Post dated entry: Perth Trip [06-15July2012]

This entry is about the Perth trip last year with Brendan in July 2012.

I am such a procrastinator when it comes to blogging about holiday trips!!

Well, since I am just blogging to record my adventures in life and also for me to read when I am old, absent-minded and suffering from dementia, I think it's ok if it's post-dated. Heh heh! Got post better than no post right?

I have some spare time on hand now since I am on hospitalization leave so I can look through all my draft entries for the past 2 years which I didn't had the time to post because of my crazy work schedule..

Alrighty.. since our trip to Perth last year in July 2012, so many things have happened!

1) Tabby & Doug got married in January 2013!

2) Tabby & Doug moved to a new house they bought!

3) Tabby & Doug bought a new puppy in April 2013 and he's soooo cute!

4) Tabby & Doug bought a 2nd puppy in July and she's ultra cute too!

5) Brendan and I got married in September 2013!

6) Brendan and I went for our honeymoon in October 2013!

The biggest change was both Tabby & I were single ladies last year and now we are both married!! :)

During our trip to Perth last year, Tabby kept nagging at Brendan to hurry up and propose and plan for a wedding because banquet prices are increasing.. I think she hinted/nagged/ordered Brendan to marry me at least 5 times a day while we were there! LOL!!! Brendan could only smile and nod and say "soon soon" while she said "soon is not good enough! HURRY!".

Well, I caught her wedding bouquet in January when she got married to Doug, then somehow Brendan & I decided to get married in March (luck of the bouquet) and now I am married too! :)

Actually we went back for another visit in April this year and stayed with them at their new house! Haven't blogged about the last visit and we already went for the 2nd visit.. LOL! Well, it's been more than a year since our July 2012 trip and I am finally blogging about it.

Well, I've also not blogged about my Paris/Amsterdam trip in November 2011, our Paris Trip in May 2012 and Myanmar in June 2012, USA in January 2013, so this post about Perth is actually earlier than those post dated entries!!

Yes, I am so lazy when it comes to long holiday posts because they are so tedious!  If it's those 2D1N Batam trip, it's easier for me to churn out the entries. Actually I am amazed by how some bloggers actually can prolong their 4D3N entries into a dozen long posts. Milking one trip as much as they can.... I guess it's because they seldom get to travel so every trip seems extra precious? 

Well, I am lucky that I always get to travel where I want and when I want (leave application permitting). Things are gonna change when I get married, even more when we have children. Le hubby told me that he wants to hold off having children so we can have our own couple time together and go travel the world first for at least one year after marriage. During that one year I will have to fend off many questions about having babies from the elders... T_T"

I am going to break up the post into 3 entries and this will be the 1st one. 2nd one will be Cohunu Koala Park and the last entry will be our road trip to Margaret River where we visited Cape Leeuwin and Brendan was so inspired by the lighthouse and cross referenced it to our relationship which is a major factor in the decision to marry me. ^_^

This first entry is gonna be food food and more food. That's all we do in Perth when we are with Tabby & Doug. LOL! Eat and eat and eat..

Our ride during the trip!

They couldn't accompany us all the time as they had to work, so we rented a car to drive around when they were working. When they got off work or during their off days, we hit all the food joints and eat like there's no tomorrow.. -_-

Flew by Qantas! 

Usually I'll choose Singapore Airlines but the air tickets to Perth was so exorbitant for the dates we wanted so we took Qantas instead. I don't really like Qantas cos they charge money for advance seat selection. Annoying.

We arrived in the wee hours (4am+) and Tabby & Doug came to the airport to pick us up! Super sweet of them cos it's really an ungodly hour lah! Afterwards we went back to their place to freshen up then we went for an early breakfast!

the Pearfect Pantry

Ultra yummy! :)

Doug & Tabby

With my then Le bf.. :D

After breakfast we went to Kings Park (which was where Doug proposed to Tabby! Awwww..) for a walk. I've never been there before even though Tabby's old house was just beside it when I visited a few years ago.

Beautiful morning scenery!

Me & Tabby!

Us! :)

Post breakfast time!

After breakfast & the morning stroll, Tabby & Doug brought us to La Galette de France for a post breakfast meal! Eat die us. Haha!

The trip last July was the first time I met Doug and the first time Tabby met Brendan. Needless to say it's also the first time the two guys are meeting and they got along like a house on fire!

Both Tabby & I are really surprised but extremely happy because our partners can hang out together while we do our girl stuff. Haha! In fact, the two of them got along so well.. it's like they are long lost brothers or something. 

Common topic? Techy stuff. 

Doug loves computers, games, and other techie stuff which Brendan also loves. Put them together and they will speak in an alien language that only geeks will understand.

For dinner that evening, we went to Ciao Italia for Italian cuisine! It's the best Italian food in Perth city and the restaurant is always full house everyday. You have to go really early to queue up because they don't take reservations.

Pizza in a traditional oven!

The carbonara is sooooo good!

LOOK AT ALL THE FOOD!!!!!!!!

Brendan like to surprise kiss me in photos sometimes. Heehee!

Ended dinner with the BEST Tiramisu! YUMMEH!!

On one of the weekend morning, we went to Fremantle to eat the famous Japanese Ramen at Fremantle Market, shopped for yummy snacks, then we walked across to the famous Cicrello's for their Fish & Chips!

We ordered these to share cos the Ramen were still in our tummies!

Brendan's first time having their Fish & Chips!

Dinner at Tabby's favourite Korean BBQ restaurant!

Desserts at this awesome chillout place (forgot the name)

The cakes were.... OMNOMNOM!

I love the ice chocolate in Perth!

Scoops of vanilla ice-cream with milk & chocolate sauce! Every cafe we go to serves awesome ice chocolate! It's the only drink I order in cafes when I am there! SO GOOD!!

One of the evening we went to Hyatt Regency Perth for their dinner buffet. This is the place where I fell in love with Caesar Salad when I visited Tabby in 2009! Omg.. the Caesar Salad is soooo good. Still as good as before! Nom nom nom!

Caesar Salad Bar

Not very healthy with all the bacon bits.. LOL!

Doug treated us for that dinner! Thank you so much! :D

Actually they treated us to many meals and we feel so paiseh lah! Stay at their house, impose on them and they still treat us makan!!

Hilary's Harbour

We visited the Aquarium of Western Australia

Beautiful sunset in Fremantle

Playdoh monkeys we made during the Xmas party

We were invited to Penny's house for a Christmas party in July! Because Australia's weather is different from the rest of the world and their winter is in mid year instead of year end.. they have a special tradition of celebrating Christmas in July! :)

Stuff we bought during our visit last year.

Mostly tidbits for my little sister. Haha!

Flight home...~~

Beautiful skies!

I took this picture while waiting to board our plane. I love it because the cloud in the middle looks like a giant whale swimming upwards.. So dreamy...

Thank you Tabby & Doug for the kind hospitality! And yes we will be planning a 3rd trip back really soon! :)

How to make Popiah from scratch

We had a Bridal Party gathering yesterday at our place! We showed the completed wedding video to the bridesmaids and groomsmen before we post them online for everyone else to see.

The bridesmaids came in the afternoon and the groomsmen came in the evening cos most of them are working, by then most of the bridesmaids left except for Nat, Wany and our 3 sisters. We played Just Dance 4 on my Xbox Kinect after dinner and it was SUPER FUN!!! We had so much fun that we only ended after midnight! Hahahahahhaa!

Mama Chew suggested having a Popiah Party since they will all be arriving at different timings.

I helped Tita to prepare for the Popiah Party cos we have to prepare enough for around 20 people and she can't manage by herself as she has to do housework and stuff.. Since I am on a long break from work and is just lazing around, I should make myself useful and learn something new too! :)

Our domestic helper has made popiah a few times before and I didn't think much of it cos it looks quite simple. Just vegetables on the popiah skin with the sauce, some peanuts, etc and wrap it up before we eat it.. Little did I know the effort and time spent on the dish because everything is made from scratch except for the Popiah skin (which we bought from NTUC.. haha!).

Main ingredients

The main ingredients that makes up the "base" of the Popiah are carrots, radish, bamboo shoots, cabbage, leek & long beans.

Kitty with the leeks

Stir fry each vegetables individually

After the tedious process of chopping the vegetables into small strips, heat up a little oil and add some chopped garlic before stir frying each vegetables and keeping it aside once it's cooked.

Mixing all the cooked vegetables

Once all the vegetables are cooked, it's time to mix them all up together. Can't stir it too much or it will become too "mushy" or too broken up.. but have to make sure all the ingredients are equally spread out.

Tau Kwa

Tau Kwa has to be freshly bought and cut into little cube sizes before frying. It's so difficult (for me) cos I am kinda OCD and wanted each squares to be almost the same size and it's quite impossible cos the tau kwa is not exactly in a perfect square.

Tita took out peanuts to fry and I was wondering why she did that until she told me that Mama Chew likes to have freshly grounded peanuts at home instead of buying those ready made ground peanuts.. T_T"

Step 1: Stir-fry the peanuts

Step 2: Drain the excess oil away

Step 3: Remove all the peanut skin (Hardcore tiring)

Step 4: Pound the peanuts

After pounding 2 batches I became tired and used the food processor instead. It's so crazy tiring to use the pounding thing!!! The food processor is much faster and easier!

Dried fish

We had to pound the fish because the food processor will turn it into powder and it won't have the nice consistency that Mama Chew likes.. Tita fried the fish and once it's cooled, she used the pounding thingy to smash it while I prepared the chili. This item is used to scatter on the vegetables before you wrap it up. Somehow it adds in a nice aroma and taste to the popiah.

Making the chili! Garlic, lime, chili & chili padi

End result

Smells super spicy.. but I heard it was "ok" and not that spicy. Well, guess I'm not a chili person.

After the chili I was too tired to continue taking pictures, but we also cooked eggs, chinese sausage, prawns, beansprouts and prepared some other raw vegetables that is used in the popiah during the wrapping.

Really tired out from making the popiah preparations and I think we won't be having popiah again for a loooooong time.