Down Under – Week One

I can’t believe we are already a week into our holiday. It seems to be going so fast. We flew out on Christmas Eve on our round about journey to Perth. First stop – Los Angeles. What a shit hole. LAX has never been my favourite airport but the section that we were in was terrible. Thankfully we only had two hours there and then we were off to Auckland.

Thirteen hours after we left LA we arrived in sunny Auckland, New Zealand. We had around a 6 hour stop over in Auckland so we decided to get a hotel room near the airport so we could eat, sleep and shower before our next and final leg. We stayed at the Holiday Inn which all seemed very nice. That is until it was time to leave and my stomach began to gurgle. We had eaten toasted ham and cheese sandwiched when we arrived with chips. I had sour cream with my chips. Not a great idea. By the time we got to the airport I couldn’t stop throwing up. We boarded the plane and by the time we were taking off the vomit bags were in full use. As soon as I could, I made my way to the toilets, where I stayed for the first two hours of our seven hour flight. Then  the crew found me. They gave me 3 seats to lay down on close to the washrooms. The food poisoning lasted for the entire flight and I even had to be taken off the plane and out of the airport in a wheelchair. Very embarrassing but kind of good since we got to skip all the line ups at customs and quarantine and go out with the crew. The food poisoning lasted for another day in Perth but then I was feeling better.

On Monday night Caz and Birdie had us over for a BBQ. It was great to catch up with them. Birdie made a lovely lamb dish that was amazing after not really eating anything for two days.

Tuesday we met Nathan for lunch at Little Creatures in Fremantle. The place was packed (what else is new) but we managed to find a table on the back patio. Despite the muggy and humid heat that day we had a nice lunch and drinks.

Wednesday morning we flew out to Adelaide to spend New Years with Carney, Davina and the kids. Gibbo and Louise were also there so with our wolf pack of four (Charlie, Sarah, Lindsay and Me) it was quite the full house. We had two days of 40 while in Adelaide and it was scorching. Of course the usual shenanigans occurred once everyone had a few drinks down them which led to some interesting photos and videos. ;) 

We flew out Saturday morning back to Perth. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30am so we had to be up around 4am. Fun! We got out to the airport with plenty of time only to learn that there was something wrong with our plane and we had to wait for a part to come in from Sydney. A 2 hour delay!! Not happy! We finally made it back to Perth and after a quick Rooster Roll (yummy as always) we all went back to bed.

I am happy that we won’t have to get on another plane for a couple of weeks.  

Relaxation and Sunshine

It is day 9 of our Australian adventure and relaxation has fully kicked in. We had a wonderful time during the rest of our stay in Adelaide. It was hard to leave Carney and Davina and especially two of the cutest kids ever, Rylee and Jake. Rylee definitely took a shining to Lindsay, they were inseparable the whole time!! Hopefully it won't be too long before we all get to catch up again.

Me, Jake, Lindsay and Rylee

Saturday was a scorcher here in Perth! I think it must have been in the high 30s and not a lot of wind. We went to our good friends Nadia and Sean's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony at the Scented Gardens in South Perth with the birds singing and butterflies fluttering in the trees. Nadia looked absolutely beautiful and Sean wasn't too bad himself. It was also great catching up with Nathan who was down from up north for the ceremony. After the ceremony Nathan, Lindsay and I went to the Windsor for a quick drink and to cool down as sitting in the sun during the ceremony had wilted us a little. Then it was on to the Esplanade Suites for a lovely reception. Even the speeches were great and we loved catching up with Nadia and Sean.

Lindsay, Nadia, Me and Nathan

We caught up with the family on Sunday afternoon. Nanny Irene didn't know we were in town so it was a nice surprise for her, once she realised we were there. :)

Went to the beach today for the first time. I didn't realise how much I missed swimming in the ocean till I was in it again. It is about 34 today with a light wind and the beach wasn't too busy as it is a Tuesday and most people are back at work now after Christmas holidays. I went in the ocean for a little while but couldn't stay in too long as it was a bit rough. Lindsay had a great time body surfing though.

After the beach we made our way to Joondalup and had a spot of lunch at Corey's restaurant, the Grand Boulevard Tavern. The food was wonderful as usual and walking back to the car with the sun on my back and the wind blowing my dress I couldn't help but think, I could get used to this.

A Griswold Start to Our Adventure

Holiday roooooaaaaad, Holiday roooooaaaad.....

Well we are on day four of our visit to the sun burnt country and things are beginning to look up. We flew into Perth on Monday morning and within a few hours made an unfortunate discovery...food poisoning is the shits. No laughter please.

Within a few hours of getting to home I began to feel nauseous and threw up. At first I figured it was just the long flight and lack of sleep. But it continued. Two hours later I couldn't be away from the toilet for more then a couple of seconds. That is when it hit Lindsay. I will spare you the gory details but by 8pm that night we were both worse for wear. Off to the after hours GP we went, we were given a quick shot and told to stick to ice cubes and nothing else. It continued through the night. By the next morning I could barely sit up. At 7am Lindsay felt it was time to go to emergency. Two hours later (trying to get comfy lying across three plastic chairs and keep everything in) I was admitted and put on a drip. In the end I needed two full bags of fluid to bring my heart rate and blood pressure back to normal. A fun start indeed.

Yesterday we finally made it on the plane to Adelaide, due to our stomach "trauma" we had to cancel our original flight the day before. Needless to say it was a quiet New Years for me but I fun one catching up with good friends, Carney and Davina.

My stomach has settled now and hopefully the rest of the trip will go well....fingers crossed.