Perth: Ciao Italia

I missed trying the Pasta al Nero di Seppia, in other words pasta in squid ink that my sister recommended. So I when I was back in Perth, I have requested for a squid ink pasta. This place by all means is not cheap, and it was rather annoying standing outside of the restaurant for a seat with a hand shooing away any approching flies. There is a no reservation policy for this restaurant, also all parties must be present before allowed into the restaurant.

The restaurant, Ciao Italia opens at 5pm for dinner service. We were there before 6pm and it was already full house with a queue outside. My sister left her name and we were lucky to be admit into the restaurant after about 30 minutes.

There were 6 adults, 2 children and 1 baby altogether, of course baby has her own food :P

We ordered bruschetta for starters.



3 pasta dishes and a pizza to share as main meals. I didn't take picture of all the food, some where a little far from where I sat, and by the time we swapped the plates, a big chunk were already not on the plate :P


My favourite dish among the mains - squid ink pasta.



Marinara Spaghetti - tomato sauce based for the kids

We also had Spaghetti Carbonara and Calzone.

Dessert was this very heavenly tiramisu. So very good.



Ciao Italia
273 Mill Point Road,
South Perth, Cnr Douglas Ave.
Phone: 9368 5500
TUESDAY to SATURDAY, 5pm to 10pm. SUNDAY & MONDAY Close


Side note: 4 1/2 days to go ^_^

Swan Valley: Wineries and Honey

According to my second sis who stays in Perth, she would recommend a photo of this winery. Just right across the Margaret River Chocolate Company, a beautiful scenary greeted us. Being the lazy photographer, can't be help, it was scorching hot, we took the photo under the shed across the road. This was till my sister helped me to take a photo and she said I looked like some live size billboard sticking to the winery. So, I had to cross the road the make the photo looked more believable. :P





As we have taken some shot of the beautiful vineyard, we thought might as well visit the winery and tried some wine and cheese at Lancester Wines.



Unfortunately it wasn't the most comfortable place to enjoy wine and cheese, especially on such a hot day. It definitely didn't help when there were flies hovering around. I only had a little sip and some cheese, my 2 bro-in-laws were trying some, they were thinking of buying a bottle but did not in the end as we thought of going to another winery to try first. Maybe the people at the winery reckoned we were not keen on purchasing, I feel that they were not very friendly actually.



Nonetheless, a beautiful place. Would be much comfortable if it was a little less hot.



I wanted to go to the Ugly Duckling Winery to pick up a dessert wine for a friend, so that was the next stop while my eldest sis and family went off to Windarra Honey first. I tried the dessert wine and really like it. It was too sickly sweet, just nice :)



I think its a strategy to have beautiful place to drink some wine to interest people into buying them :P



Pardon the photo but this is my purchase from Swan Valley - Viognier

After getting the wine, met up with my eldest sis at Windarra Honey



It was a small place, nothing too exciting inside the shop. It was outside the place that attracts my nieces. There were some cows and they had fun feeding the cows.




Side note: How nice if I have some honey now.. bleh...

Swan Valley: Margaret River Chocolate Company

I was back to Perth, once again. Among the capital cities in Australia, Perth tops the list of destination for myself (excluding errand and work related). I'm still short of Darwin and Hobart at the moment. My eldest sister and family had a planned travel to Perth for a holidays, and mom already in Perth at this time, I told, what the heck, I'll fly in for a short family gathering, and of course, to see my adorable baby niece :)

Found that Virgin Australia had a very nice flight time to Perth from Sydney. I left work and took the 5.25pm flight to Perth, estimated touchdown time at 7.25pm WA time, just right on time for dinner :) Yes. I did the weekend Perth trip again, reaching on Friday evening and departed on Sunday night, back to Sydney on Monday morning and off to work.
As it was such a short trip, there was no long distance travel, just around Perth - this time to Swan Valley and Fremantle.

So I cheated, I was in the Swan Valley's Margaret River Chocolate Company, not exactly in Margaret River. Grin. As Christmas was approaching, there were some nice Christmas theme chocolate. Don't know what got into my head, I didn't get any of them.















However, my brother-law-law got my nieces & I got some ice-cream (don't worry not the baby), very nice for a hot afternoon in Perth. I think it was up to 34 degree celcius. My pick was the macadamia flavoured, said to be winner of some competition. I wish it has more macadamia and the flavour though. At some parts, it feels more like vanilla ice cream with bits of crushed macadamia. :(



One of my niece likes everything pink and picked the pink colour bubblegum flavoured ice cream. :P



Side note: Supplements are expensive stuff...

就想赖着你

Running out of drama to watch, and found this in some old collection.

In episode 1, 杨果's boyfriend left her, she was drunk and she said...

"我希望总有一天可以遇到····那个不管我有没有钱漂不漂亮····他都会永远爱我···那个真正懂得珍惜我···在乎我的人"

In one of the later episodes, 杨果's friend, 雁玲 after found out that her boyfriend was seeing another girl, said...

"我真的好难过
原来那些幸福都是假的
如果连他都会骗我
那以后还有谁可以相信呢"

Side note: To buy or not to buy...

Kirribilli Art & Design Market and Fashion Market

From the previous North Sydney market, I have moved and now staying near another market - Kirribilli Market. There are 2 markets being held in a month at the same location - General Market on the 4th Saturdays; and Kirribilli Art & Design and Fashion Market on 2nd Sundays. Thre are held at a very strategic location, at the Burton Street Tunnel, very near the Milsons Point train station.

Actually both markets are rather similar if you asked me, except that in General Market there was a stall or 2 selling vegetables and fruits. Here are some pictures of Kirribilli Art & Design and Fashion Market. Coming from Milsons Points side, it always starts with food stalls.

Some of the food stalls has been around since when I first moved in, some are new ones. Like the one above - Dutch Poffertjes is one of the ones been around for a bit, so are Russian Blyni, Turkish Gozlemes. Lately the Sri Lanka dishes stall also put up a stall at the Kirribilli Markets.

There are some pretty good buys at the market, especially on handmade jewelleries. Some are on the pricey side but there are pretty good ones. I didn't take a lot of pictures as this being the Art & Design Market, many stall owners do not allow pictures being taken of their goods.

Lately, both markets has been well expanded and it was great fun poking around looking at the things. Especially Christmas is around the corner, might be a good place to get some Christmas presents :)


Side note: Nursing the itchy throat, stuffed nose and headache at home. Have to get it sorted before I travel home...

Whale Watching Sydney

~ Welcome to Sydney :)

It so happened that a good fine Friday night I thought to myself, "I want to go whale watching." So after finishing some work on Saturday, I made an impromptu online booking for whale watching the next day.

The company seem to be the popular one around, and if the cruise does not see any whale, one could return on another cruise within the year as a standby passenger. There was complimentary biscuits, coffee/tea and apples onboard.

There was two departure points - Circular Quay or Darling Harbour, also two types of boats - 3 hours bigger boat, or the 2 hours smaller boats. I poked online a little and decided on the bigger boat, reason being bigger boat would be more stable. I was worry of motion sickness.

I took the morning departure at 9.45am. The boat departs from Darling Harbour, and headed to Circular Quay to pick up more passengers. So it was like boat cruise + whale watching, hit 2 birds with one stone.

~ Under the Harbour Bridge

~ Around Circular Quay

~ The obligatory picture on Opera House :P

Then off we went to chase the whales! We were informed of the wind speed and all, in case we changed our mind and want to go another day. Also that there is a safety distance that boats have to be away from whales to protect the whales, something like 100m from adult whales and 300m from their calf.

The one we saw as a mommy whale and her calf. I didn't have the kick ass camera like the guy from the whale watching company, unfortunately. Not even a SLR. His camera was like those you see in football matches, the superbly long ones.

Anyway, here are some measly pictures I took.

And no, just to make things clear. The whales did not jump as high as Willy in Free Willy, though at one point, the calf did breached but I only caught the water splashing in my shot. Still not as high as Willy, over the boy.

Unfortunately, I did experience some motion sickness but fortunately, it was towards the end of the cruise. I read that ginger would be helpful, example ginger candy or some sort but I didn't have any, except a bottle of grated ginger in the fridge. I didn't bring that along, if you are curious. However I overheard some moms telling their children that apples helped with motion sickness. So I went down and grabbed an apple, probably that was the reason why they dished out complimentary apples. I am not sure if it does help but I felt better when the boat started making it's way back to shore.


Side note: I wonder how to carry a 45cm floor fan back by train, and working out how to discard the old spoilt one... hmm..

Sydney Opera House Open Day 2011

~ Don't bash me but I still think Opera House is more beautiful from far :P

Sydney Opera House held its annual Open Day last month on 16th October 2011. I missed the Open Day last year as I was in Maroochydore. It gives visitors a chance to see the inside of the famed Opera House for free :)

It opened at 10am and closed at 4pm. I remember leaving home at 10am, thinking it even if I reached by 11am, it was still fairly early. However the queue already has built up.

I remember being in line for a fair bit and it was a fairly warm day. Or how Aussies would say "It's a lovely day.". Grin. Anyway, so I keep myself amused by taking some pictures.

~ father and son enjoying the sea view

After a while, we were ushered in to the Opera House.

They put up some costumes on the stage in the hall. There was no scheduled concerts or shows on that day.

After leaving the hall, we were given time to see the remaining area.

There was also some lookout area where you can look out to the Harbour Bridge and more water view.

Side note: I am so peckish, I wish there's some chips to munch. Mental note to stock up my snacks. *bite*