After the tiring night where we practically did not sleep, we arrived in Perth in the wee hours of the morning. I started to feel somewhat more alive during our drive in the car - somehow, being buckled up in the car on solid ground felt real. What also helped was that our super hosts sent a pic update of the breakfast that was waiting for us upon arrival!
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| Home-made pancakes |
It didn't take us long to drive to our temporary home for the next few nights and during the drive (less than 30 minutes), the kids snoozed and by the time we arrived, the sun was up. The rest of the morning was spent in a blur - the husband decided he wanted to go for a run, the kids and I followed our host T, to walk his elder daughter, M, to school. The 10-minute walk to school was extremely refreshing and the cool winds definitely made us feel all refreshed. The children also spent time in the backyard where there was a slide-set and seeing them all red-faced from the cold winds made me smile. I believe the husband watched some TV with beer in-hand, while the children were washed up... and at some point we all crashed to sleep. I think J woke up first because he was least tired and went on a shopping trip with Uncle T.
I awoke at some point in the afternoon and despite the cold, headed to the showers. I needed to wash up and feel alive again - and indeed, after a teeth-chattering session, I did feel refreshed. I wasn't even sure where the kids were, but walked into the living area to a lovely site along with amazing smells.
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| Chef T making bread with mince - so simple and tasty! |
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| Eating at the children's table. They had ham sandwiches. |
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| A very thrilled child with lots of vehicles to pick from |
I'd nearly forgotten how spacious homes are, and to have toys that the children could borrow and play with our host's kids was absolutely fantastic! At this point, the little daughter, Z, had awakened from her nap and the kids got to know one another quickly. At this time (about 230/3pm), M had also come back from school.
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| Z and J - look at how little she is wearing versus him! |
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| 4 little children, playing in the yard. They warmed up to one another really quickly! |
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| Captain A |
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| More play together |
While the children got along like fire, the husband and I chipped in to help prepare a picnic that we were going to have the next day. We strolled to the neighbourhood mart. While we got the necessities like milk, eggs and croissants, I also nearly bought this much of my own type of food.
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| Life is complete! |
I say nearly, because the husband thought I was mad to buy this many, and this early in the trip. I returned all but two (for immediate consumption!) for this supermarket-run.
Upon our return, we were greeted with a cute sight of cars in the garage. We then all got ready to head to our first dinner of the night (drumroll....) to our favourite Italian restaurant.
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| The real car, and the mini car (which J dominated & thoroughly adored) |
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| All ready to go! |
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| All of us :) |
Took us a while to get our table, but wait we did. Ciao Italia is one of the staple must-eats when we go to Perth and their signatures like pastas, chilli mussels and tiramisu are renowned! & highly unforgettable.
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| Traditional red-checkered table cloth |
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Garlic bread, Hawaiin pizza, chilli mussels. SO GOOD.
What isn't pictured was the carbonara (creamy and yes, you are right - so good!)
And we of course also had 2 types of desserts to share. Mmmmm. |
Everyone pretty much had food concussion after, but it was so worth it. This was also the start of my never-going-hungry the whole week! After this amazing dinner, we headed home and the kids had some downtime, wash-up and sent to bed.
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| Adults at play |
The adults then took some time of our own to relax over the bar counter (
in the daytime it transforms to our kitchen island) where we'd talk about anything under the sun with our poison of choice. This became a nightly routine for all of us and it was very, very nice. It was relaxing and warm (us in our pyjamas!), with no fanfare of needing to dress up to go out for a drink - ahh, how we have grown up. Truth is, it suited all of us very well!
So this marked the end of our first day of holiday. It really started very early since
we flew in 24 hours ago... and we were slowly but surely, getting into holiday mode. Hooray!
