The Visit Home

Perth is fantastic. It's apparently Winter and the weather is unbelievable. You can't really fault it. Sure there were rainy periods - but only a handful of days were anything to complain about - a handful of days in 5 weeks is not actually much to complain about in the big scheme of things.

The visit home was a bit of an eye opener though; the majority of my friends have moved on. Jobs, houses, dogs, wives and in several cases; children. This is not a world I belong in right now and it really showed this trip.

I had a couple of friends on the same page and we did our best to make use of the evenings and weekends but Perth's nightscene leaves one wanting. It just doesn't shape up to the rest of the world and yet people still think they are the shit. Why is that I wonder?

You have to give Perth some credit though. They are doing their best; new bars and clubs are opening up around town and they aren't all replicas of the Cott, Bayview and aren't all in Northbridge.

Having just come from Sweden; one of the most notoriously expensive places on this earth for alcohol, I suddenly found myself in horror at the bar in Perth. $9 for a pint? $14 for a vodka redbull? What are these people on? My best theory is that the mining boom sent prices up as minors flooded into town all cashed up with nowhere to go; but what about the rest of us? Particularly the temporarily unemployed people back at home with mamma? How are we supposed to get on the sauce?

My promises of masses of skateboarding and exercise through the nose turned into a last minute attempt to gym it up - about 6 sessions in 10 days; not a bad effort.