Unexpecteds

Currently trying to cope with a 9 to 5 job for the first time in my life :(. Large workspace, nice view out of the big glass window, but I'm thankful this is a temp situation. The few people I know at the office are really nice. The rest regard me as something of a species out of the wild (read offshore vessel) :|.But I love the fact that the office is barely 5 minutes from King's Park, so after work I can happily go watch the city skyline transform from bright blue-gold to sparkling lights set in pitch-black :).

Oh, and it was totally thrilling to see the youngster advance into the semi's at the French Open last night!!

Currently: 'at work' :D
Listening to: Pearl Jam - I'm open
Quote: '...trading magic for fact, no tradebacks. So this is what it's like to be an adult. If he only knew now, what he knew then...'

Jackpot!!!

I have had a g-r-e-a-t weekend :). Of course that has a lot to do with this being the first weekend I've had at all for a while. But the place has turned out to be really awesome! Today I went off on the long walk towards Heirisson Island a little further north along the Swan river. It's a long but nice walk along the riverside, and I'm not exactly short on time.

One half of the island is fenced off as a sort of reserve. Almost as soon as I got there, I noticed these heads bobbing amidst the bush!
It's a really nice place, so near the city centre, yet it surrounds you completely with it's trees and water (there are ponds within the tiny island :|) and birds and kangaroos... :).During my walk and again on the island I came across many of these birds with wings spread out in the sun. The reason became obvious when I noticed some of them diving completely underwater to grab fish that seems to be abundant in the river. Fishing's a really big thing here. Everyone, from 6-7 yr old kids to 60 yr old ladies, they all go fishing.
Finally, as I headed back off the Island I decided I'd give the 'roos another shot. And this time I was better rewarded! Six of them, probably the entire population of the tiny island reserve, were out in the open and didn't seem particularly distressed when I went closer and closer, trying to get a better picture! That of course resulted in a series of pics with the animals growing progressvely larger, until I finally got this one :P.So the extended weekend has worked out really nicely :). Thanks also to Valentino Rossi and 17-yr old Nicole Vaidisova for making my weekend even better by winning the Italian MotoGP yet again and defeating Amelie Mauresmo in the French Open, respectively :D. Tomorrow I shall have another go at my Malaysian visa. This time hopefully I'll at least be able to lodge the application.

Feeling: optimistic!
Listening to: Switchfoot - Stars

More pics here.

The river and the ocean.

My Aussie 'vacation' is turning out quite well actually! Watched X3 last night in a theatre nearby. Was a little disappointed with the wholesale death and destruction theme, but still, good fun to watch.

Swan bells, Perth

And as planned, went off to Fremantle today. It's a town an hour down the Swan river and on the coast. It also boasts an ex-maximum security prison that's been turned into a really interesting tourist attraction!

Fremantle prison

On the way to Fremantle I decided to take the ferry instead of the train, and that turned out to be a rather inspired choice :D. It was one of those really great trips with occassional commentary that's informative but not an overdose :). And of course, great views! I'd been reccommended a trip to an island off the mainland as well, but that's where I drew the line. Ferry in fresh water, down a totally calm river is already kinda pushing it. Ferry in open sea, with the tide supposed to be coming in?!! I've had enough of the open sea to last me roughly till mid-July, thank you very much :D.
Tomorrow I'm planning to check out this island in the middle of the river not too far away from here. It has 'occassional wildlife' marked on one of my maps!! If that doesn't some up with more kangaroo sightings, I'll have to find my way to the wildlife park I located, which is rather far away /:). But I have another whole week to go, so possibilities exist :).

Feeling: hungry :|
Listening to: Natalie Imbruglia - City

More pics here.

A long story.

So be forewarned :).

The first and second halves of a single day could not have been more different! Having only had one meagre croissant since morning, by 3 my stomach was playing a full band, so that was priority one. Thereafter I set off first on a cursory tour around the few blocks around my hotel, smack in the middle of downtown Perth. In the rush of the morning I was forced into an uneasy familiarity with it, now with tons of time and no deadlines, I chose to lazy by the traffic lights when they were red, watching the fairly mind-boggling mix of people milling around busily in streets I'd found almost completely empty at 9 last night! Perth is a really pretty city, with lots of old-style architecture mixed with tall skyscrapers, big wide roads. And more importantly, big wide sidewalks :).

bow and arrow :)

Feeling surprisingly at home with the streets thanks to a map I'd been given in the morning which turned out amazingly accurate, I headed for King's Park. On the map it's almost half the size of the entire city! It's situated on a hill pretty much on one side of the city, and the panoramic view of the Swan river with the city sprawled around it is totaly awesome :).The long walk finally got me back to the state I was in yesterday, pretty much ecstatic :D. Despite scares of worsening weather conditions and an hour-long delay, we finally managed to get on the choppers and get off at Barrow Island! With all the clouds and rains it seemed to have become a lot greener :). Anyway, that's where I saw kangaroos!! As the small fixed-wing swung onto the runway to take off there was a huge roar! Someone had spotted two tiny kangaroos watching the takeoff with grave expressions :D. Got no pics sadly, with the extended stay here, something might just turn up!
Watched the wide river turn from blue to deep purple and finally an inky black while I kept walking down the narrow paths with dense bushland on one side and the river on the other. Finally I settled down in front of the eternal flame that burns before the monument to WW I soldiers. It was nice, dunno quite why. Very quiet, didn't notice the all too familiar ckickets :). I guess it was just nice to be able to sit down and relax, without having to continually adjust, anticipating a pitch this way or a roll that way. To be able to watch a flame without having to worry about a possible fire drill :D.
The walk back was really slow! The city lights were just too beautiful, I didn't want to disappear into their midst. The incessant traffic on the freeway seemed to melt into one S of bright white headlamps and another of winking red taillamps. And this time I made sure I made my way back over the 'bow and arrow' bridge :D.Anyway, make my way back to the city I did! Thankful that this was a place I could come back to. I wasn't flying away in a plane, not sailing off on a ship, I'm staying right here for another 10 days!

A surprise was in store for me! It was dark, but the malls, squares, streets were live and kicking with loads of people out on a Friday evening! Rather unusually for me, I decided to go looking. There was even some shows in the mall.. an exhibition of a rather vague looking martial-dance sort of thing accompanied by the kind of primitive drums you'd expect to see on Nat Geo, and another of 'how loud can I scream' by a bunch of really enthusiastic young orators :D.

The totally best part of the evening was of course getting my new black-silver 60 Gig iPod >:). I figured since I'm going to be moving around a lot, and given the complete absense of company, there couldn't possibly be a better time! And now since I've gotten back to my room and opened the box I'm scared to touch it for fear of leaving my horrible, horrible fingerprints all over the back :P. I also got myself milk and cereals :D. Thanks mainly to the fact that I completely hate eating out alone, it's been McD's and Subway's take-outs for me till now :(. And the milk has already come in handy given that I had an early dinner.Of all the things in the day though, this image I found the most familiar! For those who know, I'm telling you, it's so totally like the bridge at Ram's place in Andheri!!

Feeling: touristy!
Listening to : John Mayer - Back to you

More Perth pics here.

Waahaahaaa :((

I hate having to think of a totally beautiful day like this with such regret :((. It's really beautiful! Perth's a pretty place, and I had the whole weekend kinda set up with locations to check out and all that! But another visa debacle led to a very harried me :(. Unexpected documents required, delayed arrivals, a frantic rush down 5 city blocks only to find "CLOSED - working hrs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m." I SWEAR it was still only 12:55 :((. Life is a B@@@H!!!! I know it might just have helped if I'd caught one of the very few empty cabs I saw, but they were all stopped at red lights!! Every single one of them! And as soon as I'd go past the light, it'd go green and the cab would go wizzing past :-<.

One saving grace, I actually didn't have one of the lesser important sounding documents, so I might not have got anything done anyway.

Neways, **** it! I'm off to see the city, the water front, Kings Park. Expect tons of pics uploaded in a later post :D. Ah yes, I saw k-a-n-g-r-o-o-s!!!!!! \:D/. Details later.

Feeling: PISSED... as in angry X-(((
Listening to: Avril Lavigne - Nobody's home