Today marks the end of
our time in the apartment on Clark Street and, for me, the beginning of life
closer to the city and further from campus. Ivana will be moving into Halls
right on campus, which I was initially a little jealous of, but not anymore now
I know what I’m moving on to.
Last night I went over
to Vickie and John’s for dinner. I found them a month ago via Perth Homestay, a
website that connects international students looking for temporary
accommodation and families with a spare room/empty nest. We exchanged a few
emails between them agreeing to have me and me leaving England; from these, I
learnt that they moved to Australia from the UK in 2010 (Essex, but luckily
they left before the vajazzle became a thing). They have two grown-up
daughters, one in England and the other in New Zealand, and a 19-year-old son
who’s over in NZ at the moment with his new business. John’s company is part of
a medical supplies distribution firm (his boss is a biochemist!) and Vickie
leaves her job in commercial recycling later this month. They seemed like a
really nice couple and I couldn’t wait to meet them.
Vickie emailed me
earlier in the week saying that she’d pick me up from the sailing club on
campus. As I waited, I mulled over her description of what to look out for;
“mushroom-coloured car” and “light red hair” made it difficult to paint a
picture of what she might be like! When she pulled up, she greeted me with a
hug and a smile and we chatted about this and that on the short drive over to
their apartment. It’s in a very modern, very clean block in a very nice part of
town, right on the south riverbank overlooking the skyline. Electric gates,
underground car park, key fobs, the lot. Very promising. We took the lift up to
the nth floor (I was too busy admiring the plush décor of the lobby to notice
how high we were going) and went inside.
WOW. By anyone’s
standards, the apartment is absolutely incredible. During the guided tour, I
was very impressed by what I was seeing and hearing; my room is lovely and has
a desk, bed and whole wall of built-in wardrobes, the bathroom (“you’ll be
sharing with Jamie, but he’s never here so it’s basically an en suite") is huge,
the open living space filled with musical instruments/momentos from their three
years sailing the world has doors onto the patio complete with barbecue ("we eat
outside most nights in the summer and barbie at least once a week"), breakfast
bar and hammock, but the most
noticeable thing was being faced with the skyscrapers across the way, their
rainbow of lights reflecting in the water. It's so beautiful from up there! The complex also has a private
swimming pool and tennis court. John emerged from the kitchen (from which a
delicious smell was wafting) and introduced himself; he strikes me as a kind, funny,
chilled-out bloke.
We ate spicy chicken
and rice, followed by raspberry jelly and cream, which was yummy and a 3710394-fold
improvement on the toast, or at best scrambled eggs that I’ve been living on
thus far. They have this cute ritual of clapping the chef, a habit that has
stuck since doing it at sea, where “managing to cook on choppy waters without killing someone really
does deserve a round of applause”. Other conversation included Cornwall (of
course), Vickie’s current participation in amateur theatre, their daughter
getting a contract to have her kid’s TV show produced in NZ and John’s business trip
starting tomorrow and consisting of a 5-day skiing holiday (tough life!).
Vickie said I could borrow her bike to ride to work until I buy one and they
even gave me an Australian phone!
Mum, listen up, this
is the best bit: I can buy a phone card, which has a code that you type into
their landline and lets you call international numbers. They said it’s much clearer than Skype and costs about $2 an hour! How awesome is that?!?!
After we finished
dinner, Vickie showed me photos of their 8-month-old granddaughter, who is
pretty adorable and might come to stay, before driving me home via all the
important parts of South Perth. We did a little loop via the ferry port
(a taxi to the city), main street dotted with french coffee shops,
fancy restaurants and dress shops, theatre and zoo, which I hope to visit this
weekend.
This first week
(nearly) has flown by and, despite the hectic schedule so far, I can’t wait to
pack up and start a whole new adventure in the penthouse this afternoon. Photos
coming soon*
*It should be
mentioned that I did a bit more science at work today, but this has been
overshadowed slightly by my new home.
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