Ray and I woke and managed to vacate the hotel room in time for checkout. He returned from the office with the news that “Depak” (the absent, capabilities lacking) owner of the Pinjarra hotel that we attempted to stay at was in fact behind the desk of this hotel. Ray was able to give him some choice feedback about our experience at his other hotel and hoped that he was here in Mandurah to learn how it was done properly.
We headed to the foreshore for breakfast which we really enjoyed. Just what the doctor ordered. Then back to the van to rescue Judy.
There had been a lot of excitement while we were away with a snake sighting and subsequent hunting. We were impressed with Judy’s response to Caleb’s announcement, “hey, there is a snake out here”. Aaron immediately grabbed his Bowie knife, wooden stick, and a golf club and set off in his thongs to hunt the intruder. Judy made a quick retreat back into the van, scaling the 30cm step up without touching it and stood on the kitchen lounger, knees knocking from fear and the sudden exertion. (Not quite like that in reality, but she did make a very hasty retreat we were told).
The snake remains at large, but it did instigate a DVD marathon of Bear Grylls shows which is keeping Aaron more than entertained.
We had lunch, exchanged stories and then decided we needed to visit the shops. Caleb turns 10 years old in a couple of days and there was the serious business of present buying to be done.
The shops were not all open but Kmart was, so we were able to satisfy the birthday requirements and get Aaron some luggage for his flight home in 3 weeks.
I found a little boutique with a rack out the front with a selection of clothes at either $2.99 or $3.99. I bought a shirt which I named “the cheaper than a cup of coffee shirt”.
I’ve decided that I’m changing my favourite colour. I’m giving red a rest and adopting my second favourite colour, yellow, as my current love. This is a momentous decision and will require the replacement of many items, beginning with my phone cover. We found numerous but the yellow just wasn’t right. I’m after a sunflower yellow, not fluorescent (which is in abundance at the moment) or insipid lemon. It must be real yellow! Challenged by the search, I almost contemplated changing to orange instead, but Judy encouraged me to have faith and keep looking. The search is on. (I did spot a delicious yellow handbag which might have to suffice for the time being though). On the way home we stopped in at the Thrombolites which are close to Lake Clifton. Thrombolites are best described as living rocks and are quite rare. We wandered amongst them hoping to see them actually growing and marvelling at them, so enthralled at the majesty of them. Definitely on our list of simple but oh so amazing Australian things to see. Interesting!
We enjoyed a BBQ dinner but not sure who ate more, the mozzies or us. I suffered about 10 mozzie bites in the same area on my posteria (butt) but no one was game to get close enough to count, so they just guessed. A photo was totally out of the question! In honour of my colour change, Judy made mini lemon tarts which we polished off along with the chocolate high heel given to Judy by one of the girls in “our grade”. This was lovingly transported across the Nullabor, fridge to fridge by the travelling Thelma and Louise show. It was well worth it and much appreciated.
Judy and I spent the night devising other ways to spend our lives than in the employ of the Department of Education. Some impossible, some quite a possibility. Anything is possible with a beautiful sunset. Ahhhh!