Bloss and Kate in Perth

The day after we got back from Canberra Jason's very good friend Mike (a.k.a. Blossom) and his girlfriend Kate surprised Jason with a visit. The original plan was for me to take the car for the day and just arrive home with our guests. Unfortunately work got in the way and I had to tell Jason that there were some very special people at the airport waiting for him... he was very excited. I tell you, it was a hard secret to keep and I nearly let it out a number of times. Blossom arrived with the customary bourbon, the whole bottle nearly consumed in one night.

Well it was great having friends here, not only for the cheesecake, lasagne and copious bottles of wine and beer either. It was a shame that neither Jason nor I were able to take more leave, but we had just had three work days off in Canberra. It was lucky that we were back for the visit though!!!

The weather wasn't the best while they were here, as July is the worst month of the year, but the sun still shone and it was still around 15 - 20 degrees, which is better than the 5 - 9 degrees in Wellington at the time.
We managed to get to the beach and go swimming as well. It wasn't the warmest swim but we did stay in the water for a good while. Jason and Bloss playing around with the polo ball and some general water fighting as well.
We were swimming down at Cottesloe Beach, here's the boys after their swim with the historic Indiana Tearooms and Surf club in the background.
Jason did manage to take a day off work while Kate and Bloss were with us and they headed off up to Coast to lancelin to chek out the massive sand dunes.... here they are after a race up the dune... Jas won this race :-) it looks tough to me, and I am sure it would have been hell on the calves!!! Fun on the downhill though I can imagine.

Our car on the dunes... lucky I wasn't there as I really wouldn't have been comfortable!! Not sure how much I like off road driving at all.

After the sand dunes Jason took Kate and Bloss to Yanchep (subject of a previous blog). Here you can see a rain storm off the coast... proof that it does rain in WA. On that note, I have been so surprised at the difference in WA between Summer and Winter, it is soooooooo green and lush here at the moment, yet it is amazingly dry and arid in the summer, the difference is so huge that it seems like we are living somewhere else right now.While Kate and Bloss were here we went out for a really awesome dinner in Fremantle- we went to Char Char Bull. It was sooooooo nice and we had such a good night. The wait staff paid special attention to us after Jason's first pick on the wine as well. After dinner (and a great sticky date pudding for dessert with the best dessert wine) we took our guests to another Fremantle Icon- the Little Creatures Brewery and bar for a local beer. It was another great night out with friends!

Near the end of the trip Kate and Blossom surprised us with an amazing canvas picture- an ode to wellington! Its so nice to see the gift everyday and see some of our favourite wellington spots! Blossom also treated me to an early birthday present- a UV filter and a polarised filter for my camera! Wow, we were really spoilt.


Unfortunately all good things have to end and Blossom and Kate left us 1o days later. The house seemed really empty after they left and having them here really highlighted what we have sacrificed to come to Perth. Its great to know that we have such good friends that make the huge effort to come and visit us!