Riverland

Nanna and Gong Gong's house in Waikerie is in the South Australia Riverland, which has plenty of orange tree orchards and vineyards along the Murray River.

Last Thursday, we took a drive to a few Riverland towns to visit. Our first stop was at Monash Adventure Park, which was a big playground which also had a wooden maze. This is me, Nanna and Ee Ee at the entrance of the maze.

When we got to the middle, there is a lookout point where we can look over the maze to see where we are. You can see the maze behind us in the picture below.

I also enjoyed the playground very much. I especially loved the swings! It was just like the swings back home in the playground below our house :)

I also sat on the little rocking thingys. It was quite cold though on that day, so we didn't stay long, but we will definitely try to be back when the weather is better.

After that, Nanna drove us to the nearest town which was Berri, for a nice cup of coffee and morning tea. I took a walk long the Murray River with Ee Ee and she showed me the house boats.

The initial plan was also to have a picnic lunch along the river, but since it was too cold, we ended up in McDonald's in Renmark, which is another Riverland town not too far away. I also took the chance to play in the indoor playground there, since I did not have much time to play at the Adventure Park earlier.

We ta-paoed some McD to take to Gong Gong who was working in Berri Primary School dental clinic that day. It was fun to see Gong Gong's workplace and he even let me sit in the dental chair. Hopefully I will never have to sit in one for real unless it's just for regular checkups :)

After that, also in Berri, we visited Aunty Dorrie who is going to be 90 years old next week.

Aunty Dorrie has a very big doll collection which she let me see, and a cute little dog too!

Nanna's garden

Nanna has a very lovely house in Waikerie, which is about 2 hours drive from the city. Her garden has many fruit trees, amongst others peaches, apricots, lemons and oranges. The peach and apricot tree is not in season at the moment, so there are no fruits, but the lemon tree and orange free have plenty. I was very excited when Nanna said I could pick some fruits for myself.

There were a lot of lemons on the lemon tree, so I decided to try to pick a lemon first. 

I got one!

I decided to try to pick an orange next, but they were quite high up for me to reach.

So Mummy had to help me a bit.

And I got one too!

So now I have one of each - time for me to have my breakfast! :)

Adeline's admission to the Bar

The primary purpose of Hannah and I visiting was to come for my sister Adeline's admission to the Bar (which was on Monday) and for her university graduation which is on 20th September. I remember my call to the Bar some 6 years ago, and the admission over here is very much similar to what I had.

Before leaving the house, we took some family pictures. Here is one of all of us.

In the court room at the Supreme Court of South Australia, Hannah had to sit very quietly and watch the proceedings. Good thing it was only half an hour long.

We also took some pictures outside the court room when the proceedings were over.

This was the Counsel that moved Adeline's admission, Abby.

We went for coffee afterwards and Abby lent Adeline the robe and wig to wear for a picture. Looks pretty good :)

After that, we went for lunch at Kwik Stix in North Adelaide with some friends. This is an Asian restaurant that my sister worked at part time during her uni days.

With Uncle Bob and Aunty Teresita:

With Diane:

With Aunty Teresita and Don:

And a whole group picture:

Adelaide Zoo

The next day, which was a Sunday, we went to the zoo! I love to see animals very much so visiting the zoo was perfect for me :) The highlight of the zoo were two pandas which came all the way from China (I think!). I took some pictures at the signboard at the entrance of the zoo.

And not far from where we entered the zoo, I got to see the panda! He was pretty lazy, sitting there munching on lots of bamboo.

We also took some pictures with the "panda family":

There was also a childrens' zoo where we got to feed and pet the small animals.

I also saw the sea lions' feeding time and took a picture with a "sea lion" :)

We took many pictures at the zoo that day and you can see them on Nanna's Facebook. Here are some nice ones of us:

In the picture directly above, I am standing that way because I was imitating the flamingo which I just saw :)

After the zoo, we went to Chinatown for lunch. I had some nice wantan noodles and my favourite roasted pork (sio bak). This was the entrance to Chinatown.

At Chinatown, I also found this:

Chatime! :) We bought some drinks to take home, but I finished mine in the car on the way.

Down Under

Hello from Down Under! This is my first time here and Mummy and I arrived early on Saturday morning from Penang transiting in Changi Airport for about 4 hours. There is a lot to tell since I arrived here so there will be a few posts to share what I have been up to since I have been here.

We had a quite a long transit time in Changi Airport so that was quite an adventure in itself. I only had one thing in mind though - to find the M&Ms store which Mummy told me about, and I found it! :)

Daddy and Mummy tried to convince me to have a nap in the afternoon before boarding the plane in Penang,  as the flight from Singapore was going to be at midnight, and I would not be able to last until then, but I was too excited to sleep. So Mummy got me all energised by looking at the many shops in Changi Airport and having lots of fun on the childrens' indoor playground. As a result, I slept as soon as we boarded the plane all the way to Adelaide.

I was pretty excited when I got up and Mummy told me that we were almost landing. As we exited the arrival hall at the airport, Nanna, Gong Gong and Ee Ee were already there waiting for us. I broke into a run as soon as I saw Nanna right in front.

Big hug for Nanna:

Gong Gong had his camera all ready, so we took some pictures right there at the airport:

We went home to freshen up and change and we had our first meal in Adelaide - guess where? At McDonald's! :) I had fun playing on the playground there too. I suppose some things are the same no matter where we are :)

After that, we headed to this place called Gumeracha, where they have the biggest rocking horse in the world. Check out the size of the horse.

You can actually climb all the way to the top of the horse's head, but I was too scared to go all the way up, so we made do with seeing the view from the first tier:

There was a little miniature of the horse down below, so I was quite happy with that :)

Besides the giant rocking horse, Gumeracha also houses a toy factory. I had fun looking at the many toys inside which were all handmade from wood. 

There was also a mini zoo there with all types of Australian animals. The animals were not in cages so it was really an up-front encounter with them. A majestic peacock greeted us at the entrance.

Since before we came to Australia, I was telling everyone that I wanted to see a kangaroo. When I saw one hopping towards me, Nanna said my whole face lighted up :)

I also saw wallabies, an emu, llamas and turkey, amongst others.

We could buy the animal feed for 2 dollars, but when we started feeding the animals, they all started coming towards us and could be quite pushy. I was a bit scared, so I left the feeding to Mummy instead :p

After a fun time there, we went home to get ready for dinner that night with some of Nanna and Gong Gong's friends. We went to a Chinese restaurant called Imperial Peking and I enjoyed my food there very much.

Thereafter, everyone adjourned to Nanna's favourite Italian cafe called Brunelli for coffee and desserts. I had my favourite chocolate gelato which I shared with Mummy. See at the happy look on my face :)

Brunelli has a wide selection of desserts and chocolates. I was pretty happy when I saw the display in the glass casing. I couldn't have any though that night, since I already had gelato, maybe next time, Mummy? :)

So ended a very busy but fun day. More stories coming up.