Perth - Day 4 - The Wedding!

Today is THE DAY for S! She's getting married! She's the 3rd among the 4 of us best friends to get hitched! I still remember when we were in high school, we always like to "predict" who will get married first! And now finally the order is confirmed as G, PS, S and I will be the last!

This is the Church where they will get married in. I think it's called Guildford Church or something like that. It is in Guildford Grammar School, where the groom used to attend classes :)

The church is really old and quaint - simply love it for it's rich history! And the interior is just magnificent! Check out the pics!

Guildford Church?

Zafferano's @ The Old Swan Brewery

1938 Rolls Royce as the bridal car!

Appetizer of Scallops & Portobello Mushrooms

Main of Tenderloin with Potato

The wedding was fantastic. Everyone is just so happy for the bride and groom. S' father made a really funny speech, and it was really entertaining. The food was great, although we had to wait for quite awhile for the mains to be served. I love the appetizer of 3 huge scallops and an even huger portobello mushroom! I can never find such big juicy scallops back home :( Why do you think I keep eating scallops in Perth!?

Champagne is obviously a must at weddings! And it was love at first sip when I tasted Vasse Felix Silver Knight Brut N.V.! It was sweet like honey, crisp and just leaves a very nice clean after taste. Ok, I'm no expert in wine, but I know what my tastebuds like! :)

Went to Google Vasse Felix after the wedding, and found out that they are situated right in Margaret River! And that is where we are heading to the next day! Hurray!

Stay tuned for Margaret River Adventures!

Perth - Day 3

Ok, day 3 in Perth! Today we woke up early to catch the coach to Rockingham! We are going to chase the Dolphins! Yeah!

Well, I actually wanted to SWIM with them, but that tour was full and the next best thing was to see them from a boat :( That's me on the boat, trying very hard to smile in the freezing cold! The wind was blowing really hard, and it's #$^%^%$ cold! My thin jacket is not doing it's job properly!

Will I see the dolphins before I freeze to death?...

Dolphins...bobbing up and down...apparently sleeping...

Dolphins! It's so difficult to take pictures of them, because they are zooming around and seemed to be teasing us. The way to spot a dolphin is to spot the birds first. The dolphins will chase the small fishes into a "corner", and the birds will swoop down and feed on these fishes! How convenient.

And dolphins sleep at the surface of the water. They will bop up and down when they sleep. So cute! I learnt a lot about the dolphins that day, thanks to the skipper. He looks like Jamie Oliver, by the way :)

This is the Dolphin Swim boat! I will do this the next time!

Envy the peeps on the Dolphin Swim! They looked like they were really enjoying themselves. In order to make the dolphins "chase" us, the skipper revved up the boat and started to speed! The white foams the speeding boat made were supposed to attract the dolphins to chase after us, and even maybe jump out of the water! We succeeded once....haha...oh well, it was worth the try.

The tour lasted the whole morning, and by mid afternoon, we were back in Perth City. Went to 88 Royal for lunch - this is where TFP usually have her lunches too! The food was not bad, and priced quite cheaply, compared to the other meals we had! I had the chicken schnitzel burger, and J had the rice with vegetables or something.

Didn't feel like going anywhere in the afternoon because it was so hot! So we went to the gym for a workout, and dipped into the pool! Nice!

We lounged around the pool area, until it was dinner time and drove to the CBD area for a bit of shopping. Got a Portmans knitted top, which I absolutely love! Didn't get anything from Witchery, cos they are too expensive.

Then we went to Northbridge for dinner again! I wanted to have some Vietnamese food, but we walked and walked and walked, and could not find the famous restaurant. So ended up in the 1st Vietnamese restaurant that we came across - and the food was yucky :( Should have gone back to Hong Kong BBQ!

Anyway, we were really exhausted after the dinner and headed back to the apartment. Slept early, because it's S' wedding the next day!

This is the whole reason why we came to Perth!

Perth - Day 2

On our 2nd day in Perth, we took the ferry to Rottnest Island. We rushed to the ferry terminal, just in time to take the 10.45am boat! The journey on the Swan River was really nice and calm. The ferry brought us to Fremantle, where we have to change into a bigger boat to cross the open seas to Rottnest.

At Fremantle, J bought a HUGE muffin and I got a HUGE chocolate chip cookie! And we were munching our grub in the boat, when the sea turned rough and we were rocked mercilessly from side to side, up and down! The waves were huge! I was trying very hard not to puke! :( I was glad I did not finish the HUGE cookie!

Fremantle Port

Rottnest Island

After the choppy ride, we were greeted by the crystal clear, turqouise blue waters of Rottnest Island! It was simply breathtaking! Totally worth the ride!

Jetty where we landed safely....at last...

Holy Trinity Church on the Island

After the choppy ride, I was amazingly hungry once I hit solid ground! :) Off we went to Rottnest Bakery! I didn't take pictures as my hands were greasy with the food, and didn't want to dirty my camera. J ordered the chicken schnitzel and I had a HUGE slice of pizza. The schnitzel was too salty, but the accompanying fries were really crispy on the outside and fluffy on the insides! Why does the french fries taste yummy anywhere in Perth?

We spent the day at The Basin - soaking up the sun and just basically chilling out. The Basin is a famous spot on the island for swimming but we didn't know how to go about it because the waves are so strong. Then I saw an old lady swimming easily out at least for 200metres and I was dumbfounded! I guess she saw the look on my face, and then showed me where to swim. You have to swim along the left edge of the "basin" where the waters are shallow, and the waves won't drag you down. After that, it was FUN all the way!

The Basin

After the sun, sand and sea. We finally reached Perth City at 6pm, and thankfully the ferry ride back was PEACEFUL! We grabbed a cab back to rest for awhile before heading out to dinner at Northbridge, which is Perth's Chinatown. My colleague highly recommend Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant, so we went to check it out.

The restaurant was packed! We got a seat after like 15 minutes. Being in a Cantonese restaurant, we had to have some roast meat, and I decided on the duck. It was a good choice! We were lucky as they had a new batch of newly roasted duck - the skin was real crispy with hardly any fats visible, and the meat is just so tender! I think we could have finish the whole duck! The AUD70 was totally worth it!

The hotplate tofu also came with big, bursty prawns. I think there were at least 8 of them. I remembered devouring 4 :) And the greens were alright, I just thought we have to keep healthy while travelling and needed a balanced meal. We also had soup - J had crabmeat corn soup, and the dried scallop soup for me, but the soup was not done very well.

THE Roast Duck, Hotplate Tofu and Greens...

Overall, it was a good meal and I am still thinking of the roast duck now! After the huge meal, we went back to the service apartment to have an early night, as we were going to visit the Dolphins the next day! Hurray!

Perth - Day 1

Back from Perth! My first REAL holiday since 2003, where I did a tour of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney solo. Holidays with family and to shopping destination like Bangkok and Hong Kong does not count!

J came along (he has to be the driver :)), and we had great time! Eating, lazing by the beach, checking out wineries, chasing dolphins...it was the ideal holiday! No shopping, no mad rush, and nice weather with amazing blue skies everyday!

We arrived in Perth at 6 in the morning (yawn!), and S came to pick us up. So the first thing we did was to have breakfast. The Sebel Residence East Perth was where we stayed, and there is a small little cafe called Ba Ba Black Cafe. I thought the name was cute :) And they serve awesome coffee! Check out the Latte Art.

Ham and cheese croissant, presented nicely... A mountain of scrambled eggs on toast...
Cup-o-cinno...
View of the lake from our studio apartment...nice!

We went to Subiaco for a walk after breakfast, and learnt about the different "P's" of parking! "1P" for 1 hour free parking, "2P" for 2 hours, etc. It was something new to us. Wish Singy has this system!

As it was still early, we decided to drive down to Cottlesloe Beach. It was an easy drive - go all the way straight on Marine Drive (or something like that), once you see Eric Street, turn left. Go straight again until you see the shimmering ocean and the endless blue sky!

The fresh sea air is making us hungry. So we went to the Indiana Tea House for the view, as well as for some food.

Garlic prawn...very nice!

There are birds everywhere...can't resist taking these two on top of the car!

After that, we drove back to the apartment and zonked out! Had dinner at the Korean restaurant below the apartment but did not take pictures, cos the lights are too dim. But the food was good! One of the best Korean cuisine I've ever eaten.

Then we turned in early for the night, as we have to wake up early (again!) to go to Rottnest Island. Hurray! More sun, sand and sea...

Friday Happenings...

14 March 2008. The day we settled on a flat! Scary, exhilarating, apprehensive, excited feelings all rolled into this tiny heart of mine. It will only be ready in 2011, but I'm building grand plans on how I want to furnish it :)

Anyway, after we settled the house, I went back to the office, because I know my team had bought J.Co Donuts for our bi-monthly Food Friday! Food Friday is the day when my team buy some treats for the whole department, which everyone looks forward to! I hope! :)

Aren't they pretty??

Pretty Pink innards...

Ok, I am still a Krispy Kreme fan. J.Co donuts look pretty, but they are just not as fluffy soft as Krispy Kreme's! The strawberry pink donut I got did not taste of strawberry at all, it just taste sugary. The filling tastes like coloured butter cream, and that's about it. No taste of strawberry at all! Unlike Krispy Kreme's strawberry jelly filling....yum! Call me biased but I still prefer Krispy Kreme.

Oh, why can't they open a Krispy Kreme outlet here in Singapore, when 80% of the people I know are crazy over them?! I know we always hand carry some delicious morsels of the donuts when we travel back from countries where they actually have Krispy Kreme! Aaaarrggghh.....!?

After the donut fest, I went down to Loof for pre-dinner drinks with some of my colleagues. It was a nice, sunny day, which was such a relief from the pouring rain of the past few weeks!

View of sunset from Loof...

Loof is a cosy place to have drinks, and they have really nice pub grub. And surprisingly, the service was quite good this time round! I was pleasantly surprised!

Pimm's No. 1 - looks so 'healthy' with the cucumber stick!

Yummy calamari...

It started to drizzle after awhile, and we were asked if we want to move into the enclosed area. So we did, and we had another different view of the 'skyline' from Loof.

View from the other side of Loof...

After drinks, we went to the "Moi Lum" for dinner, but too bad I didn't take any pictures! The food was good! Will go there another time and make sure that I take some drool-worthy pics :)