Yesterday we went on a cycling excursion to Dights Falls. It’s a 9km cycling trail to the place. The cycling path is really good. Well paved all the way.

There’s even one portion where we cycle along a creek. I couldn’t believe there is such a scenery in the city. It makes you think whether you are still in the city or not.

Very good cycling path all the way

The whole way was so peaceful and serene and occasionally you see joggers jogging by, birds chirping somewhere in the trees, wild flowers growing at the sides…

Any trolls under the bridge?

This is our destination:

Dights Falls. Took us about 45 minutes to reach the destination.

You see the rock carvings in the picture below? It’s the last rock formation from lava flows a long long time ago.

There were 2 “stunt” cyclist there practicing jumping from rock to rock. This guy here wasn’t as good as his friend. I couldn’t capture the other guy fast enough, because he was so fast, like some antelope.

On our way back, we kinda got lost a few times, partly because we were too adventurous. We wanted to try new trails, but ended up turning back and retracing the route.

It’s the middle of spring now in Melbourne. The weather is getting nicer and nicer to cycle in. Anybody interested to join us on our cycling excursions?

My hubby’s birthday yesterday! (He still looks young btw, doesn’t look his age *grinning with pride*… lol)

The celebration started a day early on Sunday. After church, I took him to a Lebanese restaurant called Mezza Lebanese Grill. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures!!!!!! ARGH……. how could I forget! Could have used his hp camera to take >.< The food was satisfyingly good and interesting. From the name of the restaurant, “grill”, you would be expecting alot of meat. So ya, we ate alot of meat. Too much meat I think. Lots of lamb and chicken. Mathias noticed there wasn’t any beef in the menu.

After a very satisfying Lebanese lunch, went to get a triple scoop gelato, and happily licked it while walking home… hand in hand :”>. Took us 20 minutes to walk home.

And yesterday…. I made him Panna Cotta. This must be one of the easiest desserts ever! But it’s terribly fattening. It’s just a mixture of milk and cream, and add some gelatin to make it like jelly.

Panna Cotta

And, I also made him some scones. Dead easy!

Eat with strawberry jam and cream… YUM!

Scones

And for dinner… it’s almost like vege burger. Too much meat the day before, so better add in lots of greens and fiber! Mat loves beetroot in his burger… I think he’s turning oz.

Vege Burger… almost… because there was a little bit of minced meat.

So there! A very fattening BLESSED birthday to my hubby!

With Love…

Went cycling yesterday. Came back, not with sore leg muscles, but a sore butt!!!!! Bicycle chair too hard. Maybe I should get one of those gel cushions? hmm….

Daylight savings ended yesterday. We got 1 hour less of sleep yesterday. So we’re 3 hours different now, not 2.

If you’re a sweet tooth, you’ll love this. If you’re not a sweet tooth, you’ll also love it… heh. Sweet, and chewy. Abit like a Mars bar, minus the nuts. You can add nuts as well I suppose.

Ingredients

1 cup self raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
150g butter, melted
395g can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoon golden syrup
30g butter, extra
150g dark chocolate, melted (I used NESTLE Dark Melts) (the more you add, the thicker the chocolate layer)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C

2. Combine first five ingredients in bowl, mix well.

Make a well so you can pour the melted butter and mix is all up

3. Press into the base of a lined cake tin. Bake 10 minutes, until golden.

4. While the oats mixture is in the oven, combine sweetened condensed milk, golden syrup and extra butter in pan, low fire, stirring until a light brown colour. This will take about 7 minutes.

5. Pour caramel over cooked base, return to oven, bake further 10 minutes, cool.

If yours doesn’t turn out like this, don’t panic! IT”S OK!

6. After the caramel has cooled, spread melted dark chocolate over caramel filling. Allow to set in the pan before turning it out, cut into slice or squares to serve.

Tips:

*I don’t have a square cake tin, so my round tin will have to do. Preferably, use a square cake tin, easier to divide and cut. Doesn’t matter what’s the size I think. Smaller tin, then you get thicker slices lo. Bigger thin, then you get thinner slices lo.

* To measure the golden syrup, just use a chinese soup spoon. A level chinese soup spoon is exactly 1 tablespoon measurement.

*To melt the dark chocolate, if you want to do the professional way, put it in a heat proof bowl, and put it over a pan of boiling water (don’t touch the water), and melt the chocolate. As for me… just use the microwave. Give it bursts of heat until it is all melted, 20 secs, take out, stir, 20 secs, take out, stir…

I thought of starting a post on Nail Art!

I did my first french manicure! So happy! *Smiling with glee*

No bottom coat. I didn’t use a white strip sticker. Used a paint brush. It was easy to do the left hand, but boy, did I struggle doing the right hand nails! Maybe with  more practice!

I seldom paint my finger nails because when you do alot of washing and stuff, the nail polish and stickers come off easily. But I paint my toe nails very often Always makes me feel very pweetty :”>

Finally, part 6 is here (mainly because of pure laziness, not because the pics are missing).

Brisbane is not in Gold Coast, and Gold Coast is not in Brisbane. They are both different cities. But, they are in the same state of course, Queensland.

Today is our last full day here in Queensland before flying back to Melbourne tomorrow.

Yesterday on our way to Australia Zoo, we saw this sign. It took us by surprise that I was not in time to turn on  my camera to snap it.

This time, I managed to snap it (you have to use the same highway to Brisbane)! Hey… since when Kelantan is here? Closer to home than we think? hehehe…

We got a very good itinerary from our friend Vik Tor to travel around Brisbane in one day.

Our first stop, Mount Coot-tha, highest point of Brisbane. Here, you can get a very good view of Brisbane.

As you can see from the picture, heavy clouds hovering above! We were soooooo hoping that it will not rain.

But once we drove down Mt Coot-tha, parked our car, walked out, and it rained

We walked along South Bank to a tourist information centre and got maps.

Then we hopped on the City Cat, which is a ferry. It’s one of the public transport there. You see, there are many rivers cutting through Brisbane. So if you don’t want to walk across the many many bridges there, you can catch the City Cat.

We took the City Cat to University of Queensland (UQ).

This uni is so cool! Firstly, it’s a uni on an island. Secondly, they have their own City Cat stop!

Pic above is not UQ’s stop. But the ferry stops look like that.

Cool eh? UQ is pretty big. Very nice buildings, I like!

They also have their own lake (MMU also got… hehehe…).

Then we took the City Cat back again to the city.

Next stop, QUT, Queensland University of Technology.

VikTor studies here. You must be wondering where VikTor is. Well, he was back in Malaysia.

Anyways…

The rain came down of course. So we were walking around Brisbane with hoodies and an umbrella. We took a City Walk around Brisbane, so we could try and see the whole city in one day. So the next few pictures, is in order of the places that “We’ve Been There, Done That” kinda thing. So let the pictures tell the story:

Parliament House, and opposite is City Botanic Gardens

King George Square. No cars allowed, only people.

Brisbane Arcade

City Hall

Treasury Building aka Casino

Albert St Uniting Church

The Windmill – which was unfornately surrounded with scaffolding for repairs.

Jacob’s Ladder from the top

There’s something to talk about this Jacob’s Ladder. We were expecting to see a really grand staircase of some sort. But we didn’t expect such a colourful “ladder”. Apparrently, this 85-step staircase was a worker’s shortcut from the suburb of Spring Hill to the city

Jacob’s Ladder bottom view

Shrine of Remembrance

Eternal Flame

Brisbane General Post Office (GPO)

Crossing a bridge back to our car. On the left, a rainbow.

On the right, a sunset, and alot of bridges.

I should have taken a picture of my jeans and shoes for you to see how wet it was. And thankfully, we didn’t catch a cold after walking in the rain the whole day.

So there! You’ve finished Brisbane city in less than 10 seconds?

It’s about 2 hours drive from Gold Coast to Australia Zoo. So we woke up (or rather Mat woke up and dragged me up) early in the morning, and drove up to Australia Zoo. It’s voted best zoo in Australia. And if you didn’t know, it’s home of the Crocodile Hunter, the late Steve Irwin.

We arrived there just 2 minutes before opening time (see, early again… hahaha….)

And you’re greeted by the Irwin family!

There are zoo staff in some corners of the zoo holding some kind of animal for you to touch and take photos with. Like this lizard below. I also took a photo with a parrot, which apparently didn’t like to be touched

And some animals of course, you’re not allowed to touch, like the tasmanian devil, unless you want your fingers to be chomped off. The lady carrying this baby tas has been looking after it since it was born.

Home of the crocodile hunter, of course there will be crocodiles. This is the first time I see such clean crocodile enclosures. Normally when you go to a crocodile farm, the water is so murky and muddy and the crocs are so dirty and even have algae growing on them.

This zoo, it’s sooooo clean. And the space they give the animals are really big and spacious, which I like! And I’m sure the animals like it too. Birds love it there so much they don’t even fly away.

Picture below, see the bird opening up it’s wings? It felt it’s territory has been invaded… by a zoo staff sweeping and cleaning it’s enclosure to make it nice an tidy. The head of the bird was following the staff to keep an eye.

Australian wild dogs, they are sooooo cute! After I saw them, I was wondering why nobody keep them as normal pet dogs. I think the name describes it. It’s wild, it needs lots of space.

Notice this dog in the water, it’s fur not even getting wet… waterproof!

Of course there will be koalas. As usual, they are asleep. There was a touching koala session later in the afternoon. The queue was so long, and the only place you can touch the koala is the Ass!! Why would I want to queue so long just to touch the backside!?

The main attraction of this zoo is the crocodile show in the Crocoseum.

They brought in a large snake.

Swam with it.

There’s one section of the zoo where they put all the snakes. Most of the time when you see snakes in other zoos, it’s almost always sleeping… boring! In this zoo, all the snakes are so active!

And there was a bird show as well. They birds just flew into the crocoseum when called, very cool!

Talking about birds, we bumped into this type of bird a few times around the zoo.

It looks abit like a turkey, but it’s not a turkey. There are quite a few of them around the zoo. They are not in an enclosure, unlike the other animals. They are free to do whatever they want, wherever they want. And all they do is, dig a hole. It’s really funny, because they leave such a mess on the walking path. They are digging their nest.

We were very lucky indeed, because the whole Irwin family came out. Terri (Steve’s wife), Bindi and Robert (his children), were hosts of the croc show. They rarely come out I heard, but we came during a school holiday, so maybe that’s why the whole family’s out.

Bindi fed this croc.

I lounged around with a kangaroo.

This family, bidded more than a thousand dollars to spend time with the Irwins and some animals of course. Robert Irwin, the blonde hair boy with the famous khaki shirt and shorts look so much like Steve. He even talks like him.

Bindi on the left, and Terri on the right touching the elephant’s knee.

I really like this zoo. Well maintained, clean, the animals look happy, and most importantly, the space given to the animals is fantastic! And the zoo is still expanding.

It is very pricey to come to this zoo, AUD54, but if you like zoos, it’s totally worth it!

This morning as I was about to write Part 5, I realized I didn’t complete my Part 4!

After Byron Bay, we still had alot of time, so we went to Surfers Paradise. Surfers Paradise is the face of Gold Coast. Very Miami like, with city skyscappers along the beach. When you tell someone you’re going to Gold Coast, they will say you must go to Surfers Paradise.

Personally, I think Surfers Paradise is overhyped! It’s just a beach. A very very very long stretch of beach! Very very long… I don’t know how to emphasize that further. And the waves here are not calm at all, alot of waves, therefore, good for surfers, therefore, it is called Surfers Paradise. So if you are not a surfer, this beach is totally overhyped.

Well, it’s a very clean looking beach. I can’t imagine summer time here. I think it will be totally packed. And there are lifeguards all along the beach. Just remember, swim between the flags that they put up, or else… good luck!

And opposite the Surfers Paradise “gate”, is an open shopping mall. Picture below doesn’t really justify how it really looks like. It’s just a street, no cars allowed, just people, or shoppers I would say, and shops on both sides. Very hip place, full of cafes and restaurants and shops of course. So if you like shopping, this is the place!

You can’t see the sunset here because it’s facing the east. So if you’re very semangat, wake up early to see the sunrise, in Winter is about 6 something, in summer it’s around 5 something in the morning… either which I’m still in La La land.

Byron Bay, is not really in Gold Coast. It’s not in Queensland(the state where Brisbane is in). It’s in New South Wales (the state where Sydney is to those who’s not familiar with Australia).

It’s about 1 hour drive from Gold Coast. And the most eastern point of Australia is there.
I realized I didn’t take a picture of Byron Bay’s town. The way Mathias described Byron Bay’s town: “It looks like Sibu town”. hehehe… I agree.

Eventhough the sun is up, it wasn’t warm enough to be sunbathing on the beach.

We drove all the way to the most eastern part of Byron Bay and found free parking there which was fabulous. Then we walked on this beach to the end and climbed up a hill.

There were so many steps to climb. Mat and I were taking stops at anywhere possible, and panting very heavily to catch our breath. For such a small hill, we’re already feeling so tired, how can we climb Mt Kinabalu?!

And here, picture below : the most eastern point of Australia, the east of the east of the east. Saw quite a number of people on canoes out in the sea.

Then we continued our climb to the lighthouse.

On our drive to this place, I did see a road going up to the lighthouse, but I didn’t direct Mathias to go there. And boy, are we lucky I directed him somewhere else! If we drove up, Parking Charges Apply, Cars AUD7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Walau!!!!!! Just to see the lighthouse, you pay AUD7! Climbing and walking and panting up those stairs wasn’t that bad after all! lol!

Oh oh… and I think we were kinda lucky. Why do I say that? Well… we saw 2 white splashes of water in the very very far distance.

What? We see 2 white splashes of water is considered lucky?

Heh… there are whales out there my dear friends! We didn’t have any binoculars, so couldn’t really see the whales. My camera couldn’t zoom that far, so we’ll just be content with the splashes for now… hehehe.

After climbing all those stairs, we really worked out an appetite. We found this very secluded fish and chips shop in one of the back lanes of Byron Bay called Fish Mongers (recommended by a friend).

It’s one of the best fish and chips I’ve ever eaten!