I went round the Perth Mint first thing this morning. It was the most painful thing that I've done so far as a tourist. Overated, tacky, crass, overpriced and cack are the only adjectives that I can probably get away with here.

I'm currently sitting in a park in Freemantle, known as 'Freo' by the locals. It's 1/2 hour by train from Perth central and this is the place that everybody goes and I can certainly see why. There's shops, the sea, coffee to die for (well GBH anyway) and this great little park for me and the rest of Perth to chill out in. The weather's beautiful and I'm whiling away the afternoon watching a dozen or so pink chested parrots fighting a couple of metres away. The only downside is that I've just realised that I've been sitting in some bird poo - oh well, these trousers probably needed washing anyway.

20 propeller driven planes have just flown over me in a double arrow formation - bizarre.

Wandering out of the park across towards a strip of cafes along the sea the sign 'brewery' caught my eye. It belongs to the Little Creatures Brewing Co and I'm currently drinking their beer. The brewery is located in a warehouse that was home to a crocodile farm prior to November 2000 when little creatures started up. One half of the building is taken up by the brewery proper the other is a bar, complete with the beers on tap and available for consumption now or later as 'cellar' sales. The beer that I'm necking has just wone best international beer at the Australian beer awards, May 2002. It's a great beer,and passes a striking similarity to a UK beer called Hopback Summer Lightning. What a find! The beer is distributed by Aria wine company in NSW (921 4866).

Just for reference, you can buy beer here in a pint, handle (jug) and a midi (1/2 pint).

To tomorrow