Perth

We spent the second part of our holidays in Perth, with Marc and Marjan. They live the expat-life, working for a Dutch company in Perth, and already nearing the end of their four-year stint. It was about time to see where they work and live, and to see their 1-year old little one, Tirza.

By going to Perth we just escaped the worst from the first heatwave of the season. Australia is currently experiencing some hot weather very early in the year, and it was the hottest start of the new year in a century, with 41 degrees in Adelaide. We arrived in Perth with 38 degrees, and the rest of our time there was reasonably nice with temperatures in the early 30's. It was unusually humid though, which made it still quite warm during the day. But.... M & M were very smart three years ago in finding a nice house with a swimming pool, which seemed like an absolute must in this weather.

King's Park in Perth.

We started the day with a dive in the pool, we cooled down in the pool after an afternoon of doing things, and then often just before dinner or after dinner we spent some more time in the pool :-) That was VERY nice.

More King's Park

We also have had our first Australian surf experience! I have to say that I really liked lying in the water, I don't think that what I did with the surfboard resembled surfing at all, and I still have sore arms and bruised shins from it. I was very pleased to hear that it takes four or five lessons before you're able to stand straight up on the board!

Yes, it's us :-)

On New Years Eve Age and Marc showed off their cooking skills by making us absolutely delicious oliebollen and appelflappen. I don't know why, but they were very good! Must be the new pan we bought for this purpose, as the heavy-base saucepan we wanted to use was gone camping with Marc's parents - they had to leave the house to make room for us!
We also had some serious fireworks to work through as you can see on the pics.

On the first day of the new year we went to Penguin Island (?). Again everyone crammed together into the car with tons of stuff. This island is a very small island in a marine sanctuary with a 2km return walk along the beaches and over boardwalks, where heaps of sterns and pelicans were nesting, as well as little penguins. We weren't the only ones on the island, it was slightly over-crowded actually. But after the walk around the island we found a private spot on the beach in the shade, where we splashed around in the sea a bit and savoured the last remaining oliebollen and appelflappen.

Appelflappen

We're back home in Adelaide again now, and caught up this morning with Pauline and Ian, whom we met in Wellington, and who moved back to Melbourne last year. They spent their holidays in and around Adelaide, and we went to Hahndorf for a nice brunch before they would drive back to Melbourne today.

We'll be off to IKEA now for some new garden furniture (Age's birthday present)! And then back to work tomorrow, that'll be a bit painful in the morning I'm afraid...