Landing

I've never seen what Western Australia looks like from the air. When I first came to Melbourne I was placed on a night flight and hence the whole "Big Dry Continent" was not so apparent from air.

I was expecting a few large rocks here and there, some sand and dirt, probably an oasis; nothing like what I saw from the air. There were farms that stretched as far as the eye could see, houses, vast empty lands filled with Eucalyptus trees...

Perth was a balmy 20 degrees Celsius when we landed. A friend of a friend had volunteered to pick me up from Perth International Airport and I happily obliged; it would save me $13 in airport transfers. He's a young white guy, really cute, nerdy looking but nonetheless with the same boyish charm that made me fall in love with “The-Ex”. The first thing I noticed about him, of course, was his eyes. Such innocence coupled with the brilliant blue that we Asians were never blessed with.

He was, like many other twinks I’ve met, slim built and had very little body hair as I could judge from the flattering shirt that he wore, as though to suggest a certain set of ideals that would certainly make him more appealing to me...

Guilty as charged. I was conjuring images of him in my head from the Airport all the way to my accommodation, albeit suspicious looks every now and then from his father who was KIND enough to be the driver.

I can’t be blamed if I like apple green shirts with the words “Undress me if you don’t like what you see” printed in pink on either sides.

I am placed in a residential college and the place where I stay is fabulous. There are gothic looking buildings, 1960's retro architecture buildings, newer 21st century architecture buildings... I think that Perth is a very diverse city in terms of architecture. There's never a time when you’ll find yourself surrounded in a ghetto of similar looking buildings. Unlike Melbourne, historic buildings here are more run-down and smaller in stature, but I feel that these qualities gives the city more character than an over-hyped up expensive city like Melbourne.

But the oh-so-gorgeous scenery... I was Oooh'ing and Aaah'ing as the friend's friend gave me a verbal tour whilst we passed places in the city on our way to the residential college.

And I must say, much to my disappointment, NONE of the conference delegates are cute. Not that it’s a big deal or anything but anyhow…

Then again, that just means less eye candy and more ugly fat nerdy unsophisticated smelly straight guys to sleep with you in the same building for seven days.