The Cube

What's the connection between Point Fraser and chilli mussels? Technically, there isn't any but there's a little story (nothing juicy.. so don't get your hopes high). Ever since we missed having mussels in Belgium moons ago, sis and I have been keeping an eye for anything mussels. LOL. She found a chilli mussel place in Perth and had been talking about it, so I was looking forward to some chilli mussel for dinner.


Little niece agreed to outside dining, subject to a little park detour. Sis had in mind another park, near Swan Bell but there were no parking space available. Point Fraser came to the rescue.


Point Fraser is an artificial wetland, connected by boardwalks. This wetland filtered stormwater before flowing into Swan River, this helps to preserve the balance of the river.


We head to Concas for chilli mussels thereafter. Concas is a no nonsense eatery, if you are after good dining ambience, you would be sorely disappointed. In fact, it felt like some Asian chap fan (economy rice) place but this is the Italian version of it.


The chilli mussels were good but I read from urbanspoon that it is not as good now compared to previously. We only ordered chilli mussels and one pasta dish so that niece can have some (pasta, not chilli mussels). Unfortunately, only the chilli mussels were up to par.


Side note: I have just jumped on the bandwagon of reading Game of Thrones :p

Little niece's toy :P

Last November I made a little trip Perth (my most visited city in Australia!) for a week. It was awesome that my boss allowed me to work in the Perth office, so I didn't have to take any annual leave, I was running short on leave entitlements. :P

It was an additional bonus that the view from Perth office was superb.



Pardon the reflection..

View from Melbourne office are just brown building :|

On the trivial negative end, it was quite a hectic week as work was busy. However, I managed to squeezed in some short walks here and there.

It does feel a little strange to see the Christmas deco at the background but I was there just before Christmas...

A little angel ^^

Side note: I so need to fix that light in my lounge room.. :(

Docklands is a suburb of Melbourne, just adjacent to Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD). It also houses a lot of offices, which explains why I had this photo. My manager sent me to a forum that started at a wee hour..

This was taken right after Southern Cross Station.


Side note: Yay to long weekends!

The first time I visited Australia was donkeys years ago. Of the states in Australia, my mother and I visited Perth as sis is there. As sis was working, I signed us up for a couple of day trips. Our first day tour was to The Pinnacles. Of course, there were some other stops aside from The Pinnacles but that, is another story as I am going to talk about rocks here :P


The Pinnacles are limestone formations structures located within Nambung National Park, near the town of Cervantes, Western Australia.


Our second day tour - was to Wave Rock. Wave Rock is 14 metres high and around110 metres long. It is a natural rock formation and shaped like a tall breaking ocean wave. It lies in a small town of Hyden in Hyden Wildlife Park.


After two day tours to see The Pinnacles and Wave Rock, mom was telling sis that I brought her to see rocks after a long 4 hours van ride. :|

By then, I thought I would spice things up and take a day tour to Margaret River. Ha! On the way there, we visited Canal Rocks :D


Canal Rocks is one of the many striking headlands that lie along Leeuwin-Naturaliste coastline. It looks ahead off the Indian Ocean, forming a patchwork of rocky islands.
The rocks has characteristic of gneiss (pronounced nice), a metamorphic or 'changed' rock.

A few years down the road, I relocated to Sydney. One of the easiest and popular day trip from Sydney is Blue Mountains. One of the Blue Mountains' most spectacular landmark is The Three Sisters. It is essentially an unusual rock formation, said to represent thress sisters who according to Aboriginal legend were turned to stone.


The Three Sisters are the only rocks I have visited in New South Wales (NSW). One of the most famous rocks in Australia would be the next one that I have visited on my first trip to Victoria (VIC) - meet the 12 Apostles.


These magnificent rock stacks is like icing on the cake after a long drive along the scenic Great Ocean Road.


Come to think of it, I've only been to one rock place in NSW, one in VIC...and one in South Australia (SA). This was the one I think could have more interesting name (sorry!) as this rock is called the Remarkable Rocks.


Somehow every time I tell people this is the Remarkable Rocks, I can just picture a crow flying pass.. mmm... I blame it on my wild imagination :P

Then it brings us back to Western Australia (WA) again! This Sugarloaf Rock that is foundin Margaret River region is said to look like a massive chunk of rock that looks like "sugarloaf".

So...does it look anything like a conical moulded mass of sugar?

Then it comes to my top two favourite rocks, both are found in Northern Territory (NT). I can't decide if which one I prefer.

It was heaps fun trekking up Kata Tjuta but the sunset upon Uluru is hard to beat!




Side note: Now I got to fix that light in my lounge room.. I need a tradie friend...:|

I wrote about my usually running route in Sydney a couple of year ago, at the magnificent Sydney Harbour Bridge. After my move to Melbourne, I ran jogged/walked around the neighbourhood along Merri Creek.

After a few failed attempts to move my butt out of the house early enough on Saturdays morning and after work, also many urges from my colleague, I decided to try this lunch time running thingy. It is kind of lunch time running in a way as I skipped lunch. However I do go out probably an hour or so before lunch time to beat the other lunch time running crowd to avoid having to queue for bathroom.


Anyway, since this would be on a working day, my current running.. umm jogging (and hopefully) non walking route is along part of Yarra River. I started off running with my colleague for a while but of late he takes off without me, said that he wanted some quiet time (*gasp* I must've been noisy :|) I hope I didn't get myself into his little black book, maybe just too slow for his demon-possessed-running-speed.


On one of the days I went running alone, I stopped and took some photos. If I was to run with my colleague and stopped every so often to take a shot, I suspect he might just push me off the river bank. :P

This river is situated just right next to one of the busiest train station, Flinders Station in CBD. This is nowhere as glamorous as the Sydney Harbour Bridge but it does feel like an oasis in the middle of the city. Of course, the nearer stretch to the station is much busier.


Sometimes I stop for a drink on one of the water fountains along the river. Often times, this is how my brain thinks before the brief stop...
"Hey, let's stop for a quick drink..."
"Surely you are not thirsty yet, don't stop, got to continue running to keep the momentum."
"If you don't have a drink, you might get headache from not enough water..."
"It's only a little stop.."
"You probably run faster after some water.."

And so, most of the time I stop for a little drink if I'm running alone *shifty eyes*


This bridge here is called Morell Bridge, it is where I make a U-turn back. It also means that I'm half way finish at this point ^ ^

Morell Bridge - connecting Royal Botanic Gardens and Olympic Park Precinct

I turned right to head back towards the CBD.

Leading up to Royal Botanic Gardens

And from there, look left

and, look right

I thought I may have accidentally had too many stops by this time and have better buck up and start sprinting back (har har) so I didn't take a lunch too long...

...till I saw this and thought, what's a couple more photos eh? ;)





And the last photo I took during the run from Swan Street Bridge, it had potential to be a better photo but my camera was a tad too slow to load... hence, it looked like this. This is enjoying Yarra River to the max - be it along the river or at the river itself. There are also some tourist boats travelling up and down the river as well.




Side note: Time to have more hot cross bun - choc ones of course :P

I was waiting for a friend for brunch last Saturday, and saw this. Too cute not to take a photo of ^^


Side note: Happy Good Friday :)

It was a hot day

Globalisation eh - Swiss Italian Farm in Australia. So, is it Swiss or Italian? According to their website, it started out with Italian-speaking Swiss immigrants. However what one find now was re-created and restored.
I don't think a lot of people associate Australia with lavender. My first encounter with endless lavender farm was in Hokkaido... I suspect that's probably with most people too ;)

The farm buildings were rustic but cosy, of course there is a big lavender farm, complete with a cafe.


It was getting a little too warm to walkabout and we took a chance to enjoy our lunch there.

Looks beautiful huh, but there were also a lot of plants debris/leftover falling all over the table when wind blows

Doesn't look a lot, but more than enough for two :)

A non purple colour lavender ice-cream