G'day, Mate!

This is Perth on the Swan River in Western Australia. It is known as The World's Most Remote City. We think of it more as The World's Most Reasonable City To Spend January In. Blue, blue skies!!! And dinner on the patio every night.

Perth is a city of immigrants. One third of its population is foreign-born. Ironically, one of the few natives we've met was a cab driver!

News & Notes

• Speaking of dinner on the patio. We have been joined on recent evenings by a squadron of 20 supersonic Rainbow Lorikeets (Trichoglossus haematodus) attacking the palm tree across the driveway. They are 25-30cm (10-12") and have beaks like parrots, but are nectar and pollen eaters. They are beautiful, but once they start squawking they sound like a chorus of rusty door hinges. (The photo doesn't show the intensity of their colors or their bright blue heads.)

  

• Except for listening to lorikeet racket, Perth is a great place to write. Happily, Part I of L's book is finished.

• Perth may be remote, but the world is small. In a nearby microbrewery, we met Rachel Stork and Preston Crane, who were visiting from Melbourne. Their home is Seattle, but they are posted to Melbourne for two years. Like us, they were surprised to run into others willing to leave Seattle's dark and snowy winter for Australia. We have had the pleasure of their company for a couple of dinners.

• It's a little less lonely on the road now because we have a couple of pets roaming around the apartment. We got them in Kitakyushu, Japan, back in November. Check out the new Kyushu page!