THE Big Day

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Wow! The wedding was gorgeous... the setting was amazing. Not only was there the bride to gaze at; but there was a beautiful view across the water to the city as the backdrop.

Sadly the weather didn't cool quite as much as the grooms-men would have liked- they were all definitley a little bit warm under the collar!. Mark and Sarah carried it off though and managed to find a little piece of shade in which to say thier vows. It was really romantic..they even wrote thier own vows (not that we could hear much of them, most were carried off on the breeze).

The View from the Wedding
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Reception was equally fun. It was in a lovely conference centre called The Forest. They had under-cover tables in a courtyard surrounded by trees with little fairy lights in. The food was spectacular (Prawn starter, followed by fresh fish or steak, then shortbread tart.) The fish was about the size of the dinner plate..they don;t do things by halves here!. The beer and wine turned out to be plentiful too so everone was quite merry and it was a really relaxing day. Judging by the dodgy dancing by the end of the evening we think everyone (including the Bride and Groom) were a little tipsy. Speeches were, for a change, short,sweet and sentimental. The best man nearly croaked by got through it in the end.

The happy couple
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We met some really lovely people who were on our table that we think we will hook up with later on...apparently we're going to all the wrong parts of town at the moment...they're going to show us where the real aussies hang out!

We even managed to get ourselves home on the free town bus..we're feeling in touch with the Perth system now.

Woke up with hangovers (well, Ben did at least) today and decided to spend a lazy Sunday on the river. It was yet another warm day, without a cloud in the Sky. So we headed off to the, aptly named, Cook Cruises and took a 3 hour trip along the Swan River (thanks Charlie!!!). It was our first real excursion- we had a great time. A couple of locals entertained us there and back filling us in on all the local gossip and giving us advice of what to do while we're here. We're finding the English accent attracts quite a lot of attention!

Sarah fears she has made a mistake
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We saw our dream home...only 80 million dollars..it has a fab view of the river though. Sadly we figured the boat was as close as we are ever going to get so just took a picture to consol ourselves. Apparently, the owner is trying to sell and can't due to the price, so after 7 years of building they might have to knock it down and just split the land (what a waste...we're thinking of putting in an offer!)

We saw dolphins too. Ben was a wild dolphin virgin and the sight of a dorsal fin made his day. They come up river from the sea (it's a salty river). We did begin to wonder though if the dolphins can get in does that mean sharks too?? The man on the boat assured us that there are only one or two attacks!! Thoughts of windsurfing are beginning to look less appealing.

Cutting the cake
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It's a home cooked tea tonight to save some pennies- pasta a la Tori. Then we thought we might head out and suss out where to spend New year tomorrow.

Hope you're all enjoying the Christmas break. Wish you were here (glad we're not there suffering British winter)

lots of love B&T