ants and mosquitos and spiders and rats‏

01/02/08

hello, I won't mention the weather unless it changes from clear blue sky and hot hot sun. We moved down to Freo last monday. The flat was pretty bare because the owner was laid up in hospital in the phillipines and couldn't decorate it from there so we just got the basics, bed sheets, plates, cutlery, pots and pans. It's a nice place, first floor apartment. our bedroom doesn't have window so the fan is on all night. Freo is much the same size as lurgan or portadown. there is a cool bar in a brewery called Little Creatures. It's a big open space with vats above and behind you and they do great food outside in an area that over looks the harbour. We went to our local Bar Orient which is 45 seconds from the flat and we encountered our first taste of east coast west coast rivalry. we'd been laughing at this couple in their 40's dancing in front of where we were sitting then they sat down beside us. they were from Queensland and they told us to get out of Perth as quickly as we could as it was too expenisve and go east. we said we planned to but not just yet. we wanted to see what the west had to offer and go to margaret river, Broome and travel across to Alice springs and Ayers rock. The husband was drunk as a lord and said to us "don't go to Alice Springs, fly over the facker on your way to the east coast" We've both started work this week I'm doing data entry for a mining company called Golder Associates and Emma is working in recruitment. The plan is to work for 2-3 months and then move on possibly north to darwin and follow the sun for a year. So most of last week was spent emailing recruitment agencies and doing tests with them as part of registering. On friday we went to this lovely fish n chip place called Kailis in the harbour and then watched the sunset from Bathers bay which is a little beach area near us. we went back to the flat and discovered a colony of ants in our cupboard going through a loaf of bread which we'd only opened that morning. You can't leave anything lying about or they're in it so everything is in the fridge. next morning, australia day, emma woke up with mosquito bites on her legs and by the end of the day some of them had turned into big blisters. she was pretty annoyed as you can imagine. we walked around the town. it was like paddys day on the 15th august. there was an aboriginal guy who wasn't celebrating instead he was letting everyone know that on the day captain cook discovered australia it spelt the beginning of the end for his people. That night we ended up seeing the fireworks from A&E in Fremantle Hospital because Emma's bites got so bad.

After a week in freo we were both thoroughly bored as there was nowhere apart from the bedroom and the outside decking to sit and at times we just longed for a couch to sit on or somewhere else to go. The girl who owned the house arrive belatedly on monday and has bought loads of stuff for the place. Her name is Christine and she is here with her boyfriend from London Chris. lovely couple. we all sat out and had dinner on the decking the other night and the guy from next door, peter, brought out a bottle of champagne. he'd only poured it when emma started shouting "oh my god whats that coming down the drain pipe?" I turned round and saw something shimmying down the pipe I thought it was a squirrel. Peter went over with chris to have a look and said "it's only a rat". I ran for the back door to make sure it was shut in case it ran in. The only time I will feel relieved when someone tells me it's only a rat is when i've just been face to face with a venomous snake. Chris added "it's only a night rat" och will sure then if it's only a night rat.... so we're not altogether comfortable in our flat but it's getting better. we've seen so many creatures this week and we haven't even left the suburbs yet. we're sort of looking for somewhere else to live but we really like christine and chris and freo for that matter. environmental health are due round on monday to sort out the rat and the place is a lot more comfy. they've also got a really old convertible car that they say we can use. so we'll see how it goes. thats it for now. hope you're all well.