Doom and Gloom

The flight home went extremely smoothly; 2 planes, 2 stopovers, 22 hours later landing in Dublin on time - then we get delayed for 40 mins waiting for our baggage to be unloaded in an empty Dublin airport. At least the hopping up and down and swearing kept me warm, as we missed our train due to the delay.
So what's it like being home? Well like we've never been away. The Lisbon treaty is being debated again, the weather is still grey and miserable, just colder and the economy is still bad. I'm thinking of starting a new drinking game - every time the word Recession is mentioned on the news or in the papers we should down a shot.Might cheer people up a bit. It's inescapable, restaurant reviews, discussions on gigs, gardening articles all manage to bring the topic miserably back to the economy and use it as an excuse for everything. Small portions in a restaurant? Ah sure it's the recession. Lots of traffic in Dublin. Ah it's the recession. A badly pulled pint - ah it's ... I'm expecting the return of the mullet any day now. "Sure I couldn't afford to get the back cut with the recession and all.."
This will be a truncated blog entry. Cutbacks due to the......................

I'm leaving, on a jet plane......

The last few days have been spent chilling in Perth, trying to soak up as much sun as possible before heading home. The days have developed into a nice pattern of thinking about Christmas shopping, drinking coffee and plenty of swimming and long walks. Today was notable due to the rescue of a pigeon from head-banging itself to death in the window of a coffee shop but apart from that nothing too startling to report. We have a nice room in our hostel; ensuite (luxury) although the shower doesn’t work and it’s overlooking the railway so every 10 minutes (every 5 between 6-8am and 5-7pm) the room shakes like we’re in a 1930s tenement. Still it’s a nice room and we even have a TV although we can’t hear it when the trains go by.
On Wednesday we begin the final part of the journey and are heading back home. It’s hard to believe 4 months have gone by and it seems like the other day since I was getting nervous about breaking out of my well established routine and heading off to Peru. It’s even harder to believe that the next time I write this blog I’ll be in Dublin, it will be dark outside and probably cold and wet. I’ve enjoyed every last minute with too many highlights to mention and a lot of things I’ll miss when I’m at home so to be positive here’s a list of the things I won’t miss about travelling:

1. Trying to figure out why everything fitted into my backpack perfectly until I bought an extra t shirt and now only half the stuff will squeeze in
2. The impossibility of finding a knife sharp enough to cut anything in hostel kitchens
3. Hostel kitchens
4. Having to carry your own packs of plates, bowls and cutlery around in certain hostels and having to pay $10 deposit for the privilege
5. Flying cockroaches (only seen one but it flew in the window beside me as I was writing this)
6. Applying sunscreen all the time on the beach
Finding somewhere really nice to stay and then having to leave
7. Going for a run at 7 in the evening, the sun just beginning to set over the sea and spotting a dolphin jumping in the distance - only kidding!

Finally some more piccys of nice things……..


Sleepy Koala , Philip Island
North Stradbroke Isl

Bateman's Bay

Magnetic Island

South West

Another corner of Australia and another road trip, this time south of Perth to the wine country. Stopped off in Bunbury on the way, a charming town although the bars shut at 10pm. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem as the sort of drink on my mind at ten o’clock is usually a cup of green tea, but here we were trying to get out of the hostel for a while so it was the only town where we went searching for a pub. Oh, apart from Fremantle a few days previous where we actively searched for a drink at 10 pm but everywhere seemed to shut early on Sundays, so we ended up in a basement club complete with glitter ball bopping away to eighties music, surrounded by very drunk people and by 12pm had to go home as it felt like three in the morning. Very surreal. Reminded me of Eastenders where they all go ‘clubbin’ in the daylight, have a full night of dancing and boozing and still make it back to the Vic for last orders.
It’s been a time for surreal experiences, as in Bunbury I found myself floating in the ocean, singing Jingle bells and Kylie Minogue medleys in order to attract a pod of dolphins swimming near by. As if singing Christmas carols in November wasn’t bad enough, me simply trying to sing is a trial at the best of times, but luckily I didn’t scare them off and they eventually came over for a quick swim by and a quizzical look at the funny looking humans. The dolphin expert with us explained that the group of males were busy chasing female dolphins at the moment so while we were interesting to them they didn’t have a lot of time to spare investigating. A bit like busking outside Coppers on a Saturday night I guess. Still, a very fun experience and I can never tire of watching Dolphins.
After Bunbury we headed to Augusta and Margaret River where days and tummies were happily filled from fudge, chocolate, cheese and wine, mingled in with visiting art and craft galleries. Oh and walking by some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen. It’s a tough life.

Beautiful beach in Gnarabup, where we stayed in Margaret River

Beautiful Smith's Beach, Yallingup

Beautiful Bunkers Beach, Cape Naturaliste

Beautiful beach, Busselton