Well this is looooooooooong overdue, and I know it. As a special treat I am working on a video blog that should review my last couple of days. Anyway, we arrived at Gerard's and Jane's place the night of the 30. They never met us before, and we only had 2 conversations before I pulled into their driveway at 9:30 at night. They gave us food and introduced us to an American who was leaving around 4:00 the next morning. We all sat and chatted for a while before we all packed it in for the night, especially those who were heading to the airport at 4 in the morning. The next day we lounged around and chatted a lot more. I like Gerard and Jane, they are wonderful people, and I owe them so much. We swam in the pool, played with the dogs,
and then Chris and I went to go get some gear for are car and when we came back, Gerard was mysteriously missing. And here is why. There was a young Canadian doctor named Sarah who was supposed to fly in around 10:00pm that night. Around 3:00 in the afternoon Gerard got the phone call from Sarah at the airport, wondering why he hadn't shown up yet. Whoops, anyway Gerard ran off to pick her up and we hit the pool. Sara is a really cool person, lots of stories about her have been building up this week, but they are incredibly embarrassing, Here is the site for her blog,http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/smgiles/1/1262573837/tpod.html
make sure you read the one about the sheep. Anyway she has been all over the country (including Iqaloit) and about another 100 places in the middle of know were for her doctor stuff, great stories. Anyway she takes off to Broom in a couple of weeks for a month, which will be about the same time as we will be up there, so hopefully we will meet again. Anyway we met lots of Jane's and Gerard's friends over the new years break, all of them wonderful people. We kind of missed the new years countdown (our bad) as we spent over an hour buzzing through Gerard's 2.2 tara bites of movies, shows, documentaries, etc. that he has on his tv. Ya, I know, we are so cool. Anyway the next day we went swimming in the ocean, swimming in the pool (where all three men were destroyed in feats of dexterity, accuracy and such by Sarah It was a low point for all humans containing male genitalia.) walking the dogs, and eating good food put on by our grateful hosts. Chris and I cooked a couple of evenings, which is harder than it sounds as it turns out Gerard is a vegetarian, which single handedly destroyed all of my cooking skills and recipes, ingenuity brought us out with a close to passing grade that night, but it was close. Anyway we returned a couple of nights later to the friends of Jane's we met new years (and the so called "Scottish Mafia were there to, great to banter with, and really smart to) These guys are like Doctors on steroids, and they had great stories to. We had indian that night, and I had a good conversation with a young guy working on getting his pilots licence, cool guy. The next day we spent lounging around, swimming, and walking on the beach, oh ya, and drinking wine. On Saturday Sarah, Chris and I decided we would head down into Perth and check out the town the next day. Unfortunately we got off to a late start when Sara didn't get up until 9:30, which is ironic, because she was up by 6:30 every other day. We checked out a bit of Perth
and then took the ferry over to Freemantle, 
which is like the old Strathcona part of Edmonton, 
it is the cooler part. We saw some really impressive homes on the ferry ride,
one just sold for 56 million dollars last week (not the one above, my camera stopped working for a while). Oh ya, we also saw dolphins. It was a nice day in Freemantle, not to hot, and not raining. Ice cream tastes so much better when it is hot outside. The next day everyone went to work, Sarah started her orientation in Perth, Gerard had to start a weeks worth of lectures at the university in Perth, Jane went to work in Perth and we bummed around working on building a resume, and swimming in the pool. Resumes are so hard to build after being on the road for 2 months, and building it for a different country, and when there is a wonderful pool sitting just out your front porch. Well the next day Chris and I went into Perth and droped some resume's off at different places. I should make a note here, I love the train network in Perth, it is relatively cheep and it goes a long way. It goes like 40km from the center of the city in all directions, well except west, the ocean is there.http://www.railmaps.com.au/perth.htm
Edmonton, you should take notes from these guys, we saved so much money being able to park and ride to get into the city. When I got back I skyped my family, while I was in the pool, dad didn't like that so much, apparently it was cold at home. Anyway the next couple of days we did more lounging, swimming and relaxing. I slept in late these days as I moved from the mattress in the library into the bed Sarah used to occupy. That is the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in, it was one I only dreamed about, so what if it was purple and pick,
it was really comfortable. On Friday Sarah returned and us and I lost my comfortable bed, I cried secretly. The three amigos headed to Rottness island, nicknamed Rotto by the locals early Friday morning, but that will be a whole other blog, as I have major picks to get up for that one. We had supper in Freemantle before returning to home base via the train. 
Saturday morning I said farewell to Gerard as he was heading to Sydney to teach a class, and since Sarah had nothing to do for 3 weeks, she decided to go to. Chris and I decided to head out early Sunday or Monday back South to Albany and spend some time down there. I just found out Kia is down there, so maybe we will meet up. Anyway tomorrow we will pack and get ready to head out, I will miss this place, and I don't know how to thank Jane and Gerard enough for all that they have done. If ever you run into them at a street corner, say hello and have a conversation, as they are wonderful people who deserve all the kindness the world has to offer as
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