Sunday at the markets

In my humble opinion, there's no better way to while away Sunday morning than exploring a good market at one's leisure. I was just tucking into my scrambled eggs on toast this morning when Vic mentioned that the quarterly Perth Upmarket was on at UWA; after an hour being subjected to the dismal affair that was England's second innings in the first test of The Ashes, I was glad of an excuse to get out of the apartment and as far away from the TV as possible. There was a big cycle race on around Perth, so numerous road closures meant that we had to take a very long route over to campus, but we eventually made it and squeezed into a space in the packed car park. Prachie and Vic both commented on how pretty my place of work is and it took this visit free of the working environment for me to appreciate this; all the trees were in bloom and it was a cool but beautiful day.

Winthrop Hall basking in the sunshine

What with it being Perth Upmarket and all, the place was absolutely packed with rich Mums and obnoxious children, but a few strategic sharp elbows meant that we jostled around with the best of them and had a lovely time browsing all the stalls full of beautiful handmade treats. There were too many gorgeous things to mention, but a few stalls did catch my eye. Papillon Belle featured beautiful jewellery with a butterfly theme; each pendant was named after a particular species and the light gave them a gorgeous stained glass effect. It goes without saying that I'm a sucker for photography, and Sunday Sunset provided some really unusual perspectives of all your typical WA landmarks. A few of his crisp, white-mounted stills caught my eye, but the logistics of getting them back to England were rather unforgiving and a couple of postcards had to do. Even my two loves of food and puns were satisfied by Kookery, with everything from tea towels to rolling pins emblazoned with culinary genius such as "to brie or not to brie" and "grin and camembert it". If I had (a) a lot of cash and (b) kids (god forbid), they would be very nicely kitted out in the huge array of children's clothing available. I have also found the perfect birthday present for my darling Chloe, but I won't mention that particular seller in case it gives the game away ;) I know what you're like with your detective skills Foreman! You can better understand the extent of the temptation I faced with by checking out the full list of retailers here.

Being the fatty that I am, I can hardly fail to mention the huge range of food that was on offer. I practiced great restraint and dragged myself away from the Gourmet Pies, Paella, savoury Japanese pancakes and Moroccan Lamb, but expecting me to bypass the beautiful array of macarons was asking too much of my self-control and my sweet tooth. Lemon and white chocolate and raspberry were the bites of choice and they're in the fridge, along with Prachie's cupcakes, for after-dinner delight. Vic was a little surprised that, with all these beautiful items for sale, the only things we bought were edible, but I could have predicted that before we arrived. Catriona also made a brief appearance and, with her voice almost back to normal after a nasty attack of laryngitis, was even able to converse with the retailers she was buying stuff from!

I had a little wander around the grounds when I was done shopping and it really was a glorious day; you could even walk around without sweating or passing out from the heat, so that was a bonus! We drove home at midday and I am currently drowning my sorrows caused by England's failure by drinking tea and stuffing my face with cupcake. Nothing like a bit of comfort eating to finish of the weekend, right?

Girls' night out

Thursday night provided a much-needed chance to let our hair down; after a 17-week semester of solid studying, Jess had her last assessment in the afternoon, setting her free for three whole months of stress-free summer fun. In addition to this already joyous occasion, Sian handed in her thesis last week, marking the end of her Interior Architecture degree. Although luckily not experiencing it this year, I’m all too familiar with the dread associated with the build-up to exam season and understood that this was a very big deal and definitely cause for celebration! After rethinking her initial reaction of “get incredibly drunk as quickly as possible” in reply to me asking what she wanted to do when she was done, Jess decided that we should all go out for dinner in the city before getting intoxicated and dancing the night away.

After an intense day of dissecting and preparing spinal cord slices for next week’s experiments, I finished work a little early, rode home in the sunshine (an uncharacteristically cool 27 degrees in Perth at the moment) and got my things together for staying the night and Jess and Sian’s place. As the proud owner of a new dress and a gorgeous new pair of heels, I was very excited to be provided with an occasion to wear them! A very happy Jess rocked up to Queen Street at 4:30pm and, after a bit of hugging and jumping around, we drove over to Peppermint Grove via the bottle shop. Jess, Sian and I caught up over a few beers before getting dressed up and driving down to Cottesloe station to catch a train into the city. As it was an early dinner, I felt very overdressed in my heels sitting opposite all the bums on the train! It brings me great joy to say that my new shoes passed the endurance test; the fifteen minute walk through the station and out to the restaurant was an absolute breeze on those bad boys. There’s nothing worse than watching a girl totter around like Bambi.

In an absolutely crazy case of coincidence, who did we bump into on our way to the restaurant? Chloe and John, two of our Trebarwith friends from Cornwall who are travelling around Australia this year! (Trebarwith Strand is the beach I work at/my second home in case I don't mention it enough) I worked at the Port William with Chloe for a while and John has been a lifeguard down there for years; they’re both lovely and will be down in Dunsborough over Christmas. It was so good to see them, but it spun me out a bit seeing Cornish friends in WA! They were just on their way to dinner too, so we said goodbye as our stomachs were rumbling; I'll see them again when I finish work on 21st December.

The restaurant of choice was one I’d heard a lot of good things about and had been dying to try for some time. Taka’s Kitchen is a Japanese restaurant down Shafto (don’t laugh) Lane, a little pedestrian area off the beaten track. It’s brilliantly cheap, $7 for a main meal, and BYO booze, so we rocked up with wine from the bottle shop; my tipple of choice was a white from Margaret River, the huge wine region near Dunsborough, the taste of which sadly matched the bargain price. Rank. We met Ellen, one of the girls’ Dunsborough friends, and the four of us grabbed a tabled and ordered. It’s one of those places with long plastic benches and hideous décor, but the food was amazing! I had chicken Katsu, rice and Miso soup and it was all delicious. After the initial disappointment of my disgusting wine, Jess and I decided to abandon ship halfway through the bottle and started Jess’ sweet, pink sparkling wine instead, which was a vast improvement and went down very nicely.

Just after we finished eating, some more of the girls rocked up and decided to eat, so that gave us plenty of time to chat and guzzle more wine. Hayley (a Zimbabwean like Sian), Zara and Georgina were all lovely and it was really nice to meet some more chilled-out girls; from what the guys at work/from diving say, the majority of Perth girls are a bit vain and stuck-up, so this lot are diamonds in the rough for sure! They're studying physiotherapy to journalism and everything in between and have all either finished exams already or only got one to go. These next few weeks will be the one time that I'll find having a 9 to 5 more difficult than studying; that free time to chill out after finishing exams is my favourite! Sian and I got the munchies for something sweet, so nipped out to the convenience store on the corner for choccy bar supplies to sneak into the restaurant. Such ladies!

After we paid the bill, the other girls headed home to continue studying/get an early night, leaving the three of us to make our way to a cocktail bar. Passing through from Wesley Quarter (the nicer area of town where the restaurant is) to the city centre proved rather interesting; it wasn't long before we came across one of the aforementioned Perth girls passed out on/in a bin in full dress and heels while her friends tried to shield her exposed butt from onlookers. Classy... Our cocktail venue was The Aviary, an awesome rooftop bar kitted out with turf, trees and fairy lights. There was also air conditioning in the form of cool spray, which was very much appreciated in the humid night air. I had the best Mojito of my life; well worth $18! We were briefly joined by Jess' coursemate Raz and her boyfriend. Raz is from Jersey and, in the usual game of "it's a small world", I found out that her younger brother studies Sport Science at Bath and we have loads of mutual friends from uni! In other news, it turns out any fancy bar in the city is filled with creepy jerks in suits of an evening and we were batting off offers of drinks from them all night, but that didn't take away from our gossip and dancing session.

With the train station closed for some unholy reason, we hopped in a taxi and were tucked up in bed by midnight like good girls. My 6:30 alarm did not feel nice this morning, however, and I struggled through work with gritted teeth. My evening has consisted of catching up on Lost and feeding my hangover with fish and chips; there's a lot to do this weekend with it being my last with John and Vic, so I'm going to get an early night before addressing the fun of finding a bike and organising getting hold of a chest of drawers...

Sailing 101

To round off the long weekend, I spend Sunday treating myself to a new dress in the city (in preparation for celebrating Jess' freedom out on the town later this week), then got to try my hand at sailing with John. Despite growing up by the sea and trying just about every water sport in my childhood, I'd never sailed before today and I've definitely been missing out on something special.

With Vic out practicing for her play that starts next week and Prachie unable to swim, John and I hopped in the new Jag (a white, convertible beauty) and headed down to Nedlands Yacht Club, a place near my work where they keep their little catamaran. It should be noted, though avid blog-readers (No one? Just my Mum then; hi Mum) will know I've mentioned it before, that the awesome Billinghams had a big boat years ago and spent two years travelling the world on it with their kids. Who needs school anyway? Nowadays, however, their vessel is a lot smaller and less expensive, but still a lot of fun. We got everything set up and pushed it off into the water as John briefly took me through all the sailing terms, which I of course forgot instantly. Being a little boat in a river full of huge boats means bobbing around all over the place when you cross their wake; I was bloody soaked within a minute. After a albeit bumpy cruise across the river to the west bank with John steering, he handed me the tiller and it was down to me to guide us around from there. Luckily it wasn't too windy, otherwise I'm sure one particularly dodgy tack that left us escaping capsizing by the skin of our teeth would definitely have resulted in us going for a swim. Other than that one small mishap, I got the hang of using the wind quite well and managed to guide us over to a beach on the other side of the river for a cup of tea. Winner!

You can always rely on the Aussies to come up with a mature name for a boat

We climbed back into the cat and I let John guide us out of the little bay, mainly due to the abundance of swimming children that I didn't fancy facing the consequences of ploughing through (a few months away from the café has resulted in my hatred of the younger generation having all but faded away; no strangulation or toddler trap thoughts for quite a while Kirst!). Due to the huge number of rich people in Perth, there were tonnes of Jet skis pulling along banana boats and rubber rings, which looked like a lot of friends. When I get back home, I shall make a point of hanging around Rock trying to make friends with all the rahs. As I ducked under the mast for the last time, I knocked my sunglasses off my head and they were lost to the river. Good job they were only ASOS cheapies and not Gucci, a pair of which John found snorkelling with Jamie years ago and Vic still wears. This small loss was well worth escaping the heat on the water for a few hours, not to mention the fun I had sailing.

It must be said though, spending quality time with my temporary "Dad" brought to the front of my mind just how much I miss the old man at home in Camelford. I know he's not a sailing whizz and doesn't own a Jag, but it would bring joy to my heart to hear "that'll be a pound" over here right now. Love you Tim nice but dim!

Swimming with dolphins

Lifelong ambition: Tick! I have just returned from one of the coolest things I've ever done; swimming with wild dolphins on an absolutely beautiful day. I'm very glad it was worthwhile, considering I was awake at 5:30 this morning in order to catch the coach down to Rockingham, a place I've only visited once before on the shore day of my dive course a few weeks ago. After a 45-minute drive, parking up and wandering down to the little jetty, I hopped onboard with the other 40 odd participants and couldn't help noticing there were hardly any Australians; everyone was either English, Scottish or Asian! I guess a touristy thing like swimming with dolphins isn't something a lot of locals go for... but they should.

The boat took us to a sheltered spot where dolphins are known to gather between the mainland and Garden Island (not to be confused with Rottnest Island, aka Quokka land)

First up was an on-board safety briefing and wetsuit fitting from the crew of stereotypically blonde-haired surfers. We were split into teams of 8 and each team was given an instructor, who'd be leading the train of snorkellers in the water with a water scooter, a propeller-powered device that reaches the giddy heights of 5km/h. They quickly skimmed over the fact that a few people in the water would be wearing Electronic Shark Defence Systems, or ESDSs, strapped to their ankles at all times. It was all hunky-dory as they explained that these produce signals on a wavelength that deters the sharks' electrical sensory systems, but what I'd learnt (and decided against sharing) from diving is that these devices were necessary because the vibration of the scooters attracts sharks. On another note, it shocks me how pathetically irrational a lot of people are; some didn't know how to snorkel (What have you been doing with your life? Have you never been on holiday?) or were terrified of the water (Did you not stop to consider that booking a swimming with dolphins trip may involved the ocean?), particularly those from the UK. No wonder Aussies think we're all wimps, come on guys!

The boat set off and after only five minutes of searching (apparently it normally takes an hour), the captain shouted and pointed overboard; we were right in the middle of a huge group of dolphins playing in the waves. This was our signal to slide quietly into the water in our groups, forming a weird, jagged snake by holding onto the waist belt of the person in front of us. One of the instructors wasn't attached to anyone and had the pretty awesome job of free diving with a scooter down to the seabed and playing with the dolphins so that they'd swim up and among us all as we lay with our faces in the water. I can't even begin to describe how amazing being in the water with them was; they came so close and weren't the slightest bit bothered by our presence. Over the course of the morning, we visited four different sites and saw dolphins at every one, which the crew said was quite rare. At one point we were alone with a mother and calf and another time there were over 20 swimming around us; it was awesome! I took my camera into the water on the final swim and was lucky enough to get some underwater footage.

Weird human centipedes

After our experience, we had lunch on the boat and headed to calmer waters (it was pretty windy) to swim and snorkel as we pleased, before heading back to shore. On the ride back, the driver put the engines on full and created a huge surge in the wake of the boat, which the dolphins were leaping out of the water to surf on. They are so like humans in that they do things just for fun and not survival, which I guess is why we feel such a connection to them. We were back by midday and I spent the afternoon sipping ciders in the sun with a friend from diving. Add to this incredible day the fact that it's only Friday, meaning there are two full days of freedom and frolicking to follow, and I'm one happy bunny! These next few weeks are going to be absolutely top-notch; Candice will be Perth-bound for a long overdue catch up, we have Jess' birthday, the end of Jess' exams and Sian handing in her thesis to celebrate, the office christmas barbecue is quickly approaching and I'm seeing Jack Johnson and the incredible Passenger, all before I head down to Dunsborough for the christmas break, where all kinds of other festivities (London Grammar, anyone?) await. Yippee for Australia!

The tour company also published some photos and did a much better job of it than me; take a look here.

Our new flatmate

With only three weeks left in South Perth with John & Vic before I move into Peppermint Grove with Jess for the remainder of my placement (3 months has absolutely flown by), it turns out there'll be a fourth person here in the apartment. The Billinghams' son, Jamie, is over in England visiting friends before spending Christmas in Bangladesh with his business partner (www.additionclothing.com - take a look), so his room has been on Perth Homestay since he left in the hope of attracting another tenant. Two days ago, Vic was contacted at short notice by a school in the Philippines that was sending one of its students over as a Visa had just been approved at the last minute. It was all a bit manic, as they've had pretty much the worst Typhoon in history over there, but after delays and rescheduled flights Vic left for the airport at midday on Saturday.

I'd had a very taxing morning of a cooked breakfast and reading my book in the hammock on the balcony when I heard the front door and the manoeuvring of heavy suitcases. I think I'd put the words "Philippines" and "school" together and pictured a 16-year-old, timid girl with glasses and a calculator, but Prachie is definitely none of those things. She's 23 and really bubbly and funny with great English. Most importantly, she's in Perth to go to cooking school in the city! John was quick to say that we'll be happy to help eat any practice she needs to do, so I can see the arrangement working out very nicely.

She needed to set up a phone and things, so the four of us caught the ferry into the city together, something I've never done with Vic and John before. On the other side, we hopped on one of the free buses into the main shopping district; Prachie was telling me that she was one week into a two-week holiday with a big group of girlfriends on one of the other islands when she discovered her Visa had been approved and she had to leave immediately. Gutted! In the phone shop, Vic and John reminded me of my own parents when they started pretending that their new iPhone cases were talking to each other in funny voices; can't take them anywhere. It was another scorching day and I was careful to keep my burnt nose out of the sun, so we had a little nose around some of the shops (I resisted splashing the cash because there are more important things to spend my wages on, like festivals) before I left the three of them to it so I could catch the ferry back home in time to Skype Mum and Dad. My Dad had to wangle an extra day off to take me to the airport back in August, so he was having to pay for it by working a fourteen-hour shift from midday to 2am. If his boss is reading this: Come on, he's an old boy now, go easy on him please?! As usual, it was lovely to catch up with them and hear that everything at home is still the same, something that always keeps my feet on the ground over here as it's easy to lose track.

We had a gorgeous curry for dinner (John cooked; better give Prachie one day off before she becomes full-time chef) and managed to get to know her a little better. She has three sisters and a little brother, wants to specialise in savoury cuisine (thank god: the last thing I need with summer coming up is pastries) and loves card games. That was all we needed to know before getting the Canasta cards out and starting to teach her how to play. With a 34 forecast for tomorrow, I hope that my Sunday will involved lying by the pool with a beer. Hope everyone's enjoying a typical English November!

Staff Sports Day

The theme of the week at work has definitely been dossing around; first the Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup party and a long lunch at the brewery on Wednesday, but this afternoon was on a whole other level. A few weeks ago, a circular was sent round by “resident Asian” Alex Tang about the annual staff sports day, for which he was trying to get together a soccer team to represent the Faculty of Science. During one lunch break, I somehow got roped into participating, despite my complete lack of skill and experience on the field. Although I was a little worried about being rubbish at first, I’m so glad I went for it as it was so much fun!

After running a few assays and planning my next week of experiments, I left the laboratory with the others and we made our way over to an oval on the other side of campus. Here, we were given a fetching green Faculty of Science T-shirt (my first UWA memorabilia) by a woman in a dinosaur onesie and directed to find a place in the amphitheatre for the opening ceremony. I was expecting a few blokes turning up for a kick around, but in reality there were over 400 people there to compete for the faculties of Aboriginal Studies, Business, IT, Engineering, Finance, Medicine and Science. As we were welcomed by the university sport coordinator and a representative from beneficiary Guide Dogs WA (yes there were puppies and yes they were adorable), it became clear that soccer  wasn't the only event. There were teams entered into volleyball, badminton, boccia (whatever that is) and loads of fun events like egg and spoon and so on. There was also light entertainment in the form of a kind of linedancing cowboy flash mob before the flame was lit (yep, they take it that seriously) and we were directed to the soccer field.

Raring to go...

The "Beat Roots"

Our dream team consisted of myself, Alex, Ryan, Marcus and Andy from our office, plus Donna (a lovely lady who supervised Charis, one of the Bath students from two years ago), Milly (a research assistant around my age) and Nikitas (a very keen and irritating 57-year-old Greek) from the neighbouring Biochemistry department. As I'd been the first online registration, the admin people had called the team "Stephens Slayers". Cringe! The matches were five minutes each way and 5-a-side, with at least two women on the pitch at all times, which meant no rest for the wicked. After a brief kick about and an intense discussion of tactics that mainly involved "passing to Andy or Marcus at every given opportunity", we were ready for our big four inter-faculty matches. Apart from it being immensely hot and 70% humidity, I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I expected and I was actually a reasonably capable player! We absolutely trampled the first IT side with Andy scoring an incredible 4 goals, one of which was in the first ten seconds and featured a solid assist from yours truly. The second game against business, however, was a different story. They had that age-old problem of a couple of players taking it way too seriously; one guy in particular, when everyone else was laughing and joking, didn't crack a smile and screamed at his teammates whenever they screwed up. This got out of hand to a bittersweet extent when the same gentleman absolutely crunched Nikitas in a dirty tackle that left him limping off the pitch. After that, the gloves were off and the boys attempted to heckle him as much as possible, most of which he bit at which was hilarious. Sadly, we lost that game 2-1, but it was onwards and upwards with two more games against two more IT sides (they must really like soccer) in which we secured 3-0 and 2-1 victories. Milly scored an absolute pelter in the last game that had us three girls jumping for joy at the power of womankind. Other hilarious moments included Marcus "Messi" Giacci, who'd bigged himself up as potential star player, rolling his ankle before he even got on the pitch and Ryan accidentally smashing into a small, rotund woman and sending her flying.

The announcement of the winners was a painful occurrence. Ourselves and those arseholes business drew first out of eight teams on points, but they beat us by two on goal difference, leaving us the red ribbons. Still, we did incredibly well consider we didn't take it at all seriously! After that, we made our way back to the original field for a complimentary lunch and a bask in the sun as we waited for all the fun events to start. There was a game called Flyes, in which you have to negotiate a course of horizontally placed sticks by old treading once between each pair that Donna and Milly entered. It was no surprise that our friend from the soccer had also entered, but with no half effort: He stepped onto the field in full skins and a second pair of fancy shoes. Even more satisfying when he came second! Next was the 100m, which Marcus and Ryan both made the final of, but sadly didn't bring us back any glory. The same guy was also competing in that, surprise surprise, but got knocked out in Marcus' heat, much to our enjoyment. It also worries me that that man is an academic with that psychopathic attitude...

Our unexpected forté of the day turned out to be the tug of war. Our soccer team, minus an injured Nikitas, took on another science lady to form a formidable 4-man, 4-woman team that worked its way in three rounds to the Grand Final. It can't just be a final in Australia, it has to be grand, and I was very proud of the fact I'd made it to such an event. Our first two face-offs were a piece of cake and the third was an epic battle that saw us use our amazing teamwork to bring home the win after being inches from defeat. In keeping with the day's record, we lost the Grand Final to a finance side, clinching second place once again. It's fine, I like red anyway... We didn't really have a hope in hell, as all four of their guys were over six foot and huge (some not in a good way), whereas bar Andy all our guys are a similar height and build to me. Never mind, it's the taking part that counts after all!

After watching the deans humiliate themselves in a comedy obstacle course, it was time for the closing ceremony. Purely down to the woman in the dinosaur onesie, science won a $300 Myer voucher, but that was about it due to our relatively poor turnout. Lots of different people thanked us all for coming and I got to stroke one of the guide dogs, then it was time to head to the Uni Club for a well-deserved beer. The Uni Club is a very swish, members-only venue with lots of men in suits having lunch, but our participation earned us entry and a Little Creatures Pale Ale went down very nicely indeed. We hung around chatting until 5pm, by which time it was of course way too late to get any more work done! I collected my stuff from the office and rode home just as it was beginning to cool down, nicely exhausted and red-nosed from a day of fun in the sun. With a quiet weekend ahead of me, I plan to enjoy the weather by the pool or at the beach; incidentally, this Friday marks one quarter of my time here gone. How time flies!

Melbourne Cup

My love affair with Australia continues. The Melbourne Cup is their equivalent of the Grand National but, if possible, an even bigger deal. It happens on the 5th November, which cements the difference between here and England when I picture freezing evenings in two pairs of socks and wellies on St Teath football field watching the fireworks in contrast to the sleeveless dress and sandals I opted for this year. The slogan on all the advertising leading up to the event read “The race that stops a nation”. No kidding! It’s pretty much a public holiday over here, with the few people that do have to work (such as universities – just my luck!) scheduling time out to celebrate it in the office. One of the guys I met diving went to the Perth Races with a load of mates for the Race Day experience of drinking and betting in excess, before watching the big race on a big screen. That’s definitely where I’d have been if I had the day off!

Although I technically had to work, I wouldn’t exactly equate it to a day slogging away in the lab. This is how my day went: Arrive at work at 9, take care of washing and staining some samples for imaging, abandon all hope of further productivity at 11:30, enter the mealroom to have a glass of champagne thrust into my hand in time to attack the impressive buffet before the race started at 12. Some days are just too much… A memo was sent round a couple of weeks ago that there was the opportunity for the budding seamstresses amongst us to create racewear from a pile of leftover academic posters. Everyone but my supervisor, Lindy, and Jenny had clearly ignored this, and they looked a little out of place in their respective homemade top (complete with seams and darts - dedication) and hat. Someone also pointed out that part of the poster’s title, "chronic swelling", was visible across Lindy’s stomach. Not sure she took too kindly to that!

In terms of betting, I am by no means an expert. My past experience consists of not bothering to bet on my lucky number 4 horse, Neptune Collonges, in last year’s Grand National (it won on 33-1 odds) and a day at Bath Races with Mum and Dad, where I made a much improved, if measly, 50p profit. Andy ran a sweepstake and for two bucks I drew Brown Panther, a British horse owned by none other than Michael Owen! I wasn’t sure whether I should take it as a good omen or not, and I was right not to get my hopes up too much. For the first half of the two-mile race he was leading: never a good sign. By the time the finish line was in sight, he’d ran out of steam and dropped to sixth place. The favourite, Fiorente, came first. What happened to “The favourite never wins”?!

With all the excitement of the race over, a few dedicated souls returned to work, leaving us slackers (basically anyone in my age range) to pick at the remaining food and drink a bit more bubbly. I think I returned to my desk at 2, when it was really a little late to achieve anything substantial, so I checked my emails before calling it a day and cycling home in the sunshine. If only every day at work could be like that!

The Color Run

Before anyone says anything smart, they spell it the American way because that's where it started. I know how to spell colour. Now that we're clear on that, this morning's little mooch around Langley park was so much fun! Another item on the 'Australian bucket list', I'd seen photos of the kaleidoscope of colours from various friends and family in the states and decided I had to do it in Perth when it branched out to Australia this year. Better to do it here in the blazing sunshine than have to travel all the way to London to run in the fog eh? I was going to do it solo, but then I managed to convince the lovely Tamasin to join me as a celebration of freedom after she handed in her honours thesis this week. Also, Lucy was planning on doing it with all her friends from her UWA halls.

Considering the absolute failure on Transperth's part ("free public transport for all runners"... except the first ferry won't get there until after the start), Tamasin picked me up at a startlingly early 6:45am to give us enough time to head into the city and find a parking space. Luckily, we found a free one (bonus!) right outside the entrance to the event in Langley Park, looking straight out across the river at my home in South Perth. I'd skipped breakfast with the intention of finding some nutritious delight at a food stall, but unfortunately the closest I got was a coffee and a nut cookie from the coffee tent. We were a little concerned about feeling sick while running after our slightly rich breakfast, but were reassured and appaulled when we spotted others walking towards the stage for the warm up munching on kebabs and nachos from the takeaway stands. At 7am. So disgusting!

The warm up was introduced by a man dressed as a unicorn, or "Runicorn" as he was punnily named, before the motivational music kicked in and a group of ultra hot chicks started gyrating at us for the Zumba warm up. By this time it was probably 30 degrees and each of the six of them did a warm up track; I felt like I'd done a full workout before the start gun went off! As the warm up finished, we made our way to the start line. I couldn't quite hear whether the unicorn said there were 16,000 or 60,000 people there, but there were a lot of people. To avoid a bottleneck, they let groups of 1,000 go every five minutes and we were in the third wave. The countdown reached zero and off we went amongst the sea of perfectly white shirts; I was surprised to find that with only one trial run I found the course pretty easy, even in the considerable heat. At each kilometre mark we were pelted with blue, pink, orange and yellow powder by volunteers. There was something very satisfying about getting really grubby in the clouds of colour and I'm sure the staff armed with colour cannons found it very cathartic! Before we knew it, we were back in the field for the finishing festival. At this point we were reasonably colourful, but nothing compared to what we'd be after weaving our way back out of the crowds.

Everyone was given a colour packet in the goodie bag with plenty more being thrown into the crowd by those on stage. Every fifteen minutes or so, they did a countdown and people threw their colour in the air, creating beautiful clouds. I say beautiful; after the pitch black that descends initially and the coughing and spluttering caused by the inhalation of powder paint, your eyes start working again and you're free to enjoy the spectacle. At one point I turned to my left and who was standing next to us but Lucy and her friends! It was good to catch up with them amidst getting pelted in the face with a lump of paint, before they disappeared home. We then abandoned the finish festival, dusted ourselves off as best we could by the car, hopped in and headed home.

My kit, after a hefty cycle in the washing machine, is now free of every colour but purple and blue, which are clearly a little more potent. It doesn't bother me though; the shirt looks very pretty and the remaining splashes on that and my brand new running shoes will serve as lovely memories of the day. What does bother me, however, is the fact that I've had two showers this afternoon, yet my ankles, wrists, hairline and for some cruel reason nose still refuse to come clean. The mix of colours combined with the failed attempts at scrubbing has caused these areas to turn a dirty red colour, so I sure hope I'm clean on the third try before I have to go to work. Happy days! I had such an incredible day and I hope that the photos reflect just how awesomely mental it was. Back to reality now though...

Squeaky clean at the start line

Nothing like a headband tanline!

Colour update: It's Monday morning and I'm at work with tinges of green and pink still lingering in my hair. Fantastic.

The sun has got his hat on

Summer is well and truly on its way here in Perth. All this news of the recent wind and rain causing havoc in the UK drew my attention to the stark contrast between the gloom of England and the glorious sunshine of Australia. Looking out of the office window at the glistening waters of the Swan River, it's insane to think that people have been killed by falling trees in the South West.

The temperature hike happened pretty suddenly. Since shortly after I got here (when the occasional shower would soak me to the skin) it's hovered around 20 degrees, maybe getting up to 26 or 27 on the odd day, then out pops a 36 on Wednesday with the forecast predicting more of the same. So far this has made for a rather sweaty cycle twice a day, but other than that I am absolutely loving it! Not many people would complain about zero rainfall for a month...

These images were taken about 50m from the office, so there are definitely worse places to work! The UWA campus lies right on the river bank overlooking the city; where I'm currently living is just off the right edge of this picture, so my cycle home is along the river the entire way. This afternoon, I took a detour to Langley Park in the city to pick up my goodie bag for The Color Run this Sunday (more on that later), before heading home to a salad and a beer on the balcony to mark the start of another weekend. Besides a morning of running around the city, this weekend is going to be a lot more relaxed than the chaos of diving (less exploring the depths of the Indian Ocean, more feet up on the sofa). With 8 weeks living with the Billinghams gone and only 4 until I move in with Jess, I'm making the most of that view before I leave the city for a more coastal location. Not that I'm dreading living a stone's throw from the beach; it is my natural habitat after all!