Australia Day

Its Tuesday and at last the bank holiday weekend is over and everything is open again. Could you imagine Tesco closing on a bank holiday in the UK? Well all the supermarkets were closed yesterday, and all weekend. I'm going to pop out in a bit and get some shopping so we can actually eat in for a few days! Anyway, the weekend...

Australia Day was a strange one this year. We had a slow start, all just milling about the apartment in the morning, then mid afternoon we went down to Leighton beach near Freemantle and Matt and I went kitesurfing while Nick and Adil played with Matt's little stunt kite on the beach. It was pretty windy and I was able to use my 10 metre kite, which is just as well as my 14m is out of action. I had a great session and even tried Matt's 9 metre which was very fast and exciting to use.

On our way back to Matt's place to get changed we stopped for a quick drink in the OBH and saw Tom which was nice, although he was in a bit of a miserable mood having suffered for days with a bad cold. We popped home and got changed and then Matt drove us to South Perth to his friend Malcolm's house where we were late for a BBQ. Everyone else there (all 3 of them) had been waiting for us to arrive so we felt a bit bad, but a few minutes after walking through the door it was time to walk to the south bank of the river to watch the Australia day fireworks. They were very impressive indeed and lasted a whole half hour. It was a great spot to watch from as all the colours were reflected in the river. After that we went back to Malcolm's place and gorged ourselves on the wonderful food he had prepared and the meat we had taken along to throw on the barbie. It was a very pleasant evening, but not quite what I had expected. Come about 1am I was pretty much asleep on the sofa and everyone was feeling tired and wanting to go home. Having had a few beers Matt obviously couldn't drive home and there was no chance of getting a taxi, although we waited ages for one to arrive. Eventually we decided to walk, much to my horror as I had a good idea of just how far it was and how likely we were to wander a very round-about route. It took us well over two hours and resulted in blisters on my feet as I was wearing borrowed trainers. I collapsed into bed at about 3.30am wondering where Australia Day had gone so wrong this year, but happy to have had a good kitesurf earlier and a belly full of good food.

Sunday was equally strange. It was Nick's last day in Oz, so I felt like we ought to have a bit of a celebration. He went to see a friend in Freemantle for most of the day and I went with Matt and Adil to play tennis. Well, they played tennis, I took the bladder out of my 14m kite to inspect the damage. It had a bloody great hole in it, too big to repair myself which was annoying. I'm hoping to get it fixed by a professional as the cost of replacing it is too much for me to afford at the moment. Later we watched the Australian Open men's final, I've actually been quite surprised by how much I've enjoyed watching the tennis this last week, especially the semis and finals. At about 9'oclock Matt, Adil and Nick decided they wanted to go to Cottesloe for the Sunday Session. I thought this was a crazy idea as the Sunday sesh usually ends at 10pm but we went to have a look anyway. Unsurprisingly it was packed and they weren't letting anyone else in, but apparently they were staying open later due to the bank holiday. this made no odds to us though, so we hastily bought a box of beer before the off licence shut and headed back to Matt's place, with Ben and Scott in tow, some Aussie mates of Matt's. We actually had a really good evening after that, sat chilling at chatting on Matt's balcony. Ben seemed like a nice guy and said something about going out on his family's yacht when I get to Brisbane.

Monday was a bit of a non-event. Matt's feeling rough at the moment and didn't feel like kitesurfing, and the wind didn't pick up as strong as expected so i didn't do all that much all day. In the evening tho Matt and I went and saw a film called Juno which was brilliant so that was cool. I ended the day laughing my head off at a DVD of The Office with Adil.

Today I should be getting the White Dragon back, hopefully all sorted and with no further radiator issues. However, I will have to book it straight in for the gas leak to be looked at, which I'm crossing my fingers wont be too expensive and wont take too long!