my first visitor!

HiHiHi!

Sorry for neglecting all four of you who read my blog for the last two weeks. My amazing manfriend, Shane, from SLC came to visit me, and I’ve been in a love coma for the past 10 days J

Its amazing how as an adult you can still have those moments where youre SO excited for something that you cant sleep (much like Christmas Eve ecstasy when youre a kid). Shanes plane didn’t land until midday on Friday, but you can bet your ass I was wide awake at 5:00 am, feeling wiggly and giddy. I rented a car (they call it hire a car here. weird lol) for while Shane was here, so I snagged it and drove to the airport. I was feeling pretty confident after being here for a month riding in other peoples cars, and biking on the left side of the road, and figured that driving would be no biggie. Holy balls! WAY harder than I thought, I actually had to concentrate on where I was going, and make a conscious effort to stay on the left side of the road. Their blinkers and wipers are switched, so everytime I tried to signal to change lanes the damn wipers would go off, and then I’d start cursing and madly trying to switch them off and switch my blinker on. It was chaos lol.

Made it to the airport on time and I was there when he walked off the plane. Never been so happy in my life to see anyone <3 There was lots of hugging and kissing, and I almost started crying (I have no idea where this emotional side of me came from. I blame shane for melting my icy heart)

And for the record, I must state how damn handsome he looked. I was bamboozled. Nobody flies for 22 hrs and looks that good, or smells that good. Im fairly certain that I looked like a tired greasy mess when I got to Australia. My new mission is to find out his gypsy secret of travel perfection…then once I have it, I’ll post it all over the internet. Because that’s what we do now. Post everything on the internet. Look, im doing it now.

The ensuing 10 days were a blurr of hand holding, kissing, beer drinking, beach visiting, dinner dates, snuggling, laughing, and general touristy business.

We went to Caversham Wildlife Park in Perth and got to see a variety of Aussie critters. They have a kangaroo (aka roo) enclosure where you can jam little pellets…er, I mean “feed” the roos. We wend during the afternoon and it was quite hot. All the roos were fat, lazy, sleepy, and unbelievably cute. They are such strange animals, you cant help but be fascinated with them.

We got to see inside a roo’s pouch, and it was NOTHING like ive been led to believe it would look like. I was expecting some dainty, fur-lined pocket, much like a back pocket of your denim jeans…..yeah NO. it was a vertical oval-shaped hole that looked all red and moist (picture someones insides), and sort of opened and closed on its own. So gnarly. It was like a trainwreck. Although horrific, we couldn’t stop staring. I took a photo, but it grossed me out so I deleted it lol.

We also got to pet koalas. They have a koala enclosure manned by two weirdos, who were super nice and knew WAY too much about koalas. Turns out they mostly just eat, sleep, and poop. Im talking about the koalas, not the zoo-folks.

Saw a small croc, some dingos, an emu, a cassowary, wombat, echidna, and all sorts of birds.

Shane has a hard time remembering the names of things, and at one point during the day just gave up and started giving them new names. My favorite of the day was this bird he dubbed a “cracker ass wing-tip”.

On Sunday we spent time down in the Perth CBD, shopping and people watching. There was a great place on the second floor of the outdoor mall,that had a terrace where we posted up and did some quality people watching.

 I introduced Shane to cider, and I think I have a convert for life. Beer is great, don’t get me wrong, but there is something wonderfully delicious about an icy cold cider on a hot day. I believe Whitney Houston died the day before or so, and thus started the trip tradition of toasting to Whitney before having a drink. We mustve toasted Whitney 20x. Lol so odd how the general public completely ignored her before she died, and then SHAZAM! she dies in a bathtub and now her song is no. 1 on itunes and the bodyguard is all over tv. Which we may or may not have watched….what? don’t judge me lol.

Spent several days at the beach. Had okay weather for most of them, but we had one stellar beach day with sunny skies and clear turquoise water. Love being at the beach with my sweetie.

 As it turns out, Shane also has a hard time remembering beach names. Cottesloe beach officially became known as Camel Toe beach. I can safely say that that’s the way I’ll think of that beach now lol, thanks shane. Also, we came across LOTS of topless ladies. Two thoughts…1)none of these places were nude beaches, and 2) none of these ladies should’ve have been going topless. My retinas might be permanently damaged. Why is it always the people who shouldn’t go topless, that are the ones who in fact, go topless? Mysteries of the universe….

Had an amazing valentines day too! Ive always been a hater of ole VD (valentines day. what the hell were you thinking?), but I figure its mostly because I was a single person and hated being reminded of it. Now that I have the best manfriend in the world, I quite enjoy the holiday J I came home from work to a bunch of roses and a bunch of kisses. We had a romantic dinner at a swanky restaurant on the beach at sunset. I loved every minute of it. Never been so happy and in love (its okay to awww or vomit at this point. But Id prefer if you aww’d)

We got our tourist on, and visited the WA aquarium one day. It was about 50 minutes north, near a suburb called Joondalup (god I love the town names here!). We went because we wanted to see some sharks! RAWR! And because we are both pussies, we wanted to see them in a tank, behind inches of glass, instead of in the ocean, swimming hungrily towards us lol. It was an amazing aquarium, and we got to see heaps of sealife. I got to pet a sting ray and high-five a starfish! Booya grandma! If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it.

And since we were on a tourist kick of death, Shane booked us on a 9:15 pm torchlight tour of the fremantle prison. It was SO awesome! The prison was built in the 1850s by convicts from England, and was actively used until the early 1990s.

We had a decent tour group of 30ish people, and we were all given flashlights (they call flashlights torches. Shane was really bummed they weren’t actual wood and fire torches lol), and did a tour of the prison in the dark. It had a Halloween-type vibe, but it was so neat to see it at night, and hear the history of the place. They even had hired actors dressed up like convicts that jumped out at you at certain points. Our guide was a jokester, and when we were all inside the musty, dark morgue, he lifted the wrought iron handle of the door and clanked it REALLY loud. I think everyone on the tour screamed and jumped. Myself included. Although I am quite proud to note, that I did not pee my pants in fear at any time during the tour. Tough as steel this one ;)

I took Shane all over Fremantle, Subiaco, Perth, and a few other places I cant remember. We had some great food, and some wonky food, but at least I had the most handsome date in Australia <3

We also cooked a couple of dinners at the house. I know it sounds super cheesy, but I really liked cooking with him. Grabbed ingredients from the store and markets...

Cooking at home we always had music on, a drink in hand, and were chopping and grilling and just had a little kitchen groove. Nothing like cooking a delicious meal and getting kisses from your sweetie in-between. Man, look at what a sappy love whore ive become! I swear I used to be a badass bitch….i think?

Taking him back to the airport was the saddest moment I’ve had since leaving SLC. The whole ride there we were holding hands and I was trying not to cry. I walked with him inside and made sure he got his tickets and bags checked, and then walked with him to security. Wish I could say I did a very classy, elegant goodbye and then sashayed away in style, but if you know me, I am a total spaz and nothing in my life ever goes like that. I turned into a sad mess, and started crying. There was lots of hugging and kissing, and im fairly certain that we had a small crowd of asian onlookers. Maybe I should’ve put a hat out for tips lol? Either way, saying goodbye to Shane was terribly hard and very sad. Love you very much babe, and I cant wait until I see you again (insert kiss here).

Driving home I was a bit of a mess, but I pulled it together once I walked in the door. Aside from the emotional goodbye, I have to say it was an amazing visit and fantastic holiday. I really couldn’t have asked for anything better. So lucky to live in such a beautiful place, and so lucky to have people who love me enough to come visit. Now….who’s next? J