Two feet and a heartbeat

I walk a lot in Perth. It is an easily walkable city. The weather is ideal, the roads are very well-kept, and it is mostly flat.

Perth is a lot like Calgary - both historically and currently.
Both cities were named after places in Scotland though were initially called something else (Perth was the Swan River Colony, Calgary was Brisebois). Both have Scots as colonist - Perth had James Stirling, Calgary had James Macleod. Both have less than great histories with indigenous people. Perth is slightly older than Calgary; it was founded in 1829, whereas Calgary was founded in 1884. Calgary differs in that we have a history with the railway. We also have no connection to the French or Dutch.

Both cities have resource based economies. Very boom-bust. Perth has mining, Calgary has oil and gas. Oil and gas is slowly starting to become a thing here; I think the houses are heated with natural gas? As I understand it, they get their LNG from fracking. I hope they learn from the lessons that Canada has on that. A recent oil deposit has been found in Western Australia as well.

Perth calls itself a "suburban city" meaning that people primarily live in the suburbs. What they are calling suburbs, I would call inner city. It is a half hour walk from this house to downtown, which is not a suburb in my mind.

Not the street I'm staying on.

As Perth is a state capital, I set out today with the plan to find the legislature buildings.
First I discover that I need to find the proper name of the buildings. Even though Australia is on the same Westministerian system as Canada, this does not mean they have the same words. I remembered in Brisbane, they called it State Buildings. That is not the case here. Apparently it is called Parliament or Parliament House. The actual assembly still seems to be called the Legislature, however.

The building is made out of a Western Australia variety of sandstone, as well as local tile and wood.

These gargoyles representing the national arms, figures of the unicorn and a lion, formerly occupied positions on the historic Waterloo Bridge in England.

A short walk from here is Jacob's Ladder. This is an amazing viewpoint! It is 86 metres above most of the city

Also an amazing workout if you're in to that sort of thing. There are two sets of 242 stairs. I chose to take them down.

I realised today that while I broke in my sandals, I did not break them in for walking in heat. I also was unaware there is a difference until today. Frigging blisters.

Next: let's do a walking tour!