Living it Millionaire Style

Ok,

So after a few weeks of not doing much at all we have done heaps in just half a week. Friday was a day putting olives into buckets and a short trip after work we ended up at Catherine's house. Mansion is a word I'd use, set in a stunning area. I woke up to the Indian Ocean every morning and my room was like a fish tank so I had an amazing view.

Friday Night Catherine had a family birthday party for her youngest daughter, Sabrina. So we got to meet her brothers, sister and their families. They all welcomed us happily and loved getting to know us and our cultures. Three of them were teachers so we found a lot in common to talk about and Catherine's dad could not stop talking to me about Canada and North Dakota. He actually had a friend who had been to Regina. You do not hear that very often over here. People usually cannot even pronounce it properly. Catherine's sister in law had a confession to make to me. She was in love with the show North of 60 and she had all of the seasons on DVD.

Saturday was the first day of the markets. We had horse rides in front of us and camel rides behind us. So people had to come and taste the olives and oils when there was no wind. Otherwise they got a nice waft. David and I tried out a few strategies and in the end we did really well. I don't think Catherine makes as much as we did the first day very often. We had planned to double our makings for Sunday's market. Oh, as a reward for doing so well that day, Catherine paid for us to go on a Camel ride. It was pretty fun. There were four camels and David and I were the only ones on the ride. We each got our own camel.

Sunday we did not double our profit but we did beat our Saturday profits. We were pretty proud of ourselves. Catherine had given us some money, we had refused as we are wwoofers but she knew that David had been eyeing a proper Aussie farmer hat and told him that she would like him to use the money to get one. He's a pretty dashing farmer. We enjoyed the suppers that we had with Catherine and her three girls. They are shy at first but once they start they could talk all night. We had lots of fun with her girls. The two youngest spent a fair bit of time with us.

Monday, was an interesting day. I had gotten ahold of the Clerk's (of the W.A. Government) email and emailed him right away as we were going to be in Perth for Monday, Tuesday. It worked out for him on Monday. But he warned us that David would have to wear a shirt and tie. Uh-Oh...we only have backpacker clothes. Luckily, David had a shirt so we just had to pick up a tie right before meeting him. We got off at the station we were told to get off and tried to catch a taxi. There were none in sight so we started to walk down the street that we were told it was on and hoped that we would finally catch a taxi. After walking about 20 minutes, we decided to stop and ask for directions to the Parliament Building. We find out that we are totally in the wrong area. AHHHH...So he tells us to go back to the train station we got off at and take a bus up to the City Centre from there. We have now missed the tour and we had no phone credit or number to call. So, we bought credit, called Catherine and she told us to call 1234...the operator. I got ahold of Peter's secretary and she was able to tell him we would be late. Ah, what a headache. Finally about an hour and a half after we were supposed to be there we arrived. (We didn't make him wait as he told us to do the public tour and then meet him for lunch). I prayed and prayed that we did not make him wait. Luckily, he was just finishing up a meeting. He was sooooo nice! He showed us the chamber and then took us to the big lunch room where all of the Members of Parliament eat. Also, he was wearing the Saskatchewan's Red Lily on his lapel and wearing a New Brunswick tie. David and I both ate swordfish for lunch. It was delicious. Peter asked lots of questions about Canada and Wales (he has been to both) and what we were doing in Australia previously and in the next few months. He really enjoyed the time that he had spent with Uncle Don and had a few stories. He was so easy to talk to and it was such a good time. He also had two girls join us for lunch. I think he was rewarding them for a job well done in planning a conference. It ended up being a great day! We then met up with Juli and checked out the Harbour Town outlet mall... I refrained from buying anything..

Tuesday, we headed off to see King's Park, King's Park is the eqivelant of Sydney's Botanical Gardens and Hyde parked rolled into one. This place was beautiful. The Main area overlooked Perth city and it's surrounds. There was a monument to the Bali bombings in which a number of Australians were killed. On the 12th October every year (The bombings anniversary) the sun follows a path accross the sky. it's a sacred place for those who were affected by the bombings. The Street leading to the park was lined with sugar gum trees and enourmous fig trees. We spent most of the day in King's Park reading and exploring the Botanical area. Our friend Juli came and met us around 2 and we went and had a look around the gardens. The Botanical garden is made up from a heap of area's broken up into seperate areas from all over Australia. There was the desert region Katherine, Kimberleys and NSW. We walked over a really high bridge that spanned between two areas of the park and had some photos. It was a tree top walk and the views were awesome. We even saw the route we had taken on monday when we were trying to get to the parliament house.

As a treat for it being our last night at Catherine's house we went to a restaurant called Sizzler's. Which David had seen on a commercial and was salivating over. We went with Catherine and the Girls and had a fun filled evening spending around 2 hours talking and eating waay too much. Sizzlers has an all you can eat Salad Bar with has some hot items too. We ate as much as our stomach's could contain and rolled out. This was a fitting end to a very enjoyable few days in the city, it was great to be in a family environment again and a great change of scenery from the farm.

Catherine's family room had the best sunsets, the redness of the sky filling the house. It was all so great, nice to live a millionaire lifestyle for a while. Untill we go back ;)

I think that's it... I'm sure we'll remember something to add later.

Laters..

David & Holly

(A very belated Happy Birthday message to Dad (Mr Crompton) I didn't forget )