Supreme Court Gardens and food photos

Had some time off from studying the other day, so I did this :)

Before we start today's post, I'm gonna digress a little...and talk about the surreal experience of...

THE JULIE ANDREWS EXPERIENCE!!

The event was held at the Riverside Theatre (Perth Exhibition and Convention Centre) - right smack in the middle of the city. I had been waiting for Dame Julie Andrews to come to Australia for AGES...and last night - there she was, standing right on stage - right in front of us. Up close! :) Well - I bought my tickets a couple of months before the event - so I had an awesome seat and I got to see and hear her awesome stories! Believe me, she has such a wonderful sense of humour...and her stories were thoroughly entertaining! A totally magical experience, indeed. The snippets of the films she did were equally hilarious...especially the bloopers. Oh - and she closed the show with "Edelweiss" - and made us all sing along. I should say - she just has that cantabile quality to her voice. Even when speaking. She doesn't have to sing to bring out that cantabile quality. To sum it all up - I am totally starstruck...and the memory is still fresh in my mind. It'll always be. Oh - and I can say that I have sung with her! Because we all sung "Edelweiss" while she 'conducted' (we became a giant choir, 'conducted' by Dame Julie herself)! She is practically perfect - in every way. I hope that she comes back to Australia sometime soon.

Here we go - some snippets of the event itself. There were LOTS of people. And I swear, I was one of the youngest. I even bumped into one of my students (from tutoring) and we both agreed that Dame Julie was totally amazing :) It's a fact...

Anyway - back to what we were supposed to cover today. Ah yes...Supreme Court Gardens! See? I'm still star-struck from meeting Dame Julie! Have to get my feet anchored back down on the ground now.

I actually took these pictures just as I was walking towards the Government House. They were having an open house on that day. If I'm not wrong they organise open houses twice a year. This was my second time going - the first time I went was in November last year.

The first landmark I passed - the New Esplanade Hotel. I think I might have stayed here before...honestly I cannot really remember.

Also passed this really gorgeous old building. It's now an office building. I wonder what it was used for previously. Good photo-taking opportunity here!

After walking around for a bit, I finally reached the Supreme Court Gardens! Weather was really, really good that day - as you can see. Clear blue skies!

One of the Supreme Court buildings in the gardens. A really beautiful landmark indeed.

The gardens are always so well-maintained...the flowers look fresh each time I come...and they don't seem to grow beyond their boundaries. Plus - the place is so quiet. Even though it's right in the middle of the city.

Since I was back on St George's Terrace after exploring the Supreme Court Gardens and the Government House, I decided to go to Theobroma Chocolate Lounge. Guess what? It was closed! I didn't realise it closed early on Sundays! Anyway - I had to get rid of the hot choc deprivation fast...so just as I was walking back, I passed this office building here. It still retained the old-fashioned panels on its doors. And the font used reminds me of the movie "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (1967). Not much of it was mentioned when Dame Julie spoke to us last night, but some snippets were shown! Dame Julie was really good in that movie. I've seen the movie so many times...and I think I might be able to memorise some of the lines :)

Another landmark in the same area is the Perth Concert Hall. The Western Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) performs regularly here. I haven't seen the WASO perform yet...maybe I'll drop by and see it sometime.

Now how did I satisfy my chocolate cravings? I went to Miss Maud's Swedish Hotel/Cafe and had a hedgehog slice AND a hot chocolate. I can't get enough of chocolate. Honestly. 

Of course - apart from hot chocolate, I enjoy Korean food. The other day, we went to Took Bae Kee Korean restaurant (also in the city), and enjoyed a massive meal. Good for celebrating my flatmate's birthday!

OK that's it for the city. Let's see...here're some of the remnant food photos in my folder - that I haven't published. I've got a really wonderful buddy who goes on eating sprees with me :) And we eat almost everything...ranging from Hokkien Mee (different from what I'd have in Singapore but better than nothing), to Japanese food...almost everything!

And here's one of our favourites - Hawker's Cuisine. Sells really good Malaysian food. We go there pretty often.

OK that's it for this post! In the next post, I'll be putting up pictures from the Government House. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go back to those books and attempt to study :)

Signing off for now!

Going up North Part 2: Pinnacles

For the second part of our trip Up North, we headed to the famous Pinnacles - in Nambung National Park. By now, we were about 3 hours north of Perth, and were well and truly on the famous Indian Ocean Drive. The roads were now narrower, and snaked up and down the terrain. On both sides, we saw nothing but bushland, sand, and well, more bushland!

After about an hour of driving, we finally reached the Pinnacles! Headed to the visitor's centre for a quick look, and also to see if there're any souvenirs. I got a bottle opener and a stubby holder.

The Pinnacles were made of limestone, and shaped in various ways throughout the years. They originated from seashells rich in marine life during prehistoric times, and as the shells broke down, they were blown inland to form dunes. The dunes were then shaped by various ways (some say by plants, others propose that it's by chemicals) - to form the Pinnacles we see today. Yet another masterpiece by Mother Nature, I should say! The information centre had lots and lots of educational displays too!

After walking around the visitor's centre, we headed off to see the Pinnacles...for real. And the first thing I did was to take out my phone camera to do panoramic shots :) It's interesting how the sand appeared more yellowish on my phone camera and orangey on my dSLR. I think it might have been the white balance. Either way, I love both sets of pictures! Here are the ones from the phone...

And this was taken before we walked down to get up close to the Pinnacles. These pics were taken using my dSLR - hence the difference in sand colour. Oh - and it was cloudy that day, and the lighting was just right.

I don't know exactly how many pictures I took of the Pinnacles. Standing up close to them was quite an interesting experience. Some were really tall, others were shorter...lots of individual differences here!

Some even had plants growing from the cracks...mostly small ones. Note that plants actually played some role in shaping these pinnacles...

And when I zoomed out, this was what I got - a whole bunch of pillars rising from the flat desert sand!

Some of the interesting shapes and sizes I found. As I said - lots and lots of variation here :)

Standing between some of the Pinnacles...and going up close to others. We actually stood on some of the flatter ones to take pictures. Most of them weren't difficult to climb - but of course, it definitely wasn't a good idea to climb them.

Some people chose to drive around and park somewhere, while others just walked around. We did more walking - left the car in the main carpark as we figured that it'll give us more flexibility.

And it did! We got to explore every single area, and each time I took a picture, it turned out different. 

One of my favourite pictures of the day - a taller pillar overlooking the smaller ones.

There was a dirt road cutting through the area we were in, and those who drove from the desert usually took this route to get around. We didn't really walk down the dirt road...but in future, if I do come back to visit the Pinnacles, I'll explore more!

Decided that it was time to call it a day and head back to Perth, as it was about 4:30pm, and we didn't want to be driving on the highways in the dark. So we packed up and took the long, 3-hour drive back to Perth. There wasn't much of a sunset to enjoy as it was really cloudy, so we just rested and had some snacks to reduce our hunger pangs.

Ended up at Subiaco (an inner suburb) for dinner, and that's where I saw the Regal Theatre for the first time. I've heard about it, but haven't seen it up close. One of my classmates (who has a really awesome band) performed at the Regal Theatre on one of the Fridays...

I really, really miss Melbourne's music scene - it's like the best in Australia! So far, I've not been exposed to the music scene in Perth, and I hope to explore more as I go along. Sometimes I wish I live in the city - so that I can explore and enjoy all these places...even Subiaco isn't difficult to get to!

Dinner at Dome Cafe. I was so famished that I ordered garlic bread, risotto and a chocolate hedgehog slice. And finished all of them in one go! Plus my friend's salad. Felt so much better after that!

The amazing ceiling at the Dome Cafe. Map of the world!!

And after dinner, we drove back home. We spent a total of 12 hours up North, but that was such an amazing experience. It certainly was different to what I'd usually do on weekends and public holidays!

Surprisingly I wasn't tired after the trip, and I even did some revision up till around 3am!

Speaking of revision - it's time for me to get back to those books! Do stay tuned for my next post!