Locked out!

This morning at about a quarter to 12 I decide to take my stunningly tedious microeconomics textbook with me while I pop across the road for my mid-morning cup of proper coffee. I step outside the door to my flat and as I hear the door click shut behind me, I suddenly think: where are my keys?

Wallet - check
Mobile phone - check
Pencil for taking notes - check
Keys - D'OH!

Last time I did this was at least 10 years ago when I was living in a cheap downstairs flat. On that occasion I found that my boss's business card was just the thing for jiggling open a window catch. This time I am living in an upstairs appartment in a security block so it's not so simple. I have a go at the door with a used Sydney ferry ticket, but no-go. I wander round the block and decide that not being an expert climber I am not going to try to get to the kitchen window above the neighbour's brick courtyard.

So, how to spend an afternoon before #1 comes home and I can get in again?

Coffee first (Ba Ba Black makes the best coffee in Perth, I reckon) then into the City for a bite to eat for lunch.

Sit in the library reading? Nah, too boring - instead I jump on a train on the Northern Suburbs (Clarkson) Line. It's always good fun on this line sitting on the train as it accellerates past the cars up the centre of the freeway. On a whim I get off at Greenwood Station. This station is newer than the others on the line, and it is interesting to compare it with the older stations. It has a side platforms rather than an island platform, but still has the overall roof design concept (although rather curvier than the chunky concrete of the older ones). Most notably, it doesn't have a covered walkway to the car park. The drying out of the Perth climate in the last decade has obviously had an impact on design here.

Rather unexpectedly there is a bus sitting at the station for Hillary's Marina. It seems on Saturdays every train is met by a bus. There are only two of us on the bus and off we go. 10 minutes down Hepburn Avenue and we are there. I wander along the boardwalk past the rather pointless tourist shops and stop for another coffee in one of the chain outlets. The girl at the machine is friendly, but the coffee is nothing to write home about either way.

Half an hour there then off to get another bus. It seems there is one down the coast to Scarborough Beach in a few minutes. It is a massive old articulated bus with only 3 of us on it. Transperth tends to do this - the older buses are reserved for routes with almost no one on them, and the oldest buses are the biggest! Another 10 minutes and we are at Scarborough. Far less touristy though no less busy than Hillary's. This is not a family place, more teens in boardshorts.

Wander round the shops for a bit, pick up a pair of boardshorts on special then grab a 400 bus back to the city, changing to an abolutely packed Yellow CAT at 5 O'Clock and then home just as #1 gets home.

Who knew getting locked out could be so enjoyable?

Oh yeah, I managed to read about 3/4 of a chapter of the textbook too!