Life of BIM 2014 in review

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

and whose hope is the LORD.

For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,

which spreads out its roots by the river,

and will not fear when heat comes;

but its leaf will be green,

and will not be anxious in the year of drought,

nor will cease from yielding fruit.

 ~ Jeremiah 17:7-8 ~

Christmas Day!

It's Christmas and this is my early morning dance!

with a twist at the end :)

Getting ready our Christmas snacks

Christmas high tea with my little friends

Today I am having high tea with my beloved friends - Lucy, Elmo & Emma the sheep.
Mummy set up the table for us, we have a mini traditional Christmas fruit cake from Auntie C and my favourite drink of all time - fresh milk!
Let the high tea begin!

Mini table, mini high tea for mini us :)

hehe, this is my yummy cake!

Thrombolites @ Lake Clifton

Q: What do you call stones that are alive?

A: Thrombolites!

The Lake Clifton Thrombolites are rock-like formations built by living micro-organisms. When these microbes photosynthesize, they precipitate calcium carbonate (limestone), which creates the dome shaped thrombolites. How cool is that?

These were the thrombolites that we set out to see

However, the water level was a tad too high

Unfortunately, the thrombolites were totally submerged. The best time to visit them is during late summer and autumn, as the water level will be lower.

Abingdon Miniature Village

I'm posing in front of St Nicholas Church

Well many think that I am small for my size but today I found the perfect place for all things miniature - welcome to the Abingdon Miniature Village  courtesy of daddy's workplace Christmas party! It is a display of historic English buildings from the UK with model trains, mini golfs, secret gardens, maze etc.

Market St Shops - strolling down to the shops with my bestie Lucy!

Halls Croft - big tree in the middle

Toll Cottage. For once I am a giant!

Art Exhibition on Amberley Gardens

Last night we did something really special. It was my first visit to an opening ceremony of a local art exhibition. It was held at the Amberley Gardens in Karnup. It is actually still on the for the week so check out the event on this link. 

Our friend Graeme will be featuring  his landscape, wildlife & street photography and Marilyn with her watercolour and pencil art, with some caricatures on display from her time as court artist.

www.graemebarrettphotography.com/

www.artbymarilyn.com.au/

Anyway, here was how the night unfolded...

Just right at the entrance.. what a grand swing this is...

 And we were then greeted by this massive tree (that is probably much much much older than I am) and a rustic-looking old windmill.

The disastrous sequel of strawberries

Hi everyone, remember mummy was going to make strawberry jam?

Do you like strawberry as I do?

Boxes of strawberries in the piling up in the fridge.

Pick your own strawberries in Bullsbrook, Perth

Ever wonder where to experience picking fruits in Perth, Australia? Well, wonder no more...

We are going to pick strawberries! It is the strawberry farm at 263 Old West Rd, Bullsbrook, which is around 120km north of Mandurah, or 50km northeast of Perth city.

PYO - Pick your own, not BYO :)

We depart from our house early in the morning. When we arrive at the farm, there are a few other families there ready to pick strawberries.

Betty Cuthbert - The Golden Girl

Do you know The Golden Girl? She is Betty Cuthbert, Australian sprinting legend who astonished the world by winning an unprecedented three gold medals on the track at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. Later she made a spectacular comeback from injury at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo where she won another gold medal. In all she broke 11 individual world records and five relay records and her astounding achievements have never been surpassed by another Australian athlete.

Betty was born in the Sydney suburb of Merrylands on 20 April 1938. She had a twin sister Marie, an elder brother John and an elder sister Jean.You can read more stories about  Betty Cuthbert from the links below:
http://athletics.com.au/Athletes/Hall-of-Fame/Betty-Cuthbert
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/147496/Betty-Cuthbert

GOLDEN MOMENT: Betty Cuthbert wins the 100m final at the 1956 Olympic Games, for which she'll be honoured as one of the 12 inaugural IAAF Hall of Fame inductees.

Statue of Betty Cuthbert outside the Melbourne Criket Ground

Medovik - Honey Cake @ Fremantle Market

Hello people,

It has been a while since our last adventure so let me introduce to you somewhere local yet something foreign but yummy. The somewhere local is the Fremantle Market. No, not the Freo dockers :)

Anyway, the something foreign is the Medovik (Russian language for honey cake). Or the Bohemian / Czech / Ukraine honey cake. Not too sure who can really lay claim on its originality but I suppose it's just like the Australian / Kiwi Pavlova rivalry. FYI, mummy first tried it during her Ukrainian years.

Statue of John Gerovich's in the 1956 WAFL prelim final - I mean the Fremantle Market! :)

The Honey cake store

Paris - the city of romance?

Well this is our last European stop - the so-called city of romance or love but is that really so?
I guess you can be the judge by looking through the photos. However, I must admit that probably either there's too high of an unrealistic expectation of Paris or some infrastructure does need a bit more TLC. And oh, we almost got scammed by the "deaf and mute". Won't elaborate more but you can google them.
Apart from that, Paris does has it beautiful side so here we go...

The famous Lourve museum - didn't even have to queue as baby gets "express" lane. Go BIM!

Some majestic looking ceiling art

Brazil? No, Belgium.

Brazil 2014 Worldcup - Wait, I thought Brazil is not in Europe but what's this? Well apparently we were in Belgium but we bumped into a giant Manneken-Pis drapped in Belgium colored flag with a Brazilian soccer flag while holding the famous Belgium waffle and his erhm .. thing :) But those are cool sunnies by the way..

Look mummy soccer ball! Soccer fever in Brussels

But I must say the replica is much cooler than the real thing. The real Manneken-Pis sculpture is really small but it attracts a huge crowd trying to take its picture.

The original Manneken-Pis. Disappointingly small

In contrast, the royal palace of Brussels is huge...

Royal Palace of Brussels

BIM in Europe - Cologne, Germany

Cologne, makes me think of perfume, or more aptly, the Eau de Cologne.
The most famous is the 4711. But to be honest, it doesn't smell that great either. Mummy says that my baby smell smells better than that. :)
But, that, is beside the point as we were in Germany!
And of course, you have to visit the Cologne Cathedral and many other places which I will tour with you below...

Hi everyone, I'm giving you a BIMmy wave from Cologne, Germany.

Love locks on the Hohenzollern Bridge

BIM in Europe - Amsterdam & Heineken Experience

Back in Amsterdam, we wondered around, visited a few places and ended up beer drinking, not me of course :) That was the highlight for daddy, the Heineken experience.. Read till the end if you want to know more.

Let's start with Anne Frank..

Born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany, Anne Frank lived in Amsterdam with her family during World War II. Fleeing Nazi persecution of Jews, the family went into hiding for two years; during this time, Frank wrote about her experiences and wishes. She was 15 when the family was found and sent to the camps, where she died. Her work, The Diary of Anne Frank, has gone on to be read by millions.

Unfortunately, the queue to her house sooooo loooooong that we decided to go elsewhere instead.

BIM in Europe - Keukenhof - Tulips!

When you think about Holland, you will think about tulips. But do you know that it's actually imported from the middle east, more specifically, Turkey or back in those days, the Ottomon Empire in the 16th century. Well, we decided to check out Keukenhof, world second largest flower garden.

7 million bulbs are planted annually, what mind boggling stats

Walking through the tulips...

In the mid-17th century, tulips were so popular that they created the first economic bubble, known as "Tulip Mania" (tulipomania). 

BIM in Europe - The Netherlands - Marken, Volendum & Zaanse Schans

Question: How do you cross the English Channel?

Answer: Ferry trip! Stena Line from Harwich to Hook of Holland to be precise. It's pretty good considering that we can sleep on the cruise for the night and arrive in Holland the next day. Maybe the motion rocks me to sleep. :)

On the deck of Stena Line

It's more like a cruise than a ferry.

We then follow a tour from Tours and Tickets to Marken, Volendum & Zaanse Schans.
First stop - Marken. It's literally like an island surrounded by water and used to flood regularly till dikes were constructed.

Marken - a picturesque little fisherman village

BIM in Europe - London part 2

Continued...

We woke up earlier the next day and ventured around once again...

Big Ben - I was asleep once again! It's hard being a bub...

Trafalgar Square - finally it is more than a piece of monopoly piece =) 

In reality, Trafalgar square was built with an initial budget of £11,000 in the early 19th century after the Battle of Trafalgar. £240 is a BARGAIN. Probably in the millions now.

BIM in Europe - London

Hi everyone,

We were in Europe! It was quite a long trip to Europe from Mandurah @Malaysia Airlines and very taxing on mummy and daddy (probably another separate post by itself) but we managed to get there, albeit very tired. But we were happy to see Uncle T & Auntie D once again. 

sleeping beauty in bassinet @malaysiaairlines 

Uncle T & Auntie D and me in some flower market!

Happy mother's day

I'm a petite little girl, as you can notice from photos in the previous posts. This however has become mummy's concern. She always comes out with various dishes, cooks with different styles, makes meal time enjoyable, in hope to put an extra spoon of food into my mouth. Recently I'm started on formula milk on top of my regular meals and I love the taste of it!

This morning mummy brought me to visit a community nurse and had some discussion with her. I was weighed, not surprisingly my weight remains static. After that I had the opportunity to do some handprints on a certificate and on a mother's day card. Yeah!

This is the certificate that I've made.

Crab Fest 2014

Last weekend we went down to the foreshore - it is the Crab Fest 2014 in Mandurah!

It is Mandurah’s premier annual event. Year after year Crab Fest showcases the vibrant foreshores, arts and cultural precincts and Mandurah’s jewel in the crown, the beautiful Peel-Harvey Estuary. We have more than 130,000 locals and visitors turning up!

Who else do you take pictures with in a crab fest? 

Ok it's not THAT boring but I just woke up :)

Happy belated Chap Goh Mei

The last day of Chinese new year - Chap-gō-mê (十五暝) is apparently the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day. Interestingly, it is also called Yuanxiao Festival (元宵节, 元宵節) or officially called Shangyuan Festival (上元节, 上元節). The Vietnamese called it Tết Thượng Nguyên or Tết Nguyên Tiêu. And on Wikipedia, it's on the page called Lantern Festival. Talk about translation identity crisis! 

 Naming aside, we went up the Hills at Ps R's to celebrate with some church family and the theme was obviously red.

In the trees up in the Hills, wearing red in a black & white picture...

Driving up to the Hills with Daddy

We had a "Lo Hei" or tossing the "fish". Ok I'll let Wikipedia explain - Yusheng. I guess it's more like tossing the horse than the fish. Ha!

Mummy's creation of Lo Hei - yup, a horse

Toss them high!