Year of the Rat

Sydney celebrated Chinese New Year with a special parade through town. The sun was shining and it was a perfect opportunity to watch the loud and merry parade.

Gong Xi Fa Chai! May you all have a prosperous and blessed new year!

Landsdale Farm School

m has recently developed a liking to his huge collection of stuff animals, in particular is his wooly little lamb, whom he named Shauny. He got all excited when he met a live one in Landsdale Farm School!

He saw some pigs, horses and goats having their breakfasts or morning tea, for it was about 9.30am then.

Here's m feeding a friendly little goat. Not shown here in this picture was the goat named after yours truly!

Beach boys

Summer time means fun at the beach. I now love the idea of daylight saving time, because we could head to the nearby beach after dinner and still have enough sunlight.

The quintessential thongs.

Whose feet are these?

Sunset at 8:26 pm.

Five little ducks...and more!

While mom was preparing dinner, m and I went outside for a walk to feed the ducks by the lake. I had an inkling feeling that we wouldn't just be feeding one, or two, or three. In a matter of seconds, tens of ducks flew hurriedly towards us. Among them was this big gorgeous, graceful black swan....and with the biggest appetite too!

Gelato in Freo

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Fremantle? Fish & chips, I bet! Move over fish & chips, because gelato's the next hottest thing.

Right on the the cappuccino strip, where restaurants and cafes abound, is this busy gelato shop Amano. On a hot summer day, it's hard not to brush elbows with people at the counter queing for cold, cool gelato. Too many yummy choices!

Rose Heritage Cafe

Somewhere in the Hills and about 25 km from the city of Perth, lies a hidden gem in Carmel called Rose Heritage Cafe and Nursery. My auntie, who's passionate about roses, has been talking about this place for a long time, so I think it's high time for me to check it out. Armed with slightly vague road directions, pulled from from memory from my cousin who frequently visits the place, we successfully reached the place in time for afternoon tea.

Right next to the carpark is a little pond filled with gigantic kois. To our surprise, the fishes literally rose above the water when somebody threw food at them. They got on top of each other just to get that morsel of food.

After watching that spectaculare feeding frenzy, we climbed to the little cafe situated on top of the hill. If you sit outside you can see the shallow valley below where rose bushes grow. I bet that this place would be filled with roses if we came at their peak blooming time, like in October in Spring.

M ordered an ice tea, perfect for the hot summer day, and in the ice cubes were select rose petals - surely homegrown. Next time I come to visit this place again, I'll be here for breakfast when the air is cool and the roses are in full bloom.

Christmas Displays

One of the fun things we used to do when we were kids around Christmas time in Manila was to watch Ever Gotesco's (a department store) outdoor animated Christmas display. They have larger than life animated animals, cartoon characters and people that move to music and lights. You can tell that the display is in action when the road traffic wouldn't move, because of the number of spectators - on foot or on wheels - it attracted.

David Jones department store in Sydney also has some fantastic tricks to get children sparkle with excitement this time of the year. Inside the Sydney store is a Santa Land, where you can take your photos with Santa, ride a carousel or play lucky-dip. Outside on the streets, they have about six window displays depicting the story "The Nutcracker and the King of Mice", by Hoffman, and are accompanied by the ballet's Tchaikovsky's music. Despite having seen the ballet show when I was a child, I have no recollection of how the story goes. However, the only thing that is still very clear in my mind is the tune of the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy". Thanks to this shop display and extra reading, I now know how the story goes.

Weekend by the Rocks

A glorious day to be outdoors we decided to explore the Rocks. Lots of market stalls to check out. M even had a dip in this Hot Chilli and Mango sauce, with a heat rating of 10/10. He usually can tolerate hot taste of chillies, but he said that this was extremely HOT! The Rocks Square APRA music month featured Australian Indigenous singers, so we were lucky to be entertained by Emma Donovan while we ate our lunches.

Spring in Canberra

Left early in the morning to attend my cousin's wedding ceremony in Canberra. Canberra's about 270 km from Sydney, but it took us about 4 hours to get there this long weekend due to number of holiday-seekers heading in the same direction and also the number of kid (pit)stops we took along the way. The lovely occasion was a wonderful opportunity to meet family members in Canberra.

In the two days that followed the wedding, we joined the thousands of visitors who enjoyed the beautiful display of tulips in Canberra's most celebrated annual Floriade. The tulips and other annuals were cleverly planted to paint the landscape in all hues imaginable.




m stopped to smell the tulips (roses).


And who else is best to talk about roses other than Graham Ross from Better Homes & Garden!!!

Even gnomes found their way to Floriade in Canberra. Can anyone spot our Prime Minister?




Another must-sees in Canberra are the Parliament House, and the War Memorial. The Parliament House is open 7 days a week to the public unless a hearing session is on. The latter has a new Discovery Centre for kids to let them realise what's it like being in action, for example riding an original helicopter used in the Vietnam war, hiding during an air raid and patrolling in a submarine.

Strathfield Spring Fair

Strathfield holds an annual Spring carnival. Entry's free, and there are free amusement rides for children and child-like adults, baby farm animals, free face paintings, market and food stalls!




Since this event usually attracts thousands of visitors, the queues for each ride were snake-long. After an hour waiting, finally M & m got their hands on the very popular bumper car's wheel.

Another ride that m took (by himself!) was the Express train ride - a little train that can accommodate about 14 toddlers. I felt a tug in my heart to realise that he's a big boy now and could ride on his own on this one.
There were lots of different food stands - african, thai, turkish, greek, japanese, spanish, chinese to name a few. We treated ourselves to a taste of some savoury snacks - like the japanese redbean (and choc) pancakes and a sausage sizzle!