Guest Blogger - By Invitation Only

As Expat Wife is currently off-line while she is enjoying a reunion with some of her uni friends in Belgium The Mother was honoured to be asked to contribute a few words. I will continue from where Expat Wife finished with our arrival in Perth. After checking into our serviced apartment we were given the keys and told quite clearly to go up in the lift to room 607 - simple enough we thought until we looked at the keys which were clearly labelled 604. At least we were not in some of the other apartments which apparently are managed by another company and whose occupants are strictly forbidden (by way of a notice in the lift) ..to approach the reception desk. We decided to risk entering apartment 604, having no wish to risk the wrath of the receptionist, and then spent the rest of our stay wondering if some other guests would appear in our rooms.

After a delicious dinner in one of Perth's trendy restaurants and a good night's sleep we decided to spend the day in Fremantle - we planned to go there on a river cruise and return by train, but Expat Wife's eagle eye noticed that on the afternoon cruise there would be free wine tasting which clearly could not be missed. We had a delightful day in Fremantle, which included our first ever tour around a prison, a place that made the prisons in Prison Break seem a piece of cake - we were slightly surprised to be told that the tour is popular with ex-inmates - strange! That evening Expat Wife treated The Parents to tickets to the show "Rock the Ballet" as belated Mother's and Father's Days' presents, which was extremely entertaining and even The Father enjoyed himself along with the other two men in the audience, though he did find it a little disconcerting to have a group of 40 year old women sitting behind us screaming constantly at the very fit and handsome male dancers who started to resemble the Chippendales towards the end when they ripped off their shirts, and he certainly would have preferred to see more than one female dancer, particularly as she resembled a Thai bar girl! The show finished just before 10pm and we left the theatre looking forward to dinner in one of the nice looking restaurants we passed on the way - foolish us to expect anywhere to be open. It appears that the citizens of Perth go to bed early and nothing is open after 10. Ironically, the only restaurant we found after a lot of trudging about (and increasing grumpiness) was right opposite our apartment.

The following day was spent walking (and walking) about the lovely city of Perth. By the end of the afternoon The Mother (as usual) was gasping for a cup of tea. Expat Wife suggested we walk some more to the area of Northbridge which she assured us was a bohemian and trendy suburb where we would definitely find a nice coffee/tea shop. After yet more walking around a rather run down and seedy area we retraced our steps to the main part of the city and found a very bohemian tea shop and had a lovely cup of tea. While waiting for the tea The Mother had a look at her guidebook which informed her that Northbridge is an area that has been troubled by street gangs and violence in recent years and best avoided. The Parents will think carefully in future before following Expat Wife's advice.

That brought our sojourn in WA to an end and we headed to the airport to return to Hong Kong. Expat Wife was with us on the flight which was probably the emptiest plane any of us have ever been on (there were only about 10 other people in our cabin). At Hong Kong we bade farewell to Expat Wife who was continuing on her way to London, though only after a major panic  (giving us all heart palpitations) when she thought she had lost her passport only to find it safe and secure in her handbag.