Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Play: Exploring Western Australia in Winter (Day 13)

Day 13

Today we will be driving 50 mins to the south of Perth to Rockingham. This is where we will be going on a Dolphin Sighting Tour (Three Islands Wildlife Cruise). 

Our initial plan is to go to Penguin Island but alas, it is closed from early June after the Western Australia Public Holiday to 14th September for the winter mating season. So we have to settle for the Three Island Wildlife Cruise which we gets to see dolphins, seals and some birds.

More information on Penguin Island Tour;

We reached at about 11.30am, so we booked for the 12.15pm cruise. Grab a quick bite nearby and some photo time while waiting for the boat to arrive.


On board the cruise....everyone is excited for our first encounter with the dolphins!


Great weather today!

Waiting patiently!
Still no dolphins.. started to play..
And here comes the first dolphin!!! WOW!!!
Another one...
We manage to see quite a few dolphins during the tour.. some alone and some in pairs... The kids are excited and will shout dolphin each time they saw them... if they see two dolphins, will shout "dolphin, dolphin", so cute!!!

Moved from the open sea to an island where we get to see some pelicans and seals.

Pelicans..
More Pelicans and some seals
The tour took about an hour or so.. and we are back on the mainland... The kids spotted a playground and ran towards it!

Peek-a-boo
While the kids were playing, I grab a muffin from the cafe to share with everyone. They played for a while and we then drove back to Perth.

Kids nap on the way back and we went to King's Park again.. this time we went to the huge grass area for the kids to roam and used up their unlimited energy!

Running around and playing with leaves and grass and twigs!
Searching for "treasures"
Picking up twigs!
Happy
Drove around city area and saw "Wagamama". Brings back memory as hubby and I had their noodles before while studying in Nottingham, UK so decided to have it for dinner today!

Cute baby chair which can just attached to the table. Save space, but initially was a bit scared that it won't hold the weight. But seems quite sturdy!

First time using chopstick.. she is proud of herself!
yummy!
Our noodles
Our noodles

Food here are ok... nothing fantastic. Most importantly is the great memories of dining at their restaurant outlet while studying :) 

Tomorrow will be our last day in Perth before flying back home!

Final day in Perth!

Monday, January 26, 2015

Eat: Burger Up @ HillV2


Last Sunday after church, hubby suggested to go for lunch at this newly opened shopping mall, HillV2. Located opposite HillView Condominium, it is brand new mall and there are condominium-in-progress being build on top of the shopping mall.

There is also free valet parking service available.... complimentary bus shuttle is available too from various location including some mrt. Check out the time and location here.

We walked around the mall and there are quite a fair bit of choices for food including Cedele, Black Angus Steakhouse, Wine Connection Bistro (which offers 2 courses meal @$18 including steak, ribs etc) and a few others. 

We were attracted by the crowd inside Burger Up Classix and the current promotion so decided to give it a try.

Current promotion (8 January to 28 February 2015) is for lunch between 11am-5pm (quite a long lunch time promo) and for 3 types of set meal, it is going at $6.90++ which comes with a burger (choice of beef, chicken or fish), a drink, a fries or coleslaw and a mushroom soup. 

For drinks, wide choices between usual soft drinks, ice lemon tea and some hot beverages (coffee).

Opening promotion
Choices of set meals on promotion
We ordered two sets of chicken burger meal and two sets of fish fillet meal.

First, we were served the mushroom soup. Although it was served in a plastic bowl and plastic spoon, the mushroom soup is surprisingly yummy with bits of mushroom inside. It tasted quite good too, definitely much better than canned mushroom soup. Yum!

Mushroom soup
The burgers were served a while later while we were still enjoying the mushroom soup...

The chicken burger is well grilled and still maintain its juice, not too dry. Nice burger i must say.

Grilled chicken burger
I did not taste the fish burger but both hubby and mum gave thumbs up.

Fish burger
The servings was quite large too, we didnt manage to finish the fries in the end.

Large servings of fries, burger is of big size too.
Inside of grilled chicken burger
We had a good meal overall. Quite a good deal too , nice set meal with large servings. Recommended if crave for fast food and around the area!

Burger Up
ADDRESS:
Burger Up Classix
HillV2
4 Hillview Rise
#01-11
Singapore 667979

Monday, January 19, 2015

Cook: Melt In The Mouth Green Pea Cookies

CNY is around the corner so make more cookies to share with family and friends. This is another successful melt in the mouth cookies. Got distracted by my son while making so forget to glaze the cookies before popping them into oven. Not so pretty looking but definitely yummy! This is a twist from my peanut cookies recipe :)

Melt in the mouth green pea cookies
INGREDIENTS:
(Make 150 cookies, about 3 small red CNY container)

1. 300g green pea (as shown in picture)
2. 120g icing sugar
3. 450g plain flour
4. 250g vegetable oil (or any tasteless oil e.g.: Sunflower oil, Canola Oil etc)
5. 1 egg yolk ( to glaze, optional)
Green pea that I use.. (any brand will do, just the usual salted type)
METHODS:

1. Grind the green pea using a blender until it turns into fine/medium sized grain (the grain might have a mixture of size but it is ok)

After blending... "tornado look"
Mixture of small/medium sized grain
2. Sieve the plain flour and icing sugar.
3. Add in green pea powder and vegetable oil. 

Place all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl
4. Give all the ingredients a good mix using hand until a dough is formed (as shown in photo)
Mix well into a dough
5. Mould the dough into desired shape.
Done.. ready to go into oven!
6. Bake in preheated oven at 170 degree celsius for 15 minutes or until the top is slightly browned and it is done.
7. Let it cool down for 15-20 minutes and store inside air tight container.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Play: Exploring Western Australia in Winter (Day 12)


Finally, we are back to the sunny and warm Perth...and today is going to be the highlight of our trip. We will be visiting the Caversham Wildlife Park and I have read many fabulous review about this place. I think the kids will be super-duper happy today.... will be able to see and touch so many animals...

Situated inside Whiteman Park (which itself is a nice park to walk around, but we didn't have the time to do so), Caversham Wildlife Park is a great place to get close to animals... lots of kangaroos roaming around and food are available for visitor to help feed the kangaroos. There are a lot of kangaroos around so everyone get their chance to feed... but some kangaroos are so full that they are not so keen to eat, so just need to keep trying and hopefully you will find the hungry ones....

Parking is free which is great cause we definitely will need to spend a good few hours here. Admission fees for adult is $25 and kids less than 3 years old enter for free, i think it is quite reasonable entrance fees considering the park is quite a reasonable size and there is a lot of activities going on throughout the day. I like the fact that they have a few time slot for each activities so whether you come visit in the morning or afternoon, will be able to see most of the activities that are lined up for you!

For the show times and feeding time plus additional information of the opening hours etc.. can check out their website!

We queue for about half an hour or so before manage to enter the park...


First stop will be kangaroo feeding... the kids can't wait to feed!
Kangaroo

Happy! Strolling and looking for kangaroos to feed...





Food for kangaroo or "roo" as he called them

Making new friends already?
Spend quite long feeding the kangaroos... the kids and mummy had endless love for the kangaroos, we just feed and feed... but daddy got bored, so he just walk around and help us take photos...

After the kangaroos, we decided to go see the koalas before the morning visiting time of the koala sanctuary end at 1pm...
Cant remember what we are looking at already
Cute little birdie we spot on our way to see the koala
Visitors are advised not to touch the eucalyptus leaves that the koalas eat. Apparently, the leaves that we (human) touched before, the koalas won't eat them according to the park keepers, so we can only observe the koalas.. not allowed to touch any koalas.. there is only one koala that they allow us to take photo and stroke....

We were just observing the koalas and then suddenly one of them start climbing down the trees and came towards the visitors.... the park keeper got anxious and ask us to move aside so that the koala (Karen is its name) can move around freely. Karen has claws too and we were advise to hold our kids so that they don't get too close to Karen...

To be honest, i think it is quite fun.... we get to see Karen move about quite a lot.... cause koalas usually just sleep and wrap around the trees, don't have much chance to see their movement so I was quite excited..

The park keeper had to call another "koala expert" to help carry Karen back cause he is not too familiar with handling the koalas... so the "help" came by a little while later and carry Karen back to her tree...

It is then photoshoot time with koalas and this particular one, we can touch them gently.
Koala
Koala
We were hungry as it is almost 1pm already... so we settled down at the park cafe and bought some microwaved food.. there is not much choice really and all the food is finishing fast. we bought a curry chicken rice and a pasta ... kids had porridge which i cook in the morning. They also share a bit of what we ate...
Microwaved lunch at the park.. surprisingly good!
After lunch, we explore the park for a bit before the farm show at 3pm. The kids get a chance to milk the cow at the end of the show.

Two cuties holding hand queuing up for the experience...
Waiting in Q to milk the cow
When it is almost their turn, suddenly the cow pee... OMG.. luckily they didn't get wet.... got a huge shock though.. after peeing the cow poo-ed ... seems like a routine to poo after pee cause the park keeper get ready with a shovel already to collect the poo.
Peeing!!! OMG!
Finally, time to milk the cow... Girl girl so happy milking but boy boy decided to give up and not milking... he said that he is scared....
Milking the cow
Boy was also tired already cause it is nap time and he has been running around for almost half a day... boy boy nap in daddy's arm while girl girl and me went for Wombat and Friends show at 3.45pm...
my cute kangaroo
We get to touch wombat and get a picture with him...It is really huge and heavy. It's skin a bit prickly too!
Wombat photo time
Afterwards, boy boy woke up and the two of them went crazy touching the lamb and the sheep...
Visiting the lamb
lambie...




Also visit a mini farm... with chicken and rabbits...
Chicken...
Only kids are allowed to go in... but all rabbit ran away seeing them invade their space
Lastly, we went for cowboy show...daddy even get a chance to swing a tin of water around and making sure the water doesn't spill and kudos to daddy because "he did it!!!!". A cowboy in the family!

It was almost 5pm when we left the park and we were famished. The kids get to nap a bit in the car while we drove back to the city which is about half an hour away. 

Since they are still sleeping when we reached Ciao Italia (yes!!! my favourite tiramisu is here... and we are gonna get a second serving!!!!) , so we decided to takeaway our dinner. I went down and queue before the restaurant is open.....

Read about our previous dining experience at Ciao Italia here.
Ciao Italia
And i see my tiramisu nicely placed in the fridge.... yum! Saliva dripping!!! Am missing the tiramisu right now while writing this post....

But the good news is hubby is missing Perth as well (He loves the cooling weather in June when it is scorching hot in Singapore), so we might be taking another trip down to Perth again this June!!! So gonna keep a lookout for cheap air tickets!!! Tiramisu, here I come again!!! Till we meet again... (Finger crossed!)
My favourite tiramisu... missing them right now!
My super favourite! 
Ordered pizza and pasta to share today.. and its yum!!!

Takeaway prices also cheaper than dining in... yay!
Takeaway pizza this time
Pizza
Had some fettuccine as well.. this is good!
Tomorrow we will be going on a cruise to see dolphin :) check it out here!