Day 5: Melbourne City

Day 5: Melbourne City, Australia.

I was in the Melbourne city town on my own in the evening as I did not join my friend for the trip down to Philips Island for the Penguins tour. I took a tram from the St. Kilda to city after I went to the post office nearby my Airbnb’s apartment to post the postcards to my teammates and my client.

I posted a few postcards from Melbourne back to Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea for my closed friends too and one for myself. I think it is a great idea to do it every time I travelled to a place. I shall thank to my teammates who brought up this idea when I was in Tasmania.

When I reached the city, it started to rain quite heavily and I sought shelter at Southern Cross Train Station. I waited quite a while before the rain stopped. I started to walked around in the city by my own. I walked out from the Southern Cross Railway station and crossed the road. At one of its corners, I saw this black and white’s church and I took a picture of it. There are many churches around in this city.

It was cold and chilling evening. Everyone walked on the street, at that time, it was after the working hours and rain stopped. It was a peak, rush hour for the locals.

Just at this junction while I was waiting for the pedestrian’s green light, I suddenly have a strong feeling, I wanted to have a pair of warm hands to warm up mine and wish someone could walk with me by my side at that point of time. The feeling came into my mind naturally and I told my friend about it the following night. She told, I was in deep feeling and I tried to brush them off, by saying, “these are just illusions”.

The same feeling travelled with me back to Singapore and it lasted for about another one and half month before I realized it was purely illusion and I could carry on without it. Even now, sometimes, I will think again about this feeling and share it with other friends. However, there is no sign of having further development on it. I lay my trust on God to decide who the right man for me and I trust Him will send the man to me one day.

Tasmania Day 3: Dinner

I think I started to lose count which day we baked our own pizza for dinner. The first night we had our dinner outside where we ate plenty of big scallops, fishes and calamari rings. Well, I just named it as Tasmania Day 3: Dinner to begin my story.

The pizza dough was brought from the Farm Gate Market on Sunday, but we did not immediately bake them on the same day. As usual, we bought all of the ingredients for two large pizzas from the nearby supermarket. The closest to us in our Airbnb’s neighbourhood is Woolworth’s.

The first pizza was filled with a lot of pepperoni slices, sliced mushrooms and lots of cheese. The second pizza was filled sliced mushroom and vegetable, which I think is spinach. I cannot really remember it.

Both dough are thin crust and it is quite easy for us to handle and put it into the oven for baking. It is recommended to eat them straight away after being taken out from the oven. Since we were busy preparing food for the kids and ourselves, the pizza turned a bit soggy when we ate them and it was difficult to cut then into eight pieces perfectly with our knife. Maybe, we should have baked it last.

While we preparing the food for the kids which include some canned soups, the kids started eating our finger foods which we bought from the floating seafood stall, Flippers Cooked Seafood at Sullivans Cove. We went back to the same place to get more scallops and calamari rings for our dinner that night. Seriously, these scallops are very worth to go back to the stall and eat again.

It was a long and tired day after the dinner and that night, I spent the rest of my night talking over the phone with my friend in Malaysia through WhatsApp’s call. We talked about relationship because I brought up this topic went I texted her after my shower. It was my first time I dreamed of this person and it happened on the night before, I remembered it. I dream everyday, some I can remember and many of these dreams I do not remember after I wake up from my sleep.

The first words she told me upon hearing my story, she said in Cantonese, “You think about it during the day, you dream about it during the night”.

I felt weird because I was enjoying my holiday in Tasmania. I did not do a lot of works or reply emails which related to this person. Occasionally, I received messages from my colleagues who talked about this person, and this person just popped up in my dream. My conversation with my friend lasted for 2 hours or more and she concluded that I might like this person due to the surrounding situation, maybe I am not truly in love. I think so.

Richmond Bakery

Richmond Bakery, Tasmania, Australia.
Address: 50 Bridge St, 7025 Richmond, Tasmania, Australia.

We did not complete the whole Bruny Island trip because partial of the road in the island was closed for construction work. Half way through the road down to south, we decided to make a U-turn and head back to the port and board the next ferry back to the mainland. There was a long queue for the ferry because it was approaching off work time.

While waiting for the ferry to begin its journey, we googled for our tea break location. We have plenty of choice and we chose to head down to Richmond, which is a city rich of the historical buildings.

Upon reaching the mainland, we drove to the Richmond Bakery to have our tea break with all my friends. It was raining drizzling when we reached the bakery shop and a few couple of people sitting inside the shop having their teas and pies.

The bakery shop did not have many choices left for us to choose. We placed our ordered and tried each of almost everything that they are still serving. It included pies, scone, muffins and cakes. As for drinks, we tried their hot chocolate, hot teas and one of their cold drink.

It is a lovely top view picture of our tea time at Richmond Bakery. Again, these are shared among us. The taste of all the above is just normal. If want to compare the pies with Jackman and McRoss, I will say, let drive all the way back to their bakery and eat there instead.

Thinking that we shall have a decent meal for dinner that night, we did not spend too much time eating here and drive back to our home to prepare dinner. We have bought some pizza dough and we can make our own pizza from the oven.

Perhaps, in my next visit to Tasmania, I shall travel to this place to see the historical building and the beautiful scenery in this quiet town.

Bruny Island & Get Shucked Oyster Farm

Get Shucked Oyster Farm
Address:  1735 Bruny Island Main Road, Bruny Island, Great Bay 7150, Tasmania, Australia.

It was a day trip to the Bruny Island in Tasmania, Australia by taking our car onto the ferry service at the Kettering Port. I was not able to recall when was the last time I took a ferry from one place to another place.

It was about 11am before we reached the port and queued to get on board. The weather was good, sunny and not windy when we arrived. However, when it was about to board the ferry, the weather changed and upon reaching the island, it was cloudy and occasionally drizzling. We made a few stops in the island and we did not travel the whole island for visit.

We stopped by Get Shucked Oyster Farm, one of the recommended places to visit in Bruny Island for our oysters and of course, our lunch. We went to its restaurant which is located at entrance of the farm. We did not get to see how they process the oysters at this restaurant which I felt it was kind of disappointed.

However, their food is great, fantastic and satisfying. We ordered the oysters platters and a salmon and some drinks to be shared. We thought that we would be moving around in the island and kept trying all the food in different restaurant. So, we just ordered these two.

The oysters platter which consists of half a dozen of fresh, medium sized oysters and others are the cooked oysters in various styles. All these oysters go well with their sauces or you can just eat the oysters without dipping into the sauce. The original taste of the oysters is slightly tasted like sea water and did not have smell. Unlike, the oysters I eat in Singapore and Malaysia, they have some smell and have to dip with lemon.

This platter comes with a loaf bread with cheese. Also, we added another main which is a salmon. The size of the salmon is quite small, definitely it is not enough for six of us to try them. Each of us just get to try a small bite of the salmon.

The salmon does come with bread as well and a bowl of salad. It is supposed to be meant for a single serving which could be just good enough for a person. Since, we traveled with kids, french fries is something we cannot miss out on the table for them.

They do sell some sauces and stuffs at the side of the restaurant, nothing is interesting. The interior of the restaurant is quite simple, it does not have many tables inside but they do have bigger tables and lounge area outside of the restaurant. Okay, during the winter time, no ones will be sitting there except my travel mate, where she took a picture of a wonderful quote, “Livin’ the dream”.

From this angle, you may see the sea view directly. It is quite closed by.

Mount Wellington Tasmania

Mount Wellington, Tasmania, Australia.
It was September 2017, it was still cooling and winter season was not over yet in Tasmania. I was travelling from Singapore to Tasmania for the first time. Having busy for the weeks before my departure, I did not make a good preparation for myself to the unfamiliar weather in Tasmania.

It was a great challenge for myself while staying in Tasmania during the winter because I did not bring along a winter cloth. With just a normal jacket which I used in my office in Singapore, I walked around in the street and even went up to the Mount Wellington. I was not remember what the temperature was when we were half way en-route to the peak.

It was cold in the morning although it was sunny, later of the morning, just before noon, the sky went dark and started drizzling. We hurried up back into our rented car and drove away to the Mount Wellington.

We were greeted by a rainbow. The picture below I took using my mobile phone, Huawei P10 with filter on.

It is a beautiful scene, it always brightens up everyone’s the day whenever we see a rainbow. More happy if we could see double rainbows. At that point of time, I looked at the rainbow, I felt all the worries have temporary left and I learned to enjoy my life and quickly adapt the environment in Tasmania.

Tasmania Day 2 : Airbnb’s House

I am wondering why I took a picture of these two flowers and the art on the wall. It is a portrait picture, not even a landscape, which at least it would be able to show the whole piece of the wall painting.

Mysteriously, I feel… I must be thinking about something when I took this picture. Anyway, this Airbnb’s house has a lot of wall paintings. There is another one in the living room.

Tasmania Day 1 : Peaceful

Personally, I love this picture a lot. I can feel cooling weather, relaxing and peaceful surroundings. I still remember how I felt the stressful and tiredness of the day have gone away right after I took a deep breathe. Look at the dog opposite the road, it does know how to enjoy its life over there.

I have made this picture as my phone’s lock screen wallpaper which a caption, “hanya takdir yang menentukan ia”. It is Malay words which means, “only fate determines it”. I have a reason why I added this caption onto the picture. I want to always remind myself, it is only fate determines what is next for me or for us. If we are fated, time will bring us together.

I took the picture while standing in front of the bakery shop, Jackman & McRoss which is located at Hampden Road, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Breakfast in Tasmania

During our stay in Hobart, Tasmania, we did not even go to any cafes for a breakfast because we have a cozy kitchen and great chef who prepared the breakfast every morning. Most of the days, I prepared my own breakfast which consists of bread, hard boiled eggs and a cup of hot drink, either the tea or hot milk.

Cheese and Ham Sandwich
Yea, probably the presentation of this sandwich may not look appealing. I placed few sliced of hams, some butter and topped with a piece of cheese. It would be great if I heat up the oven and toast the sandwich for a while.

Hard Boiled Eggs
With some salt and pepper, it completed my daily breakfast.

Coffee
My friend recommended me to try this brand of its chocolate and coffee drinks. I took the coffee to try, it is quite nice and rich taste. You can drink it cold from the fridge or you can heat it up using the microwave, both tasted good.

Plain Yogurt with Strawberry
On my last day in Tasmania, I managed to open the tub of yogurt and took some of the cut strawberries and put into the bowl together with the yogurt. The colour looked great, white and red. Both go well with each other.

It is not expensive to prepare your own breakfast in Tasmania. A big loaf of bread which we can get in the Coles or Woolworths will cost less than $3.00, their dairy products are generally quite cheap and a box of 12 eggs cost $3.00. These easily can last you for a week or more.

Farm Gate Market

Farm Gate Market.
Address: 104 Bathurst St, Hobart TAS 7000, Australia.

Every Sunday, come rain hail or shine, a busy street in the heart of Hobart transforms into a bustling farmers’ market. I captured this line of words from their website. This morning market sells both fresh vegetables, herbs, meats, fruits, flowers, breads and etc. We were here on our second day to buy some fresh vegetables and meats for our dinner. We planned to prepare steamboat at night.

Before I visited this place, I googled online and saw one of the beautiful pictures of a cup of hot coffee with the background of the market. As I walked along the street, I stopped by at one of the mobile coffee stalls and queued up to purchase some. I bought myself a flat white and my friends chose to have hot chocolate.

The flat white is just normal, not fantastic, same goes to the hot chocolate which my friends said it was quite sweet. The main purpose of having a cup of drink is to take a picture of it here, similarly to the beautiful picture I saw from the Internet.

I took a picture of the coffee right at the middle of the street, standing in front of a bread stall while waiting my friends to choose the breads. Is it lovely? On a sunny Sunday with a cup of coffee, walk down the street and get the groceries for tonight’s dinner. This is how the life should be during the weekend.

Flippers Cooked Seafood

Flippers Cooked Seafood
Address: Sullivans Cove, Hobart TAS, Hobart TAS 7000, Australia.

You can see this stall when you are driving along the main road, Davey St. It is located right opposite of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. They serve various types of cooked seafood and we loved their scallops, fish and calamari.

It is fresh, juicy and delicious. The best way to enjoy them is just simply add some salt and vinegar and squeeze some lemon juice. Look at the size of the scallops, it is so big, bigger than those we eat in Singapore and Malaysia and most importantly, it is fresh.

The calamari rings is another one which you should not miss out. Yea, I am going to repeat the words, it is fresh, delicious and the ring is big. Maybe, you might find the price is a bit expensive for this stall as compared to another one, however, it is really worth to get it. The service is good and the waiting time is not taking long. There is no tables and chairs nearby, the drawback of eating here.