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Caleb was excited to receive some birthday money from Aunty Tinie last night, so with nothing better to do on the agenda, it was back to the shops for a Sunday walk around. 
It was going to be a top of 35 degrees so it didn’t seem a bad option anyway. The shops were nicely air conditioned!
The kids in Western Australia go back to school tomorrow so I thought it might be interesting to see if there was a last minute rush on pens and pencils and use the opportunity to point out to Caleb how fortunate he is not to be going into a traditional classroom. (Code for: “Quit complaining about the small amount of school work we are doing, or you can go to one like they are!”) I wanted him to appreciate how lucky he was to be learning from the comfort of the car or caravan and seeing the history of our country and the amazing geography that we have on our doorstep. I’m not sure that I was very successful though.
We arrived and had to wait for the shops to open. We forgot that Sunday trading is very new here, open hours are 11-5 and not all retailers have to open. Probably only until new leases are negotiated. Caleb spent his money in the first shop we went to. We checked out the kids buying their folders and paper and found a times table chart for Caleb so that we can continue looking at patterns in numbers. He didn’t seem too enthusiastic, using the poster as a light saber instead of as a learning tool! 
We wandered around the shops, had a light lunch and returned to the van. 

Ray cut up the poster into a more manageable, caravan friendly size and we commenced packing Aaron’s suitcase. Most of his travelling clothes went straight in the bin as they were either too big or absolutely wrecked from the crappy washing machines in the caravan parks. This is one of the hazards of travelling if your rig doesn’t have its own washing machine. The machines in caravan parks are industrial and used for washing the working clothes of many travelling workers – think the mining, trucking community. We have actually put clothes in machines that have come out in worse condition that when they went in! Dirtier and shredded!

Once packed, Aaron’s case was 60% books and DVDs, 30% clothes and 10% extra space. Job done!
We had decided to have a last dinner out to farewell Az because tomorrow night needs to be early for his 5:45am flight. We went to the “Good Choice Chinese Restaurant”. Very plain decor and one very busy waiter who covered the desk, phone and restaurant, but the food was amazing. We took a bottle of champagne but they only had one champagne glass so we guzzled the bottle out of mismatched wine glasses. Hey, we’re not fussy!
The music being played was right up my alley and I asked the waiter for the name of the album. After searching for it, he announced that he couldn’t find it and couldn’t translate the Chinese writing on the CD into English. I had to sit and make a list of all the songs I liked in order to download them later. 
Of course, this gave Ray and I the opportunity to sing in the empty restaurant, once again annoying the boys who begged us to stop. We thought it was a fitting farewell for Az.