Carnival of Steel

THE SOUTHERN CORNER of WA (Western Australia)

Anyone that has been keeping up with my blog knows of the recent loss in my family. Even those that haven’t been keeping up with my blog have recently checked and learned of the tragedy. I had one person comment that they were surprised I was in Australia again already. It certainly felt weird to be half way across the world less than a month after my dad died; it still feels weird, another month later. There are times that I feel guilty for leaving mom, times that I want to be back home (for myself), and then there are times where my life away feels “normal”. Who knows how long I would have stayed in Idaho with family if I hadn’t already had prior commitments. But, I did have prior commitments. Dave and I had already purchased tickets for his travel to Perth (Australia), from Auckland (New Zealand). If we hadn’t have had this pre-arranged meeting already set up, then Dave most likely would have flown to the states when dad passed, to be there for me and my family. However, we decided that having him in Australia would be the best way for me to transition back to life abroad. I’m more than certain that I couldn’t have faced being alone and far from home without this transition.

So – I flew into Perth on Saturday, 25 July – the day before the one year anniversary of when Dave and I met (in New Zealand). Dave flew in about 9 hours later. The next day, we set off on a one week, whirlwind tour of Southern Western Australia (WA). It involved A LOT of driving, with Dave doing 99.7% of it. While Dave and I felt like we saw a few great things, we also felt like there was heaps more that we were missing from our ultra fast schedule. However, when we recounted our travels back to my coworker (we looped around and up to Cunderdin), she was surprised at how much we had actually done! So that was good!

SUNDAY 26 July (Day 1:) Perth to Dunsborough

It was a lovely day to be in Perth. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. Heck – even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t care! Dave and I strolled, hand in hand, from our motel to the airport. It was a decent walk, though flat and non-tiring. At Budget car rental we were hoping to cash in our free car upgrade – from small to somewhat large. However, the upgrade was never brought up and we were given a set of keys and told what number we would find our car. It was easy to see why the upgrade hadn’t been mentioned – the contract obviously stated “when available”; well, looking at the lot of little white spaces filled with LITTLE colorful cars we doubted whether availability was ever an option! There was one large car – a Holdon Commodore. I don’t remember the type of Commodore (where is Dave when I need details?), but it was a new enough and flash enough version to make Dave drool… I’m pretty sure V8 was written on it somewhere. If that had been our upgrade, I would be glad not to get it – I don’t think I could have afforded the gas!

Dave worked out the intricacies of the car on the short drive back to the motel (Formule 1 – a budget place made up of a large building divided into many, many SMALL rooms – with REALLY small bathrooms – and filled (near completely) with a double bed beneath a single bunk - family style I guess). Dave determined the brakes were sensitive, the wheel alignment edged to the right (I think), and that, despite its small size, the car had some pick up and go to it.

It took Dave no more than a minute to figure out how to fold the back seats out of the way. He just looked at the set up, pulled a lever (as if he knew exactly where to find it) and bam, more storage space! My large backpack, the massive suitcase mom had given me (crammed with clothes I’d unearthed in Idaho for Dave to take back to NZ with him), and Dave’s small bag (so small, he used it as carryon for the trip home) fit perfectly in the back of the car – just room for us in the front two seats.

We left the hotel and headed down the road, thinking we would come across a nice little café to have some breakfast and fuel our first day out. We passed a couple bakeries, but this being our first day together (and our anniversary) we wanted to make the entire day special; starting with breakfast.

After what seemed like way to long of a drive through suburbia (yes, we really could have been somewhere in the US – but then we would have been driving on the wrong side of the road!), we found a cute little place called “C15”. Really – that’s its name C15! Wow – note to self, never name any of my possible future businesses with letters and numbers. I nearly went insane trying to figure out where this “C15” receipt was from and what I could possibly have bought for $46.69 (yes – dining out isn’t cheap in Aus, especially Perth – but it did include a smoothie and coffee). The food was good though – and the company better. As can be proven by this picture of me, holding a demonized napkin in front of my face.

Our first real stop was Mandurah. While we technically stopped for breakfast in Fremantle, we didn’t actually walk around or see much – aside from the blue sky that looked warm until the cold breeze hit. Mandurah was a nice little town (city) on an inlet of water.

We parked at the visitor center. We started to look at maps, thinking we were definitely going to need more than the tourist brochure maps I’d collected from Perth airport. Ha, ha, ha. We were nearly decided on what map to choose, when the pictures on the map reminded me of something…. Those illustrations looked very much like the illustrations I had on my map of Western Australia; huh that’s funny – it must be a good map then…. OH! What!!! WAIT!!!! I HAVE A MAP!!!! Ha hahahaha. Dave rolled his eyes all the way back to the car and laughed with me as I pulled out my map booklet of the entire state of WA. It was as detailed and informative as the map we were about to buy, so we opted save our money and just chuck my map up front where I was navigating! LOL

After perusing the Mandurah visitor center (and choosing a really cute pink, fuzzy wallet (with a small grey koala holding onto the corner) for my niece) we decided to walk down the waterfront a bit. I had read about the “Stretch Festival”, an arts festival to stretch the community’s minds (I think). Apparently this little patch of waterfront public space was occupied by “The Cluster”, left over from one of the stretch festivals. It was “A group of portable interactive curio art works that form a carnival”.

Dave and I didn’t catch onto the interactivity of the objects until we finally read one of the plagues. However, we were already taking pictures of ourselves in an oversized photo frame (aptly entitled “The Frame”), when we read “The viewer need only step through the frame to be in the picture”.

In this picture, Dave is initially trying to figure out what the blowhorn looking sculptures are – he can be seen though “the frame” sticking his head inside it! LOL. We later read the “View-finders” rotated and were there for us “To frame and see as though for the first time that which is familiar”…. Not that Mandurah was familiar to us! It was fun to create little mini postcards in our minds anyway.

(Well, I had a photo here, but it got lost.... after 20 minutes of haggling with google Chrome, I'm done.....).

We had no need for the “The Secret”, two tall rocket-like objects that had rotating centers. By this time, we had figured out that all the sculptures were meant to be touched and played with, so I greatly enjoyed spinning the centers and watching the beautiful brushed steel designs catch the sunlight. Since my relationship with Dave is based on honesty (as all relationships should be, in my opinion), we had no need “To be liberated from the burden of a secret you need only to whisper the secret whilst turning part of the object. The object is the keeper of secrets”. I suppose it you wanted to entrust a secret to anyone/thing, a metal object pointing skyward would do just as well as your favorite teddy bear!

We did, however, greatly enjoy sitting in the heart shaped bench of “The Wish”. We have fun just being two love birds that share everything, so we didn’t need instructions (“A place two people whisper their wishes and are then bound through the object to those wishes”), or a special place, to share our wishes. We did manage to set the self-timing camera on one of “The viewers” to get a picture of us sitting in “The Wish”, but I would have loved to have had the picture taken THROUGH the viewer!

In the end – “The Cluster” really was kind of a like a carnival. The designs in the brushed steel sculptures and the interactivity of them meant a person couldn’t help but touch, play, and smile.

…. Day 1 to be continued……

P.S . I'm not sure some text is highlighted and under lined as if it's a link. Google is playing silly buggers with me :(