We travelled back to Perth last Thursday (Valentine’s Day) for a few days of work (for me) and a bit of time catching up with friends.
Thursday was travelling day, checking in to the accommodation, and getting my hair cut. We went to the Viet Royal in East Perth for dinner, which was just around the corner from where we were staying. The food was good but nothing startling. They were pretty full, and we were lucky to get a table seeing as though it was Valentine’s Day.
Friday I spent at my main client’s Perth office catching up with people and learning new stuff about one of the software products I write the user documentation for. Sad news—one of the main movers in the old company has been ‘relieved of his duties’. Such a shame. Brilliant brain, terrific worker, good guy. They’ll miss his talents for a while as he was the main driver for one of their new products.
My husband spent Friday with friends cruising the Swan Valley tasting wine, beer, chocolate and other goodies, eating at restaurants, and generally have a very relaxing day! Well, someone has to earn the money to pay for these pleasures…
Friday night we went with some friends to the Ten Ten Kitchen in East Victoria Park for one of their great meals. Usual fare: Satay Chicken, Beef Rendang, Salted Chilli Squid, Beef and Black Bean Sauce, Mongolian Lamb and Nasi Goreng. Yum. Yum. We really miss our friends—and the great Asian food we can’t get in Bridgetown. I can cook Asian, but it’s just not the same.
Saturday was spent at a Defensive Driver training course out in Wangara, paid for by my main client (they try to ‘keep’ their staff—and this is one way to do it!). We learnt a bit, but it was mostly reinforcement of driving practises we already did. The last part of the course was an on-road assessment with one of their trainers. My only fault was not looking over my shoulder to check the blind spot. otherwise, my husband and I both got a very good ‘grade’ on the assessment.
The course finished an hour or two earlier than we’d expected, so we headed over to Cannington to get some stuff from Dick Smith’s and to see if there were any decent movies on at Hoyts (we had two free vouchers that expired at the end of February). Nothing on. So we went to The Foundry pub and had a drink and a DELICIOUS gourmet pizza (roast chicken, pumpkin, pesto, chilli, ricotta cheese, capsicum) that was a wonderful combination of sweet, sour, hot and spicy. We gave the movie vouchers away to our waitress as she was very good and anticipated our needs as well as being just the right amount of friendly for a customer service person. After that we met my husband’s brother at his local pub, spent some time with him, then headed back to our accommodation from his place.
Sunday we headed home. There was LOTS of traffic on the Mandurah-Bunbury road heading back to Perth—and an exceptional number of expensive 4WDs (BMW, Volvo, Porsche, Lexus, Mercedes, etc.). I found out today that the Leeuwin Estate concert was on over the weekend, so that would account for them. And the country music festival was on at Boyup Brook too, so that accounts for the more scraggly and rural 4WDs with caravans, tents, and swags!
It was good to get home.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 