Settling in

4X4 motor Show (This episode is sponsored by the Asterisk, for all your footnote requirements)

How lucky I am, Australia's largest motor show is Here in Perth for 3 days. The Fortunate thing is that the show happened to be on the end of our road, well actually at the end of our road, turn right come to the 'T' junction and it is just behind Bunnings (*1). So realistically about 10 minutes walk. Well, wanting to get into the Ozzy way of life I decided that we would take the car, what with it being a hot day. The decision was arrived at in much the same way as we decided to get an air conditioning unit in the last episode, my god it is beginning to sound like a soap.

So we trotted off in our own 4X4, I thought I would use this opportunity to show off our big rig. So we went to the end of the road and turned ri........ Actually, you don't need the directions, I've given them to you earlier. Also you don't really need to know as it would only make sense to us because of where we lived, if you didn't live here the directions would be worthless and would probably end you up in Woollies(*2) or some such. So we end up on the road behind Bunnings(*1) and we are directed to a free car park, now imagine this, the Ozzies are so thoughful that they think that if you were going to visit somewhere the least they could do is to offer you free parking as an incentive to visit(*3) A few English tourist places could learn a ot from this.

Now Perth is quite a big place, about 2 million population, it seems that they all thought it would be a good idea to visit the car show on the same day. This means the car park was full, no worries mate, just follow the line of cars into the next field, and the next and the next. When we actually got a parking space in the designated area, we were actually further away from the expo than we would have been if we had walked (*4)

Actually I have to say that the Expo was probably the most awesome thing I'd seen since (Insert some really funny awesome thing in here so that it looks seamless and it looks as though you are a really funny guy, but make sure you do it before you publish the blog otherwise it will look contrived and it might put people off reading it.) As soon as you entered there was a stand offering free sunblock from a gallon barrel. Now being a pale skinned Englishman who had previously only heard rumours about sunshine I thought I would partake of their generosity and lather myself in the stuff(*5)

I won't bore you with too many pictures of the stands, just a couple though:

I'm not sure what they were selling here, but being patriotic, I thought I'd give the Land rover the flagship position.


This is a Hi-lux showing off it's(*6) famous axle articulation

Other stands were caravan companies, or caratent exhibitors and off-roading clubs, (Which we intend to join solely for the purpose of getting interesting stories to tell and fabulous pictures to take for the blog.)

Then I really fell into tourist mode, because I bought a hat. a leather outback hat as well, so that I could look like a proper Aussie.(*7) Went back to King's park for a twilight shot of the city landscape, here I am preparing for the shot in my new hat and thongs.Click on the Piccies for a bigger version.

Meanwhile: the next day. Michelle took me to a place called Ocean Reef, this is where we are going to be getting our next house rental (still only renting until we know where we will be working permanently, so probably for a year or so.

Had a look at a few houses, then went to the beach, again this was about sunset so I sat down and waited for the sun to set, this was about 8:00 at night.

I might also add the small tale about Michelle getting in one of the 4X4 to test it out, only to realise that it wasn't an exhibition vehicle and how she got some very strange looks form some people who thought that their truck was being stolen.


1* Bunnings: this is the Ozzie version of B&Q, they all have the orange overalls and the aisles are laid out the same way, except the contents of the aisles are completely different. There are no patio heaters for one thing, for another they have a range of barbecues that you wouldn't believe, some of them have preparation areas and kitchen sinks, although I suppose you couldn't call them kitchen sinks, mainly because they aren't in the kitchen some had ovens, some had microwaves, there was one aisle dedicated to barbecue accessories, you know knives, fluids, spatulas etc. Another aisle was dedicated to hot tubs *9

2*Woollies: Short for Woolworths, which is nothing like the UK woollies, this one is more like a Tesco's, but it isn't anything like a UK Tesco's because the staff are helpful and polite.

3* Or they are so stupid that they don't realise the money making potential of cashing in on all those poor saps who simply must visit the 4X4 exhibition

4* You simply couldn't make this stuff up could you?

5* Still managed to get burned though.

6* Yes, I did it on purpose to see if you were awake, if you didn't notice it, then either you were too engrossed in the story, or you missed my lesson on apostrophes or you couldn't care less, in which case see me after class.

7* No, it didn't have corks dangling from it, I've not seen one of those yet, I'm not sure they exist it might be an urban myth brought about by Paul Hogan. I will make it my Raison d'etre (*8) to find out.

8* Reason for living (*10)

9* That remids me, on the way to TAFE there are 2 shops that sell swimming pools, they even have about half a dozen of them set up in the front of the shop

10* are you tired of the asterisks yet? 'cause I am.