Journal

Wedding nerves by proxy, by ‘The Wife’

  • Posted on: April 13, 2006
  • In: Personal
  • Comments closed

This is ‘The Wife’ guest authoring today as Mark is otherwise engaged (doing nothing actually). We’ve spent around an hour trying to find a cafe with wifi in the centre of Perth (avoiding McDonalds ‘cos it smells of fat food) and when we finally found somewhere, they charged us $14 for an hour. Nice. We’ve got 14 mins left, so I’ll try and be brief despite the fact that I’m Welsh and we tell LONG stories.

Well, Mark and I arrived in Perth on Sunday around 2pm local time after the longest flight in the world - well it wasn’t really but you forget how boring these types of journeys are when you haven’t done one for a while. There were some interesting people on the plane which always passes the time for me. Mark made me sit in the middle so he could look out of the window, so I was sitting next to a nice lady who was flying to Sydney. We had a very nice chat which passed the time. Hope she got over her jetlag.

Our friends Emma and Clinton picked us up and we drove back to their house in the suburbs for a brew. Several brews later and a little tour of the local neighbourhood and house, we went for a BBQ picnic at Heathcote Park which is where the wedding ceremony is going to be tomorrow. After returning to the house, we managed to stay awake until about 10.30 before passing out with extreme tiredness and Melatonin that Clinton gave us.

Monday was spent being jetlagged and finding our way around the local neighbourhood. We went to the local Mall for a mooch and tried to find wifi for Mark to connect with his beloved internet but to no avail. He was already feeling cut off from the rest of the world after not going online for a whole day but this made it worse. God knows how he’d cope if he ever went to Alaska or something. We bought some great Barramundi in the fish shop and cooked our hosts a nice meal before going out for a few beers in a pub in South Perth. We met up with someone I went to school with and her boyfriend. They work in the mining industry here in WA which was pretty interesting to hear about.

Tuesday was another jetlag day. We went into the city in the afternoon with Emma and had some GREAT sushi before separating. Mark went off to do his talk at the Melbourne Hotel with Port80 and I went to Kings Park and had dinner with Emma and Clinton. Mark’s talk seemed to go well which is good.

The last two days have been spent helping out with wedding chores and getting wedding nerves by proxy. Chores have included: picking up dresses, getting a manicure (not Mark obviously!), moving chairs, tidying up, making place settings, ironing honeymoon clothes, dropping off stuff at the venues etc etc. We’ve now left the bride and groom to pack for their honeymoon whilst we do some tourist things in the city… and look for wifi access! Whilst Mark caught up with the world, I played my own special game of ‘Spot the Pom’. My total so far is 13. Pretty good going.

So, we’ve got the wedding tomorrow which will be fun (except for the fact we’re in the house with the bride and bridesmaids all morning which will be chaotic!) and then we’re off to Rottnest Island on Saturday for some snorkeling and cycling—yay!

So, to sum up our time here so far:

Three bad things about Perth:

  1. The brews are like milky water
  2. There’s too many ants
  3. There’s too many Poms

Three good things about Perth:

  1. It’s beautiful
  2. Public transport is cheap and plentiful
  3. Even the fish and chips seems healthy here!!

Next stop, Cairns on Sunday.

Comments

Hey Emm

Glad to hear the pom-spotting is going well and that you’re both having fun. Is weening Mark of the internet as difficult as weening him off tea?

Phil's Gravatar

Phil
Thu 13th Apr 2006
at 9:18 am

My better half is Australian and half her family live in the suburbs of Perth. Was over there for Christmas.

If you can, get down to Fremantle Markets.

It’s like Camden Lock only with Australians!

Tim Huegdon's Gravatar

Tim Huegdon
Thu 13th Apr 2006
at 9:33 am

I can recommend the Little Creatures brewery in Fremantle if you’re after some “non-milky” local brews. Also the wine from Margaret River is some of the world’s best, particularly cabernet/shiraz blends and semillon/sauvignon blanc blends.

Brad Wright's Gravatar

Brad Wright
Thu 13th Apr 2006
at 9:43 am

Brad is right, Little Creatures is fantastic. The rest of the local beer does have a lot to be desired! Did you notice the lack of Fosters on tap?

Public transport is cheap and plentiful as long as it’s not a Sunday, then you’re stuck!

And as for the ants, lucky you’re not there for the depths of summer, the cockroaches and flies are far worse!

James's Gravatar

James
Thu 13th Apr 2006
at 11:03 am

Please tell me you’re going to try to get across to Rottnest Island or, at the very least, wander around Fremantle.

Ian Lloyd's Gravatar

Ian Lloyd
Thu 13th Apr 2006
at 12:12 pm

I’ve got to hand it to Marky boy, he’s becoming a CSS superstar these days, can’t look at a CSS website without hearing the Boulton name. Well done mate, how did the talk go down at Port 80 btw?, I saw a few photos including expected soft? beverages at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/markboulton/

By the way Katie’s leaving http://www.6721.co.uk and I sent an invite, I’m guess you and ‘The Wife’ won’t be able to make next Friday :)

Hope you’re having a great time and if you should meet a 50 year old by chance in Cairns called Majorie Thorpe, say hello as she’s my Great Aunt. You never know.

Graham Sanders's Gravatar

Graham Sanders
Thu 13th Apr 2006
at 10:28 pm

To get free internet access in Perth all you needed to do was cross over the railway line and visit the state library, free internet access though some sites, including some webmail sites are blocked.

The other bad news is it is in the library so you have to use their PCs, no food, no noise and no uploading, but it is free and you could of left Mark there and gone into the Art Gallery across the plaza (on vice a versa)

wi-fi access in Australia, particularly Perth is not easy to find or cheap.

beer - little creatures and the matilda bay brewery product line (rooftop red, bees knees etc.) are not milkly and can be found in a number of pubs, but not all.

Enjoyed Mark’s presentation on Tuesday.

Nick Cowie's Gravatar

Nick Cowie
Fri 14th Apr 2006
at 2:59 pm

Wish I could have made it to the talk Mark. Looking forward to the podcast when it becomes available.

Glad you enjoyed Perth! Wi-Fi access is a rarity around here.

Can’t comment on the beer but will agree with James in regards to the flies.

Come back soon eh?

Matt Didcoe's Gravatar

Matt Didcoe
Sat 15th Apr 2006
at 5:01 am

Fosters on tap? There’s nary a person in Australia that a) drinks the stuff, or 2) has even seen it.

It’s definitely not an Australian beer to Australians!

But, do beware the boot.

Ryan's Gravatar

Ryan
Sun 16th Apr 2006
at 3:55 am

Sorry I didn’t meet “the wife” when I spoke with Mark in Perth earlyier in the week.

I’ll second the sentiment re wifi in Australia - it is a total disgrace - overpriced and hard to find.
Hope to see you in Sydney in a couple of weeks

john

john Allsopp's Gravatar

john Allsopp
Sun 16th Apr 2006
at 7:24 am

To clear up one point, watery milky brews are Northern speak for gross cups of tea!!

Mark Boulton's Gravatar

Mark Boulton
Sun 16th Apr 2006
at 2:04 pm

If you happen to be somewhere that has a Hogs Breath, I strongly suggest you take up the opportunity for some fine steak (if you’re into that kind of thing!).

Al.

Alistair's Gravatar

Alistair
Sun 16th Apr 2006
at 2:27 pm

There’s nothing wrong with a good, northern cup of milky, gross brew!

phil's Gravatar

phil
Sun 16th Apr 2006
at 6:32 pm

Believe me Phil, the tea here is mostly BAD except for the teabags we brought with us from home! ;0)

The Wife's Gravatar

The Wife
Fri 21st Apr 2006
at 2:50 am

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A picture of Mark BoultonI'm a graphic designer from near Cardiff in the UK. I've been a designer for over ten years now and primarily work on the web. I'm still partial to a bit of print every now and then though. I used to work for Agency.com in London as an Art Director before working as a Senior Designer for the BBC in sunny Cardiff. This was all before I took leave of my senses and formed my own design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd.

I've got a thing about grids and typography and occasionally ramble on about them to anyone who will listen.

If you're after simple, clean and effective web design; let me know.