Flew back to Singapore on Qantas.  Was happy that there was in-flight entertainment on demand.  Was not happy that the system wasn’t functioning properly.  Couldn’t watch anything till 2 hours after take off.  Caught only one movie.  What a rip off !

Perth Skyline

Botanic Gardens & War Memorial

Drove down to Hillary’s Boat Harbour, where the Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA) is located.  A bit pricey at AUD23.50 per adult, but the exhibits were excellent.  Singapore should build a world class underwater world like this.

We also had fun feeding seagulls leftover breakfast.

Drove to Freemantle today.  Visited the market and then the harbour.  Apart from that there wasn’t much to see.

Then it was shopping - mainly for baby clothes at the Harbourcity factory outlet - followed by a Thai dinner at a restaurant that had been imaginatively named the Thailand Restaurant. 

The food wasn’t fantastic, and the service sucked.  We ordered a Tom Yum soup which was listed at AUD 6.95 on the menu, but were billed AUD17.95 instead.  Shocked, we queried the manageress, who said that they had prepared a bigger bowl of soup as there were two persons.  My retort was that AUD17.95 soup did not exist on the menu, that we did not ask for a two person serving, that we had asked for the AUD6.95 soup, and that the restaurant should have told us that they have brought out a bigger bowl of soup.  Her reply was that we should have rejected the bigger bowl when the waitress brought it out (and how am I supposed to know what’s a big or small bowl since I wasn’t informed of this, the menu didn’t list it, and I had never eaten there before ?).  Joyce and I weren’t in the mood for quarrelling, and since we could afford the AUD11 anyway, we left without raising a ruckus.

Visited the Mammoth Caves before driving back to Perth today.

Mammoth Cave

Outside the Cave

Stopover at Bunsbury

From Augusta, we drove down to the Jewel Cave, before returning to our hotel at Margaret River.

Coast off Augusta

Inside the Jewel Cave

Outside the Jewel Cave

Leeuwen Winery

(It’s whites cost AUD75 and above !)

Lavender Farm

We drove South to Augusta today to where we went on a whale watching tour. 

Unfortunately it was impossible to take decent pictures on the rough seas (Joyce it is time to buy the digital SLR camera which has better zoom, and faster auto-focus and shutter speed), but here are a couple of them anyway.

After whale-watching, we drove down to the Cape Leeuwen lighthouse.  As you can tell by the number of pictures below, I’m quite fascinated by lighthouses.  Reason : this is the first time I’ve seen a real one.

The lighthouse stands at where the Southern meets the Indian Ocean (bottom right picture).

Joyce has pretty much recovered.  So today we visited the Lake Cave and took some pretty pictures of the underground cave.

(Inside the Cave)

(Outside the Cave)

Then we visited the Sunflower Animal Farm.

There we got to know a cute kid called Bunning, and his pony Buttle.  

We also visited another farm which grew kiwis.  Being suaku Singaporeans who had never seen kiwi plants (trees ?) before, we walked around in circles before we finally found the kiwi orchard (which, as it turned out, was right in front of us !).  Some pictures of the kiwi orchard, in case like us you haven’t seen one before !

Joyce prides herself in what she considers an unerring sense of direction (which I dispute).  On this trip, she’s been leading us in all the wrong directions, today nearly getting us lost on the farm.  I have politely attributed this to short term memory loss which is apparently one of the other woes associated with pregnancy.

Today I drove some 250+ km from Perth to Margaret River.  It suddenly rained while I was on my way to pick up the car, and I got drenched, but this was compensated by a magnificent rainbow which appeared after the rain.

“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come.  I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.  Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and all living creatures of every kind.  Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.  Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth’.” (Genesis 9 : 12 – 16)

Read Zechariah 4 today.  At verse 10, God asks "who despises the day of small things ?", encouraging the Israelites through the prophet Zecharaish not to lose heart despite their small size and seemingly insurmountable difficulties.  It brought back memories of my previous church, where people would frequently encourage each other with the words "do not despie the day of small beginnings".  Whether it was more prophetic or feel-good, till today I don’t know.