On Saturday my main plan was to meet up with Jim. He was arriving on the train at East Perth at 0930. I set off early at 8am to meet him. I took the bus to Perth bus station, walked to the train station and asked which platform for East Perth. I was then told there were engineering works (sounds like London, except this time I am the customer, not the staff) and had to walk back to the bus station for the replacement bus. This took us 2 stops to the railway, then one stop on the train.
A couple of minutes after I got there, the cross country train arrived, and I saw Jim peering out of the window, looking anxiously for me. It was a delight to see him again - he'd lost a lot of weight since I last saw him on 1 May - very lean and mean. It was so wonderful for us to be back together. He said he had had the benefit of a free upgrade to a cabin every night, so many thanks to whoever it was looking after Jim!
One of the first things we did was to get Jim a Smartrider card. My bus fares as a tertiary student are heavily discounted and we were interested to see how much Jim's fares would be. Unfortunately although he is 73 and old enough to be a senior, as he is not an Australian citizen, he is not entitled to the seniors rate. So his fares seem to be about $2.10 compared to my 60/85 cents (weekday/weekend) rate. But it is still a lot cheaper than in the UK. I think a bus fare (outside London) to our local town is #3.50 single, (c$5) for a non-concession fare. However, Jim is determined that he will do most of our food shopping by travelling by bike, and using his panniers - ie for free!.
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