How to travel light

Don't ask me, because I have no idea. I can't remember the last time I traveled light; maybe because I've never successfully done it. Every time I travel, I think I have lesser stuff than I actually do, but after piling half my stuff into the suitcase, I realize it's already bordering on overweight.

Packing is easy, but packing within the weight limit is tough. Don't airlines realize we need much more than 50 pounds of stuff to bring with us when we travel? How are we supposed to squish all our belongings into a tiny suitcase?

Usually I end up shuffling things around and throwing stuff out reluctantly until I finally get my suitcase to weigh slightly over the limit, which is acceptable. I don't think I've ever had my suitcase weigh lesser than the limit. If it ever did, I would rejoice at the occurrence of a miracle. Or, more likely, I would force more stuff into the already-bulging suitcase to make it worth every pound.

But anyway, surprisingly, my suitcase weighed only 20.1kg! Thank the heavens. After loading all my clothes, shoes, and toiletries in, I think this is the lightest I've ever traveled. My packing skills have improved!

The trip home was good, too. After getting over the initial surprise and disappointment that my flight was a day earlier than planned, I said my goodbyes to the family. It's funny how many times I've said goodbye in the last four years. Okay, not exactly funny, more of strange I guess. You would think that I'd be a seasoned pro at leaving and saying goodbyes by now... no, it's still hard. But it has given me a much greater appreciation for the time I have with loved ones. I've learned to treasure them more and not take them for granted as much.

So I sat next to this older dude on the plane, who initially came across as strange, because he talked to himself every now and then. But afterward I found out his wife had missed the flight, explaining the empty seat between him and me, and he offered me her meal, which I politely declined, since it was about 2am and not time for eating. But he kept offering me stuff, and so finally I took the orange juice and chocolate bar from him. And that sparked off our conversation about migrating from Singapore to other countries.

He told me he had dual citizenship - Singapore and Australia - and I jumped in excitement and asked him how he did it, because I was struggling to hold onto my dual citizenships. But then he replied that he applied for Aussie citizenship many years ago, and somehow Singapore didn't go after him because he had family connections in the government. Something like that. So I guess we have different situations. Oh well.

And then he proudly showed me a picture of his wife, son, and twin girls. His wife is caucasian, so their children are a pretty good-looking mix of asian and caucasian. Lucky.

Also, mental note - Jetstar is way better than Tiger Air. Not as superb as Singapore Airlines, of course, but there's really no competition there.

What's there to do in Perth?

Not much, except admire the beauty of God's creation. And eat. But I guess you can eat anywhere in the world. So the only thing left to do here is look at scenery.

Here's what I did on my days off.

We walked to the bus station and waited for the bus to come along and take us to the train station, and from there we walked for what seemed like forever long to Cottesloe Beach!

There we found a quaint little tea place, called Indiana Tea House. I swear, Indiana will never stop haunting me.

We had fish and chips for the second time in Perth. Fish and chips restaurants are everywhere here, especially at the beach; it's like their staple food. They all taste the same though, even the 'best' fish and chips here was just okay. Although... I learned something new - vinegar on fries actually tastes pretty good.

Visited the bell tower, a landmark of Perth, but it didn't really look like a bell tower. It was more like a... short tower.

We visited the WA museum in Northbridge, and it was pretty interesting. The museum ran on donations, so we donated 20 cents each to get in. Stingy, I know, but hey, we're hardly rich working adults. Inside, we read about Australian culture and history and the animals that populate this land. We only got to the second floor before the museum closed promptly at 5, like everything else.

Still, it was a fun outing with Taylor friends :) I never would've thought we'd have a mini-Taylor-reunion in Perth, halfway across the globe from Indiana.

This dino in the museum creeped me out. When I glanced at it, I almost fell over in genuine terror. It looked so real and terrifying I actually thought for a moment (or two) that it was going to charge at me.

Visited the Margaret River Chocolate Factory in Swan Valley with mom, and we gorged ourselves on this beautiful, decadent chocolate cake. Indulgence, indeed. Although... I felt sick after a few bites. Too much of a good thing, even chocolate, can be not-so-good.

We went to the Caversham Wildlife Park next, and explored the entire place in less than 2 hours. We were allowed to walk around the kangaroo enclosure, which was cool, but I didn't touch the kangaroos because my mind kept flashing back to an episode of 'Animals Gone Wild' where a cute, cuddly kangaroo went absolutely psycho and kicked the life out of a poor tourist in the zoo. So this was the closest I got to the kangaroos.

But still, the kangaroos were hilarious to watch, because they lazed around in funny positions like this.

Or this.

And the koala bears! They were the cuddliest, most adorable little fat blobs I've ever laid eyes on! I just wanted to carry one home with me and snuggle next to it everyday.
They live such good lives, too; all they do is eat and sleep, because the eucalyptus leaves they consume provide them with just enough energy to fall asleep.

I got to pet a little baby wallaby. At least I think it was a wallaby. Maybe it was a kangaroo. They may or may not be the same thing... they sure looked weirdly similar.

And a wombat. I think it was a wombat. I just remember it being really fat and squishy and cute.

Lovable little stuffed animals. I enjoy looking at them, that's all, judging by the 50 layers of dust on my stuffed toy collection since forever.

Made a trip to Scarborough Beach to (what else?) admire more scenery and marvel at the brave surfers seemingly having fun in the chilling waters.

Finally made it to Kings Park to catch an evening view of the city, and chanced upon this cool-looking cedar tree.

And another one. Apparently I'm somewhat obsessed with taking pictures of trees.

Here's the view of the city. Prettyyyy.

Good end to an adventurous day with mom.

Things we do when we're not making pizzas

1. Pose for a picture in the pizza kitchen

2. Pose for another picture in the pizza kitchen

3. Go for dinner at an awesome asian restaurant in Northbridge with the family

4. And Cartoon

5. Eat yummy chicken, veggies, claypot tofu, snow crab noodles...

6. ... Plus complimentary sticky rice dessert and fruits

7. Leave with happy stomachs and smiley faces

8. And party the weekend away :)

Baking and merrymaking

 Lately, I've been rather obsessed with cooking and baking. More baking than cooking, but both are still fun. If I had a chance to go to culinary school and sharpen my non-existent skills in baking pastries, cakes, cookies, and all kinds of desserts, I totally would. It's hard work though; not to be sexist or anything, but I think that's why most chefs are men.

Just mixing all the flour, sugar, eggs, and other stuff together, and whipping all that sugar, cheese, etc, gets me huffing and puffing and makes me feel like I'm not in shape to bake. Also, I have no patience to wait for the cake/cookie/pastry to cool off before I remove it from the pan and pop it into my mouth, and that's why I usually end up with crumbly cookies and broken-up cakes. But hey, at least they taste (surprisingly) good!
 

Last week, I baked chocolate chocolate chip and pecan cookies after the crowd died down at the pizza place (since there was an entire kitchen full of cooking utensils and a huge oven at my disposal), only to have it turn out a little too crumbly.

And then I made oatmeal raisin almond cookies; they were dee-lish. We ate them all in two days.

This is a pizza Cartoon and I made for lunch on Saturday. My side is filled with veggies - tomatoes, red and green capsicums, mushrooms, and onions. Hers is filled with meat and cheese - pepperoni, ham, minced beef, bacon, and chicken. And did I mention it's loaded with cheese?

My attempt yesterday at making strawberry frozen yogurt with frozen strawberries, natural yogurt, milk, honey, and vanilla extract. It turned out to become ice, and it tasted a little weird. Fail.

Yesterday I also made cheesecake, which turned out half okay. The cheese part was good, but the cake (crust) part was too sugary and crumbly. I couldn't find graham crackers in the entire area of Perth, so I used honey teddy bear biscuits instead, and it turned out weird. But other than that, it was pretty good. We couldn't wait to let it cool down in the fridge so we ate it right out of the oven. And Jedi ate half of the entire cake this afternoon, which is a good sign.

Today I made carrot cake with walnuts, pecans, and cream cheese frosting at the pizza place, and although it kind of fell apart when I tried to transfer it from the baking pan to the container, it actually tasted really yummy. Good job, me! :)

Aussies, accents, and aboriginals

Australians are an interesting people. First off, their accents are pretty distinct and kind of hard to understand... initially. I found myself going, 'sorry, what did you say?' many times a day when I first got here, and I had to deal with annoyed glares from customers who had to repeat their order a hundred times because I couldn't, for the life of me, comprehend what was coming out of their mouths. After almost two months here, it's gotten a little better, although I still experience the occasional what-on-earth-did-that-person-just-say moment.

I don't think I would ever be able to imitate the Australian accent, though. It's much harder than the American one, and less often heard, too. I mean, most movies and TV shows in pop culture are American, so the entire world is accustomed to hearing the American accent. Not so much other accents. So right now the only word I can say in an Australian accent is 'yeah,' or should I say, 'yeh.'

Aside from several rather rude customers, I'd say that Australians are, in general, friendly people. Their culture is pretty warm; you get people greeting you with a pleasant 'hi, how are you?' whenever you step into most places, and most people are hospitable and easy to approach.

Also, although there are tons of Asians here from Singapore, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, etc, they don't seem to mix around with Caucasians or people from other races. In fact, it's pretty segregated here. My brothers admit to not having any friends of other races, and they don't seem to mind it. Even the church we all go to is 99.9% Asian.

I just feel like it negates the point of living in a different country. Why migrate all the way to Australia if you're just going to hang out with Singaporeans, eat Singaporean food, and go to a Singaporean-ish church? Isn't that basically the same as living in Singapore, except for the seasonal changes and the different environment? If I were to migrate here, which I don't foresee in the distant future, I would try out other churches and mix around with all kinds of people. It just makes life more interesting that way. And you learn so much more about other people's culture and lifestyle. I think culture is the most fascinating thing in the world. It really is what makes us different and unique and it shapes us directly or indirectly to who we are.

One culture I don't really understand is the Aboriginal culture. I've served numerous customers who are Aboriginals, and they're pretty intimidating, because they're not very friendly, they're kind of rowdy and loud, and they're a little demanding. Of course, this is a generalization, but most of them whom I've come across are like that. I wonder why. Also, I realized that in many countries, the natives tend to be dark-skinned, like the Native Americans in North America, the Aboriginals in Australia, the Malays in Singapore, etc. But then the lighter-skinned people often come along and seize the power... and the rest is history.

These are just my humble observations.

Talk to strangers!

This is what Jedi and I do when we're bored.

We talk to strangers about the most random things. And we actually found someone bored enough to reciprocate the entertainment. We laughed till our sides hurt when the person replied.

That was the only stranger who didn't disconnect on us immediately. What a good sport.

Hard work and pizza days

I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life. Everyday is consumed with work and pizzas.

Sometimes it's just me and mom at work, so we have to do EVERYTHING ourselves - we make the dough from scratch, pull the enormous lump of dough from the mixer, roll and flatten it, flip it in the pans, store it in the fridge, top the different pizzas with different ingredients, bake them in the oven, display them for customers to ogle over, slice them up when people order them, cash in the money, chop up ingredients, stock up the fridge, count the cash, clean the mixer, sweep the floor, clean the entire place... and then collapse on the chair in sheer exhaustion at the end of the day.

I don't know how mom manages to cook dinner, do laundry, clean the entire house, and do the accounts in the evening. Me, I just pass out on the couch in front of the TV after a shower, and remain there the whole night, leaving only to move to the table for dinner.

But at least Cartoon is here now, and that makes work more fun. Plus now I have someone to go party with. Which we did. On Saturday night. At supposedly the biggest (asian) club in Perth. And it was pretty fun to let loose after working hard for a month.

For the love of cooking

My cooking skills have seen a slight improvement over the last few weeks, when I occasionally force myself to get off the couch, turn off the TV, and pitch in to help Mom make dinner. Prior to this, most of my cooking experience came from 'Cooking Mama,' the Nintendo DS game I was obsessed with a while ago. So this has actually been pretty rewarding, especially when savoring each bite of the food that I helped prepare. I don't know why I don't do this more often... Oh yeah, I'm too lazy.

Couch potato me.

Cooking takes up time and energy - washing and preparing the food, baking/frying/boiling/steaming it, and then cleaning the dishes afterward. It's about a hundred times more work than simply tossing a frozen dinner into the microwave and eating it 1 minute later, which I did a lot when I spent a semester living with 4 other girls in an apartment. It was mostly out of laziness and convenience. We also never cleaned the apartment until the day before we moved out, but that's another story.

We live in an age where everything's become so efficient that we expect instant results all the time. Frozen microwaveable dinners, instant macaroni and cheese, powered eggs, powered mashed potatoes, dishwashers, cake mix, cookie dough... It's hard to watch a pot of soup simmer over the fire on the stove for the longest time, but I'd say it's worth it.

Like Jamie Oliver advocates - fresh, healthy food made from scratch is the way to go!
I pretty much love Jamie Oliver. I think it's awesome how he's trying to educate the world on eating healthy and staying away from processed food.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) = EVIL.

So anyway, here's some documentation of our dinners over the past week.

I washed, peeled, and sliced up potatoes and carrots...

To make vegetable curry...

Which Mom made us eat with orange juice, because she claimed it would wash down the curry, or something like that.

Half Hawaiian-half Italiano sliced pizza, taken from Sarpino's. I just love the gorgeous vivid colors of the Italiano - a result of bright red and green capsicums. So pretty, I could stare it all day (which I do).

Fish, beef, chicken, satay, mushrooms, and vegetables.. all ready for teppanyaki!

Jedi - master teppanyaki chef and rice fryer. Mom - master eater. haha.

Frying the beef and fish in soy sauce.

Garlic fried rice with fish and chilli. So. good.