Sorry - even when I talk normally, no-one understands me... Big W is a variety store related to Woolworths (one of our two major supermarket chains). Kmart is the variety arm of the other major chain, Coles.

The big smoke is indeed the city/capital. We live 420 km South of the capital of WA, Perth. There are other major regional centres that have city status (meaning a population of 25 000 people or more), including Albany (45 km to the E of us).

I don't listen to nearly as much music as I'd like to - usually only in the car while transporting the kids to various activities. The reason we're going to Perth is to see Mark Knopfler (we bit the bullet and bought tickets for the girls too). The next live concert after that is Hirst & Greene. Rob Hirst (former Midnight Oil drummer) and Paul Greene (former athletic Olympian) have joined forces to make a CD entitled "In the stealth of summer", to be released on March 7th. They are coming to Albany and will play in a coffee roasting warehouse (nice aroma). Only 65 tickets available and we have 4 (the girls will come with us). We have a friend who is a musician and knows Rob very well - we may even end up having Rob visit our home, so I'm quite excited...

BTW, the reason we listen to so much music is that the TV in our area is utter rubbish (at least till the footy season starts...).