Great times with Great Friends

Wow!!! The last week has been such a whirlwind. I went back to Sydney for a few days, and we've spent considerable time (and caused significant liver damage) catching up with great friends from and on the East & West coasts.

But before I get on to that, here's a picture of Ness preparing her morning brekkie and a couple more shots of the Western Australia beaches.




The beaches are so crazily long over here you need a car to get from one end to the other.











These were from Hamelin Bay down south.





Anyhow, I flew back to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. It was pretty cool flying over a lot of the terrain we covered to get here, especially when the plane crossed into the bight at Esperance. I was kicking myself I'd not taken the camera on board as there were sensational views of the beaches all the way along to the cliffs of the Nullarbor.

In the past I've never ceased to amaze myself with how pissed off I can get with other passengers on flights after a couple of hours on board. Maybe its late onset maturity or perhaps just my current state of being but this flight was different. I'd never seen anyone put money into a qantas 'change for good' envelope on a Domestic flight until this one. The guy was one row in front of me and decided to empty his pockets somewhere over South Australia, and he then spent the remainder of the flight jiggling the envelope in time to his overly loud ipod. Normally this would be grounds for me wishing really terrible things on him and/or start tapping a pen on the back of his headrest (surprisingly annoying - an incredibly effective payback). However testament to how mature/relaxed I must be at the moment I didn't even bat an eyelid. I even felt sorry for him. Maybe having the blog is a good outlet for any psychopathic thoughts I have?

I could not have packed more fun into my time in Sydney if I'd tried. Thank you Candi & Steffen for hosting me, keeping me up late every night, fixing my thong after Friday night's blowout, for not asking me how I managed to bring so much cut grass through the house, taking me to Martin Martini (yay, finally got to see him), and waking me up on Saturday with just enough time to get to the airport. It was great to catch up with so many people while I was back and to be able to bore them silly with the details of our trip.

In amongst all the fun I also had two action packed days back in the office. My hair is starting to have the Kramer look and I didn't have any smart clothes so it was a bit nerve wracking going back into the Corporate environment. But other than a few odd stares everyone seemed pretty pleased to see me. You'll think I'm only writing this because my boss might read this, but I am genuinely looking forward to going back in October. For what we do, it's an incredibly fun and stimulating environment which is pretty important as I get easily bored! PS Thank you Alex for reminding me it was mother's day in the UK.

I got back to Perth on Saturday and we had more east meets west catch ups.

Yesterday was the first proper Sunday that felt like a Sunday since we started the trip. We nipped down to Cottesloe to look at the Sculptures by the Sea, then had brekkie at a cool spot overlooking the surf. Leggie put on a massively gourmet (and rich) lunch for us and our west coast friends (as opposed to the imports) and then after an afternoon nap we headed down to the beach for what what turned out to be (unexpectedly) the best sunset of our trip since Parachilna.

* One of a series of Emus made out of old tyres













* Beach fun with Leggie and Jasper.

I've never seen a dog enjoy the water as much as Jasper. He's becoming an increasingly proficient body surfer and knows no fear.

























A glimpse of the sunset. I have another 100 or so shots very similar to this if anyone wants them.










Provided the car passes muster at its service today we move on first thing tomorrow.

While it has been awesome to catch up with such great friends, talk about the trip and catch up with what has been going on in their lives, we're both pretty anxious to get back on the road. It's hard to believe we're only half-way through. Asking my boss for a year to do this has turned out to be an act of genius!