Roo bars and Surf boards

06/03/08

Hello to you, We've been on the batter now for over two months and time is flying. It feels like we've been in Freo and Perth for ages but in a good way. Last weekend was a bank holiday and we decided to head south to Margaret River - wine country. We hired a car and drove down after work on friday. Actually i finished working for the mining co. on friday as the contract ended. It took about 3.5 hours to get there, we set out on the path plotted by google map but soon took a wrong turn and abandoned that but we still found the place easily. Driving over here is similar to home except instead of rabbits and foxes running out across the road, its kangaroos - or so we were told. The further south we drove the more signs we saw warning to be cautious of marsupials and the more cars and jeeps we saw with roo bars on the front of them. So as i drove, face to the windscreen in a cat like state of readiness as davy Smith would say, I had emma ready with the mini dv camera to capture the certain encounter but of course it never happened. We stayed at peppermint brook cottages which were dead on (aussies say "too easy" if something is dead on, green and red peppers are called capsicums. burger king is hungry jacks. can't think of any other differences) and the next afternoon we headed for the 80 odd wineries in the region. Emma in her element being driven around from winery to winery. we ended up going to 6 i think as well as a cheese factory and a chocolate factory that was absolutely packed, proof indeed that people love chocolate more than wine. So it was an inexpensive day driving about getting freebies. Also learnt a bit about wine. Basically when people get a glass of wine, swirl it and stick their nose in it and say "smells like artichokes, alka seltzer and a hint of old holborn tobacco" - they are lying (It's similar to Dylan Morans routine about wine I know) - it smells like wine and funny enough it tastes like wine. nah,it's something to do with the climate and the soil, how the grapes are grown and how much sun they get or if its a bit wet how much water they absorb. I did taste a couple and spat them out like a real connoisseur and some did smell of oak or smoke but that was as much as my palette could pick up. We went to one called mad fish and by chance I discovered that sony tropfest short film festival was on there that night and the next night. I went on the sunday night and there was about 800 people there of all ages with their picnics all watching these films under the stars. Aussie love films and they talk about them really passionately. I went to this talk with peter Greenaway who directed a film called the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover in the 80's. it was part of the perth arts festival that has just ended. He challenges the way cinema is made these days basically saying that cinema died in september 1983 when the remote control came into use yet films haven't really evolved. so his contribution has been to make a 7 hour film that allows the audience to interact with the footage and make whatever film they want out of it all. Its called the Tulse Luper suitcases. Here is a man with with too much money available to him. After a day of driving and wining we headed for prevelly beach in the evening which is famous for surfing and we weren't let down. We sat at surfers point and watched the dots in the ocean gradually emerge on these massive waves for 10 or 20 seconds and then disappear into the foam again. On the way back from the beach Emma shouted "Oh my God I think I just saw a load of kangaroos in that field". I turned the car around and sure enough if it wasn't a field full of roos. They weren't doing much but i had to get them on camera and well it was the first kangaroos we've seen so it was great. The next day we headed south again to the most south westerly point of Australia, a little place called Augusta that is absolutely beautiful. Margaret River is grand and all but it's just a one street town hyped up by the tourist board and it's 9km from the beach. i think the city dwellers like it cos it's rural whereas we see rural all the time we want beaches and oceans. So Augusta was a highlight for us. we spent the afternoon on a beach in this class little cove, the indian ocean meets the southern ocean creating all shades of blue. That night I headed to the film festival and then drove back to margaret river to watch liverpool and bolton in a bar full of nutcases down for the weekend, some kind of brawl broke out and the cops were called and all i want is the tv to be turned over to foxsports 1 but they are showing stoke v QPR and the only guy who has the authority to turn the tv over is out dealing with the cops. Finally I get the game turned over with 15 mins of the first half to go and then the bars all close at midnight so i only get to see 20 mins of the second half. It's not easy trying to watch football in this country. We took our time driving back up to Freo on the monday. We stopped off at Yallingup (there are all these places that end with up karrinyup, miamup, cowamrup, shutup, wiseup I madeup the last 2, oh I done it again) but the beach at yallingup was the best yet. Powdery white sand and massive waves. I had to get out on the body board and was soon getting pounded by 10 ft waves. I managed to catch a couple of them and ended up way up on the beach among peoples feet who were walking along minding their own business and next thing i'm flying towards them "yippee". Class beaches but a bit scary for someone who swims as well as he plays the guitar. we also stopped off in Busselton and Mandurah. We got back late on monday and I left the car back on Tuesday morning in Perth and went back to the agencies to look for another job. Thankfully I only had to go to one this time (although I did spend 3 and a half hours in it registering) and they got me a job working in Edith Cowan University (ECU). It's working in an enquiries office and it's pretty handy plus it will hopefully be the last job I have to get here as the contract goes on for a couple of months but we are still planning to be on the road by mid-april. On that point, we've looked at a few campervans and it looks like the least we will have to pay is $3000 but then we'd hope to be able to sell it when we're done with it and get some money back. There are a good few about, nowhere near as many as on the east coast but still we should be able to get something reliable and comfortable from the various backpacker hostels or this website we use called gumtree. thats all for now. Gonna watch Lost and hit the hay. Still no further on with that show, series 6 or 8 and haven't a clue what it's all about. The QE2 was in Freo yesterday, last voyage or something. There was some crowd out to see it and there looked like one hell of a party going on onboard. Looked amazing sailing out of the harbour into the sunset and it made me think of home for a second then I turned and walked up Pakenham st. past the palm trees and thought I'm glad i'm here though.