I left Perth a week ago today. It doesn't seem like it. I was a bit fuzzy waking up this mornng and after a drink of water and a disprin, went back to sleep until 11. Mum had headed off for her chiropracter appointment by the time I was up so I had a shower and when she returned, took her down to the mall for lunch at the Boulevarde – not a patch on the revered Boulevarde of former times, but that's the march of progress for you. At least the food is still the classic NZ lunch (do you think there might be a theme developing here somewhere?) – which Mum insisted on paying for. I bought a couple of magazines and after a bit of drive down Swamp Road and up Wensley Road, we called in on cousin Sue Mackell. She has apparently made a good recovery from cancer and certainly looked in fine fettle. She showed me pix of the rest of the family (Trish, Lexy, Jill, Paddy and Kaye) as they have made a bit of an effort to reconvene after the demise of Uncle Alex and Aunty Ita. Kaye is the only one I would have recognised. Good to see Sue again, and her house is very impressive too, in a new (to me) estate off Bateups Road, below the Richmond cemetary. Then we came back to Mum's where I read my magazines and she headed off down to Aunty Bett's to help her with her jigsaw puzzle. Thrillseeker! At 3.30 I drove into Tahuna and picked up Kim and Jesse from her flat in Green Street. We went into the city, parked on Trafalgar Street (Nelson, let me count the ways I love thee) and visited to Whitcoulls to try and locate a copy of a DVD I wanted buy for my beloved, which the Richmond shop assured me they had in stock. The rather odd shop assistant located the DVD discs but not the cover which should have been on display, so I left my number with them and we went on to the Warehouse. I bought Jesse a new mobile, his former phone being misplaced in a moment of teenage distraction, and we returned to Tahuna's Hell Pizza for Lust and Gluttony (which, somewhat disappointingly, were the names of pizzas), and a trio of Cokes, which we consumed at Tahuna Beach.
The price of my generosity was a discussion about the future of this rare addition to the intellectual stocks of the family (Jesse, if that's a bit obscure) and while he aims to be a dancer – refreshingly different – I was assured that a university degree is the aim. We had a walk on the beach and I took them home. I dropped into the Sprig and Fern for a relaxing pint and then came back to Mum's for a coffee, a couple of Toffee Pops and more magazines. Tomorrow we are off on our big sailing adventure.
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