Freo adventure

I had a lovely day today. Since I just signed a contract for a new job that starts next week I decided to that myself with an adventure and venture out as a tourist in my own town, well Fremantle anyway. I also indulged one of my favourite transport options, and took the train.

I've always enjoyed travelling by train, ever since it was a summer holiday treat when my family visited our grandparents in London. When my children were small, a favourite trip was to travel into town on the train or the bus. Although the train was always our favourite.

The best bit was before the new electric trains were commissioned. There was always a delightful sense of cheap thrill travelling over the Wyndam bridge in the old carriages as they rattled over the trusses. And of course my offspring would threaten to hang out by the open doors – not that they ever really stood in the open doors, but there are certain things that seem to be necessary when travelling on those old carriages and that involve doing things that make your mother sound like a worried wet hen. There are days when I miss those days, but I must admit that the new carriages/trains are a lot more comfortable in all weathers * G *

Wandering around Fremantle is always fun. There are all those op-shops (getting incredibly trendy and more expensive now) and the bookshops and the art galleries, some of them elegant and others so wonderfully touristy, not to mention all those delightful shops that sell silver jewellery and knick-knacks. So my friend and I spent a really lovely warm winter's day under a beautiful blue sky lightly fluffed by white clouds.

We planned to have lunch at a relatively new place we found a couple of months ago that served a really good curry. But sadly, it no longer existed so we retreated to the one place we know that always has a decent cup of tea and a consoling pastry … Culley's.

Both of us have fond memories of hiding down the back of Culley's with young children as the rain poured down, or sharing a pastry or preferably a bag of hot chips with them sitting in the street outside or sheltering in the arcade next to the shop. It's one of those establishments that has been there for as long as I can remember, that figures in the memories of almost everyone I know, even those of an extremely elderly persuasion that have always lived in Perth.

So, we collected another good memory of Culley's in our lifetimes, and decided that we had had a very enjoyable adventure for the day.