Bayside: Black Rock Beach and Brighton Bathing Boxes

Still playing catching up. This was taken on my birthday earlier this year when my friend suggested we should get our butts off the couch (in our respective home) and go for a little walk. We had a brunch before she very kindly drove us to Black Rock Beach for a little stroll.

Black Rock Beach is about 10 minutes away from the more famous icon, the Brighton Bathing Boxes which I have just realised I didn't post any of the pictures up. Anyway, let's remedy that, here's a couple of photos to show what is a bathing box.

So.. back to Black Rock Beach. We had a bit of a walk and tried to get up to 10K steps as tracked by my friend's fitbit. We gave up after awhile and it was getting too warm and went for a smoothie instead. Ha ha.. somehow every time I went for a walk, I ended it with some sort of food. :P

After smoothies, we even treat ourselves to an early dinner of nasi lemak. Well, I've heard hearsay that calories don't count on celebrations... I hope that is true :D

Side note: 琅琊榜 is an excellent drama! 

Perth: Pluck your own strawberries

Sis and family live in Perth, so on/off I would do a R&R to Perth. Sometimes I do via a long weekend but the last couple of years I could ask to work for a short stint in Perth and save up my annual leave, I thought that was a brilliant idea and did that once or twice. My last visit to Perth was just that, off to Perth on a Thursday evening and back the weekend after so that I get at least a full weekend. After all, initially sis planned a farm stay since mum was in Perth then and that would require a minimum two nights' stay.

Long story short, farm stay didn't work out and in lieu of that we went to pluck some strawberries as I was there in October last year. (err ha ha, yes I'm still covering up all the back posts).

Sis did some googling and off we went to Ti Strawberry Farm in Bullsbrook. It's a good way to spend some time but oh gosh, the flies! Also, the dust will cover all over your shoes, haha. It was said that the farm was open for pluck-your-own because the strawberries are over ripe for any commercial purposes.

I didn't have many photos as this round I didn't carry my camera to reduce luggage load as I was being cheapskate and didn't pay extra for any check-in luggage, also needing to carry a work laptop.

Post strawberry picking, we had bread, pastry, sorbet, crepe, sponge cake, smoothie - all with strawberry as the core ingredient. I only helped in eating... hahaha... and also stole this photo from sis.. haha.

It was seriously just pretty much a lot of eating going around especially since I was working Australian Eastern time in Perth, which was a 3 hour difference so I had 2 breakfasts every day and plenty of "tea time" and snacks throughout the day.

Almond brioche

Braised dried oyster in minced meat balls

Yong tau fu

More yong tau fu and stuffed green chillies

Side note: I'm hungry again!

Sydney: The trip with the least photos

Granted it was a work trip and only a couple of days (flying out of Melbourne on a Tuesday afternoon and return on Saturday morning) but usually I had more photos and just a handful. In fact, majority of the photos were taken from the flight, almost thought "Why did I lug my camera along?" Lol.

Anyways, the main reason for the trip was for a team building activity on a Friday afternoon. After a voting session by everybody in the team, we went for cocktail masterclass at Li'l Darling in Surry Hills. The masterclass started with a demonstration of making 3 cocktails by the bartenders. Thereafter each of us get to make our own pick of cocktail. On top of that, each get another drink and we were served some pizzas. Definitely a lot of alcohol going around. I made an espresso martini...

Balance of my dinners of course were with friends. We had Izakaya Masuya and Sushi of Masuya (now name Masuya Suisan) this round. Ahem.. I was being polite so I didn't take any photos at all (what was I thinking?) I actually missed Ippudo this trip too (see, least photos, least food. Tsk tsk) and I had Chat Thai with another friend over a dinner.

I stayed in Four Points by Sheraton overlooking Darling Harbour. They don't have a swimming pool (what's with the hotel in Sydney, the ones I ended up with doesn't have a swimming pool. Sux) but the room was ok. The view wasn't bad though.

The weather was probably the worse I had as a visitor to Sydney. It was pouring the whole time we were there... and I didn't bring an umbrella. On one of the nights when I walking passed the junction of Barrack Street and George Street, I got a fright...

As we had the cocktail masterclass on a Friday afternoon/evening, we fly out on Saturday. The best photo of the whole trip was probably this one. Well, rainbow wins :)

Promised I have redeemed myself with the next Sydney trip, definitely more food photos! ^^


Side note: Long weekend is a bliss (/^▽^)/

Ph(f)oto Friday: Chinatown

Yes - this is found right smack in Chinatown in Melbourne. Not too sure what it try to portray but I thought the little kid looks cute.

Anyway, exam is done and dusty but results won't be out till end of May. Seriously hope I pass! The bit of the good news is - it's the long weekend... I shall be home (as usual) and have a quiet one without studying though! ^^


Side note: I'm having withdrawal syndrome from not travelling...