WA is the biggest Australian state, accounting for around one third of the total area, yet it is largely empty. Nearly everyone lives in Perth and Fremantle. It’s a wealthy state, originally from gold and opal mining, more recently from iron ore and other minerals. This prosperity is reflected in the state capital, Perth, which looks as though it has been designed to win a best city contest; the broad, clean streets, pristine buildings, greenery, the river and the Indian Ocean beyond. It is sunny nearly every day, yet there is no water shortage. The people who live here really are very fortunate.

A lot of things here show Oz’s British history, especially place names and street names. For example, you have His Majesty’s Theatre, Guildford, Herne Hill, Palmerston Street, Brighton Road, and suchlike. Aboriginal influence is also clear from some of the place names, Joondalup for example, and Gidgegannup. Looking at the map of the Swan Valley, which I have in front of me, you can see the sort of tell-it-like-it-is descriptive names that we see on wine labels: names like Windy Ridge, Rocky Gully, and Dingo’s Bum. (OK, I may have made one of them up). There is a town up the coast called Shark Bay. They actually called their town Shark Bay. (Presumably Paedophile Bay was already taken.) “I know, we’ll go for Shark Bay!. That’ll bring in the tourists!” Some things are the same as in England but called something different: Walls’ ice cream is called ‘Streets’,and a Mondeo is a Ford Falcon. One thing I’ve noticed is that real estate boards here carry a cheesy picture of the realtor, looking faux-sincere, or faux-thoughtful, depending on the image they want to project. Really horrible.

Perth. The worlds most isolated city. Sail west and your first landfall is South Africa; to the south, Antartica; Sydney is nearly 4,000km to the East. In fact, if you want to find anywhere with more than about six people you need to go north, to Indonesia, and that’s 3,000 km. So, pretty isolated, then.

But it’s a spacious, confident-looking place, with the Swan River at its heart: broad three lane roads, modern skyscrapers, lots of greenery and trees, blue sky, busier than I’d expected. Free buses in the city centre.

We’re partly self-catering here so we had to go food shopping. Who’d have guessed that Woolworths, here, has green signage and is a food supermarket?

Went out to the airport this morning to pick up the rental car – we flew in too late last night so the rental desk was closed – which turns out to be a Holden Epica, but it looks like a Vauxhall to me. While I was waiting for the car to be brought round, I was idly looking at the display of brochures detailing the various charms of Western Australia, and edging away from a trio of people dressed in a uniform of orange shirts and bush hats. I thought they might want to tell me about Jesus, but it turns out they were volunteer WA tourist-helpers. One of them, Neville, turned out to be enormously helpful on Perth-related topics and, learning we were from Worthing, confessed that he had spent his wild youth there (well, Brighton). Brighton Pier seemed to hold fond memories for him. I think his wild days were long behind him.

The apartment here is close to the central business district (CBD as they say here) and has a bedroom, bathroom, and well-equipped kitchen/diner/lounge, air-con of course. We have a telly which can receive all manner of Murdoch-owned crap, but very little for grownups. We’re wi-fi enabled, but only on production of a credit card; you have to buy a minimum of an hour, but it is a specific hour, not 60 minutes to use when you like, so I have to plan my online time carefully. We also have a balcony with table and chairs, which enables a view of the tennis court. Oh, and a six lane flyover. Not like in Sorrento where we had a balcony from which we looked out on the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius. Then again, Italy doesn’t have kangaroos.

Temperature is in the upper 20s, and there is a SW breeze here which springs up about 11am most days, called the Fremantle Doctor (because it makes you feel better). Some days it gets quite strong. There is a small pool here and I noticed that one of the parasols had blown in the water.

Tomorrow (Friday) we’re going to explore the little towns and beaches to the North. Pam at my French class recommended having a look at Cottesloe, so we’ll do that, and maybe Scarborough. Everyone says we must go to Kings Park, so we’ll do that too. Because of a late change of plane times from Singapore, we’ve got a bit less time in Perth than we thought, and we want to explore a bit, and go to Rottnest Island. More anon.

I had a banana in my carry-on bag, to eat on the plane, but I forget about it. Arriving at Customs in Perth, you are faced with big signs warning against the importation of many things, including fruit. Fortunately I was able to put the offending item in the quarantine tub before it was discovered. The import of alien bananas is considered a serious crime in Australia, punishable by imprisonment and/or a fine of $60,000 (I am not making this up). Good job they didn’t find the rhubarb I’d hidden in my sock.

Walked down to the river today, for a nice lunch (thanks, Lynn, for the tip). As you walk about you can’t help but notice how upbeat and optimistic it all is. Employment doesn’t seem to be a problem; our hotel was seriously overstaffed, by UK standards, with about 4 employees for every guest. Every time you stand still someone comes up and offers to help you, which can get wearing after a while.

Great chrome and glass offices and malls are everywhere, all with escalators and water features. Sometimes their USP is unclear, though exclamation marks predominate. One I particularly liked was called the fx:1 academy, whose speciality was ‘abundance management’. Their slogans included ‘Adapt Optimal Trading Habits!’, ‘Lock In Profits Consistently!’ and – my favourite – ‘Earn Precious Pips!’ I wonder what it all means.

Everyone says Singapore is very clean, and it is. Street sweepers operate from cycle-powered rickshaws, with their brooms and bags of collected rubbish in the back. The ethnic mix of the place seems to be Chinese and Malays, with some Indians, but you notice that the lads on the rickshaws are none of these.

Back to the hotel to pack and wait for the taxi back to the airport, then to Perth.

Singapore is very modern, clean and bustly; skyscrapers, parks, expensive German cars. All the signage, without exception, is in English, and they drive on the left. It is also oppressively hot (30+ degrees), and humid with it.

The thing to do in Singapore is to visit Raffles Hotel, and especially the Long Bar, which is a haven of cool away from the heat and bustle. You can have a Singapore Sling, if that’s your tipple, but we discovered they did a very nice cranberry juice at an absolutely reasonable $11 (£5.50). A snip, I think you’ll agree. I have enclosed a picture of Mrs A in said Long bar. The other thing you have to do is to throw your monkey nut shells on the floor. There is a huge bowl of these nuts on every table, and the tradition is to chuck the shells on the floor. Naturally, being Brits, chucking our detritus on the ground is second nature, so we were able to join in with enthusiasm.

More tomorrow, perhaps.

Late leaving Heathrow owing to electrical fault. The engineers eventually resorted to the time-honoured tactic of turning the plane off, and switching it back on again. This worked a treat and we took off a mere two hours late

We’re travelling Premium Economy, which seems quite nice. For example when the meal comes round you get a tiny tablecloth, and coffee from an actual cafetiere. We considered flying business class, but it would have added £4000 to the cost, a ridiculous percentage of the whole price. As it happens we will be airborne for around 40 hours over the whole trip, so the maths is quite easy; five hours into the flight I am happily thinking what to do with the £500 I just saved.

Arrived Singapore, airport transfer worked perfectly, hotel very posh, Singapore appears a fine, clean city. Shower first, then explore - more later

Picked up all our tickets, itineraries and vouchers today. This makes it seem more real somehow.

Glenda phoned this morning to say that their neighbours have offered us the use of a holiday flat on their land while we're in Bateman's Bay. They keep this for their own visiting relatives. We will take them up on this offer - staying at Glenda's would be great but she and Trevor already have two of their grandchildren living with them so it's probably for the best.

Only a few days now....