New Job, New Start

I am currently at work typing an entry on one of my PCs, the one that I use to send emails to clients, Ah ma, Jan and Di. I have been at this new job for roughly 3 weeks now.

For those who are curious about my job, I am working in a Marine Survey company by the name of BF. Basically our company provides services to a few industries (Marine, Engineering, Naval, Architecture, Structural Engineering and Loss Adjustment backgrounds) in towage and transport approvals, insurance claims and loss, remaining on board consumables and condition survey of vessels and the list just goes on. We have 11 services altogether, however most of the jobs will be On Hire and Off Hire surveys.  BF has a few offices around the world, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, China and Australia.  Offices are also located in Houston and London.

Basically, I work as a personal assistant to my boss, who is the area manager of the office in Australia. Our office in Perth is very small, compared to other companies in the other countries. We only have 4 staff in our office. I think our company will grow when we move to Subi next month, next to our sister company, BS.  We will be hiring an assistant to assist me in my work. 

Every morning, I come into the office at around eight. My job only starts at eight thirty but I am always early. Hehehe! I check the emails first thing in the morning, boil some hot water and go through the mails I got earlier from our PO Box at the post office and mailbox then sit back and relax and have my first cup of milo with lemon biscuits. When my boss arrives, I make him his first cup of coffee. I am not required to do that but I just like to make sure that my boss is comfortable in the morning. Throughout the day, I answer phone calls, take down messages, look through reports if there are any, ammend them and send them back to the boss to QC, change the mistakes and when they are ready, send them to the client either by email or courier service. Every Monday and Wednesday, the accoutant comes in, so I have to prepare all the receipts, expenses, timesheets which she has to go through and issue to the clients.

When the surveyors get a job in Dampier, Victoria, Geelong or somewhere, I will have to book their accomodation, airticket, car hire etc. I will also have to fill in some forms to get them prepared for their job and print out certificates for them to bring along on their jobs. When they are back from their jobs, I will have to rush them for their timesheets, reports, and expenses. Quite cham…everyday I am rushing the boss, rushing the surveyors for documents. Hehehe.

My favorite time of the day will be lunch time. My lunch break is for an hour. This is when I go to the post office to post letters for the company, the bank to pay bills etc. Normally I stop by the bakery on my way to the bank. Hehehe. This is when I end up buying some blueberry danish and apple danish. Hen hao zhe. After I return to the office, I will heat my bento and slowly eat my lunch while I read my novel. Currently I am reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

My job is really slow paced and relaxing. Most of the time, I find myself with nothing to do so I end up surfing the net, playing pet society and farmville on facebook and chatting with people who are online. Hehehe. My boss is really really nice. Once he caught me playing farmville and he chuckled to himself and said “Farmville, my wife loves that. She is crazy about it”. My boss worked in Malaysia and Singapore before so he tries to speak a bit of Malay to me everyday. Every morning, he greets me with a “Selamat Pagi, how is young Joanne today?” and “terima kasih” when I serve him his coffee.

Oklah, I have to get back to work though I have nothing to do. Time to check on my eggplants in Farmville. Hehehe! Adios till my next post.

Dae Jeong Gam (大长今) and Dragon Palace Restaurant

There is a new korean eatery named Dae Jeong Gam (大长今) near Formosa. Everytime Gil and I  pass by it on our way to Formosa, we will tell each other that we must visit it soon.

Today, we finally had a chance to try this new place. Xian Zhang and I met Gil and Trish for lunch again today. We had a hard time deciding which cuisine to have for lunch. It was a debate between Jap, Korean and Vietnamese. Trish mentioned about the new place called Milk and Honey but upon reaching there, we found out that it just serves cakes and tea and coffee. Gil then suggested trying Dae Jeong Gam and after looking at the menu, we decided to give the food a try.

Xian Zhang’s bibimbap. I liked this dish. Mmm….very tasty especially with the chilli sauce they provided. You can’t see the egg because I only remembered to take photos of this dish after Xian Zhang mixed it up.

I ordered this dish. I think it was called the Spicy Tofu something. It consisted of  Tofu, Kimchi, and an Egg. It was very tasty as well. Went well with some rice. This dish was served with side dishes of Kimchi, beansprouts and some jelly thing.

This was the jelly side dish. Did not like it at all. It had some vinegar tasting sauce over it.

We ordered a bulgogi to share. I really liked this dish and I sapu most of it. It was sweet and really tasty. Yum!

When Gil saw this on the menu, she just had to try it. It was Korean cold noodles. When the waiter served this dish, he handed us a tube that had lemons on it and also this transparent container that contained some vinegar. We did not know what to do with it. The owner came over and told us that we were supposed to add some vinegar into the noodles and then add the tube which turned out to be mustard on top of the noodles. I was amazed and just had to try it. The noodles were surprisingly quite good, the mustard made it taste like wasabi on top of cold noodles.

Trish ordered the Seafood Omelette or was it Seafood Pancake? I was really full by then so I do not remember much about this dish. I only remember that it had loads of cuttlefish.

Quite a satisfying lunch? Will I go again? You bet!

Last Tuesday, Julianna, my boss treated us NorthShore admin assistants to dinner at the classy Dragon Palace Restaurant in NorthBridge. Did not take many photos because yes…the battery of my camera was flat.

It was a buffet/ karaoke dinner. You eat and sing for 3 hours at the cost of AUD 23 on weekdays and AUD 29 on weekends. You take some food from the buffet table and bring it into the karaoke room to eat so that you can sing while you eat. The place was sure impressive. Very pretty. The buffet was alright, not a huge selection but you cannot expect anything much for that price. We had a nice night singing though. Even Julianna joined in the singing, singing some songs from Teresa Teng and Leslie Chung. Just noticed that the signboard spells Drogon instead of Dragon! Hahahaha!

The colourful lighted staircase leading to the karaoke lounge.

A view of the karaoke bar where they sold liquor and the buffet table. You probably noticed that the warmers are empty and there isn”t any food. Hehehe! I only remembered to take this pic when we were leaving. Paiseh. Like I said, the food wasn’t great. There was fried rice, yee mien, two dishes of beef, some chicken dish, ox tripes, and one cuttlefish dish. They also had a dessert section where there was honeydew sago, grassjelly dessert, a really dry looking cake, spring rolls, char siew puffs, durian puffs, some daifukus, honeydew and watermelon. There were free drinks as well, coke or pokka green tea. On top of that, there was dim sum which consisted of ox tripes again, char siew paos, hao kao, siao long paos i think. There was also sweet corn soup.

It was a fun night hanging out with my boss and friends from the NorthShore team. Working with Julianna is really rewarding because she is always treating us to dinners, showing her appreciation for our work. Too bad Zoe and Teresa could not make it to the dinner though. I sure had fun with Gil, Chris, Sally and Sandra.

Cooking spree…

Xian zhang and I  have been eating out during lunch quite alot so we thought that it would be a change to eat at home. So far, I have cooked Spaghetti Bolognaise, onion chicken, Jan’s vegetable stew, sweet potato soup and my best dish, fried rice.

I love using Jan’s recipes as they are really easy to follow and cook and they taste super yummy too! (^__^)y I didn’t take any pictures of my cookings. Sigh…I only remembered after we finished eating. Sigh…I was really happy with how all my dishes turned out though. I really liked Jan’s recipe for the vegetable stew though I cut two fingers in the process. The pumpkin was damn hard lah…That stew was really tasty though…yum…I loved the pumpkins and carrots in it. Mmm…

I managed to make my onion chicken a tad darker than my usual whiter looking chicken. I just added more oyster sauce and light soya sauce to it. Is that how you do it, Ah Ma? I do not know how Ah Ma manages to get her onion chicken so tasty and salty. Mine tasted a bit bland. Hmmm….

Last week, I cooked Spaghetti Carbonara for Xian Zhang’s and my lunch. I followed Jan’s Spaghetti Carbonara recipe from scratch however I used chicken breast instead of bacon. Bacon very kui lah. This time I managed to remember to take photos of my cooking.

This time my Spaghetti Carbonara sauce turned out much better than the previous time. Maybe it had something to do with the cream I used. I checked and made sure that the cream could be used for cooking Carbonara. The pic is a bit blur because the picture was taken when the sauce was still boiling on the stove.

The pasta took ages to boil so by the time they were ready, most of the sauce had dried up. I ended up not having enough sauce for the pasta. One lesson learnt. I was quite proud of my dish though as it tasted pretty nice.

On a separate note, I cooked some apple and red dates dessert which was meant to be good for cough when I was ill. I added some lo han guo and white fungus into the dessert. The dessert tasted pretty sweet and nice but it did nothing to cure my cough. Hahaha. I did not really like the taste of the apples though, it was a tad too sour for me.

I must remember to take photos of my cooking. I keep regretting when I realized that I had not taken any photos of my cooking and it is not as if I cook everyday. Sigh… Thinking of trying Jan’s recipe for grilled lemon chicken next.

Lunch at the C Restaurant

The C Restaurant at St Martin’s Tower is having an August promotion, “pay whatever you like” lunch. You get to eat an entree, a main and also dessert for whatever amount you wish to pay.  Yesterday Xian Zhang and I met Trish and Gil for lunch in the city and Trish then suggested to go for lunch at this particular C Restaurant.

My first thought upon walking into the restaurant was that I was feeling slightly dizzy already. For your information, C Restaurant is a revolving restaurant at the top of the St Martin’s Tower. It has a really spectacular view of Perth. Really breathtaking. The restaurant was surprisingly empty even though they were having such a great deal for lunch.

There are 5 entrees, mains and desserts to choose  from. There were four of us so we chose 4 mains and 4 desserts. We skipped entree as Trish said that she and a friend shared 1 entree, 2 mains and 2 desserts and they were really full so she suggested that we just had mains and desserts.

A pic of the restaurant.  The part where we are sitting revolves whereas the upper part which is not carpeted is stationary.

The only pic I took of the view. My battery was flat.

I opted for the Braised Dorper lamb shank with creamy mashed potato. My lamb shank was the first dish to arrive. The lamb shank was pretty good, just a tad dry. I would prefer it with more gravy. The lamb was really soft that it just fell off the bone. No need to cut or anything. I liked the mash potato, really creamy.

Xian Zhang had the 100% Wagyu beef burger served with tomato and red pepper relish, salad and straight cut chips. Quite small but it was really tasty. The tomato and red pepper radish tasted really good with the fries and the burger.

Trish had the Cog au vin with parsnip mash and English spinach. I thought that this dish was alright, I am not a huge fan of spinach. Hehehe. Trish and Gil liked it though.

Gil went for the Barramundi fillet with caponata vegetables. The sauce on the left was lemon basil aioli. This dish was really good. I was surprised, the fillet was really sweet and it went great with the lemon basil aioli.

For dessert, I had this trio icecream filled profi…something. I only took the top half of the menu whereas I forgot to take the bottom half so I do not know the names of the different desserts. Hehehe! Also my battery was flat. Looks good right? It tasted good as well…hehehe. The icecreams were vanilla, hazelnut and coconut, I think.

Xian Zhang had their very chocolate tart. Di would not have liked this dessert because it was covered with dark chocolate. Very rich, very sinful but Xian Zhang enjoyed every single bite of it.

Trish’s creme bulee. Mmm….it was good.

And lastly, Gil’s rice pudding dessert. It wasn’t great. We expected the rice pudding to be like porridge but it turned out to be more like the mango sticky rice you get in Thai desserts. It was quite dry.

Overall, C restaurant was a really nice experience. We each paid about AUD 10 for our meal. Hehehe! Pretty “dai” eh?

Utopia Karaoke Competition

Just returned from Utopia Karaoke Competition. We went to the Karaoke Competition tonight to support Gil’s good friend, Tricia, known better as Trish. Tonight, there were eight contestants competing to get into the semi finals. They each had to sing two songs. Trish sang a song by Coco Li and another by Ah Mei. Xian Zhang and I got to Utopia early where we had our vegetarian dinner and booked a table for Gil and friends. Trish was already there with her aunt, having dinner as well. Later her whole family and her boyfriend’s family came to support her. After we had our dinner, Helene and Anita came and joined us at our table. It was good that we came earlier and booked a table because by seven fifteen, the place was pretty packed. Besides Helene and Anita, there was Hock, Michael (whom I thought was my new boss but turned out not to be), the couple (forgot their name) came as well. Gil finally came at seven thirty carrying a small box that carried a yellow sunflower and some food (food from Spencer Village) for Trish’s family.

Gil called me at six forty five and I asked her where she was and she said that she was only just leaving her house. I was worried that she was not going to make it for Trish’s first song as Trish was contestant no 2 but Gil did make it in the end as the competition started late. It finally started at seven thirty. The MCs were seriously nothing to shout about. They tried hard but we had trouble understanding them as they had really broken English.

Most of the contestants were pretty good. They could sing pretty well. Just that some lacked feelings in their songs and some started off with quite a shaky key. There was a particularly good contestant by the name of Elaine. We thought that she was the strongest competitor next to Trish. When Trish’s turn came, we cheered and shouted till we were hoarse. Trish was really good. She gave me goosebumps when she sang the song by Coco Li. Her voice was really sweet. Gil was not lying when she said that Trish could sing really well. As Trish finished her last note, Gil got Trish’s boyfriend, Des to go up to the stage to present Trish with her flower. So sweet of Gil. During Trish’s second song, Gil got to go up and present Trish’s with a second bouquet of flowers which Trish’s mum brought.

After all the contestants had sang their first songs, we had a five minute intersession. Then the contestants went up again to sing their second songs. Seriously I thought that Elaine was really good. She sang a song by FIR which had all these weird notes but she captured them really well. There was this guy who sang a Thai song which obviously no one understood. Not great at all but everyone thought he was cool because he sang a Thai song. Another sang one of Di’s favourite songs from 10 Things I Hate About You (I can’t take my eyes off you?). Quite good but no feelings. This song is supposed to be cheesy (what Trish said)  but I did not get any feelings. Another sang Yong Qi by Fish Leong. Nothing exciting either.

After all the rest of the contestants had sung their second songs, the MCs got one of the judges to come up to sing with his friend. This judge won last year’s karaoke competition according to Helene. His friend who came up to sing with him joined this year’s competition but got kicked out in the preliminary round. They sang Ang Jing by Jay Zhou. They were quite good but chou yam a bit at the end when the judge tried to hit some high note. Then the MCs came up to sing Endless Love. I thought that they were pretty good, especially the lady MC.

Finally the results…Simon who had deafening fans got in! He sure had lots of supporters. They all stood upstairs around the railings and each time Simon came on stage, they cheered and shouted so loudly that my eardrums will ring for a minute. He was alright. He sang Yue Liang Dao Piao Wo De Xin by Fei Yi Qin. Hehehe! So schoolboy. Reminded me of Shou Ru, Di’s friend who used to sing classic songs instead of pop songs. Next, a girl from Indonesia got in. She was pretty strong but I thought that she sang without feelings. The boy who sang the Thai song got in as well, much to my surprise. By now…Gil and I were feelings rather dejected because we were pretty sure that Elaine would get in because she was pretty good and rather popular. In fact we thought that Trish, the Indo girl and Elaine will get in but we were surprised when the two boys got in. As usual, the MCs asked the crowd who they thought the last contestant who got in was. Of course, our table shouted Trish’s name. It was quite funny, our table was shouting “Tricia, Tricia” and another table in front was shouting “Elaine Elaine”. Hehehe!

Trish got in! She got into the semi finals! Each contestant who got in will receive a comment from a judge when they are on the stage. Note that all the previous three contestants got really good comments such as they were powerful, they chose great songs, really good choices, really like their style of singing. When Trish went up to the stage, they got this judge who was a music teacher to comment. That music teacher said that Trish chose two good songs but when she sang she had to make sure that her actions and her singing matched! What did she mean by that? And not only that, not just one judge commented, they made that last year’s winner (sei leng chai) comment as well! Two instead of one! And he said “Do you want me to speak English or what?” and Trish really politely said English please because she could not understand Mandarin and he said “Guo Yu” lah and insisted on commenting in Mandarin! Please lah, if you want to speak in Mandarin then do not ask which language she prefers! Stupid! And you know what he said? He said “I think you should practise on singing louder, I could hardly hear you!” Mr judge, if you could not hear her, then why let her into the semi finals? He was sitting right in front of the stage. How could he not? We could hear her perfectly! Stupid Man! Trish was so sweet to say that she will take note of that! Tell me, were they bias or what? Why praise the rest of the contestants then slash out on Trish’s singing?

The night does not end there…as we were walking down the staircase, we met the MC smoking and he commented that Trish should sing louder as well and practise on her vocal skills! What rudeness…this is just a miserable Utopia Karaoke Competition not Australian Idol. They are merely some music teacher, some past year winner and a Utopia worker, not even professional enough to give some professional comments!

So tell me, was I too sensitive or what? Why did they praise the three other semi finalist and yet give Trish bad feedbacks? Were they being bias?

Anyway, on a happier note, Helene is competing next Monday and we are going to Utopia again to support her! Hopefully she gets into semi finals as well! Congrats Trish! We will go support you again during your semi finals!

July already?

Time really flies, it is already the mid of July. I just realized that my last post was on the 21st of June, it has been a month since I last posted an entry. Hehe. I have been ill for the past week, with cough and flu. It started two days before Gil’s birthday celebration with very bad flu, loads of mucus. I must have caught the bug from Jason who has been ill for a while. Then I had fever the day before the celebration. I had to stay up though to make agar-agar for Gil’s birthday bash and help Di with her preparations. I felt better during the celebration but the condition got worse on the following Wednesday. Jason then suggested that I see a doctor when we were in town. We popped by the doctor’s but there were no available appointments so I book an appointment to see him on the Friday.

Now, that I am taking antibiotics, my flu should be getting better but no..in fact my flu is still as bad and now I have started coughing non stop. My throat is so sore despite all the honey and chrysanthemum tea I am drinking. Sigh…

Today, I decided to cook some porridge for Xian Zhang and me since he is slightly sick too. I decided to cook something different from the usual plain porridge. I learnt from the mummy blogs that they like adding carrots and pumpkins etc into their kids’s porridge to make it taste sweeter so I went to the shops to get some. However pumpkins were rather expensive today so I substituted the pumpkin with sweet potato instead. I also added some chicken thigh into the porridge and some ginger, salt and pepper for taste. In fact you did not have to add any seasoning because the porridge was surprisingly tasty on its own. Really sweet and delicious. I also opened a can of sweet beancurd, cooked some scrambled eggs and fried some sausages.

It has been raining almost everyday and Di and I have a whole load of laundry to wash. I dare not wash any clothes as they would not dry in this weather. It wasn’t till Xin Long who brought Xian Zhang to the laundromat yesterday to tumble dry his clothes that I discovered that clothes could become dry in this weather. Hehehe. Silly me! So I washed two whole loads of clothes this morning and went to the laundromat to dry our clothes. It costs AUD 1 for 10 minutes so I tumble dried for clothes for a whole half and hour. Nice and dry by then. Now Di and I have loads of clothes again.

Tomorrow Di will be going to watch Harry Potter. I so want to go but Di says that I will be coughing and coughing throughout the movie. Sigh.. I guess I will have to miss the movie then and go with Xian Zhang when I get better. So do not tell me what happens in the movie and whether it is as good as the book because I want to watch it myself.

On a separate note, Xin Jing’s family called me today and told me that they are moving house. This is because their landlord raise their rent by AUD 100 so now Xin Jing’s family is going to move closer to Xin Jing’s school, five mins away. They are moving in with one of their friends from China. The house will have four rooms, two for the other family and another two for Xin Jing’s family. Also, Xin Jing’s mum says that she prefers me to teach Xin Jing on Sat instead of Wed, our usual day because she says that I can only coach Xin Jing after school hours on weekdays and by the time I leave their house, it is completely dark and she bu fang xin that I drive home alone. Hahaha. Sweet right? She said that Xin Jing’s teachers said that Xin Jing’s English has improved and it is all my “kong lao” (effort and teachings).

Last night while watching Master Chef, Di was mentioning that she is craving french fries and burgers. Sigh….I was telling her then that I wasn’t. Sigh..Now I am….Sigh…images of burgers, nuggets and frozen coke are floating in my head. I really want to eat McNuggets with sweet and sour sauce! Sigh…pray that I recover soon then I can indulge in my favourite food!

A Week of My Life-Day 7

Every Sunday, I work at NorthShore Development Centre. NorthShore is a tuition centre that caters for pre primary till year 11. I have been working at NorthShore for two and a half years. There are about four branches of NorthShore in Perth. The NorthShore where I work at is run by Hadwin’s aunt, Julianna and her husband, Y.M. NorthShore is where I met Jason and Gil, my good friends in Perth. This morning, I woke up early, got ready and headed towards work at around 8.15 a.m.

Today my working hours were from 8.45 a.m. to 3.45 p.m. My working hours depend on the weeks of the school term. Normally I work longer hours on the first, second, ninth and tenth week of the school term. Sometimes, my hours are from 7.45 a.m. to 6.15 p.m. or sometimes I just work half a day, either in the morning (7.45 a.m. to 1.15 p.m.) or in the afternoon (1.15 p.m. to 6.15 p.m.). By the way, there are ten weeks in a term. On the first, second, ninth and tenth week, parents start coming in to enrol and pay for their children’s fees. This is when we are extra busy, so busy till we do not get to go to the toilet, eat or drink till late. Today, it is the ninth week.

This is what I pass by on the way to work, a really nice river. This photo does not do this river justice. It was really gloomy and cold in the morning. I was freezing in the car though I was wearing long sleeves and a huge thick jacket.

For your information, NorthShore uses part of the classrooms in a public school (Rossmoyne Senior High School) on Sundays. We are using about 15 demountable classrooms and 10 classrooms in the main building.

Isn’t this tree gorgeous? I was getting out of my car when I saw this tree in the carpark. I love the vibrant colour of this tree. It is now winter and most of the trees are bare. I was really surprised to see the autumn colours of this lovely tree.

This is our office. It is a normal classroom for Rossmoyne students on weekdays. Our office is also known as D23.

A view of the inside of the office. Each Sunday morning, we arrive at 7.45 a.m. and set up the classroom. We arrange the tables, drag out the boxes of worksheets, pin up the notices and pictures on the notice board, set up the computer and the coffee area. That is Sally and Teresa in the picture. They work in the mornings. In the afternoon, we have Gil, Chris, Sally and Zoe. There are more people in the afternoon due to cleaning up the classrooms after the lessons. I am a flexi, meaning that I work either the morning or afternoon, or the whole day.

We were terribly busy today, serving parents and students. Besides issuing receipts, I had to type in data of new students, excellence and merit reports, assess new students, bring year 1s and 2s to the toilet etc. It was about 11.30 when I had my first cup of tea and some sandwiches. Had no time for lunch and it was about 3p.m. when I finally visited the toilet.

Let me show you some photos of my workplace now! Get ready!

The coffee area, where you can make your own tea or coffee. We prepare light snacks for the teachers each week such as muffins, scones, cake or biscuits.

This is the good student award corner. Students are given good awards when they perform well in class. The student award system is divided into 5, 8, 10 and 15 awards where the students are able to change their awards for gifts or trophies.

Some of the classrooms we use for our classes. The classrooms are like wood containers/ rooms on stilts.

A close-up of the demountable classrooms.

This is known as the main building. We use some of the classrooms in that building for the upper primary. I hate the classrooms in that building because they give me the creeps. Really dark and gloomy and quiet.

This is how it looks like inside the main building, really long corridors. This is just part of the main building.

The water fountain where we fill bottles of water for the teachers and for our coffee and tea.

And look, a pic of Gil! Hehehe! She was locking the gate to the main building after cleaning all the rooms. We have to clean the whiteboards, arrange the tables and chairs, dust the tables, empty the wastepaper basket, vacumn the floors, make sure that the fans, heaters or airconditioning are turned off and  all windows are shut before locking the doors and setting the alarm in one of the rooms then locking the big gate. I was spared of the cleaning tasks today because I was busy typing data of students.

Where the parents wait for their children and the children wait for their parents

And finally a picture of the swimming pool at Rossmoyne Senior High School. They have laid a blue sheet over the swimming pool as it is too cold to swim and it is now winter.

This is the end of the week of my life. I hope that you all enjoyed reading my meme.

A Day of My Life-Day 6

Last night, Gil and I made plans to go for our favourite Assam Laksa today. Di decided to join us for our outing. Di and I decided to go to the city first to shop around while waiting for Gil to arrive.

Each weekend, there is a small outdoor market near Gil’s favourite fountain. The first time Gil and I visited this place, we ended up buying dragonfly and butterfly magnets. Gil and I have been returning to the same place to find the same stall but there is no sign of the stall or the owners.

This icecream is called the dipping dots. The icecream comes in different flavours like bubblegum, rainbow sprinkles, fairy floss etc. The icecream are round mini balls, very cute.

A children’s cup of rainbow sprinkle dipping dots. Very colourful and I notice that they do not melt as fast as the ice lollies we normally have. Gil and I shared this last week.

Normally, there are more stalls but I think that it is too wet and windy so the market people did not come and open their stalls. Lots of stalls sell jewellery or handbags or fruits.

While Di was busy snapping photos, I took this picture of this seagull drinking water from a huge puddle. So cute lah.

A weird sculpture at the park near the fountain. Have no idea what it is supposed to symbolize. I am not an art person.

When Di and I were shopping around in Myers, we heard this cheering and clapping and Di said “Oh, there is a rally on today, my colleague might be around” so being keypoh people, we decided to go and check out the rally. The rally was held in front of the postoffice and there were huge crowd of people holding signs and ministers making speeches.

According to Di, this rally is about no death in custody. The story goes like this: A respected aboriginal elder was held in custody over drunk driving on Australia Day and was picked up in a prisoner transport van from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.   Apparently, the security guards did not check whether the aircon was faulty or was off and it was 48 degrees on a hot summer day. The aboriginal elder was locked up in a metal cell in the back of the van and was driven through the desert in the blaring heat.  During the drive, there were no breaks in the four hours journey (more than 350 km), no physical checks and interaction with the prisoner. All he was given was a meatpie and a bottle of water. The air temperature inside his cell was over 47 degrees, and the metal surface reached 56 degrees. In the end, this aboriginal elder collasped and died of heat stroke and suffered third degree burns in the back of the van. This rally was to protest against the inhumane and unfair treatments towards aboriginals.

The people marching through the streets in protest for justice. Di and I were in a shop looking at wallets then.

Tadah! I bought a new wallet! Hehe! Actually Diana bought it for me.

Due to forseen circumstances, Gil, Di and I did not end up at Assam laksa as it was past 2 and Assam Laksa closes at 2.30 p.m. Instead Di and I headed over to my favourite eating place in Perth. If I was to rate this place on a scale of 10, it will definitely deserve a 10. It is really that good.

Yes, we ended up at Manise. Boy, was I happy when Gil told me that she was running late and she will not make it in time for Assam Laksa. This gives me more of a reason or excuse to end up at this lovely place instead! Yay!! (ノ^_^)ノ (victory dance-I stole that emotion from Jan’s blog).

I frequent this place for the empek empek so much that the boss recognizes me and nods his head at me each time I walk in. In fact, each time he takes my order, he would say ” Empek empek and ….”. I remember how fish wasn’t in season during winter last year and everytime he saw me at the door, he would call out and say “No empek empek, sorry”. Seriously, the empek-empek above is fried to the perfection, really crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Really double the yum and the sauce is absolutely divine, not too sweet and not too sour. Just ngam ngam right.

I have tried many Indonesian places in Perth but truely this place still remains 1st in my list. It is so good that it tops all the expensive restaurants I have been to. This place is affordable and serves the best food. Heri, if you ever come to Perth, I will bring you to try this place.

Another to die for dish at Manise! I must order this as well when I go to Manise. This dish is called Ikan Bakar Manise and it is grilled and served in sweet sauce (kicap manis) and garnished with onions and tomatoes. Yum! I can manage this whole fish by myself and I am not even a fan of fish. In fact I used to hate fish till I fell deeply in love with empek-empek and Ikan Bakar Manise.

Even the sambal belacan is really really good! It is so spicy that it makes my eyes water all the time. Really syiok though I dare not take too much of it.

Each time I am at Manise, I feel totally satisfied with my meal. You must order a sweet iced tea to go with your meals. It is really nice to take a sip of your iced tea from time to time when the spiciness of the sambal belacan gets to you. Hmm…this was truely a very nice meal.

Ok, this is the end of my day 6. Got to eat the dinner that Di prepared for me before she went out.  I will have to rest early tonight while you three party animals are out partying till the wee nights! Hehehe! Tomorrow I will be working from 8.45 to 3.45 so I will be spending half my Sunday cooped in an office issuing receipts to parents. Tomorrow will be a really boring and long day for me. Sigh! Enjoy your weekend!

A Week of My Life-Day 5

The weather did not improve today. In fact, it rained and rained all day and it was terribly cold and wet. It was as if the sun was playing hide and seek. One minute it will shine and the next minute, it will hide behind the clouds and disappear for a while. Terrible weather.

Despite the terrible weather, Gil and I decided to meet Tricia and her relatives at Carousel for lunch. Before going to Gil’s house, I first stopped at my petrol station to get some fuel. It was terribly windy and my teeth were chattering even though I was wearing three layers of clothes. I felt as if I would be blown away by the strong wind. It was so cold that when I bumped into a man on my way out after paying for my fuel, he laughed and with his teeth chattering,  we both said “It is so cold”.

Heavy rain on my way to Gil’s house. I took this when the light was red so do not worry, girls.

This is a pic of Gil’s house. It is rather big with alot of rooms and a big backyard.

Di, remember that poster of Jay Chou? We got that poster for Gil from Taiwan two years ago. We were actually debating whether to get her a half naked Jay Chou or a pic of him on his latest album. We chose the latter. This poster is now hanging on the door of her room (the room used to be Jade’s, her sister’s but the sister moved out after she got married) and Gil claimed that room as her own. Since then, Gil’s own bedroom has become a storage room for her clothes and perfumes and accessories.

Gil is a huge fan of TVB as well. She has loads of posters all over the walls and door of her old bedroom. Do you all recognize the artists? Hehehe!

Jan and Di, do you all remember these cards? We used to collect them when we were young, remember? We would spend our coins turning the machines to get different cards on different artists.

Now, let us play a game of real or fake. I took some pics of the flowers in Gil’s front porch. Gil’s mother has placed a few artificial flowers in the flower pots to decorate the front porch. I had trouble differentiating which was real and fake.

Around 1.00 p.m., Gil and I headed over to Carousel in separate cars. The moment I got out of my car, it started pouring like mad. I was quite wet despite having an umbrella.

For lunch, I went for a cheese, ham and pineapple (hawaian crepe). It was really good.

Tricia took this pic of Gil and me. Gil was pretending to feed me her food. After eating lunch and walking around the mall, we decided to leave for the city instead. Late night shopping mah.

I took this shot of Gil when her car pulled up next to mine at the red light. Hehe!

This bus is always in the middle of the city on Friday nights. I have always wondered what this bus is for. Sometimes you hear really loud music from this bus.

A picture of the post office at Forest Chase in the city at night. I love it when the buildings are all lit up with lights.

A pic of St James Street. I love the trees at both sides of the road.

As usual, Gil and I headed over to our favourite hang out place-Formosa. We hang out at this taiwan eatery every Friday night after night shopping as they have a huge TV which they play Taiwanese variety shows. We also like the food at this place.

Decided to have a change from my usual fishball noodle soup and have the teriyaki fish set. Yum! Gil had the chicken wings which is tasty but slightly oily.

That is all for day 5. Terribly sleepy as we got back really late.

A Week of My Life- Day 4

Today, I woke up to hear rain pattering on the roof. Earlier this week, Gil and I made plans to go out today however as it was raining and really wet,  Gil decided not to go out at all. Sigh.

Very cloudy and gloomy sky.I hate it when it rains. Rain, rain go away, come again another day…

Since Gil and I weren’t going out, I decided to give the house a vacumn. This is our red vacumn cleaner.

While vacumning, I decided to “teng yit” my lunch for today. Hehehe! My lunch was prepared in advance by Di. All I have to do is pop in into the microwave and “teng” it. I love microwaves, so “fang pian” and easy.

Decided to be hardworking and mop the floor. After that I decided to sit back and relax and reward myself by making myself ….

a nice, cold cup of Milo Peng using my favourite cup. Doesn’t the message on the cup describe me? Hehehe!Did u notice how the ice in my cup are heart shaped?

That is because we have been using this heart shaped and star shaped ice trays from IKEA. Hehehe! Recently I bought two more trays (flower and lopsided star shaped) to join the family. Filled all four trays with water.

While eating my lunch, I received a call from Xin Long notifying me that they managed to find a house and they were going to pay for the bond tomorrow. Xian Zhang had cash in money into my account in order to pay the bond so I trooped off to Woolies to withdraw some cash.

Black, gloomy skies all the way. I heard that we are expecting more rain tomorrow, Sat and Sun.

Di and I used to love this florist. They used to make the best arrangement of flowers. Remember my bouquet of flowers during my graduation? The pink lilies with the baby breaths? They were bought from this shop.

This shop recently changed management and now, the flowers are totally awful. They look like an overgrown jungle of leaves and also, the flowers have become pricey.

Gil’s favourite shop-Dynamic Discounts. Everything is AUD2. Cheap cheap!

After withdrawing the cash, I decided to swing by the boys’ new house. Xin Long told me earlier that the house is rather run down and he kept apologizing. I was really curious so off I went to check out the house…

TADAH….

This is the house that Xian Zhang and the boys will be living in starting next week. The house is pretty old looking but at least it looks neat and tidy. I like the slabs of stones at the car porch. Nice or not? This house is pretty far from the shops but it is in a rather nice suburb.Very quiet and quaint.

Upon arriving home, I got into bed and read my Famous Five. Oh yes, I changed into my pyjamas pants and threw on my bathrobe. So nice and warm…That is all for my boring Day 4…hopefully ming tian hui gen hao…and I get to go out!