We love Perth, Western Australia

Dinner with our friends, the Giddys in Perth.
James, Braeden, Linnea, Blaise, Terry, Jess, Jenny and Mark.


James, Braeden, Blaise and Jess.

View of Perth from Kings Park.

Glass bridge in Kings Park.

Wildflowers in Kings Park.

Magpie

Magpie

Kangaroos paw

Galah or Rosegate Cockatoo

Galah

Gum nuts hanging from a gum tree.

Blaise and Terry in front of the gum trees or Eucalyptus trees.

Gum trees in Kings Park.

Braeden, Blaise and Terry on the glass bridge in Kings Park.
The water behind them is the Swan River.

Wildflowers in Kings Park

Linnea and Blaise by the wildflowers.

Trigg Beach is about a ten minute drive from our house in Carine, a suburb of Perth.

Warning signs at Trigg Beach. This is Blaise and Braeden's favourite beach to surf at.




The sign warns to watch out for snakes. The snakes would not be on the beach though but in the bushes beside the beach. These areas have fences around them so people stay out of them. It is spring here and the snakes are coming out of hibernation.

Sand path to Trigg beach.

Flat Mrs. Abbott is excited to see Trigg Beach.

Flat Mrs. Abbott reads the sign about the surf at the beach so she knows how to be safe. The sign tells her to always swim between the flags. The surf lifesavers are watching swimmers who swim between the flags. If there are no flags up it means there are no lifeguards working at that time.

Doesn't the surf look like fun?

Ahhhh, lying on the sand, it is so soft and feels good.

Flat Mrs. Abbott sees the flags and knows where to go to swim safely.

The beach goes on for kilometres. In the distance you can see the building in Scarborough. Scarborough beach is the next beach you will see when you walk in this direction. Past Scaarborough beach is Dog beach where people can take their dogs to run on the beach. There are beaches beyond that as well called Floreat beach, City Beach and more beaches that I can't remember the names for.

Mrs. Abbott loves to walk along the beach while the boys surf.

We arrived in Perth on Oct. 23rd. Our friend Jenny, who lived down the road from us when we lived here in 2004, picked us up at the airport and drove us to the house in Carine where we are staying. We are doing a house exchange with a family from Carine. They are living in our house in Duncan and we are living in their house in Carine. Carine is a suburb of Perth. It is about a 20 minute drive from where we used to live when we lived here in 2004. A house exchange is a great way to see another part of the world. We are also exchanging vehicles which makes it easy to get around Perth. After settling in to the house we decided to take a trip to the shopping mall. Remember, here is Australia, drivers drive their cars on the left hand side of the road. It means you have to drive with a lot of focus and concentration. It has been a great challenge for my brain!

The day after we arrived we went and had dinner with our friends Jenny, Mark, James and Jess, our old neighbours from Bournville Street. It was so wonderful to see them again. They are our best friends in Perth.

Earlier in the day we went back to one of my favourite parks in Perth called Kings Park. When we lived here in 2004 I would often ride my bike to Kings Park while Terry was at work and the boys were at school. It has wonderful views of the city and the Swan River. We hoped to see some wildflowers when we got there and there were some but they are many more in bloom earlier in October. It is late October so there weren't many still flowering. We walked over the glass bridge and took some pictures. Perth has a lot of birds living here that we don't see in Duncan. I got a picture of a magpie and a Gallah, which is a pink and grey bird that looks like a cockatoo. In fact, a galah is a type of cockatoo. In our neighbourhood in Carine, I counted over a dozen cockatoos in a tree near the high school. They are light coloured birds that are big like a parrot. I didn't have my camera with me so I didn't get a picture of them. They look like a Galah but they are light yellow in colour.

The next day we went to Cottlesloe Beach. It is a really beautiful beach. I will have to go back there and take a picture. We were surprised to find that it was windy and cold! After spending just over a month in Bali, Perth feels cold. It is still spring here so it is not as hot as it will be in summer. We didn't stay long at the beach because the boys said the water felt cold too and the wind was blowing the sand around.

We drove further on to Fremantle to go to the Sunday market. We used to go to Fremantle alot when we lived here before. It is where many festivals are held. Freemantle is a port city. When we were there we saw a parade of people coming out of the Catholic church and down the street. The street was closed down to vehicle traffic for the parade. When I asked what the parade was about I was told it was a send off and blessing for the fishermen.

About four days after we arrived in Perth, Terry started getting flu symptoms. These symptoms were not like any flu I had ever seen or experienced. He had a high fever and his joints were causing him a lot of pain. He could barely walk. We had been to Bali and when I read the symptoms for dengue fever it sounded like Terry could possibly have it. The travel doctor in Victoria had warned us about dengue fever and we did wear insect repellent but we still all got bit by mosquitoes. We went to the hospital early one morning and Terry had a test for dengue fever. The test results showed he could possibly have dengue but he had to have another blood test 6 days later before it could be confirmed. Ten days after having his first symptoms he is still having a lot of pain in his joints, headaches and experiencing nausea. Yesterday he was diagnosed with dengue fever. There is no treatment for it. The only treatment is to treat the symptoms which means pain medication. Dengue fever can last for two weeks or longer, up to a month. We are really hoping that he is better in a few days.

In the meantime, the boys have been spending almost every day going to the beach to surf or bodyboard. Blaise's friend Derek from Duncan arrived here on Nov. 1st to stay with us for four weeks. Their favourite beach is Trigg beach. Flat Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Abbott love this beach too. It is so great for walking along. The sand is soft and the cool water feels good between your toes. There are surf lifesavers at this beach. Surf lifesavers are what we would call lifeguards at the beach in Canada. They only watch swimmers who swim between the yellow and red flags that are put in the sand on the beach. People who want to surf have to surf outside the flags. Trigg beach is not a great beach for children learning to swim but it is good for surfers. There are a lot of waves at Trigg.

Last Wednesday, Dave, the owner of our house in Carine's brother, took the three boys out on a boat trip. They boated to Rottnest Island which is a beautiful island about 30 minutes away from Fremantle. The boys saw whales and dolphins. I stayed home with Terry because he is so sick. I don't like to leave him for more than a couple of hours and the boys were gone for twelve hours. They had a really hot day for their boat trip, it was 36 degrees celsius that day. The next day the temperature dropped to 26 degrees celsius. As summer approaches, we will start to have more of those warmer days.

We are going to meet Jenny and James at City Beach tomorrow so the boys can surf and Jenny and I can visit. Unfortunately, Terry will have to stay home. On Monday, we will go to Caversham Wildlife Park where we will see bats, wombats and kangaroos! I will take lots of pictures and post them as soon as possible. G'day all!