Return to Perth

  In Perth, we are coming to the of Djeran , the season of adulthood, which apparently is a time for reflection, renewal, and preparation for the colder months ahead. It's when the land exhales, and we tread lightly in transition....so I'm told. It's the period of April to May, represent by the colour green, when nights get colder with dew in the morning. In some ways, the recent trip that Susan and I made to Melbourne where the temperature range was 14-16 degrees during the day and 2-4 degrees at night, prepared us for what was to come. We had to unpack jumpers and coats for Melbourne so when we returned, both with colds, to cool nights, we didn't have to go searching for the right clothes. And just as importantly, I found an instruction book online (I do love an instruction book) for our ducted heating system and it works!  The other Noongar seasons are: Birak (December - January) Bunuru (February - March) Djeran (April - May) Makuru (June - July) Djilba (August - Sep...

People ask me if I miss Melbourne and my answer is ‘so far, not yet’, Partly that’s because I’ve had three trips back already since I left in January and partly it’s because we’ve been so busy in Perth discovering new neighbourhoods and rediscovering old haunts that I haven’t had time to think about it. On this visit, we did feel like tourists to a degree, staying in Degraves Street across the road from Flinders Station. We did go to the theatre, go shopping, go to galleries. All the things that visitors would do. But we’d do all those things if we were still here, including some of the week’s activities such as catching up with friends and going to the Coburg Farmer’s Market.  The young man at the Market from whom Susan used to buy her apples also sells his mother’s jams and marmalades and he was rather shocked to discover that we’d come all the way from Perth to buy her plum and raspberry jam. We’ve tried a couple of similar spreads in Perth but they just haven’t been as good. Me...

The key reason for going to Melbourne this time was to see the musical  Hadestown .  It was created by the singer/songwriter Anais Mitchell in the 2000s but it feels very ‘of the moment’. The Australian production is the original Broadway show recreated by Opera Australia with Australian singers/performers/musicians who are, in my opinion, even more skilled than those I’ve listened to on the Broadway and West End soundtracks. The story is of Orpheus, the musician, and his love Eurydice. It’s a story of gods oppressing mortals. It’s a story of the power of art. It’s a Greek myth  that’s inspired operas and novels, poems and films. My favourite TV series of last year Kaos  also featured this story. Two of my favourite retellings are poems. There’s an exquisite moment of deep hurt in Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem  Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes . Orpheus travels to the underworld to rescue Eurydice. After using music to soften the heart of the god Hades, he’s allowed to tak...

  In the 30 odd years that I lived in Melbourne, I did undertake a few Open Studio experiences but in the first 4 months in Perth, Susan and I had three such adventures. Firstly we explored the Stirling area, north of the city including suburbs such as Karrinyup and Innaloo. Next was our new area, the City of Melville which covers suburbs from Palmyra to Applecross. Our most recent version was out of the city, down to Mandurah, Pinjarra and Dwellingup. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, an Open Studio is an opportunity to visit artists in their homes or their studios, usually arranged by a local council. You can spend a day or a weekend driving around seeing art, often unexpected and beautiful art, that is being created in the suburbs. Although the event is free (apart from petrol costs), it’s not cheap because neither Susan nor I can resist supporting artists and buying work. This is something we shouldn’t be doing because we did give away a lot of art before ...

One key difference between Perth and Melbourne is the taxi drivers. This week’s trip to Melbourne was a classic illustration. Our driver in Perth was “white”. Although as he described it “frog, wog, and bog” with French, Maltese and Irish heritage. And a local, living in a nearby suburb. He’d had coffee at our local cafe and knew all about the croissanterie down the road. With 8 grandchildren, he only drove when it suited him and, only for ‘nice’ people. Phil, our new best friend, described his cab as a “tosser-free taxi”. He gave us his card - because we were clearly of the “nice” variety - and we’ve already booked a return trip with him. Every taxi driver I’ve had to date in Perth has been “white”.  Walking past the queue of taxis at Melbourne airport, there was every tone but “white”. Our driver was of Ethiopian heritage but he’d been in Melbourne long enough to call the previous Labor Premier, Daniel Andrew’s, a dickhead - for all the disruptive train construction going on. Not...

A beach that rarely shows up on Perth's favourites is Port Beach. Close to Fremantly Harbour it's background is stacked containers and loading cranes and there's often a wiff of something industrial. However, it turned into Betty's preferred beach because you can park and literally walk straight onto the sand and into the water. No steep wooden steps to negotiate like Peter's Pool or the parking challenges of Cottesloe. Betty's last beach visit - Port, 2006 I suspect that it's going to turn into our favourite beach as well because it's only 12 minutes from Archibald Street with just a couple of traffic lights along the way.  

My only excuse for not posting recently is that we’ve been in the middle of the next (and last - at least for the next few years) relocation. That, and the fact that we still don’t have any internet. But in the scheme of all the things that might go wrong in such a move, no wifi along with an ant infestation and lots of bruises are the worst we’ve had to deal with. The move from Loch St to Archibald St wasn’t quite as traumatic as our other recent moves. For one thing, half of our lives was still in boxes in the Loch St garage. Secondly, we gave ourselves a couple of weeks between getting the keys for Willagee and handing over the Claremont ones. This has given us time to install a fridge, buy a new induction top oven and get the house rewired to take the electrical load, have a handyman fix all the shelving in the built in robes and take out the gun cabinet (!), meet Abe the pool man and get a tutorial on how to look after our salt/chlorine heated (a little bit) pool, add some more po...