Living it up in the city

The weekend started off well with Directors’ drinks at Subi to celebrate the deadline weekend. Since I still had a few preparations to make for the weekend and Christel was also coming in from Adelaide that night, I went for one beer – which of course rather quickly turned into two, but I left it at that and went shopping in the city.

Chris’ flight came in at 10pm and we met just at the entrance of the terminal as I was walking up. I was so good to see her again after a few months and she looked hip and flashy as always. On a side note, Perth airport is tiny for a city this size! I think the only other airport I have been to that is smaller than Perth’s is Bentonville, Arkansas, which seemed to have been installed only for the Walton family to grow their Wal-mart business.

After a quick stop at home we were off to Subi to see who was left at the office – and can you believe there were actually people left. They were just about to walk out, so after carefully setting the alarm, we went for some kebabs and for another drink at Llama Bar which was bustling with life. Around 1am we were all ready to head home and prepare for a long day/night because it was Trevlyn’s birthday on Sunday and we were throwing a party at our apartment. Chris and I had some more catching up talk before we fell asleep just to be woken only very few hours later by the construction workers who, even on a Saturday, have to take out the air hammer at 7am. After rolling over a few more times, we were off to Freo for the day. Before that though I removed yet another love note from my car. And here I thought, I am getting a rather good handle on this parking issue.

After a hearty breakfast in Freo, walking around for a few hours in the sunshine, going into all the little boutiques to look at and try on expensive clothes, and a stroll through the market, we were just about to head back to the car, when a girl in one of the stores told us about a cute little cafe. Of course we had to try it out. Moore&Moore at the Moores Building is great and so is their chai latte which we sipped in their courtyard.

Next on the list of things to do was food shopping as we didn’t want our guests tonight to go hungry. First stop was the Boatshed in Cottesloe since I figured that would be my best bet for crab meat. My best bet turned quickly into a $60 per kilo affair and I decided to try my luck in a normal supermarket where you did not expect pearls to be included in the seafood. The Boatshed is a wonderful store otherwise, I do love looking around and wish I could also afford shopping there. We bought some cans of crabmeat at Woolworths together with several other things and off we were home to start preparing. Trevlyn was already getting very excited and after decorating the place and preparing the snacks, we all got ready. 8pm all was set and we waited for our guests to arrive. Being from Germany, I, of course, had the expectation that at least some of the people would actually show around that time. Around 8:30pm the first people started showing and the our Aussie friends arrived bit by bit between 9 and 11pm. The party had a really good turn out I thought and I do hope everyone had as much fun as I did. I will not go into too much detail about the party – what goes on tour stays on tour. I will say that – we had birthday cake, good food (the Maryland crab dip was a fav), drinks in all variations, colours and tastes. We did go out with the whole crew to Tiger Lillz around 11:30ish and apparently some other bar/club which I don’t remember but I was there, before ending up back at our place with the handful of people who were left at the end. We had no complaints from the neighbours, we did inform them about the party ahead of time, and the place is now again spotless. There are evidential photographs which may be used in the future for black mailing purposes and as such they will not be posted on this site nor on my website or anywhere else (I hope). Party was a good laugh and most importantly, Trevlyn enjoyed it and is now a year older and I felt 10 years older the day after.

Needless to say, Sunday was a waste of a day. I finally rolled out of bed at 10am to find the whole apartment spinning a little and our couch occupied and it wasn’t Christel. I dropped the occupant off home after a coffee and had a little nap. Come 1pm we had breakfast at Fast Eddies and then hung around for a few more hours while Trevlyn made eclairs. 5pm I dropped Christel back off at the airport. With eclairs and a movie we ended the weekend.

The tip of the iceberg was though that while we were partying it up, Trevlyn’s car got broken into – in our carpark together with 2 or 3 other cars parked downstairs. This was probably the first time I was happy not to have a parking space in our apartment building. My car was safely parked on the street in front of the building.

The elusive wild kangaroos were spotted

St. Frances Xavier Cathedral (click to follow link)

Sunday morning after a little walk on the beach we went back to our breakfast place to fill up before taking a look at the market in town and also St. Frances Xavier Cathedral which had sunday mass going on. As there wasn’t much else to see, we started our way back South taking the coastal roads. There wasn’t too much to see for the first hundred odd kilometers, except an icecream van. The ice cream seller who seemed nice enough asked us where we were from while we were eating our chocolate dipped softserve. Once he found out that Trevlyn was from South Africa, he proceeded to tell us about his friend’s son that was shot when he was sixteen in Port Elizabeth and went on a racist ramble which I cannot and will not repeat. We decided to competely ignore him, jumped into the car and trailed along the Indian ocean stopping at itty bitty towns on the way. Some of them smelled atrociously because of algae and other things (dead fish?) being washed upon shore and noone taking the time to clean them. Considering there were some very large and pretty houses I do not understand how people could possibly live in a town reaking of dead things. It actually made me gag. It took us a while to find a nice beach around Green Head where we played around a bit but the water was a little too cold.

Cafe in Cervantes

In Cervantes we stopped for coffee and pie, sat in the sun and listened to the gathering of the Party Pro WA Independence about their political rant and how important the introduction of the time change due to summer solstice. The party must have had three members (which by the way would make it a legal party in Germany and that is probably why in Germany you can in fact elect the German Union of Beerdrinkers) Coffee and pie were great.

At Cervantes, which by the way is not named after the Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish novelist, but after a boat that ran ashore in some prior century, there was a little lake called Lake Thetis which was a stromalotite habitat. Curious, we went to see these living fossils which looked like rocks and we weren’t sure what we were really looking at. So we took some pictures and moved on towards the Pinnacles Desert. Now that was something quite different. The Pinnacles in Nambung National Park are amazing limestone formations and we waited around until dusk to get some good pictures of the sunset over the Pinnacles. And guess who had the best spot – my tripod -  which was confirmed by a tourguide there that was showing some other tourists around and a Swiss couple that overhead said tourguide. The Swiss couple had just started their 5-week holiday. I am obviously working in the wrong country – 5 weeks!!!! I can only dream of that and most of my American colleagues probably dream of the 3 week vacations I take. Anyhow, unfortunately, the sunset was not as great as we hoped for because just as the sun was setting a massive rain cloud decided to pull onto the horizon. As it also got freezing cold, we got onto our way back to Perth – and that’s when we saw them.

Sunset over the Pinnacles

The elusive kangaroo. Trevlyn spotted the first one, a baby, that was sitting by the road deciding which car to jump in front off. Thank god it did not pick us. Its buddy however, that crossed the road a few seconds later thought otherwise. I just about saw it out of the corner of my eye and hit the break but the roo decided to circle the car and run behind it. We saw one more which I stopped for but it was not very friendly and did not feel like having its picture taken either.

Not much else notable was seen during our drive back with the exception of some mighty road trains and we arrived safely back in Perth around 10pm.

No kangaroos were killed for this blog post. Only plenty of bugs had to bite the dust.

Badgi and Gerro

so true (and link to more pictures)

After a week of wrapping up jobs, sometimes until late in the evening due to deadlines and due to the clients not necessarily being on top of things, we escaped towards the North to stay the weekend in a beach house in Geraldton. People at worked had wondered why on earth we would want to go to Gerro because apparently there was nothing up there. We thought it couldn’t be that bad, it was the beach after all.

 

 

 

Gerro is about 430 kilometers from Perth and since we left Friday after work it was pitchblack all the way up there which made for some incredible views of the night sky. Coworkers again had warned us of the roos that jump out at you but with our previous experience we knew they were just winding us up. They should have warned us about Google maps. This is now the second time Google maps did not send us in the right direction. Following the route, we were supposed to go on a road that was not there. So we winged it and did find the right way in the end.

 

At about half way we stopped at Badgingarra to get some food. Badgingarra, or Badgi, wasn’t the biggest of towns. It had about 50 houses, a roadhouse, a tavern and a caravan park. We were hungry and went to the Badgi Tavern where a friendly lady told us the kitchen was closed and there was nothing open in miles. After she saw our long faces, she had mercy and offered us some microwaved pies which we inhaled (and burned our tongues). The people in the tavern again warned us of the dangers of the road – too many roos. The bar tender actually said she was too afraid to drive at nights these days. Oh well, after settling the bill we got on our way.

 

We did see some pretty scary turns and abandoned buildings, which would have made perfect settings for some horror movies, but no roos all the way to Gerro. In Gerro it was very easy to find our beach house, the Driftwood Beach House, which was a very cute and old house right on Chapman Road with beach view. Since it was already late, we just simply fell into bed. Each of us actually had their own room in the house.

 

Beach right outside the house

At night it was pretty cold and poor Trevlyn was frozen solid the next morning. I got up around 6.30am to take a little walk on the beach. It was pretty cold but beautiful. To start our day we went to the tourist information which was still closed and we decided to find us some breakfast first. I don’t know how we do it, but we always seem to find these cute little breakfast places with great food and coffee. Also this time. After a hearty breakfast we went back to the tourist info and stacked up on leaflets and maps about the area. Though there were quite a few things to do such as the Abrolhos Islands and a lot of diving, we just went for a little drive to see the wild flowers and to stay in budget. From Gerro we drove to Nabawa – not many wild flowers yet but we did stop at a winery. The wine was ok, not Margaret River though. From Nabawa the road took us via Northampton to Kalbarri. On the way we saw tons of road trains which are the big trucks here. They are awesome. Before reaching Kalbarri we drove through the Kalbarri National Park, stopped to see some great views of the river and we also finally saw plenty of kangaroos – though they were all dead on the side of the road. Now we do believe that they exist. All day however, none would jump out at us. We did swerve around a couple of lizards crossing the road though.

 

In Kalbarri we had some lunch/icecream and had a quick look around before driving south on the coastal road. We stopped to see a natural bridge and also saw quite a few wild flowers and again dead roos.

 

Last stop was Horrocks where there was supposed to be a nice beach. The beach was very soft but as it was already later in the afternoon we decided to make our way back to our beach house, watch the sunset and then grab something to eat. As the area was well known for their rock lobsters (spiny lobster or crayfish – these are the ones without the shears) we looked for a good seafood restaurant and also found one. Skeetas is pretty good, nice décor though they don’t split bills which we were reminded off on diverse signs posted throughout the restaurant and also about 100 times on the menu. While Trevlyn had shrimp and Jenna had pink snapper I got a crayfish termador. It was yummy! After coffee and desert we went back to the beach house, I decided to try out my camera on the million stars and then we sat around and yapped for a little while with our bottle of wine from the vineyard.

 

 

 

Diving Rottnest

As this weekend was one of the few during which I was going to be in Perth with spare time on hand, I decided it was time to jump back into the ocean and try my luck as fish food. Malibu Diving, a local dive store, offered day trips to Rottnest Island just off the coast and the day promised to be sunny, warm and beautiful. Perfect! Saturday morning, 7:00am sharp, I left the apartment trying not to wake anyone and made my way down to Barrack Street per pedes with all my gear. The store was still closed when I arrived around 7:15pm but there was someone else waiting with a massive gear bag. Mark from Virginia, as the rather cute guy turned out to be, was quite happy to see someone else with as much baggage and we kept each other company until a few more people arrived, namely Craig from Manchester, who was doing an open water course, Chrissy from New Zealand who had been living in Perth for 2 years and was quite hilarious and a couple, I believe it was another Mark and not sure what his friend’s name was but she was from Canada, also joined in. After everyone got their gear sorted, packed on the bus and Mark and I had a quick coffee run, the rather shaky van made its way towards Freo. At the jetty we didn’t have to wait long for the boat to arrive and after hawling all the equipment plus some 30 odd tanks of air onto the boat, we were off toward the dive locale. On the way it was decided who was going to buddy up with whom and if everyone went in a group or did their own thing. I was a little apprehensive not having dove without a guide before but after a short discussion, Mark, Chrissy and I decided we were gonna go off on our own.

Crystal Palace was our first dive. The three of us got in the water and started our decent except that only 2 arrived at the bottom. Mark went back up to check where Chrissy was at but when he saw her at the boat, he came back down and off we went. I was the only one with a Compass and tried to make sure we didn’t get lost - quite a task but in the end I apparently placed us back within a “stone throw” of the boat. At least that’s was Mark said after a quick peak above the surface (I think he was just trying not to make me feel bad, I bet we were miles away) During the dive we saw a really nice cavern where a whole bunch of fish were hiding. The visibility was pretty good – not Cozumel good but I was quite happy with the outcome even though the water was pretty chilly. Even took some pictures and the gear was holding up nicely. I didn’t even use as much air as I thought I would and still had about 1200 PSI left after a 47 minute dive at around 18meters. (60 foot)

Back at the boat Chrissy explained that she couldn’t go down and had to get more weights. I feel bad for leaving her on top. Not a good buddy thing to do. I think she was quite disappointed but we tried to make up for it on the next dive. The next dive was at Jackson Rocks. Beforehand we had sandwiches for lunch and as I was putting my gear back on, the boat was moving so much that I had to drop all gear and hang myself overboard to literally feed the fish. I am sure they were quite happy with ham sandwi. Per suggestion of Florian, our dive master, who coincidentally was from Munich, Germany, I quickly put on my gear and went into the water. Immediately felt better and the second dive went without problems. The fish were a little disappointed. We went for about 35 minutes before it got too cold, around 14 meters deep (40 foot) and came back up. Saw more fish, some nice rock formations with a few caverns to swim through. Overall quite a good experience.

Back at the store and after filling out the dive logs, Mark was nice enough to drop me off at my apartment. I probably would have collapsed somewhere on the way with all the wet gear had I walked. As I got back Trevlyn announced that I had 2 hours to get ready and only one hour before Jenna arrived. I was dead tired but jumped into the shower, cleaned the gear, had a quick power nap (15 minutes) and got ready for a night in town. The three of us took a cab to Anja’s place where Rutchi was staying for a few days as well. Anja (colleage) and Rutchi had made some awesome snacks and after filling our tummies and a few drinks (Jenna and I managed to empty a bottle of wine) we went to Northbridge, which was walking distance. A whole bunch of Anja’s friends came too. Ages ranged from 19 to 29 (aka me the latter and oldest!!!) We first had a few drinks at Queens. I got introduced to a new drink called RedSkin lemonade. Tastes like liquid lollipops (that’s suckers for my american friends) I had two of them and a Jaegerbomb which kept me going without falling asleep.

I also figured out why Australian men don’t necessarily talk to women. Aussie girls can be quite rude to them! If they don’t like you they will make fun of you and at the end you may feel rather pathetic for even approaching them. Shame!

After Queens we went to a club, the name I don’t remember. I hadn’t been clubbing in ages and it was fun to wriggle on the overcrowded dance floor for a while. I felt like back at uni in Lancaster where we used to go clubbing all the time (Wednesdays at the Carleton!). Being one of the oldest (yet again) helped. I am pretty sure I pushed up the average age in every place we entered that night.

Our last stop was some very very empty club/bar which we even had to pay cover for and it was pretty bad. We hung out on the couches for a while and 1am decided we had enough. Considering we started at 6pm, i think we did rather well. The way back Trevlyn and I walked, me barefoot because I couldn’t stand the high heels any longer. I fell into bed and into a coma until 10am because I was completely exhausted from the diving and clubbing. Overall, it was a great day and night… Sunday was for relaxing and watching cute surfer dudes at Scarborough beach.

Good bye Singapore

I should really write a wrap up entry for my last day in Singapore. Joe picked me up from the hotel in the morning and we went to pick up Carrie and Zacheus from their home after switching from one sports car to the other. Joe loves his cars, that’s certain and they both look great.

We all went to the mall were we met up with Javier and also Joe’s parents who were going to take the whole family and me out for lunch. And what a lunch it was. We went to a Chinese restaurant and sat around a round table with a huge lazy susan in the middle. The set menu included soup, boiled chicken with dipping sauces, shrimp and tofu in some chilli sauce, some kind of venison, shitake mushrooms, fish, fried rice… and all the family decided that my plate should always be filled. So they kept piling food onto the plate. Everything tasted great and everyone made sure I wouldn’t need any food in the airport or the plane. After lunch we walked around a shopping mall for a little while until it was time for me to start heading to the airport. Beforehand, Carrie and I picked up some bubble tea – strawberry flavour with coconut jelly per Carrie’s recommendation which was excellent. Then Joe, Carrie and Zacheus dropped me off at the airport and after lots of hugging and saying good byes I finally went inside. After a few impulse buys I got on the plane and with delay arrived back in Perth around 10pm.

The weekend was just great. I am so happy I decided to go to Singapore and Joe, Carrie and the family were some of the friendliest people I ever met. They are the best hosts. I also had the best tourguide in the whole of Singapore and saw so many nice places, eat great food and had a wonderful time. I hope I can return the favour once Zacheus and the baby on the way (I think Zaden is a good name!) are big enough, no matter where I live or where Joe and Carrie want to go.

Joe, if you read this, thank you very much for everything! Until next time! I cannot wait to come back.

The Malay Annals – How Singapore became Singapore

Here is the story of Singapore as told in Images of Singapore on Sentosa Island. It is very interesting and also tells how the Merlion became the symbol of Singapore.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

Happy Birthday (click above fore more pics)

August 9, 2008 was the 43th birthday of Singapore. For that reason everyone hung out their flags, so there were apartment complexes covered in red and white. The streets were also full of hustle and bustle. Joe decided that today was going to be a tour day for Sentosa, an island just off the main city with lots and lots of attractions. Joe picked me up from the hotel with his other sporty car and fresh roti bread for breakfast. At Sentosa we parked the car and started running through the attractions. First we walked the Merlion walk to the Merlion statue. Now a Merlion is a mix between a mermaid and a lion (not sure if I mentioned that before, I might have) It’s pretty much a lion head with a fishtail. The Merlion Walk is a wonderful mosaic river, almost looking like Gaudi himself made it. Instead of the mosaics I was the attraction though, at least for some young Indian guys who must have never met a blonde in their lives before. They wanted their pictures taken with me, which was flattering but at the same time very weird. I noticed that a lot of Indians seemed to be standing rather close to me all day while someone was taking “their” picture. Once at the Merlion we made our way up to the top where there was a lookout and an incredible view over the harbour, downtown and Sentosa.

Next was the 4D Magix, which was the 4D movie “Pirates” which stared Eric Idle (Monty Python) and Leslie Nielsen (The Naked Gun) and had the seats moving as well as several other special effects such as air blowing. It was awesome! Much better than the last “Pirates of the Carribean”.

Images of Singapore, which we visited next, introduced the different cultures in Singapore, from Chinese to Malay, Tamil and Eurasian, plus several different mixtures. It was wonderfully colourful and very informative with lots of special effects again, which Singapore seems to be very good at. After getting my culture fix and some good Chicken Rice at Taste of Singapore, we went and watched the sharks, sea dragons, dungons and other diverse fish species in Underwater World. They had a pretty large underwater tunnel and we had to walk it twice to take everything in. They also had some very strange creatures in the aquarium such as sea angels which reminded me a lot of sea monkeys, some little sea bugs my sister used to breed.

As we weren’t done yet with our Sentosa tour, we also toured Fort Siloso, which was one of the less visited attractions. That was rather unfortunate because I thought it was very interesting to learn that Singapore was and is a rather strategic location and had its share of World War I and II. They had a bunch of canons and lots of pictures from the old times.

From the fort we walked back to the bus and jumped onto one taking us to the Dolphin Lagoon. We sat on the beach for a while waiting for the show to start while I became a feature in some more photos that will be distributed in Bangladesh shortly. Then the dolphin show started which featured three Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins which turn pink with age (seriously!) The show was great though a little short but then it started raining anyway. So we went to the beach, got a quick snack (curry puff) and leasurely walked toward Songs of the Sea, the newest attraction in Sentosa. There were people lining up already an hour before the start of the show. I think the last time I lined up that far before the start of something was when my dad and I bought fireworks in East Germany for New Year’s eve in 1989. Anyway, we didn’t line up and jumped the queue to get pretty good seats as people were waiving us ahead to go to a side gate (just our luck) The rain also stopped and the show could begin. It was a beautiful little fairy tale with laser and water show. Brilliant as it was dark. Maybe the Bellagio should rethink its fountains a little bit.

After the show it was time for dinner. We went to a massive food court which featured a “live” band that could sing the Bee Gees and several other bands as if they were real (which makes me think it was play back) While the band was blaring we had char kway teow (very very yummy) and fried sweet potatoes with a sweet potato milkshake. The place was also heaving with people from after the parade. I could have stayed forever just trying out different things but at some point it was just time to go. Joe completely forgot where his car was. Thank god I have a bit of a sense of direction. As Carrie told me the next day, this is not the first time he “lost” his car and usually she is the one with the orientation. Funny!

The long awaited meeting…

Thursday, August 7, 2008, was a very exciting day. So exciting in fact, that it was hard to concentrate on work. What made it even harder was plenty of email and text messages that arrived from a very good friend of mine. A friend so good in fact, that even though we had never met, we had kept in contact for over 10 years. And tomorrow I was going to meet my friend – for the first time. You can imagine how excited we both were.

To meet my friend I had to fly for 5 hours on a plane – to the lion city – Singapora. I was very glad that Trevlyn offered to drop me off at the airport. My flight was at around 9pm with Tiger Airways (I will get to this one in a minute) and I was at the airport at around 6:30pm, plenty of time to look around the shops, buy some last minute items and text some more with Joe. To be able to understand my excitement, here is the background.

It was in 1997, just when the whole internet craze started that Joe and I met in a chat room. Yes, yes, I know what you are thinking and I know what it sounds like but you are wrong. This was the time when people still talked about politics and football (soccer… Joe was an avid Liverpool fan) and it was the time when people were still excited that you could actually talk to someone in Singapore or in the UK, where I was at that time, over the internet. Joe and I kept in touch all those years, we almost lost contact once or twice, but somehow managed to always get a hold of each other again. In those 10+ years a lot of things happened in both our lives. Joe went to the police force for 2 years ( a mandatory thing in Singapore, to be either in the army or the police force as a young guy), he got married and had a baby. I went country hopping in the meantime. We sent postcards, little gifts, lots of emails. My family knew about him, his family knew about me. It was just a good friendship -  we started calling each other brother and sister.

Coming to Australia finally brought us close enough for a visit, so we picked a weekend and I bought a ticket. Since it was somewhat last minute, I picked a “cheap” airline – Tiger Airways.  Tiger Airways flies budget, which means you pay an arm and a leg for anything above a seat. So I did not eat on the plane, nor drink (you even had to pay for water). Instead I slept until we arrived at the budget terminal of Singapore’s Changi airport. Immigration was completely painless and there I was. First time Asia, first time Singapore and first time meeting my brother Jojo – who of course was waiting at the airport at 3am in the morning on August 8, 2008 (08-08-08 which is a very lucky day, that’s why the Chinese decided to have the opening of the Olympics that day) I was so glad to see Joe.

He grabbed my bag and off we went to find his car. He asked me to pick out of the cars parked at the airport. Of course, I thought more practical than anything else and thought with wife and kid and a second kid on the way, he surely would be driving something like a minivan. I was so wrong!!! Joe pointed to the souped-up mazda 3. It was quite sparkely, inside and out and had big decals on the side and back. A very very nice car!

To catch up on some more sleep we went to his place and I was allowed to sleep in Zacheus’ (his son’s) bed while little Zach slept with mommy and daddy. In the morning I also met Joe’s wife Carrie, who made me great breakfast, and Zacheus, who was a little shy but the cutest little boy. He looked like his mum but had his dad’s dimples. Just adorable! After breakfast and a little photo session we dropped Zacheus off at Joe’s mum’s and Carrie at work. Unfortunately, she couldn’t take the day off and all the walking around would probably have been too much for her since she was 8 months pregnant. I am very happy and grateful thatshe let me have Joe as a tour guide for the next two days. And what a tour guide he was.

First we drove around the city for a little while and went to the Singapore flyer, a big wheel similar to the London Eye just much bigger which gave us a great overview over the city. I also learned that Singaporeans live in three types of houses. The government-subsidised units or HDB housing (HDB = Housing and Development Board) are pretty nice apartment complexes and about 95% of Singaporeans live in these massive high rises. Apart from that there are condominiums which are fancier apartments with pool, gym and similar facilities. Lastly there are single family houses but these are too expensive.

Click the wheel for more pictures

After the flyer we had lunch and Joe showed me some of the culinary delights of his country. They have awesome food! I had prawn mee, which is a dish of egg noodle with prawns in a very fragrant stock served with lime and sambal chilli. For dessert I had ice kachang - a dessert of rather colourful shaved ice. You have to dig through the ice to get to the red beans, corn and some kind of jelly, all in a malty tasting sauce. After so much food and a quick stop at the fountain of wealth which was unfortunately not accessible, Joe thought it would be good to do a duck tour and see Singapore from the water. The duck tour gave me some great photo opportunities of downtown Singapore, the small Merlion – the mascot of Singapore – the Singapore Flyer, Benjamin Sheares Bridge and Lai Chun Yuen Opera House. The latter looked like 2 big durian fruits.

After the duck tour we went to Bugis Street, a huge market, and bought some souvenirs as well as bubble tea. I LOVE BUBBLE TEA. Bubble tea comes in all sorts of flavours and has huge tapioca pearls in it and sometimes jelly. I had passion fruit tea. Very yummy! After the market and a stop at an orchid plantation we went to Joe’s parents’ house. It is unfortunate that I could not bring any orchid seedlings into Australia. My mum would have loved them. Joe’s parents are very very friendly and his mother immediatly started feeding me. They love to eat in Singapore. I also met Joe’s sister Cherry who is my age and also pregnant with her first babt and his little brother Javier, who just started his 2 year service in the air force. He is 18. Zacheus was also around and was playing with Thomas the Train and Nikkie (or Beo… not sure what name) Cherry’s overweighed jack russell terrier. After dinner which consisted of chicken soup, some spicy fish and lots of veggie such as broccoli, peppers, chinese cabbage (bok choy?) and baked beans all with heaps of rice, Javier, Joe and I went off on another adventure. But not before his mother could give me a special gift, a hongbao, a small red envelope containing money. It is supposed to bring luck and drive out evil spirits – so of course I will keep the packet and the money inside. It was a very very generous gift and won’t be spent.

Javier, Joe and me

Our last item on the busy schedule tonight was a night safari. For that we went to the zoo. The night safari was on a train and passed by the animal enclosures which were relatively open. We saw rhinos, buffalo, giraffes, Indian elephants, tapirs, flamingos, wolves and mountains of other animals from all different continents. After the safari there was – of course – food! Joe got us chicken satay and stingray in sambal chili sauce. Both were very good although I have to say the sambal chili stingray was one of the spiciest things I had ever tasted. We all broke out in a sweat, especially Javier. Javier also explained to me about Singlish – very similar to Spanish except that they don’t mix Spanish and English but Singaporean (really Mandarin) and English. Very cheem!!!! (very difficult)

After that we were all dead tired from the walking, the food and the Singapore heat. It was very hot and humid, probably in the high 20s lower 30s and with the humidity it seemed even hotter. It was quite a nice change from the rather cool Perth though. Joe and Javier dropped me off at my hotel in Little India which was buzzing with life. There were people everywhere but I was way too tired to go out into the bustle, so I had a quick shower and dropped dead onto my bed.

On pest control and quarantine

There were several people that have told me incredible stories about Australians trying to control certain types of animals such as toads and flies. This was one of the reasons why I had to show my boots when I came into the country. Becoming slighlty intrigued with the Western Australian pest control, I decided to read Bulletin Number 4658, ISSN 1448-0352, “You can help keep Western Australia free of pest animals” of the Department of Agriculture. (no joke, http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/content/PW/VP/BULLETIN_4658.PDF ) The first I noticed about the bulletin where the pretty colourful pictures of a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and a Rainbow Lorikeet on the front. These are animals we find in pet stores in the US. I have also seen several of these outlawed Lorikeet around town and they are so pretty to look at and did not appear to cause any trouble. They did not fly about in large groups harrassing people either – unlike the 16 year olds I saw the other day.

In the bulletin the Government of Western Australia went on to inform us that WA is currently free from numerous pest animals or they only appear in small numbers. Apparently, most of the prior invasions of life threatening living forms were successfully eradicated or contained in the past, because they were detected soon after these animals arrived. I wonder if the aboriginees feel they could have done a better job at that too as now their land is abuzz with people of British, Dutch, German and other Western decent.

Anyhow, let’s not get into this topic too much at the moment. I am sure I will come back to it one of these days. Back to the true pests, the furry little animals such as the Indian Palm Squirrel. It looks rather menacing to me. The list also includes the blackbird, the cane toad, the house crow, the common myna, several sparrows - Jack Sparrow not included – and the starling. The bulletin has a nice description of each animal and also what problems they cause. Granted, if I was Australian I would probably also want to preserve the animals that are native to the country. I do think that Australia slightly overdoes it’s deed though. Several of the mentioned animals are in fact already present in Australia. Thus, Western Australia decided that you cannot bring food items from other parts of Australia. This is where I think they go a little too far. I do wish that someone would control the pigeons in Europe and in the car park outside our offices in Dallas – or the mockingbirds who keep turning my nice flashy red car into something that resembles a fly agaric (type poisonous mushroom that is red with pretty white dots). Oh no wait, the mockingbird is the state bird of Texas – and there are plenty of them around!

So remember! You can help keep Western Australia free of pest animals! Free call to report suspect pest animals!

A quiet weekend

This weekend we stayed in, i.e. in Perth and surrounding areas. Friday evening Jenna and Rutchi came over and we stayed in front of the TV watching Bridget Jones and… you guessed it …  drinking Aussie wine. Saturday I went shopping, did find much though that I liked AND could afford. I’d love to buy some opals before I go. Instead I spent my money on a haircut and some highlights and found out yet another interestign thing about Australia, or Western Australia in particular. The water here has something in it (I think it’s copper) that makes highlights turn yellowish to greenish after a while. Whoohoo ain’t I lucky. Now I have to buy a special shampoo for blondes. In the evening the girls came by and we cooked a very yummy and very tender kangaroo and ratatouille. I cannot believe most people that live here have never tried it. It is sooooo tender and there is no fat on the meat. It’s great!!! Australians don’t know what they are missing out on. We pretty much sat around all Saturday evening yapping, drinking… yes… you guessed it again … Aussie wine, and Leah provided us with our special little Leah show. She is so funny! Rutchi unfortunately had to leave us early since she had to catch a flight to Brisbane (for work, not fun) at midnight. Beforehand she dropped off all her stuff at our apartment because she is currently homeless. Her apartment fell through – sound familiar?

I also figured out that I am so over work. I could easily just go and travel for 3 months. I should become a travel writer or a wine taster. I am serious.

Sunday was Freo day. It was also the day of the big derby between the Westcoast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers. The Dockers won. We went shopping, finally had an Aussie steak, went to the market, lots of little bohemian stores and ended up at Little Creatures for dinner and a couple of beers – a Sunday Session. I will definitely take that back to Dallas with me.

At Little Creatures (for more pictures click on me)