Travelogue - Perth, Western Australia February 2013 (7)

Been close to five days since I am back but work has practically drained all energy that I managed to conserve from my recent vacation. When one gives, one takes. Oh well. I fight on!

And I do need to be quicker with my updates, don't I? Hahaha!


It was on one of those days when I got Rosie by myself, hence drove down to Matilda Bay for a walk.

Tex also dropped me in the city for some shopping because I felt too cooped up at home!

Dinner in the city!

People-watching.

Ordered an Iced Mocha without ice-cream but they might have forgotten and gave me a scoop anyway!




Cheap thrill.

Tex came by to pick me up and we went to have supper! Tried this very busy Asian dessert joint.

Yam dessert

The next day was a Saturday so I insisted that we should visit a farmers' market which only opens on weekends! Woohoo!

Xylia would so love this..

Childhood fun!

Had breakfast by those stalls! I love getting food from stalls like that - food is always prepared just in time and served piping hot!

Yummy bratwurst!

Our shopping from the market!

Okay! I am here to share another recipe - Garlic White Wine Mussels. May I also declare that the mussels' recipes are a mish-mash of what I have tasted, seen on Internet and finally came up with my own! They are all suited to my taste hence I didn't try to follow closely to other recipes.

Sidenote: we used mussels that were bought the other day but silly us put them in the freezer. As a result, we couldn't get them to open even when we simmered them for a longer time than usual. Lesson to learn from this - buy mussels only if you intend to cook it for that day!

Ingredients:

1. About twenty fresh mussels
2. One big white onion
3. Two bulbs of garlic (Yes I exaggerated a little here but essentially, this is the main 'spice' for this dish so put as much as you want! I am very liberal with my spices.)
4. Two Chilli Padis (Optional; you can skip this if you do not want your soup to be a little spicy)
5. Chicken stock
6. White wine (If you can, drop by a liquor store and look for cooking white wine which is sweeter in nature)
7. Salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. De-beard the mussels. Refer to this post on getting who to do the dirty job. Throw away any mussel that is opened at this moment.
2. Dice the onions and chop the garlic finely.
3. Slice the chilli padi.
4. Add water to chicken stock and bring to a boil; we need about a big bowl of stock. 
5. And we're ready to cook!

Cooking:

1. Oil the pan with olive oil generously over medium fire.
2. When oil is hot, throw in the diced onions and stir fry.
3. As soon as the onions turn soft (not brown), throw in the massive amount of garlic and chilli; stir fry again.
4. When the garlic emits a strong fragrant smell and just before they turn brown, add in chicken stock and try three tablespoons of white wine. If you like more or less, add or reduce accordingly.
5. When the mixture comes to a boil, throw the mussels in and cover lid tightly to let it simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Throw away any mussel that is not opened at this time.
7. Simmer again for 3 more minutes.
8. Garnish with celery leaves or coriander!
9. Ready to serve!

TADAH!!

Like I mentioned earlier, use fresh mussels to cook. Frozen ones would be tough to gauge if they are dead or not. This batch of mussels that I used were from the batch that were used to cook Chilli Mussels. Notice that they did not open as much as the Chilli Mussels did!

View after dinner.

Sausages from the supermarket!

On the day I left, we brought Rosie to meet our friends!

Guys and their toys.

Seishen hasn't given his $1600 Honda Accord a name yet. The car is sold by the way.

Make-up palette for guys,

Thanesh's uncle's house has a hot tub! (That cannot be used)

Because I was grieving over leaving, I treated myself to creamy chicken stew onboard. That tasted quite nice.

And I bought ice cream back!

Nah, just kidding. Underwear from one of my favourite lingerie retailers in Australia, Peter Alexander! Mad comfortable can.

So cute right!

Yay, finally concluded the travelogue for this trip! I hope to start on Hanoi's ASAP. :)

I Can Feel Your Heart Ache

There was one night when we both lay in bed and chatted about our future. I went dead quiet suddenly as I recalled I only had 2 more nights with Tex before I leave, not knowing when we would meet again.

Leaving is not the problem. Not knowing when we would meet again, is.

To have a date is so much easier to trudge on in life without him. Without the date, we both are walking corpses in our own ways and trying to manage better.

Me: *keeps quiet*
Tex: Why? What's wrong?
Me: I feel down.
Tex: I know.
Me: What do you know?
Tex: I can feel your heart ache.
Me: *BAWLS*

We both concluded that we are too old for this LDR shit.

Travelogue - Perth, Western Australia February 2013 (6)

Hello! Blogging about Perth from Perth. This is getting a little too long, isn't it?

On this day, we decided to head to King's Park again for a day picnic!

Whipped up another salad for our munch.

Baby Spinach with all you can see that is in this photo.

Love sun bursts.

Free to roam just about anywhere.

After which, went to watch Tex play one of his games! He has now quitted soccer for the time being as he needs time to concentrate on his thesis. Prioritising, baby!

Even in summer, sometimes the wind gives me goosebumps.

Went to Wah Do for their delicious Chinese food again!

My favourite dish of all - 椒盐排骨

And say hello to the best apple strudel ever - Corica! I can't believe when I arrived in Perth for the first time, I didn't like it at all. Now, I just wanna buy a lot and go home with it. Mum has also officially told me she wants nothing - but this.

On another night, Tex cooked a really delish pasta to finish off his feta cheese!

That was breakfast on another day. I have lost track. Hahahaha!

Okay, this must be a Tuesday because on Tuesdays, KFC has offers like 9 pieces of chicken for AUD$9 or something!

Large pot of seafood stew that I cooked while entertaining some of our friends

Roaming around his university

Decided to be adventurous and drove out to City Beach on my own! Spamming of beach photos ahead, just because I love the turquoise waters.

Date night out with Tex! He brought me to an outdoor theatre where we caught Pitch Perfect! :)



Hokay! That is all for today! Going off now to squeeze some lemons to make honey lemon for the husband! :)

Taking Flight

Alright, this is it. Blogging live from Changi Airport because I have too much time. Which is bad because any longer would do serious harm to my wallet.

Tex has already mapped out for me my itinerary for tomorrow when I land - to be his chauffeur. Sounds exciting already? He warned me of the potential traffic jams that I would face, given the routes that I would be driving by. Well, what other better ways to experience Perth than to immerse yourself fully into their daily lives? I'm on holiday, so be it. :)

I am secretly looking forward to the solo drive and the euphoria of getting myself home at the end of the day. Hee.

Simple pleasures.

PS: I met an awesome check-in staff who blatantly ignored my overweight luggage. This luck needs to continue.

PPS: Kids on board. Wish me luck.