Coolcat's Jottings

One thing I loved about Lake St. Clair (no, it's definitely NOT the 6-minute showers) is the many great short walks that they have. On the evening of Day 2, we took the Aborigine Cultural Walk. There were informational signposts along the way to educate us about the aboriginal culture and lifestyle. The remaining aboriginal tribes that lived in Tasmania were relocated to Flinders Island, giving the English free access to the rest of the state. The poor things!

As aghast as we were to the treatment dished out to the original inhabitants of Tasmania, we were impressed that the Aussies did not conceal the history of the place. Nor did they hide the fact that some parts of their country were forged from convict colonies. The background of the country may be deemed unsavoury but at least it's not repainted.

We loved the short walks so much that we covered as much area as we could in Day 2 and the morning of Day 3. We bumped into a friendly elderly Australian called Graham who helped take a picture of us. He had quite an impressive list of achievements including being a licensed hang glider and a licensed small aircraft pilot. He was also walking in the cold weather clad in just a jumper, shorts and sandals. Very, very unlike MF and I who were clothed from head to toe in a few layers of clothes. Brrrrr!

The red line represents the trail we took

MF and I at Lake St. Clair

The weather at Lake St. Clair was so erratic that in that same morning during our walk, we saw magnificent clear blue skies alternating with dark depressing skies in a matter of minutes. This can be attested by the next two pics. Talk about weather with unpredictable mood swings!

Platypus Bay - Unfortunately, being nocturnal animals, they only come out in the evening. So we didn't catch sight of any.

A place of quiet repose

After our invigorating walk, I sat by myself at the jetty overlooking the quiet lake and for a moment of solitute. Scribbled some stuff on my journal and said a prayer to God, thanking Him for His faithfulness and presence that transcends all distance and circumstances. After a few days of being constantly in the presence of others, I realised that I miss hanging out with one of the persons that I love most in the world - myself!



Then we checked out of our Lake St. Clair cabin and headed to Cradle Mountain. We had two options - to go by a much longer route that will take us to scenic Strahan or to use a straight-forward and shorter route. The good news was, both routes will take us past the magnificent Nelson Falls, Queenstown. Travelling to Strahan will set us back at least 3 hours more, so we decided to go to Cradle Mountains via the shorter route.

We had a quick bite of sandwiches after snapping some shots of the Falls to our heart's content and then we moved onwards in our journey.

Nelson Falls

Tasmania has dense rainforests, too - just like Malaysia!

It was a beautiful day with bright blue skies and grassy meadows. I couldn't resist snapping photos along the way while we were journeying in the car. It was a good thing I did, for the next two days, the weather was miserably, miserably rainy and grey

You can see Cradle Mountain at a distance here

101 Uses of a Tripod

We did our laundry that night in our lodgings at Cosy Cabins, Cradle Mountain but we had nowhere to hang our clothes. Besides creating clothes lines with our plastic bags and belts, this is one of our ways of drying our damp cleaned clothes in the room. A brain child of HS. Ingenious, if I may say so myself. Thanks, Scott for your tripod!

Paulos was so excited to be reunited with his beloved lunch partners today. Imagine, the three of us have not met in months! Alas at the very last minute, I was called for a photo shoot in my co's Japanese restaurant.

Would I stand up my lunch buddy for a delectable (and free!) Japanese lunch?

Hah, that's like a no-brainer question, right? Of course anyone would do the same had they been in my court shoes ahem

So, to Paulos' chagrin, he had to have lunch on his own. Moni G, the other lunch partner also had other last-minute lunch plans. Poor Paulos!

But honestly, how could I have resisted these delightful dishes lar?

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The seafood platter - What I stood my lunch buddies up for

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Crab dish

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This mushroom udon is the best udon I've tasted in my life

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Tofu dish

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Seafood salad

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Valentine's dish

If it helps, know that in my enthusiasm to get the right angle, I didn't realise that the sleeve of my blouse was rubbing away nicely on a two huge slabs of raw salmon. Yeah, so now I'm wearing the ever so fishy Salmon perfume. No wonder everyone's staying at a respectful distance from me at work. Waaaaa...

Lonely, I'm so lonely,
All because I smell so fishy,
Waaaaa!!!

New dresses for free! All the ladies in the company get to choose one or two items from a selection of nice clothings/accessories/shoes from our boutique outlet for free!!!

And we were treated to the best home-made desserts I've ever tasted in my life. The stuff I eat at hotels don't even come close to this.

Creme brulee ~ the way it should be

I love coming to work on Valentine's day! Or most of any other day for that matter. Sometimes I feel that I work for the kindest and most generous bosses ever. And sometimes, I wished that I could win a gazillian bucks so that I can shake my legs in Tahiti and not have to lift a finger for the rest of my life Yalar, if only...

Ah well, life's not perfect but it certainly is peachy. And for that, I'm grateful.

Blue Dress Photo Credits

It's been a tiring week. It seems that I'm defending my friends and myself over and over again. Various scenarios and topics keep coming up. And I'm tired. Tired of defending my state of singleness, tired of saying no, tired of explaining why, tired of telling others to look at the other side of the story. Just so very tired.

Just for once this week, I'd like a respite from all that. Thank God that my family, kindred spirits and cell members just get me. With one look, they just get what's in my heart and offer me their warm support. It's such a relief that I do not need to defend myself in front of them.

Sigh.

Updates: Since my readers have cheered me up some, I feel like posting an ad of myself. Now, no one can say that I'm not promoting myself enough.

We received a nasty shock on the morning of our second day. An Aud20 parking fine! We woke up too late to feed the greedy meter and thus had to pay the price. What an awful way to start our day.

Just when we were filled with the euphoria of checking out of our hostel and visiting the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Claremont. We paid Aud12.50 entrance fees and could take as many free sampler sized and wrapped chocolates as we want when we stepped into the store cum foyer.

Don't be deceived by its bland looks. It's a most heavenly place!

An antique chocolate tin box

Now this is one yummy looking man. I want him!!!

I want him, too!!!

Now, this may sound like a traitorous statement, but if it was legal with the Aussie Wildlife Association and if wombats can survive in Malaysian's hot climate comfortably, I'd take one as a pet anytime. Wombats have to be the cutest creatures imaginable. Cute, furry, wobbly, juicily plump and of a benign nature. What's not to like about wombats?

Ok, back to the Cadbury factory tour. We were given 'shower caps' before entering the factory. We saw some big machines, some small ones, some conveyor belts and the smell of chocolate was overpowering in some very hot processing rooms. Cadbury originated from England. The Hobart factory produce chocolates for this part of Asia. The elderly tour guide lady was funny and we had fun being guided by her. All I can say upon reflecting on the whole tour while blogging now, is that am I glad I don't work in a factory.

HS did call me a princess several times throughout the trip and I guess he's right and very irritating! I don't have problems acknowledging that I'm a princess in God's eyes and my parents' hearts. They gave me the security and confidence I need to face the world. I've been very blessed to be surrounded by people who are loving, supportive, understanding and affirming most of my life. However, this was the first long trip where I felt the accute lack of such affirmation and it did dampen my spirits a lot. But on hindsight, this was a good learning and growing experience for me. A toughening up of sorts But no, I am still very happy working in a nice office for now instead of a hot sweltering factory with horrific sound pollution, thank you very much. Chocolate makers, you have my deepest respect and gratitute. The things you go through to produce quality chocolates will be forever seared in my mind. Thank you, thank you, thank you

After the factory tour, we and our shower caps posed next to the purple Cadbury car.

We grabbed some more free chockies before leaving the Cadbury factory to head towards Lake St. Clair where we were supposed to spend the night. The beginning of our journey looked promising, with nice plants and all.

On the way to Lake St. Clair

But as we went further along, brown stuff accompanied us instead. Our hearts began to sink. Would the other parts of Tassie be as brown and parched as these? Have we come all the way here in vain? Where are all the green stuff??

The brown hills

More brown hills

Road in the middle of brown things

A brown cow to complete the growing Brown Things collection

Some pipes connected to a water catchment area

The 3-minute Shower

After being encouraged by an Information Center staff on one of the towns that we stopped by that there will be greener stuff as we go further along our journey, we arrived at Lake St. Clair Resort quite late in the afternoon. The bunk room was good but the shower system sucks. To get hot water coming out from the shower, you have to pay Aud1 for 6 minutes of shower. No dollar, no shower. How unbelievable can it get?!!!

Being conservative with their cash, MF and I two mysterious girls decided to pay the Aud1 and take 3 minutes of hot shower each, one after another. They strategised so well that they had ample minutes to spare. Change from dirty clothes, shower and then change to clean clothes. What a simply marvellous feat! What amazing girls!

Bet ya can't wait for what transpired on Day 3, eh? :P