It's time I blogged about my time in Perth. I've been to Australia many times before and visited Perth once before. But this trip was my first truly independent and free trip with nobody to answer to. No parents, no teachers. I planned my itinerary day to day. Doing whatever I truly felt like doing whenever I felt like it. Cool eh?

It was a holiday that put me in such a good mood that I actually took some photos of myself and posed for a picture with ah boy.

Ah boy was very excited. For the past few years that I've known her, she's always been trying to take photos of me sneakily. Like she's paparazzo. And I'm celebrity.



It's an interesting photo. I was in a damn high mood as it was my first night and the weather was just perfect for me (but Adela was shivering). Ah boy drove my sister and I up to this lookout point in King's Park where we had a spectacular view of the city. She also showed me the place where Aussie girls stole slippers from RGS girls a few years back.

The next day, I was left on my own as both ah boy and Adela had school. So, I took a nice walk along Swan River on my own. I couldn't find any swans but saw lots of seagulls, ducks and cormorants.


The banks of the river were nice and clean. Well, cleaner than the Singapore river anyway.




And there was a fantastic tree that looked like something Pocahontas would sit in.


Then, there was this bird that just had a very constipated look. Must have eaten too much fish and too little fibre.



And I was surprised at the strength of the UV rays Down Under even though I had already been warned. It was a cloudy day. A little overcast. An as I stepped out from the sheltered city, I thought it was going to rain. However, I soon realised that it was only my UV ray-sensitive glasses that had turn completely dark. It has never happened before in Singapore except during noon on really scorching days. It continued to happen on all of my days in Perth. Sunscreen is simply essential to prevent skin cancer.



On Saturday, I was strolling in a public park with Adela when we came upon some nice roses. Most plants don't flower until it is further into spring so they were particularly nice to see.



Later, Adela and I went to Fremantle market where we bought lots of nice food. See that box of mushrooms? Well, while Adela was paying for them, I caught sight of another box that was filled with humungous mushrooms. So, I shouted, "(in a Russell Peters/HongKong accent) OH my God! That is like DAmn big MUSHrooms ahh!" There followed a stunned silence in the market. I thought: Opps! Then, the bustle resumed and the two Japanese teens running the store gave each other LOOKS and sniggered at me. But they really were DAmn big MUSHrooms.



What is Fremantle without fish and chips? While waiting for ah boy and her friend to join us for dinner, Adela and I ate lots of fish without chips (so as not to spoil dinner).


Dinner was an interesting affair fraught with tension. There was the tension of my poor stomach as Adela and ah boy forced me to try to finish the food. And there was also the religious tension. I suppose I started it by asking ah boy about her Christian Cell Group. I'm a non-churchgoing Catholic and I don't really know about Christian cell Groups, you see. Adela, blunt as a shit-stirrer and twice as insensitive started to criticise ah boy's church and pastor (she had been to the church once and hadn't exactly taken to the pastor) But the little asshole was sort of drunk on food and was veering dangerously close to inciting a religious war. Ah boy's friend who was the only reason why we had vehicular transport wisely decided not to comment as I steered my ignorant sister away from the subject. Phew... Poor ah boy who had to endure my terrible sister. When we got back to the hotel, I whacked up my sister, tied her to the toilet bowl and administered water torture as I yelled in her ear that she might not like Charismatic Churches but the Catholic Church is not exactly beloved by one and all either. We all worship the same Guy. It's just that we do it in different ways, that's all.

-Nah... Pretend you didn't read the water torture bit. It didn't really happen in real life. Only in my twisted mind. But the yelling at stupid sister part is perfectly true.

On Sunday, Adela and I went on a package tour which we booked from the hotel. We visited a wildlife park which was more like a zoo. I saw a magnificent Kookaburra. There were also a number of wet kangaroos running about as it was raining.



The tour bus then took us to the Numbung Nature Reserve where the Pinnacles desert was. The pinnacles are limestone formations of upright pillars of rock scattered throughout the coastal desert. It was my favourite part of the trip cos I like Geography!


A little size comparison here. My sister who is about 1.56-9m standing next to one of the Pinnacles formations.



A close up of one of the rock pillars. You can see fossilised plant roots in the stone. The plants helped in eroding the original limestone rocks into the pillars of today. So fantastically Geography.



And the plants! The kind of semi-arid area plants I learned about in Geography! Wonderful! Quite wonderful!


This really interesting specimen has a flower in the centre of radiating runners.


Afterwards, we drove to this place with huge sand dunes, I was still trying to figure out whether they were barchan dunes or seif dunes when this monster of a bus arrived to take us on a wild rollercoaster ride on the dunes. It could go down steep 50-60 degree slopes about 3 storeys high which was just fine for me but not my lousy stomach which felt queasy afterwards even though I ad enjoyed myself. Luckily, I had the foresight to have taken an anti-motion sickness pill earlier so the tour bus was safe from the contents of my stomach on the way back to the hotel.


There was also the super fun sand boarding that we did. Basically, you sit your ass on a piece of plastic and get pushed down a 3 storey high slope. Lots of fun but much too short-lived. I would have appreciated bigger slopes.




I came back to Singapore the next day. Good ah boy rush to my hotel after school to drive me to the airport. And back to the land of TOO HOT.