Signs - Say cheese!

Two different signs (taken in separate visits) from a cheese shop in the Swan Valley, a beautiful area about 25 min drive from Perth's city centre and 10 min from Perth's Domestic airport.
It's a region popular with tourists and locals alike, known for its award-winning wineries, boutique breweries, food, art galleries, heritage buildings, beautiful scenery ... and chocolates.

More signs at Signs, signs.

The Cheese Barrel in the Swan Valley

Inside the Cheese Barrel

Monday Mural - Native Birds and flowers I

As I had mentioned on my post February - odds and ends, this is the mural I spotted on the way home from the beach after the Codfish Academy picnic on the 3rd February.
It's on the wall of a recently opened small shopping centre in the southern suburb of Beeliar (city of Cockburn) at 283 Beeliar Drive.
Painted by talented Perth artist Brenton See, who loves to paint native birds and flowers, the mural is on the side and front of the building.

There will be 2 more murals from Brenton See in the coming weeks.

If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you: just follow the Linky steps below.   

Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow mural bloggers.  Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  Thanks, Sami. 

Saturday Critters - Pelicans

A few photos of Australian Pelicans which can be seen on the Swan River in Perth.

 

And this one on top of a street lamp on Canning Highway, not far from the Swan River.
For more Saturday Critters from around the world check Eileen's blog.
Have a great weekend.

My February Wrap-up

After all my posts about our trip to the Philippines to attend our daughter's wedding, I'm back to the present days.

Every month I look through the Event calendar of my local library in Riverton to see if there are any talks/workshops that might interest me. 
They are good to meet people, to occupy any spare time I might have and I always learn something.

On Saturday 2nd of February I attended a workshop entitled "Roar with Passion - how to bring back the joy" by Natalie Martinovich.  She's a life coach and the talk was very interesting and inspiring. Sadly life coaching sessions are very expensive... Has anyone had some coaching and did it help with your job or life situation?

The modern looking Riverton Library and a mural at far end (top photo)

The library where I hadn't been for over 1 year had been remodeled and was light and fabulous. The former counter is no longer there and now the staff work from standing stations, there are lots of comfy sofas, an outdoor courtyard, and even a mural!

In the afternoon I took out my paint brush and Chalk paint and painted the chest of drawers and bedside tables in my bedroom. 
I just painted the outer area and left the drawers unpainted and top unpainted. I still need to paint the mirror frame and will eventually decide if I leave it as is or if I paint one drawer for example or all drawers...



On Sunday 3rd I joined a few Portuguese friends for a picnic organized by the Codfish Academy of Perth on a park by the beach near Fremantle and on the way home spotted a new mural by Brenton See (coming next Monday). Can't believe I didn't take photos...

On Tuesday 5th, after work I joined fellow blogger Iris and husband Ingo  in the city.
They are in Perth visiting from Braunschweig, the town where we lived during almost 6 years in the early 1980's. After lunch at Grill'd we took a free Cat (central area transport) bus to Queens Gardens. 

Queens Gardens - trees, flowers, Peter Pan statue, the bench from the film "Notting Hill" and a bridge over a lake 

From the park we walked over the Matagarup pedestrian Bridge to the new Perth Stadium area.

Matagarup Bridge and Perth Stadium

On the other side of the Canning River, the Burswood Casino and hotel (white building) and the Crown Towers Hotel

The Stadium and bridge across the Swan river, a new cement seating area on the bridge and black swans frolicking 

  At The Camfield across the Stadium we enjoyed a drink and chatted in the outdoor area. 
Later we walked to the nearby residential area of East Perth and caught the Cat bus back to the city and caught a train back home. 

The Camfield Bar

On my day off work, Friday 8th February, I picked up Gill, a retired ex-colleague and we drove south to Dudley Park, a suburb of Mandurah (about 60km away) to visit Jan, another retired ex-colleague who moved there. 

After having coffee at a small coffee shop near the canals we returned to her house for lunch.

My colleague Gill also mentioned other Brenton See murals near her house which I photographed after I dropped her home.

Art in a park, beautiful flowers and iced chocolate at the coffee shop by the river

Dudley Park cottages, Man-made canals running through Mandurah

In the early evening upon my return home and after a change of clothes, I drove to Bull Creek station where I left my car, and took the 10 minute train trip into the city centre where I met up with bloggers Iris and Grace and their husbands.

We had dinner at the Twilight Hawkers Market in Forrest Place (every Friday until end of March). 

At Brookfield Place in St George's Terrace, we came across various Chinese dragons for the commemoration of Chinese New Year.

We had coffee at the Dome Cafe across the Old Perth Boys School, where the pink and purple dragon stood.

Various Chinese dragons at Brookfield Place and a beautifully decorated piano for the players out there

After coffee we walked to Kings Park to watch the "Boorna Waaginy" - the trees speak festival that ran continuously from 8 to 11pm.

Some of Perth's buildings at dusk on our way to Kings Park

On the bridge over the Kwinana Freeway that runs from the Southern to Northern suburbs

In Kings Park, through a 1,5km journey from Fraser Avenue and ending with a light installation at Pioneer's Women's Memorial, projectors transformed the trees and told the Noongar stories with the blooming of flowers, flocks of birds, bush fires, rain, the people, bush animals...

Very emotional, colourful and truly magnificent!

The finale - light installation at the Pioneer's Womens's memorial

It was the first time I visited Kings Park (Botanic Gardens) at night, and I took the opportunity to take some night photos of our beautiful city.

On Saturday 9th, I joined my son, daughter in law and grandson at Kwinana Adventure Park (Walgreen Crescent, Calista) about 20 minutes south from where I live.
I had never heard of the park, but the sign at the entrance declared it Australia's best park!
I don't know all parks, but this massive fenced adventure playground was certainly fabulous for kids and adults.
It has a water splash area, flying fox, tree walk, slides, swings, and lots of other things to keep kids busy for a few hours. It also has lots of shade with plenty of trees, and we enjoyed a picnic with food my daughter in law had taken. 
There is also a covered area that can be rented for parties with fridge, microwave, gas barbecue, tables and benches.

Kwinana Adventure Park - Australia's best park - the gated entrance, pelican statues over the water playground

My grandson walking in the water playground

Saturday 16th, Grace, Iris and partners came to lunch at my house.

In the evening I joined my ex-colleague Gill at the movies to watch "Green Book". We both loved the film and the story line.

On Sunday 17th, I once again took the train into the city to join Iris and Grace for the Lunar New Year Lantern festival in the suburb of Northbridge.

I spotted this big 3 sign that had popped up in the last week or so. Not sure what it's about but just today I saw an advert on tv about the MSWA 3 million grand prize lottery, (Multiple Sclerosis Society of Western Australia) and it had that 3 sign.

The festival on the closed off William Street in the Chinese Quarter was full of colour, and lots of young kids enjoying themselves on the street.

Check out the people relaxing on chairs scattered on the street (bottom left) and the young Mom pushing a vintage pram (bottom right)

After an early dinner with delicious burgers at Grill'd, we walked back to the Perth Underground Station where we bade our goodbyes as I boarded the train to the southern suburbs and Iris, Grace and partners went north.

PS: Sorry for the overload of photos, and you might have seen similar photos in Grace's and Iris's recent blog posts already 😉😉.

Monday Mural - Panglao Airport (Philippines)

After we sat down in the waiting lounge of the new Bohol-Panglao International Airport, (inaugurated on 27 Nov 2018) waiting for the call to board the tiny Cessna Caravan that would take us to Mactan Island, I turned around and was surprised to find the back wall covered in a fantastic mural depicting the touristic highlights of the area - beautiful nature, the wide eyed tarsier, Chocolate Hills, island hopping tours to see dolphins, the Baclayon Church and Church of our Lady of the Immaculate Conception...

If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you: just follow the Linky steps below.   

Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow mural bloggers.  Looking forward to your mural finds this week.  

Thanks, Sami. 

The murals on the back wall of the waiting lounge at Panglao-Bohol International airport

On the walls of the lounge next to ours there was another mural, but to get the whole wall the partitions were in the way... This one depicted the new airport, the sea, church, Chocolate hills, resorts, the tarsiers, turtles and the whale sharks.

 

Returning home - Singapore to Perth

Friday, 21 December/ Saturday, 22 December 2018

We landed in Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 4 at 8,30 pm and on exiting the plane were surprised by a nice garden and a "heart tree".

Heart Tree Sculpture at Terminal 4

After coming down an escalator a stewardess asked passengers if they had connecting flights and where to. She checked our ticket, gaves us a T2 sticker to put on our clothes, and we were told to go to a small lounge on the side, and get on the next bus that would take us to Terminal 2 and in Terminal 2 take the skytrain to Terminal 1.

Singapore Airport terminals (photo from net)

The bus took a route outside the Airport but deposited us in front of a back door to Terminal 2. From here we boarded the skytrain to Terminal 1.

Out of the bus into Terminal 2

We walked until we found an Information counter as we didn't have boarding passes for our flight. The lady asked if we had arrived via a Low cost flight (yes) and she told us we would have to exit the terminal via passport control and re-enter and go through security!

We weren't happy, so she directed us to a Qantas counter nearby and we were asked the same question. We told the lady we had been directed to Terminal 2 and 1 by a staff member at Terminal 4 who even gave us a T2 sticker, so we were obviously upset at the wrong information in Terminal 4, and at having wasted so much time and the possibility we might even miss the flight if we had to exit and re-enter.

She was adamant that she couldn't give us our boarding passes as it was the Singapore Airport policy that all passengers coming in from Terminal 4 on low cost flights would have to go through passport control and security! Damn low cost flights!!!

It had taken us 1 hour to get to this point and Jose was furious saying he would never fly via Singapore Airport again!
While we walked to Passport control at high speed I would stop to take some photos along the way and then run to catch up to Jose.

Singapore Rose heart, and Christmas sculptures

In terminal 2, this interactive "Enchanted Garden" comprises 4 giant glass topped bouquet sculptures decorated with mosaics and stained glass. Within the bouquets are a variety of fresh flowers and ferns. It comes to life with sound when you weave through it.

A bouquet of flowers among the palm trees at Terminal 2

Before Passport control we had to fill in an Exit form, but we weren't leaving the airport, so we explained the situation and the officer was quite understanding and directed us to where we should exit and then re-enter the airport at Terminal 1.

Back in Terminal 1 by the Qantas counters a staff member tried helping us get our boarding pass in one of the electronic machines. It wouldn't accept Jose's details saying he didn't have a booking, ggrrrr... My details were accepted, but we told the lady it would be better if we queued and got our passes together or otherwise we might not sit together.
After about 20 minutes we finally got attended and given our boarding passes and we rushed to our departure lounge.


Even though there were wi-fi areas in the lounge and along the way I didn't manage to connect as it asked for my Passport number and an identity number, which I didn't know what it was. I later learned that at the Information counter and at specific points you can get a password to log in valid for 3 hours.

The Kinetic Rain sculpture, made of 1216 bronze droplets measures 9,8mt by 4mt.
The sculpture can form 16 different shapes through slow movements travelling a maximum distance of 7,3mt from the ceiling to the lowest point of the pattern.

Kinetic Rain at Terminal 1

About 20 minutes after arriving at the departure lounge at 11,30pm we boarded the Boeing
 737 to Perth! 
Oh, what luxury - comfortable seats, a pillow, blanket, dinner and entertainment.... But not all was 100%, unfortunately my TV didn't work and would switch off a few seconds after my movie started! After a few tries, I gave up and went to sleep.

Flying over Rottnest Island near Perth

Five hours later we landed at Perth International Airport at 5am, and because we just had hand luggage were almost the first people out the door. A few taxis awaited and we caught a taxi home.
It was quite hot already and the driver informed us that it was already 28C (82F)at 5am and the maximum temperature would go up to 40C (104F).

Finally home, we unpacked, put clothes in the washing machine and went to be for a few more hours to recover from the overnight flight.

A couple of days later we were talking about laptops and Jose went to get his laptop which he thought was in the bedroom. It wasn't, and he started retracing his steps and try to remember when he had last seen it - on the flight to Perth!!

I searched for the Lost Property phone number at Perth Airport, he called them and after having to describe the laptop with many details I wouldn't have noticed for sure, the man told him to collect it the next day. We were relieved!

And with just two days to prepare for Christmas lunch at our place, there was lots to be done - shopping, wrap presents, clean the house...

And I still want to visit Singapore, it's on my bucket list, and I'm sure Jose will come too even though he was so upset with the bad experience we had at Changi Airport.
The airport itself is beautiful, has so many beautiful sculptures, gardens, etc so it's an experience within Singapore too.
Have you had any bad airport experiences?