. . . . Ricks Extra Long Summer . . . .: Rain, rain and more rain in Perth

After spending the day looking around Perth, we had dinner and a couple of beers before a really early night. I was then up just before 2am to hit the bar downstairs and watch the Champions league final. It was obviously a disappointment in the end, beiung beaten by Barcelona, but they are so good, it wasnt really a surprise. Back to bed afterwards and another couple of hours sleep, before booking out of the Hostel in the morning and a day spent messing about around town, doing nothing much really. A nice lazy Sunday, sitting in the sun reading a book and watching the world go by.

Late in the afternoon we returned to the Hostel to pick up our bags. We jumped onto one of the free buses that runs around Perth and not long after we arrived at our 'Hosts' place. We are couch surfing for a few nights – Like we did in Sydney – sytaying on a couch or in a spare room, offered for free by someone on the couchsurfung website, just so that they can meet us and make friends and give us free accomodation for a few nights. We arrived about 6pm and met our host Adam and his girlfriend Erica – plus his terrier dog – 'Jed'. After a good chat around the table, we went out and got takeaway pizzas and a few beers, before going 'home' and watching TV for a couple of hours before bed.

The next morning we were up early as the builders were in to renovate Adams loft. So we sat in the lounge for most of the morning as it was raiing heavily and played with Jed. Luckily it stopped before lunch and we went into town for a spot of lunch and a look around – depending on whether the weather held out or not. It didnt!! It kept changing from a sunny warm day to windy and rainy and so we spent a good while relaxing and mellowing out in a cafe with a big sandwich. In the evening we went out for a bit of food and to the local cinema in Leederville. We watched 'Source Code', which was a pretty good film, but the best bit of the night was the ciname itself. It only seats about 40 people and the whole room itself is only about 8 metres long and 4 metres wide. It was a lovely little place with a great atmosphere and miles better than these big modern cinemas.

Back at the house we watched the Reading v Swansea football league play off on the projector screen before getting to bed just after 12.

We were woke up early again by the two builders working upstairs, but I managed to get some more sleep before getting up for a run about 9ish. I got soaked onmy run, but it didnt matter as the sun came out and dried me off. We then headed back into town for another look around, hoping that the weather would be better than yesterday.

It turned out to be a nice enough, if cloudy day. So we took a wander down by the Swan River and took the ferry across to Sout Perth where there is a great view of the city. Then a walk back over the Freeway Bridge and a nice cold pint in The English Bar, before going home for dinner. Its been a good relaxing few days here in Perth, but tomorrow we head off again, This time to explore the South West of Australia for a few days.