Howdy, y’all!
(Don’t know why I said that; just figured enough already with G’day, Mates!)
We are in Perth, which is WAY the heck out here – guess I really am surprised how far away from everything else it is! But to recap, I think our last note was right after lunch on Saturday, when we’d returned to our hotel in Brisbane for a “nana-nap” as Marg calls it! Well…to be lazy and completely honest, when you have a lovely hotel suite, a cricket test match on TV and a lovely bottle of sparkling white wine (from our Two Tails wine tasting event) there is really not much further need of activity! So, instead, I decided (one of my more insane impulses) to see what I could do with the washer/dryer combination. We didn’t have (fortunately!) that much to do, but having “laundry issues” I was determined to do it anyway, especially as neat little laundry soap packets were provided along with the unit. Put in the clothes, followed the directions specifically (and they were printed on a LONG sheet that was subsequently laminated!) – did look a bit askance when it was suggested that for washing length, a time somewhere between 60 and 120 minutes be selected…right…could have gone for 190 minutes! Probably would not have had any clothes left at that point! So, I chose a nice conservative 30 minutes (clothes not being THAT dirty) and let it rip … and it ripped, and it ripped…as R said, it did sound at times as if a 747 were taking off in our room!...and it washed, and it washed…fortunately, as it turns out, I had picked “only” 30 minutes, because in total, it probably took something like 2 hours to run through – and it STILL wasn’t ready when we went out for dinner, so we left it go!
We were both feeling distinctly “Japanese” so picked a restaurant called “Little Tokyo” from one of the guidebooks on Brisbane. It was about 4 or 5 blocks walk from our hotel, in a different direction (away from Eagle Street pier!) – took about 15 minutes from our hotel. Lovely smallish place on a side street. Walked in, and it was VERY much like a combination Shogun and Miyako’s from Pasadena; Japanese room where you took off your shoes and sat on tatami mats on the floor on one side, and grill-tables for teppan cooking on the other!! How neat! We picked the grill-side, and were seated alone at a table for 6! (Not sure if they “co-mingle” like Shogun does.) For starters, I ordered shrimp tempura and R ordered sushi; split the tempura order, and I got R’s shrimp out of the shushi! (My one and only sushi item!) There were 9 pieces of sushi in all, and some of it was pretty unrecognizable – certainly to me, but also as it turns out, to R!) He, being the good sport that he is, ate everything and enjoyed it very much! This was followed by chicken in a broth, and then our main courses, served with white rice. I ordered the fillet mignon, and R ordered prawns – which we split. The chef who cooked was Japanese, (like everybody in the place; they were speaking Japanese to each other!) and very, very deliberate! He wasn’t doing a flashy show – just a slow, careful cooking of what we had ordered! Just delicious! As R said, the shrimp came out actually tasting a bit like lobster! Of course, he had a good supply of sliced garlic, and that always adds a sparkle to any meal! Cleaned up every bite on our plates! Decided to forgo dessert, and had a nice walk back to the hotel…
Surprise! Our washing was done! With the wet part, that is … still had the “drying” part to attempt … and that was REALLY strange! The first thing it did was add water and re-spin – and then it tried to dry … and dry… and dry…I was getting concerned as we needed to be up at 4 a.m. in order to make our plane from Brisbane, so didn’t want to be up all night with the drying! Finally, after about an hour and a half, I managed to stop the machine – but were our clothes dry??? NO! So, hung all the socks and undies around our room, and decided to iron the shirts to see if I could dry them off! Found that ironing made a difference, and was able to get things folded and into suitcases … the socks and unmentionables I left, hoping against hope they would dry in the humidity of an air-conditioned Brisbane hotel room!
Went to bed about 10:30 p.m. … and once again, my instincts about over-sleeping the alarm clock took over … I was probably up at least once each half-hour to see what time it was!! Grrrr…..finally at 3:30 a.m. I’d had enough, and got up for good! We were finished packing … oh, had to use the plastic bag provided in the room to send OUT laundry for the socks and undies, as they were MUCH too wet to put next to other clothes! So much for washer/dryer combo’s in MY view! Called for the car and checked out by about 4:20 a.m. and were on our way to the a/p. The streets of Brisbane were FULL of young people! We both thought that was a bit odd, but it was Saturday night in a big city and we don’t get out much! Managed to get lost on our way to the a/p, but thankfully darkness covers a multitude of driving sins, so got back on track fairly easily. Made it by 4:45 a.m. Avis still closed, but checked in and turned in the keys/contract at their rental desk drop box. Then, on to Perth!
Nice Virgin Blue 737 flight from Perth to Sydney (our connection point). Plane not quite full, and we had a middle seat between us free, which was nice. Everything ran on time, and we had about 1 ½ connecting time in Sydney. This time, we asked to change the seats originally selected for us – window and middle – and R took the window in row 6, and I had an aisle on row 25. Fortunately, they board the plane at both ends! This time, LONG flight!!! Knew Perth “looked” far away on a map, and it is! It was 4 ½ hours from Sydney! They did have television available for free though, just like Jet Blue, so I had three channels of Fox Sports to choose from; I was happy, even though watching a NASCAR Busch Cup Race did seem a little surreal! Landed around 12:30 p.m. – and it was HOT!! Supposed to be something like 36 degrees; don’t know exactly what that translates to, but figure somewhere in the low 90’s?? And VERY humid! Picked up the car (Hertz this time) and headed for the hotel.
My first impression of Perth was that it was very “San Diego”-y. Like most Australian cities, it is on water, and it has a lovely interior coast line on the Swan River. All the bays and beaches really reminded me of SD; lovely, clean; VERY tidy! We drove into town to find our hotel, right on Wentworth Plaza. VERY disappointing place! (How pictures do deceive!) HUGE suite on a corner, but entire place very tired and worn out and in need of a compete overhaul! (Place was originally built in the early 1900’s, but unlike our place in Brisbane which was old but completely wonderful inside, this was old but not wonderful at all!) People very nice, though, so we will spend the night and figure out what to do in the a.m.
R having health issues. He started being “aware” of his throat on Thursday afternoon, and it has been getting progressively worse. At this point, he can barely talk, and when he does, he sounds so congested I hardly recognize him! The front desk directed us to a medical clinic at the train station that was open, so we headed over there. Lots of places open on Sunday afternoon, and lots of people around. Found the clinic and made an appointment for 5 p.m. which was the first available. Back to the hotel via Hungry Jack’s (what they call Burger King in OZ) for a very belated lunch. Couldn’t find any other place open, other than the pub next door, and frankly, that didn’t look all that promising! Then back to the hotel for a rest (as we had been up since 3:30 a.m.) before the doctor’s appointment…
Waited over an hour to see the doctor; place was certainly busy; mostly young people for some reason! (What do all the young people DO with the middle-aged and elderly in this country?? They have to be SOMEWHERE!) Nice guy, looked R over and prescribed yet another breathing treatment regime (Editor’s note: See my experience in an Italian hospital!), nasal spray and an antibiotic “just in case.” Of course by now it was after 6 p.m. and the pharmacy next door had just closed, so back to the hotel and out with the car to find an open pharmacy. One just a couple of miles away, open 24 hours – next to a grocery store that was open 24 hours. How progressive! Got the prescriptions and then decided to have a driving tour of Perth and find someplace to eat.
I wanted to follow the water, so we drove along the shore of the Swan River; just lovely, but not many boats out (although it was getting on for 7 p.m.) Didn’t see any place to eat along the way, so went out to Fremantle which is supposed to have lots of al fresco places…well, must have missed Fremantle too, as we saw lots of water, including the Indian Ocean, but NO places to eat! Lots of fast-food outlets, and some take-away Chinese, but that was about it! Had just about decided to head back toward the airport (on the premise that people who fly also need to eat!) but spotted an Italian restaurant called Il Ciao; stopped there … well…place was PACKED (only one in town??) and neither of us have EVER had a meal in that kind of DIN! Not only could we not understand the waitress, or she us, we literally had to SHOUT at each other and we were sitting right NEXT to each other! So, as R’s throat hurting, it was a VERY quiet meal for us – good food – R had cannelloni stuffed with ricotta and spinach, and I had my standard fall-back of spaghetti bolognaise with garlic bread and a salad – but needed to get out of that place as quickly as possible; waitress apologized for the noise – we were deafened, actually – wonderful “sound” of quiet when we left! Ahhhhh!!
So, back into Perth central for the night. R did a breathing treatment and took the antibiotic … can only hope that he feels better in the morning! We’ve made the decision to leave the hotel this morning, and will put visiting the Perth Mint off until our swing back through the area (staying in Fremantle) next week. Have instead decided to head south, toward Albany and Denmark, and the area of “Big Trees” and the Tree-Top Walk – let’s just hope that there are no more LEECHES waiting for our unsuspecting travelers! Sorry no pictures from yesterday, but we were more concerned about medical issues than photography – more today, promise!
Love to all!
m
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