"I get knocked down, but I get up again"

Bless my heart.

It’s an odd situation to identify something ugly within myself, decide to share it…and then have to SIT with that for the rest of the evening wondering if I’ve lost the respect of my online buddies or not.

I have to trust that you guys know what’s best and I’ll nervously await any feedback.

Until then, WE MOVE FORWARD. We don’t look back, we’re not going that way.

I have the #Bloganuary site in my reader so that I can (hopefully) keep up with the daily prompts – A LOT were based on books/reading/authors which was interesting – but I think a few have gone missing from the prompt list. For example, I remember reading a few of my blogging mates answer a question about tourist attractions in their home that they still hadn’t visited. I thought that was a really interesting topic and meant to get back to that and blog about it…but then when I looked for it, it was gone?

Hmm.

Curious.

Anyway.

To work through the discomfort of announcing myself as a racist (honestly? I am just as surprised as you are about what comes out of my big mouth sometimes), I’m going to tell you about my home here in Perth, Western Australia.

I don’t think there is a tourist attraction I haven’t visited and I’m pretty proud of that. The same can’t be said for when I spent 7 years living in Liverpool UK because I lived and breathed at Church or work every single day. I didn’t travel so I didn’t get to see Liverpool in all it’s amazing glory. I didn’t check out where the Beatles recorded songs or the amazing galleries they have…nothing.

Back to Perth.

Perth is in WA – the BIGGEST state in Australia. I think our land mass in WA is HUGE and can fit 3 of the entire United Kingdom in it – or something like that. The wise thing to do here would be to LOOK UP THE FACTS about this situation but I’m 1) lazy 2) too excited to tell you how awesome Perth is so you might have to have a look for yourself if you’re interested. Lol. Sorry!

We are a ‘little city’ in that Sydney or Melbourne would eat us for breakfast, but we are a lovely city. We’re a city designed by imaginary 70-year-olds though, because by 5pm our shops close and basically everyone is home chilling out. We don’t have a great night life. It’s like we all know about an unspoken curfew and we all just head home after work. There are places open for dinner of course and there is probably an “underground” club scene I don’t know about…but for the most part on an average week night, things are closed fairly early and if you meet with mates for dinner after work, you can still expect to be tucked up safe in bed at home by around 11pm at the latest. I know. Early, right? Lol.

I think the great things about Perth is how BEAUTIFUL it is. We have the best beaches with fine, white sand and crystal clear waters. In the beginning of Spring, humpback whales are often spotted along the coast line “down South” and a few of my friends have been lucky enough to see them. I’m “totes jelly” about that.

Here’s a pic of sunset over the train station we live across the road from:

We have the main city centre of Perth and suburbs North and South of Perth. We have a friendly rivalry between those South of the river (they don’t shower or know how to string an intelligent sentence together hahahaha!) and they think we Northerners are “big snobs and all about money – awful”. We just mess about teasing each other, though – and when I’ve cheekily pointed out that “North is where it’s at” to my many Southern Perth friends, they’ve quickly put me in my place reminding me that they have the best suburbs and beaches. They’re right. I won’t admit that outside of this blog, though! Shh!

^^ (top photo) A pic I took of Alun at one of Margaret River’s stunning beaches. I like that he looks like he’s about to take over the world! YAAAAASSSS! (bottom photos) A pic I took of Claisebrook Inlet where I was having brunch with my friend Genevieve. Alun and I brought his cousin Barry here once and we all got to see Dolphins!!! Awesome, hey?

Fremantle is South of the River and an hour’s train ride from home. It’s like going back in time when you get there. Everyone in Freo is an artist in some way – it’s filled with hippies, poets, musicians, fashion designers…really creative and wonderous people. The buildings are so old but have been kept in pristine condition and the streets are mostly pedestrianised and tree-lined with the world’s most creative, quirkly and pretty awesome (again, please don’t tell anyone from South Perth I admitted this) cafe’s, restaurants and beaches.

Freo is also the boat port where we all catch the ferry to ROTTNEST ISLAND. I think our beloved “Rotto” is one of the world’s most beautiful places. It’s a small island surrounded by breathtaking scenery and the world’s most incredible beaches and bays. People live on Rotto – it has schools, a hospital, a police department, shops – the whole thing. I think to live there, you have to jump through 1000 different hoops. It’s mainly for Tourists to visit…but I highly recommend a visit because you’ll never forget it.

Even though I’ve been there many times before she came over and many, many times afterwards – Rotto reminds me of my best friend Becci. We had the best day over there. When you book a ticket on the ferry to Rotto – it’s usually expected you’ll hire a bicycle, too. It means you can get around more of the Island. Because it’s so bloody expensive to go there, we usually try to take the first ferry out – 6am – and come back on the last one home which is around 6/6:30pm. We want to squeeze every possible minute out of a trip to Rotto. On the ferry home, we all get to see the sun set over the Island which is a beautiful farewell written across the sky in deep pinks, reds, oranges and gold.

Here’s Becci and I at Rotto for the day:

We have a theme park here called “Adventure World” which I haven’t been to in about 20 years. I wonder if it even still exists? If it does, I want to go with Alun and we can let our ‘inner little kids’ out and go on rides. I’d love that, actually.

When they’re open (lol), we have an incredible array of cafes and restaurants from ALL OVER THE WORLD and we have pockets of all different races scattered all through the city and suburbs. I love that about Perth. No matter where you’re from in the world, if you come to Perth – you’re very likely to run into someone from your Country and probably from the town you grew up in, at that.

So many things that I love about the city I live in 🙂 We’re blessed by over 200 days of sunshine a year – even throughout winter. We have awesome places to go on our days off and are isolated from the rest of Australia so when Covid hit and our borders went up, we were fairly protected from catching it and lived our lives in mostly normal conditions while bigger cities over East had to wear masks for years.

I’m so thankful to live in such a beautiful place 🙂