Meows in Melaka: Part 1

 

Last Friday after a long day at work, I packed my bags and spent the night at Hannah's with Sophie. Because the next day would be our first out of state holiday together! Technically I have been out of state with Hannah before in Johor, but that was because she lived there. This would be our first adventure all five of us away from home, out of state. Quite surprising that this is the first time, considering we've been friends for more than a decade. 

Saturday morning dawned and we were up bright and early to head out. Forgot to grab a photo after Nad got into the car too. This was my very first time driving out of the Klang Valley, and I was keen to test my Kiwi green car on the highway. We stuffed five of us and five overnight bags in the trunk. I think if we stayed an extra night, we wouldn't have been able to fit everything. 

The drive took about two hours, with clear roads. We made only one stop on the way, and I felt some strange glee in making my very first road trip pit stop.

Our first stop was at Klebang Original Coconut Shake. I've heard a lot about this place, and it was definitely high on my must try list. Especially since Aidil's recommendation was so good (she has dreams about this place). We were the second group of people to arrive at 10.30am, to realise that the restaurant only opens at 11am. By the time they started selling, the place was really filling up. I bought myself a packet of mihun goreng with fried chicken, and some assorted kuih. But the highlight was definitely the coconut shake special. Every mouthful was filled with sweet, milky goodness and a generous helping of crunchy coconut flesh. So delicious, we decided there and then to visit again the next day.

After that tasty brunch, it was another twenty minute drive into Melaka town itself. The last time I had visited the town proper was when I was very young - Hanna was still a baby at the time and we had stayed in Equatorial. Atuk had taken me up St. Paul's Hill and we had looked at some museums in red buildings. This time around in the blistering heat, nobody was keen to make the trek up the hill. So we visited the Muzium Samudera instead. 

My memory of it is very different - mostly due to my smaller size back then. It was nice to revisit and look at the exhibits as an adult. 

We went to check in at the hotel after this, but at 1.50pm, we were too early for the 3pm check-in time. So we decided to look for lunch instead! Yet another popular food spot, Ee Ji Ban serves up the best halal chicken rice balls in town, so I've heard. The restaurant was very crowded, but we didn't wait very long. Our choice dishes for the day were half of a roasted chicken, 25 chicken rice balls and stir fried kailan. Everything was delicious! We scraped every plate clean. Just writing this now is making me hungry - the thought of those succulent chicken pieces and the juicy mouthfuls of rice. The kailan was also incredibly tasty. Would definitely love to come back here again.

After lunch, we found ourselves on Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, just behind Jonker Walk. It was by chance that we stumbled across the Tham Siew Inn Artist Gallery. Tham Siew Inn is a KL-born watercolour artist, and here you will find his paintings and workshop. You can even purchase postcards, prints and originals by the artist too. Definitely worth a look in - I loved browsing through his collection. In the end, I couldn't resist purchasing some postcards, seen above.

We weren't quite done with Day One yet! Will post the next installment to our adventure soon. 

December Flashback: Hello, Georgetown

Day two of our family vacation dawned damp and gloomy. Ipoh was still as empty as the day before, but the hotel itself was packed to the brim. The breakfast buffet was crowded with people looking for a place to sit, and even going up and down on the elevators took a while with the high volume of passengers.

Finally, we were on the road again. Winding through the mountains, into the tunnel and out again; a drive flanked by misty greenery, guided by Waze. I was the navigator of the journey while Mama drove. We decided against taking our usual route through the Penang Bridge or ferry, instead opting for the newly constructed second bridge, or the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge. The highway here was near empty, and the weather set a dramatic entry into Penang Island. It was definitely a beautiful drive. 

We met Papa at Hotel Penaga, which is becoming our usual Georgetown destination. You can read about my experience there last year here at WeekendNotes. The hotel hasn't changed, and we enjoyed the stay as much as we did the year before. While waiting to check in, we had lunch first at the mamak shop across the street. The maggi goreng there was superb! It has to be one of the best I have ever tasted anywhere. Even better when you order it with the ayam goreng - they chop it up and mix it together with the noodles. The mee goreng mamak here is delicious as well.

We spent the afternoon wandering through the busy Georgetown streets. The main roads were pretty busy, and when we walked past the Pasar Chowrasta, there was a cendol stall there singing out to us. I have a weakness for cendol pulut, and this really hit the spot. I even ate some of the red beans, even though I don't like red beans.

Even though we have been visiting Penang every year for half a decade, we've never actually explored Georgetown. Our previous visits were always to Batu Ferringhi, for the sun and sand. So this year's trip was really something else. Papa led us through the streets and old shoplots until we got to Lebuh Armenian, known for being the town's arts hub. I 

I found this down an alley. This city is ridiculously photogenic, and I thoroughly enjoyed snapping photos throughout the holiday. Helps that I had just gotten my new phone a few weeks back (Motorola Moto G2 whoo!). However, it started to rain while we were on Armenian, so we ended up buying umbrellas from some street vendors. Seriously laku for them, man! I was particularly fascinated by one girl who was manning stall - when we asked her for the price of a brolly, she turned to her grandfather sitting in the shade and asked him in Mandarin. He replied in Hokkien. This went on for a minute or so, her in Mandarin and him in Hokkien, before we got the price. So we trudged back to the hotel while huddling under the three umbrellas we managed to buy.

Later in the evening, the sisters and I went out to explore some more. We ended up in a mall called First Avenue, where we spent the rest of the evening eating sushi and wandering around. By the time we got back to the hotel, the parents and Nazim had already eaten dinner. So we walked down a block to find food at a Thai restaurant. I ordered the cantonese kuey teow, which was AMAZING. The kuey teow was wrapped in a fluffy egg, sitting pretty in a pool of delicious sauce. I feel hungry just thinking about it.

Ah, Penang! Land of food galore!

December Flashback: Bermalam di Ipoh

I've decided to revisit my adventures in December last month! Yes, I haven't been blogging often, but after reading through some of my old posts, I really want to document things that happen in my life for the benefit of Future!Me and her sentimental side. 

December was a very busy month, work-wise. I won't go into details about work, but it was nice to have the holiday to look forward to while I was in the thick of things. I took a half day on the Friday before Christmas week to do something I've wanted to for years: Watch Mamma Mia! the musical. The rest of the family had their chance for this ages ago when I first left for NS. To have my ticket burnt because of bad timing! I remember how disappointed I was then. So when I heard that they would be showing again this year, I jumped at the chance.

It was a good show, though Mama and the sisters agreed that the one they saw before was much better. As I have nothing to compare to, I thought it was alright. What bothered me was the crowd of families around me with kids in tow, saying things like, "This musical isn't meant for children!" 

Well ... it's no surprise? Who told you to bring your kids along to a show about a girl whose father could be any one of three people? :/ 

The next day, Mama, the kids and I piled into the car for a road trip to Ipoh. Mama was having her high school reunion at a hotel called Tower Regency, so we decided to stay the night before heading to Penang to meet Papa (who was there to see a bike race). The journey was uneventful, and we arrived at the hotel with time to spare. 

As a first-timer in Ipoh town, all I can say is that it feels remarkably laid back. Granted, it was a Saturday ... but the streets were kind of empty, and there was a sleepy, wispy quality to the air. Hanna and I went exploring around the hotel, but all efforts to get to the rooftop proved futile. We got a great view from the top floor though; Ipoh is a strangely flat town, surrounded by mountains and rock formations. The view was beautiful. I would love to go hiking in those mountains one day.

While Mama was at her reunion, the kids and I met Mira's friend BK. We ended up having lunch at New Hollywood, which is one of those corner lot hawker-restaurants just a few minutes drive away from the hotel. BK was our official tour guide for the day.

Each of us ordered a plate of char kuey teow each, and I have to say that it was one of the best I've ever tasted. The lovely charred flavour, accompanied by juicy prawns; heaven in my mouth.

I even made a little friend while we were there. This pretty kitty plopped herself down underneath my chair and shared my shoe by placing her paw in it. She seemed healthy and well-fed. She didn't even ask for any food, I think she was just looking for company.

After lunch, we went out looking for desserts. Apparently, one of Ipoh's oldest ice cream shops is just a short walk away from the hotel. Crazy Ice Cream & Salad House has been around since the 90s, serving ... exactly what they advertise. Haha. They also have Western food on the menu, but we were only there for their homemade ice creams. The one pictured above is a banana split. I love how they included a few spoonfuls of cereal at the bottom of the dish - a nice surprise while you're digging in.

Nothing much happened afterwards. We couldn't swim in the pool because it was too crowded, and dinner at Maria's Steak House was nice though not very memorable. Mira and I were in a separate room so we spent the night watching the Suzuki Cup finals. Such a close game! Pity we didn't win, but good effort from everyone on the team. So that was the end of Day One. For the next post, I'll go into our Georgetown adventure - definitely a fun trip!

Team Trip to the Cove

It's hard to believe that two years ago this month, I first started working life. Graduation was more than two years ago, can you believe it? I'm amazed at how much time has gone by, and how it has managed to feel brief as well as incredibly long. 

The past couple of months have been particularly busy, and I've definitely had my fair share of challenges during that time frame. But 2015 has arrived with a host of changes in tow. Insya'allah it will be a good year. The month started out quite packed. Lots of things to do at work, among which was planning for our annual team retreat.

Our team is slightly bigger this year, and the fact that the rain stopped on Day 2 prior to our outdoor team building made this trip 100% more fun than last year's! I'm quite proud of how it went. We spent a night at Avillion Admiral Cove, which is a relatively comfortable hotel nestled beside a marina club. 

We got a nice and spacious meeting room until 10pm - amazing, considering other hotels usually only offer their meeting rooms for office hours. The actual hotel rooms were clean and spacious, though many of us had issues with changing the channel of the TV while we were there. It's like the hotel wants us to only watch the news channel all day. Haha!

Food was good as well. This was the first time that I've ever found crabs served in a buffet. And I loved their creamy soups and buns. Delicious.

I kinda wish that we could have spent an extra night. This felt really short, though I did enjoy it immensely. It also helps that I've got a great team to work with. The 'Tough Nation' team building course we joined for Day 2 was really fun, reminding me of my days back in prefect's camp. I'm blessed to have had the opportunity to experience this kind of thing so many times in my life, from prefect's camp to national service and team offsites. Hope to be able to plan another great retreat for next year!

Big City Melbourne: Travel Time

Now I've talked about graduation, let's roll backwards a few days to the family trip to Melbourne. They reached the city at about 9am, while I boarded the plane from Adelaide at 9.30am. I bumped into my former classmate Haikal and his girlfriend at the airport, which was a pleasant surprise. Nick saw me off at the bus stop in Adelaide, and off I was onto my second ever solo flight. 

There were no complications at all for me; reached the airport with time to spare, checked in, got on the flight, landed in about an hour. It was a pretty shaky flight though, and I felt like puking a few times but it was bearable. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we could watch TV channels on the in-flight screens, so I wasn't bored. I caught a SkyBus from the airport into the city, which took about 20 minutes. 

My destination was supposed to be Medina Executive in South Yarra - I found the train heading there with three minutes to spare, so I sprinted across the train station, backpack and carry-on luggage in tow.  The train ride was another ten minutes, and I had to find an information counter to find out how to get to the hotel. It was further than I expected. I walked, and walked, and walked and walked, and just as I wondered if I was even going in the right direction, I found it!

At this point: Good news, I found the apartment. Bad news, the family wasn't there. I called Papa and he said they were at a place called Lord of the Fries on Chapel Street. I asked for directions. He said, turn left out of the hotel, then left at the main road, turn onto Chapel Street and walk and walk and walk until you wanna die.

I thought he was being overly dramatic. Oh, how wrong I was. 

The walk there took me about a half hour. By that time, my lousy Rubi shoes were falling apart, and I vowed never to spend more than $5 on a pair of Rubi shoes ever again. I didn't feel like dying yet - just really hungry. I hadn't had anything but two breakfast bars since I woke up. Finally, Mira and Hanna came barreling into me, signaling the end of my very long transit from Adelaide to my family. 

Lord of the Fries was really good! I had a chicken burger. It wasn't until the next day that we realised that everything there is vegetarian. Even then, Mama wouldn't believe me when I told her. Haha! This was one of the highlights of the Melbourne trip. After lunch the kids and I got Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I got the chunky monkey, banana flavoured ice cream with chopped walnuts and chocolate chunks. It was really good. Then we visited Papa's friend, Melvin's office. That was pretty cool - he designs cases and covers for phones and tablets. 

When we headed back to the apartment, I was introduced to Goldie, the fish who lives on the reception counter. He has his very own name tag. The apartment we got was really nice and cosy. I wrote about it here on WeekendNotes. 

The rest of the day wasn't very eventful. We tried to get used to the public transport, but I prefer Adelaide's much more. We went to Harbourtown but Mama got hungry, so we tried a Malaysian restaurant on Lonsdale St called Madam Kay's Platz Cafe, which was surprisingly good! I wrote about it on WeekendNotes as well. Click here to read. :3 It was the best cantonese kuey teow I've had in Australia so far.

The rest of the first day was pretty much just hanging around the apartment, watching horror movies.This post is getting kinda long, so I'll save days two and three for another post. 

4-Day November Adventure: More Australian Wildlife

This is a continuation of my 4-Day November Adventure blog post series! Here is Part One and Part Two. 

Following the mournful loss of my glasses, we headed off to Parndana Wildlife Park, where we got to see more Australian wildlife (again). I've said this before and I'll say it again: I've petted more kangaroos than I've seen cats here. And I also remember Azhar asking why are we constantly going out and looking at animals here before on one of my Facebook albums, haha. Anyway, the wildlife park here was pretty tiny compared to the others I've been to. The first thing we noticed were the peacocks strutting about in front of us. As we got nearer, they went berserk and flew up onto the roof of the koala enclosure, shrieking awfully at us. I swear, the way the noise they were making sounded a lot like "HELP!"

We found this little creature - a bush-tailed possum - curled up in a box at the front of its enclosure. I feel like it was scared stiff of us, though I'm not sure why it didn't hide in the back where there was so many more sheltered hollows for it to huddle into. I wish I could have cuddled it all better.

In comparison, this fellow was ridiculously happy to have our attention. I love how he always looked like he was beaming up at us. Beautiful dog, although it was kind of dusty looking. I'm not surprised though, with the amount of sand and dust swirling around in the dry heat. We stayed around keeping it company for a while before we followed the rest of the tour group, who were feeding kangaroos.

Speaking of kangaroos, we found some albino ones at the park! I've never seen an albino kangaroo in real life before this ... I used to read about one when I was little, and I never thought I would ever see a living, breathing one. This one was hopping around the enclosure, being followed by the large male right behind it. Ahem. She wasn't the only albino; there were about two more, lazing around in the shade of the trees though I couldn't get a picture of them. This picture is a screencap from Nick's video camera.

So we went to feed some kangaroos. This must be my fifth time doing so since I started studying in Adelaide, haha. The kangaroos on Kangaroo Island are different though. Compared to normal Grey Kangaroos on the mainland, their fur is darker, and the base of their tails is thicker than their mainland cousins. I was only feeding one of these guys to begin with, before the other two came over hoping for some snacks as well. I didn't even intend to feed them (too much trouble to go find a place to wash off the roo saliva) but the handler gave me some feed and I couldn't just leave them hanging, haha.

This one seemed to appreciate me sticking around very much. Hahaha.

After walking around the park, we went to the gift shop. I think my eyes popped out when I saw everybody crowding around a person cradling a little fuzzy joey in her arms. Everybody was allowed a turn in carrying her, and I was so amazingly happy when I got to hold her. The joey is eight months old, orphaned and bottle fed four times a day. Her name is Molly, and she's absolutely adorable. She seemed bored by everybody though - while I was holding her, she went and started licking her itty bitty paws, like she felt she had better things to do than be carried around. Ahhhh, what a high. 

Our last stop for the day was KI Spirits, a quaint little brewery on the way back to Penneshaw. Of course, I didn't sample any of their wares but I took a quick sniff of the flavours that Sammie tried out, and it's all pretty interesting. They had flavours like honey and walnut, as well as strawberries and vanilla. It was a nice little place right in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by dry, scrubby grass and eucalyptus trees.

For dinner, we went back to Penneshaw and the hosts got us a whole lot of pizza. We sat around on the grass, watching blue wrens and fairy wrens flitting about. The gulls were kind of a given, hanging around and watching us hungrily, squabbling amongst each other over their 'territories' around where we were on the grass. When we accidentally dropped morsels off our pizzas, they came up hesitantly, snatching up the food when they felt that we weren't paying attention. 

They started to fight over a piece of dropped pizza, and some magpies swooped in and chased them off, grabbing the pizza for themselves. Tyson managed to rip up some of the pizza pieces, as it was too big for them. Even then, one of the gulls swallowed a large chunk whole, and there was a noticeable bulge in its throat. It was kind of worrying, haha.

We got on the ferry pretty satisfied with our day. We were tired and literally covered in sand. I had sand in my ears, and when we sneezed, sand would come out of our noses. Nick and I went onto the back deck of the ferry to take some last photos of the island. What a beautiful place, but also incredibly dry and empty. I loved how we could see right to the sand bed when I looked down into the water, a perfect shade of transparent teal. We didn't stay too long outside though. It was starting to get cold, and I could feel the wind nipping at my cardigan.

And even then the day wasn't quite over yet! I feel like God had one last thing up His sleeve for us, a perfect way to end the day - the cherry on our Kangaroo Island sundae.

Yes.

We were seated by the windows, Nick and I facing the back while Sammie faced the front because she had motion sickness. I had taken off my shades, so I was pretty much half-blind. Suddenly, mid-conversation, Sammie literally threw herself against the window and squealed, "DOLPHINS!"

Immediately, everyone turned to look out the window, and there it was, leaping through the waves right beside us. I think we were thrown into a frenzy; Nick reaching for his video camera and me reaching for my powered shades. By the time he had the camera out, the dolphin was gone, but we really couldn't give up hope. All three of us were as close to the window as we could get, and I think mine and Sammie's voices were two octaves higher than usual. And then it appeared again, shooting out of the water, once, twice, and it was gone.

Seriously, what a beautiful way to end the trip, Alhamdulillah. In that moment, I just felt so much happiness. The one day trip was perfect for us to see Kangaroo Island, even though we didn't get to see the Remarkable Rocks on the Western end of the island. We got to see so many beautiful things, and really I couldn't ask for anything more of the trip. 

4-Day November Adventure: Sights, Sea, Seals and Sand

I got about five hours of sleep after my last day of volunteering before I was up again to prepare for the Kangaroo Island day tour. We got really lucky with this one; the tour is the first of its kind, cheaper than the usual day tour prices in order to cater for the student crowd. Nick and I met Sammie at the Adelaide Central Bus Station at about 6.30 am so we could get on the bus headed for Cape Jervis, where we would take the ferry across the Backstairs Passage to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. 

The view on the way there was beautiful, just miles and miles of rolling hills, yellow-tinged grass and trees. We spotted a couple of wild kangaroos on the way there too, grazing in some long grass. We passed a couple of small towns, and there were loads of cows to be seen like little blobs on the landscape. We reached Cape Jervis after two hours in the bus, and the weather was pretty good. Not too sunny, with some cloud cover and a slight breeze.

The ferry ride was uneventful. We explored the decks and waited around hoping to see some dolphins. The guy who arranged the tour, Tyson said that there are usually some who follow the ferry as it moves through the water. No luck though, so we headed indoors to find some seats and buy something to snack on. The ride took about 45 minutes, and there was no reception to be had on our phones. Vodafone apparently has no coverage on the island, but Telstra and Optus do apparently. Kind of ridiculous, but oh well.

Once at our destination, we piled into a tour bus and set off with our driver, Glen giving us occasional snatches of information about the island. There used to be aborigines who lived there when it was connected to the mainland, but when the sea level rose about 2,000 years ago they moved away, leaving the island uninhabited until Matthew Flinders landed there in 1802. Now there's only about 4,500 people living there, and this place is way bigger than Singapore! 

Our first stop was Prospect Hill, which is the highest point of the island. We had to climb up a whole lot of steps to reach the top. It wasn't so bad even with the heat, but it was the sudden onslaught of crazy flies that kind of threw off our groove. I can't believe I just typed that. Moving on. The view from the top was spectacular! I could see green-blue seas in the distance, and we pretty much had a 360 degree view of the island. 

If you look closely at the picture above, you'll be able to just see our bus at the bottom right. Looks tiny from up there. After about five minutes admiring the view and battling the flies, we made our way back down the steps. The air-conditioning within the bus was a welcome relief to the dry heat outside. Once we were all settled in, we headed off on an hour's journey to the Seal Bay Conservation Park, famous for its basking Australian Sea Lions.

When we started our guided walk of the beach, Sammie, Nick and I stuck close to the guide so we could hear as much information as possible. We walked down this hill from the main entrance of the park, and it wasn't until we reached the platform leading to the beach that we saw all the sea lions scattered across the sand. We arrived just in time to watch as a sea lion swam right up to shore and dragged itself out of the water. I was so amazed by how close we were to these creatures, it was amazing. 

Suddenly, from behind us we heard this loud noise like a small, long drawn out horn. We turned around to see THE MOST ADORABLE LITTLE BABY IN THE UNIVERSE come waddling out towards us. We moved around to give it clear passage to the beach, as it had come right from underneath the wooden steps we had gone down earlier. It was so cute oh my god I was squeaking with happiness. 

The guide said that the baby was looking for its mother, and that would be why it kept making that strange honking noise (unglamorous way of describing it, but yeah). In that moment, as I watched the baby continue its awkward way down the sand, I knew that this trip was worth every single cent spent. Alhamdulillah, we were so lucky to have gotten the chance to see these creatures.

This fella was asleep underneath the platform when we headed back up to the main entrance. This is definitely the closest I will ever get to an Australian Sea Lion, and I'm happy I got a good shot of it snoozing away below us. It looks so cuddly.

After that, we headed straight for lunch at Vivonne Bay. The trip was kind of uninspiring, like the one to Seal Bay - nothing but scrubby bush, dry looking trees and lots of sand. I expected to have our meal by the seaside or something, but it was a sort of small resort place instead. The eating area was quite nice, and we all had DIY kebabs. It was quite tasty, and they served fruits as well, which was really nice. 

After lunch, we headed for Little Sahara, which is a series of sand dunes somewhere north of Vivonne Bay. The main tourist activity there? Sandboarding! We trudged up two hills of fine sand to reach a mammoth of a hill, where a mini sandstorm was swirling at the top. We had a bunch of boards to share between us, so we took it turns to climb to the top of the hill and sliding down. The climb was ridiculously difficult. Not only was it steep, but the wind was blowing like crazy, and sand was whipping straight into our faces. 

I waited at the bottom while Nick and Sammie went first. When Sammie arrived back at the bottom where I was, her entire face was dusted with sand, and her teeth and lips looked like she had been dipped into the stuff. First tip learnt that day; keep your lips pursed shut on the way down.

I went down twice, and both times it felt like agony getting to the top. Sliding down was fun, even though I didn't go as far as I hoped I would. By the end of the session, I was covered in sand. I'd scratch my head and it would snow around my shoulders, like very fine dandruff. I'm also sad to say that I lost my glasses somewhere around the dunes. I had hooked them to the front of my top, and when I got into the bus, they were gone. I was depressed for a while, but there was really nothing I could do but wait till I got back and put on the horrible old pair I wore here to Adelaide. Good thing it was sunny all day, so I could wear my powered shades without a problem.

That concludes part one of the Kangaroo Island tour! Stay tuned for part two. :)

The VH Adventure Part Four: Whale Tail and Journeying Home

This is the last post about the Victor Harbor Adventure! Here are Part One, Part Two and Part Three. This is definitely the most blogging I've done in months.

The last day at Victor Harbor dawned bright and sunny. It was the warmest day since we got there, which is a shame I guess. Just our luck, getting the coldest day the time we arrived. Nick, Sammie and I were the earliest risers, so we set about making eggs for breakfast; scrambled eggs with buttermilk. There was also some pancake mix left too, so we mixed that up with buttermilk as well. It was a pretty good breakfast.

We left around 10 am, as that was check-out time. We really didn't have to hurry, but I felt safer leaving at the time that we were told to, just in case somebody was supposed to move in on that day after us. I tried calling The Big Duck Boat Tours to see if I could book a last minute whale-watching tour, but they were fully-booked. :( Oh well. Maybe I'll see whales another time in the future, Insya'allah. 

As we really had no plans for the day, we just went to the playground, relived our childhoods and revisited the carnival area. No desserts this time though - everyone was a bit apprehensive of the ice-cream after Fyra's stomach aches the day before. 

Nigel wanted to try this hot dog stall near the whale tail fountain, where they sell German hot dogs. We hung around there for a while, watching kids playing in the fountain and gulls trying to coerce people into giving up their food. Sammie accidentally dripped some ketchup and mustard onto her pale purple jeans. Thus began a frenzy of Googling how to remove ketchup stains, haha! We went to Cafe Primo for lunch, and she cleaned up in the toilets there. The stain came off pretty easily, thank goodness.

Cafe Primo at Victor Harbor is puh-riceeeeyyy. Good thing I had some vouchers with me for half off the second main dish you order. Fyra, Nick and I shared two dishes - Risotto Funghi and Salmon Spaghetti.

Check that out. It was delicious! I loved the risotto especially. The mushrooms were so lovely and juicy. They made me happy. And the spaghetti was in some kind of sweet, honey cream sauce. It was a bit strange at first, but it went really well with the salmon. After lunch, we went to a chocolate shop where Nick and I shared a double scoop ice-cream: Kangaroo Island Honey and Pavlova flavoured. It was pretty good. I could feel my health points decreasing, the way I was eating at Victor Harbor. So much sweet stuff.

We boarded the bus at 12.30pm, and so began the two hour journey home. It was supposed to be an hour and a half, I'm not sure what happened. The bus was stifling inside, and I ended up napping because of boredom and heat. Exiting the bus was such a relief. 

Funny how, when I got off the bus, I felt different. Victor Harbor made me feel like a parent, haha! It was a great experience, and I'm so happy and grateful that I got the chance to go on holiday with my most loved Adelaide-ians. It definitely was an adventure.