Dinner at Burswood

2 of our friends are going back to Singapore after completing their masters so we met up at Burswood Resort for dinner. There are 5 or 6 restaurants there and it has a mix of medium to expensive restaureants for you to choose from.

We went to Carvers which is found in the casino floor so kids are not allowed. They have a buffet menu with 2 different types of roast, veges, pastas - basically the works. And of course soft and hot drinks. It cost $15.95 (members, $19.95 for non members) for lunch and $19.95 (members $24.95 non-members) for weekdays, can't remember the prices for the weekend.

The food is actually pretty good and if you are a meat lover, just keep on going for the roast beef or lamb and it's definitely value for money. I liked the beef and the roast potatoes that went along with it.

My Kindle - 2

I've been using the Kindle for the last 2 weeks and I can safely say that I'm very happy with it and wished that I had gotten it earlier. The only downside is that I'm suing the American version and not the international version so I can't get instant download which frankly is no big deal.

With all the free books, I'm not too sure when I'm going to buy another new book but after reading some books from the Baen Free Library, I'll definitely get the new Honor Harrington series by David Weber and the Paladin of the Shadows series by John Ringo.

When I first came across the Baen Free Library, I've questioned the wisdom of posting free books online and wondered whether how it'll affect the book sales but after reading all the free books, I've come to realised that they actually made a good move. By releasing the older books for free, they'll definitely attract new readers to their new books and for people like me, I'll definitely pay for the new books by David Weber and John Ringo which I would never had in the past if not for reading all those free books. I've actually gotten hook on their books and have been finishing a book every 2 days since getting my hands on them.

I bought the Kindle together with the M-Edge leather cover and it's definitely a good move. It protects the Kindle and the leather looks nice and expensive, not cheap like the other stuff. Even my wife said that it looked nice too. It comes in various colour and being the conservative chap like I am, I got the luminous orange one. (No, I actually got the brown one, I think it's called cocoa brown or something like that)

New Tea Place

We were in town yesterday to sign up for private health insurance (that's another story) and went down to Northbridge to hunt for a stove ring (I think it's call a stove ring. It's a ring that you put on the stove for use with a Chinese wok whose base is semi-circular instead of flat.) We were hunting for it for the past week around our place but there wasn't any. So we thought maybe Chinatown would have it. Boy were we wrong ( or we really don't know where to look)! None to be found there as well!

I picked up the free Chinese newspaper and were about to head home when I saw this advert of a tea place. I've seen the advert a few times in the papers but wasn't really paying attention to it. Told hubby about it and he said that since the place is in Northbridge and we were still in Northbridge why not head over for a look.

Its More Than a Sip Tea Art Gallery, 5-7 Palmerson St Northbridge Perth WA 6003, is a 6 month old tea place. It's situated at a quiet corner in the busy Northbridge. They sell Chinese tea leaves and the tea utensil sourced mainly from China. The cups and pots are really nice and some very unique.

The lady who greeted me, Charmine, is really nice and sweet. I was invited to taste some tea and being a tea drinker I readily agreed. The tea that was served is their house special called Tie Guan Yin "Organic Glacial Tea". Its taste is very different from the usual Tie Guan Yin. It does not have the usual smoky taste, instead, it is more like green tea but stronger. The colour of the tea is a strong yellow and it is still quite fragrant after 3-4 brew. The unusual thing is that the tea leaves are stored in the freezer so you will need boiling hot water to bring out the taste from the frozen tea leaves. Boiling water is hardly ever used on Chinese tea especially the white and green tea.

I had wanted to buy some back but they only have it in a box of 25 packs, which is a little too much for the 2 of us. Moreover, we still have some tea back at home. We will go back there for a refill when our tea leaves run out. I really enjoy the taste of this house special.

Dinner in town

Yesterday we went for a walk in Kings Park and after that decided to have dinner in town at Taka. After parking our car at a nearby multistorey carpark we headed towards our food place. On the way we saw another Japanese Restaurant Yoshida. We have passed by the place a couple of times and hubby asked if we should try the place out instead so in we went.

It does look pretty Japanese in the deco with Japanese instrumental music in the background. The restaurant was award the gold plate award a few times so we though the food should not be too bad.

Hubby ordered a small sushi platter, handrolls, ageshi tofu, yakitori and tori teppanyaki to share.

The service was pretty good and prompt but no smiles and the food wasn't too bad. I liked the yakitori sauce but the sushi platter was a disappointment compared to others that we had eaten. The seving was small with 7 pieces of sushi and 4 pieces of maki.

At the end of it, the total bill came up to $92.50. If asked to pick a restaurant to bring friends to, I doubt that I'll go back there. Main reason is that after we came out of the restaurant, we didn't have the type of feeling you get when you have a great meal and that it was really worth it. Furthermore, throughout the whole night, we didn't get a smile from any of the service staff and when we were paying, even the lady boss seemed to be grumpy although she did ask how the food was. I had to say that it was ok as the feeling I got was that if I had said anything else, she was going to throw me out. Definitely different from the boss at Tansawa Tei.

A day trip - Yanchep National Park, New Norcia, Pinnacles

Our friend Tony asked whether we wanted to take a trip out to The Pinnacles yesterday and since it was a fantastic day and we haven't been there before, we thought why not. The weather for the last 2 days have been hot and it really feels more like mid summer.

We left at 9 in the morning and decided not to head straight for Pinnacles as it's still too hot and we decided to go to Yanchep National Park instead. It's definitely a nice place to visit and it's not too far a drive up, about 30 to 40 minutes from Perth and entrance is $11 per vehicle. In the park there's a underground cave (Crystal caves) which is worth a visit for $10 with a guided tour. We were lucky as we reached there 10 minutes just before the tour at 10.30 am. You have to get the ticket at the park shop first before proceeding to the cave.


Besides the park, there's a koala enclosure whereby you can view the koalas. They have a talk on Saturday at 3 pm. Koalas in the park is not considered normal as they are actually native in the eastern states and not in Western Australia. There are about 15 to 20 of them and we also saw a baby koala too.


We only spent an hour or 2 there but it's definitely worth a longer visit as there are other things to see and it's a good place for a picnic lunch and walks with plenty of flora and fauna to see. There was a pair of wild ducks hovering near a family who were having a picnic, waiting for scraps and further away were a flock of these cute fellows below. Husband was trying to take a few photos of them when suddenly with any warning, they decided to just take off.


After Yanchep National Park, we decided at the last minute to go to New Norcia instead. It's a town started by the Benedictine monks and I think it's the only one of its kind in Australia. Most of the buildings there have been heritage listed and all the buildings are basically meant for the monks and the tourists visiting it. There is a 2 hour walking tour starting at 1.30 pm but unfortunately, we reached there at 1.40 pm. It costs $23 and it includes entrance to the museum too. If memory serves me correct, New Norcia is famous for its bakery and I bought 2 loaves, a fruit bread and a white bread. I wanted to try the tomato and olive but it was sold out.


After New Norcia, we drove to The Pinnacles. It is located in Nambubg National Park and it's about 245 km from Perth. The drive there is very nice and on the way there, you also get to see a wind farm which is interesting. Unfortunately, when we reached The Pinncales, the tourist centre was closed but we could still drive around the 3.5 km route to look at all the rock formations. It's really a sight to behold and it's really amazing to see the rocks only at that location. We were asking each other how this could actually happen, came up with a few theories and wanted to know if any of us was right. Unfortunately we couldn't go to the tourist centre to find out the reasons why the rock formation happened.

The best time to go to the Pinnacles is definitely early in the morning or at around 3. Hopefully you won't get the heat but the heat to me wasn't the problem, it's the flies. Arrgh.

Kindle

The Kindle that I ordered finally arrived. The bummer was that the international version came out 2 days after I ordered the American one but from what I read, the international version books are going to cost $4 more than the American one so it may be more worthwhile to get the American one. I don't really need them to send it to me via wireless as I can always download it from the comp.

The reason I got Kindle was that I was introduced to the Baen Free Library CDs and I managed to get some really good books for free and so far I've been reading David Weber's Honor Harrington series and I got stuck on it. Tried reading it from my comp but it's not portable and it's very hard to read from my mobile. I guess with all the free e books out there, it's definitely going to be worth the while to get the Kindle.

So far I quite like it and I may post a review about it later although I doubt that I can add anything new since there are so many reviews about it out there. Oh yeah, I managed to get this website whereby they showed some other sites where you can get lots of free ebooks.

Lesmurdie Falls

We went to Lesmurdie Falls yesterday. It's in Perth Hills and it's about a 30 minutes drive from the CBD. There's actually 2 ways to go to the falls and it depends on whether you want to go to the top or the bottom of the falls and we elected to go to the top of the fall, thinking to see if we can get to the bottom from there.


Spring is definitely here. The weather is warm but with the gentle breeze blowing not too hot. You see little shoots pushing their way out of the barren soil everywhere. It gives such hope that you feel renewed no matter how tough the past year has been. It also feels a little different that though we are coming to the last lap of 2009 yet you still get the 'it's the start of a new year' feeling.


The place is definitely worth a visit to look at the wild flowers growing every where. I definitely have to invest in a macro lens soon as the variety of flowers are really amazing and it's a pity I can't take better photos of the small flowers.


We were lucky as the moment we arrived, we saw 2 birds figthing for territory. It's so amazing what a smaller bird (the white and black one) will do to protect its 'home' from a larger (and maybe more ferocious) bird. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a very good shot as I was just using a 28 - 105 for my lens and this was the best I could get. Plus the whole episode was not more than a minute (I think. It happens real fast and it's over real fast too!).


Lesmurdie Falls is a national park and it's a easy enough walk but if you have children with you, I won't advise going all the way down from the top of the falls. From the car park, it's a easy walk to the falls and you just have to follow the path. When you reach a bridge, if you cross it, it will lead you to the top of a hill whereby you'll get a very good view of Perth itself.


If you turn left instead of going across the bridge, you'll come to the fall and luckily for us, spring rain has ensured that we actually got a good look at the waterfall. I was told that in summer, the water fall is not as great because of the lack of water.


We wanted to try going all the way down to the bottom but a look at the track stopped us dead. The climb down is steep! Not least to say narrow. Next time we shall try entering from the other way.

Whitford Beach

One of the things a lot of tourists do not know is that Perth has some of the best beaches in the world. It's so good that Spain used a photo of one of Perth's beach to pass it off as theirs in their advertising campaign.

When we were staying up in Mullaloo last summer, we were always going for walks every evening and it was fantastic. You don't get the crowds as at City beach or Cottesloe and the sand and water is just amazing.


When we were there, it was also our first encounter with a blue tongue lizard and its tongue is really blue but unfortunately it did not want to cooperate by sticking its tongue out for me to take a photo of it. Wife got a little shock at first sight as she is terrified of snakes and that looks like one from a distance.


And frankly, after a good swim or a walk, nothing beats an ice cream in summer and this ice cream van is almost there every day during summer at the car park.


Given a choice, I'll definitely look for a place near the water when it's time for me to start looking for a permanent place to stay. After having stayed in different suburbs, I still prefer near the water although it does get windy and cold during winter.

Chicken rice

We were just introduced to this new place for chicken rice by our friends. Apparently the owner used to sell chicken rice at the canteen in Curtin U and he did a roaring trade but he retired a few years back . After a while, I guess he got bored and decided to start the business again. The place is called G'Fun and it is along South street. If you are heading towards Fremantle, you'll see Roxby Thai Restaurant and it's around there. If you see Bunnings or Stock Rd, you know that you definitely overshot the restaurant.

I'll definitely recommend this place and they are opened from 9 am to 7 pm daily. Main reason is definitely the price. Where else can you get a plate of Hainan chicken rice or roast pork with fried rice for $4.20. In fact almost all their dishes cost $4.20 and $4 for take away. The food is not too bad too and it actually taste pretty authentic. I kinda like the Spring roll and for $1.50 each, it's better than some other places as it's pretty big. They sell char siew pao, dai pao and lor mai kai too.

Perth Royal Show 2009

We went to the Perth Royal Show on Friday after spending the whole of the week moving house. It was a good thing too as the weather was fantastic. The show is held annually for a week at the Claremont Showground and frankly I think that the showground seemed to have been built just for this show. We've been to the place a couple of times but this is the first time that I've seen all the shops opened. I've always thought that the shops that had closed down. The cost for the show is $24 but if you get if from IGA earlier on, it's $22. Can't remember the price for the kids but I can imagine a family of 4, it's going to set them back about $200 for the entrance, showbags, rides and food.


The Royal Show is just like a very big fun fair with attractions mainly for the family and their kids. My pupils kept telling me that they won't be going as it's very boring but when we were there, most of the people having fun were the kids and the teenagers. The main attraction seems to be the show bags and they are not free. They consists of mainly 'useless' things like cheap toys, sweets, chocolates and snacks but appeals to the kids as we do see many people leaving the place with bags and bags of these show bags. I do admit that there are some pretty good show bags like those for Lindt chocolates and those for magazines.


Besides the show bags, there are definitely a mix of things for everybody including a Heritage Trail whereby people can see how people in old Australia used to live and also a hall to showcase the different areas of Western Australia. My! the hoot of the steam train was loud! Wife almost jumped when it sounded.


There's also cooking and produce competition whereby people will send in cakes, wines, produces to be judged and the one that impressed me the most is the icing/cake competition. It's amazing to see what they can come up with with icing. They looked so real like! The flower below is made from icing and they are all edible. So are the shoes and bags...


Besides the competition, they also have acrobatic and clown shows throughout the day and there's also a wood chopping competition and what amazes me is that they have a state team for that and there's competition for interstates. I wonder whether they have a national team of woodchoppers?

The other major attraction is definitely the animals. Children nowadays don't really come in contact with farm animals unless they are in the country and this is definitely one way of introducing them to the different animals. The children were not the only ones that were overjoyed at the opportunity to hold and touch the cute baby animals. Wife's eyes lit up like a kid in candy land. She got to pat all the animals and held a rabbit for a long while. They even rear alpacas too and I learnt that there are 2 different types that they rear for their wool. Without their wool, they are actually very skinny.


But I guess the main attraction for the teenagers will be the rides and games stall and they are everywhere. It's definitely not cheap as each ride is about $9 and I doubt that they will just take only a ride or 2 if they are going to be there the whole day. As for my wife, she will never be caught up in some of those rides as she might just puke into those people in front of her during the ride.


There's fireworks at 8pm but frankly by 4, I was already a bit tired lugging my camera and all the showbags that we bought (I never said that I was immuned to 'useless' toys and snacks but in my defence we bought the magazine bags and food bags).

Moving House again (2)

We are in the current process of moving so we haven't been updating the blog. I guess we have been a bit lazy too and these few weeks, I've been hooked on Fifa Online and I guess I've been spending too much time on it.

Anyway we rented a van from Budget to do the move and it definitely helped a lot, considering the fact that we have more than 80 boxes that we haven't opened yet and we still have the bed, the heater and other stuff. It costs $54 per day and it's definitely worth it. I guess you can definitely can a better deal than Budget but so far, it's the least dodgiest and the price was comparable with some of the other more respectable one. Further more, their office is on South St and there's a bus I can grab from my place to reach there. That's the problem when my wife doesn't drive and I can't ask her to give me a lift there.

Will hope to update the blog soon as we've actually tried out some new restaurants and we'll also be going to the Perth Royal Show later this week.

Piano bracelet

Finished! This is the bracelet kit that I was trying to complete. The threading part was really fast but the ending off was a BIG hassle as the needle I had was not thin enough to allow me to go through the hole of the beads a few times. Getting the thick thread through the needle was also tedious. I felt like an old lady threading a needle though the eye wasn't so small. Ending off took as long as I was doing up the beads on the loom!


All that being said, it didn't turn out too bad. Now I'm hooked on trying out more loom work. I have had a few patterns drawn up. The only thing I needed now is to find a few thinner bead embroidery needles and my seed beads. Saw a craft shop on the way back from Tai Chi so the next time round I'll get hubby to make a short stop (hopefully) to check out the place.

Margaret River

We went down to the Margaret River region in January with our friends and their children for a 3 days trip. It's our first time down there and I've always wanted to go down to try the wineries there. We've been to the Swan Valley and Hunter before but never down to the Margaret region.

We set off really early, at around 7 am from our friend's place at Applecross and our first stop was Busselton where we visited the famous Bussleton Jetty. It's supposed to be the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere and I can believe it. It stretches out to sea for about 3 km and at the end of the jetty, there's an underwater observatory which you have to pay to enter of course.

When we arrived there, it was still pretty early and I was wondering why the place was so quiet since it's a famous tourist spot but when we left at around 11 am, the place was getting crowded.

We arrived at the small town of Margaret River after lunch and we checked into our hotel which was the Margaret River resort. I highly recommend it if you go during the off season as it is relatively cheap but luxurious. There were 3 families there and we shared 2 villas among ourselves. In each villa, there's 2 bedrooms and a loft with an extra sofa bed. There's a living room and a kitchen along with it. It's a really great place to stay and use as a base to visit the region and furthermore there's IGA just around the corner. That evening, Jane cooked for us and I've to say that we were really pampered by the food she prepared.

The next day, we set off for Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. Everybody keeps telling us that we have to visit the place when we go down south as that's where the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean meets.


It's definitely worth a visit but unfortunately the lighthouse was closed when we were there and we couldn't go up to visit it.

On the way back, we had lunch at this restaurant called Colour Patch. It's just off the road from Cape Leeuwin back to Margaret River and in front of it, there's a bay which is very interesting. The scenery there is amazing and I don't mind settling there. For an off the beaten track restaurant, the food was really good. I liked the burger that I had and PC had fish and chips with a very different type of batter. The batter had different types of nuts and it definitely made the fish and chips taste really different. Definitely worth a meal there.


Now the interesting thing about the bay is that there are a couple of rays that use that as a sanctuary and they can be found swimming along the shores there. I managed to take some pictures of it and I overheard one of the local kids calling it Barry.

On the way back from Cape Leeuwin, we visited Leeuwin Estate and we managed to sample some wines there although we were too late to attend the tour of the vineyard. I ended up buying a carton of wine which they shipped back to Perth for me.

For dinner, we ended up eating back in Margaret River at a restaurant called Waves Seafood. We were there early but they were kind enough to let us in to wait. There were 2 chefs and we can actually see them cook. The food was good! Usually in these types of places, I won't have too much expectations but I've to say that the standard was beyond what I expected.

On the third day, we left for Perth and stopped by Margaret River Chocolate Factory but I'm not a chocolate lover so it did not hold any interest for me. Unfortunately, my friend's daughter fell ill and we decided to cut short our trip and went back from there.