birthday on June 11 - while WA will celebrate that on October 1. Even Labour Day is recognized on different dates around the country. I keep having to lookup what the public holidays are of course as they differ from ours - this is one of the links I use.

So for us in WA, it was a normal weekend. Mike & I joined the Exchange group for a walk 'around the bridges' in Perth. It was a lovely 10km loop around the Swan River. I walked with a teacher who has been on 2 previous exchanges to Britain, and is going to New Brunswick in January. So we had lots to chat about and the walk went by very quickly.

The waterfront has been very nicely preserved and enhanced with bird wetlands and pathways. Michael finally managed to get some shots of the black swans which the area is well known for.

Once again, the weather was fantastic (or as they say on the weather reports 'Fine'). We are still waiting for the really cool weather to hit - the day time highs are normally into the 20's at this point even though the nights and mornings are cool.

We had Richard and Philipa for dinner on Saturday evening to finally sample Michaels well loved BBQ ribs. We found a wonderful butcher who custom cut some rather meaty ribs. The food and company were, just like the weather, 'fine' (which you should realize means exceptional).

Sunday once again saw Freemantle Dockers at home, and Lisa again very kindly passed her tickets to Michael. He seems to be their good luck charm as they won the match despite going down early. Perhaps that is why she is letting Mike attend - she is quite a fan and naturally wants them to win!

While Michael attended the footie with Richard, Kyle was off to the movies with a friend. Patrick and I checked out Shrek 3 also. And so passed another relaxing weekend.

After a couple of painful drives into Perth on Monday mornings to drop Patrick at the university, we now have the bus route to Perth sorted out. Michael can drop Pat at the Mandurah station on Monday morning and he catches the express (faster than driving) bus into Perth, and then one bus over to the university. So Patrick was back off to Perth on Monday morning to head to Gingin for the week. It is working out quite nicely seeing him on weekends, and he has something very interesting to do during the week.