23rd Dec, we arrive in Perth to holiday with Alan and Kelly, and Bob's good friend from uni, Sally who is travelling for 10 weeks around Australia. The flat we were renting was an absolute dream! Perfect for a long weekend in Fremantle. We quickly adopted the biggest plant in the living room as our Christmas Tree and after decorating with mini baubles, we stuck our Secret Santa pressies under it. Christmas Tunes - check. Boxes of Goon - check. Presents - check. Roast ham for dinner - check. Excellent!
Christmas Eve was spent on the beach - a dog beach at that! We quickly learned that sunbathing on dog poo was not what we all had in mind for a christmas holiday so we moved onto Cottlesloe beach for a dip in the sea and some chilling out. A bottle of fizz was popped open and the sun was shining. Slightly different to our usual Christmas Eve at the Fox and Hounds by the fire! A pint in Little Creatures pub was our next stop - this pub is famous for it's atmosphere and also for having the open planned bar in an old boatshed/warehouse, where the beer is served fresh from the tank. I would recommend the Little Creatures Bright! Delicious.
Christmas Day was a rather chilled out affair! After a rather excitable morning of Bob playing Santa and handing out the pressies (Alan's present of junior beach cricket came in quite handy later on), we headed off to Scarborough beach to meet Alan and Kelly's friends Chris and Sam, fellow Edinburgers and their friends Katy and Gary, fellow Glaswegians (it's a small world - Katy also played in the Johnstone Silver Band!!) More cricket, pitenque, swimming in the sea and general silliness followed, along with watching a lot of Santas running around the beach like loonies (backpacker central) before we headed back to the flat to cook the crimbo dinner. Kelly and I were in charge of cocktails and dessert, Bob and Sally in charge of the ham and Alan was the veggie man. Pavlova was a success! Sparkling Rose Strawberry Jelly not so successful - everyone but Alan was at least polite enough to eat some of it - Alan just simply refused. It was indeed quite strong! Christmas tunes were on, party hats and crackers galore but nothing could make us feel festive. It was hot and sunny out side! It was all wrong!
General silliness continued into the wee small hours - some of us attempted some ceilidh dancing which ended up with us lying in a crumpled heap (Kelly still has the bruises) and indoor cricket was played for shots of goon - put simply, it got quite messy but much fun was had by all.
Boxing Day was a non event! Cricket watching anyone? We did hear on the news that Scarborough beach had to be closed for 5 hours for SHARK ALERT! Lucky the hammerhead and tiger sharks decided to stay away on Christmas Day or one of us might have been eaten......
27th Dec - Rottnest Island (the day we all nearly died)
We headed to Rottnest Island early doors to hire a bike and cycle round the island - think Millport but 10 times better! Beautiful blue green water, perfect for snorkelling. Unfortunately for us, cycling at 12 noon in 40C was not the best idea and as we all started to get slightly grumpy and burnt, we found a magic cave where we all sheltered for the next 3 hours! We occasionally jooked out for a cool down in the sea and some snorkelling action then back into the cave to avoid the sun. Without the cave, I think our five skeletons would've been found at the end of the day, as we all melted under the heat. El scorchio! Had my first snorkelling experience, I was a little apprehensive about snorkelling where I could see what was underneath my feet but couldn't put my feet down (I know, it sounds weird) but I quickly got over that and saw some lovely angel fish and some other big fish too (not sure what type they were!). Luckily I didn't see a shark although Alan did catch me out amazingly by swimming underwater and grabbing my leg - oh ha ha (I did scream quite loud).
After baking ourselves in and out of the cave, it was back to the pub for a cold beer where we congratulated ourselves for coming out alive. A very relaxing day if not a sweltering one!
We celebrated our survival with a trip to the local casino - Bob and I, continuing our poor form with betting, managed to lose $50 at Roulette but Alan and Kelly had more luck with the Blackjack - maybe we should change our tactics next time!
Fremantle was fab, a very chilled out holiday, next stop Sydney for New Year! xx
No comments:
Post a Comment