Uncharted Futures

Today was an interesting day for me. For the first time, i saw real liquid gold at 1300 degrees celsius being poured onto a mould. At 200 ounces, it costs more that $200 000 and i saw it formed into a gold bar right before my eyes.

It was exhilirating to see it being transformed from molten state to solid state, and you can only see that if you go to the Perth Mint.

Not only that, i also:

-Know that i’m worth $1,064,000

-Saw replicas of some of the world’s biggest gold nugget, the “Hand of Faith” and the “Flying Eagle”

-Touched and lifted a real gold bar weighing at 12kg, worth $200,000 (400 ounces)
-Saw how molten gold was poured into a mold to form a gold bar right before us. (200 ounces)

A little detail on The Perth Mint.

” The Perth Mint is Australia’s leading precious metals house, as well as being the nation’s oldest operating mint and its specialist precious metal mint. The Perth Mint opened in June, 1899 as a branch of Britain’s Royal Mint to refine gold being produced by the rushes to Western Australian’s eastern goldfields region and to turn it into British soveriegns and half sovereigns. The Perth Mint continued under British control, until 1970 when it was transferred to the Government of the State of Western Australia.

Under its corporate name, Gold Corporation, the Mint manufactures and markets internationaly most of Australia’s official legal tender precious metals coinage, is Australia’s largest gold refiner, refining about 60% of Australia’s yearly gold production, undertakes gold refining consultancy overseas, manufactures and markets a wide range of semi-fabricated forms of gold and silver for a variety of applications in the jewellery, electronics, electrical and plumbing industries, manufactures precious metal coinage and medallions for other nations and for Australia, exports Australian gold and silver in a variety of forms and is a major bullion dealer and specialist precious metals retailer.

From the commencement of Australia’s precious metal coin programme in april 1987 until the end of june, 1996, the Perth Mint’s coins had consumed more than 111 tonnes of gold, 200 tones of silver and 15 tones of platinum. The Corporation has been in Australia’s top 50 exporters every year since the programme was started. Programme revenue to june, 1996 was more than AUD2 billion, of which 90% was earned outside Australia.

In December 1996, the Perth Mint was appointed, together with the Royal Australian Mint, to produce the commemorative coins for the Sydney 2000 Olympic games.”

So i went there in the morning, because the opening hours for the weekend was from 9am to 1pm. I reached there at 11am and its located somewhere along the popular Hay Street. The building looks old, but well preserved and has that slight victorean look to it. As i entered, there were already numerous displayes of various ornaments, jewelleries and coins, all produced from that same building itself. Coins of various sizes, and shapes, of different weights and time of production. They even have special commerative coins of various occasions, such as the sydney olympics, special dates in history, and even coins that represent the animals of the luna calender. Its really an eye opener and most of them can be bought, but its far too expensive, because almost all of them have a significant amount of gold to it.

So after looking around, I bought a ticket for a guided tour of the place as well as a real life demonstration of how gold is casted into a mold. The guided tours are on an hourly basis, the last one was at 12pm. Seeing that i came after 11am, i was just in time for the last guided tour of the day.

So i looked in awe at thier wonderful displays while waiting for the tour to start.

When it did start, the tour guide was this young chap and then he told us to go outside where there was a statue and started telling us the history of how Australia’s gold rush came into being and some of the prominent people who were involved in the gold rush. After that we went inside the building and went to the prospector’s camp and had a glimps of what was like being a miner at that time. It was an interesting history lesson to say the least. I got know some of the names of the world’s biggest gold nuggets, mainly the Hand of Faith, and the Flying Eagle. Its called Flying Eagle, because it looked like an eagle with outstretched wings. Its really big.

After that we lead us to various rooms, with more exhibits, of different hold nugget sizes, and real gold bars from all over the world and from large corporation. I saw gold bars from Japan, China, Singapore, Mitsubishi corporation and many more all imprinted with thier name, company logos, and the purity of the gold. All these stored in a real gold vault (which is another interesting feature in the building). Then there were also gold from ancient china, india, middle east and also from the ancient roman empire. Its really interesting to see all of those and the room is full of glittery stuff.

Then i came across this weighing machine, where it will weigh you, but doesnt tell your weight, instead, it tells you your worth in gold. Its really funny because im worth $1,064,000 judging from my weight alone. Wow, i felt so good after knowing this. Im a millionaire!! Ive crossed the $1million mark.

And there is this exhibit that lets you lift and hold a real gold bar, weighing 12kg. For the first time in my life, ive ever seen a gold bar so close and in front of me, in all its glory.

But i couldnt take it back home, because its in an enclosed transparent comparment, and you can only put one hand inside, and also during the whole tour, there is a security guard having a close watch on us. Its understandable, considering that the building itself, contains more than hundred of millions worth of gold at any one time.

So after looking at all the gold stuff, we went to this huge room, with a large furnace and some equipment in the front of it, and rows of chairs arranged in a slope for the visitors to sit and witness how gold was being poured to the mold.

The guide did it himself, and told us lots of things like how the furnace here and all the equipment that you see werent high tech stuff and how the technique of making gold has been preseved in all its tradition. He also told us the names of the equipment used and also told us that the very room and walls of it contains gold worth more than thousands of bucks because of the soot and all over the years. Really intriguing.

Sorry there are no pic during the whole process or the exhibits itself, due to security concerns.

When it was about to start, he put on his protective gears and aprons, and then he dimmed the lights and the glowing effect of the furnace was more prominent. It was red hot. Then he opened the furnaced, used a thong, and lifted the culdroun containing the molten gold and poured into the mould. The liquid is bright red in colour and its soo hot and even when im sitting at the back of the rows of sit, i can feel the heat emanating from it. The pouring was done elegantly and within half a minute, you can see it change colour and starts to cool real quickly. Then we overturn the mould, letting the gold bar out and onto a pan. Still in red hot condition, he dropped the entire pan containing the gold bar into a tank filled with water. The water boiled and sizzled furiously and within half minute, he lifted up and there it is. Fresh gold bar, cooled to room temparature ready for use. Its amazing. It gasped in disbelief, for something that i would never have imagined seeing it, happening right in front of me.

After all that, i went to a place where you can mint your own medallion or coin. I did make one, worth 22 dollars for my parents, and it has a special message in it. Its a gold plated coin and i think its THE perfect gift for them.

Sweet Lips is a seafood restaurant near my lodge with good fish and chips. Its kinda like Fish and Co, in terms of the concept of the outlet. The logo of the company is such that there are 2 fishes, entwined together to resemble an upper and lower lips when seen as a whole image. It’s a catchy image and took a while to realize it as well.

The price of the fish and chips are on the higher end, but its not bad in terms of presentation and taste. But what im most interested in is the wide selection of various types of fish fillets available at the counter for you to choose. There’s even premium salmon and shark fillet!!

So I have tried the normal fish and chips and shark fillet and chips. The shark fillet is FANTASTIC!! Its really very meaty, almost like the texture of chicken, but not as fleshy. Its in between fish and chicken and its really fresh!

Two days ago I went to a local cinema and watched a documentary, featuring Al Gore, on his presentation on the truth and facts on global warming. It’s shocking to say the least that the facts presented by him on the effects of global warming and the damage that has already been done are real.

Its an interesting show, even though it’s a documentary, its presented really well indeed.

Well enough of the show, my main focus here is how the cinema looks like compared to the cinemas in Singapore.

The price of the tickets stands at AUD14.50 for an adult ticket. The name of the cinema is called Luna, and like Singapore, its one of the cinema companies, just like Golden Village or Shaw. But one substantial difference is that different cinema location and different companies offer different rates. I’ve seen another cinema in the city that just cost AUD8.50, but as for the quality of the screenings, I can only speculate.

It costs AUD10.00 for student/unemployed rate, however, since I don’t have a valid Australian student ID card, im not eligible. So in the end I ended up paying more. They also have various price packages too, like buying tickets in bulk for cheaper rates or becoming a member and get privileges. Or you can also watch movies at certain days and get discounted rates. Or you can watch a combination of movie packages like movie A and Movie B for discounted rates as well.

The ticketing office is very much like ours, with regards to Luna, the first and only one that ive been too. They have a counter and next to is the popcorn counter.

There are 6 theaters altogether. There will definitely be more in other locations.

As for the inside, the ambience is really cool, much like ours. Though the cinema I went to, took a slightly different approach. It has some really nice architectural designs on the sides of the wall, as compared to Singapore’s carpeted walls or thick tapestries. However, I did noticed that the sound system really weren’t that good as Singapore’s cinema. Its speaker were smaller on the sides and its not as powerful as the ones that we normally see when I hear the sound system. Also, it had some echo reverberating throughout the hall. The lack of absorbing material to absorb the sound and prevent it from bouncing back is evident.

On the plus side, the screen is great as ever and its of the same size as any cinema. The front part is designed in such a way that it resembles a stage and the screen is in the back of it. Another plus side is the insane amount of space between the rows of seats. Its really insane. You can put up your leg straight out in front of you and you still have plenty of space, making 2 person walking into the rows of seats side by side very easy indeed.

I dunno if this can be an a good thing or not, but the seatings are free seatings. You can seat anywhere you like. So the earlier you come, the better seats you will get. This can be a bad thing for frequent latecomers, who would have to resort to seating at the very front and I think I could be very difficult to find an empty seat if the screening of the movie happened to be full house and the movie has already started.

So I guess that’s all I have observed. I’m trying to save money to get to an imax theater. Though I dunno how much is it, I don’t think I would be a worthy experience.

YES! Right timing! The Perth Royal Show is coming! It will take place on the 30th september to 7 october, only 8 days!

The Perth Royal Show is an annual event, when the country rolls into the city for 8 days, filled with exciting, educational and experential day out. It is a parade of sorts, not a theme park, but rather its more of an agricultural event, where you get to see farm animals on display, see and touch them upclose and personal. Not only that, there will be thrill rides, exhibitions, markets, food galore of all sorts, and all kinds of other events that you can think off.

Im pretty excited because these are some shows that were never seen in singapore for one, and secondly it will be home to dozen varieties of sheep, cows, horses, poultry,emus, pigeons, rabbits, alpacas, dogs, cats,pig, caives,ducks,goats, and fish, in which you can see, and touch as well. Experience farm life for the day and see amazing animal shows and demonstrations. Ride horses, and ponies, cuddle young goats and see a sheep dog herds a flock of sheeps as well as feline competition.
Thats not all though, numerous thrill rides and roller coasters will be set up to make it like a theme park. The area will be huge, packed with a central stage and many multiple stages to host other events. Its only 8 days and so we have to go ASAP and cannot miss this big event. Entrance fee will be 2obucks, but i think its worth it, because its an experience worth remembering. Not only that, there will be a huge fireworks display every night at 9.30pm, so its something to look out for at the end of the day.

Even more interesting, (and lucky for me) is that a guest country will be coming to the Royal Show to show off thier culture, products, cuisines and traditions in perth. And that country is none other than Japan!!! YES!! So you get to see stuff like, kimono displays, traditional japanese dancing, sushi making demonstration, and try thier food! To top it off, they are showing for the very first time in Australia, ASIMO, the world’s most advanced robot, live on stage at the show. See ‘him” walk, run and dance! for more info on that, go here

There is still more!!

One of the main highlights of the show is the sale of: Perth Royal Show showbags! They have it all, gourmet food treats, popular novelty items and gags for a laugh, bags filled with chocolates, candies gums of all sort, of various sizes and shapes and sizes. In fact there are a total of 257 show bags packed with goodies at a discounted price to choose from!! Showbags, range from 5 bucks, filled with candies and chocolates, to over 30 bucks, complete with a usable bag to carry those goodies.

For example: From Nestle products

Sensational show stopper showbags of 20 bucks include:

8x berties beetles

4x allens lolipops

2x allens redskins pop

4x wonka redskins sticks

3x allens milko sticks

wonka redskin bar

3x mini wonka fruit tingles

wonka ompahs

wonka fun dip

4x nestle smarties mini

2x nestle milkybar funsize

Nestle violet crumble mini

Nestle kit kat temptation coconu eclair

Nestle kit kat temptation caramel fudge

2x kit kat mini

Allen’s bursting spaca mix

and many many more!!

Thats only one bag, think of other 257 show bags, packed with other novelty items!

Ill definitely buy some bags for my classmates back at home to enjoy. Ill probably buy a few bags for the to enjoy. So dont worry!

It seems that the more we explore the surrounding of our lodge, the easier and smaller it seem going from here to the city itself. Today we went to Chinatown, slightly north of the city center. We walked from our lodge and it was a mere 15 minutes walk. As we walked, we explore the surroundings area and its really great. Sunny weather, cool air, its great for outdoor activities.

We went Chinatown and encountered lots of Chinese Dim Sum restaurants. They are wildly popular for some reason, with throngs of people queuing outside their doors. Apart from that, there was an Imax theater, Timezone, and loads of bars and pubs. So we walked for a little bit and encountered an area full of art galleries and museums. Soon we realized that we are in one of Perth’s art hub. There were numerous art galleries, small and big, a state library. We went to one of them museum, called the Western Australia Museum and found out that it was free.

It was fantastic. Despite its free entry, its very very big, covering a wide range of topics, but mostly on wildlife, geology, and the history of Western Australia, mainly the Aborigines. Its divided to many sections as stated above and its really interactive.

The big exhibits are showcase on the wall, while the smaller ones are showcased in drawers, where it can be pulled out one by one to see its content. There were some exhibits that can be touched as well.

The first one we went was a mixture of endangered wildlife exhibits and history of Australia. It showcased extinct and endangered animals and insects, in skeletal form and in stuffed models. Its really great. There was a huge skull of the great blue whale being showcased as well and a turtle shell that you can pick it up and see.

Another section we went was the prehistoric era of Australia, where it showcased fossils and dinosaurs that roamed in Australia. It was very cool.

Then we went to another section, where it showcased the history of the aborigines and talked about its culture, its habitat and some of the primitive tools that they used. Its really and educational experience and the exhibition is really extensive. Its very information overload and definitely you cant read everything showcased in a day.

Then another section, this time geology, minerals and rocks and also meteorite rocks were showcased. I think it was my first time to see a real meteorite rock and be able to touch one. Indeed there were a lot of them being showcased, not rocks that landed in Australia, but also different parts of the world, like Chile, France, USA and more. And the different rocks has very different unique properties.

There were many other sections that we didn’t managed to go, because we were hungry and wanted to try out a lunch buffet at one of the vegetarian restaurant. One of which was the photography section. We passed by that, its really beautiful, but thought, hey next time perhaps.

For lunch, we ate at this vegetarian restaurant, Utopia. The lunch buffet, was only 4.50 bucks. It’s a price worth dying for truly. Though its not really a buffet, they have  a selection of dishes, but you can choose 4 only, on top of served rice, and a salad dish. And one of the staff were the one serving out the dishes instead of us. Its ok, because the servings were quite large and filling, so 4.50 bucks in Australia, is a big deal to us. It tasted great too.

I also bought bubble tea. My all time favourite, mango red tea. It’s a little pricey though, capping at 3 bucks were cup, but its really good and no compromise to taste when comparing to singapore’s.

[Hmm.. yum yum.. and the pearls are sweeet]

So after that we decided to walk the surrounding areas outside Chinatown. We came across a small Vietnamese communities, full of Vietnamese shops and restaurants, and also a mini little India. Somewhere there, I came across and discovered where the Perth Mosque is.

Then we decided to take a break at one of their nearby parks.

Their parks are unlike ours. They don’t have that many trees, except for its only purpose for shelter for people sitting on the benches. Instead, they have lots of lush green open spaces for people to have picnic, lie down and slack or play footy or Frisbee. It’s my ideal concept. With sunny skies, coupled with cool breeze, its really exhilarating and truly calms your soul, as you see the world pass by before your very eyes. They have lots of parks too in the suburbs, big and small, all with open spaces.

[Open spaces for outdoor activities + Cool weather, something that Singapore truly lack...]

After that about 3, after lots of walking, we decided to go back home. We didn’t take a the public transport at all. We walked and walked. It was tiring, but we saw a lot of things. Truly an eye opener.

And one last thing, this is for the chocolate lovers. Australia has lots of confectionary that we have never seen before. Lets just begin with the basics. Kit Kat.

The Kit Kat we see are the usual small, 4 finger Kit Kat, and also the jumbo sized Kit Kat. Sometimes we see other exotic ones, like Kit Kat with caramel and also other japanese type of kit kats, like the kit kat with wine, kitkat parfait, kit kat and yoghart.

Behold, 4 new flavours….

Honey Comb

Cookie Dough

Caramel Fudge

Hazelnut Praline

Cost of Kit Kat : 6 Bucks

Taste of Kit Kat: Priceless

For a complete list of kit kat flavours around the world, go here.

The weekends are here!!!

YAY!!!

So we got off to an early start. We explored more areas in and around the lodge and the city and also went to one of the many tourist attraction near the city (hey it’s a start, next week we are planning to go to the zoo, but we will see how our budget goes.) which is the Swan Bells, near the Swan river south of the city center.

[Brochure of the place went]

So we set off early, at about 10am in the morning. This time we decided not to take the bus to the city. Instead we tried to walk there. We wanted to explore the area between our lodge and the city itself. Surprisingly, it not that far (although its more practical to take the bus) and we reached the city soon enough.

[Perth City skyline as seen from outside our place of lodging]

We walked for a bit before deciding to take the CAT bus, red line.

We went to the shopping area and came across a chocolate and candy store. In there, they sells all sorts of high quality chocolates and sweets, to which unfortunately, it was very pricey. On the good news however, they do sell nougats in 1kg bags. In the bags were the smaller pieces of nougats individually wrapped. They sell in 500g and 1kb bags and they also sell bags of assorted nougats. I bought 100g of different kinds of nougats. They have the marooned, original crunchy one, the original soft one, apricot flavour soft, (yum yum), cappuccino crunchy and soft (yum yum yum yum!!) and green tea soft. I’ll take note of that shop, and buy a couple of kgs for you Hock and the rest of the peeps. I also came across Jawbreaker (if im not wrong) It’s the candy with a chewy center that was Benjamin’s brother’s one and Allen ate it without permission during one of those days at the bbq. So I guess ill buy one for Allen so that he can pay his brother back for eating his.

Then it was nearing afternoon, and were a little hungry. We came across a Lebanese stall, that sells halal food! I ATE RICE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 7 DAYS!! FINALLY!!
I ate this dish that has the kebab lamb meat served with salad and basmati rice, and sour cream to top it off. It was a big serving, I managed to finish it. It was quite nice I guess.

Then we saw this weird looking tower. Behold! It was the Swan Bells Tower. We went there and the entrance fee was 6 bucks. It was pricey, considering we just wanted to go up and the tower wasn’t that tall to begin with, but it had a nice view of the city as a whole, so we just gave it a shot.

[That’s the top of the tower. Funny how it looked almost like Wheelock’s place in Orchard, buts its much taller.]

The Swan Bells, is a thin pyramid shaped tower, made of glass on the exterior. It’s a prominent and distinctive structure that can be easily seen from many areas in the city. It features fascinating arrays of precision timepieces, bells and optical instruments the a time before the world went digital.

The Swan Bells include the twelve bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which have existed from before the 14th century and recast in the 16th century by Queen Elizabeth I. The bells were again recast between 1725 and 1770 by three generations of the Rudhall Family of bell founders from Gloucester in England. It is one of the worlds largest musical instruments, and it still rings to this day.

[Pieces of Exhibits]

There were exhibitions inside, mainly of clocks and bells. The bells has a historical significance that we were not familiar with, and it was part of the Millennium Project, commemorating the coming of the new millennium.

In the middle of the tower were the historical bells, and it rang a very nice tune to it every now and then. What’s best about it is that its old, and its ranged by real people itself. I doesn’t follow the timing or whatsoever. Rather it was ranged by a group of people and you can actually see it. Its really amazing.

[The bells in motion]

At the top of the tower is the observatory. One word: WOW! When we got all the way up, it was sooo windy that the tower actually shook. We can feel it and we had difficulty walking around due to the strong winds. But I managed to get lots of great pictures around the observatory.

[City skyline]

[The harbor and Swan River]

[Looking down the streets]

[Perth Convention center and busport]

After that we walked sommore and stumbled upon a comic shop along Hay Street, further to east. Inside it, they sell manga!! And I bought Death Note Volume 4. Sorry cant help it. Ive been reading till volume 3, and it ended in a cliffhanger ending, when I saw this, impulsiveness sets in and the price is great! Its slightly cheaper than in Singapore, after the conversion. So I bought it anyway. I’m gonna read it tonight.

Soon after that we went home, before going to the groceries to buy more stuff. Well that’s about it for today, I have to do my laundry.