There were two main reasons I wanted to visit Cottesloe Beachwhen me and my son flew over to Perth this year.
One was to witness the sun setting into the ocean in Australia, as never being to Western Australia before I've never witnessed the sun setting into the ocean in Australia in my lifetime.
The second was to see the spot made famous where Heath Ledger's waketook place.
Well,"if you want to make God (or the Joker) laugh, then tell God your plans", don't they say?
This was the view of Cottesloe Beachthat first greeted me as I walked up the hill in the wind and rain from where the bus dropped us off about what seemed a mile away to me.
And like I mentioned in that post, I hadn't realized that I had snapped a raven in the shot as I looked out at a very dismal looking near deserted beach, with no sunshine in sight.
It was good to get out of the elements for a while when we made it to the bathing pavilion/teahouse, but that didn't last long when we went downstairs and under the pavilion/teahouse to watch the "sun set" into the ocean.
At least the Lions turned out to be a good omen:-)
We still had about 40 minutes left before the official sunset time, so we went up into the restaurant and ordered a meal and a few drinks and were given a window seat to the ocean.
I guess we wouldn't have gotten these seats if the weather was good that day?
After our meal we went back under thepavilion/teahouse and hoped that the clouds were breaking.
But this picture below was about as good as it would get that afternoon, and I swear I could see the Joker's face in those clouds.
I guess the laugh was on us that day as the sun set into the ocean behind a wall of mocking clouds, but it turned out to be a day I wouldn't forget in a hurry:-)
We headed back to the train station in the twilight, wind and rain to catch the train back to the Perth CBD, and the train track was once again open for travel.
I seem to think that "God"(or Heath) had a good laugh at our plans for that day somehow:-)
There's a bit of a story behind my purchase of thatraven above and below.
I saw one just like it in a bookshop called 'New Edition Bookshop' in Fremantlegoing for $17 when my son was dragging me out of the rain and into bookshops because he was after a few books on our walk back to the train station to catch a train to Cottesloe Beach to see the sun set into the ocean, as being from Brisbaneon the east coast of Australia, the sun rises out of the ocean and sets over the land to the west, so I had never seen the sun set into the ocean in Australia in my lifetime, living all my life on the east coast.
Cottesloe Beachis also where actor Heath Legder's wake was held, where friends and family swam out into the ocean to celebrate his life, so there was that as well.
We had already spent a bit of time in a great secondhand bookstore across the road called'Bill Campbell Books', where I was trying hard not to look, so I didn't buy any books to weigh me down on our trip to Cottesloe Beach.
I was even thinking about getting a small anchor tattoo from '5 Star Tattoo'as a reminder of my visit toFremantlebut decided that would only weigh me down also;-)
But when my son dragged me into the 'New Edition Bookshop' I saw the $17raven and a voice inside/outside my head said that I should buy this raven, or I'll be sorry later.
I just laughed at that and thought to that suggestion that I'm more of a crow person anyway and besides, when have I ever crossed paths with a real-life raven?
I have since learned that Perth mainly has ravens andBrisbanemainly has crows, hence I have probably never seen a raven in my life until I visited Western Australia this year.
So, I was proud that I didn't listen to that voice at the time and walked out of that bookshop without a purchase.
We walked back to the train station that we had got off at from Perth, and we were told that the trainline was closed because there had been an incident and that we could ride the special buses for free, which would basically take us along the train route.
I was just glad to get out of the rain and into a warm bus, but oddly enough this incident made the local news in Perth that night.
What I hadn't realized that day was that I had snapped a raven on my phone's camera as I was taking a photo of our approach to a very wet and deserted Cottesloe Beach.
So, that was probably my first encounter with a raven, but the bird wasn't really in my face like this raven that swooped down, right next to me, hoping for a bite of my Rubensandwich the next day when I was on Rottnest Island.
But we did visit the indigenous museum before we caught the bus to the lighthouse, and these paintings below caught my attention.
After my encounter with the raven, I was mad at myself that I hadn't bought that $17 ravenatthe'New Edition Bookshop' in Fremantle.
It was too late to train back to Fremantleon Saturday, as we had other plans that would have had to have been shelved, and I'm glad we didn't shelve them.
So, I decided to track down a bookshop that sold them through mail order, and I found a shop in my hometown of Brisbane that sold them, called 'Pulp Fiction', but the irony was that their price was $26 for the raven and about $10 postage, so the raven cost me about $36 dollars when I could have bought it for $17 dollars when that little voice told me to buy it.
The odd thing when I was at the 'Pulp Fiction'website to order my raven, was the statement on the website that said, BACKGROUND ILLUSTRATION BY KATHLEEN JENNINGS, as I had bought her book 'Honeyeater'when I went to a Trent Dalton talk at The Powerhouse, because I loved the cover illustration and the bird that has dropped into my backyard from time to time and that I have photographed and written about before.
I'd had Kathleen's book on my bedside table since I had bought it, so I picked it up and read it, after listening to a few podcasts that Kathleen had been on, like the one above.
Kathleen is a good writer and I'm sure she has a good book in her to write, but this wasn't it for me.
I donated the book to a street library and hope it falls into the hands of someone who likes reading this kind of Gothic suburban fiction.
For me this was a case of not judging a book by its cover ... or illustrations:-)
I think that Kathleen should explore Fremantle, as that city lends itself to Gothic suburban fiction.
