The weekends are here!!!

The weekends are here!!!

YAY!!!

So we got off to an early start. We explored more areas in and around the lodge and the city and also went to one of the many tourist attraction near the city (hey it’s a start, next week we are planning to go to the zoo, but we will see how our budget goes.) which is the Swan Bells, near the Swan river south of the city center.

[Brochure of the place went]

So we set off early, at about 10am in the morning. This time we decided not to take the bus to the city. Instead we tried to walk there. We wanted to explore the area between our lodge and the city itself. Surprisingly, it not that far (although its more practical to take the bus) and we reached the city soon enough.

[Perth City skyline as seen from outside our place of lodging]

We walked for a bit before deciding to take the CAT bus, red line.

We went to the shopping area and came across a chocolate and candy store. In there, they sells all sorts of high quality chocolates and sweets, to which unfortunately, it was very pricey. On the good news however, they do sell nougats in 1kg bags. In the bags were the smaller pieces of nougats individually wrapped. They sell in 500g and 1kb bags and they also sell bags of assorted nougats. I bought 100g of different kinds of nougats. They have the marooned, original crunchy one, the original soft one, apricot flavour soft, (yum yum), cappuccino crunchy and soft (yum yum yum yum!!) and green tea soft. I’ll take note of that shop, and buy a couple of kgs for you Hock and the rest of the peeps. I also came across Jawbreaker (if im not wrong) It’s the candy with a chewy center that was Benjamin’s brother’s one and Allen ate it without permission during one of those days at the bbq. So I guess ill buy one for Allen so that he can pay his brother back for eating his.

Then it was nearing afternoon, and were a little hungry. We came across a Lebanese stall, that sells halal food! I ATE RICE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 7 DAYS!! FINALLY!!
I ate this dish that has the kebab lamb meat served with salad and basmati rice, and sour cream to top it off. It was a big serving, I managed to finish it. It was quite nice I guess.

Then we saw this weird looking tower. Behold! It was the Swan Bells Tower. We went there and the entrance fee was 6 bucks. It was pricey, considering we just wanted to go up and the tower wasn’t that tall to begin with, but it had a nice view of the city as a whole, so we just gave it a shot.

[That’s the top of the tower. Funny how it looked almost like Wheelock’s place in Orchard, buts its much taller.]

The Swan Bells, is a thin pyramid shaped tower, made of glass on the exterior. It’s a prominent and distinctive structure that can be easily seen from many areas in the city. It features fascinating arrays of precision timepieces, bells and optical instruments the a time before the world went digital.

The Swan Bells include the twelve bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which have existed from before the 14th century and recast in the 16th century by Queen Elizabeth I. The bells were again recast between 1725 and 1770 by three generations of the Rudhall Family of bell founders from Gloucester in England. It is one of the worlds largest musical instruments, and it still rings to this day.

[Pieces of Exhibits]

There were exhibitions inside, mainly of clocks and bells. The bells has a historical significance that we were not familiar with, and it was part of the Millennium Project, commemorating the coming of the new millennium.

In the middle of the tower were the historical bells, and it rang a very nice tune to it every now and then. What’s best about it is that its old, and its ranged by real people itself. I doesn’t follow the timing or whatsoever. Rather it was ranged by a group of people and you can actually see it. Its really amazing.

[The bells in motion]

At the top of the tower is the observatory. One word: WOW! When we got all the way up, it was sooo windy that the tower actually shook. We can feel it and we had difficulty walking around due to the strong winds. But I managed to get lots of great pictures around the observatory.

[City skyline]

[The harbor and Swan River]

[Looking down the streets]

[Perth Convention center and busport]

After that we walked sommore and stumbled upon a comic shop along Hay Street, further to east. Inside it, they sell manga!! And I bought Death Note Volume 4. Sorry cant help it. Ive been reading till volume 3, and it ended in a cliffhanger ending, when I saw this, impulsiveness sets in and the price is great! Its slightly cheaper than in Singapore, after the conversion. So I bought it anyway. I’m gonna read it tonight.

Soon after that we went home, before going to the groceries to buy more stuff. Well that’s about it for today, I have to do my laundry.