More Turkey & Wine

Just like previous years, my sister will invite our family to have Christmas Day dinner either at her house or her in-laws. This year at her in-laws as there are other relatives joining as well. The food my sister and her in-law prepared were always delicious! Despite is the same every year but I'm always looking forward to the turkey and satay. Unfortunately, the camera-man is my brother and the food pictures is not taken. Hehehe... But, pictures of my adorable nieces never failed to put a smile in this Christmas season... especially when Elisa now is able to talk and run around.

Turkey & Wine

This year, I decided that I want to celebrate Christmas Eve somewhere outside and if possible wanna go somewhere to countdown & celebrate it with some restaurant crowds at the strike of 12. For a difference...

How can Christmas be without turkey?! And wine?! Thus, arranged to have dinner with Scott at Victoria Station, Taipan as I have surf the net to check where I can have both turkey & wine. Since I don't want to take the hassle to go home after work and then, comes out again for dinner, most people gave me a surprise-smile whenever I walked to some other departments at work. Needless me to elaborate more... (for those who knows me well and see me everyday at work, will know why).

Firstly, I had to give credit to Jasmine who gave me a very strong encouragement to organize the dinner last night and also getting me prepared for it both mentally, physically and spiritually. Hehehe... *grin* I'm not trying to exaggerate but it's really true!

Despite that part of the Christmas Eve plan was not able to "materialize" but I'm still happy to have proceed with the dinner. I'm sorry if I may in some ways give Victoria St, Taipan a bad comment but their service and food is really not to my expectation. I had made an advance reservation by a few days and yet, when we got to the main door, the waiter/waitress don't even check if any reservation was made. And the place is packed like sardine and we sat at a corner of a mini-staircase. Yes, I agreed as it's the festive season but it's not the first time, this restaurant celebrate them. They should have hire enough staffs to accommodate the peak-season. We were told that no cocktails or a glass-wine can be ordered by one of the higher-level waiter (that wears a coat). So, we still wanna try our luck so we placed our orders of cocktails with a lower-level waiter. He was a young and friendly waiter that took our orders and came back with the bad news. But he was so much better than the waiter-with-a-coat.

We left Victoria Station immediately after our meals that don't seems to appetizing either and feeling over-crowded and warm at the same time. Scott decided to hang out at one of his friend's place and so we went there to start drinking. Here, I met Yan & Sarah; their baby is fast asleep when we got there. After the introduction & pouring each of us a glass JD, we sat down to play cards. Yan has the obscene cards which the men are in bottom-less *chuckled* After a few rounds, we got bored with the card-games so Sarah suggested we played this boardgame called: TABOO. Gals vs Guys and Gals won! I had a great time with this game!!

Bright Sunny Monday

Surprisingly, it's a beautiful bright sunny Monday for me...

Just got into office about 15 minutes ago and I still have some time to spare before I start my work officially. Thought, I'll just blog a little since I'm feeling good today despite that my body is aching and tired but the spirit is alive... Totally no blues... kekeke... feeling really otherwise!

Last night, I had a very late night... I dozed off almost 1am which is actually today morning. Finally, finish the HK drama: Moonlight Resonance of 40 episodes. It's a drama full of tears and despite the ending was somehow normal but everyone ended happy at last.

Left home about 7.10am and my car-radio was tuned to MIX.fm and happened that then put on many of my favourite songs. And to top that up, Serena C & Pietro as usual have a topic to discuss and debate among themselves and listeners who calls in. Today, as per Pietro, it was proven thru a research that, "Men spend more than women." Hillarious when I first hear it but when you actually ponder over it... somehow, its true to some extend. But Pietro was putting this higher spending expenses of men to blame it on women because they have to buy us many things, for eg. flowers, chocolates, gifts, diamond, gold... the list goes on.

Hahaha... Unfortunately, there are many women callers that agrees with the statement and started mentioning and telling about the men that they know, how they spend and blaaa... Pietro also mentioned how men purchase a quality item which is very costly as compare to the quantity. I just wished I could continue to sit in my car even after I arrived the office and listen on to this topic. *chuckled* I couldn't stop myself from wonder that maybe, the world is turning to a different trend these days... Men loves to spend as much as women nowsdays, if you walk around you and observed, men indeed have been spending on service/treatments that we used to think women only does that. There is nothing to be embarrassed about and of course, we are not always talking about equality between men and women.

I shall leave this post to everyone to ponder just like me this morning and I hope, I'll have a good Monday ahead of me... it started well and smooth... and it shall end like it started. Have a nice Monday and look forward to a Merry Christmas everyone!

Jaime's Pre Wedding Day

Despite there is a new-restructuring in my job scope and things are bit shaky with the changes, I decided to proceed with my annual leave that I already applied a month ago for today to accompany Jaime for her pre-wedding day...

Most of the time, it's not the time or money that counts... It's the ever-super word; "thought" that counts... Guessed, just being there does make a different... Just wanna be there for her...

At about 7am, I woke up and on my phone and there was a sms from Jaime dated today but it's at 12.15am asking me if I could pick her up at the CIMB bank since she needed to hand over her car to Alan. Still in my semi-conscious mind, I'm thinking, "CIMB? Errr... which one... Tomorrow? Is it the 6th or today?" and I decided to hit the bathroom; do the necessary morning routines and get back to the sms. Well, alot of "thinking" always take place in the bathroom for me *chuckled*

So, I had to picked her up at the bank at 9.45am and I was running superb-late because I mis-calculated the timing when I hit the shower and had my breakfast. I left house at almost 9.30am; hit the KESAS-hightway with the speed limit of 120km/hr and surprisingly I reached the Summit-Exit at close to 9.45am but then it was so long queue that I was a running a bit late to pick her up.

We dropped by the Shell-station near Jaime's house and got my car washed as I hadn't got the time to do it for almost a month plus and with the constant rainy days; I really felt it's a waste of energy to try attempting to wash it. For RM8, there isn't much to be complaint about...

After stopping by for an hour in Jaime's house while waiting for Bonnie; Jaime's friend from Hong Kong to prepare and Jaime herself busy with her last minute guest listing re-arrangement, we hit the road to Taipan for our lunch before our Manicure & Pedicure. We settled for Burger King since it's right at the corner and when one is close to starving, anything is good.

I'm impressed with the Nail Shop and I'm very satisfied with their service too. People are friendly and make us feel right at home... It took us about 1.5 hours in there and we came out with a smile on our faces (awaiting for Bonnie to send me the pictures).

Since there isn't much Jaime wanted to do, we decided to go Subang Parade so I can consult her about the Lewre shoe that I saw and planned to wear it for her Wedding dinner. As usual, I need to consult and I think a lot before purchasing it because the price is RM179. Jaime thinks the one I like is casual so, she recommended me to get the one next to it. She said it's more appropriate for a dinner event. And it's RM159... and when I tried it on... she said it makes my legs looked so much longer. Well, I had not buy an expensive shoe for many years... so, this somehow make it very memorable... it's Jaime's wedding mar! It's worth it.


Jaime accidentally smudged her french-nail polish and we went back to her house to get it fixed. But unfortunately, it didn't look good and I sent her back to the shop to get it re-do. While waiting for her in the car, I had a good chat with Bonnie.

The evening ended with a buffet dinner at Jaime's... I really wished I could eat more but then, I had to remind myself that, I had to get into a dress tomorrow night. Hehehe...

Are We Happy?

One Tree Hill (5th Season) came on-air last night on 8TV without me knowing it because there wasn't any "Coming Soon" advertisement on it like my all time favourite Gilmore Girls. The first episode took my mind away on how true we at times will ponder what we want from life and whether are we "really" happy?

Quote

Peyton: Hi, it's Peyton. Yeah, I'm sorry. I know it's late there, I just... what happened to us? You know? I don't know who I am anymore. Or how I got here. I miss who I used to be. I wanna have a home again, ya know? And real friends. You know, the kind of friendships we used to believe in. I miss that. And I miss you. I guess I just miss all of it. Does any of that make any sense?

Brooke: Yeah, it makes all the sense in the world, Peyton. Four years ago, it all seemed so clear, didn't it? Conquer the world, save the world, live happily ever after.

Peyton: Are you happy, Brooke?

Brooke: Sometimes. Not always. Are you?

Peyton: No.

Brooke: Okay, then let me ask you something. What is gonna make you happy, Peyton? Is it how you look? Or the car you drive or the people you know? Is it money or celebrity or power or accomplishments? Because I have all those things and I don't think it's enough.

Peyton: Well then, what is?

Brooke: Love, I think. And that love can be for a boy or a girl or a place or a way of life or even for a family. But where you find it is up to you. So where are you gonna find that love, Peyton?

Peyton: I think I need to go home.

Brooke: Yeah. I was hoping you'd say that.

Unquote

I remembered once when I was at me deepest sorrows overseas and my Dad dropped me an email and said, "Leave everything and come home." So, there is a saying, "Home Sweet Home". True enough, every time I think of migration... I always remember what my Dad said... and I think the family-ties and the never-ending love from my family will always stop me from making my decision to move-out or away since I don't have a family of my own.

New Eye-Glasses

Accidentally dropped my glasses on Sunday and each corner of the lenses chip-off. Was getting ready for the church-conference dinner and carelessly knock-down my glasses from my dressing-corner. Showed Dad the result of it and he said, "You can change the lenses or it's a sign that it's time you get a new pair of glasses" with a chuckled.

Been scouting around few months for a new-pair that I could "love at first sight" but so far no such luck, almost decided to get a new-pair with Scott the last time we visited his regular optician but due to the pricing; he decided that he is not up to it. Thus, I also took the chance as an excuse to look for the "ONE" when I think I really need it.

Just collected my new-pair specially picked by my Dad last night. Over hundreds for him to select; he can end-up picking the high-end range... Burned my wallet but since I was not as enthusiastic as I should, I just go with whatever choice my Dad thinks looks good on me. Looking at it now thru the mirror reflection, I simply think it's just a pair of eye-glass and I'll probably take a while to get use to the new one since my power actually decrease a bit 1 eye.

Being not a fashion-lover or anyone close to that, I can only depend on others to give me opinions. Probably I had grew up to always seek opinions from my Dad and it's been in-born and habitual for me. Hehehe... Think if one day, if I ever get rich, I wanna have my own personal fashion-adviser!

Oh yeah... What took me most surprised last night was when I was checking my eye-sight and the man who served me said, "This lenses has no power for long-sighted, only astigmatism" and me being astound, "Really? That's strange." A few months ago when I visited my regular optician when I had the headaches, I don't recall him saying such a thing. And I'm not sure I should be jumping for joy so soon knowing this new fact... Before last night, I had no chance to wear contact-lenses due to the long-sighted but now, with special-ordered contact-lenses for astigmatism, I can actually wear them!! Wwweeeee...that will be my next plan when I have more money to spend. :D

De Mask Gala

I had never attended an official event that I had arrived 1 hour before it starts and still completely in my casual-wear and without even any make-up or hair-do... Halloween just over last night and still the horrifying-spirits still haunting us?

Jasmine and I supposed to meet up our 4 other colleagues for our last rehearsal on our Gothic choreography at at 4.30pm @ One World Hotel. Because I missed one turning that I had to take towards IKEA; somehow I had to make several turns and with the late-noon traffic not too pleasant, we arrived at IKEA to get our candles & it's candle-holder shortly by 4pm. And the queue for the payment took us ages. And by 5pm, we struggled to look for our colleagues and last option, we head to the restroom to get dressed and get our make-up done. SO, you can imagine how awful and ugly it is... maybe, it suited our theme well...

The event started off with us taking our self-portrait. Mom actually saw a hard-copy printout of this picture when I got home and she goes, "Is this you? I can't recognise you... very different..." and I replied, "Ugly, right?" and chuckled my way into my room while my mom continue to grin and mumble some words. Heard her saying from downstairs, "I'm going to leave it wide-open on top of the piano for your dad to see tomorrow."

The most memoriable among all will be Jasmine and I had to work on our black-nail polish in my small-macho Kembara. Forgetting our femininity, we had to struggle in the car to get our nails ready for our choreography... WE almost forgotten about it...

~*~*~ Fertilizer Div. Group Picture ~*~*~

~*~ With Managing Director (with joker-hat) ~*~With Asst. GM (juz pretend he's drunk) & act cute

Once Dato' Lee arrived, we were allowed to enter the ballroom. Seating arrangement is actually flexible but I ended up sitting with the fertilizer-group because of our choreography. First dish was beautiful and delicious; four-season is always nice no doubt in any restaurant. Following that... everything is normal and being in a expensive hotel, I honestly don't recommend to take the food here again...

Possing for our Gothic-choreography group picture minutes before our turn (the men with lighted candles & the women with a bible & a stem of rose); it's not easy to look serious and horrifying!! Especially Vincent; he is always grinning-charmingly. Hahahaha... even in this picture, he couldn't help himself from smiling to the camera.

Phew... what a relief when the choreography ended and I can wipe off my dark-purplish lipstick. The whole ballroom was stunned with our horrfying look and how fierce we are that they kept silent the whole time we entered the ballroom on the red-carpet. I wasn't even looking at anyone's face expression in case I grinned our chuckled... I just kept a stern-lip and walked thru the crowds who were figuring out what we are doing next.

After our meals & booze; we head out to the photo-corner and feeling on-top-of the world with Ng winning the grand-luckydraw prize (a trip to Bali for two), he wanna us to fool around in front of the hired-camera-men. Meanwhile, Joshua & Chong haven't had their self-portrait taken earlier so they decided they want all of us to be in their "portray" to bring home as memoir. And after the printout came out; I was so in love with the "shots"!! I love the big-group shot.

Elisa "am" her porridge

"Aammm"...

"I luvf my porichg..."

"Oh...Yum-mie-Yum-mie"

"Mind my baby-slang yea..."

"Auntie-Faith is filming me?? Mmmm..."

"Come, Come, Come..." says Mummie.

*slurp*... licking wif my tougue

Eh...eh... *shake my head*

Coco : The Poodle

Invitation from my Company's Managing Director to have dinner at his home. The main-course was "roasted pork" and this happened to be the second time I tasted the same chef-supplier who prepared it. And being in MD's home for the second time, I did not follow the rest to tour around his house. Instead, I was so eager to play with his poodle-pup that I took it out from it's cage and carry it around and play with it.

Jenny even remarked, "Looks like our Faith here won't be leaving the house early as planned since she is having a good time with the pup" with a chuckled. Oh yes! I lost track of the time when I had Coco (the poodle's name) in my embraced and occassionally, lazing itself at my lap.

Oohhh... now, I still can imagine it's smell even after my shower. I told Mr Leong that if his family going for a vacation, he can always get me to babysit the puppy for him. Hehehe...

Cameron Highlands

~*~ 31st August 2008 ~*~

Last Thursday, got an invitation from Yoong Han to join her family and herself to Cameron Highlands, Pahang for 2 days 1 night trip. OOoohhh… that’s interesting!! I agreed and was excited about it since then. I can’t recall anything much from my last trip there which is probably over 20 years.

We departed Klang at about 9am with Yoong Han’s 2-weeks old new Honda City and by 11am, we reached Simpang Pulai; supposed to be a new way up to Cameron and less winding. It’s about 90km till we reach Brinchang & Tanah Rata. While we driving upwards and passing thru some small towns, it was not as I remembered during my kiddo visit many years ago. Now, everything is very commercialized and they plant all the vegetables and flowers in nursery where you just see their roof-top-covers in white-plastic from the road. Not a beautiful sight though…

Almost reaching Brinchang, I had to request to stop to take some fresh air. I was feeling very uneasy and nausea. *phew* - the fresh air makes a lot of different. Weather upwards was simply normal. Doesn’t even feel the coolness and the sun was shining brightly. As we were heading to Tanah Rata, suddenly we came across the apartment that Yoong Han’s sister booked. Thus, we turned into the Parkland apartment, checked-in and leave our luggage & things.

As it’s almost 2pm, we are all hungry and I was warned by YH that today, they will be vegetarian due to the 1st month of the new Chinese calendar. I’m pretty fine with it but unfortunately, we looked everywhere for the vegetarian restaurant but couldn’t find any even after we had stopped to ask someone in the shop. Last option, we settled ourselves in a mamak-shop and I ordered chicken rice & milo-ice for lunch. Since, I’m so hungry, the large size serving of the rice, I managed to finish it.

Then, we head back downwards to check out the Ye Olde Smokehouse. There is a same branch in Fraser’s Hill that I did not get to savour their scones back then, thus I wanna try it here. Upon entering this place; they have beautiful gardens and unfortunately, I discovered that my camera failed me again. I no longer able to take outdoor-picture with it, I’m so sad *sobs*sobs* So, I had to depend on YH’s camera the whole trip.

After lingering around the old-cottage and the gardens, we settled in the garden chairs to order something to eat. But it started to drizzle so we decided to look for a cosy place to sit inside the cottage. For a start, YH’s sister ordered a set of their pot of tea+2 scones+1 fruit cake which cost RM33!! After trying it, it doesn’t taste good so, I decided to order a scoop of vanilla ice cream that cost RM5.50. They have their Smokehouse Ice Cream that cost RM11++ which according to the waitress, it’s sweeter than the normal which I had to shake my head to it. Why pay additional RM6 for something sweeter?!?! So not healthy…

Relaxing at a cottage is good and soothing but being in it too long makes me sleepy and I almost fall asleep. Our next destination is to check out the tea plantation. So, we head towards Ringlet. Somehow, YH’s sister got a little worried about it and decided to u-turn back and head back to Tanah Rata. Actually, my expectation of Tanah Rata are brown-huts selling vegetables, fruits, flowers and some crafts but to my much surprised, it’s a modern little bricks-town with fast-food and even Starbucks!!

We head back to the apartment to rest at about 5pm because there isn’t much can be seen and most of the markets and farms are closed for the day. Wanted to take a nap but instead decided to have my shower before we go out for dinner.

About 6.30pm, we found the Organic Steamboat restaurant which also served vegetarian-steamboat just opposite Casa dela Rosa hotel. Its’ a big crowd and we had to wait about 20 minutes for our table. I’m very amazed with the charcoal and high-chimney steamboat wok. This is really traditional way of eating steamboat. *chuckled* Also, my very first time to have vegetarian-steamboat my whole life!! Shall leave the tasty comments for individual taste buds…

Next, we head to the Brinchang night market. I did not get anything from here as there is nothing much that fascinated me. There is one stall selling a kind of kueh that I had never seen but the queue was so long that I did not know where the line starts. At the end, when I had the courage to ask the ‘pak cik’ who is making & selling the kueh, he informed me that his ‘batter’ is almost finish and he cannot promise me if it’s enough to sell to me. Thus, I had to dismiss my intention to try this kueh.

Headed home at about 9.30pm and continue on some of the vegetarian-steamboat that we “tapau” back because we cannot finish earlier. There is nothing much to do but to watch TV for the night and there is only 2 channels that are able to be received; TV1 and TV2. Had no other choice but to watch a boring & meaningless Chinese movie.

~*~ 1st September 2008 ~*~

Dreamland by 12am and it was very cold then because it started raining. And it rained thru the whole morning till 7am non-stopped. But when the sun decided to show it’s face, the temperature increased to warmer. After having a cup of coffee and a hard-boiled egg, we checked-out and drove downwards and visited a strawberry & cactus farm. We spend quite a long time here because YH’s mom and sis planning to get some potted plants back.

At the strawberry farm, they also served scones and other products made from strawberry. What caught my attention is the strawberry pop-corns!! And I was told it’s actually cooked with strawberry jam instead of adding honey/sugar as coating. I bought the scones here for RM4 and it tasted so much more yummie as compare to the Smokehouse. Highly recommended to eat here for the scones in future-visit.

As we heading downwards, we stopped a few places to check out the markets. Weather is pretty unexpected as it rains and stopped frequently. Along the way down, there are clouds just covering the roads. And the breeze is cool and I enjoyed the ride downwards. We even stopped by the tea plantation but we were told it’s closed on Monday thus we only took half of the journey from the main road. The road into the plantation is narrow and lots of honking and you will be happy not to meet some really kiasu-drivers who refused to give way whatsoever.

At about 12pm, I told them I had to get lunch before we reach the bottom because I don’t think I could take another winding road down with a hungry stomach like yesterday. So, we stopped at Kg. Raja for lunch. And we continue our journey back to Klang with a few stops at rest-area. Ahhh… what a trip… it’s really quite a disappointment with the farms and things are not cheap anymore. The place is not clean either and since it’s tea plantation, you can expect the Indian population to be the largest here and of course, the farmers are majority Chinese.

Adelaide CBD

After resting for 2.5 days indoor at my bro’s apartment. I’m finally feeling much better and I decided since it will also be my last day in OZ, I better take my time out into the city. With my parents tagging along, my bro dropped us at the Rundell Mall St. First, we check out Target store and then, continue to walk slowly along the Rundell St. Stopping by a few shops and snap a few pictures along the way.

At the of the Rundell St., we took the free tram to Victoria Square. Head to Coles for some grocery for tonight’s dinner. Then, we started walking thru Chinatown and catch the free Adelaide Connector bas. Unfortunately, we took the bas from the wrong side of the road and instead, we go rounding a bit and see more historical and very architecture buildings along the way. Well, Adelaide city is indeed very small. If it’s not the cold breeze that sips thru my bones, I can just stroll along street by street with the camera and snap the various building and churches designs.

Sight-Seeing around Adelaide

For the last two days, we rented a Corrolla to go sight-seeing around Adelaide hills and suburbs as it will be more comfortable since my Bro's old-merc can't travel more than 100km away.

On Saturday, we visited a few places; Glenelg, Victor Harbour, Mount Lofty Summit. In between during the car ride thru the farm and country-road, I dozed off as it helps to relieve my back-pain if I'm semi-cautious. Wanted to visit Cleland Wildlife Park but it was almost closing time when we get there so yet again, this trip to Australia, I won't be able to see a real koala. But as we drove thru the winding-road, I actually saw a wallaby so I keep looking up the trees hoping to catch a glimpse of a koala too but of course, I didn't.

Today, we visited the Fisherman's Wharf for their weekend flea-market. It's huge and I saw many lovely things that I wanted to buy but control myself from buying *chuckled* And we decided to visit Hahndorf again but this time to get down and have a stroll thru the street. Wanted to get some German-sausage but then, Dad said it's expensive.

I won't be blogging in details about my trip in Adelaide because I just got back from seeing a therapist and he advised me to rest and not to fly out to Melbourne tomorrow. Dad had already advised me yesterday to forfeit my flight ticket from Adelaide to Melbourne & Melbourne to Sydney. Thus, I had re-booked my flight from Adelaide direct to Sydney on 21st August to fly back to Kuala Lumpur.

Of course, it's sad to waste the few hundreds Aussie$$ but accident already happened; nothing much can be done. I also learned that for my future vacation, I shouldn't take such a long one too, somehow, it makes me feel like the excitement dreads away after 1.5 week. Not sure if I'm feeling like this because I'm in pain or I will tend to feel like this if the vacation is too long.

See thru my journey in Adelaide thru the pictures taken:- Photo Gallery

More About Adelaide:-
(1) History
(2) Places To Go

Bro's Graduation

Last Wednesday night, on our way to have dinner with Paul and his family, we got into a minor car accident which left just scratches on my Bro's old-Merc but it was on the left hand-side of the car that got the impact most and I happened to be sitting on that side.

Yesterday morning when I got up, I felt a bit ache at my back and by noon when we got back from IKEA after purchasing a new mattress for Bro and I realised, I can't even stand, walk and sit for more than 5 minutes. Thought it was the cold weather that is freezing up my bones and muscles, but Dad mentioned he got a slight ache on his arm too and that's when he suspected it was from the car accident that is why I'm having all this pain. *sobs*sobs* Looks like Adelaide has not started well for me... with the pain, I will not be blogging much either, even my camera is spoilt. What more will I be expecting?

Today, had to attend Bro's Graduation so with much pain still, I had to make myself as cheerful as possible to attend it. I had to constantly move around and not stay or sit at one position at all times. So the ceremony was kinda alright but of course, I was moving alot in my seat. The most disapointing part is due to the cold-weather, my new flowery-dress that I purposely bought for this occasion had to stay inside my luggage for other occasion.

= CONGRATULATION BRO!!=

= I'm proud of You! =

After the ceremony, we went for some photos at the nearby river. Nothing much of a good view in winter though... no flowers and its getting dark at about 4.30pm. Gloomy and cloudy for the evening. We hang around while Bro had some good times with his friends before we head out to town for dinner.
Had our dinner at Kowloon and since we were actually rushing to attend a church-service, we actually asked the waiter how long they can prepare the food and serve us whichever food that are easiest to cook. Hehehehe... I really had not encounter such a good service because the waiter actually promised us that he will "skip-the-line" and serve us first!! Was we glad on that and it was a delicious meal; Hong-Kies do cook very well. The best and funniest part was; we ordered black & pepper beef without the knowledge of Mom and when she eat it, she did not even know! So, can you imagine how good the cook is?

Of course, our night ended in the church and mind, the service was so long that I'm almost in tears already of the pain that I had to endure...

Perth to Adelaide

Departed for the domestic airport from my uncle’s place at about 7am. Catching the Virgin Blue to Adelaide. We waited quite a while in the airport since our flight is at 9.15am but it was delayed for another 30 minutes with the late boarding and take off.

We landed in Adelaide airport and its raining outside thru the windows of the plane. It’s pretty odd the route that we had to take to claim our luggage. My dad & I were evern more surprised as there is no custom security check due to the domestic flight. Should have taken the dried cranberries & nougat that I shared purchased with Lily in Fremantle market. The cute “beagle” goes around sniffing luggage when we were waiting for them at the conveyor-belt. It’s cute, I should have taken a picture of it. Maybe, the next trip into Melbourne, I shall see if I could do that.

It’s superb freezing here with the rain. Weather forecasted highest 13 and lowest 4 from yesterday’s weather forecast. Indeed I could not take in this weather. Ahhhh… Anyway, at a glance thru the journey from the airport to my brother’s apartment. It’s not really a place I wanna be. Hehehe… It just reminded me of Malaysia. I turned left, I see Asian face, I turned right, I see Asian face. And the place and the roads… its scattered everywhere. As compare to Perth, this is “small and messy”. Hahaha…

We stopped by Sub-way to take away our lunch and yea… it’s different here and when you’re hungry and cold, you can eat anything and it taste good! *chuckled*

Tonight, I practically begging to have western for dinner. Especially, I wanna attempt to have the lamb; my old time favourite. I had been eating Chinese-cooking & rice for the last 7 days and why on earth come to Australia and still eat the same old thing which I eat at home for 365 days?!

We settled for Hogs Breath Cafe and definitely enjoyed my dinner and the companies. Of course, I had my "lammy" and Dad, Bro & Madeline had their steak, Mom as usual will have their fish & chip.

Got back about 9.30pm after touring around the eastern side of Adelaide after dinner. Bro brought us to his University grounds and his old rented place. It’s dark and cold and my mom nagged about it so, we head back. It’s true, nothing much can be seen in the dark anyway. I watched NCIS for about an hour after that while heating up myself next to the heather, my palms and feet are still cold. Bbrrrr…

Mandurah + South Mole

My Uncle and Uncle Ho Lee are finally back to Perth this morning. Initially, Uncle Ho Lee supposed to host us for the rest of our trip here; bringing us sea-fishing, picnic, orchards and all sorts of outback-vacation. But due to his mom suddenly got very sick, that he left for Malaysia beginning of August.

Since we will be leaving Perth tomorrow, my Uncle brought us to Mandurah along with Uncle Ho Lee. I actually mentioned that I wanna check out Rockingham too because I overheard a tourist-lady informed one of the shop-owner that it's beautiful up at Rockingham the last few days. So Uncle said we will dropped by there on our way back from Mandurah. We left home late-morning and Mandurah it's about 55km away from Perth, it takes about 1.5 hour to reach.

Mandurah is pretty quiet place but it's a high-class residential where each of the house has their own jetty and river-front for their personal boat access. And it's also well-known for it's relaxing and holiday atmosphere. This place reminded me of Gold Coast too; where HY Lee stay's in a house also with their own river-pier. We walked along the Mandurah Foreshore (waterways), from one end to another end. The men were busy chatting away while Mom and I just tailing from behind and of course, I'm busy taking some pictures. We dropped by a few shops and seems like my Uncle are not that type that visit door-to-door that kind of person which I thought we will at least spend more time here but we didn't, we even left before lunch since Uncle Ho Lee suggested Dim Sum.

Thus, we didn't even get to go Rockingham *sobs*sobs* How can they do this to me?! How can they let Dim Sum to over-power the desire to visit a nice town like Rockingham? And my Uncle actually said, "Oh, Rockingham is just like Mandurah." Hhmmm.... what can I do?

DIM SUM was GGggggooooodddd... No wonder they would prefer dim sum over Rockingham!! Hehehe... Mom and I both ordered porridge and we were damn surpried when the bowl came. It's huge!! And we were begging for mercy... Since, I was taking small-naps in the car from Mandurah to this dim-sum restaurant so I have no idea where we were.

After our late-lunch, Uncle couldn't decide wherelse we can go since it's about 3pm, the time is not suitable to go somewhere far and it will be boring to go somewhere near that we have been before. So Uncle Ho Lee decided to direct us to South Mole; it's near to Fremantle and before Cottlesloe. This is the place alot of people do their sea-fishing.

The sun was very hot and the wind was chilly... I get a great-tann at the same time enjoying the strong sea-breeze while watching a few people catching their noon-fishy. We went around to North Mole too but there isn't much to see so we headed back home.

Uncle invited Uncle Ho Lee for dinner while he goes off preparing dinner for us, Uncle Ho Lee brought us to his place for a visit. We hangout there for a while and later, went back to Uncle's place for dinner. Of course, it's a very nice dinner with nicely decorated table and wares. Uncle even prepared dessert and not forgetting, I drank a fair bit of wine tonight because it help to keep me warmer.

I got to go pack my luggage since our plane to Adelaide will be quite an early one tomorrow. Excited at the same time feeling a little sad because there is so much I did not see yet in Perth.

Perth CBD + Ferry Ride

Today, I woked up rather early at about 7am and decided to ask Dad to accompany me to the park again for a morning-walk. Dad hesitated but was asked by Mom to do so anyway. Hehehe... I just need to burn off some fat that is rather quite obvious of late at my belly. My pants are getting too tight!

With my camera along for some morning-snap shots, but nothing much interesting and not so much ducks around in the morning either. Either they are asleep since it's winter or it may be just too cold to come out yet. But, I can see the "vapour" that comes out of my mouth when I'm chit-chatting with Dad.

Since it's a Sunday, we decided to take things slow and we only left for the train station at about 9.30am. We get down at the first stop; Esplanade and walked towards Barrack St. Jetty to check out the various river ferries and cruises. We just stood under the Swan Bell Tower to take some pictures since my Uncle mentioned not to waste our money to go in.


The rest of the morning, we just shopped at the selected shops that I told Mom where they sell cheaper souveniors. While waiting for Mom & Dad to purchase their things, I go along each street busy snapping pictures.

We also took the blue CAT ride around to see the route since the last time we were in the CBD, we took the red and yellow CAT already. We stopped at the Museum too since the entrance fee is free.

At 2pm, had our lunch at Hungry Jacks and by 3am head back to Barrack Square to catch a ferry to South Perth Esplanade since it's only AUD1.60 per person, its also a nice way to see the view and the river. Despite the ride is a short less than 15 minutes, it's still something fun to do.

As I know that there is a bas that could bring us back to Manning St. right outside the Perth Zoo's bas-stop, so we walked from Mends St. Jetty towards Labouchere Road. Unfortunately, the bas service that supposed to come every 30 minutes did not came. It's just so unlucky for us, we waited for almost 1.5 hours then only we managed to reach home.

Now, I'm very tired from all the walking and waiting...

Tonight, need to send Lily to the airport as she will be heading home to Johor-Singapore.