Ferry across the Swan

On a sunny morning I took a ferry from South Perth across to Elizabeth Quay. The journey takes 7 minutes. When I first came to live in Perth, I did this every day on my way to work at ECU. It was my aim to mark one assignment in the 7 minutes. (In those days, we often had 80 assignments to mark, such was the popularity of our external online courses). Nowadays, I can just enjoy the trip. Elizabeth Quay is a relatively new development and it’s still not finished.

The new Ritz Carlton hotel is behind the ferry.

Looking back from Elizabeth Quay to South Perth. I used to live in the white apartment block.

Elizabeth Quay pedestrian bridge.

A boring machine which brings up mud. The hole will be replaced with concrete and steel piles for another high rise building.

Artwork on the fence surrounding the building work.

The rather grim-looking entrance to the new Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Ritz Carlton restaurant.

Trying out one of the beautifully designed chairs in the minimalist foyer. This might be the nearest I get to enjoying the Ritz Carlton luxury; at $500 per night it’s too expensive even for me!

Quinns Bushwalk

This walk attracted me because it was going to my old haunts of Quinns Rocks where we used to have a beach house. I haven’t been out with the group for months because of my gammy knee. I knew the pace would probably be too fast for me (and it was), but it was possible to turn back at any point, sit and get a coffee.

It was a lovely morning for a 7.30 am start, though very breezy and the sea was too choppy to think of going for a swim. 

Near Mindarie Marina.

Looking north.

Hundreds of kids arrived at the Surf Club for lessons.

Lovely coastline.

My friend V has recently acquired a retired greyhound. These dogs are put out for adoption when they can no longer race. (C and E wanted to do this, but their cat went beserk when one came to visit!).  V’s dog apparently won $80,000 in prize money and had 3 litters of puppies before being retired. She came for part of the walk and then got taken home before it got too hot.

She was very quiet and calm, having been properly socialised by the adoption programme and, being a fairly old dog, was placed in a household of a similar age group.

Beach or pool?

The choice is hard on these super-hot days! Perth sweltered in 40 degree heat on Saturday and some towns in WA reached 45. Cottesloe Beach is a favourite:

Our pool at Burswood is also lovely (especially if we have it to ourselves!). C and E arrived on Sunday morning with their watermelon/donut:

I didn’t try it in case I fell through the middle!

Pop-up Globe

Shakespeare in Maori? Why??? The sections of the play involving Titania and Oberon, the Fairy Queen and Fairy King, were performed in Maori which was really annoying if you weren’t from NZ. It’s true that the company itself was (which we hadn’t realised and were not warned about). We needed a translation. Apart from what was in Maori, the words of Shakespeare were very familiar; I had studied A Midsummer Night’s Dream at school some 60 years ago, with an English teacher who made us learn long passages from it. He did a good job as it turned out.

The best part of the play was the “rude mechanicals” AKA  “tradies”, in modern dress with hard hats, work boots and hi-vis jackets. Towards the end, when Pyramus stabbed himself, blood flowed freely from little plastic sachets which was sprayed into the audience standing in the pit area, to the glee of everyone else.

C and E were in the pit originally (tickets were cheap there, standing room only for “groundlings” ) whilst JL and I had purchased front row seats. The problem was, our seats were in the sun, and we were boiled! They need to take a lesson from the “sol o sombra” system in Spanish bullfights where the sombra seats are sold at a premium. Fortunately one of the staff took pity on us and found us better seats in the shade. At this point, C and E appropriated our old seats:

Tradies.

Maori Oberon.

More traditional costumes.

Sitting in the shade during the interval. It was a hot afternoon!

Review of Perth's Pop Up Globe

Review of Sydney production