POSTCARD FROM PERTH

“I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine." - Caskie Stinnett

I am in Perth a couple of days for work. It has been a very long day as I got up at four in the morning, then left by taxi to get to the airport at five with my flight leaving at six. The flying time from Melbourne to Perth is four hours, and then allowing for the two hour time difference, I was going in to work at 8:30 am, Perth time. I put in a good day’s work with several meetings, resolution of a few issues and also a couple of teleconferences with our Melbourne and Brisbane campuses.

I left work at about 4:00 pm and went for a walk around the City. The weather was quite pleasant, although the people here are complaining of a cold and wet winter. The temperature was an equable 18˚C and apart from a few gray clouds on occasion across the sky, it was fine. Certainly a very mild winter by Melbourne standards. Apparently it was a dreary and gray day in Melbourne today, raining and hailing…

In the City of Perth today it was quite busy and the crowds were lively and cosmopolitan. Many tourists around and especially so, those of the young and backpacker variety. There is still an atmosphere of excitement, growth and a pioneering spirit in this westernmost state capital of Australia. New buildings are still going up and there is a buoyancy in the air despite the economic gloom that still seems to plague the rest of the world. The shops were full and people were out there buying, buying, buying!

I always like to wander down the pedestrian mall and walk through the London Arcade. This is a quaint and “olde-worlde” arcade that is housed in a wonderful pseudo-Tudor confection of a building. Very fake, very touristic and very twee. Still it manages to capture a little of the atmosphere and it is easy to imagine oneself in one of the wonderful old streets of London. Some beautiful shops are right next to the tourist traps and one can admire tacky displays of Australiana right next to elegant and refined, artisan-made merchandise.

I have another full day of work tomorrow and then straight to the airport from work for a 6:00 pm flight to Melbourne which means I won’t get home until after midnight. It’s going to be a long day…