LAST DAYS IN KALBARRI

Walking today along a path that runs parallel to the seafront.  We end up at Red Bluff and sit in a little open hut with wooden benches and a table. Sandwiches with wholemeal bread followed by apples and pears fill us up for the return journey.  Of course, the seagulls try to join us for the meal and I'm always amazed at how one will threaten the others away with its squawking and pecking.  They are greedy, just like us, really.

Time here is so relaxing we decide to stay for another two-nights and journey on to Dongara later.  At the moment, looking out of the front porch the water is calm and reflects the trees in the distance where the water breaks against the sea ledge.

WAVES ON THE BEACH

Contact Adelle Taylor today and learn that an old friend of mine, her husband, Archie, died about nine-years ago.  He had a problem with alcohol, she says.  I know this.  Archie and I used to sing in pubs in the Gorbals for a little money, he on accordion and me on the guitar. We had to be very careful what we sang and most of his repertoire consisted of Irish songs wither on the protestant or the catholic side.  I haven’t seen Adelle for about 40-years so we decide to meet up in Perth with David Freedman for a reunion dinner.

Yesterday managed to arrange to get a booster jag for our hep A and B which should have been done in UK but we had left it too late. That meant paying an extortionate amount of money which we can apparently claim when we return home in a year’s time.

The doctor’s surgery is just a 5-minute walk from our apartment and but we decide to drive as things are running late.  The chemist has our prescription ready and for some reason we have to sign for the syringe and the medicine.  I’m not sure, but I think the medicine is already loaded there because I don’t remember the nurse doing anything but taking it out of the freezer bag, and injecting it.

The doctor who prescribed the booster the previous day is Scottish, from Glasgow, and practises in Edinburgh.  He doesn’t say much except that he’s over her for a few weeks, on exchange I presume.  He seems exhausted, probably jet lagged.

The nurse rubs my arm with her hand and injects the medicine before I can say anything, no swab or precaution against aids or any other germs she might have picked up from patients.  She does the same to Fulmaya.  As soon as we get back to the car, we take out the medical kit to swat our arms which are beginning to leak the liquid and cover it with a plaster.  Don’t they train nurses in hygiene here?

AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA From the air, the fields are small postage stamps, puffs of clouds are Indian smoke signals below and monopoly houses stand in rows.

First leg of the journey and we’re on our way to London.  Forget the last time I was out of Scotland.  F and I have separate seats, which in a way doesn’t really matter as I feel that the journey to Singapore and Australia will be relaxing anyway.  A couple of glasses of wine as a soporific and all should be well.  I have a soft pillow like a grey neck-brace.

Today’s the winter solstice – the shortest day in the year and the longest day in the northern hemisphere:  12 degrees in Edinburgh and 18 degrees in the southern.  But it’s all relative.  We have a heater blasting out heat at my sister’s house. 

The first thing I did in the airport toilet was to have a piss and wash my hands, not only for the purposes of hygiene, but also to see which way the water goes down the drain:  yes, it does go down anti-clockwise. Being winter here, I’m also aware of the sun which is a lot more visible than in rainy Edinburgh at the moment.  And it set in the west!  I just wasn’t aware of this.  Then there were the bird-calls, so different from home.  I didn’t recognise the jays, the giant magpies; but I did recognise the parrots, a beautiful green with a bluish tip to the tail. Black shapes flit with such speed that you cannot quite make out their shapes.  Then there is the seasonal rain, the suddenness from sunshine to heavy storm clouds with no gentle, preliminary drizzle; just a spontaneous downpour.

Mandurah

Certainly, the weather is a lot colder than I expected.  Though still warmer that Scotland when we left. In a travel centre today, the assistant manager complained about the cold at 18 degrees.  Connie, my sister, stands in front of a gas fire occasionally and warms her bum.  Today it is 11degrees in Edinburgh.