Near Death by Kangaroo!!!

Managed to get everyone plus belongings in the ute to leave at 6.32am yesterday for Perth - which was well done. Our destination was actually Freemantle to see the jail!!. Spotted three kangaroos between the school drive and the Wandalgu/Morawa turnoff and thought good oh, should be Ok now as it was very light, but still was keeping my eyes peeled when, hello, out of nowhere (it seemed) a huge kangaroo leapt in front of us. Foot carefully applied to the brake and the guardian angels working overtime, it continued to leap, meaning we missed it by less than a metre. To my mind, the kangaroo appeared to be shoulder height with the windscreen (as it was leaning forward in its leap!!) and has assumed mythical proportions since in the retelling of the tale. It happened in the blink of an eyelid and was quite a surreal experience because of the lack of warning before it was there - in the windscreen. It certainly has provided a lot of conversation since, LOL. Tim and boys very impressed with my apparent lack of histrioics at the near death experience, (I think I was in shock for the next 100k, LOL) Anyway, a miss is as good as a mile they say and we had 5 more hours of driving to go, so got on with it. Stopped at Mora for loo and coffee and continued without a break until I spotted new flowers along side the road, then a flock of white tailed cockatiels in a field of canola and an old truck - as we headed towards Bindoon and a stop for petrol at Bullsbrook. Made it off the Eastern Highway onto the Canning highway without incident and then finally got to Freemantle.

Had a picnic lunch in a park, once we had identified that some of the parks on the map, were in fact football ovals and therefore not suitable for our impending repast. We were in front of the dock area with the Esplanade Hotel to our backs and up a bit for those who know FM. Food out of the way, we decided to leave the ute where we had parked and walk to the jail, which was not as close as I initially thought. Got to go past the Esplanade Hotel, past the Freemantle Markets and the Freemantle Oval (Home of the Bulldogs) then up the walkway and we were at the Jail. We did a tour through it which was very informative. The jail was built in the 1850's and was used until 1987, the last person hung in the jail was in 1964 (we got to see the gallows and that was a fairly freaky thing to see). The last person flogged was in 1943 - there is a frame still there that was used. It was interesting to hear how many common sayings have originated from prison culture. Toe the line comes from prisoners having to stand with thier toes on a painted line in the prison yard at line up time; letting the cat out of the bag refers to the cat of nine tails being kept in a bag in the captain's quarters and you did not want to do anything to provoke it being 'let out of the bag'. Not enough room to swing a cat is self explanatory (and I have always envisioned a 101 uses of a dead cat cartoon version of a literal cat being swung, LOL) and cat got your tongue refers to the intensity of pain taking ones breath away as the flogging occured. From the time the jail was first inhabited until it closed, the men (and women) only had a tin bucket with a lid on it for their toilet - remember, it was 1987! Health and Safety would have had a field day and in the end, a goodly amount of H&S was what brought the jail to a close.

After a small discussion about the return route, we went via the Stirling Highway to Kings Park for the fabulous views of Perth and so the boys could climb the DNA tower as it was too wet last week when we were there. Everything was fine until we went to leave the Park, and my co-pilot made me do a right hand turn into peak traffic with two lots of traffic to contend with taking right turns towards me. Imminent death by kangaroo was a piece of cake by comparison, LOL. The extreme duress caused me to become a trifle sharp and one or two very descriptive words were uttered while everyone else fell about at my great indignation at having to do a right hand turn (having become famous for my favourite left hand turns which inevitably got us lost, - but were not across traffic!!!!) while my vision was being blocked by two asian tourists trying to cross the road in the face of one lot of oncoming traffic!!. Being right about the road to turn down to reach our hotel did much to restore my equanimity and an evening of thin lippedness was narrowly averted.

After an ablution stop and regrouping we set forth to have dinner in town. Luckily, the hotel being in the middle of the CBD, no further driving was required, LOL. We walked several blocks until we found a Belgian food restaurant (beer was served in 1/2 litre goblets!!) where the servings were of Brunhilde proportions. I picked pork loin chops with a apple and pear salad with a blue cheese dressing (yum) and that pig did not die in vain. We thought we would go back to the hotel and have a desert, but that restaurant was closed by 8.30pm. There was nowhere else in the near vicinity open so finished up with desert at McDonalds.

Managed to get the lads out to the domestic airport this morning without incident, only had to go round the carpark twice to get the right entrance, LOL. Found we were indeed at the right airport (as opposed to the international one)which was a great relief. Once the lads had checked in, I left them to it and then headed to where my friend Shells is living in Rockingham, which is further down the coast than Freemantle. Managed to get all the way here without incident which was another minor miracle. More tomorrow as I need to sign off for now.

Kay & Viv: Forming pictures that need fingers in the ears while singing la, la, la, la - thinking of your gym experiences, LOL but go the girls for fitness!

Mum: Are you any closer to getting organised for Skype, or in fact anyone out there in cyberland. I now have it sorted from my end and it is great.