Despair at black gangs terrorising neighbourhood!

"Despair at black gangs terrorising neighbourhood" - This is the headline that greeted me over my morning coffee. I was confused - the newspaper has a very limited distribution area in a very nice part of town, I've not come across anything that came be described as a gang and I suspect some of the locals may have a heart attack if faced with anyone that could match the description 'black'. I read on... the gangs have been stealing school childrens sandwiches, 'hanging around' the local bowling club and being menaching outside the supermarkets... It turns out the this rather sensationalist report was in fact about crows - although I think that what the Australians call crows are in fact ravens to us English folk. It made me smile, local newspapers seem to be the same the world over. Although I laugh the crows can cause problems, they're really big birds and it must be quite scarey for small children to be chased for their lunch.

I spent the weekend with Steve and Ruth - the couple we stayed with when we first arrived in Australia. I went to fremantle on Saturday, this is the old port town and now quite a bohemian place with outdoor markets, French style cafe streets and an old prison. The highlight of the visit was definatly having a guided tour round the old prison. Quick history - prison opened to house convicts from the UK in 1830 ish and closed in 1991. The buildings are what every child imagines a prison to be - large, bleak, no green, and the cells are tiny (4ft x 10ft). The guide who took Ruth and I round is a former prison guard and his speciality was tales of marvelous escapes. Some of the stories were incredible, people stole trucks to try and ram the walls, started riots to climb onto the roof and jump (this particular guy broke his leg on the jump down and his get-a-way truck took him to teh local hospital for treatment while he was still in his prison uniform - obviously not that smart!). The story that amused me the most was of a notorious horse thief who had escaped form 5 other prisons by hacking a hole in the wall. The governer decided that the prisoner should be enclosed in a jarra wood cell and only allowed out for 1 hours exercise a day. Unfortunately the doctor decided that the prisoner needed more exercise or he would die - the clever guards gave the prisoner the job of breaking rocks!! This guy then built up a pile of rocks behind him so that the guards couldn't see what he was doing and did his usual escape of breaking through the prison wall - with the pick and axe supplied byt he prison!!

After Fremantly we went to the Swan valley to look round some of the wineries and do some more tasting. The valley is famous for its Semillon, or Chenin blancs (is it obvious that i clearly know nothing about wine!). Needless to say I enjoyed the trip lots and bought some wine to go with the evening meal.

The plan for this week is to cycle along the Swan valley path, visit the aquarium and take a boat tour up the river. I also have a couple of hours of work to do ;)

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow in England - it amuses me that theres a 40 degree difference between the UK and here!