Living in Perth

We have been living in Perth for just over a month now and it has been everything that we expected plus a bit more. Perth as a city is within a great setting, the main central city is located on Swan River and is normally viewable from most places. Within the city there is a park called 'Kings Park' which a lovely place. The views of the city are spectacular from here, especially when the sun is setting. Kings park is one of the largest parks within a city in the world, so we are very lucky to have access to this.


Perth City


View Form Kings Park

So far the weather has been reasonably, varied giving us a taste of what to expect in this corner of the world. Within our first few weeks we had a suprise 40 degree weekend which was pretty hot compared to what we had been used to. The rest of the time has been quite a mix with a few rainy days and a few too many cloudy ones but still the temprature has been about 19-35 degrees. Still warm enough to be out in shorts and enjoy a BBQ in the evening.




We currently live in Victoria Park which is a 5 minute drive into the city centre of Perth. If we choose to walk this takes around 45 minutes, following the river along a palmed cycle track which is a very plesent journt. The coast line is about a 15-20 minute drive which lands us in Freemantle for the cafe strip and bars, along with at least 3 long white sandy beaches. Vic Park (as Victoria Park is known over here) has all the emenities that are needed. There's a Woolworths (Aus's Tesco equivelant), post office and bottle shop (offlicene) at the end of the road, along with lots of resturants, takeaways and a few good pubs all within a couple of minutes stroll.

It's been a busy time since we arrived getting our lives back up and running after the months traveling. This included getting a place to live, furnishing our new house, finding a car as well as all the other odds and ends that need to be done when settling in a new country.

Our New House
We had found that the rental market here wasn't as good as the UK leaving a very low selection of places to choise from. At the time we arrived in Perth we had a holiday rental in Fremantle for the first 2 weeks so we needed to find a more permentant place to live quite quickly. Initaly we liked the idea of living in Freo (local abveviation for Fremantle) but after viewing the few places available that where in the outer suberbs we decided to look else where. It was suggested that Vic Park is a growing and trendy place that might be suitable and that there might be a few more places avaialble to rent. There was one place avialable that met our criteria and luckly it was just what we where looking for and we where able to agree the rental within a few days.



The house is brand new and set in a complex of 3 houses and 9 apartments. We are the first people to live here so everything in the house is clean and new. The complex has a shared spa and a BBQ area and our house has a fancy electronic gate entrance which we're still getitng used to! The house is a 3 bed place with an open plan living room and kitchen area down stairs. Our bedroom has it's own onsuite bathroom and walkin wardrobe as well as a small balcony which is pretty cool. The house has it's own private pattio area which is big enough to fit the esentials of a BBQ and large table, all of which is getting good use at the moment.







Our New Car
Bev had to head back to the UK for a couple of weeks soon after we moved in so I set myself the challange of finding a new car whilst she was away. So far we had been renting a small Toyota hatchback but on the roads around here I was starting to feel a little intimidated. Given this and the need for more carrying space for all the bits we where getting as well as the male need to go off road I started to look at the various 4x4's available.

WA has a large number of this type of vehical avaialble a a lot of people drive them and in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The types of 4x4 over here range from the small Suziki vitara types that just about fit 4 people in and might fall over on a curb, thought to the real off road landcrusiers with 7 seats and enough supply space to launch a moon mission! I thought I'd opt for somthing in the middle that would allow me to happly fit a few people in and allow for a little fun getting to those hard to reach beaches. Having seen a few things that would fit the budget I finaly got talked into buying one from a mate of Tim's over here. I settled on a Mitsubishi Challanger which is an automatic 3 liter V6 with mnual high and low 4 wheel drive. The thing is pretty roomy inside, with the back seats down I can just about layout flat :)



I've not had a chance to take it off road yet but the road driving is pretty smooth and much like a normal auto except you need to climb up to get in it!

Getting Fit
As we'd spent the last few months generaly not very active and eating well, it was time that we joined the rest of the locals and make ourselves a bit fitter then we where. Life over here is a lot more centred around living life and the ausies make good use of the weather for this by doing a lot fitness studd within there normal routine of life. Perth has a lot of parks, dedicated cycle and walk routes and easy access to almost all sports.

A 15 minute walk down the road from our house finds us in a long park area that streatches for about 10k's along the river side, oposite the city. This park has a seprate cycle and walk routes as well as the normal open park land. It also has a set of free to use weight machines, that work off your body weight, dotted along the river side. The park and river are also home to lots of the local wildlife which make the morning run and exercise a little easier. So far we've seen ducks, pelicans, lourakets, cockatils, jumping fish and dolphins. The park also has a perfect kiting area that has almost guaranted wind every day, most of he time this is fairly clean wind as well. The area is easily big enough to buggy or board on and so far I've not seen any other kiters around.





We've still to join the local climbing wall which we are aiming to do very soon now that we're regaining soem sort of finess level! The new year should be fairly active for new sports as we're aiming to do diving, sailing, swimming, cycling, kite surfing and surfing.

Getting Back To Work
So far we've bee fairly busy sorting out settling in and with both or parents now arrive for xmas we've not had so much time to concentrate on arranging work. Plus it's been quite nice having a break for a few months. Bev has been told that she can walk into any nursing job she fancies as they are so desperate for nurses over here. She can start work as soon as her Uni coarse starts next year.

I've been looking into a variety of projects with people here and in the UK that will help to start my own software company over here. As nothing is comming about very quickly I'm going to do some contracting for a little bit whilst other things take off and to help get to know a few more people. Theres a lot of IT work available over here at the moment so arranging a contract shouldn't be too hard once I put my mind to it.

Visitors and Xmas
At the moment we have both sets of parents over with us for the Xmas period. Bev's parents have come out on a permentant basis and are waiting to pick up keys for there house. My parents have been traveling in Oz again and are visiting WA for about 6 weeks. (You can see their blog at: http://www.smithsdownunder.org.uk/)

We also have two new memebers of the family, Bill and Ted:




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