Perth

well 1st oct... i leave for perth and the fics conference... and the icssd exam!!
feeling quite underprepared for the exam.

1st oct thur - flew into perth, got my rental car. the hotel wouldnt allow me to check in till 2pm and it was around 10:30am! i was so knackered with not much to do. so i went for a walk around the city. there are actually these free city circle trams called 'cats' - 'red cat', 'blue cat', 'yellow cat'.
ended up at the dfo in perth to kill some time. i didnt really feel like shopping though cos i didnt want to spend too much $$.
dinner was the worst and most expensive sushi i've ever had... and walking around i realised that food isnt one of perth's strong points (not like melbourne)
spent the night in and slept early. the mantra on murray room was actually quite big and had a kitchenette where you could cook/microwave etc.

2nd oct fri - drove down to murdoch which was a nice easy drive. checked into the visitors units at the uni. quite nice. bedroom had 1 double and a single bed so sleeps 3. pretty basic bathroom. living room had kitchen and tv, couch etc. not bad for $75. i didnt want a late night but thought it would be good to hang out with people. most were staying in fremantle. went to the brewery called 'little creatures' for dinner. i had a nice ale though but a few sips and i was already going red. bit stressed about the exam the next day but got some tips - like know your concussion grading etc.

3rd oct sat - uni accommodation was booked up so i had to move to fremantle for the night. did the exam which was fine but at 6pm perth time (8pm sydney time) my brain was starting to go mushy. i was the last to finish... 150 multiple choice in 2 hrs but i did go through the paper twice. there was a typo that i pointed out after the exam and the cpr data was outdated as well... it asked how many breaths to compressions in a 1 person cpr. the latest is 2-30 but that wasnt an option. there were a number of concussion questions so good thing i studied it the night before.

got back to fremantle around 9pm. the b&b i was staying at had a spa which was awesome. got fish and chips and icecream - thought that would be nice to eat icecream whilst relaxing in the spa.
perth had this special event on called 'telethon' that i actually thought should have been called 'stripathon'. they do a 24 hr broadcast with celebrities and performances to raise money for a number of charities - mostly children's charities. anyway aparently it's traditional that around 10-11pm that people ring up and offer to dontate money if people will take their shirts off. most of the celebrities taking shirts off were from home and away and had ok bodies. one guy took off his pants and i was this close to ringing up to dontate if he would put them back on cos he wasnt one of those good-looking ppl.

3rd oct sun - the place is a b&b... and breakfast was basic but good. had a nice toasted ham and cheese croissant. turned on the tv and the telethon was still on... jack was on the panel in the morning so i watched some of it. i saw him the week before and knew he was going to be in perth for telethon. heheh i thought it might be funny to call up and offer to donate money if he took his shirt off. dont get me wrong it's not cos i wanted to perv it would have been funny to see his reaction but then if he knew it was me then he might get the wrong idea and i dunno whether he'd get my sense of humour. and anyway i guess sun morning is family viewing! not like the night before!!
last day of the conference... deb came up to me and congratulated me so i know i passed just dont know by how much. finished in the early arvo.
so i decided to go back to perth city to the convention centre.
there was a geek convention called GO3. lots of anime, star wars and sci fi stuff. special guests were a guy from stargate atlantis, star trek enterprise and chaske spencer who plays sam uley in twilight new moon. also went to check out the telethon. actually the sat disney guys were doing a childrens show and i thought of popping in and saying hello but ended up being a little late.
checked out fremantle markets which was really small. like it was a market but really disappointing... really only a few stalls.
nice leisurely drive to rockingham and safety bay cos i was staying with the mclernons for a few days.

4th oct mon - took a drive around rockingham up to point peron and then hung out at rockingham beach for a bit.

5th oct tue - took a drive down to mandurah and lay on the beach for the arvo reading a book. great idea for a holiday.

6th oct wed - drove back to perth city. mum asked me to bring back some otak so i trekked out to northbridge which is the asian precinct. they're wrapped in banana leaves but i had to remove them... lol the hotel staff might have been a little confused by all the banana leaves in the bin. my last night in perth at the mantra again.

7th oct thur - meant to come back to perth. organised a shuttle to the airport and was there at 1:30pm... my flight was at 3:15 so i was kinda bored. anyway, planed ended up being delayed. boarded around 4 and then when we were all boarded, we were told to get off cos we werent going to take off. the plane wouldnt make it back before sydney curfew. they rescheduled the flight back to 4am the next morning (7am syd time to arrive at 11am syd time). ended up getting on the red eye - midnight.
so... i had around 6 hrs to wait till the flight. so i caught a bus to the local shopping centre - lucky it's late night shopping on thur nights. found a maccas and used free wi-fi to kill time.
midnight flight... arrived back in syd at 7am (AEDST)