the beginning of catching up

So it seems that I haven’t yet been able to bite the non-blogging demon and it has again been over a week since I last posted.  As such – below is the beginning of me recapping the occurrences of late:

Since last we left me I had just been to the Kimbra concert (ah-mazing) and I had bought her album on vinyl – although I did have one slight problem, my record player was broken. My lovely mother picked up on this within my inane ramblings about everything and anything and managed to grab me a new record player on catch of the day (thanks mum!) It won’t be the best quality – but it will allow me some time to save up to get a super-duper awesome player that I really want (one that looks vintage, possible in a wood casing…). I just picked it up from the Post Office today and I am loving hear that distinctly ‘vinyl’ sound…it is bliss to the ears.

Last weekend was a bit of an out of the ordinary for me. On Friday afternoon I headed up to Sydney for a work function and it was the definition of a whirlwind trip! We (my colleagues and I) landed in Sydney at about 6pm in the evening and we raced from the airport to the NRL game which my company sponsors (Sydney sporting experience done!). I was a bit lost in the rules of the game – but the atmosphere was amazing.

From the game we then caught a river taxi (OMG awesome – I didn’t even know these existed – might need to add I had only been to Sydney once before when I was a wee one) to our hotel and managed to pass under the Harbour Bridge and also by the Sydney Opera house (major landmarks done!).

We headed across to a local pub for a drink, before moving the party onto the Ivy (Sydney major nightclub spot done!). We partied on late until the night, and stumbled back to our hotel rooms only to fall asleep at 7am in the morning. This was short-lived as my alarm was set for 930 to get going for my midday flight. It truly was a jam-packed night – and I spent most of Saturday recovering from it – but I had an absolute blast! Once my travel benefits kick in where I work (151 days to go - not counting or anything…) I will need to head back and see the city.

Phew – that is enough recapping for right now – I will have the rest of goings on soon!

phuket

We headed off to Phuket in the early-ish hours of the morning and arrived in beautiful Phuket by lunch.

WARNING – PICTURE HEAVY!

We were picked up from the airport and driven to our beautiful villa where me and my family were staying:

The week and a bit I was there was spent:

go karting

 

failing miserably at the shooting range

scootering around town

 riding the tuk tuks

 eating multiple pad thais

attempting another cooking course (where I got to make my own pad thai)

visiting the big buddha

 venturing into the beautiful lagoons by canoe

bought some souvenirs

ate even more food!

It was absolutely amazing – I have only been back three days and I am already missing it!

How was your summer? Did you get away? If not – have you got anywhere planned?

singapore adventures

So I have finally had some actual downtown in Phuket and I decided to update you all on my adventures so far – it will also help me write down the goings on before I forget them all when I get home.

Any who – going back nearly one and a half weeks I was heading off to Melbourne airport for the beginning of a very long start to my holiday. My flight boarded on time – so it was a good start. Unfortunately it didn’t go so well after that. We were stuck on the tarmac for another one a half hours, due to a luggage discrepancy - this meant that the luggage needed to be recounted, apparently a long and arduous task. Once we got up in the air the flight went as planned, well until our landing. Due to our earlier delay, we were now competing with other planes to land, we  had to circle up to 5 times, adding another hour and a half more to the trip. Tired, hungry and ready to stretch my legs I finally got off the plane, nearly 10 hours later and met up with my family for an evening out for japanese food – yum!

The next day we walked around the city center, getting lost quite a few times (whoops!) and headed over to the new Marina Bay Sands resort – to take a look at the crazy boat hotel.

Unfortunately it was a bit of a gloomy day – but the views were amazing!

The next day my mum and I headed to a house in Singapore to complete a half day cooking course – we were feeling touristy! It was hosted in the lady’s house, so it was quite homey, and she had an outdoor kitchen at the back.

We learned to cook three dishes for the day:

 

Onde onde – described as pandan green coloured dough with liquid palm sugar filling rolled in coconut – or in other words – deliciousness in a mouthful.

Then came the popiah:

a kind of fresh spring roll, also absolutely amazingly delicious.

And then, last but not least, the noodles:

We left the cooking course feeling very bloated, but very delighted with the results. We got to leave with the recipes, so I am going to have to attempt some of these at home (if I can find the ingredients). If you ever are in Singapore and feel like cooking up a storm, you can check out her website here: Cookery Magic.

The next day was strictly set aside for the Singapore Zoo! Now I know a lot of people are iffy about Zoos, but the Singapore Zoo does an amazing job – all the animals are in great enclosures, all as close to their natural habitat as possible. They also have a great range of animals that I haven’t seen anywhere else.

The beautiful white tiger stole my heart – he was just gorgeous.

The next day we headed off to Phuket and that drew the end to the Singapore portion of my holiday.  More to come on my Phuket adventures…

excitement

The bag is nearly packed, and only one day of work left to go….

flights are booked!

Whilst back in Perth over the weekend I booked my flights for a holiday in January of next year – and I am so excited!

So far I only have booked my flights from Melbourne -> Singapore and then back from Singapore -> Melbourne, but the plan will be to spend some time in Singapore and then head up to Phuket, Thailand for over a week, and then either head up to Bangkok or to Chiang Mai for a couple of days, I haven’t decided yet. Nothing else has been booked  yet, but I definitely want to plan some activities for when I am away – I can only usually do the lie by the beach thing for a day or so as my fair skin isn’t really conducive to sun baking – so I have started my spreadsheet of potential activities to do. The one definite so far is a cooking course in Phuket, so I can learn how to make real Pad Thai.

Have you been to Thailand? What would you recommend seeing and doing? How about in Singapore?

perth: day two, three and four

So it seems I got lazy after day one and stopped blogging – so below is day two, three and four!

Day two

My second day in Perth was mostly filled with family time, napping and then a night out.

I headed over to my friend’s house for catching up and a few pre-night drinks. After a few hours of catching up chatter we moved onto the first location of the night. It had been over a year since I had headed out in Perth – and a lot has changed. With the change in the liquor licensing laws, smaller and more niche bars have blossomed – we visited one of these first. It was a cocktail bar just round the corner from my friend’s house. There was no official cocktail menu, but as long as you give the bar tender a direction (we went with ‘fruity’) you will no doubt end up with a delicious drink. We ended up with:

all I know is that marmalade was involved – and it was delicious!

The night then lead onto another bar – this time down a little alley (very Melbourne) and then onto our last destination for the night – the Bakery, where we had tickets to see Seekae – a Sydney electronic act. The Bakery fit out was amazing – with the exterior of the club being constructed with old shipping containers, at least two storeys high. The gig itself was also amazing, I’ll need to keep an eye to see whether these boys come out to Melbourne. Below is a video of one of their tunes in case you’re interested.

The night ended around 1ish as I needed to head home for some sleep before the City to Surf the next morning.

Day Three

Day three begun bright and early at 630 – so after 4 and a half hours sleep – and involved me getting ready for the run ahead. My parents dropped me and my brother at the Floreat ovals for the start of the City to Surf – we were only attempting the 4k run as my brother is new to the running scene and we didn’t want to scare him off with the 12k run. The run itself was over in only 25 minutes, but it was a fantastic start to the day – really reminded me that I should go running more often.

After a quick costume change back home (and a shower), the family headed to the golf club for brunch, where I indulged in my favourite Eggs Benedict (everything is made better with hollandaise sauce). This was followed with the post brunch sleepyness and then an immediate nap as soon as I got home. Awaking much, much later in the day, the rest of the afternoon was spent lazing away, and enjoying my parents foxtel!

Day Four

Was mostly filled with all the little tasks that I had left to last, as well as brushing up my physics skills whilst helping my brother with his homework – however we did manage to pop out for lunch at my favourite Japanese lunch place – Edo in Subiaco. Mum and I both got the Chicken Katsu Bento Box – probably too much food, but worth every bite:

The remains of the day was just taken up by last minute family catching up – and also last minute packing, and then heading to the airport for my flight back. I arrived quite late last night (1230 land – home by 1:15) and I am still recovering today, but it was worth it for the weekend away.

perth: day one

Last night I headed to the airport for my flight from Melbourne to Perth and I couldn’t be more excited – four days off, at least over 2o degree weather each day, and catching up with family and friends (with a 4k run in the middle there somewhere). The flight on the way over was without issue, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t bring my laptop with me, so I managed to finish my August book in one sitting (Time Traveller’s Wife - highly recommended read).

This morning I awoke at the crack of dawn (well 630ish), still being on Melbourne time, but it was comforting staying in bed whilst thinking I would usually be at work! The morning was busy with things to get checked off my to do’s – I got a much needed trim of my hair at my old favourite hairdresser, grabbed all the bits I need for my City 2 Surf run here on Sunday, and managed to pop in Floreat to get a book for my flight home (Catch-22) and grab a bite to eat. I had insisted to Mum before I came over that I would like to visit Delish for Lunch – they have the most amazing range of sandwiches, and one particular toastie that I just love:

my amazing Tex Mex Chix toastie – not exactly sure what is in it (I think chicken, avocado, cheddar, cream cheese and some sort of tex mex flavouring)

mum’s beef and caramelised onions sandwich

and james’ (couldn’t be patient enough for me to take a snap first) chicken and avocado sandwich.

I am sure there are many places that have popped up in Perth since my absence with better food – but this food just reminds me of when I lived here, so it is always a required re-visit.

After the delicious lunch, a much-needed nap was taken (how come you always sleep so easily on holidays) and the rest of the day was spent relaxing at home before another requested meal – fish and chips from my local fish and chip shop. Good fish and chips is just something I haven’t found in Melbourne, probably as I live in the North, so it is another must eat when I am back home.

Today is likely to be catching up with friends – but we’ll just see how the day turns out.

torquay weekend

The Friday and Saturday just gone was spent in Torquay, courtesy to a work offsite. We stayed at the beautiful Peppers Resort – I had never been to Torquay before so I loved the lush green golf course and the sound of the beach near by.

my beautiful hotel room

the doors that led straight out onto the golf course

the golf course – so peaceful and serene

the beautiful aboriginal art in my room – just love the colours

my outfit before heading out to dinner – dress from misc. store, tights, sportsgirl boots

gnocchi with beef ragu

steak with a red wine sauce and roasted vegetables.

I highly recommend the Sands if you are ever in Torquay, it was just so beautifully quiet and serene, and uber tasty food.

perth eatings

As promised here are some pictures of my eatings over my long weekend:

delicious caramel hot chocolate from choc block in karrinyup

the scrumptious chicken katsu from edo in subiaco (all that for just $9)

fish and chips from our local shop – eating it the way its supposed to be eaten – still on the paper!

eggs benedict from the karrinyup golf club

 

and although I left a few days too early, a special note to a special someone:

Happy Birthday Mum!!

heading out west

Tonight I am heading back home for a long weekend and I can’t wait! Although I’ll be getting in at midnight Perth time (three am Melbourne time) I imagine I will be full of energy, just excited to be back home. Although I have been in Melbourne two years now, and have even bought my own house here, I still call Perth home, maybe more because it’s where all my family is.  The weekend is fairly unplanned as the thing I love best about going home is just relaxing at our house, and being around my brother and parents.  Although some must do’s for when I go home to Perth include:

• Buying some Biltong from the South African shop. Not many South African expats seem to make it over to Melbourne, which results in a severe lack of good Biltong here – Perth has heaps of good South African stores so I will definitely be chowing down all I can eat whilst I am there
• Eating Fish & Chips – no fish & chips in Melbourne have yet to come close to the deliciousness of the fish at our local fish and chip shop back in Perth
• Visit Shoe Show – I am sure I just haven’t found the equivalent yet in Melbourne, but Shoe Show in Perth is a chain of stores that carry brand name shoes (think I Love Billy to Tony Bianco) for cheaper prices. It is always good to pop in there when I am in Perth and see if any good bargains are to be had
• Head to Edo in Subiaco for a Chicken Katsu Bento Box – best chicken katsu I’ve ever had! And so reasonably priced, I highly recommend you pop in and grab any one of their bento boxes for a lunch or a takeaway dinner.
• Visit Karrinyup shopping centre – I worked in this shopping centre for over 3  years whilst at Uni, and love to pop in to see what has changed. It also has a really great range of shops now, so perfect for a quick shop and coffee with mum!

Now a lot of my must dos seem to centre around food – but I suppose that is just how most of my life is – I certainly live to eat, not eat to live! I’ll have some updates on how my Perth adventures go over the weekend soon.