Thursday 1 May 2008

DADDY'S VISIT

Before I get down to telling you about Daddy's visit, remember I mentioned in the previous post about this dog I saw at camp that was freakin' huge?

CHECK THAT OUT YO!!!!! Oh my gosh. Haha. But it's so friendly despite its size! To think it even shys away at the sight of my huge 400D pointing at it. =D I love huge dogs. But preferrably with more fur la huh. Heh.



ALRIGHTY back to business here. Yep, Daddy came down to Perth for a visit during my mid-semester break. I wasn't exactly very happy about it at first because he decided without discussing with either Mummy or me. He just called one day telling Mummy he's coming on the 19th (of April, Saturday). But all's well in the end!

So, yep, I picked him up from the airport on th 19th, at around 3pm. Was fairly amusing because I wasn't 100% sure of the way down and I wasn't using the route Mummy usually uses. 80% of the way was by faith God will bring me to my destination, which He did!

Daddy had already cleared all customs by the time Mummy and I reached so we just picked him up and zoomed off again. No need to pay parking! Weeeee! And when we got back to Nedlands (this time with 40% by faith), Daddy said he was HUNGRY?! Went home, deposited the luggage and hand carry, out we went again to Dome along Hampden.You can see Daddy gobbling down his apple pie already. And this was taken only seconds after I placed the plate of apple pie down. Power, Daddy, power. Mummy had chocolate muffin (very unusual of her) and latte, I had flat white and Daddy had apple pie and long black. I present you, The Coffee Family.

After sending my parents home, I went for church service. After service, when transport was arranged, I went home to pick my parents up and off we went to Subiaco's Han's for dinner!

Dinner was as usual. The loud crowd. Food taking forever to come due to the crowd. BUT IT WAS STILL GOOD. Pad thai was awesome. Especially when it's my first meal of the day. Mum had pepper squid rice while Dad had V.N. beef noodles.

A few of us actually wanted to go over to Baskin Robbins after dinner but somehow the plan became bubble tea. Either way I'm fine haha 'cos I love both. Ice cream in cold weather (yeah, I'm one of those insane freaks who loves ice cream that way) and bubble tea on a Saturday night. Parents and a few others were sent home by Eufei (thanks lots, Eufei!) while I joined the rest who were going for bubble tea.

Stayed till pretty late. Not say extremely late la since we've had later nights before. But all's good and that sums up my Saturday!



Sunday. Fremantle with parents. Drove down. Went to the market 'cos Daddy wanted to buy coffee beans back. Ooooh that place's coffee beans are de best. It's called The Coffee Connection, situated in one corner of Freo Market, the corner that smells THE BEST. You can even smell the beans and find the one you love best! Use the scoops, though. You don't want to buy contaminated beans.

Parents got hungry. They couldn't decide where they want to eat. Mummy got impatient. Daddy got even more hungry. I got impatient with them both. Ended up having not-so-good kebabs in the market. Trust me. If you've eaten Broadway Fair's kebabs, you will NOT want to eat kebabs from anywhere else 'cos you know they will just not be as nice.

Went to get another ticket for my car's parking and then to The Merchant Tea and Coffee Co for coffee. I told you, The Coffee Family.I had my usual iced coffee (this weird craving has yet to stop since I came back to Perth), Daddy had espresso, Mummy had cappucino. We also shared a apricot and apple crumble (I think) to satisfy our unsatisfactory lunch. =D

Went home. Slacked around. That very night, I cooked for my parents. They wanted something light and simple.Crisp skin salmon fillet (HUGE SUCCESS! I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!) and herbed beef steak (I'd say it was a huge improvement). I didn't eat. Only grabbed their salmon skins (they don't like it) and tried a bit of the steak to test the success of both. Wasn't hungry. And you know what??? Daddy said it'd be perfect if they were served with sauce. WHAT HAPPENED TO LIGHT AND SIMPLE?! At least they said it was a success hahaha.

Monday-Wednesday was camp at Hillarys (I miss that place so badly now). Wednesday afternoon, when I got back, I went out with Mishi to Matilda Bay to take pictures of Mango prancing around. She's so adorable! Did I mention she charges at my camera, if not come and sit comfortably on my legs while I'm lying down on my tummy?



Thursday. CIAO ITALIA!The people who went: Wei Xian, Janice, Rae, Su Ling's sis (not pictured in this post), Jeremy Tan, Shawn, Parents and I.Wei Xian.

Jeremy Tan. THIS IS THE BEST PHOTO OF YOU, JEREMY. See how hard it is getting a decent shot of you. And it has to be of you reading the menu. Lol.

Rae (left) and Janice. Su Ling's sister is somewhere on the right not in the picture haha.

The handsome, and the pretty. =D

If you ask me who are the people I love most (other than God), it's gotta be them. Just missing Grandma =(.

The food.Janice, Rae and Su Ling's sis shared this Romano pizza and a plate of vegetarian risotto. The pizza was awesome. Didn't get to try their risotto though.

Daddy's fettucine ciao italia. Creamy kuay teow Daddy calls it =_=. Mummy (in the background) had spaghetti marinara. Both had small serve.

My seafood risotto! Shawn had the same except mine was small serve. Oh and this was small serve. Not that small, in fact.

Wei Xian's folded pizza. WOAH GENG! Extremely huge, though. Lol.

Mussels we shared. One bowl normal, one bowl with chilli.

Everyone was already stuffed at this point haha!

Not very well taken shots but you should get my point. IT'S THE MUSSEL SEASON, PEOPLE! GOT GRAB THEM FROM ALL PLACES SERVING CHILLI MUSSELS!

Stuffed? Not when there're desserts! How could anyone say no to Ciao Italia's desserts?!It's bigger than what it looks. A lot bigger.

Was a tad sweet but AWESOME! The smooth custard, rich strawberry jam, fresh strawberries and perfect pastry case. I rank it second in Ciao Italia's desserts.

Didn't manage to get a very good shot of this but THIS IS THE RANK NUMBER ONE DESSERT OF CIAO ITALIA! TIRAMISU! Ooooh man. The taste of coffee+liquer flooding your mouth+mind when you bite on it. Not forgetting the perfectly whisked mascarpone cheese. Aaaaah a taste of heaven. Even Jeremy Tan (whom I believe isn't that big a dessert fan) said it's something to die for even when you're dead full.

Foreground: my cassata. Was good but still pretty disappointing given this should be a classic Italian dessert. This was the ice cream version. I expected a more powerful taste.
Background: Janice, Rae and Su Ling's sister shared the hazelnut ice cream. My recommendation haha. You can imagine their face when they ate the ice cream. Priceless, man.

The bill came with complimentary nougats. I took what I usually take. Green tea soft nougat. =P

We then took a walk along Mill Point. Didn't walk far. Not far at all, in fact. Haha. Just to the nearest jetty. And Wei Xian and I started snapping away with our cameras.I'd say, I'm really proud of my 400D. I prefer the first shot, though. Not too centralized. First shot was based on my estimation, second was under Daddy's instructions. As in, the settings, not angle/position.

Everyone went home happy ^^.



Friday. Subiaco. ALL THE FOOD STORES HAVE OPENED! YAYYY!

Mummy had rice vermicilli with pork and spring roll from the Vietnamese stall. She said the amount shrunk and price increased. I reminded her renovations are not for free. Haha.

Daddy's black pepper beef with rice. HIS was a really small portion. Totaly over priced. Also from the vietnamese stall. Daddy had to get a banana crepe with ice cream after this. Goes to show how small the portion really was.

My crepe with maple syrup and butter. The chef forgot to add butter for me and he actually gave me a small dish of butter and a brush! How nice! I think any other chef would have just said sorry they forgot and walked off. Many credits to the french stall!

All three of us had coffee from the french stall. I had iced coffee, Mummy had cappucino and Daddy had long black. There you go again, The Coffee Family.

Did a bit of groceries and went home. Had cell later that night. Not very pleasant when everything ended. Gah.



Saturday. There was no service at UWA so parents and I went Garden City to shop! Nonono. Lunch first.

I had pasta combo. Fettucine al funghi, tortellini carbonara, lasagne. Average. Decent. Enjoyable. Daddy (as you can see in the background) had roast pork meal. Was surprised he was full without rice. Probably 'cos there was mash potato.

Mummy's. Uh. Mixed dish. Haha! With rice. There was some fried noodles, plain vegetables (of all things) and curry chicken (that was not bad).

Shopped around a little. Kmart. Coles. For an hour or two. What next? COFFEE!

Got this ricotta and sultana cheescake from Aroma and..ICED COFFEE! From Michel's patisserie. Michel's didn't have much variety of cakes so I had to go over to Aroma's to get that. They had a common seating area anyways.

Parents?Both had the cake of the day+coffee set. Cake of the day was mudcake. IT BLEW MY HEAD OFF! The cake was nice and dense (but not too dense) and the icing was ooooooh heavenly! Daddy had his usual long black, Mummy had cappucino (again?!?!?!).

Handsome handsome!

Went home. Mummy wanted to learn how to play Sequence.I SWEAR MY PARENTS ARE THE FIERCEST PLAYERS I'VE EVER PLAYED WITH. How can they pick this game up so fast and everything else so slow?!

Mummy cooked dinner. Didn't join them 'cos I was totally not hungry.



Sunday. BIG WEEKEND, YO! I was barely awake, I tell you. True enough, the shower woke me up. But that only lasted till I drove to church at Curtin. The moment I reached Curtin, everything started to slow down. And when service was about to start, I walked down the steps half awake and the next thing I knew, I was falling. I practically slided down a few steps. And, if you want to know, the blue blacks have now turned green. I also had four skin tear parts. They're healing already.

Josh Moyo was as impactful as ever. Talked about Luke 13:10-16. How God is a personal God and is willing to stop ANYTHING just to get personal with you. Uh huh. I didn't manage to sit through the whole service, though. Had to leave halfway through the service and prepare refreshments.

WA LAO THE REFRESHMENTS WERE DAMN GENG MAN! Muffins (big AND mini), cookies, savoury tarts (you should see Genesis' reactions when he tried the tart I took for him), sandwiches, jellies, brownies AND MORE. Oooh man.

Lunch was at Spencer Village. Beef brisket noodles. Couldn't finish haha Henry (Francis' brother) helped me finish. Iced coffee bubble tea. Oh yeah! =D

After lunch, drove down to City to pick my parents up. On the way, there was this stretch of Manning Road I raced with Eufei. Manual car still rocks my socks haha!

Parents got in the car with a huge surprise. They got a purchase that I've been dying to purchase since I moved into Nedlands. Not telling what it is yet haha.

Later that night, parents wanted to go to Subiaco's Han's again for dinner. Off we went!

Jack Daniels with coke. Premixed. I'd say. It's nothing special BUT the feeling was ultimate shiok. Not the high (I didn't get high, not on this 6% drink), but the feel of Jack Daniels.

Daddy's pork chop rice.

Mummy's green curry chicken with rice.

My V.N. beef noodles. Oooh I loved them!

Mummy drove us home 'cos I drank. I'll never let Mummy drive my car again. Either she drive without me in the car (so I won't know the degree of damage she's done to my engine) or not at all.



Monday. School's started. But after my first lecture (8-9am), I went home and slacked around for a bit. When Mummy left home for line (not lion) dancing at around 10am, Daddy and I followed her to Broadway. Why? 'Cos we wanted some Father-Daughter bonding. And what better than having it over coffee?

Daddy had mocha muffin with long black while I had chicken and avocado toastie with macchiato. THAT was where I found my perfect blend of coffee. Not too much milk (just a small stain), but still enough to make its presence felt. Despite the wrong use of cup (a glass should have been used instead), the coffee was still SUPERB. Strong and smooth. Awesome.

Handsome Daddy with his mocha muffin and long black. The muffin was really great even though it wasn't my preferred version (yep, if you didn't know, muffins don't come in one type of texture). The caffeine taste. *drools*


Obviously I finished these as well haha I just love to leave the best for the last =P. As you can tell, these picture qualities are not say very good 'cos I forgot to bring my memory card out for my camera =_=.

I went for my microeconomics tutorial (12-1pm), came back, and drove Daddy to the airport with Mummy. Off Daddy went. Back to home sweet home Singapore. =)



School's been boring. Monotonous. So nothing to talk about. Haha!



signing off~DE XIN

4 comments:

alphadelt said...

Whoa. Looking at your blog makes me feel very, very full. I feel like I went through like, an eight course meal. Lol.

De Xin said...

You're like the total opposite! Everyone says they get hungry after reading my blog! Lol.

the ooodz said...

de xinnnnnn! i so totally agree with you. i am DAMN hungry and super duper ooper craving for like.coffee and cake and ice cream after reading ur blog! your blog is EVILLLLLLL!

and i miss u. hahahaa.

De Xin said...

the ooodz - THE COFFEE HERE IS SO GOOD LA! I reckon even the ones I make too haha. But if I ever have an espresso machine, it'll be PERFECT =P

I miss you and everyone back home!!!