Wednesday 23 March

Awake and up at 0530, dressed for my now obligatory walk but took my camera with me, out at 0545 and three turns around the deck. Met up with my walking companion and fouond he also knows the president of the school council from where I last worked. Took quite a few sunrise shots over the Perth skyline, then back to the cabin, had a shower and dressed. Up for breakfast. Met up with more for breakfast and Fran arrived while I was still eating. Finished and went down to check email, then packed ready for today. Went down to the Wheelhouse lounge and called Val, then met up with Fran and Pat. Velma not well and sent back to bed. We all went off the ship and waited on the roadway footpath and just after 0900 Val turned up. We all got in, introduced Pat and were soon off and at Val’s place. Val left us and we headed up to see Jean. I rang Daphne and arranged to meet and Kingsway at 1030. We arrived at Jean’s at 1000 and had to enter through Maddie’s. I saw Bev and arranged to get a new access card, then we walked around (after saying hello to Merle). I waved to Jack and Dorothy, then we caught up with Jean. She has lost a lot of weight and is far harder of hearing than when we saw her at new year. Bev arrived with the card at 1025, I signed for that and we were off to Kingsway. We soon met Daphne and Ian, had some morning tea (posted puzzle entry forms as we won’t be at another Australian port until it’s too late) and then went down to the AQWA at Hillary’s. We met up again there, went in and spent a very agreeable hour and a half, but could have stayed far longer. Heartily recommended to all. Then it was down to Scarborough for lunch, which we had on the foreshore. After a little walk along the beach, we parted and headed to print off some photos for Fran to use as postcards – and the Officeworks we called into had problems and couldn’t print photos today. We headed off to Elizabeth’s and had afternoon tea there, then went and cruised St George’s Terrace and stopped at King’s Park. All out for a walk, ran into some people from the ship, and then drove around the tracks to show Pat the park. We exited near UWA, then drove along beside the Swan, over the Causeway and to Burswood. Then we refuelled, looked for another Officeworks (unsuccessfully) and returned to Val’s place. After meeting another grandchild, John and Val drove us back to the ship. Velma was at work, but sounded terrible. Pat went off and we had tea. Fran went off to a show and I did my computer work, shrinking and uploading photos and trying to update my diary. Sat on Deck 14 under the stars trying to work.