Girls Gone Mild – Day Two

I know what you’re thinking. You’re all wondering how much Baileys is left right? And how can I call this “Girls Gone Mild” when there’s Baileys???

Let me educate the uninformed.
When you give a bunch of women (who normally don’t drink) a shot or two of Bailey’s, it very quickly becomes a “Girls Gone Mild” night with some of us not even making it to the end of The Bachelor (save the jokes, I get it – The Bachelor would put anyone to sleep)

But the early night meant that a couple of us were ready very early for the 24 hour gym!

 

The gym has more than treadmills but that was the only thing I was interested in. It’s a nice huge area but there are no televisions. We made do with Netflix/podcasts on our phones and we definitely appreciated the gym, television or not.

Like any city, there is a lot of poverty around and it just breaks your heart.
Every now and then my sister especially, is moved to speak to one of them and share what she has with them.

Yesterday she met Craig who she had a little chat with and she had some left over food with her so she left that with him.

 

Yes I know there’s a whole debate about why there’s a homeless situation in the first place but I know that at the very least, this guy’s day was a little better for that moment.

 

Today we were adamant that we weren’t going to do anything else until we went to DFO.

It was such a nice day that we decided to walk down there.

 

Snapping a few pics along the way of course….

 

We walked along at our own place and were soon sitting in the DFO Food Court Area.

We hadn’t thought to look up the time the shops opened and were 30 minutes early.

Perfect time for a yoghurt parfait if you ask me.

My daughter, sister and I were eager to start shopping and had been counting down the seconds to 10 o’clock.

My mother and sister in law were more relaxed and just happy to be out and about and if a bargain presented itself, all the better.

But thankfully they were happy enough to sit and wait for us while we tried on just about everything we put our hands on.

Speaking of trying this on, here are a few pictures of things we may or may not have bought…

 

With regards to the pic on the most right, in my defense, after a couple of hours taking off and putting on your jeans, if you don’t have to take them all the way off, leaving them at your ankles is fine enough. (Have you got a certain Nickelback song going through your head right now????)

Hubby, who tried hard to invite himself but is sadly not on this trip (I don’t think he understands what a “girl’s shopping trip” means) wanted to shout us all a birthday meal in honour of my mum’s birthday. So sweet – and as we passed Sam Sam (Korean restaurant on Swanston st) my daughter got super excited and that was enough for her nonna to say “Let’s go here” and what a good choice it was!

Some of us had never had Bibimbap (bottom right) so four of us ordered it!! And it was just so good!!!

The next mandatory stop was the Dangerfield outlet store, with a few more pics along the way. Hubby look away now because if first base is hand holding I got to first base with this guy (below). I think he was puckering up for a kiss too. Bit forward.

After a few more hours of shopping (and some fabulous purchases) we saw this sign above a store.

Before I knew it, the words “in other words, old and fat” came out of my mouth. What I didn’t know, was that the owner of the store whose sign this was, was standing in the doorway. Suffice to say, she was not impressed.

We were getting overdue for a drink break so found ourselves in one of the lovely malls and stopped for some dessert and drinks.

We were going to stop at Hopetoun Tea rooms (pic left) but it was too crowded so we moved on. I can’t remember the name of the place but when we told the waitress that it was my mum’s birthday, she brought out a candle and helped us sing! She was so lovely.

The desserts, coffee/tea and wine were pretty good too!

And a few more pics of us because why take the pictures otherwise?

On the way back to the apartment I was approached for money in a unique way so I gave him a bit of time.
He told me he was an Aussie legend (yes self proclaimed) and involved or responsible for the Ocean’s Eleven movie.
He said he was trying to produce a new movie that was a comedy along the line of “Shameless”.
I didn’t have any cash on me but I was interested to hear how he was going to spin this plug for money.

My mum, being mumma bear, finally had enough and got between us and said “we don’t have anything to give you” and I’m pretty sure there were curse words being spoken behind me as we walked on without him. Ah well. Who carries cash with them these days anyhow??

I’m pretty sure it’s going to be another night of Netflix and The Bachelor but we’ve had such a full day, nobody is complaining!! Plus, we have an abundance of shopping bags strewn about the apartment that are a testament to the great day we have already had!!

So please excuse me, I have some organising to do!

Perth Day Three

Sorry that this entry is coming after the fact but between the Wine Tour that we did today and travelling back home, this is the first chance I’ve had to write and upload.

Today, Friday the 5th of January as I write, is my birthday and not only is it my birthday, but it’s a milestone birthday too so I knew hubby was not going to say anything when I wanted to get up extra early to exercise.

The gym at this hotel is quite good and if you go early enough, there’s no one in there so I get the whole place to myself!
Perfect way to start a birthday!

We took our picture before heading out! (left)

The Wine Tour we were booked on started from Elizabeth Quay so we walked down there from our hotel and had a coffee at the Riverside Cafe. No champagne this morning though as I was anticipating a heavy alcohol day!

We met our friends and boarded our boat.

It was such a relaxing cruise down the river!

We had coffee and muffins to start off with but it wasn’t long before the wine tasting started.

Here is a picture of the wine’s we sampled on the right and a few from the cruise below.
I forgot to mention the tasting plate of local cheeses that were also provided. Each tray was for two people so it was quite a generous portion!

Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the first stop. I think it was next to Sandalwood Winery? Beautiful spot anyhow and they had the BEST cider here!! It tasted more like a sparkling white than a cider! Soooo delicious but unfortunately they don’t bottle it yet so we couldn’t buy any.

The food we had was also exceptional. Unfortunately I was too overwhelmed with the place to take pictures of the food but here are a few of our surroundings. By the way, the whole time we were there having lunch there was a line of people waiting to get in!

From here we travelled by coach to another winery.  This time I took a pic of the sign outside so I know it’s Windy Creek Winery. This was another gorgeous spot!!

I tried pretty much every wine they were offering and surprisingly for me, really loved the whites. I don’t normally drink a lot, if any, of white wine.

We were a nice group and by this time, were starting to talk to each other and were getting pretty happy! I took a few pics inside and out. So gorgeous here!

Hubby is not a wine drinker so I ended up having a few tastings on his behalf – not that you can tell by this selfie on the left…

You can imagine where this is going to lead can’t you?

Back on the coach now to our next spot.

As per the information from our driver, this tree had been struck by lightening, but continued to grow anyhow!

It was just outside our next stop and quite interesting to look at.

So now we’re at Twin Hill Wines and I’m feeling decidedly happy. Again, I liked the whites more than the reds (surprisingly) but not as much as our last stop. This is a family run winery though and the history behind it was quite interesting. They also provided a very tasty tasting plate for us!
Here are a few pics from our time here. By the way, the ladies behind the counter are mother and daughter.

Next stop was a brewery – Mash Brewing. They also provided us some nibbles and we were able to pick one beer from their list complimentary.

I’m not a beer drinker but it seemed like an interesting place.

I’m not sure you can read it but the pic on the right shows the beer choices we had.

We had one more stop to come and I was quite excited for this one! We were going to Margaret River Chocolate Company and were going to be sampling a few chocolate liqueurs also!

Here are a few pics. Luckily, hubby took them as I was not in any state to be taking photos at this point and was happy to be wandering around about the chocolate. We bought a few things to share later.

Not sure if you can see the interesting clocks bottom right. How cute are they!!!

The chocolate liqueurs ended up being a bit disappointing. We sampled four different kinds and they were all wine based. Although I like chocolate, I wasn’t tempted to buy any of them.

Our tour came to an end and we were dropped off back into Perth CBD.

We had dinner at East Village.

It looked like a really interesting place and the food wasn’t bad, but there was just something missing that I couldn’t put my finger on.

We ordered some wings to share, hubby got a burger and I had a Lamb Greek salad which was ok. The bread was probably the best thing about this. Still warm from the oven!

I had been jokingly saying I still wanted birthday cake and I wanted to see the city lights from Kings Park at night. Hubby, mostly always ready to please, began hatching a plan.

We went to the store and bought some cake. He also got some matches, candles and some sparklers. I still had no idea what he was going to do with these as we couldn’t light the sparklers in our hotel room could we?

I won’t bore you with the whole story but we never made it to Kings Park with one thing going wrong after another and eventually we just walked back to our hotel. Hubby still made it special for me by singing me happy birthday and lighting the candles on my cake!

Sadly our time in Perth was now pretty much over.

I do want to share one last treat before I finish this entry.

Hubby organised for us to fly back on the A330 in Business Class. Oh my!! Look at all this room!!! We could even lie our seats flat like a bed.
The bad thing about this is that you never want to travel any other way again!!!
Thank you Qantas and thanks for reading about our few days in Perth.

The Maid

Today on the Dining Diaries…

We learn that if Cleanliness is next to Godliness, this menu is downright hell on earth,
We find a place that dresses their side salads AND provides enough sauces for the wedges and,
We order a “lasagne” dish with such a generous portion of meat that we question whether it was lasagne.

 

Diners today we were at The Maid and although we got off to a shaky start, it was not so bad in the end!
The first thing that disappointed was that I couldn’t really find any information about this historic building. I found a little online but nothing in the pub itself.
Granted, I may not have looked hard enough but this building is just bursting with history and is such a landmark in this part of the city that I was surprised they wouldn’t be celebrating it.
I’ve always known this building as “The Maid and Magpie” but see their website, and everything else (apart from their building) refers to it as “The Maid”
It’s almost as if they want to distance themselves from the history.

Secondly, we arrived early and were sitting at table near the bistro entrance waiting patiently.The staff could see us. We have arrived early before and staff have still welcomed us and shown us through to a table. This time however, a few minutes before our booked time we stood at the entrance waiting to be seated and staff just continued doing their thing around us. What did they think we were standing there for?

Finally a very nice lady asked “Are you right?” and kindly pointed across the floor to our table. “We’ve got you sitting over there”. Just pick one, any one?

The dining room itself was smaller than I imagined. Pleasant. Candles giving romantic lighting and sixties soul music playing. I liked it.  There was a nice outdoor eating area and a few television screens so you don’t miss out on the game!

The room was clean, unlike the menus that came a few minutes later…

I debated posting this picture as it doesn’t show them in a good light and mostly everything else was good, but honestly, is there any excuse for this? It made us feel a little ill to be honest.
We were the only ones in the dining room for the first forty five minutes (it filled quickly after that) so it’s not like they were running out of menus.
However that’s all small nit-picky stuff. Onto the food!

We were boring and ordered wedges to share again.

What I want to draw your attention to is the amount of sweet chili and sour cream!

Lovely!

Enough to finish the whole bowl of wedges with. Thank you Maid!

And now another surprise. Hubby didn’t order a steak for main. I know! I was shocked too!! Not only that, he chose a pasta dish! Again, shocking!

I don’t have a copy of the menu so I’m not sure exactly how it was presented on there except that it said “Lasagne with 11 Meats” or something like that.

Doesn’t that dish look divine? Being a pasta lover I had to reach over and try some.

The meat was soooooo tender, the pasta was lovely soft and melted in my mouth and that sauce!!!

His dish also came with a side salad and it was dressed!
This was a gorgeous Winter warming dish!

Another tick for the Maid!

I thought I’d picked the winning dish tonight but hubby definitely got that honour. Eleven meats is a lot though isn’t it? I tried to think what they could be but decided it’s probably better not knowing and I probably shouldn’t bring that thought up with hubby while he’s eating it.

I chose a Pub favourite, Open Steak Sandwich.
I wasn’t successful in getting a good photo. It looked better on the plate than this picture allows for.

Being overwhelmed with the size of it, I tried one of the sweet potato wedges first and just loved it! Soooo creamy inside yet still had a little firmness and crunch to it. Best sweet potato wedges I’ve had in a while.
I gave hubby the egg and bacon – I really just like the meat and caramelised onion when it comes to steak sandwiches… oh, and the bread! The bread has to be right too and that’s another thing The Maid got right! I just love this continental bread and it was lightly toasted and just so nice to eat even on it’s own.
I was a little disappointed with mine. The steak looked pink enough inside but it was tough and chewy and because it had been sitting on tomato and lettuce leaves straight from the cooler, it was cold. Even the caramelised onions couldn’t make it better this time. I didn’t hate it, it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

By the time we left the place was filling fast.

It’s definitely a popular place and I’d encourage you to get down there and see what you think for yourselves.

Have you been to The Maid and Magpie?
What did you think?
Let me know in the comments below!

Till next we chow…