Tuesday Night Dinner
Tuesday night I met some guys that we’d talked to on Couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.com) who lived in Perth. This is a great site for anyone who hasn’t found it yet – you get to know about people, find out where to eat and what to do, and, if they’re nice, you get to meet them. We’ve met people all over the world this way and also had people stay with us (although we haven’t stayed with anyone).
They took me out to their favorite neighborhood bar, The Court, which happens to be an old courthouse building next to the police station in Northbridge. I learned a lot then that you just don’t find in the guide books – for example, a beer, commonly called a “pint”, isn’t necessarily a pint, but may be a different measure than that depending on where you are. If you order a smaller drink, though, it’s called a “Shirley” – and apparently men don’t do that. Not being a beer drinker, it wasn’t a real issue for me. A “light beer” there refers to one that has a lower alcohol content than a regular beer, which is about 6%. If you want the equivalent of a US light beer, with lower carbs, that’s called a “Blonde”, which is pronounced like Dagwood’s wife’s name.
Mostly we sat in The Court and visited about all kinds of things – government, the economy, layoffs. Perth is heavily dependent on Mining, and is apparently experiencing lots of layoffs across the board.
The interesting thing is that there’s lots of construction going on – new offices, etc., but lots of street level storefronts are empty, some even with listings still in the tourist guides. It’s kinda frustrating to walk a LONG ways to get somewhere to find out that it’s closed.
Nothing spectacular overall, just a nice dinner w/ nice people. I got to meet some of their friends who joined us as well. Eddie had a working dinner and wasn't able to join us, so it was kind of nice to have someone to go out with for supper.
