Week 6 (August 9-August 15)

What a rollercoaster of a week.

Monday evening when I got home from work, I was not feeling great. I had a bit of a fever and a headache. Tuesday morning I was feeling a little ill, but the cold medication I have helped me get through the day. Wednesday morning I woke up extremely sick and only was able to do a half day at work. Thursday I woke up feeling like I might be dying and worked from home. I paid $120 to go to the doctor and got some medicine, which proved to be a great decision because within 12 hours I was feeling decent again. Friday I woke up feeling good; Just in time for the weekend.

So my week was pretty crappy because I was quite sick for most of it, but luckily I got over it in time for the weekend; which turned out to be one of the best ones yet.

Friday night drinks after work turned into the typical gongshow. Jeff's friend was visiting from Sydney where he is doing a 2 year secondment, so everyone was keen for a big weekend. We went to Tiger Lils and proceeded to get wayyyy to drunk too early. We then stumbled over to Northbridge and went to a bar called "Harry's bar" which we have never been too. I had a great time there. It was a smaller place, but it had a dance floor and good music. We all danced; twirling, dipping, etc. Very fun. Next we tried to go to the Shed which is another club in Northbridge which we have been to a few times and is a lot of fun. We were all inside before realizing that Sean was still outside with the Bouncers.... being Breathalyzed!!!! Have you ever heard of that? Being Breathalyzed outside of a club. Isnt that the point of a club.... to go drinking? Anyway, apparently the limit for them to let people in was 0.125..... Sean blew a 0.26, so we had to go elsewhere. We ended up at some shitty bar which we often end our night at in Northbridge. I apparently ate a kabab at our favourite Northbridge dive, the Istambul Cafe, before getting a taxi home.

It was a good decision to go home when I did because Saturday we had a day long wine tour booked in the Swan valley. Not going to lie, I was a little rough when we all met at the office at 10am. We organized a tour with a tour company and had our own private bus. There was 12 of us all together; the 7 secondees, and 4 EY Perthers and one of their husbands. I struggled at the first winery, but after a few glasses and some cheese at the second winery, I was "back in". Because we had all been drinking until the wee hours of the morning the night before, we were all drunk again after the 1st or 2nd winery. I have a great video of all of us in the bus singing at the top of our lungs to "I love rock and roll"..... the time stamp on the video is 11:30am.

We stopped at 4 wineries... 3 before noon. My favourite was the second. The tasting was outside in the sun, there was a delish cheese board (with the most amazing chili cheese) and really nice wines. The bus ride itself was fun too. There was a lot of singing and joking and laughing. We had a nice lunch at the 4th winery; a cheese and meat board. We then went to a chocolate factory.

That day I was wearing my Olympics shirt that says "Canuck" on it and the guys (especially Jeff) were giving me shit. When we got to the chocolate factory there was a 6 year old wearing the same Canuck shirt (different colours). Jeff and I wanted to get a picture of myself and the girl in our matching shirts, so we followed her around like creepers until I finally approached her and commented on our shirts and asked if she would mind being in a picture. We decided that I had to be the one to approach her and ask; because a drunk 26 year old guy asking a 6 year old girl in a candy shop whether he can take a photo of her is boarderline illegal.

After the chocolate factory it was time for a boat ride. We had an hour long river cruise down the Swan River back to Perth. There was an open bar on board and really really terrible live entertainment. The live entertainment was two crew members singing karoke style and they sucked. But the cruise was fun. After the boat trip we did a bit of a pub crawl around Perth; stopping at a number of different bars.

We once again had issues with getting into places..... after being served drinks at the Belgium beer cafe on the patio, we were told we had to leave because one member of our 12 person group did not have her passport to show as ID. She had her drivers license and many other pieces of ID, but that was not enough. They had to see a passport because her DL was not WA issued. The piss off was that we had already been served and were half way through our drinks when they decided to ID us and ask us to leave. Stupid. So we went to Durty Nelly's Irish pub and watched Kristen's cousin and brother play live music. They were really good. We went to another place in Northbridge after, but Emma and I were out, so we went home.

Today was a nice alcohol free day at a wildlife park. I had a very rough morning today, but we didnt leave for the park until noon, so I was feeling fine by then. We rented a car, because it would have taken about 1.5 hours to get there by bus. The main draw of this wildlife park was that they have an area where you can touch koalas and feed kangaroos. The koalas were pretty awesome. Soooo cute. Petting and feeding the kangaroos was fun too. They are so lazy. They really know how to relax.

We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Scarsborough beach before watching the sun set. We are home now and Im so tired. Its just about bed time.

Only 2 weeks to go; one more weekend in Perth. So sad. Im going to miss the secondees so much.