So, another month, another Friday off! Last Friday I had my monthly RDO (rostered day off). Determined to make the most of the weekend I planned to go down the south-west coast with a colleague from work called Clare. Kate Wood, an ex-colleague from the Royal Free, was also in town for a week with a mate called Lee-ann. I invited them on our little trip and they were up for it.

People from work had told me about a cheap hire car place in nearby Subiaco so I called them up and managed to get a four seater sedan for the three day for $170. Bargain man! We didn’t meet up with Kate & Lee ann in time on Friday morning so it was just Clare and I that were the designated drivers.

People at work had warned us to be on the look for hordes of seventeen year olds while we were down south. Apparently we had unwittingly chose the weekend to go down south when all the school leavers party and go a bit mad.

When I went to pick up the hire car with Clare I was told by the woman that worked there that I looked young enough to be a school leaver, d’oh! I was 17 in 1994 for goodness sake. Only ever so slightly annoyed we drove off in the car. It was a nice, white Toyota, the only problem being a lack of a cd player.

We drove back to my house and waited for Kate and Lee ann to join us. Eventually we set off around 11am. Karen had lent me a map book of the area so we knew where we were going. The car was an automatic so the driving was super easy. The only frustrating thing was the large number of traffic lights on the freeway. We were stopping every few minutes!

We stopped at a small town called Rockingham for food then carried on down the road. Clare took over the driving and after an hour or so we were stopped by a police blockade. This was rather exciting and as we waited in the queue of cars we could see several cars being thoroughly searched. There was also a camera crew hovering about.

All the cars being searched were full, by the looks of them, of 17yr olds. Clearly the police were cracking down on underage drinking and drink driving. Our car wasn’t searched but Clare was breathalysed. She didn’t mind, of course, but after the officer gave the tube she blew into back to her and instructed us to move off. What were we meant to do with it?

We all had a good laugh at being stopped and carried on down the road to Bunbury. Bunbury is Western Australia’s second biggest city but it is a tiny city. We booked into a YHA hostel and then headed down the beach. We spent an hour or so soaking up some rays and checking out a couple of hot young men. It was quite funny if you could’ve seen us. Clare and I white as can be and Kate and Lee ann totally brown, d’oh!

We headed back to the hostel for a shower and then we headed out to some bars. A dude at the hostel had given us some drinks & cheap meal vouchers. We had a couple of beers at an Irish bar full of older locals and then headed to the other Irish bar next door for some food. What is it with Irish bars? You can never escape from them?!

The bar was really quiet so we took a walk down the main street to see if there was anywhere more happening. There wasn’t so we ended up going into a bar opposite the bar we ate in. It looked ok, had a pool table and there were some young men in there. As soon as we walked in the bar man came over to us and asked us all for ID. He quickly realised we weren’t school leavers and started joking with us about the rugby for the next day. So, that was twice in one day that people thought I was underage.

Lee ann and I had a game of pool and then we went back to the bar across the road. The bar was quite a lot busier now. They had a DJ and a band that were ok. They did cover versions of appalling songs by the likes of Ronan Keating but towards the end of the night they did do a violent femmes track so that was cool. All four of us had rather a lot to drink. Kate and Lee-ann were drinking these vodka cruiser drinks which made Kate’s tongue go red and Lee-ann's go blue. I stuck to the beer.

It was a fun night but as per usual for me some drunk guy started talking to me in the toilet. Well, first of all he heavily slapped my back in way of a ‘manly’ greeting. Then he preceded to tell me what a great night he was having and that it was “more fun than the gay bars my brother took me to in London”, “not that I’m calling you gay mate,” he added afterwards. I couldn’t tell if he really thought the bar we were in was a gay one or that he was just having a really good time. Bizarre. Right, so far this weekend I don’t look over 18 and I don’t look gay. Weird.

We headed back to the hostel and even before going to bed I had started to regret drinking quite so much when we were getting up early to hopefully swim with dolphins the next day.

So, I went to bed (we were all sharing a four bed dorm), sending a couple of drunken texts as I went. I think Eric, Gavin and Esme were recipients. When I woke up the next day the first thing I was aware of was my thumping headache, damn you Victoria bitter!

I struggled to the shower, took some painkillers and felt a tiny bit better. However, I felt 100% better after an unexpected call from the fantastic Eric. He had gone to the Gravy train!!!! gig and gave me a call during one of the songs. I could just about hear him, he was laughing loudly and saying stuff like “Stuart, you would love this …” and “Oh my god the dancing is so corny”. The gig sounded like a complete riot. When he hung up I was grinning from ear to ear.

We drove the very short journey to the dolphin discovery centre up the road and paid the $1 fee to get in. The centre is next to the sea in a harbour where dolphins often come in very close to the beach. When this happens you can get into the water and swim around with them. We were all quite hungover so we bought from the little café there and sat down.

At this point Eric called from the Gravy train!!!! gig again and so I went outside onto the veranda. The band were playing their infamous song ‘you made me gay’, I danced and sang along, gaining a few odd glances from people nearby. Eric was such a star phoning from the gig and I was bursting with jealousy that I couldn’t be there myself. I interviewed one of the boys in the band earlier in the year for Eric’s magazine XY. Apparently he remembered me when Eric spoke to him, result!

Those phonecalls kept me smiling all day but there were also plenty of other things to keep me happy. Unfortunately we didn’t see any dolphins but spending an hour or two sitting on beach in sunny weather can hardly be described as horrible. We got back into the car and headed towards a place called Dunsborough. We didn’t actually go to Dunsborough itself but rather we headed to some beaches nearby.

We went to Bunkers bay first where we unwittingly chose the wrong car park and ended up clambering over rocks to get to the beach only to find the right car park when we got there, d’oh! The bay was breathtakingly beautiful. Soft, white sand and the sea blue and pristine. We would’ve stayed but there was no café and we all hungry. We backtracked slightly and made for Eagle bay.

We had some food here and then lazed on the beach. The beach and sea were just as fabulous as Bunkers bay and I made sure I got into the water. It was freezing at first but after about 30 seconds (and much swearing on my behalf) it was fine. The rip wasn’t too strong and I had great fun playing around in the waves. All the girls were too chicken to come in so I got Clare to take a photo of me in the water. I dried myself off in the sun lamenting how very white I still was. We stayed for about two hours then made our way to Margaret River.

This town is famous in Western Australia; it’s quite posh and known for the wineries in the area. It was really busy and all the hostels were booked up. We went to the information centre where an extremely helpful woman, looked up some cheap accommodation and booked it for us.

We ended up sharing a two bedroom cottage about 5km south of the town. Amazingly the cottage only cost us $28 each. It was a cute little place as well. We hurriedly showered and grabbed a cab into the town so both Clare and I could drink. We had to force our way into the English pub in town as it was so packed. It was full of Aussies of course but there were plenty of England shirts as well.

We all made our way to the bar where I was singled out by the bar man for some ID. All the girls laughed as I handed over my driving licence. I felt like asking him if he really thought I looked 17 but didn’t bother. He did then serve me first so I guess that was some consolation.

Despite the pub being packed we managed to get ourselves into a position where we could all see the big screen tv. As you all may know I’m not the worlds biggest rugby fan but I had followed England’s progress even though I hadn’t watched any of their matches in their entirety. Once the match started the pub became massively noisy.

I quickly found myself wrapped up in the atmosphere and shouting support at the screen as loudly as the people around me. I reminded myself of my Mum. She tends to shout a lot while watching sport too, bless her. It was a great match, everyone was enjoying it and getting into it until 20 mins into the second half when disaster struck: there was a power cut! The pub was plunged into semi-darkness and a howl of utter misery and dismay went up.

Within a few minutes we realised that the power wasn’t going to come back on and so people either left or went outside to the car park to listen to radios. Strangely people didn’t go to several vehicles, rather we all crowded round one quite run down van. It was awful! We all wanted to cheer but when we did we couldn’t hear the commentators.

We had to listen all the way through that incredibly tense period of extra time. It was so thrilling. When England won a huge cheer went up. Unfortunately I was in the toilet, I thought the match was going to go into another period of extra time, d’oh!

We were all well happy with the win but Clare was especially pleased. She immediately bought a round of drinks and we toasted England’s win. The pub was deserted by the time the power came back on and we got to see the rather rushed presentation ceremony. I felt a rare moment of national pride when the English captain received the world cup. We then went onto an Italian place for dinner. The food was tasty but nearly as tasty as our waiter, hee hee.

We decided to go the pub next door for drinks where we were all, yet again, stopped for ID. I’m starting to think I’m doomed to look underage for a long time still to come. As Rick once exclaimed: “What’s wrong with me?!”

The bar had a DJ who was playing a strange mix of songs and we all had a bit of a boogie. The dance floor was full of badly dressed, drunken straight men who were quite amusing to watch. I felt particularly tired from the sun exposure and excitement of the day, not to forget the drinking of the night before, so we didn’t stay to late. In fact I think we were all in bed by one a.m.

We had a lie and a slow start the next day. We had breakfast in Margaret River before heading south towards Augusta. At Augusta there is a lighthouse which sits on Australia’s most southwesterly point. We had a stroll around the lighthouse then headed to a nearby beach in Flinders bay. As we walked back to the car a small, long, black snake appeared from the grass and lazily slithered across the path in front if us. I did rather think I’d be scared when I saw a snake but I was quite excited really. Of course the snake didn’t attack us or anything so that probably helped.

After a leisurely spell on the beach we jumped back into the car and made our way back home towards Perth. It was about a four hour journey back and as we headed north we left the sunshine behind. It was a great weekend made wonderful by fab company and sunny weather.

I was definitely not pleased to get back to work!