Two trains and a marriage licence

I had to go to Perth today - the hottest day of the past 2 or 3 weeks mind you - for an interview at the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages to finalise my registration as a marriage celebrant (anyone wanna get married?).

On the spur of the moment we decided to try out the new Mandurah to Perth rail link, parking our car at the Mandurah station and going all the way through. I gotta say, with the exception of the car park at the Mandurah end of the line, the journey was really easy and comfortable and cheap. The whole trip, there and back, with parking included, cost the five of us just over $10 in total.

The Mandurah car park is a bit of a maze, although, contrary to what we had heard, there was loads of parking. I accidentally pulled into the bus entry when we arrived and ended up copping a few words from a disgruntled bus driver in the process. When I finally managed to find the exit I learnt I couldn't turn back and re-enter the car park without heading all the way back out of the complex again. One set of lights and a U-turn later I was back in the car parking area. By the time I had pulled all this off our train had gone.

For some unknown reason, the park itself is divided into three areas, each totally separate to the other and accessible in each section by only one entry/exit point. Because of a big fence it was also only possible to enter or exit the car park on foot at one point in each section, making it really difficult to get in, park, get your parking ticket and make it to your train before it leaves.

With about 5 seconds to spare (I even gave a young guy at the ticket machine .25c because he ran out of money and began to melt-down and I was sure we were going to miss our second train) we made the train and I arrived only 15 minutes late to my interview. Thankfully the interviewer was 20 minutes late so nothing was lost.

Following an hour spent going over the intricacies of the Marriage Act, we caught another train into the underground station beneath Murray St and spent a few hours wandering around the city - organising a "touch-up" for my tattoo and browsing the shops - before jumping back on the train to Mandurah and the 50 minute drive home.