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.

Fremantle

Since we had a lunch invitation from Aunt Jaq and her family, we had to leave early for Fremantle today as both my parents had been here before a few years back. Lily and I wanted to visit the markets and since only saw a glimpse of this place last Wednesday, we just need to come back here *chuckled*

We left the house at about 8am and took a slow drive since I can't drive faster than 70km/hr. I discovered something new about my uncle's Holden which enable me to actually reach the accelerator after all. The secret to it, is to sit lower and not raised the car seat. But, I still can see the road so it's fine to be sitting lower and deeper into the car.

We reached Fremantle close to 9am and all the shops are still closed, there are ample parking space which I feel comfortable to park-in the huge car. But, it's a learning experience to read the various parking-time and the amount we had to pay.

While waiting for the Fremantle market to open, we decided to walk around by foot but it's a bit cold and since I was only in slippers, I can actually feel that my toes are freezed up after a while. We came across one very interesting shop that sell soaps but it's all in the form of cakes. You just won't belief that they are soaps!

I got some miniature koalas & kangaroos for my colleagues in Fremantle market but the other deals are a little pricey to purchase despite that they are nice items. Next, we went to E-Shed Market which is a much nicer place to shop compare to Fremantle market, here I bought lots of tea-towels, a few soft-koalas and a 24cm-in size koala; big enough for me to hug. Always wanted to have a koala-soft-toy but never seems to get it from anyone who visit here. So what the heck, just buy it for myself then. It was a good deal anyway. Lily and I bought a lot of things from this shop that is owned by a Singaporean. But, she is also a good saleslady as well... persuading very hard and start telling us that no other shops can sell so cheap like she does...

Fremantle is a nice place to shop around and we wished we had more time and do not have to rush back for our lunch appointment. As I thought, we are late as I was expected to reach home by 11.30am, I sorta of speed more than 70km/hr. Hope that my uncle won't get any saman out of that speed I was driving in. But, Brandon was late to pick us up as he lost his way and not sure how to get to my Uncle's place.

Aunty Jaq's home is such a nice cottage; with a beautiful garden that grows all kind of plants, herbs and even vegetables. We toured around her garden before lunch. We had so much for lunch and just a pity we had forgotten to bring our cameras with us. Mom is the one most dissapointed because she couldn't capture any picture of Aunty Jaq and her mom for old-time-sake. We left their home close to 4pm and Lily just can't wait to get out of the house. I can understand that feeling because she is a total stranger with them.

Since Aunty Jaq sent us back to my Uncle's home, my parents requested her to come in and continue their catching-up while Lily and I left for Cottlesloe to catch the sunset. Actually, was looking for some fcuk-outlet which my colleague advised me but couldn't find it thus we just hangout at the beach for a while waiting for sunset.

The sky will turn dark very fast in winter so we did not stay too long outside and headed back home. Got lost a bit when I thought I can just go home without the GPS, boy; was I wrong. Hehehe...

When we got home, Aunty Jaq is still around but she left shortly after that. Dad prepared dinner and we had a late dinner since our lunch was so filling. Tomorrow, I planned to go Margaret River or somewhere further but Dad is not keen on it thus we settled to take the train to Perth CBD since Mom wanted to get more tea-towels and some other souveniors too. Besides that, Lily & I wanted to hitch another route-ride on CATS since we did not cover all of it the last trip in town.

Swan Valley

Excited about driving to Swan Valley with the help of the GPRS that belongs to my 3rd Uncle. The Holden 3800cc is indeed a huge car, after adjusting the seat, I realised I can't reach the accelerators which Dad remarked, "You are not mend to drive a big car like this". Very insulting though... but I still insisted I want to drive. Hhhmmm...

Swan Valley; the Perth's Valley of Taste. Tourist booklets mentioned that it's 30 minutes away from the Perth CBD by using the Great Northern Highway but since we took the GPRS and also the speed limit is rather slow, it took us close to 45 minutes to reach the historical Guildford town which is actually a small town entrance to Swan Valley.

I just drive along the road with the help of the Map as the GPRS is no longer useful here to assist us. Looking left and right while maintaining the speed limit of 60km/hr, searching for the Sandalford Winery. To my disappointment, there isn't any wines in view, all the plants are black and bald. Even the entrance to this place don't seem open and welcoming. But, we still get down the car and wander around hoping to see some good things. I learned that in winter, there is no wine production too. As Dad remarked the price is not even worth looking, we left the place after taking a few pictures.


As we continue along the road, we found the Margaret River Chocolate Co. Here we had free chocolates for us to munch and since I had never visited a chocolate factory, I wanted so much to try their hot-white-chocolate drink. But, was I disappointed with the simplicity-dilution of the drink that cost me AUD$4.50 a glass and I waited for ages for the drink.

Since, I decided to drive along the road with the country-side view on my left and right, at times, Dad had to remind me to watch out the winding road. Hehehe... Occasionally, I will suddenly slow down while checking out the signboards for anything we can visit. We came across a bee farm and we stopped to get pollen and Lily got a bucket of honey. As the owner of the shop told us that her bees are away to another state for pollination, hhhmmm... I have no idea how they migrate but she was describing how the bees when in a vehicle and they were release there... but I still do not understand how the bees will come back to their "home".

The rest of the road, we just drive along and see if there is anywhere we want to go in, we tried to visit a farm with some animals in it and we were told we had to pay AUD$10 per person even to take pictures. I managed to video a black-piglet in a cage too! Since, we managed to get a few shots without paying, we left the farm as it was quite crowded with little children and there is a retarded-home having their recreation-day.

As we enter into one of the smaller lane, we came across this very adorable creature; alpaca which Dad managed to get a picture of it when we called it to come nearer. Hehehe... I think it thought we were going to feed it with something. The rest of the journey thru the road, we see cows and sheep, grazing the grass and lots of bald-wines.

When we came into a big-junction, we decided to u-turn back to Guildford town to visit the Pottery that we passed by earlier. There isn't much thing here to be purchase and see so we walked around a bit and left for home.

My parents suggested we should have a late lunch at Waterford Plaza which is the supermarket they went yesterday as they saw a shop selling very cheap lunch. Since we couldn't really decide what we wanna have, we settled for this supposedly-Malaysian-cheap lunch. Gosh!! I will never want to eat here again...


After lunch, we shop in Coles where I got my favourite cheese-spread and some other things I love to eat and it's cheaper here to eat them. On our way out, we saw a nice shop selling decorative items that I decided to get a "human-holding a cello" made of bolts-nuts-&-screws. Just to add another musical-collection on top of my home's piano.

It was a short-day trip out today... and since we can prepare early dinner later, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics with the big packet of chips I bought earlier. Sounds cozy yea...

Perth CBD

After my morning shower & delicious breakfast, Lily & I planned for our trip to the Perth CBD while my parents have their own agenda. After the taxi came to pick up 3rd Uncle for the airport, Lily & I walked to the Canning Bridge train station which took about 15 minutes as we walked very fast due to the cold morning air. We have difficulties purchasing the tickets and we did not know how to use it and we missed the train as we were deciding how and where should we input the ticket upon entering the train. So, we asked a man; the sweeper who was cleaning up the station. Silly of us actually because we actually just had to hold the ticket and walk into the train and enjoy the ride. The ticket cost AUD$1.60 each and we stopped at the 2nd stop; Perth Underground Station.


Once came out from the station, we looked for Murray St. and Hay St. Mall and started to walk thru it, from shops to departmental stores; Target, David Jones, Myers and Reject Shop (here in Australia, it's not a clothes store, it's selling A-Z but small-scale store).

I stumbled over this building called; London Courts that I did not know what it was in the beginning and was eager to find out thinking it was a shop selling watches. But, it turns out to be a mini-street inside with small shops & cafe selling souvenirs and lots of other stuffs. If we have time, I really wanna sit in one of their cafe and drink a cup of tea/coffee while enjoying a magazine or just chatting. When we left the place about 5 minutes, we heard the clock chimes. We ran out from the nearby shop and wanted to get a picture of the Armoured Knights circling the "window" above the clock but we were dismayed for not fast enough. Then, Lily remarked, "No wonder it encrypted on the building:- No Minute Gone Comes Ever Back Again, Take Heed And See Ye Nothing Do In Vain."

We wanted to have lunch in Northbridge (where most of the eateries are) but unfortunately, we did not see anything we like there and of course it was very pricey. So, we head back to Hay St. for Hungry Jacks. Yet another fast food franchise we shall not miss when we are here. *Juicy*Yummie* Hehehe...


After lunch, we decided to take the the three colours CAT around and go to Harbour Town. But Lily got us hop on the opposite side of the Yellow CAT route so we end up visiting the government offices such as the Educational & Health Department. But, we still enjoy the ride and learned thru the ride and just had to waste half hour or more to get to the Harbour Town as planned.

In Harbour Town; a factory outlet with so many good deals from Adidas, Nike, Esprit and etc that Lily & I regretted not coming here first to shop in the morning. We got a few things for ourselves and we were really happy with the bargain we got.

Next, we planned to get to King's Park for the sunset view but unfortunately as we stepped out from Harbour Town, the sky seems a little grey when it's not even 5pm. Tired from the whole day walk, we decided to catch the bas back to call it a day. Unfortunately, we lost track of the time and we got into the after-work-peak-hours crowd. The bas ride was pretty long and by the time we reach the area of 3rd Uncle's house, it's pitch darkness. And sadly, the bas driver did not know the stop we wanted to get down so we had to walk quite a distance back to the house.

Dad had prepared dinner for us when we reached home and they updated us on what they had done the whole day. Mom started of cleaning the house while Dad make lots of lemonade from the lemon tree in the garden and then, they took a walk to the nearby supermarket next to Curtin University to get some groceries.

Somehow, Dad was not keen to visit Margaret River despite that it's constantly being reminded by Sis to do so... Sigh... Finally, I decided we should head to Swan Valley tomorrow! Had a slight-debate night with Dad because he was not comfortable of me driving the Holden out tomorrow. Despite that, Lily & I were excitingly planning and researching for it earlier after dinner. There are the wineries and chocolate factory that we aim for.

Train: Routes
Free Bas Service: CAT

Perth in a brief

Last night, Lily and I actually had the heater on the whole night when we sleep. It's a new experience for me to actually come for a vacation in winter. We had a very delicious breakfast prepared by our 3rd uncle this morning *Yummie* My all-time favourite; bacon, sunny-up, toast bread & fresh milk. I can guarantee that the rest of the coming few days, we will have very delicious breakfast too. Hehehe...

Since it's Lily & my first time to Perth, 3rd uncle decided to bring us around to the nearby suburbs with his almost 2 years-old company-provided Holden. It's a huge car with 3800cc. 3rd Uncle suggested that he is going to show us each place in a brief; like 30 minutes stop each place and then, we can return to the place we like by ourselves other days when he is away to Singapore for his conference.

First destination, at Avon Ascent where we saw a very beautiful sight in front of us and of course, first time seeing pelicans from a very far distance. Unfortunately, when we decided to walk near to it, they already swim further away into the middle of the wide-river.


Second destination - Fremantle waterfront. We walked around the place & the cafes, stopped for a few pictures. And settled down for chips as tea-break at this place call Kailis; voted for their best fish & chips. Surprisingly here, I grew hungry every 1-2 hours. Must be the cold weather that makes me crave for food every hour. The rest of the journey, 3rd Uncle brought us along the coastal road and we get to see beautiful & big mansions and houses.


Third destination - Cottesloe; I had difficulty pronouncing this place's name though. It's a beach and I just cannot belief my eyes when I see lots of people are actually sun-bathing in winter!! Hahaha... but no naked-top/bottom whatsoever in this beach. There are others surfing and children playing the sands and splashing water near the edge of the water.

We walked towards the "castle" and found a bistro; Indiana. There are 2 elephant-statues outside it's garden and Lily & I wanted to have a picture. One old-Aussie man asked us if he could help us to take our picture as he said he loves taking photographs. Funny, he make us sat on the elephant-statue for so long and we were like tired from smiling... And when we checked, the pictures were "out". So, we got my dad to take a new shot for us *chuckled*


Fourth destination - Sorrento Quay. It's a nice place to come for a day trip with family or friends. It's a place with everything; earth & water. We walked from shop to shop looking at the products & trying to check out if there is any good bargains. But nothing seems attractive after looking at the prices and mentally calculating them after the conversion. Since Dome is originated from Perth, 3rd Uncle wanted us to have our lunch and to taste it's originality here. The price is not cheap but since 3rd Uncle wanna buy us lunch, we shall not grumble over his goodwill. I make sure I tried the food & drink that are not sold in Malaysia.

Since we had a rather late lunch, it's almost 2pm plus when we left Sorrento Quay. The journey back to Manning St where my 3rd uncle's house is took us about 1.5 hours and of course with the filling stomach hitherto I fall asleep in the car. Since it was still early and we did not know what we should do till dinner time, we stopped by the largest mall; Garden City . We saw Kmart so that's where Lily & I spend an hour here while I browse the food, clothes and looking for a pair of boot. Tim Tam was going for AUD$1.99 which is cheapy cheap. 3rd Uncle got 2 packets for us. Nobody shall miss the Aussie-made Tim Tam! It's my all time favourite night-snack in Papua N.G. too those days.

When we reached "home" (3rd Uncle's house become our home for the next 6 days), the sun was just about to set so Lily and I decided to take a walk to the park nearby called Neil McDougall Park. It's about 10 minutes walk while we stopped by a few houses to admire their garden & flowers. There is a lake here as well so we stopped here to take some pictures of the black ducks. Some are feeding on the insects and some are just swimming in the lake. I sat here for a bit to enjoy the evening chill breeze and when it got dark, we walked back.

When we got back, Dad & his brother are enjoying their wine while munching on some nuts and biscuits. Happily chatting away. Even though, it's cold here, I still wanted to have my bath each day. Dinner was cooked by 3rd Uncle and of course, his cooking is marvelous and he prepared it very fast. Amazing, and Dad is learning from him... Mom said when we get back home to Klang, Dad supposed to conquer the kitchen and prepare the meals from now on. Hahaha... I wonder how true that will be, my mom giving up her "palace" aka kitchen. Very doubtful on that!

After dinner, 3rd Uncle brought us out to the Perth CBD and to the King's Park. Due to the Perth Municipals instructing people to save on electricity therefore unfortunately for us, there are no lights at all in the King's Park. It's supposed to be a very beautiful park at night with all the trees lighted up with Christmas lights. Someday, I may get a chance to see it. As we got out of the car, the night wind was so cold that I wore the huge black coat my Sis borrowed me and I looked like a stalker thru the dark-walk-path. Hehehe... We were here for a while, while my 3rd Uncle describe to us the geographical of the place and we stood at a very nice place that overlooks the Perth CBD. My camera did not take good pictures of the night-view though. We even saw a very big-tree that was just planted a few weeks ago which is very unique but since it's dark, we cannot take picture of it. But, it's a tree with two trunks but one root. Can you imagine it? I wonder if their website has a picture of it... but do click into their website and enjoy their beautiful slide pictures.


After touring the whole of King's Park with the car, 3rd Uncle brought us tour around the Perth CBD at night, one street to another street. Advising us which street we should visit tomorrow on our own. Showing us the shops, night clubs and dining restaurants. One funny place called the "Library" is actually a night club. Hehehe... If I was not told by my Uncle, I'll probably think that it's a library with lots of books and I may wanna consider to pay a visit.

As there are not much activities at night in Perth other than the clubs & restaurants, we head back home. 3rd Uncle purposely used the way that passes by the Perth Zoo so that he can show me how to get there if I wanna visit it while he is away. It was fun to learn the roads and listening to him. He even showed us the way how to get to the supermarkets. I hope my brains will remember since it's in vacation-mode. Hehehe...

Singapore to Perth

This morning, I hanged out with my Uncle at the neighbourhood while I enjoy my wantan-mee & coffee for breakfast. Uncle had his regular morning catch-up with his friends in the kopitiam. Took a shower before depart for the Domestic terminal to catch my Tiger Airways to Perth; where I need to meet up Lily also at the airport.

Unfortunately, my Uncle didn't realized Lily sms him and that's why she ended up waiting ages for me in the airport. We checked in our luggages and then, returned to Terminal 1 for lunch and later we took the sky-train to Terminal 3 to check out the place since it's a new terminal. As we have insufficient time till our boarding, we couldn't spare much time walking everywhere.

After saying our goodbyes to my Uncle, we checked ourselves into the boarding hall. Funny, I don't recall hearing our flight number called for boarding and then Lily heard our flight number calling for last-call. Ahhh... a little panicked, we ran and ran towards the gate... and gosh... it's far!! And when the steward actually checked our tickets, he mentioned, "The whole plane is waiting for the two of you". I felt embarrassed at that moment... but I think he was just kidding because I still see a few people slowly climbing up the staircase into the plane.

Food in the plane is expensive and in S$ currency but we are hungry and we ate their meal that is fish & rice. Taste okie. Forgotten to take a picture of it as my camera was in my hand-carry in the compartment above. I also bought their chips while watching a few drama series that I save into my laptop. Lucky, I had my laptop with me to kill the boredom. The flight was occasionally rather choppy and Tiger's plane is same size with Air Asia's plane thus you can imagine, flying 5 hours is not a pleasant thing. Cannot complaint if wanna travel budget though...

Arrived on schedule in Perth International airport approximately 9pm. It was pretty funny when Lily & I reached the custom-checkpoint counter... We did not write any address on the white card that we supposed to fill up as we did not know the address of my 3rd-uncle. So, the guy asked us, "Do you have a place to stay after you exit this airport?" and we replied, "Yes, at our uncle's place" and he asked, "You do not know which street he stays in?" and we replied, "No". And he looked a bit concerned and asked, "Is there someone picking you up outside the airport?" and we replied, "Our uncle" and he smiled and returned us our passports. Hehehe...

Lily forgotten to declare the biscuits that she carried in her hand-bag and only recalled it when we were lining up to exit the luggage checkpoint so she sorta of informed the lady at the end of the line and she asked us to go to the "declare lane". To our much surprised, we do not even have to open our luggages and all we had to do was just to put them over the x-rated machine and off we are free. Yippee... I was a little worried and lots of them were just unlucky and were opening their luggages for check. Phew... we were so glad about that...

Dad, Mom & 3rd-Uncle were actually waiting for us outside and Mom was in shocked to see Lily with me. Hahaha... we had a good laugh because I asked Dad to keep it a secret that Lily is joining us for the Perth vacation. Since, it's not the first time Dad & Mom visited Perth, I feel that it's really a good idea to get Lily to come along and I never regret that invitation a bit.

Upon exiting the airport, the cool breeze welcomed us into the night and Mom actually wore quite thick and she was amazed I was not feeling as cold as her. We reached 3rd-uncle's house and we had a late dinner. Just had some to ease the hunger before we decided to get ourselves comfortable in bed. I choose to sleep on the floor in the same room with Lily since I tend to wriggle around when I sleep *chuckled*

Alright, time to get under the blanket and snooze and just can't wait for tomorrow to start our journey in Perth...

Journey Begins..

I'm applied for leave from today onwards but as I couldn't finish my work over the weekends, I had decided to call in to office and of course by 4pm, I'm getting stressful thinking that my work couldn't finish also. By 4.30pm, I gave up and pack to leave the office with an exciting mood.

Got to LCCT and I start my journey to Australia via Singapore budget airline. First flight will be from Kuala Lumpur via Air Asia to Singapore. Had my dinner at MacD before I board my plane. The flight is early and have ample time to get comfortable in our seats. To my much surprised, this flight did not show us the "safety demo-instructions" that all flights are supposed to be compulsory to do. Nevertheless, we landed 15 minutes earlier from the schedule time. Just before I manage to catch a short nap, they had announced us to prepare for landing. Gosh... that's fast!!

Reached Terminal 1 - Changi Airport and it took quite a far distance to reach the custom-point and our luggage collection. My cousin brother had arranged to pick me up. But, we were like playing "hide and seek" in Terminal 2 where he said he wanna grab dinner with Hwee Kuan but turned out we keep moving until we couldn't meet up. Hahaha... It has been a while since I had walked so much in such a wide airport and honestly, I had to catch my breath with all the excitement of landing and getting into a country that is not strange to me at all.

Finally, settled down in Sakae Sushi and catch up with Hwee Kuan & Jeremiah while they had their dinner and I savour a few cups of Japanese tea. I'm just too tired to even move my gum & jaws. After that, we paid Jia Ler a visit at his grandma's place before we head to my Uncle's place for the night. But, my cousin decided to bring me out for a car ride around certain parts of the city and of course, this trip, I made into Chijmes. Hehehe... It's a nice place to have a good & expensive meal. Just so excited about tomorrow...