Perth again

We had an early flight this time, and Louka was still asleep when the taxi rang to say it was arriving. So we scooped her up in her pyjamas and carried her downstairs. She woke up slowly and sat quietly in the taxi for a quick drive in the still quite dark morning. And when we went got to the airport and changed her into day clothes, her nappy was still dry.

She was happy on the long flight, amused by the activity set they handed out, by the food and by a little bit of Wiggles on TV.

Several things had changed since our last visit. Deb and family have a new house in Kalamunda, and Bruce and family have moved back to their house which is close to Deb's. Kim has new people living with her. And of course all the children keep growing, and looking more and more like their parents.


At Nanna's place, Louka really enjoyed exploring all the little paths and stairs through the garden. It's a wonderful children's garden, where they can disappear within a single turn of the path. Fortunately Louka always wanted one of us to go with her; but maybe not next year.

At Deb's place she promptly appropriated all Shakey's toys but didn't play with Shakey much. Shakey is walking now, so not a baby any more.


Within ten minutes of meeting Kofi, he and Louka declared themselves best friends. They ran up and down a hill of woodchips together, and Kofi taught Louka to say "made you look, scaredy chook!". At the zoo they had stick fights together, and on the merry-go-round I couldn't get them to look at me, they only had eyes for each other. This mutual fascination did seem to wear off a bit by the end of our visit but they're still good friends.


At Golden Bay Louka went into the big waves with me holding her. She squealed like a kid on a roller-coaster, and said it was "fun, but a little bit scary". She then took me on a long walk along the beach.



Of course, it was also Easter, so there was chocolate. An Easter egg hunt, where Louka found a dozen little eggs, plus bigger eggs and bunnies as gifts. There was a big chocolate ice-cream in a cone at Hillary's, which necessitated another dip in the sea to clean off. And on the flight home there was another chocolate ice-cream cone.


We also:

• Went to Mandurah where there's a great playground, as well as a nice seafood restaurant.

• Went to the most extensive and amazing playground I've ever seen, at Kings Park.

• Visited Hillary's Boat Harbour.

• Had yum cha with Gigi.
• Visited a friend of Pat who painted kangaroos on her fence.

• Swam in Nanna's pool.

On the flight home, they allocated Louka a seat apart from Graham and me. Of course, we reshuffled and Graham got the seat apart, but we were a bit shocked that they would even consider allocating a three-year-old a seat on her own.