Perth weekend

 Weronika, you may or may not remember, makes beautiful food. Her particular love is breakfast, but I suckered her into learning how to make pierogi during Covid lockdown. Bless her, she froze some the last time she made a batch, so that was our welcome back to Perth meal on Thursday night. Yum! Those pretty quickly led to a food coma, which was good because I had made plans to go diving on Friday morning with my friend Ollie. 

We met up at Bulk Jetty so I could help film the site for Ollie. He's working on his Divemaster certification and has to do his mapping project, but his site is more detailed than mine was. Because his is a jetty, he needs to know exactly how many pylons there are. And where various fallen debris has created artificial reefs for critters. And where good points of entry and exit are. My wreck dive site was much simpler (thank goodness). So anyway, we hopped in and quickly realized that the visibility (viz) was awful. Maybe 2m when it was good and 0.5m when it was bad. So after a 25 minute dive we called it quits. The best parts of the "dive" were the 25 minute delay we had because my regulators didn't fit on the air cylinder he brought me (equipment mismatch) so we had to go to his house to grab a spare set (so we got to chit chat) and the hour after the dive that we spent hanging at Perth Scuba, catching up with old work friends and gabbing some more, while we waited for air fills. Great start to Perth Holiday Day 1!

After diving in the morning and gabbing for the early part of the afternoon, I scooped up Weronika so we could go catch the Fremantle Markets which are only open on Friday/Saturday/Sundays. I bought an adorable bathing suit (I am not allowed to buy any more bathers. I'm not. I will not.) and we grabbed some sushi to go. Hung out back at Redcourt Road and then I headed back to Nat and Mick's to get ready for dinner. We were going out for Italian food with some of Mick's friends and I needed to get my gear cleaned up and ready to go for the next day. Great evening with lots of laughing and heavy pastas (carb loading before more diving, or that's what I told myself anyway).

Saturday morning was an early one because Nat and I were going diving on Perth Scuba's boat, Blue Destiny! We met Ollie and Simon there and had such fun catching up with more old work friends who were on the boat that day. The viz still wasn't great (all the rain we'd been having washes silt and crap into the water, so it wasn't so surprising), but we saw some octopus and I caught my very first cray! She was too small to keep for eating so I let her go, but the glow of accomplishment stayed with me :) Obligatory after-diving drinks at Little Creatures in Freo and then home to Nat's for an afternoon nap on the back yard couch. 

Weronika had work on Saturday, but we agreed we'd attempt to be social and go out dancing with some of her coworkers. So around 10pm I rallied myself off of the couch (hard to do after a beautiful dinner of bangers and homemade mash) and went to collect her at work. I had MORE plans to go diving Sunday morning, so I wasn't totally sure how late I'd make it but agreed to give it the old college try. I scooped her up at work, along with her co-worker, Martina, and her newest housemate, Elisa, and we migrated to Martina's house so the girls could get ready. Into the city we went, found some parking and got in line to enter the bar. I've been living in a country town for so long that I forgot something critical: Western Australian liquor law says that only a WA drivers license or ID OR an international passport is acceptable for entry into clubs. So after waiting in line for 30 minutes, we got to the front and Weronika and I both didn't have our passports. Oops. The downside to this was that we didn't get to go dancing. The upside is that I was in bed by 2am and not a half-decent night's sleep before diving a third day in a row!

Sunday morning Club Dives at Perth Scuba were always my favorite because they do a sausage sizzle on the BBQ at the shop before heading out. Working them used to be awesome because I got to see lots of my buddies, but going as a patron is even better. I got to catch up with a bunch of my old buddies, like Colin Baker, Hugh Mooney, Eric Steele, Barb Johnson, and the trip instructor/guide, Martin Crossley. We went for a dive at North Mole (my old mapping project dive site!) and managed to not only get lost, but also to lose Ollie. Oops. We all made it A. to the wreck and B. back to shore in the end, but with less air than usual from all the under water laughter :) I met up with some friends from Exmouth who were also in Perth on holiday - Flo and Emily - and we grabbed a late lunch at the Freo Markets. Some kind of Turkish wrap that was amazing. I was missing out all those years when I didn't know what falafel was; so glad I rectified that. 

Weronika and I had plans to try and go out dancing Sunday night but after three days in a row of diving (after 4 months of going diving exactly one day), I was totally, totally exhausted. My gear got washed and Nat and I spent the evening at home, laying low. We hunkered down on the couch and I finally got to watch a Kiwi movie Nat has been telling me about for AGES, Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It's got Sam Hunt as one of the stars, plus a little Kiwi boy with all the sass, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. So many feelings, so much laughter. It was awesome. Rent it if you've got the chance. And then feel a little teensy bit of jealousy with the knowledge that some of the scenes from the movie were filmed near the town where Nat lived for 10 years in New Zealand. 

My replacement roommate in Attadale

In theory, Ollie and I were going to try going out diving on Monday morning as well. That did not happen. I threw in the towel. Instead I spent the day running errands around town and soaking in the joy of being near my Perth People. Mick and I hung out around the house in the morning and he helped me figure out what the heck all the cell phone company jargon means (I need to switch providers, so help me). Then I wandered around with Weronika, going to the grocery store, getting some shoe soles fixed that I brought down with me from Exmouth (no cobblers in Exy), and generally just enjoying myself. 

You may have noticed a distinct lack of Wiebke in these proceedings. Girlfriend was decidedly under the weather and basically quarantining herself with forays into the kitchen only to make ginger tea and eggs. By Monday, though, she was starting to feel human again. I think, actually, she was still feeling like crap but she didn't want to miss out on more friendship time. So she rallied herself for the girls dinner we had planned for Monday at Salsa Rossa! My frequent readers will probably remember that as the restaurant that took pity on me post-Covid and hired me despite my zero experience as a waitress. Weronika still works there and basically runs the joint because she's amazing.

Nat, Wiebke, Weronika, Elisa (the newest housemate at Redcourt Road, who just happens to be a delightful human) and I all went. And we all ordered the gnocchi! Y'all. When you visit me in Western Australia when the borders open and the US gets its act together enough with Covid that other countries will let you in, I'm gonna take you to eat at Salsa and I'm going to encourage you to try this gnocchi. It's like cloud pillows in your mouth. It's 10/10 one of the things I miss most about my short-lived time working as a waitress there. We opted to head back to Redcourt for dessert afterwards and Elisa busted out some Christmas Pannetone that her family sent her (she's Italian), and we had some leftover birthday cake, and generally just rolled around on the floor feeling fat and so so happy. 

Initially this post was going to be the whole week in Perth, but I've realized I just have too much to say. So this was the boring post with lots of probably-not-that-interesting information about eating and running errands, and the next one will be much more fun and will have more photos because on Tuesday, Weronika and I went to Rottnest Island and saw quokkas! Until then...