Day 89. Perth

...Welcome Nana

Shane left this morning at 6:00am. After he came in and kissed me goodbye, I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't. After the early night, and being so excited to see Nana today it was impossible. So I made a cuppa and sat out in the lounge room and watched 'Sunrise' in complete silence, this was a lovely and rare experience indeed!

I finally had to wake Scarlett at 7:30am to start getting ready to battle the traffic into the airport. Turns out it was nowhere near as bad as I thought, and we made it there in 40min. I have to stop comparing all the traffic to Sydney. We were even early enough to park the car and go in, so we could surprise her at the gate. She was surprised as we hid and jumped out at her. She was a little overwhelmed I think, it had been so long since she had seen us, we all hugged and kissed and all started talking at once. It was a great re-union, we have really missed her.

We were meeting Robyn later in the city, so I decided to take mum and Scarlett up to King's Park to see the great lookout. I had some coffee in a thermos for Nana, and snacks for Scarlett, so it was morning tea while overlooking the whole of Perth. Shane and I were here the week earlier and found a great park with dinosaurs we were keen to show Scarlett, so we headed there next.

Scarlett & Nana at King's Park

Scarlett had a ball. The park was full of life sized dinosaur statues, a fort, and great play equipment. If we hadn't been going to meet Robyn and the girls in Fremantle, we could have stayed here all day.

Next it was off to Fremantle's South Beach Park, another great park right on the beach. Poor Nana was so hungry, after leaving home at 4:00am and gaining two hours it was close to 3:00pm now for her, so we decided to grab some lunch here at the park's cafe. What a disappointment.. Our meals took 45min and were dismal. Mum and I had fish burgers that had a piece of frozen oven baked fish, and no butter or tartare sauce. It was so dry, and cost $11 at that. I went back and give them some very detailed feedback when we were finished.

The kids played for a couple of hours then we drove back to get settled in to watch the Royal Wedding. What a wedding, no one else was as interested as me, but I watched every minute and loved it. I don't recon I will ever forget where I was when Kate and Wills got hitched, just like I can remember his mothers wedding. R.I.P Diana.

posted by Bec

Hello Barbagello...

This morning Geoff picked me up at 6am and we were off to the racetrack! Geoff only lives about 15 minutes from the track, which made our days even better. We made it to the track even before the sun had risen, so it was a great way to start the day.

Shane and Rick Kelly

It was straight into the back of the pits with Kelly Racing, as I had been invited to attend the Kelly Racing Big Brekkie. It was a full on affair, with a big cooked breakfast, and real coffee! Yummy! Racing drivers Rick and Todd Kelly, as well as Greg Murphy and Dave Reynolds soon joined us, and sat down with us during breakfast. They signed our gear, had photo's taken, and then gave a personal tour of the pits and their cars. It was great!

I think Geoff enjoyed himself as well, as it was his first experience 'behind the scenes' and interacting with an actual race team. I'm glad he enjoyed the experience. The rest of the day was spent checking out the racetrack, and watching the V8's and support races during practice and qualifying. Even the Super bikes were here. We scoped the area to see where we were going to sit during race 1 tomorrow, and at the end of the day went back to Geoff's for a great steak dinner.



Greg Murphy and Geoff

Geoff talked me into going out with him for a 'couple drinks' down at his local watering hole. Well, as you would of guessed, a couple turned into a few, and a few turned many. So at closing time we were duly asked to leave the establishment and walked back to Geoff's place. It ended up being a big night out, and I'm not really sure if we got much sleep at all.



We had to be up and out at 6am tomorrow, ready to return to the track!

posted by Shane