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Happiness Is The Road
For the first time since I got here the weather today was a bit cooler (21 degrees) and pretty overcast. It had rained a bit overnight. This was a perfect day for a bit of a walk around the river. I wandered down through Northbridge and got a coffee to go at Kakula Bros, then through the city to the waterfront. My walk took me along the Esplanade and round to the Narrows Bridge which carries the Mitchell Freeway over the river. There is a footpath alongside the freeway. I then followed the river through South Perth with great, albeit cloudy sky views, of Kings Park and the city skyline. It's all parkland this side of the river with proper walking and cycling paths. There are free BBQs here and also free water bottle refill taps. It was then over the Causeway and back into the city on St Georges Terrace. I grabbed a sandwich and then went to catch the train to Fremantle or Freo as it's known locally. It is about 10k's up the coast from Perth and has a massive port/docks. The centre of Freo is very cosmopolitan with loads of street cafes and restaurants. There's also a load of good pubs here. I wanted to go to the Sail & Anchor to see if they still brewed their own real ale but opted today to check out a new place that I've read a lot about, the Little Creatures Brew Pub. I'm going to be back in Freo in a few days so I'll check out the Sail & Anchor then. Since I was last here 14 years ago I've heard that loads of boutique breweries and brew pubs have sprung up in Oz as the Australians are beginning to like the idea that beer can actually taste of something. I'm not having a go at their good lagers like Victoria Bitter(VB), Tooheys, Castlemaine XXXX, Emu, etc as I enjoy these in hot weather but there's nothing better than a good properly brewed flavoursome ale. By the way XXXX is a rather good beer here and nothing atall like the muck they brew in the UK and pass off as XXXX. I think the Aussies would rather drink **** than drink our XXXX or our Fosters. They don't even drink Fosters here, they think it's that bad. Anyhow I digress, I was checking out Little Creatures. It's on the harbour front and is a very modern place with a very contemporary bar and decor inside. I like their taste. They had four of their beers on tap and after tasting a few I went with Bright Ale. I had been warned by Alfie and Lisa on the plane that pub prices in Oz were high, but I was still in shock when the guy behind the bar said $9.80 please, for one just one pint!!!! That's roughly about £6.50 a pint and apparently this is one of the more reasonably priced places. I'll have to get most of my beer from the bottle shop (off licence) as the prices here are okay. Anyhow to the pint of Bright Ale, it was bright in colour and full of flavour, delicious. With pint downed and not enough money for another I got the train back to Perth. I got back to my apartment hoping that the sunglasses that Boots Opticians had posted me from the UK had arrived, they hadn't and they were supposed to. To those of you who don't know the Boots sunglasses thing is a bit of a saga and a long story. To cut a long story short my sunglasses ordered from Boots turned up with clear lenses in! And then Boots lost the replacements so had to post some more out to me in Perth. And so begins a lot of time and money spent on phone calls to find out where they are. DHL and Australia Post have currently mislaid them!!!!! To be continued.................. By the way I had Kangaroo steak for the first time tonight. I bought it from the supermarket on the way back and had it with potatoes and rocket. It's got a very nice flavour and isn't dissimilar to a good rump steak. Sorry skippy!
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