Winter in Perth

Where does the time go?

And just like that, we have winter in Perth. I am going to say it. Where has the time gone? 3 months. Just like that. 3 months was how long I spent when I travelled solo to South America at the end of 2010. And I felt (still feel) like I was there for quite a long time. I saw so much. Met so many amazing travellers. Traversed the whole of South America, from the “end of the world”, at Ushuaia, in Patagonia, to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast, in Colombia. And so much in between.

So why don’t I feel that I have been in Perth half as long? Sure, the obvious answer is coronavirus. The world it has thrown us all into. Only recently being able to pop to the pub for a pint. To start exploring the excellent restaurant scene here. And to get our first trip booked back to the magnificent Margaret River wine region.

Where did those episodes go?

But that aside, the simple fact is that I am still adjusting. This is normal, right? Moving 4,000kms. To a new city. In the middle of a global pandemic gives me some latitude I’m sure. It feels a little like listening to your favourite LP, on an actual record player. For those of us that remember them. And the record must be scratched because the needle has just jumped from a very familiar part of the tune. Jumped quite a lot. So now, you are not sure where you are. Nothing seems familiar. There is a big chunk missing.

If you were streaming your favourite show on Netflix (an analogy you younger readers can appreciate), and missed a couple of episodes, you would be wondering who all these new people were. What happened to the storyline? How did we get here?

And this is how it feels. For me anyway. All that I was familiar with has gone. I no longer know what the plot is? How this part of the story is supposed to go.

Rome wasn’t built in a day

What I do know is that these things take time. Big life events. In the way that Rome wasn’t built in a day, changes of this magnitude take some getting used to. It’s not as though you go to sleep in one city, wake up in another, and everything carries on just as before. Over the last 8 years I built up a lot of social capital whilst living in Sydney. Overnight, that balance was reduced to zero. I had to start rebuilding.

And rebuilding isn’t always easy. It took time in Sydney to find that favourite coffee shop. The Thai restaurant that you went to every single week because the food was THAT good. Finding a “Bistecca alla Fiorentina” to rival the one you had in Florence wasn’t easy. But you did it.

Have I ever mentioned coffee to you?

Talking of Italy, have I ever mentioned to you that I enjoy good coffee? Having tried dozens, literally, of coffee shops in Perth, I have found myself almost universally disappointed. How hard can it be to make a good strong coffee? My beverage of choice is a small double shot latte? My order was simply “strong latte, please”, and I invariably got what I wanted. Simple order. Simple to make. In the days when I owned an Italian espresso machine at home I could knock these bad boys out for fun.

Judging by some of the concoctions I have been served to date, fun is the last thing I am having. Thank the lord for “Engine Room Espresso” in North Perth, and Mike of “Cravings”, here in East Perth. Two beacons of hope in a coffee wasteland. In Perth, barista seems to be a very loose term. Usually meaning those that are closest to the coffee machine, rather than the skilled occupation that it is.

Coffee aside, life is taking on a regular cadence now. Up early for a brisk morning walk around the water, dolphin spotting, before returning so Vik can start work, at home. We have a mid morning walk, to run the coffee gauntlet, and at lunch we take an extended walk along the Swan River. As mentioned previously, our step count is off the scale at the moment. Which soothes my guilty mind as we munch on our evening Tim Tam, or my freshly baked scones.

Hunting down the best food in Perth

The last few weekends have seen us back on the foodie scene. A welcome return. A fabulous meal at Balthazar the other week was followed up with an equally excellent dinner at Andaluz in the city last week. With it being winter in Perth, and with the colder days drawing in, we have dropped below the 20s now, we had our first Sunday roast this weekend.

The Rose and Crown, in the heritage village of Guildford, is reputed to be Australia’s second oldest pub. Advertising the “best Sunday roast in WA”, we got ourselves along and tried it for ourselves. Oh my. Are we glad we did. With a choice of pork and crackle, or beef, the rest of the plate was made up of a very large Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes, swede, and gravy.

It was delicious. One of the best we have had for a very long time. My ex-pat friends here in Australia will tell you that it is not easy to come by Yorkshire puddings. The meal was complemented by a smooth, full bodied bottle of Syrah from the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. A delicious drop.

Start of a new week

Today is Monday, and as is our wont, we will be abstaining from alcohol through the week, making the weekend even more pleasurable. I have finished my WSET Level 1 wine course, which removes any excuse I had for “course related tastings” through the week. We shall revert to copious amounts of Yorkshire Tea in the evenings, as we work our way through the new season of Billions, with the odd episode of Masterchef thrown in for gastronomic inspiration.

So, the 3 month mark in Perth brings us to the mid way point of 2020. A year that is turning out to be very different to the one we, and everyone else in the world, expected. We have the winter solstice this weekend, marking the day with the least amount of daylight hours. Meaning we will leave winter in Perth behind and begin the downward slope towards summer, and hopefully sunnier days, not just literally, but metaphorically.

As I write, Australia’s borders are still closed, and our state border here in WA is also closed to any Australian from our other states. In effect, we are currently our own nation, here in Western Australia. It is hoped, by both the Prime Minister, and both of us, that Mark McGowan re-opens our borders within the next couple of months, by which time the Australian borders may also be opened up. This will pave the way for us to start replanning our Grand Tour, and finally getting on the road.

It will be time to find those missing episodes, and discover the life that we have skipped over.