Perth. City and meet Karen Powell


Perth - Botanical Gardens etc
Thursday 30th November 2017
View of Perth across the Swan River
Jacaranda trees just finished full bloom - lovely


 
 
 
Into Perth. Parked car (for free) at Kings Park Botanical Gardens. Had a lovely walk around the gardens, divided into segments reflecting the different regions of Australia.





Hence weird additions of non-indiginous plants such as Baob trees, transplanted from across the continent.






Iain posing with his lovely ladies!
 






Very pleasant warm weather, great for walking. Then joined up with Graham and Alina for a bus (free again!) down into Perth. Walked around town, including a weird street looking like old London. Indulged in an ice-cream and found a cheap souvenir shop for some postcards. Visited the Art Gallery of Western Australia specifically to see some indigenous art. I wasn’t very impressed – all very basic and have seen much better aboriginal art elsewhere. The 19C gallery was much better, and weirdly included an oil of yachts sailing in the Solent. Probably some ex-pat who came in penal servitude!


Bus back to the park and returned home. Alina driving, having recently passed her driving licence – they have to display a red ‘P’ for first  6 months and not allowed to drive at night, then have to display a green ‘P’ for next 6 months. Her car was covered in what looked like rust and badly stained – from parking near to a water sprinkler which draws water from bore holes with high iron content. Not an issue that we have to deal with in UK!
Early dinner of curried vegetables and chicken patties, chicken and cheese juliennes in small dishes. Very tasty.


Went to Ellington Jazz Club, to meet up with Karen and Matt Powell.  Hadn’t seen them since their last trip to UK a couple of years ago – both looking fab and full of news. We watched their son Joe Powell playing bass guitar in his band ‘Persuasion’. Last time I’d seen Joe, he was about 10yrs and learning to play guitar.

They were four seriously good musicians, who were joined by a fabulous singer ‘Chelsea’, who sounded like a mix between and Corinne Bailey Rae and Macy Gray.  Great night out and Joe is sooooooo cool. Mum and dad clearly very proud of him and I managed to convince him to pose with them and his guitar.

I went back with Karen and Matt for an overnight stay.  Gossip galore!

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