Perth - Day 1-3

We did our packing 2 days prior to departure and were quite proud of ourselves that we were not doing that frantically in the morning of departure. So confidently we drove to the airport and walked to the check-in counter to check-in. And according to Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I had a rude shock when the lady asked me, "Did you apply for visa to Australia?" And I returned her with a puzzled look and before I knew it, we were whisked to another counter to pay for the instant application of visa that cost us a freaking $140 in total! Damn it......

Despite the feeling of being ripped off, we braced on and boarded our flight happily. After less than 5 hours, we were greeted with a 34 degrees weather at Perth. Notwithstanding the sweltering heat, we got out to the car park and got our Toyota Corolla.

After a short ride of about 20 minutes, we reached our B&B that is pretty near to town area, easily accessible to North Bridge and CBD area. This is where we called home for the next 3 nights.

Durack House, a highly rated B&B at Tripadvisor. Lovely country style home.

The next morning, we spent our day at Subiaco and Fremantle. Fremantle is known for its cafes and fish & chips and that is of course something that we are careful not to miss! Fremantle is a bustling little town with lots of tourists and locals chilling out on a Sunday afternoon.

The following day, we headed to the Kings Park for a scenic walk around the Botanic Gardens. Before it turned too hot to bear, we decided to call it a morning and head out to Swan Valley.





As we are not wine fanatics, we didn't go to the vineyards but we went to the honey stores and restaurants and most interestingly, the Cuddly Animal Farm, where we had a upclose and personal experience with the sheeps.

Unfortunate change of travel plans

Really been a long while since I last updated and I missed blogging. Been so caught up with work that I have become lazy, to at least keep up with the habit of blogging about our relationship. But shall try to blog more often to minute down the happy moments (or sad ones? which I hope not!)

We had planned for our long overdue Japan trip in 2011 and to be in time for Sakura. So there I went spending time to do my research diligently on the accommodation and places to visit. But alas, we had to cancel our trip entirely a few weeks before our trip due to the unfortunate event in Japan. So plans for Japan had to be shelved for the time being and aching for a holiday, we decided to go Perth instead!

Not having been to Perth, we decided that with the one week of leave, we can make do with Australia. So the cycle of getting air tickets and finding accommodation start all over again and plans for Perth were settled within a week! Isn't this efficient?

So Perth here we come!

Happy Birthday Lar Lar!

Yesterday was Lar Lar's birthday and we celebrated it just like an old couple :) He is not one who will fuss over such celebrations (or so I thought) so we had a simple dinner at Plaza Singapura. Till the end of dinner, he asked me 'so where's my surprise?' and I was dumbfounded. It caught me by surprise instead of me giving him the 'surprise'.

So luckily he really wasn't hoping for a surprise from me although I thought that it would be a nice gesture. Point taken and noted :P Then it dawned upon me that despite being together for years, we should still make an effort to shower each other with pleasant surprises and small little thoughtful gifts. To give that little more sparkle and life into our marriage. It is really quite easy to slip into this '老夫老妻' mode and take things for granted many a times.

Now it's high time to crack my head on how to celebrate our 1st year Anniversary come this Halloween. Gosh, time really flies! It has been almost a year but it feels like we are newly married. Better make it a memorable one this time!

Office celebrations

After the long weekend of celebrations, I was greeted with another wave of celebrations in office with all the gals! I am entering into my sixth month into my new job and all my wonderful colleagues have helped me sail through and made the smooth transition into the working environment. I am thankful that they have made my working life more interesting and 'less miserable'. Without them, I would not be able to pull through my work from day to day!

Thank you all!!!

Yummy hot chocolate cake!

Our lunch at the newly opened Pizza Hut at T1

Our team of ladies, lined up in front of my cubicle.

Thank you for the lovely digital photo frame!

Off to Singapore Flyer... finally!

I have been talking about the Singapore Flyer for the longest time and since I have the discount voucher, we (or rather I) decided that we shall spend my birthday at the Singapore Flyer! As it was a on a weekday, the place was not crowded and we only had to share the capsule with another Korean couple. Although we didn't have the privacy of a capsule for our own, it was still good as we had someone to take a photo for us!

Nearing the top of the world!

Lovely couple shot!

After the 30 minutes ride, we went on to do shopping for my present. After looking around, I settled for a watch, which was within lar lar's 'limited' budget. Although it was a short afternoon out, we felt washed out when evening drew near and we made our way home before the evening peak hour kicked in.

Nothing felt better than spending a great Monday without work and with lar lar by my side!

Sunday brunch and dinner

We started our day early at Millenia Walk for Sunday brunch. Caleb highly recommended this German restaurant, a big part that was due to the free flow of beer. Yes, we were potentially looking at 4 men getting drunk early on Sunday afternoon! But of course that didn't happen as they had proven to be great drinkers and the beer probably felt like plain water to them.

What added on to the great celebration was mama Tracy and papa Sean was back in Singapore! Besides welcoming them back, we were greeted with another piece of good news, that was mama Tracy was really going to be mummy come March!!! We were all so elated with the news and we couldn't stop interviewing the soon-to-be parents. Now, our family is going to get bigger and bigger now!

Durian cake from Emicakes, which we concluded were nicer than the desserts served there.

Wonder gals of five!

Our big 'family'

After our brunch, we proceeded back home for more board games to spend the remaining of the Sunday afternoon before the rest started to turn blue with the impending Monday. For once, I didn't turn blue that fast as I took leave the following day. After our games, we proceeded to my jie jie's place for another round of dinner, durians and cake cutting!

Love you all for the well wishes and showering me with so much love, care and certainly not forgetting the presents!!!

Welcome to Club 31

I have been lazy, not been updating my posts lately. Besides getting bogged down by work, there isn't much happenings lately either to share. Till recently that my big day came and my weekends start to look and feel more exciting. Yes, I have officially stepped into Club 31 and I can only say that life's getting better . I am surrounded with a loving husband, great family, wonderful friends and nice colleagues, so what else really matters more?

So I spent a fantastic weekend with all these people and it certainly lifted up my spirits, especially since my hectic week of work prior to all the celebrations. I started my Saturday early at Universal Studios Singapore for my company's family day and we were blessed with good weather. To think that the weather forecast the day before was showers with thunder! Although I had to work, it didn't really feel like work as I had a great time with the committee members. It wasn't that tough being part of the committee afterall.

In the afternoon, I went back to buy all the stuff for the potluck session in the evening. And we were so engrossed with all the food that we forgot about the photo taking till we were almost done with it!

We had food like pizza, curry chicken, satay, chicken wings, mango pudding.... and the list goes on and on and on..........

I had my wish granted, which was the cake from Awfully Chocolate!

Our group picture, taken on self timer, which ended up with a 'wu lian pai' :P

We missed the company of Eileen and family as Lecia was down with HFMD. Poor gal and her fast recovery was certainly in one of my birthday wishes! Hope to see her up and about soon!