Dinner

Just had dinner with my colleagues at the local pub, Etamogah Pub. It's quite a nice pub with a very interesting architecture. The pub is based on a series of cartoon by Ken Maynard. Had the Surf and Turf and it wasn't too bad. Liked the sauce on the prawns.

The standard of food in Western Australia has definitely improved over the years and compared to 10 years ago, it's really like night and day. Not that I was here 10 years ago but this is based on what my friends have informed me. I haven't really tried that many restaurants that I would like but a lot of them have been pretty good. Specially bought the Godd Food Guide published by The West Australian and will be trying the restaurants recommended in there. So far I've been to Little Creatures and I've to say that it's good. You can see the kitchen as it is in the middle of the floor and based on what I've seen, the chef really take pride on the food they serve. I had the steak burger and the pizza and the pizza is definitely worth a try. And of course it helps that they have some of the best beer in town.

Little Creatures
40 Mews Road, Fremantle WA 6160

Back again?

Haven't updated the blog for a while. I guess I definitely have ADD but after reading some of the comments and people finding it useful, I think I should carry on doing it. The reason I did it after all is to chart what has been going on and at the same time, hope people find the info useful.

Currently I'm not really in Perth but in a small town 160 km east of Perth called Cunderdin. The population is just 850 which is less than the students I used to have back in Sin. Afterall having been in the country for the last year, I've realised that I'm a 'kampung' boy at all. You can't beat the fresh air, the quiet and the peacefulness you get here. People still live their car doors unlocked here although I don't have that practise. The traffic is amazing (there's no traffic light) so no worries about being stuck in a traffic jam on the way to work.

My parents came over and they commented on how bright the stars looked like and with no light pollution, it's not surprising. You can actually see constellations here. The photo was taken by my wife from the back of the garden of a typical sunset.

On the down side, people may say that it's boring but frankly I haven't felt bored yet. If it's the city life that I need, it's only 1 h 30 mins away and frankly that's not too bad after you get used to it.

I'll try and ensure that I update the blog regularly soon so see you around.

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)

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.