Perth

I went into Perth today on the train. It was almost $9 each way. I went in the morning rush. The only other city where I've journeyed in the morning rush is London and I can assure you Perth is much more pleasant. I didn't even get to put my armpits on anyone's head.

I got to Elizabeth Quay and found somewhere for breakfast. I noticed the lack of people in suits, or even business shirts in the cbd. The dress code for Perth cbd appears to be jeans and hoodies. I was in board shorts and thongs and was worried somebody would mistake me for a stockbroker.

I had a look around. There was a novelty street called London Court that was in the Tudor style that housed a series of souvenir shops. It was a bit tacky. I went to buy a charging cable from jb hifi and ended up with a camera tripod. Because why not?

At 10am I went to the bell tower to go up to the observation deck. It wasn't a particularly big tower so when I went in and found that the observation deck is less than half way up it I was a bit disappointed. The neighbouring buildings were taller. I asked a staff member how I get to the top and he said I'd have to be a window cleaner. I doubted they ever go up there because the windows weren't clean.

The view from the observation deck... Must be the lowest observation deck on earth. 

They had 6 levels of exhibits. Level 6 was the observation deck. Level 5 was the toilets. Level 4 was a viewing platform down onto the bells, level 3 was the bells, level 2 was a viewing platform onto the bell ringers and level 1 was the gift shop. I could've paid double for the "bell tower experience". I wanted to because you get to ring the bells, but I really, really didn't want the rest of the bell tower experience (or to wait an hour). I would've paid 3 times more if they let me ring the bell and leave.

After that I went up to King's Park. It sits up on top of a hill overlooking the river and the city. I must say, it is outstanding. It is high enough that the city noise is dulled and the views are amazing. The lawns are immaculate, like golf greens. Plants of different WA regions are represented in different parts of the botanical gardens, including a boab tree they somehow managed to grow. There was flowing water, the war memorial, a sky bridge through the treetops, a kids education section. The entire thing was massive. There were a few sections I didn't get to. I'd say it is the Jewell in Perth's crown but I think it is the whole bloody crown. I don't know of another city with a park of that quality. I spent most of the day walking around up there.

Eventually I came back down and had some food. My phone was flat by that stage so I got a bit lost. I recognised where I was as being near the jb hifi from the morning and made my way there. I was really confused to find myself in a different jb hifi. I decided to buy a powerbank to replace the one that died but they didn't have any suitable. So I asked the man working there how to get to the train station. I stuffed up on direction number 1 when I couldn't find the escalator he directed me down. When I got down I couldn't remember which way I was facing and didn't want to go back up to see where the jb hifi was. So I guessed a direction and after a couple of hundred metres I ended up at a jb hifi. It was the other one from the morning. I decided to just accept that I'm trapped in a jb hifi vortex and went in to find a battery. This one had one that was a bit better and when I noticed they had accidentally put the wrong sticker on it (and it was precharged) I bought it so I could charge my phone and find my way out of all these jb hifis.

I'm telling you, I have a disability with navigation.

Zoe picked me up from the train station and we went to visit her South African friends. She knocked on their door then turned to me and said "you don't have any problems with Africans do you?"
Which is a weird thing to ask anyway, but I said "Oh I can't stand them". Her face in those few moments before the door opened was priceless. Pure horror.

So we spent the afternoon with Samantha and Andre and their two girls. I could stand them. They were really nice and we ended up staying for dinner. They cook spicy food and they said to come back to try some family curry speciality called a bunny. So we're going back tomorrow. It isn't an actual bunny (like it was in the Czech Republic with Romana's friends).

Xsr900. This is my future bike. I saw it in the wild for the first time today. Was tempted to sit on it.