I was marking, marking, marking for WACE and then marking, marking, marking for work and then suddenly work was finished (after a sweet little sendoff from my Head Teacher who knew me well enough to say it with French cheese instead of cake) and on a plane to Sydney for bridesmaid duties in Bowral at the exceptionally beautiful wedding of a dear old friend.
I caught the stupid red-eye flight which leaves Perth at midnight and arrives in Sydney at 7am. I've been advised that this is part of being a Perth local. I should have replied, "Well, I'm not really, am I?" and just flown at a sensible time. Add that to the surprisingly disorentiating 3 hour time difference and I was messed up for at least a week, during which time I adopted the motto: "Making easy things difficult."
So, the wedding was followed by a brief few days in Sydney and then 4 lovely days with my parents in Northern NSW. Back to Sydney for a day (which I used to drop in at my former and future job and was greeted with flattering delight and some confusion at my much longer hair). Then up to Nelson Bay for a few days to visit a dear friend and her munchkins. Finally, back to Sydney and a happy reunion with the Fella after two weeks apart.
Although our visit spanned xmas, the real purpose was to properly celebrate a milestone birthday for the Fella on xmas eve. The main event was lunch with our favourite gang at Guillame at Bennelong, a French restaurant inside one of the sails of the Opera House. It's a rare two hat restaurant where the food is a bit incidental. For example: the view from the bar:
So, birthday suitably celebrated, we moved on to one of the most relaxing and enjoyable xmas days ever. A bbq with my brother and his partner, plus an 'orphan' friend of ours. All I had to do was bring the cheese - which is the best job because I love bringing the cheese. And afterwards a few drinks and another cheese plate (that's 3 in 2 days, folks, count 'em) with some friends who live around the corner.
But this is all cheating really (especially the bit when I showed you the view from Bennelong) because this blog is about living in Perth for a year. And tomorrow it will become redundant when I move back to Sydney. So I had best revert to travel writer mode.
On to a quintessential Perth experience. We finally visited Rottnest Island - twice as it happens - with Sydney visitors. Now that I've introduced its correct title I'll be referring to it as 'Rotto'. Try to get used to it. I thought I'd never say it without wincing or at least without irony. But it's so ubiquitous that calling it Rottnest feels like wearing a badge that says, "I'm from Sydney and I mildly disapprove of your abbreviations." Why had we never been before? Well, let me ask what you would expect to pay for a 30 minute ferry ride to Rotto. Those of you who have caught the Manly ferry recently will be wildly off the mark with your guesses. So, it's stupidly expensive, but also very lovely. We only went for a day trip, but it feels like a real holiday. We took our own bikes and snorkeling gear, rode, swum, lazed and lunched at the pub. Very nice. But I'm sure what you really want to see is a quokka. Here is one scavenging at the pub -not very dignified marsupial behaviour.
It's been a great summer break, including a week-long visit from my brother and his partner. We did a few touristy things - a day at Rotto, the Hopman Cup, the Art Gallery and lots of time at the beach. One of my favourite moments was seeing a seal swim past only a few metres off the shore at our local beach. We all enjoyed that as soon as we realised it wasn't a shark...
I've been mentally writing a list of things I won't miss about being here - headed up by that wind I keep whinging about. But now that the end is here and boxes are packed and my flight leaves in 12 hours I don't feel able to be flippant about it anymore. I know why we're moving back to Sydney, and there is a lot to look forward to... but, I've grown quite attached to little Fremantle. It has been a great year and there is a lot I will miss, in particular the excellent people I've met.
In the interim, I've got a month or so to miss the Fella and the Pusscat who will be staying a while longer before they join me in Sydney. Here is the Pusscat trying to charm me into staying:
One thing I don't want to let go of is writing. I haven't done a great job of it here - always trying to cram too much in and writing long posts infrequently. But I've enjoyed it enough to want to keep it up when I'm home. Of course, the Adventures in Federalism are over so I'll have to find a new angle. Is anyone interested in reading about my life as a teacher and, um, stuff?? Hmm... suggestions (and encouragement) welcomed. Thanks for reading. It's been fun. I'll leave you with the last Fremantle sunset of 2010, seen from Memorial Hill with a glass of champagne and great company:
