North and South

Despite WA apparently having had it's second warmest spring ever recorded, early summer is proving cool and wet: Due to inclement weather we wandered Perth's shopping centre on Friday, before catching the train North to Warwick and the bus to Hilary's Boat Harbour. With strong onshore winds, we sheltered on the boardwalks and walked to a lookout before meeting Gary and Claire for red emperor fish supper at Bella's. The journey back into the city had lots of transit officers in attendance for the Friday night crowd and we then had to shelter at Barrack's Square from a downpour.

On Saturday we went to Fremantle, walked the markets, saw the fishing fleet, took in the Shipwrecks Museum and enjoyed this eclectic mix of Victorian, colonial and modern Australia. The Swan River colony was established here, ahead of the (now) capital city Perth. Then we went North again to Claremont, a very rich suburb where Lamborghini's fight for road space with Range Rovers. We met David for lunch and he gave us a tour of his school nearby, backing onto fantastic sailing waters.

Penguin Island

We took the train South to Rockingham and then the bus to catch a ferry a short distance offshore to Penguin Island. It was very windy, with strong sunlight bouncing off the waves. With all the native penguins asleep, as they go fishing at night, we did get to see some rescued Little Penguins, along with many other sea birds including pelicans.

Cultural

A day spent using the free buses, enjoying the botanic garden and the museum. Sitting on a hill above the city the gardens are beautiful, with a few standout specimens such as the boab trees that are bottle shaped as they stood water in their trunk. The museum covered everything affecting Western Australia from the dawn of The Earth to modern times. In the late afternoon we watched the sun sliding down over The Swan river, some Lorikeets were shouting to each other in the nearby palms. We had an evening wander after dark, admiring the Christmas lights.

Perth by night

Kings Park offers views of the city that are perhaps best enjoyed after dark.

Ambition Unbounded

Staying on reclaimed land, in the shape of a palm, extending 6km out to sea, with tower blocks, hotels and seaview villas in private, guarded estates on each 'frond' of the palm.... sort of sums up Dubai: It is a progressive multicultural cauldron of innovation and bold ambition. The sea 'surface' area of this man-made peninsula includes many individual inlets and one enormous crescent around the outside, which means the shoreline is absolutely huge compared to it's overall footprint. It solves the problem of no more shore by creating lots more. Dubai was a British protectorate until 1971, so everything is in English and Arabic. Only 11% of the population are native UAE. In 2 days time they find out if they'll be hosting World Expo in 2020 here. I can't think of a better place. As we pack to leave, we are so grateful to our lovely friends John and Amanda, for showing us their city during our brief touchdown in The Emirates.

Burj Khalifa

The Dubai Mall is the world's biggest shopping mall, so big you can spend the day there and still only see a bit of it. We visited the aquarium, several souks and marvelled at the 828m of the Burj Khalifa, dwarfing the surrounding skyscrapers. The only way to fit it into a picture was to take a panoramic shot sideways! After dark, we watched the illuminated dancing water fountain show and then got a taxi to The Madinat where we had a lovely Persian meal with John and Amanda. The wooden Abra boats passed by next to us on the waterways and the Burj Al Arab (7 star) was lit up behind.

Breakfast

On the balcony

Dubai

We arrived safely in The UAE and were whisked off to John and Amanda's apartment on The Jumeirah Palm, overlooking the sea and the city scape. We had Arabic lunch at The Qasr, then took a Abra water taxi to the spice souk. We walked along the creek beside the moored dhows then headed off for lovely ice creams and a journey back through the traffic admiring the city lights and distinctive skyline.

FT Family Time

Over a long weekend, we spent time with Mum, had a lovely meal out with almost the whole family. We attended the Remembrance Day parade and service in Taunton. My old scout troop marched past us too. Grandma FT was really happy.