Perth a welcoming State Capitol

After my day in Dubai I arrived in Perth the State Capitol of Western Australia on Saturday evening – food and bed was the items on the agenda that evening.

Sunday I was picked up by library blogger Kathryn Greenhill her husband Stewart and their two young boys, for a guided tour of Perth and nearby Fremantle.

Up on the Kings Park hills overlooking the Swan river there were some quality views of the City, and a treetop walk.  Views inland were enhanced by a climb of the DNA tower.

Fremantle on a Sunday afternoon is a vibrant place, a particular highlight was a street entertainer claiming the honour of being the only sword swallower in Western Australia.   The highlight for the Greenhill boys was the ice cream shop where the crush your favourite chocolate bars and mix them on a cold slab in to your choice of ice cream before loading the resultant mush in to a cone. – The ultimate mashup!

A high speed visit to the Perth Zoo, as they were about to close, brought me in to close proximity with some Australian animals, koalas, kangaroos and a numbat to name but a few.  Back home to my hotel at the end of a long but nice first day in Oz.

Stewart, a researcher at Curtin University of Technology, is working on a project to track an analyse peoples movements from the pictures they take and the mobile phones they carry and come near to. So it was interesting to feel tracked as we walked around Perth and Fremantle – at one point he logged a phone with the bluetooth name of ‘bad Chinese food’ – I wonder if this is a subtle form of anti-advertising?

I needed to wear a hat on my Sunday trip to protect me from the sun – I needed it again on Monday, but this time because of the rain.  The wet stuff falling out of the sky is an unusual event in Perth featuring high on the news bulletins.  I just felt at home.