Days 105 - 111, Christmas, Prison & TV appearance!!

After a sad farewell to the mystery machine we headed into Fremantle for a night out at the Sail & Anchor pub. A great place to meet people & sample some of the beers made on the premises! We were lucky enough to hear the one man band who was an incredible musician & included a didgeridoo in his band!! (Not sure if Liam Gallagher would think Wonderwall should include this ancient instrument!)

Our Christmas present from Jo, Colin, Grace & Georga was an evening tour around Fremantle Prison. Along with Jo & Sally we joined a tour around this historic building.....seemingly haunted! Incredible to think it was used as a high security prison until 1991. It was excellent & we both really enjoyed it.

On Saturday Mike's Mum & Dad arrived from Cairns, we met up with them at the Esplanade in Freo & took some time to catch up on their travels and ours since we last saw them in September. Fish & Chips in Cicerellos & a bottle of wine later we explored the markets & marina before heading back to Rockingham for a slap up Christmas dinner. Complete with Turkey, gravy, roasties & the works we joined Kerry, John and the rest of our Aussie family for the sort of Christmas dinner we were used to!

We set off on Sunday for Rottnest Island. Great intentions were to get the 9.30am ferry from Fremantle over to the island. After a fantastic dinner the previous night & one glass of wine (that was never empty) we reconsidered on Sunday morning & took the 11.30am ferry instead. Rottnest is only 30 minutes from Fremantle and worth a visit if only for the georgeous beaches & fantastic Salt & Pepper Squid from the Quokka Arms pub! Of course the island is famous for the quokkas - they are marsupials the size of a hare or domestic cat. However I agree with the Europeans who first described them as "a kind of rat as big as a common cat". They named the Island 'Rotte nest' (meaning 'rat's nest') and the name of the Island was eventually adapted to 'Rottnest'. The picture of me is as close as I was wanting to get!! We hired bikes on Rottnest & at $18 each for the day this was steep but worth it to get around the island. It certainly gave us a workout as it wasn't as flat as I had hoped!

On Monday Mike headed off for a sail on the yacht with John & his dad, Eugene, while I was on an "Ellison mission!" Determined to fulfill one of the promises I made before I left Northern Ireland, I headed to beautiful Cottesloe beach in Perth with Jo, Sally & the girls to say hello to my mum & family on GMTV! (The morning programme from the UK broadcasts Christmas messages from Australia every year). After a bit of 'networking' (read: "Jo's PR prowess!!") we managed to get the producer to allow Jo to speak to the camera with Georga, Grace & me in the picture to say a massive Hello to Colin back at home. Georga & Grace were fantastic & it was so exciting for us to know that everyone back at home could see us on live TV!

Next day was Christmas Day - Santa Claus had found us in Australia!! It was excellent seeing Georga's face on Christmas morning opening all her pressies! After a BBQ breakfast, we set off for Rockingham beach & fulfilling the second promise I made at home.....to wear my bikini & Santa hat on the beach on Christmas day! It was 44 degrees & the water was fabulous. This was the hottest day on record for over 100 years. Seafood BBQ complete with homemade gingerbread house for dessert shared with 19 other people was just perfect.

Boxing Day was spent chilling out in the heat & not venturing too far! We left WA on 27th after 3 weeks spent exploring this fantastic part of Australia! It has been great spending time with my beautiful nieces & Jo, "Thank you for everything including your advice about Karajini - it was an unforgettable trip!"

We're in Sydney now to enjoy New Years Eve! It is shaping up to be an amazing week & we will update you all when we get a chance!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Sarah & Mike.
xx

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