west six kitchen

Glamping

 

A couple of weekends ago John & Karen took us glamping.  These guys are professionals, and they ensured that the experience was 100% more positive than our last tent based adventure.

We stayed at Honeymoon Pool, near Collie, which was pretty idyllic.

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Under the sea

The final chapter of our Exmouth adventures: The underwater photos.

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Whale rider

Whilst in Exmouth we swam with an eight metre female whale shark.   We had a quick briefing beforehand, with rule number one being: Nobody is to attempt to ride a whale shark.  Not that disappointing for me; I was far more concerned with attempting not to get eaten.

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Exmouth

Conor and I spent the last week on holiday in Exmouth (pronounced ex-mouth), which is around about here. 

Highlights included swimming with an eight metre whale shark; not being eaten by an eight metre whale shark; cracking sunsets; a giant prawn; beach suppers; star gazing; and not hitting any kangaroos in the car.  Lowlights included a cracking jellyfish sting, but the less said about that the better.

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I'm in London, and it's quite cold

It's a bit of a culture shock going from 30º to -2º.  Central heating helps, as does mulled wine.  On Saturday I went to Ottolenghi, where I've wanted to go for years.  It exceeded all expectation, and as if having lunch there wasn't enough I brought home a box of cakes for tea.

 

Do you know what these are?

I didn't until today, when Conor found them at Albany Farmers' Market.

Albany

We're in Albany (pronounced El-beny) for the weekend.  So far we have seen a sock fence, visited a wind farm, and listened to sand squeak underneath our feet.

Melbourne, Day Six

How did six days go by so quickly?  Our last day in Melbourne consisted of an acer-than-ace breakfast at Proud Mary, a walk through Fitzroy Gardens (and a glance at Australia's oldest house), shopping on Brunswick St, a drink at Grace Darling followed by supper at GigiBaba (with Chris and Julia from Masterchef, don'tcha know).

Melbourne made me feel very homesick, perhaps because it's quite like London.  Since we got back I've been repeating my new mantra frequently: Perth has better beaches than Melbourne.  Perth has better beaches than Melbourne.  Perth has better beaches than Melbourne.  Perth has better beaches than Melbourne.

And who needs daylight savings anyway?

Melbourne, Day Five

Unfortunately, we're nearing the end of our amazing holiday. So today we went hell for leather and visited: St Ali, Dead Man Espresso, The National Gallery of Victoria, ACMI, EARL Canteen, The Botanic Gardens (on rented bikes), The Croft Institute, Gin Palace, Siglo and Mamasita*.

Oh, and I bought a wedding dress.

Melbourne, Day Four

Today started well, as I got to eat two breakfasts (don't judge). The first at Spoonful, and the second (a proper one) at My Kitchen Table with some old family friends.

Then straight to St Kilda for ice cream (date & walnut, raspberry & white chocolate and honeycomb).

Some shopping, then to Madame Brussels for bloody massive pitchers of gin cocktails. Finally, we thought we'd better do something nice, so we went to Maha for supper.