Perth
We stumbled out of customs and into a taxi at 2am. Judy had booked us a hotel room at the Northbridge hotel on Lake Street. Only a couple of blocks away from where I used to house share with Greg and Mikey. Our taxi driver was a lovely gentleman from Ethiopia and we had a great conversation on our way into town. At the Northbridge we had a pleasant surprise. We had been upgraded to a penthouse suite. Going up there we were knocked over backwards. We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a huge living area with kitchen. The best features were a spa bath and a TV bigger than the dresser. We made good use of both.
At 10:30am the next morning, Judy picked us up and took us over to Mel's for a much needed coffee. We got to meet Joseph for the first time at 4 weeks of age and reaquaint ourselves with Riley, now a big 2 year old. We visited for an hour or two then left for Mandurah. Once there we soon had Judy and John's house in disarray as we unpacked all our treasures for show and tell. We arranged to meet up with Michelle, Julie and Chris the next morning before going on to Jackie and Shane's wedding. That night I was ill though and after throwing up a few times we had to cancel the morning's meeting. We did make it to the wedding however and it was well worth it. Held in their back yard, the wedding had a relaxed feel yet was so beautiful I had to cry. My stomach was still playing up however so after 3 hours we made the drive back down to Mandurah. I think it was just pure exhaustion, though this is the first time in my life I have thrown up from that.
We went up again the next day for breakfast with the sisters. It was lovely to see them all again and catch up on their news. The following day we were also able to catch up with Jodie and Trent and meet their new daughter Imogen. Marty and Hudson got on like old friends.
We were due to fly out to Melbourne on Thursday morning where we were to spend a night out with Mel and Rob who recently married. We were then to catch up with Cassandra and Pete before driving out to Jon Muir's place for a catch up with him, before going on to NZ. On Wednesday we paid a visit to Marty's grandmother Poppy who was quite unwell in her rest home. She woke up and talked to us, then later woke up when Mel was visiting and met Joseph. Later that night she passed away. Of course we cancelled our tickets and our plans. Death is always horrible but this was at it's best. Poppy lived a long and happy life and died with most of her family having seen her in the previous days. The funeral was set for the following Tuesday. We filled our time with organising our affairs ready for our move to Darwin in a few weeks. On Friday we stayed up in Perth at Aunty Di Hay's home with Richard. We went down to the Cottosloe for dinner and had a lovely time despite the overture of grief. The next day we went out sailing with Greg Suraya and Greg's friend Paul. Paul had a racing boat and it was pretty exciting when the wind took the sail and the boat stood right up on it's edge. My stomach muscles were burning by the time we hit the finishing post - but in such a fast boat we were first in the yacht club race.
Judy drove us up to Perth on Tuesday and we went to Poppy's funeral with Mel and Matt. The family were all there as were friends. We drank tea in the hall afterwards before going on to the cremation ceremony. It was heartbreaking. We had drinks after and then went on to dinner. Marty got us a taxi to the airport to catch our midnight flight to NZ and I cried the entire way there. Our flight via Sydney left without dramas.
