A Singaporean In Australia

Showing posts with label Places in Perth. Show all posts

Lately when I passed by this place, I couldn't resist taking a picture for remembrance. I might have tell this story before. I've been jotting down these crap for the past 5 years. There are over a thousand posts by now. There is no way I can keep track of what I said before.

Well, this tale is important to me. Utmost. So important that it is symbolic for me, as it represented the awakening of the eye.

The tale goes back to as far as 2007. It is a tad shocking to realise it has been 10 years since. Perhaps a fitting moment to honour the event. That year I arrived in Perth for the first time in my life as a tourist. I was already in mid 20s by then, yet I rarely traveled. For me, the world seemed to revolve around Singapore, the paradise on Earth. I was one of those who believed Singapore was the best place in the world, where everyone outside wanted to get in and those who wanted to get out were criminals and losers. Thus I know very well how many, many Singaporeans back there look at people like me. I was there, I was one of them. I know.

I came to Perth to look for Jen, who was staying with her sister then. I was put up at her university friend's place in an unknown suburb, which I found out only much later. One morning, I woke early and was bored. So I decided to have a morning walk towards where I thought Jen lived. Little did I know she was a few suburbs away. The only bearings I had was a faint memory of the route she took to send me back to my accommodation. I had no maps on me, no GPS, nothing. I had no money on me and did not even know how or where to take a bus. I didn't even know where was my starting point. Yet I walked, and walked, and walked.

I was soaking in everything I saw on the streets. Coming from Singapore and having worked in an urban planning department in a stat board, the streets of Perth looked disorganised to me. Inconsistent building setback lines, inadequate planting verge, non-existing road reserve on certain roads. In midst of my constant fault finding, I couldn't help but like the place. The weather was simply amazing and the cloudless blue sky that morning was framing the flawed urban diamond perfectly. I walked past hedges of lavenders and rosemary, growing in glowing abundance. I couldn't help but stop to take in their unmistakable scents.

Soon enough, things turned sour. The bladder started to feel heavy and I chose to walk on with confidence. "There should be a shopping centre, a fast food restaurant, a coffee shop or petrol kiosk to settle the problem," I thought.

So I walked on, with hope in my heart. However, as the bladder got fuller, it was increasingly difficult to keep the flames of hope high. Before long, I was desperate and ready to perform the call of nature in nature. I was exploding but I couldn't find a suitable spot. I just couldn't do it in front of somebody's house. It was one of those situation you wish you are just a dog. Over a few kilometres, I couldn't find a single dustbin along the road. "W.T.F," I cursed. "Where do these people throw thrash?" I couldn't even find a plastic bottle or bag in a bin to pee into.

I staggered on towards a busier road on the horizon. That had to be a major road. I bet the last glimmer of hope on it. Imagine my relief when I saw the green signage of the fuel station at the end. I ran towards it with cherry blossoms floating the air. The toilet was huge as compared to those in Singapore. It was also dry and clean. I was grateful. I continued to walk on and actually ended up in Jen's suburb but I couldn't find the correct road. She turned up to my rescue after a phone call. On hindsight, I was fortunate she was awake at that hour.

The incident highlighted how naive I was, to think the rest of the world should have been constructed in a Singapore blue print. I was so used to bumping into a shop, eatery, public building or petrol kiosk every few hundred metres in Singapore. That didn't bother me more than the non-existence of public dustbins. How did the streets still appear relatively clean, no dirtier than any street in Singapore then?

That question was the awakening.

Almost 5 years in Perth and not a single post about Kings Park? That must be almost a criminal offence.

After all, Kings Park is the pride of Perth. It is one of the largest inner city park in the world. For a better sense of proportion, it is bigger than New York's Central Park and 4 times bigger than Singapore's Gardens by the Bay. It is quite popular with tourists, visited by some 5 million every year, quite remarkable if you considered it is in the boring, boring Perth that nobody really wants to visit. Kings Park is situated in the heart of the city, right above the hilly region in the west. At its peak, it offers a panoramic view of Perth city, the Swan River and Melville Water. During September of each year, Kings Park hosts the Australia's largest wildflower show and exhibition in a festival.

Before our road trip, I took Tucky and Louise to Kings Park. The weather forecast was terrible for the holidayers. Other than their first full day, the rest of their week here would be rainy, or even stormy on some days. That was the most unfortunate timing, as it seldom rain in Perth throughout the rest of the year. It was natural to want my guests, making a rare trip here, to see the best of Perth and enjoy themselves. The famous clear blue sky that Perth usually offers were not on the plate that day. That did not dampen our spirit, at least it wasn't raining.

The clear blue sky was replaced by a cloudy grey

a looming grey

This location was right in front of the iconic war memorial overlooking the city-scape. Louise and Judy, who wanted to tag along with us, were the obvious photographers. As they snapped, Tucky and I looked around to spot Pokemon Go players. Albany seemed to have a great time playing bubbles with other kids and Puipui dozed off on my chest in his kangaroo bag.

We had the intention to do a BBQ for them that afternoon because it was improbable to do so for the rest of the week. So it was a now and never. I wanted to move to South Perth to do that but decided to give Kings Park a shot, since it was a week day and there wasn't a large crowd. With some luck, we might be able to find a nice spot to cook.

"Why are the BBQ stations so clean?" Judy asked.

"Because the last person who used it cleaned up after himself and we shall do the same."

There are BBQ pits in almost every park around Perth. BBQ is a regarded as a national past time of the Aussies for a reason. One thing I like about it is that the BBQs cannot be booked. I always felt public facilities are built for the people with the taxpayers' money. It is not fair to slap anymore additional charge for using them. That way, amenities like that can be enjoyed by the less privileged, not just the taxpayers themselves. More importantly, the fact that BBQs cannot be booked reflects a few points I hold dear to. One, the people are generally civic minded, take care of these facilities and are willing to share with strangers when there is a crowd. Else it will not be possible to run things the way it is. Two, the population density is at a comfortable level in Perth, such that people do not have to fight for resources. That also apply to other things and not limited to BBQs. This - and I am not referring to the BBQs - is one of the factors why I was very reluctant to let go of and return to Singapore during the earlier years.

Due to the Winter chill, the food took a while to cook. I enjoyed it. I hoped the rest did too.

Though Kings Park spans such a large area, most of the sections are family friendly. There is something anywhere that young children are interested in, be it wide open spaces, low shady trees, safe slopes to slide or roll down, natural playgrounds, water features and plenty of nature, where they actually feel more at home than their adults. This is a good place to observe how Aussie leisure. It is a common sight to see young adults lying on a mat, reading a book, lovers lazing an afternoon actually paying attention to each other, older folks nesting under trees with camp chairs and food reminiscing old times. Kings Park appeals to visitors of any age group.

Thanks Louise for the pictures, I really love them

I really should visit more often. Alas, the visitors during weekends still feel a tad too many for me. I have a low threshold so you'll probably love it. Try it and tell me.

Only 30km west of Busselton, there lies a place called Yallingup, an aboriginal name that means "Place of Love". For me though, Busselton is the place of love.

Returning to Busselton again to walk along its jetty was my personal highlight of our trip. It was the only instance I didn't care if my visitors want it or not. The wife's decision to remain in the car also did not deter me. The past two returns have been disappointing. The first time was foiled by a stormy weather. They were doing renovations (after collecting enough donations) the 2nd time. This time round, stormy weather once again, threatened my opportunity to walk Busselton Jetty. It was pouring rain by the buckets when we were approaching the City of Busselton. My heart sank a little.

The weather spared us a little mercy and stopped the rain once we entered the heart of the town. The car park was waterlogged. Jen decided to stay in the car to feed puipui after hearing the howl of the wind outside. I, too, was a little hesitant but my yearning returned after little Albany rang out, "I want to go, I want to go!" So I dragged my guests along with me and told them we were in for a long walk. We paid the entry fee and started ......

It was in 2007 when I first saw this magnificent 1.98 km long jetty. It was my first ever trip to Australia and Perth to visit Jen who was doing her master degree program in Perth. Back then we were still, in her own words recently, "not a thing." Perhaps Busselton Jetty was the place our thing began slowly then. On a much bigger scale, it was the place I fell in love with Perth. The conditions were so suspiciously perfect that day, it almost felt like a scam. It was a clear sunny day. The sky was blue and the sea mirrored a brilliant deep blue across the entire horizon. There was not a single ship or boat in sight to break the picture of nature. The only thing that stood out was the endless jetty in front of me.

The kilometres of lush green grass abutting the shore looked inviting. I threw myself on a patch and laid down flat with limbs spread out with my lunchbox chucked aside a few steps from me, temporarily forgotten. There was no ants or whatsoever on the grass to give me a nasty surprise. The temperature was a comfortable low 20 degrees Celsius, rendering the grass so cool I shut my eyes to soak it all in. When I opened my eyes, the cloudless sky looked like an endless blue disc. I remembered thinking, "If only I live here." Sometimes, the insignificant things in life are the truly important ones.

So it was time to walk through the jetty. There was a pot placed at the entrance urging for donations from the public. They planned to put a working train back on the jetty, to give tourists rides to the end of the jetty in future. That was new to me. Imagine getting your neighbours to do a fund raising to build your covered linkway. We have reached a state where we are unable to do anything for ourselves in Singapore, regardless how simple or trivial and whine like bitches when the government doesn't help. I donated a coin and walked.

And we walked, and walked, and walked.

When we were halfway through, I turned to look back. It felt amazing to be so far away from shore, yet still walking on land. On my flanks, was calm limitless ocean. Being a city bumpkin, I was in awe how the second part of the jetty without any railing on one side, something that I would never see anywhere in Singapore. Anyone can easily fall off playing Pokemon Go or if a strong gust of wind suddenly come. I was beginning to understand how the term "Uniquely Singapore" came about. Every single thing in Singapore is under control by an authority down to a last screw. Even a rustic place in Singapore is manicured for the purpose. Every risk is assessed and patched. Mind you, that is not a bad thing for many. To them, it is the DNA of a paradise. To a handful of small minority like me, it was suffocating. It was easy for me to easily fall in love with a place like Australia (and probably many other countries) where they tend to leave things - and people - alone as much as possible.

I saw locals fishing. There was a large octopus-looking thing chucked on the jetty, so transparent that I could see the back of its tennis ball sized eyeballs. Then I heard a kid yell, "Whale! Whaaaaaale!!" as he dashed past me. When an event roused even the locals, you knew it was something special. That was how I got my first and only whale sighting to date. The whale was cruising along some distance out but near enough for us to see the corals on its body, as well as random seaweed being stuck here and there. I felt silly as I realised it was never going to be as smooth as what we see in the books. The whale did not disappoint when it exhaled, resulting in a magnificent spout with a clearly audible hiss.

The walk with Tucky and Louise was nowhere as spectacular as my first. For a start, the skies were grey, with a storm threatening to overcome us in a distance. The ocean was rougher and understandably greyer we well. The ground was wet and it was quite windy. That didn't damp my guests' spirit, especially when Albany's excitement was contagious. We saw some seagulls along the way, roosting on some wooden logs. Some were trying to hatch their eggs. The couple posed for selfies as Albany dragged me along. Louise was a fantastic photographer and granted me one scene that I would never want to forget for life.

We made it back before the storm came. On the way out, we heard the receptionist tell a tourist, "We are expecting an electrical storm soon, would you still want to try your luck?" In Singapore, you'll probably get a, "Bad weather. No enter," instead. One place allows you to think, the other expects you to do as they said. Makes me wonder how it would have turn out if they told a certain Singaporean boy to, "Serve NS, no swimming," and he conformed.

I'll like to return to this place again soon. The Place of Love.

Who's coming along this time?

Can you see them?

No? Can you see them now?

Now you can

"Appoles," the apple of my eye would say.

If you have no interest to be out in the open picking fruits, watching how excited your child is during the activity will. I didn't have to rely on the infectious enthusiasm of Albany to get in the mood. The first apple I picked went straight to my mouth for a bite.

It was a Pink Lady. I usually hate this species of apple but that one was different. The skin of the apple was dull and felt rougher to the feel, unlike those in the shop spotting an awkward sheen on every apple. A layer of wax, I was told. It was supposed to extend shelf life but it makes apples taste like crap and the extra ingredient also don't do our bodies much good. "Peel the skin," they said. Nah. That defeats the whole purpose. How would you like it if I ask you to remove the skin of a KFC chicken and eat the meat?

I like eating apples off the skin but since they taste crappy these days, I have been avoiding buying apples. I know that is not a good idea, since, "An apple a day, keeps the doctor away." How does that work nowadays, with crappy apples that taste like candles? The only way to keep doctors away is to throw apples at them on sight. Besides, there is no point buying apples if nobody eats them. I have lost count how many times I threw apples away with skin as wrinkled as Ho Ching's.

Mind you, I am not implying that those apples that we were allowed to pick at 50 McCorkill Road, Pickering Brook, was super organic with no harmful ingredients used to grow them. We wouldn't know. I didn't bother to ask because no farmer, shop keeper or business owner will ever admit their questionable methods, if any are used in the process of bringing food to the retail display.

I could, however, trust my sense of taste. Plucked straight off the tree and tasted brilliant. If there was any foul play, it would take a PRC-level farmer to pull that off. Most of the Australian farmers have no time for that, at least for now. I took a glimpse of the grinning farm owner tooting around with a toddler in his big tractor and thought, "I could trust this guy," and took another bite off the apple.

I enjoyed the experience throughout. Albany was skipping along with us and picking apples like a hardworking harvester. The grass was long but not enough to create problems for us to push little Anthony along, who looked like he appreciated the sunlight and the cool fresh air up the hills. The wife looked happy and so did her mother, my MIL.

The price of the full box of apples we picked (left) was $25. It was a reasonable price, considering every apple was fresh and crunchy. The box felt heavy to me, ranging anywhere from 12-20kg. I didn't struggle with carrying 15kg boxes at work like I did with that box. So I suspect it would be 15kg at least. However, even at 10kg, the apples would be a decent $2.50/kg or $1.25/kg if it was closer to 20kg. We could probably buy cheaper apples at the wholesale centre but it wouldn't the same quality. Considering that was a family excursion, $25 for the entry fee, event and a box full of good apples to bring home, no one would say it wasn't a good idea.

I am beginning to get the hang of these harvest timings. The last time we visited Pickering Brook, the apple trees were all botak. When we drove through the famous Swan Valley during our first Winter here, the vineyards were all botak too. By now, I know when it is time to harvest strawberries, apples, persimmons and grapes. Would you like to experience picking apples from trees? I should start organising Homestay & Harvest Tours for Singaporeans some day.

A playground for the kids, a river or lake nearby, a BBQ pit and empty parking lots. That is all a man needs.

Altone Park is just one of the hundreds of parks around the state. This isn't a special feature on the park. In fact it was because Altone Park was so ordinary that I would like to take the opportunity to introduce the concepts behind the parks in Perth. I feel that parks in Perth are grossly under rated by Singaporeans in general. The reason is simple. Our parks in Singapore leave much to be desired. Thus few Singaporean tourist will consider visiting an ordinary neighbhood park as part of his itinerary.

Allow me to explain. Our NParks will be the first to refute my claim. How dare I suggest that our parks in Singapore are sub-standard. Every single one of our parks was considered designed and built with top quality materials. Each of them is meticulously maintained by parks officers on regular basis to remain in tip top condition, right down to the last blade of Axonopus compressus. However, that is not what I have in mind. In fact, most parks in Perth pales in comparison to their Singapore counterparts when it comes to the generous usage of superior building materials. A shed will be a simply designed four columns hardly connected by cross beams hardly even comprising of a complete truss and clad with barely a colourbond sheet. Playgrounds were simple and modest. There hardly signages, plaques, monuments, designer sculptors nor water features. It almost cry, "Boring!" to most Singaporeans. Features, if any, are placed sparsely and sparingly in an almost zen-like style.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what it is all about.

A good park takes your mind to a state of peace and calm. Although it is public, it should be private at the same time and pleasant to use. It should be closer to a changing room in a boutique on during at 10am in the morning than a public toilet in an MRT station during peak hours. A good park captures the imagination of the young and old by providing privacy to his or her body and soul. It should be a tenant and not a landlord of nature.

Based on these 3 simple rules, most of the parks in Singapore would have failed in their core purpose. They would be there for the sake of it or to make up the numbers for green space tabulations though it is not entirely the fault of NParks. Space in Singapore is simply too big a constraint for anything that is economically unprofitable for the government to be made a priority of. So we end up having things that are better than nothing (take a look at some of those PCNs will ya?) yet heavily acclaimed as the next thing to heaven. Since Singaporeans bought into the ideas that they have access to world class parks (we call ourselves a Garden City you know) and subconsciously think nothing much about them, it is hardly a surprise hardly anyone will want to visit an ordinary park in a ordinary neighborhood overseas.

I even know Singaporeans who migrated to Perth for more than a year who have not visited any parks to have a BBQ. Friends who visited Perth and bunked in with my family to catch up or save accommodation cost were made to go to a park with me, if their stays were long enough. I insisted. One friend who said she might visit again in future declared, "Let's have another BBQ in a park!" I see that I had gotten one to see the magic in the gardens.

Well, the foremost purpose of a park is to weed out the stress in their visitors' mind.

free parking for me anytime, any day, with more empty lots than cars

The ease of parking is a good start. A "free parking" car park with no lots free at any time or causing unnecessary waiting for a lot is not good enough. A paying car park is worse. You will want to decide how long you want to hang around the park, not how long your cashcard allows you to. Even if you are loaded and a few dollars are nothing to you, just ask yourself this, "Wouldn't you feel better if you don't have to bother about parking fees?" You would. I know because my cars have no IU nor parking coupons in them for the 4 years I have been here and long may it continues.

Nature is second nature to parks in Perth. Here for example in Altone Park, a tiny lake that provided an ecosystem to animals and birds. Every park I have visited provided me with sounds of nature and visual enjoyment. On some days, you will see wild ducks waddling by in single files or a skein of geese taking a break by the edge of the waters. There are many parks along the Swan River where you can spot wild dolphins on a lucky day. In Singapore we have MacRitchie Reservoir, Sungei Buloh and a (small) part of Pasir Ris Park that is worth the salt. Unfortunately they are unable to bring nature into the neighbourhood parks the same way. It isn't the fault of NParks. Like I mentioned earlier, we have different priorities in Singapore. Also, these ducks and geese will probably end up in some people's oven in Singapore if they do not get culled first. Most of these mechanical parks in Singapore is not much different from Road Safety Park. (Yes, they even define that as a park)

BBQ stations will indefinitely to be found at any local parks in Perth. I mean, these guys would rather BBQ in the city than to watch a communist parade on their National Day. BBQ is the thing in Perth. Most of them are clean and ready to be used whenever you free hungry. In normal everyday parks, the pits are almost always available. In popular parks, these stations are always firing but the good news is, users are willing to share or finish up and let you have your turn soon enough. No man is left hungry.

Well if things are not good enough, these BBQ stations do not require pre-booking and are free to use. Just press a button and fire away. The first time I saw something like that in Singapore was a BBQ pit in West Coast where we had to dong 20 cents to keep it running for X minutes. What a fucking joke! There are too many things for a hungry man to worry about than 20 cent coins. If I met the guy who came up with that concept, I will shove a dollar note into that his throat.

Didn't I mention about freeing the mind? Visit a park in Perth, soak up in nature, meditate if you want, cook and eat if you are hungry, under the cool, revitalising breeze in the great Perth Autumn. That is something that money cannot buy, apparently, in some richest country in the world up North.

We seldom go out lately and we should. Puipui is getting a little sturdier and Albany is no longer a toddler. Both of them will probably appreciate more outings. Unfortunately, this Summer has the knack of being cooler during the week days and hellfire unleashed during the weekends. So we ended up hiding in the house for many weekends.

Since the Missus told me there was that cool water feature at Cockburn Central, I decided to take them out one Saturday morning to check it out. I was a little apprehensive because Jen got us travelling all the way to Caleya to visit a playground that was supposed to be super fantastic but it was very, very underwhelming. To make it worse, there were about 2-3 huge groups of people holding parties and there was even an Elsa air castle set up for kids to jump in. I had to keep an eye on Albany throughout, teach her to queue up for her turns and apologise to crying babies who was a tad too slow in grabbing their swing seats. I felt like working in a child care centre that afternoon, screaming kids running circles around me and all.

Fortunately, Cockburn Central was pretty cool in the sense that although there were like-minded parents who brought their kids to play (in swim wear no less!), the place wasn't packed out like I feared. It turned out that it was just a water feature in front of a train station in the middle of a hippie town with hippie apartments on high ground. So the water place was that little fountain thing at Bugis Junction without onlookers giving happy children the dirty looks and children actually really had fun there without reservations. I was slightly surprised hippies living in those apartments above us must have generally enjoyed the joyous screams of children playing with water down there.

Behind us were some decorative containers painted in bright colours and a hippie cafe that asked of you to SMS them for a cup of coffee.

Mind you, the apartments didn't look bad at all. Driving through the small roads leading to the heart of the place made me feel the energy and vibrancy of the place the way it was intended. However these apartments didn't come cheap. One could easily get a landed property not too far away. That wouldn't deter the hippies of course. A train station within walkable distance, big malls within 1-5 minutes drive, hippie eateries and cafes nearby should be too attractive for them to resist.

Albany had fun playing with water and smiled in her sleep that night. So I reckon we should be going out more often. In search for the next hippie town.

I thought this may be one of Perth's best kept secrets of course I was wrong. If it is, it probably wouldn't last long enough for me to finally make my way there. After all, Pickering Brook isn't your everyday suburb. It lies in the eastern edge of the Perth metropolitian right in the heart of the hills. In Singaporean term, it is a damn big sua teng area. And I will be, of course, the sua ku.

From the picture above, it looks like one of those hippy cafes you will find in Hort Park but it really isn't. Though these folks dish out finger food and decent (I heard mains), their core trade is Cider. Core Cider is their business name. The word core, of course, was a play on the apples they actually grow themselves to cultivate into cider. These impressive hectares are their home, orchards, factory, restaurant and sales office all in one.

Overlooking apple orchards with rows and rows of apple trees in off-producing season

Here is how it looks from the other side. Bad photography veils the magnificence of the place. What these folks have done right, just like any other agri-tourism businesses here, is to provide a family friendly environment to attract the crowds. When we arrived at the place at 1030 hrs in the morning, we seemed to be the only customers around. By noon, the place was bursting with a multi-national mix of family and young crowd.

They had this tractor. And a long thick rope lying on the ground, which later attracted a lot of children who challenged themselves to a tug-of-war without prompting. Somewhere, I found a cool cart for me to push Albany around the ample open spaces for an hour. She was chuckling all the way, clearly enjoying dad-powered ride. There were sand pits, balls lying randomly around, clearly prepared for children.

fancy a drink by an orange tree under 20 degrees Celsius?

Rowdy boys climbed trees and picked oranges. A couple attempted to throw an orange to hit another down from the tree. A few landed near me. So I helped myself to at least 3 good free oranges and shared around the table with friends who went along with us.

A thought flashed across the mind. I wondered how our children with thick glasses and i-pads will fare in harvesting these things with their bare hands. Will they gather everyone for a meeting to brainstorm strategies or derive cool innovative tools to carry out the task in style?

Or will they moan, "Yeeee, don't wan lah~" ? And return to swiping tablets.

Or will their parents scream, "Fistanlistus! Dun touch the tree! Dirty!"

It will be a privilege to observe. Though, I doubt that I will have many oranges to go around to down my hearty meal of chips.

The owners of the farmstay obviously loved their job. From an outsider's point of view, it was too easy to mistake running such a business as idyllic. That couldn't be further from the truth. Tending to animals is hard work. So is the never-ending task of fence building, the endless repair work, not forgetting the municipal, legal and safety issues. On top of that they run a website to showcase their hard work to administrate curious travelers who wish to stay a few nights at their farm.

Mum and her 2 kids

But how happy were they. I was wrong to regard the animals on the farm as cattle and poultry. They appeared to be more like pets. Every sheep, goat, lama, cow or ram had a name and a story, if you care to stop and listen. Snowie the goat was as powerful as a lawn mower but not as bad as the new comer who couldn't stop bleating and destroying gardens. The two tiny black lambs were only 4 days old. On our second evening, there was a commotion outside as humans wandered into the grazing region of the animals and surround one of the big haystacks to watch a sheep give birth to yet another lamb.

I had visited a few leisure farms here but this was something different. There was no animal-petting zones or animal feeding activities. Everything was free and easy. There was even a couple of sheep and a few noisy peacocks walking about all the time, way out of their fenced boundaries. That made me feel like I was staying in a real leisure farm, not a zoo-masquerade. Did I feel any threat from the animals getting too close to Albany? I had the tendency to be rather closer to animals than human beings. That family that arrived on our second day made it impossible for me to be at my usual evasive self.

I thought it was just an unusual talkative boy. He started off with no greeting and went straight into a conversation. Why were these Aussie kids so good at these? When I was their age, I would hide behind my mother's legs when prompted to greet the 'uncle' or 'auntie'. That young boy, no older than 5 years old at most, and his sisters simply regarded me as part of the landscape and showed no discomfort I looked and sounded so different from them. Instead, they revealed their personal details such as their names, where they lived and talked about their pets and interests. Later on, their cheerful father joined the conversation. I could then see why the children were sociable and amiable. He talked to me like I had known him for years. He was completely at ease when he was a stay-at-home-dad of 3 kids while his wife worked. In his shoes, I would avoid telling people as much as possible to minimize questions and mock-gasps. To show my appreciation for his forthrightness, I asked no question on his family set up. It was none of my business anyway. They were happy to share their experience of having a couple of chooks as pets later on. Such conversations with that family made me happy and felt welcomed. I should have shared tales of my late pet dogs with my ex-company's workers from Bangladesh. I wondered if they would be interested.

The nosy peacock enjoyed sniffing around Ugly Green

Albany the Shepard

Like Singapore, Perth isn't really a hilly region. Sure, there are some hilly places around but Bukit Timah Hill or Lesmurdie Hills isn't in the mold of the high altitudes located in parts of some nearby countries we are familiar with, such as Malaysia, Taiwan or Hong Kong.

When Jen told me we were going to Harvey Hills for a short vacation during Christmas, I didn't expect too much. Shops would be close for sure, including "24 hours" or "Open 7 days" joints. Christmas in Perth is an exception to most, if not every thing. It is even bigger than the first day of Chinese New Year in Singapore. Where the town is dead, the homes are alive. I think that's a fair game. An absolutely dead town, a decent view from a hill with animals roaming around and a peek of the lake at horizon, would I take it? Yes. How about a couple of night's stay? Absolutely.

Like many of these chalets or farm stays in the regional areas, checking in was in the no-frills manner which I appreciated. Years ago when we arrived very late at night at Rose Garden in Albany, the staff already long knocked off. We were tired and even slightly frightened due to a challenging rainy and dark drive through the countryside with the fuel tank almost empty. If we had to wait till the next day to check in to a shelter, it would be memorable indeed. Fortunately, the staff left our keys in the letterbox and we were through. Later through the years, we found that a common practice in the industry. The ongoing trust is heartwarming.

Our house was unlocked. On the dining table was the keys and a hand written note (left). I felt good already.

This was the sight that greeted me when we drove Ugly Green into the port. The little decked ramp led us to a veranda with a tea table at the corner. From there, I got the full view of the opening picture. It was beautiful, even though the Summer heat had taken a lot of greenery out of the picture. I was greeted by the whines of free-range roaming cattle grazing idly close by. If only we came during Autumn. I would have laid down on the grass and sleep the afternoon away.

It was obvious that the house was designed to accommodate a family with kids. There was a double bed in the living room and 2 sets of bunk beds in a room. The classic parents + 4 kids set up. Not surprisingly, we met an Aussie family in the next house the next day. Parents + 3 kids. These places were built with families like that in the mind. A walk outside the area confirmed it.

They even set up little playgrounds around the place for kids. Needless to say, Albany was running towards it before I could stop her. I didn't know about her but if I were to experience that when I was a kid, it would remain as a terrific memory in my mind till my adulthood. Hopefully, Albany would grow up not to take things for granted. All that we fought for, I hope she will pay it back by being a considerate, thoughtful good person. That's all. I don't really care what grades she churns out in school or what job she will undertake in the future.

Albany is turning 3 later this month. Where it comes to education, we have done nothing for little Albany so far. No lessons, no enrichment class whatsoever. That must be unpardonable in Singapore. She can't do maths or write or draw. She doesn't play with electronic gadgets and prefers toys. 2 years old was a big year for her because we finally moved to a place and live by ourselves instead of co-renting. As a result, we manage to get Albany to be potty trained at 2 years old, feed herself by the table every meal and sleep in her room by herself. At late, she insisted to choose and wear her own clothes and learnt to spell colours because I refused to give her anymore treats unless she spells their colours correctly. We still operate in an unstructured games-and-challenges environment. Will that hinder her development? I honestly do not know. Or care. She'll be alright.

Past Rants