His bright pink T-shirt, will endear him to some beautiful ladies later on 😍.
Subiaco (affectionally called Subi) is an inner western suburb of Perth, The area was settled in 1851 by Italian Benedictine monks. The monks named the area after Subiaco in Italy, the location where Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict, had begun his work.
Subi Farmers Market only opens during the weekend, because it's the right time when people are off from work and free to browse around the stalls AND also it's located within a side compound and hall of the Subiaco Primary School. Isn't this a great example of community sharing?
At the market, the fist thing that caught my eyes were not fruits or vegetables....
But dog food/toys; right at the entrance was a stall that sold dog food and chewing toys. There were even chewing toys in the shape of duck heads.... er.... I thing they were toys and not real duck heads.... ughs...
This farmers' market was much different from the Bunbury Farmers Market which we went to a few days back. While produce from the Bunbury Farmers Market were from large scale farms, those here were from small farms or perhaps even from the vegetable plots of locals. Whichever the case was, they were wonderfully fresh... we could even smell their freshness!
By that I don't mean they smell of manure .... hahaha... it was true fresh, green aroma.
Love these baby tomatoes, they from such a nice pattern.... could have mistaken them for ear-rings 😄.
The stall holder are such colourful characters, especially those selling specific or specialized food/items. There were other than food and produce, there stalls selling vegetable seeds, natural air-fresheners, key-rings etc. The bonding trait, I noticed, were their cheerfulness.
Amongst the many stall was one that sold something worth more than it's weight in gold - truffles! His prized harvest was protected by a clear glass cover. The truffles are sliced like cheese, but unlike cheese a brush is at hand to collect tiny remnants. Even their dust are more valuable than gold dust.
The difference between this man's truffles and others, was that instead of being seeked out by pigs, his were sniffed out by his trained Lagatto Romagnolo dogs, Millie & Peri, at his 200 acre farm! These species of dogs, with their keen sense of smell, are renowned for hunting out truffles.
Time to seek out eats for our breakfast. We ended up having the recommended Bratwurst that came with generous amounts of fried onions .....
And tasty soup from the Suppa Club; we had the pumpkin soup which was thick, creamy and sweetly tasty.
Eating at the market, was an experience - sitting there and mingling with friendly locals (some who had brought their dogs along) while listening to soothing music belted out by Kathryn McCarthy.
After close to an hour at the market, we headed out, cutting through Rankin Gardens and then along Rokeby Road. As usual, things en route caught our eye and made us stop often - our first stop (less than five minutes later 😊) was the Fallen Soldier Memorial, where Lynn seemed enamoured by this sculpture by Greg James titled "Age Shall Not Weary Them". This sculpture reflects the life, thoughts and deep contemplation of many young men during World War One. The starting point of many stories, it aims to provoke thought and highlight the impact of war on the Subiaco community.
A short distance away, coffee time at Yelo! This place seems to be a favourite amongst cyclists, there were even bicycle racks up front.
Amran lectures here and had some minor errand to do. While waiting for him, we fiddled with our Brompton bicycles for a nice photo with Winthrop Hall in the background.,
Exiting the university grounds, we crossed over to the cycling paths running along Matilda Bay of the Swan River. At the Bayside Kitchen, Amran found his calling... a group of similarly pink clad ladies calling out to him 🥰. They were wearing a similar pink as they were from a cycling group from Subiaco! Soon they were happily shouting in camaraderie.
Amran had to return to his teaching duties at the university and left us in the good hands of the group of ladies with "firm instructions" for them to take good care of the two of us.
The ladies, some of whom were older than this AhPek, really put us to shame. Even at their steady pace, we were soon straggling behind; a couple of them slowed down to accompany us but we told them not to as we would be stopping frequently for photos.
"BYE GIRLS, THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!"
Out at the river, the yachtes were out sailing on a deep blue sea. It's a beautiful Saturday of bright blue sky!
Saw this truck selling King Prawns for AUD18.90 per kg., if these prawns are similar to the Malaysian Udang Galah then at they are a steal at these prices. Unfortunately they are not, the Udang Galah are usually sold with a minimum size of 20cm. while the King Prawns are 10-16cm. Still these prawns are very tasty!
On this bright, beautiful Saturday morning not only were the boats out in force; many cyclist taking advantage of the sunny day were seen cycling along the riverside path.
We stopped at a long, narrow pier that led to the Blue Boat House. There was a long queue of people waiting their turn to go nearer to take photos with the house. We waited a while but got impatient as we still had lots ahead to see and decided to skip this. A lady in the queue remarked, "Wouldn't it be a waste not to have photo taken with the house?" "It's okay, we had many photos taken of the Blue Houses at the Busselton Jetty." "Fair dinkum!"
She has become quite a local landmark, with her own Facebook Page, and a blogger remarked "It is a Perth truth universally acknowledged that every time you drive or ride down Mounts Bay Road, you must see what outfit Eliza is wearing today.
Will she be in a fancy cocktail dress? Will she be wearing the scarf of a local footy team? Will she have been squeezed into a private school blazer? Or (gasp) will she be au natural in her in her natural (bronze) bathing suit."
The home stretch... Elizabeth Quay and the city centre is just ahead.... Whoosh... whoosh.... WHOOSH!
But even before we cross the bridge we made first contact with a penguin statue appropriately named "First Contact". This sculpture located at William's Landing is nicknamed "Bird In a Boat". "The 5m tall polished aluminum sculpture by Laurel Nannup is inspired by the Noongar people’s first impression of European settlers in 1829. They saw the distant sails of their ships and thought they looked like floating birds and that their ancestors were returning. At night the sculpture illuminates".
At the Spanda, I took advantage of the geometry of the sculture to pose as the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. Although, if Signor da Vinci had used me as a model, the proportions would all have been wrong... long body, short legs... and on top of these, bow-legged 😮❗❗❗
The kicker for lunch were these Gyoza which was pan-fried with some of their sauce leaking out to form a thin layer of tasty flake. !YummY!
These people here looked like an Aborigine family getting settled into city life.
A wall of green Martians!
Hmmmmm... perhaps they are not Martians but green ghosts!
Lynn, nonchalantly cycling along a wide five-foot way. Apparently this is against the law, if a road is opened to traffic and is not a pedestrian mall, cyclist have to cycle on the road. Thank goodness we were not stopped and issued a ticket!
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Our flight back home was at 6:30am the following morning, and we had to be at the airport latest by 4:30am. We were a bit concern about getting a ride-hailing car at that ungodly hour of 4:00am in the wee hours of the morning! But within five minutes of hailing a ride through Uber, our car arrived.... Phew!
A couple of things about Perth Airport: luggage trolleys are not free, one has to slot in AUD2 to use a trolley, so get your coins ready. The other thing is that just within the airport building is a row of luggage weighing machines, we saw many using these and re-arranging their luggage among their bags to ensure that they are within their luggage limits
Immigration was very efficient and we were in the departure hall with time to spare for window and actual shopping,
Postscript: When we mentioned to friends that we would be heading to Perth for a holiday, many raised their eyebrows stating that it's a boring place. But after having been here for a week, we found that there was so much to do AND the weather even in winter was excellent. SO, do come to Perth, it's only a short five-hours hop from Malaysia!
GOOD ON YOU, MATE!
