May 19 - 23 ... Perth

We put Maurn on the plane home on Thursday morning after a busy and very interesting week. From the airport Morgan and I drove to "Carousel" for a sushi lunch and some serious shopping. While we are here we wanted to "finish" off all the little bits around the house. To this end, Morg bought some tin flower panels for the side of her shed which is about a metre outside her bedroom window and clearly visible, and a few decorative pieces for inside the house. It was a late night but we enjoyed the retail therapy.

Shed wall decorations

On Friday the serious new car shopping began. This was a Morgan / Garry activity so I was able to get stuck into my French assignment. They both did a bit of a tour of the car yards, eliminating some vehicles and listing others. Fortunately, all of the major car dealerships are very close by so a lot can be accomplished in a small amount of time, and the internet helps a lot too.
Saturday morning, after a very late start, Morgan went for a few test drives. This sorted out some of the contenders and the field began to narrow. A little bit more French got done but I am still way behind and will have to make more of an effort.

Sunday is my favourite day in Perth. I get to start with the Melville markets, and this week was a particularly good one. It was huge and I found lots of good stuff, most of which I did not buy, fortunately! But I did get some large shells to paint up for the house and some herbs to plant. I had to drag myself away as Morg was going for her usual run and we decided to join her for a walk.

Melville Markets

It was a beautiful day, all sunshine and very warm. Morg's "track" is along side the river, starting in Bicton Park, through some natural bushland and out into another park at Point Walter. The views are wonderful and the water looked especially nice today.

Bicton Park

The Swan River Pool

View towards Fremantle

View towards the city

The cliffs beside the river.

The Swan River

After our exercise we had a drive around looking at particular cars and now had it down to two! When we got back we decided that the day was just too good to stay at home and do the jobs we had planned, so we drove up to Swanbourne and had lunch at The Wild Fig. We had a table looking out over the coastline where Rottnest Is and the ships waiting to enter the harbour were clearly visible ... and the food was fantastic!

Lunch in Swanbourne

The Wild Fig Restaurant

Around 4pm it came up quite cloudy and cool so we returned to do the jobs that just could not be put off ... the sewing! Morgan had to hem her work shirts and she wanted to develop her sewing skills so we got to it. Her machine was still brand new so it was pleasing to know it worked well and she did an excellent job.

On Monday Garry and Morgan were off again for more test drives and ...da da ... a choice has been made!! The Mitsubishi ASX came out a clear winner and now she just has to organize finance and place an order. Due to the tsunami most car orders are taking some months to be filled so let's hope the old Kia can keep going for a while yet.

Mitsubishi ASX in Kingfisher blue.

As usual with Morgan, our days are very full, very busy but we don't seem to get much done. She returned to site this afternoon so Garry and I now have 4 days to tick things off our list. Already we are thinking we might be here a bit longer than planned!