Footbridge over the main highway.

West view of Perth

Not a person in sight.

A hidden gem at the back of Perth

Nice touch with the changing lights

Back side of Perth opposite the exhibition centre

Stylish corridor

Little oasis hidden away in Perth centre.

Where’s the door? This must be one of Harry Potter’s magical ones.

The giants of perth.

Colourful piano and it works

One of the full restaurants open on a Sunday

The end of the contemporary Perth walk.

Back to Perth’s main street.

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Akichan & Nige in King’s Park cafe.

Akichan & Jun at Kings Park cafe.

Akicahan and Nige, picnic at Kings Park.

Akichan & Nige preparing barbecue at Kings Park.

Man, that steak was yummy and the sausages were not to bad either.

Evening barbie at King’s Park.

Akichan having a coffee at King’s Park cafe.

Akichan at Kings Park.

Akichan pretending to yoga at King’s Park.

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Breakfast at Cafe in Fremantle before heading out.

Aki chan just receiving her bike. She is so excited.

Akichan & Jun at the lighthouse.

Akichan & Nigel at the lighthouse.

Akichan & Nigel at Pinky beach.

Akichan on the rocks between Pinky beach and the Basin.

Nigel knocking Akichan out. Sweet dreams Akichan.

Nigel, Jun and Akichan at the Basin beach.

Nigel & Akichan cycling along the lakes.

Akichan at Parakeet bay.

Look at the lovely couple.

Ooops where’s June?

Akichan & Jun at Parakeet Bay.

Ummm …. Akichan there are indoor showers for that sort of thing.

The end of a lovely day at Rottnest.

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Grant Henshaw trying some local aussie tucker.

Crocodile & Kangaroo pies.

Grant & Nigel waiting for the free bus to take them home.

Little picnic up the hill from the apartment.

Nigel preparing barbacue at King’s Park.

Barbecue at Kings Park

Nigel & Grant waiting for the bus at King’s Park.

Waiting for the airport bus.

Grant on his way to the departure gate.

Hayai desu ne

Final image of my Dad leaving. It was sad to see him go.

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Sylvester (Syd) with his mother at Thomas Town – Tonyrefail, South Wales. (Christening – approx 1915).

Henshaw Family at Bridle Path home – Lyttelton, with their white rabbits.
Left to right: Charlie, Arthur, Kitty, Katy,Wyndam, Roy and Syd.

Syd, Wyn and Charlie at Heathcote.

Great grandmother (Katy) with her boys.
Left to right: Roy, Syd, Wyndam and Charlie.

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We were in Northbridge, just north of Perth’s train station. It’s a lovely little area with more traditional buildings as well as Perth’s china town.

We started the day off with a couple of ice coffees at Urbanstar which combines as a bookshop stroke cafe.

Then had lunch in a popular Chinese restaurant called the Hong Kong barbecue. You are normally guaranteed to have good Chinese food if 1/ the restaurant is busy and 2/ if it has the rustic, worn style you would find in Hong Kong or China. And yes the food was very nice at a reasonable price.

After doing a weeny  bit of sightseeing along James Street we stopped at the Northbridge Dome cafe for an ice tea and a reprieve from the heat.

Another interesting thing I spotted was on the corner of James & Lake St there was a large outdoor sports screen which was showing Australia vs England in the cricket. It was a super bright day but you could still see the screen clearly, that’s modern technology for you.

After 5 days in Perth we have been to the suburbs, Victoria Park, Subiaco, Northbridge and Fremantle and all are very nice. Perth looks to be a lovely, clean and tidy place and’s not over populated by any means of the imagination.

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A few stops later the old guy got off, then a plain lady sat in his place. A guy then sat in the seat I had occupied next to her and a argument promptly started between them with the lady loudly breaking up with the guy.

I deduced that anyone who sat down in that particular seat was not going to have much luck.

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The first stop was HSBC but unfortunately we met one of those people who keep adding additional barriers, so it was not possible to setup an account at that stage.

We then made an appointment with Westpac for 2PM and then bought a couple of pre-pay sims and mobile router from Telstra.

Back to Westpac and there were no hitches in setting up the bank accounts, our kindly personal banker who was also a fellow kiwi did all the hard graft by keying in all the details and all we had to do was sign a few signatures and enter some passwords. Though this did take a couple of hours.

At the end of the day we were semi legit with bank accounts and mobile numbers.

The post Perth – Day 2 appeared first on nigelhenshaw.com.

Compared to Makati and Tokyo it was almost too quiet and we were wondering if we had made the right decision in selecting Perth as the place to live.

We continued on to the Swan river which was beautiful and it was great to see all the runners and cyclists indicating that a large percentage of people are into health and fitness.

But on the walk back via Victoria Park it was quiet quiet quiet …

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It was also great to catch up with friends after a few years in some great isakaiya bars.

Jun’s sister and her husband kindly provided accommodation for us in Matoba in Kawagoe. It was a nice area with some great local parks nearby as well as a very good yakiniku restaurant.

At the end of the trip we were ready to move on to our next port of call in Perth to make our fresh start.

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