Day 152 Karrinyup, (Windsor Hotel),Perth, WA

This morning I woke feeling very under the weather with this stupid head cold so I stayed in bed as long as I could (around 9am) then pulled out the yoga mat for a 45 minute yoga practice.  My thoughts were that if this practice doesn't kill me I will be absolutely okay for our lunch date at the Windsor Hotel with our friend Henry.  Well, I'm pleased to say that it didn't kill me and in fact I felt a lot better for the practice, so upwards on onwards.

After we completed the yoga practice it was into the shower for a "spit and polish" and we were in the car with plenty of time to find our way into the city.  Once again we got lost.  It is definitely the car GPS that is at fault because I had Google Maps open on my phone and it was taking us a different route to the one the car GPS had planned.  So once again my level headed husband negotiated his way around the busy Perth CBD and put us back on the correct road that was only around 1km from the Windsor Hotel. Stupid GPS!

Once we arrived at our destination and found a suitable place to park we headed straight inside the restaurant.  The lady at the check-in counter asked us for our parking ticket and swapped it for a voucher to display inside the car that allowed us free parking for the duration of our stay.  How good is that!  We didn't have long to wait before Henry and his friend Sandy arrived and after introductions we were taken to our table. 

Henry had described the Windsor Hotel Charthouse Restaurant as "pub grub" but it is way beyond that and I doubt you would get much better in a five star restaurant.  The menu was extensive but we were guided by our friends who had eaten at this restaurant previously.  They warned us that the meals were large and I really should have paid more heed to this warning!  I ordered the Seafood Chowder followed by the Lamb Shank Pot Pie, Philip ordered the Crab Cakes and the Rendang Curry to follow.  Henry ordered the King George Whiting and Sandy the same as me. Henry and Sandy decided to share Crab Cakes for Entree.  It was a wise decision and I wish Philip and I had done the same.

When the Chowder was placed in front of me I gasped.  It was huge and I wondered how I would get through it.  As it turned out all I could manage was to pick out all the seafood and I never touched the bread.  The seafood was magnificent.  The prawns were king size and just a single scallop filled my whole soupspoon.  No overcooked seafood in this dish and we all know how hard that can be.  It broke my heart to have to leave half the chowder in the bowl but I knew I had another course to get through.

Philip enjoyed his Crab Cakes but he said that the Kewpie Wasabi on the side was very hot.  I didn't get to taste his Crab Cakes but they did look pretty amazing.

Thank goodness the kitchen allowed us a reasonable amount of time between courses to digest our entree but even though I thought I could tackle the main, once again I left half of it behind.  The lamb was cooked to perfection and I removed the lamb shank bone from the pot pie with no resistance whatsoever.  The mash and spinach served alongside the pie was the perfect side and I did eat all my vegetables!  I also ate all of the puff pastry topping. I mean, who in their right mind can resist that crispy crunch....

I was surprised that Philip ordered the Rendang Curry but when his dish was placed in front of him I must admit to a certain amount of food envy.  It looked fantastic and Philip almost licked the plate clean!  It must have tasted as good as it looked.

In between all of this eating we talked almost non-stop.  Sandy and I "clicked" straight away and the more we talked the more I realised that we could have been "Sisters from a different Mister".  We just had so much in common even down to the worst connection of all and that is losing our sons in their twenties.  I hope that we can stay in contact but we do live on opposite sides of this huge continent so it would seem only remotely possible.

The weather has turned very gloomy with intermittent showers and the temperature reaching a high of just 17 degrees.  We had thoughts about visiting the Perth Zoo sometime over the weekend but we will just have to wait and see what this weather does.  The part for our cooktop turned up yesterday and it will be fitted on Tuesday morning at the caravan repair shop that is on our way to Busselton.  I rang the Mandalay Holiday Resort at Busselton this morning to book a site and the lady who answered the phone said that they had a special on at the moment that is stay two nights and get the third free.  With that in mind I booked us in for nine nights and it brought the price down to $27/night that is almost the cheapest price we have paid for a site on this trip.  You do have wins every now and then 👍.