Human again

After a very mucky ten days I am back to feeling almost entirely normal again - just a bit of a bad cough. Work has been decimated by various illnesses, it seems to have hit everyone hard! The king is visiting on Monday so I'm hoping they've given the building a good hit with the Glen20, he doesn't look able to withstand much. 

We went to the beach on the weekend but I didn't do much of anything, just sat about and let my husband cook me meals :) One feeble walk to the beach which was nice but super windy. He went on serious walks while I put my feet up. I did sort out my wool tub though, which the cat thought was best fun ever. 

And we picked a lemon or two! The crop wasn't very big, I think the tree is still recovering from its pruning. But perhaps it would have more lemons if it didn't put all its energy into the size of these fruit, look at that thing. Potato-farming hand for scale.

Perth

Here are some photos from my few days in Perth last week. That all? It feels like months ago. I made it through this week held together by nurofen and coffee, mostly got everything done but sure felt like shit. Let's see, Perth, which I have always found to be Australia's least charming capital city. People from there love it, and it certainly has very beautiful beaches, but who wants a city for its beaches? It's a five hour flight and I've never felt like it was worth it ... although Qantas did kindly upgrade me on the way over so the five hours just flew by. Not as happy as the guy next to me though, who had SEVEN jack daniels and cokes before they cut him off. About five more than he would have got in economy. 

Anyway, in the interests of fairness I took a day off on Monday and gave myself a 'enjoy Perth' day to see if I was just being cranky. It was a glorious sunny 23 degrees with a light breeze, and I had bacon for breakfast, went for a very long walk by the river (beautiful) and then hired an e-bike for an hour to do the 10km bike track loop on both sides of the river. 

It was stunning - not many people about, well maintained tracks, lovely views from every vantage point and, thanks to the wonder that is an e-bike, I barely raised a sweat. OK I thought, this is actually quite a nice place. I gave the bike back, had a cheese scone, went to the art gallery (awesome) and then did a little light shopping. Two thumbs up for Perth, I will have to come back on an actual holiday and do some exploring of the region.

Work itself was busy but quite fun - involved traipsing all over the city which has the usual traffic of somewhere with over two million people and not quite enough freeways - and enough time at the seaside to keep me happy. 

It never stops

Since Tasmania I have been up to Western Sydney for a couple of days and then over to Perth for the best part of a week ... I was so looking forward to this weekend just been because it was a long one for Labour Day and I was going to do just nothing. So of course I got the worst cold ever (planes, filthy things) and spent it lying around feebly. And I am still super sick but back at work because it is one of the very rare occasions when there is no-one else around and I have actual things to do that matter. Honestly,  most of the time, if I don't get to something it can wait a day or two with no problems but today not so much.

Not many exciting photos of Western Sydney I'm afraid. We stayed in Penrith and went for dinner at the Panthers football club, which is not somewhere I would normally go. It was absolutely massive and had giant panther statues at the door. Heaps of restaurants, bars, a theatre, casino, the whole shebang. We chose tapas and it was delicious (and then on Sunday the Panthers won the NRL grand final, which is a big deal if you are into that sort of thing, and I felt a sense of connection, given the tapas). We also stayed in a much fancier hotel than we normally do, so I took a photo of the sitting space they had just outside the lifts. You can tell it's fancy when there are Unnecessary Sofas.

The first day was 30 degrees, hot and stormy and the second day was 16 degrees, cold and rainy. Spring! such a delight. Here is the view from Penrith looking towards the Blue Mountains. I can't imagine ever going back but hey.