Tinki Talks: August 2012

Friday, August 31, 2012

Perth, August '12: Sandrino, Fremantle

Woke up nice and early the next morning, ate cereals in cold milk for breakfast, took a hot shower and got ready to head out to Fremantle for the day. But before that, there's camwhoring to be done! Haha.

First morning in Perth.

I love the lack of humidity in Australia. It gives me good hair days effortlessly! My hair just behaves itself – no messy flyaways! I loves. So I got The Husband to camwhore with me.

That's The Husband's layan face. Haha.

When everyone was ready and dressed,

we headed out to Fremantle in two cars and

arrived at Sandrino in time for an early lunch.

The restaurant is on Market Street.

The Husband and I visit Sandrino for their pastas each time we're in town. But in the last year that we've been away, they've suddenly doubled in size! They bought over the coffee place next door, too! Business must be real good for such expansion to take place.

The coffee place next door that's now theirs has very pretty pillars.

Because we had a large group that consisted of 7 adults and 2 kids, we had to sit outside. No space inside for all of us. Not a problem to us though. Sitting inside means smelling like food for hours and hours after. So, when the weather is pleasant, alfresco dining is always the smarter choice. (DiGi!)

I ordered a Spaghetti Carbonara.

But mains take awhile to arrive so we tucked into some shared plates of fries and calamari in the mean time to tahan perut. And OMG, it was simply orgasmic. Soooo good!

Fries and Calamari.

*salivates at the memory*

And that, of course, was enjoyed with my absolute

favourite drink in Australia: Lemon Lime Bitters.

The Husband pouring me some good ol' LLB!

And then we waited.

And waited. And waited.

Then finally...

Spaghetti Carbonara with cheese sprinkled on top.

By the time my Spaghetti Carbonara arrived, my Calamari and Fries had already settled well and good in my tummy and I was no longer hungry. Uh oh. That and it wasn't all that tasty either. IMHO, my regular Smoked Salmon Angelhair from Delicious beats this one flat. =p So... I only managed to clean off half the plate. :-/ Anyway, ciak also sim beh cheng lah. Too many seagulls around. Look!

A gull getting too comfy too close.

That's what you get when you eat near the sea. -_-'''

Storefront as seen from across the street.

Merdeka!

...for Malaysia...

Today's local Google doodle.

...and for me.

Today's my last day at MCKL (again!)

and it's a national holiday!! Woo hoo!
Isn't that just awesome?? Merdeka indeed! =D

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Sold On Aesop

So remember how I was gushing over the greatness of Aesop's Violet Leaf Hair Balm in March this year? Well, recently I purchased another Aesop item that I'm currently madly in love with: the Geranium Leaf Body Scrub.

Bought it earlier this month but only used it for the first time today. Was feeling very blah about life and was tired from laundry and mopping and other random house keeping stuff that I just felt that a self-pampering perk-me-up would do me good. So I decided to indulge in a warm bath, with a scrub. And OMGGGG, I think I died and went to heaven. It smelled soooo good my skin is now as smoooooth as a baby's bottom!! I love it!

Oh, and what I failed to mention earlier was that the gay dude at the Aesop counter who sold me the scrub (also the same gay dude who sold me the hair balm back in March) remembered me and gave me a shitload of sample sachets to take home. In fact, he gave me so many that I feel ashamed to post any pictures of the stash I went back with. Hahaha. So... no pictures. All I know is that I'm a super fan of Aesop now and I'm so going back to this dude for more ~~free samples~~ products next time! =p

3 Months Too Soon

Hahaha. I don't know what Hacker was thinking. (Maybe he wasn't thinking at all! =p) But either way, people, please note that my 28th birthday will fall on Wednesday, the 21st of November 2012. *cough cough* *hint hint* =p

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Perth, August '12: Eat, Sleep, Eat, Sleep

Right after breakfast, we all went back to our temporary home in East Perth to catch up on some much-needed Zs. We ended up sleeping the entire afternoon away. Haha. Woke up when the sky was beginning to get dark. Semi-rested, we went out in search of some good food to fill our tummies.

The blue house – as seen again, on the drive to pick KJ

– The Husband's younger bro – from college.

So after French for breakfast and nothing for lunch, we decided to have Chinese for dinner. HAHA. What an Australian holiday, man. =p But no regrets lah. We ate at the aweseomest Chinese restaurant in town called Happy Meals. BEST! The food was so good I even added more rice and stuffed it all down my throat long before I even remembered to whip out my camera.

This is all that was left in my bowl

by the time my brain kicked in:

One little bit of Sizzling Tofu and just a bite of Chilli Pepper Chicken left.

Don't worry though. We returned to Happy Meals again later on in our stay so I'll talk more about the food and the restaurant in greater detail, in a later post.

After eating our fill, we all went back
...to sleep some more. HAHA. =p

-----------------

Friday, 17 August 2012: A Much-Needed Break [Friday, August 17, 2012]
Back In KL [Monday, August 27, 2012]
Perth, August '12: Two Flights And A Transit [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]
Perth, August '12: Home For 7 Days [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]
Perth, August '12: La Galette de France Café, Nedlands [Wednesday, August 29, 2012]

Perth, August '12: La Galette de France Café, Nedlands

After checking in to our temporary home at East Perth, we immediately convoyed out again to grab a bite in Nedlands. There's a cosy French café that sells crepe's there. One that The Husband and I had never been to. So, off we went!

Passing the floating blue house on Mounts Bay Road as always.

Perth isn't known for its erratic weather (unlike hormonal Melbourne) but I always seem to be there when the weather is at its most extreme. The trip before this in March 2011, I melted from the supremely hot Summer heat. -_-' The trip before that from May to August 2010, I froze my butt off through their coldest Winter in 15 years. T_T Thankfully, this time around, Perth decided to play nice! With highs of 20ºC and lows of 8ºC, the weather couldn't have been more perfect. =)

It was a nice day for a drive. But Perth City isn't all that big (although WA is H-U-G-E) so before we knew it, we arrived at our French-in-Australia destination:

It was a cosy little place that seats about 20pax max, inside and out. The servers weren't exceptionally friendly but... I wasn't there for them. I wanted food!

The Husband and I decided to share a Ham & Cheese Savoury Crepe. We were the only two who were kiasu enough to wake up for the airline breakfast so we weren't as hungry as the rest. Haha.

Random shot while waiting for the food to arrive.

My hot choc with marshmallows. Not great. I've had better.

After about 10-15mins, this arrived:

@_@

That's our savoury crepe??

Haha. So not what I was expecting.

Looks more like chapati to me.

Where's my dahl and kari ayam?? =p

Ham and melted cheese on the inside.

It tasted a little weird at first bite cos it's like having something savoury wrapped in something sweet. But after awhile, my taste buds got used to it. Don't let its slim form deceive you though. It was pretty filling! Even sharing, I felt sufficiently full after The Husband and I finished it. Must be all that sinful cheese they stuffed into it. =p

I would return to La Galette de France again

but I think I'll order something else next time.

------------------------------
LA GALETTE de FRANCE
------------------------------

125B Broadway,
Nedlands, WA 6009.

Mon – Sat: 6.30am – 3.00pm
Sun: 7.00am – 2.00pm

OPEN MOST PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

Telephone No.: (08) 9386 5097
Web Address: http://lagalettedefrance.com.au/

-----------------

Friday, 17 August 2012: A Much-Needed Break [Friday, August 17, 2012]
Back In KL [Monday, August 27, 2012]
Perth, August '12: Two Flights And A Transit [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]
Perth, August '12: Home For 7 Days [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Perth, August '12: Home For 7 Days

As The Husband no longer permanently resides in Perth, we didn't have our own place to stay at this time around. So The Husband found a nice 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 3-toilet townhouse online that's located right next to the train tracks at East Perth, to rent for the duration of our stay. This was our room:

As you can see, I should have brought a wide-angle lens. Haha. The queen-sized bed took up most of the space in the room and just left a narrow 2-foot walkway all around. Not very big, not very luxurious, but clean enough for me not to feel jijik living there lah. Haha. The common bathroom (not inclusive of toilet) was HUGE though! As big as our room! Maybe even bigger! Haha.

Aussie homes are just built weird lah. They're not like our Malaysian homes at all. Back here, our bedrooms are the highlight and the bathrooms are probably just half the size or less. So far, I've noticed that in Australia, most bathrooms are really, really big. Goodness knows what they need all that space for. Can even ballroom dance inside. :-/

We actually brought our own towels along for the trip. But considering how clean those provided towels on the bed looked and smelled, we ended up using those instead. Easier than lugging back damp towels at the end of our stay; towels that are bound to smell by the time we arrive home. :-/

Oh, and as you can see on the top-left corner of the picture above, every bedroom came with its own TV! And... the slim TV even has a DVD slot! AND... they even provide DVDs downstairs in the living under the communal TV for you to watch! Not bad for a rented place, right?? Needless to say, The Husband and I ended up watching My Best Friend's Wedding in bed one night. No points for guessing who got to pick the movie. =p

Anyway, after checking-in came breakfast #2!

(Since breakfast #1 on the plane was crap, right?)

-----------------

Friday, 17 August 2012: A Much-Needed Break [Friday, August 17, 2012]
Back In KL [Monday, August 27, 2012]
Perth, August '12: Two Flights And A Transit [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]

Perth, August '12: Two Flights And A Transit

So as you guys already know, I flew off to Perth, Western Australia for a week-long break with The Husband and his family last week. A holiday I was looking forward to considering how there probably won't be time for a year-end holiday for The Husband and I to enjoy this 2012. Boo hoo.

The first part of the journey actually began in KL for The Husband and I. We made our way up to Penang by car on late Wednesday night to meet everybody else who were already there. It was minutes to midnight by the time we arrived. -_-'''

Needless to say, by the time Friday afternoon arrived for us to cab our way to Penang International Airport for our flight, I was already feeling all kinds of tired out. And the official traveling hadn't even started! Haha. Thankfully, Penang International Airport isn't all that big so there was minimal walking involved. Before long, we were on our way!

Boarding passes for our PEN-SIN flight.

The view right after take off.

Snacks on the plane.

The sardine sandwiches were terrible. Stank up the whole plane nice and good. And you see that vile-looking red drink on the right? That's tomato juice – The Husband's idea of a healthy drink that he thinks I need. Yuck. It's like drinking cold, watery bolognese sauce. Blergh. What I did like, though, was the view once we went up past the clouds.

So pretty! But of course, it got prettier still

once evening hit and the sun started setting.

But, as always, while I enjoyed

nature's late evening display of light,

The Husband snoozed the flight away.

We flew SIA this time around which resulted in a 5-hour transit at Changi Airport. Yup. FIVE. FREAKING. HOURS. of aimless loitering around. Sure, we went past immigration for awhile and had dinner at Soup Restaurant but... other than that, it was lots of window shopping, lots of aimless walking, some snacking and too little sitting being done. My feet and back were killing me big time! Thankfully, The Husband managed to find a nice, quiet spot near a Koi Pond for me to rest... and camwhore. =p

Please excuse the eyebags. I was tired and it was

just waaaay too close to midnight for my liking. =_=

An half hour's worth of crossed-legged rest,

and we were off to catch our next flight!

Boarding passes for our SIN-PER flight and passports.

2,432 miles (i.e. 5+ hours) from Singapore to Perth.

The plane was a pretty old one but

as always, the little things kept me happy.

Silk pillow covers! I was tempted to snitch the cover home. @_@

Fragrant hot towel.

By the time we were high up in the air, it was easily 2AM and all I wanted to do was sleep. So I asked for some eye shades and tried to catch some shut eye. Unfortunately, the stewardesses on this flight were super noisy, totally inconsiderate and oblivious to the fact that this is a MIDNIGHT flight and that the people on board need rest. >(

They were talking at the top of their voices and clanking their things around! Terrible! If there were complaint cards we could fill up, I totally would have. One stupid stewardess even woke me up at 4:30AM to say, "Good morning!! We're serving breakfast!!" in a annoyingly perky voice. But guess what?? Her food cart only reached me almost an hour later at 5:23AM!!! That's one hour's worth of sleep wasted! Grrrr...

Breakfast – Omelet with veal sausage.

And not like the wasted sleep was made up with a hearty and enjoyable breakfast also. Breakfast sucked. Pathetically, the best part was the bun and butter. -_-''' Air Asia and MAS definitely serve better in-flight meals. Malaysian food FTW lah. Singapore food really beh ciak. I even needed an extra cup of hot water to wash everything down and get the bad taste of plastic egg out of my mouth.

Hot water.

I couldn't have been happier when we landed in Perth International Airport. Hopped off the plane, left the gate, went through immigration, grabbed our checked-in luggage, picked up our rented car, stepped through the automatic doors and out into the cool, late Winter breeze and warm Australian sunlight. Finally, the holiday begins!!

Ahh, familiar sights indeed. =)
Hello, Perth! It's been too long! =D

-----------------

Friday, 17 August 2012: A Much-Needed Break [Friday, August 17, 2012]
Back In KL [Monday, August 27, 2012]

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