Hello. Stephen here. I flew back to Perth on Saturday. That is to say I left Heathrow at 3pm on Saturday (an hour late) and got to Perth at 5pm on Sunday. A long, dull flight. Since I was flying back in the same month I flew out the same films were on the plane. I'd seen all those I fancied on the journey to London.
I did watch Basic though. This is a very "twisty" film, none of the twists being interesting or surprising. I ought not have bothered. Two stars.
Again, people were annoying me. People are selfish, and this comes out more than ever on planes, where people must grab as much room as they can. As usual, the people in the row in front of me put their seats back as soon as they possibly could, even during meals. They then spent half the journey leaning forwards in their chairs, and I spent the journey with the TV in my face.
It was good to finally arrive back in Perth. I presented Anne with a bag of gifts. This bag contained:
- gossip mags from the UK (so Anne could find out what the stars of Big Brother 4 and Fame Academy are up to, even though she hasn't seen these shows).
- The Weekend Guardian (so Anne can see a decent paper for a change though annoyingly there is no longer an Editor section).
- Persil non-bio liquitabs (Anne is especially happy with these. She requested them. We don't actually know if they're called "liquitabs", but we imagine they are).
- some chocs and wedding cake, which I snuck through customs.
- a book - Fast Food Nation. Anne believes that after reading this she'll never want fast food again. We'll see.
I was very pleased to see Anne. I decided to chance my arm and tell her how nice her haircut looked. Anne had been talking about getting her hair cut when I left, and I assumed she would have had it done. I instantly realised I'd made a big mistake. Anne slowly shook her head and said "No". Damn. I thought that was a fair bet, and knowing how much girls like haircuts to be noticed I thought the risk was worth taking. Despite my kind presents, I was in trouble already.
Freo
We stayed in Perth on Sunday night, took a 20 minute train journey to Freemantle on Monday morning, and it's here you find us now. Freemantle is a pleasant relaxed coffee-drinking town near Perth. I spent Monday in an exhausted jet-lagged daze, so we didn't do much (though we did go for a cheap meal in the evening and ate far too much!) Today, however, we were more active and went for a tour of the old prison. This was built by convicts and only closed in 1991. Our guide was a Manchunian (sp?) who worked as a guard at the prison for 20 years before it closed.
This afternoon we went to the Freemantle History museum (entry by donation - i.e. free!) It was very interesting, and we didn't get to see it all before it closed so we may go back. Tomorrow, though, we leave here for two days on Rottnest Island.