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).