Fri 9th Jul '21 - Day 28
Fremantle
Forecast for rain for the whole day. Rang and
confirmed no tickets to the Maritime Museum – limit of just 150 visitors at any
one time and its school holidays, just after a lockdown. Hard to be upset when
so many more people have had their plans or entire plans so much more disrupted
than us. Sydney is now in full lockdown – only 1 person for an outing per day.
No more than 1 hour and 10km from home for exercise.
We time our walk into town in a rain break, carrying
to an Op Shop 4 x camp chairs and 2 spare wine glasses (luckily, we’d had to
buy a pack of 4 to replace the 1 broken in the van; we broke another in the
apartment). RSPCA Op Shop – Seb gets a pair of sunglasses and a Batman hat for
$2 each. Been lucky so far with the extended rain break. Continue walking, now
to ToyWorld, hoping to find a quad bike that Seb has his mind set on for his
birthday in 3 weeks time – he’d seen and sat on a full-size one in Coral Bay so
it was stuck in his mind. Once we found one in the shop we distracted Seb and
bought and managed to drag the kids out and headed to find a café. But Kate
gets side-tracked by a pedicure – not just because of walking around for 4
weeks in flip flops but its also not considered an essential service so it will
be off limits when we’re back in Sydney. Sienna also joins her to get her nails
polished.
I’m left to entertain
Seb and myself for an hour, so I grab a coffee and we walk to the nearby train
station. There are parked buses outside the station, “Do buses sleep here?”
asks Seb.
A train is pulling up to the platform and Seb watches it arrive,
everyone disembarks and then man cleaning down the carriages. Just before the train
leaves again we opt to go a few stops North for no reason and Seb is happy
staring out of the window.
10 minutes and 3 stops later we jump off, run around
to the opposite platform and wait 2 minutes for the next train back. Then the
heavens open so its very misty on the way back. We pass a huge container ship
unloading forklift trucks, dumper trucks and campervans.
Thankfully the rain
abates by the time we pull back into Fremantle station. Catch up with Kate and
Sienna and walk along to Fremantle Markets. Grab some lunch from next door, a
hawker market of half a dozen Asian food outlets and shared tables. Sun flits
out between clouds so we can even sit outdoors. Into the markets we plunge; a
mix of Fremantle crafts, a lot of jewellery, and snack food options. After
Sienna gets an interchangeable necklace, we each have a photo of our eye taken
as a unique memento.
As we’re ambling around the covered markets, it really
starts raining. A few breaks in the ceiling appear and a stream appears on the
floor as a few unluckily placed merchants quickly try to cover their wares.
It only lasts
about 20 minutes when it subsides and we walk back to the apartment, though
having to take big detours to circumvent the flooding o the roads which a few
cars are trying to gamely pass through. At least its not raining. Time for tea,
coffee and hot chocolate in the apartment overlooking the marina. I then head
back out to the market via a couple of bookshops to collect our eye images
which look very striking. Unfortunately, the rain has returned in earnest –
most of the way back there are awnings along the street but in one exposed part
I open the umbrella only for the wind to flip it inside out. As I’m trying to
turn it outside in a car drives past through an oversized puddle throwing water
over me up to my waist.
After drying out we decide we should have one last
dinner out – its our last dinner in WA and we have nothing to eat in the apartment
anyway, we haven’t been to the Little Creatures Brewery which is almost a rite
of passage in Fremantle and lastly its lockdown in Sydney so we should enjoy
the freedom while we can. About 200m in to the 600m walk in the windy rain, we
stop under shelter to reconsider our decision. But we plough on, me carrying
Seb, but then not able to use an umbrella. Between two restaurants on the
wooden walkway on the edge of one of the marinas Seb slips down a slope, Sienna
slipping in the exact same spot half a second later. Thankfully we make it to
the brewery which has grown into several beer halls surrounded by vats of
brewing beer. In a leather booth we enjoy pizzas and barramundi with chips.
The rain has softened
to more of a drizzle for the 10 minute walk back leading to kid bedtime routine
including a first bath in 4 weeks. On the TV there is the Wimbledon Women’s
Final of Ash Barty vs Pliskova and Djokovic and 3 unknowns in the Men’s semi-finals
of the competition. Wimbledon marks now 20 years since Kate and I first met. In
8 weeks time it’ll be 10 years since we married and either side of that turning
the big 4 0 for both of us.
Seb
Sienna
Kate
Matt
