It has been all too exciting since we last wrote.
We had a great time in Mandurah with Lynn, Aldo and the children. Lots of relaxing, going for coffee and cakes and meeting up with friiends from Suzanne's church. Suzanne did manage to spend a couple of days with us which was good.


We then moved down to see Andrea, Simon and their family down in Busselton. It was good to see where they live and we met up with some of their friends for a BBQ which was nice. Busselton has a jetty that is about 2 Km (1.5 miles) long which needs a train to get to the far end. We took the children up the, now unused, lighthouse to see the views - spectacular!






While we were in Fremantle the other day Roger decided he would like to spend some of his hard earned money on a new toy - but Jean had other ideas!!

Finally it was Australia Day on Saturday so we went up to South Perth foreshore for the celebrations, with some friends. They put on an airshow, but I think they need to come to Eastbourne to see how it shoutd be done!! We had a good time and so did a lot of boat owners as the river was nearly blocked with all sorts of boats.













We are now getting ready to go down south to Esperance and Albany on Monday and then we only have 4 more days left before we start our journey home.

Boats, Boats and more Boats

Yes we have been out on the water over the last week. Firstly all three of us, together with some friends, went for a river cruise on the Swan River.  We went upstream from Perth for about an hour and saw several of the historic sites relavent to the history of this part of Australia. Roger got the chance to take the wheel - but only for the purposes of the photo - apparently he does not have enough experience in handling boats!!
Secondly we, together with Suzanne, went south to Rockingham and then by ferry over to Penguin Island. This is a sanctuary for Little, or Fairy, penguins where they are protected from preditors. The only way to see round the island is by a series of Boardwalks which keeps the visitors away from the natural habitat of the penguins. We did not see any wild penguins but were privileged to see some tame ones being fed. We also saw Pelicans, Lizards and native birds.
After this we went on down to Mandurah to go and see the houses decorated for Christmas. This was a different experience to what we have been used to as we had to go by boat as all the houses were on canals. A lot of money had been spent, not only on the lights themselves, but also on the professional crews who had obviously put them up. There is only one word that can be said - STUNNING!!
We have also been to the cinema to keep cool as it has been very hot and more humid than usual.  We have seen Quartet (funny) and Les Miserables (amazing).  We have also been to visit and stay with friends - quite a busy time really!!!
We are having problems getting pictures onto this posting but hope we have mors success next time.