Perth....No Worries Mate

Hello All ,

It's been some time since I last posted one of my Visionari blogs.

Since returning from my last foray in Europe (unexpected adventures in broken bones) I've escaped the ferocious New Zealand spring and it's incessant ride on lawn mowing at Rosedale!

This will no doubt be my first job when I return from Aussie! Below is the new covered in "SheepYards Gardens"...more taming awaits me there too!

Christine has once again been sent to Perth, Australia on work duties, so I/ we.... decided to have a pre-Christmas break across the ditch.


Getting to Perth was not without it's challenges,  I had booked my flights through the Flight Centre travel agents. My tickets were under the name of Jimu (made sense to me, at the time, when the travel agent asked my name)...but when I got to the check in desk at the airport, as it was an international flight, my tickets had to match the name on my passport (James Robert), so I missed the connecting flight from Auckland and caught a later one! Left my Olympus camera on the Nelson-Auckland flight, so not such a great start to this holiday!

This poster welcomed me in the Sydney Airport gents toilet......... an insight into the Aussie humor.

Anyway getting into Perth and met by Christine...it was all worth it!
We are staying very near the city across from the Barrack Street Ferry and I take the 7 minute journey each day when going into town.

Perth weather is hot and windy, the locals seem to start their day very early (5-6-7am) with many running, cycling, walking, before the heat of the day. After their day....the pubs and Tab's are heavily frequented. 

 

In the city centre The Hay Street Mall has this Percy Button statue. A famous Perth Busker (acrobat) in the 1920's who was murdered, I put on my clown face and hat and busked happily thinking it won't happen in the same place to another busker!

I spent quite a bit of time in the Perth Mac Store getting advice from the Mac Genius's in the store.

Pretty impressive place with all the vibe and excitement! The assistants  meet you with iPads in there hand confirming your booking appointment....I was taken by one of the assistants style as she twirled her iPad before the next customer, much like a gunslinger would with his colt 45in the wild west!

I also visited the WA Museum, which has a visiting exhibition from the British Museum called "Extraordinary Stories"
Extraordinary Stories from the British Museum

After this I headed down to Fremantle on the train.  Freo as the locals call it, is hosting the ISAF World Sailing Championships, which is also a qualifier and run up to next years London Olympics, so there are 80 teams participating.

I walked into Didgeridoo Breath, a shop selling digeridoos (what else!) and met an Iranian (Jimi) and Japanese (Sanshi) and had a blow in the shop.... the place was jumping.....even the guy on the till was joining in!

In Market Street behind Gino's cafe was a street party and I met and chatted to Horatio in front of his mural wall.

And John (Johannes) in his electric bath.....Freo is the Takaka equivalent of Perth...and it shows!

 

I watched the sun disappear into the sea at Bathers Beach, Kidogo Arthouse Gallery had a special joint aborigine/white man Exhibition and live music as the night slowly sneaked in!

 

I managed to find WA Circus School (their door was open and I wandered in) and returned later in the evening to sit in and learn a few juggling and hat tricks.
I tried the unicycles....got on a 6 ft Giraffe unicycle, was shown how to get on it...... then.....chickened out....the memory of my last overseas adventure, suggested caution!...This time I listened!!!!

The circus school was great to watch and their warm up exercises, show how incredibly fit you need to be for this occupation (and young too!) 

Thanks Adam for your hospitality and willingness to show an oldie a thing or two!

Today I'm taking it easy after spraining my ankle playing ball with Christine's nephew's kids who we visited yesterday.

Only 3 days till I make the homeward run!

Should be able to squeeze another Blog before this Aussie Adventure closes!

Cheers and Ciao

"No worries mate"...Perth Lingo for.....the NZ "She'll be right!"

Jimu

Homeward bound and trip review....Phew!

Crikey Dick,
Wow this is the last Blog in this series after 6 months travels.
A lot of Bridge has gone under the Water! But let's finish off Scotland and heading down to Heathrow etc.

Here are a few night shots of Edinburgh, a beautiful city anytime of day, though the Royal Mile does have its rougher side (late nights Fri and Sat can be wild west-ish)

Advice from Ian the local with all the gen on where to go for a weekends walking in the hills and lovely Borders scenery took me back to the Melrose area, where I walked up the Eildon Hill and next day drove through a lovely back road taking in a couple of the reservoirs for Edinburgh.

These sheep were such an unusual colour, they could have only just  been dyed, not sure why and other flocks in the area were the same, maybe to find them in the snow which I understand is plentiful in the UK at the moment.

Just love the stone walls, must be backbreaking and take ages to build.

Megget Reservoir feeds Edinburgh

This is the only area of Britain where I saw circular stone walls which are sheep yards.

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Walking along the roadside these beautiful ferns caught my eye.

With only one more weekend I choose to go down back into England and go to the Holy Isle...Lindisfarne.

Lindisfarne is only accessable at low tide by a causeway and this was the way the monks also accessed it back in 640 AD and has also been visited by Vikings.

It certainly is a stunning place, windswept with commanding views.

These traditional sheds are built along the lines of upturned wooden boat hulls.

These stone carvings in the graveyard of the church with Celtic patterns also in my opinion had similar patterns to Maori or even Japanese, which just goes to show there inspiration is from the same source - nature.

One of my fellow woofers who came down for the trip was a geo cacher, so we tracked down several of these hidden little caches. Since these GPS devices have come on the market, there are literally thousands of them hidden around the world and finding them has become an interesting hobby.

We also called onto Berwick on Tweed, Eyemouth and St Abbs.

The latest in tombstone etching, I wonder what I'll get put on mine.

This is St Abbs, with a roaring sea and a biting wind we headed back to Eyemouth to sample another Italian icecream shop. It was good but still no match for childhood memories and tastes.

It was getting rather cold in Scotland now and living in a caravan with a 2 bar heater was lo\sing its charms and anyway New Zealand was calling.

The morning of the off, I biked the 4 km to Traipran Law which is a commanding little hill overlooking East Linton and walked up. There used to be a settlement of people up here in Roman times and has quite a bit of folklore to it. I can understand why.

The green structure (which in a previous life was a mobile breast screening xray unit) is the kitchen/canteen with my abode just in front.

Here we are at Dunbar Station heading for York and the bike's new home!

York was having an arty time projecting light shows, this is actually on  the outside ofYork Minster, very impressive.

I headed down to London on the Megabus which was a bus and train journey changing in the Midlands at this amazing station. I was struck by the view, knowing where I would be in a couple of days, back in rural Nelson.

So now to the trip review:

I had high expectations for this trip. Iit was to be my first foray into busking from a bicycle, to meet the real people along the sides of the roads and little towns in UK, Ireland and Europe.This was my vibe as I left NZ.

This was the reality after only 4days biking.

This trip turned out to be my toughest time travelling or otherwise, not having broken any bones before or been seriously injured, and my spirit took a massive hit. I am incredibly grateful to Ken and Angela for putting me up for so long, allowing me to heal and get back on the road.

Now reflecting upon my trip. I was ill prepared for cycling in UK conditions, ill prepared for finding busking locations and out of touch with the reality of biking and having enough energy to also busk. Once I was finally given permission to ride again 8 weeks after the operation, I had lost a lot of my fitness and desire to do what I came to the UK to do.

I did not get to Ireland or Europe.

On the plus side Christine and I had a great time getting around England and Scotland. I met lots of interesting people (in hospitals mainly) and found many spots we would like to return to, perhaps on another trip.

Would I do it all again? No bloody way. I've learnt a lot and would do it all very differently, though I'm still figuring out if I'm up to it.

My arrival in New Zealand was not without some drama. I had intended to open my saxophone case and play "Po Kare Kare Ana" once on NZ soil, however this was all curtailed when Customs asked for my ongoing ticket. I had left NZ on my British passport and didn't get it stamped upon leaving NZ, and therefore had to be given a one month visitor's visa.

Warm weather greeted me back in Nelson, but after only one week at home, I was involved in this three car crash (we were in the middle).  I have no excuses, it was my fault, luckily no one was seriously injured, though there could have been deaths.

This has been a sobering trip and 2010 was an eventful year. I feel I have created my own luck or lack of it.

At the tender age of 60, I'd better mend my ways or I may not reach 65.

I started this trip with the memory of several friends who died prematurely, and this still happens daily to people we all know. I could have been this year one of those statistics (at least twice), or people very close to me.

I am in no position to give advice to anybody at the moment.

Thank you for following my blog.

Exercise your creativity at every opportunity and above all stay safe.

Merry Christmas

Namaste

Jimu