Golf

Wow... long weekend, played plenty of golf. Got sunburnt, am probably the most tan I've ever been. It was kinda windy too today, and sand kept getting into my face, mouth, wherever. Good grief. But it's still good fun. Can't wait till this weekend. Meadow Springs, baby!

Geography 101 - Limestone formation

Revisited the Pinnacles today. The day tour left at 7:45am and came back to the city at 8:30pm. My last trip to the Pinnacles was 14 yrs ago on my Geography school trip. (I recall Mr Gomez!). We stopped by the town of New Norcia, where they are famous for their bakery, but we hadn't had time to stop by =(. We also visited a wildflower farm and Cervantes Beach before heading to the Pinnacles area. Cervantes beach has very pristine white sand and turqoise water - it was very beautiful! I'm only hoping the beach in Bali we'll be visiting next week will be as good.

Margaritas at the Mexican Kitchen

After not having dined out for the last 2 weeks, tonight was the night we went out to celebrate a few events with Margaritas and Mexican food. What could be better?

Banana Crunch Muffin

The bake of this week is: Banana Crunch Muffins!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bar

I was inspired to try out Ina Garten's "Peanut Butter & Jelly Bar" recipe.

Here it is before it went into the oven:

Looking good... not burnt, not too sweet, just perfect!

BBQ

Photos are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkusni/sets/72157603800480106/

The long awaited

weekend is finally here! We've tested out the new gas bbq that we bought and confirmed that it is working fine. We have about 4 hrs of gas available for tomorrow's bbq, which should be ample. There are still a couple more things I need to get tomorrow morning - more citronella candles to ward off those annoying flies as we are going to be dining outdoor tomorrow. We pushed back the start time of the bbq to 7:30pm, hopefully by then the weather would have cooled down a bit. The weather forecast for tomorrow is a low of 22 and high of 35.

Chilling at the beach...

Woke up early in the morning today to go to Trigg Beach, accompanied Oka to catch some abalones which we are going to cook for tonight. It was totally refreshing, good weather and all. And we went to the winery to have lunch and some wine. It was such a chill day. Loving it!

Long weekend

always lasts shorter than it should. The weekend was full of sunshine and flowers in our garden has started its first bloom this Spring. But what could be more appropriate to do than go on a whale watching cruise, enjoy a good old rum & raisin ice-cream, chill at the beach, and have a good seafood dinner?



Photos are up at http://www.hanikusni.com/main.php/v/Perth+visitors/okasfamily/

Tulip Festival at Araleun

We brought roast chicken, home made guacamole spread, doritos, vintage cheddar cheese & crackers, chips to our picnic on Sunday. It was such a nice day out, the whole afternoon felt like Spring time already. We sat at the grass area where there was some guy singing, apparently promoting his CD. It was really quite romantic. I don't know why we never did something like that in the past? Oh well, I guess it's never too late to venture new things. The tulips were blooming in multitudes of color. I wish my own garden look half as nice as this. I know the tulip bulbs we planted never came close to surviving Milo's sharp appetite for food. hehe.

Cirque Du Soleil

Cirque was such a fantastic performance. We had a great time tonight and it makes me realize that anything is possible and that people are talented in their own different ways. This is what makes the world an interesting place to live in. (http://www.hanikusni.com/main.php/v/Perth/goingout/)

Yanhong in town

for the week. It's always good to catch up with old friends. We went to Houghton's Wine at Swan Valley for brunch on Sunday, coffee & chocolate fondue at the chocolate factory, and dinner at Little Creatures in Freo. It was probably too much food for a day but hey what's the harm with a little bit of over indulgence once in a while?

http://www.hanikusni.com/main.php/v/Perth+visitors/Yanhong/

Hobby

Photography it is that he has taken up. Oka bought a Nikon D80 Digital SLR in Singapore from our last trip and has since been reading up on photography. Ever since he's taken up this new hobby, I feel that it has improved our relationship. It made us do something different each week, find new places to visit, and at the same time have fun together. Here are some of the photos he has taken over the last few weeks. Today we went to Mathilda Bay & the Bell Tower area. It was such a great day out - sunny with nice constant breeze. And we stopped at a cafe by the river to have a cup of coffee whilst enjoying the greens.

Learning Korean

My first lesson started yesterday. It's 2 hrs per session for 8 weeks on a Saturday morning. Our teacher is a native Korean who has moved to Australia 10 over years ago. He gave us a bit of background on Korean history, how the language came about before starting on Korean letters. I was not convinced when he said by the end of the first lesson, we should all be able to read and write in Korean. But he was right. I guess because I can read and write in Chinese and also learnt Japanese as a 3rd language throughout my secondary school years, it makes it a bit easier for me to pick Korean up. There are definitely similarities amongst the 3 languages. I had a lot of fun and will definitely continue to take further lessons once I pass this level. :)

아녕하십니까?

That means "How are you?" Yay, I can type in Korean now.

I love

the blue sky, sea, & fresh air of Perth. Today the sun was out, so we went to Trigg Beach to have a walk along the beach. It's a nice way to unwind and it seems whatever problems or issues you have can be resolved when one's mood is calm and peaceful. Having spent the last few years of my life bitching about how boring this place is, I have now come to appreciate the traits that are appealing to so many people who live in bustling cities without the luxury of wide open spaces. There are only 3 cities I would consider living in - Singapore (because of my family, friends, and food), Perth (because of my career, the nature that surrounds this place, wide open spaces), Los Angeles (because of good shopping & Lakers). I guess LA will always just be the city where I will visit as a tourist... but unknowingly, Perth has now become my 2nd home that I have come to love. However, Singapore is still where my root is.

Saturday night dinner

very nice pecan pie. I've always been a dessert person. I love, love, love dessert! And I'm going to bake brownie tomorrow - Jamie Oliver's recipe. Hopefully I won't mess it up. But you know brownie is supposed to be pretty basic so how bad can mine be? :) So anyway, dinner tonight was average because I probably ordered the wrong main. My bbq pork ribs was pretty cold when served... But Oka was quite satisfied with his kangaroo steak. Our table was situated with a great view of the boat harbor. And even though it was really chilly outside, the heater warmed us up and it was really cozy.

I will update on my brownie baking experience tomorrow.

Sleeping

more than 12 hours is not something I have the privilege to do often. But this weekend we didn't have anything planned so we just kinda did things as they came up and if felt great! I think we'll probably go and buy some fresh & yummy fruits from Subiaco market this afternoon and grab dinner at Freo by the waters.

BBQ

We had bbq chicken, corn marinated with chilli & olive butter, bbq sweet potato served with rock salt & pepper. Yummy! But I must say today's a bloody hot day. We started eating outside but moved indoors after a while. The heat was unbearable. But food's all good. No complaint there.

Sunday brunch

We went to "Flipside Burger Bar" in North Fremantle for brunch this morning. I had the red hot burger which was quite spicy much to my liking. My love for spicy hot food didn't develop until my late teenage years. But in recent years, I crave even hotter and spicier food it's kinda scary. But the burger was good and of course no burger should ever be eaten without hot chips. This burger bar is decorated on the basis of minimalism - just a long rectangular table with wooden stools around it. Additionally, it also has a shorter window table. We ate and sat by the window, which gave us a bird eye's view of what went on outside of where we were. It's interesting to just watch other people and cars zooming by. There is also an antique store across the street which had attracted numerous people in the span of an hour. After lunch, we headed to "The Miami Bakehouse" to get an angel sponge cake roll. Today's a lovely day, with the sky back to a jet blue and fluffy white clouds floating around after a day of rain yesterday.

CNY Eve Dinner

We went to "The little Mexican place" in North Perth for dinner tonight. A friend from work gave a thumb's up for this restaurant and we decided to try it out too since we've not had any decent Mexican food since we left the US. The place was quite small but gave you a warm feeling. Waiters were very helpful and even tidied up the table for us when we wanted to take a picture. The price I thought was pretty reasonable too for a 3-course meal.

Drinks:

• Hibiscus drink
  
• Pineapple/lime drink

Entree:

1. jalapeno peppers, stuffed with cheese, served with sour cream
   
2. traditional avocado dip served with corn chips
   

Main:

1. pork braised in citrus juices then pan fried until crispy on the edge
   
2. pieces of chili marinated steak, sandwiched between two flour tortillas with two cheeses then grilled

Dessert:

1. lime and tequila baked cheese cake