Saturday, November 24, 2012

Western Australia Family Holiday

Every time we go to Perth, KS and I try to plan to do something different each time. Since the last trip we took a tour up north, this time, we decided to explore the southern parts of Western Australia together with KS parents and sister, Yen.

Our trip started from Perth to Busselton, to Augusta to Pemberton on the first day. Thereafter, we covered Pemberton to Walpole to Denmark before we explored Albany for a day. I'll do separate posts for this trip otherwise this post will take forever!

This post is to just jot down what we did in Perth. Since Yen lives there and warmly welcomes us to stay whenever we're there, we usually settle down pretty quickly and make ourselves right at home, allowing us the taste of living in Perth. Thanks Yen!

This time, there was a new housemate. Say hello to Ah Ngiau! She was shy for the first few days but warmed up to us pretty quickly.



We went to restaurants with a vast variety of cuisines, Italian, Mexican, Northern Indian, Malaysian (when we started to miss our food!), fish and chips... I only took food photos on the first part of my trip before we went on our roadtrip so here's a sampling:

First order of the day, chilli mussels! Yum! These were really good!
Tiramisu
Port ribs for brunch
Pork belly also part of brunch
Fresh oysters for my birthday dinner. I discovered on this night that I really enjoy fresh oysters with mustard. Drool...
My birthday fish and chips! The serving was huge so I'm sad to say I couldn't finish my meal.
My birthday cake was a lovely chocolate passion fruit mousse cake from Utopia, which actually serves bubble tea.  I loved it!

The two big purchases of my trip went like this:

Purchase #1:
Every time we come to Perth, we always end up going to Harbour Town, which is where the factory outlet shops are located. I really wasn't expecting to buy anything since we normally look for sport shoes here so we set about an hour to meet up with my in-laws as we went shopping separately.

Then, I saw a Levi's store and decided to just check it out (I succumbed to the 4 letter word - SALE!). They stocked the type of cut I purchased a couple of years ago for RM250. Their price? AUD49 which works out to be about RM150. Cheaper than what I'd be able to buy back home! 

I went to make my payment after much selecting and to my delight, there was a further 50% discount off the price! I looked at KS and told him I needed more than the one hour to shop. What a bargain! So happy!

Purchase #2:
We went to a morning car park second hand market just to check it out. Walking around, I suddenly spotted this ergonomic chair I've been looking for for years! The price tag on it was a little vague as I read it as $40 while KS read it as $70. After much testing and deliberating (How do I ship it back to Malaysia? How much would I be willing to pay for this?), I finally asked the owner what the price really was, $40 or $70?

Her answer? "That's $10". My $10 was out before the next breath.

So, here's the chair and here's the box I engineered to check in:

My friend laughed at me for being so not practical for once. The sad part is, after using it for a long period of time like over an hour, my shins hurt and I do not sit straight like I'm supposed to on it. Oh well! It will force me not to sit too long in front of the computer! LOL!

All in all, I had a great time and was already planning/wishing that I'll be back next year!

The rest of my trip can be found here and here and KS post here.

2 comments:

Grace Ng said...

I also bought the same type of chair from a thrift store for $10 but it took up so much space that we ended up donating it back. And it wasn't that comfortable after a while too/.

Ron said...

Hmmm maybe that's why they sell it for $10 used these days?? lol
I've gone from stools to swiss balls to chairs with backs and I have come back to the armchair that is ergonomically designed. Trouble is, they cost a small fortune!