Ray had the van booked into a repair centre in Perth for today. The storm we copped in Darwin ripped the awning and even though Ray did an amazing job of patching it up with his limited resources, it was getting worse. Unfortunately, the repairer wouldn’t fix it on site so we had to pack it all up and drive it into Perth. We left it there with a list of a few other things that we asked him to fix as well, time permitting. He assured us our van would get priority as we needed to tow it back to our caravan park (over 100km) and sleep in it again tonight.
To kill time, we drove into Perth, dropped in to say “Hi” to Tinie at work (just because we could) and then we drove down to the wharf. We caught the ferry to South Perth across the Swan River which took about 7 minutes and was very pleasant. When we got there we decided that we would stop at the “Bell Tower Cafe” for a bite to eat before catching the ferry back. This cafe was right on the water and looked really inviting with its outlook over the water and the sun shining on the tables. We were issued with the menus and this gave us great concerns. 1. No kids meals 2. Many items in the recipes were in French and meant absolutely nothing to any of us 3. I was the only woman in sandals, not heels.
We hurriedly decided that they had made a mistake with their name and were not a “Cafe” but a “Ristorante “. I suppose I should have been alerted when we sat down and the waitress put starched white cloths over each of our knees and asked if we would be having sparkling, spring or tap water with our meal.
Ray was ready to leave, I mean, what is a cafe without a good toasted ham and cheese, but I felt like we should at least have coffee because we had messed up their table and drunk their water (I answered “tap”). We ordered coffees.
I didn’t feel so guilty about not ordering food when the coffees arrived. (Aaron’s latte delivered in a cup not a glass, so very closely resembling Ray’s flat white ) and they were warm. I was left blowing on my English Breakfast tea while they both finished theirs in record time. What good is a fancy “cafe” if it can’t even serve a good coffee? We left feeling, but not looking, indignant. Heaven forbid!
We returned by ferry (the mullet wearing ferry driver made a good photo to send to Emma and Judy who are on the lookout for mullets) and made our way to the one good eatery in Perth that we knew we could rely on. We had eaten here during the Boxing Day sale frenzy, so we knew we would be satisfied. The Carilion Food Court in central Perth. Now, this was more like it. Ray got his roast meat sandwich, Caleb his kids meal and Az and I got our healthier options.
We wandered through the sales, infuriating for those of us who can spot a bargain but can’t fit them in the caravan, and I suggested that perhaps Ray should ring the caravan repair place as we were surprised we hadn’t heard from them yet. The repair was only supposed to take a few hours and it was already 3:30pm.
“Not started yet mate, you’ll have to leave it overnight”. I could hear Ray explaining AGAIN that we actually live in it and unless he had power and water which we could hook up into in his yard then that was impossible. Apparently the boss who had all the correct information on our van had gone home, taking all the relevant details with him.
The guy was most apologetic and said he’d start it straight away.
Ray joined the many kids playing in the water (interactive artwork) in the Perth Square. Caleb wasn’t interested but it didn’t stop Ray from playing!
We collected the van at 5:00pm and even though he must have missed his afternoon smoko to replace the awning, he hadn’t managed to fix all the things we left him on the list. We were really annoyed but couldn’t do anything about it. We will have to get them fixed at a later date.
We pulled back into our spot at the Lake Clifton caravan park at 7:15pm. The need to set up our camp again when it was so late meant that it was toast all around for dinner. This was actually very lucky because as well as servicing the hot water system, they did something to it and the water is pouring straight out of it. Now we have no water. Ray will have to pull on his tool belt and deal with it tomorrow.