From Perth, In Love…

When I arrived in Perth with a Visa to be evidenced as “Resident”, I felt I knew the life I had chosen. I felt that whilst there was much more to explore, I knew this City, and I was happy to call her home.

Nearly a year later and I love this place.

I love the drive from our home to the City Centre. I love the cafes and bars – all echoing the eccelctic taste of the residents in our Suburb. I love the signs for Yoga and Capoeira lessons for children. I love the bookshops, full to bursting with ideas and prose. Always filled with people, drinking coffe and chatting excitedly.

The memories that we have made thus far visit me as I pass the cafe that I wandered into barefoot on Boxing day, to eat Breaskfast; the bar that I spent hours talking to my new-found Brother; the children’s school which they have made their own. I pass friends’ houses, the Buddhist Monastry, Pattiseries and Gymnasiums. I drink in the colours, the smells, the atmosphere. People here smile and talk in the street.

The sound of the pedestrian crossings that made me jump out my skin with fright when I first visited W.A, whirr in the background of the scenes through which I now pass and they are a comforting sound. I no longer challenge the right of way with The Cat [Buses] carving up the road, fearless and irrespective of Bus Lanes; they are the bosses here, I know that now, as they take people around the City free of charge; the road is their’s. The sightseeeing trams circle their way round Perth’s various points of interest, culminating at the Bell Tower; behind which are the Ferry Terminal from which we used to emerge when we lived in South Perth; the Lucky Shag pub where we played lots of Pool on a lazy day several years ago, the Vegetarian Indian restaurant where you pay whatever you feel…all overlooking the Swan. The beautiful Swan. A river by which Baby J took some of his first steps. Where we whiled away the days in the hot sushine last year, attending festivals, playing in the park, waking up with fresh coffee and drinking gallons of iced water, slathered in sunblock. The Swan, which provides the foreground for every famous picture of Perth City; that provides a reflection of every magnificent building in the CBD; that has barbeques along it’s perimeter so that you can eat, drink and be in awe of your surroundings whenever and however you please.
Entering the city itself, I love to walk the pedestrianized streets, linked by twee malls. I love the expensive coffee and the restaurant Strip along Hay Street. I love the convenience of the No Stopping Zones where I frequently drop Himself outside his huge Office building. I love the impressive buildings – the seemingly ancient old post office and Bankwest building, and I absolutely love that there is a fuck off great Skyscraper attatched to the back of one of them. A Skyscraper you can literally see for miles and miles. a Skyscraper with a funny shaped top so that I can tell where home is even when I am lost, 30K away. I love that Himself has his own section of the City. His own desk in his own office in his own building. I love that he can step out of the front door and be in the middle of it all. The bums, the crazies, the clean, clean streets. The knob heads in their convertibles with their Mail Order brides (who pulled out on me this morning). The young guns with their Nitrous Modifications on their cars, which click in with a hisssss as they pull past me, glancing sideways to make sure I am impressed. The suited and Booted executives who are in a rush to get nowhere in particular. The young office workers having one too many friday luchtime drinkies outside a hotel.

I love how this City takes responisbility for it’s less fortunate*. The toilets all bearing bright yellow Needle Bins and a doctor in the Train Station; places for the homeless to wash and clean up. When was the last time I saw a Needle Bin in London? I can’t remember if I ever have.

I love the way it makes me feel to be part of Perth. To have integrated myself, but no so much that people don’t swivel and stare when they hear my loud british voice exclaiming something wonderous I have just noticed about our amazing Perth.

I love that I can drive for only five minutes and find myself home. With a view of my beloved Skyscrapers, but to the peace and solitude as though I were in the country. The only audible noises, the buzz of the Swimming Pool filter and the hum of the cars along the Cafe Strip at the top of the road.

I fell in love with Perth some years ago, and I keep falling.

*please don’t tag me/link to me for political reasons – sheesh, I’m just saying that Perth has facilities that London doesn’t. NOT that anyone should be grateful for living rough/being a drug user.

~ by Femme on July 26, 2007.