Last Sunday we visited the Araluen Botanical Gardens or 'Paradise Found'!! It was about 45mins drive up the Darling Range of Mountains and the scenery was beautiful. It cost $4 per person and was well worth it as all the flowers were in bloom! Apparently they all die in the heat during summer so it was nice to be able to see them now! There were lots of families BBQ-ing there as they provide gas BBQ's for you - which is a great idea! Vic and I had a ice cream cone (one plain and one with raspberry sauce - which I managed to spill on my top and jeans!) but they do this thing called 'dipped' - where they put the 'mr whippy' into a hot vat of chocolate and it goes solid! Maybe try that next time! But as for Ice Cream...i'll stick to Il Gelato for now - loving the hazelnut and banana combo!

Yesterday (Monday) we got dropped off into Freo again and I wanted to head straight for something to eat. After walking around for ages, we had decided that the 'cappuccino strip' was where we wanted to be - very cosmopolitan! Having eaten at the place many times before in KL last year, I dragged Dave off to Dome - where he was sure to find a large burger to take his fancy. We went into a piercing shop where the owner was pleased to tell us he had the largest stock of 'tunnels' in Australia...which although he did have a lot of- he was a bit of a strange one! I looked for some opalite jewellery in one shop, but the assistants were slightly pushy and annoying so I left! I fancied a ride on the historic tram, but it turned out to be $22 each - so we left it!

Today we decided on visiting the city again. And I still like it a lot!! It was supposed to be an early start with a trip down to the local pool but it didnt turn out that way. In the end we left at about 11.30am and walked to the local bus stop at South Lake shops. As soon as we got there this guy starts stairing at us...first I thought it was at me but I should have known better! Dave gets all the attention - yes, even (and mostly!) from blokes haha! He was very interested in tattoos and asked if they were real, or temporary lol!! After a lengthy conversation where I was hoping the bus would hurry up - Dave's sister Vic coincidentally drove past and offered us a lift to the train station at Cockburn (pronounced CO-BURN!) We said goodbye to our friend and went to Cockburn Central Station to catch the train into Perth. It takes 15 mins max, $4.5 each and runs right down the middle of the Freeway past the River Swan, so is quite scenic really!

Once into Perth our plan was to grab some food and head to Kings Park again. We took the free Number 37 bus from George Street straight there, after getting a great map from the tourist information centre in Forrest Place.

We got off the bus at the first stop inside Kings Park - which I read today is 400 hectares. The walk leads up a tree lined avenue planted in memory of war veterans, which is quite stunning and is located by the Bali Bombing memorial that looks out towards the skyscrapers of the city. We walked quite a bit until we reached a fountain surrounded by really nice lawns and sat and ate there.

At 3.30 we had a meeting to set up a bank account over here - which took FOREVER, then we got the train home again! This evening we had a family meal (pizza takeaway!) at Oli's parents house, and Dave ate so much he's already asleep (9.30pm!!!)