Saturday, April 16, 2005

Woke up late today, did a little studying, and then went to Scarborough up north of Perth to do some shopping and to visit my sis's colleague Renee at her house. We went to Ikea (pronounced I- Kia here in Oz, not Ik- K - ia as we pronounce it in Singapore). I just love Ikea, bought a new laundry basket for $5, I just love it, classy, cool and cheap!

After that we went to Renee's house, her daughters are as cute as ever, and I just have to tell you about this incident that happened after dinner. After dinner, little Arlene went to run and fetch her baby doll as we were still sitting around talking. She came back soon with it and was nursing it silently in a corner when I noticed that she was suddenly taking her blouse off. I pointed this out to Renee who explained that Arlene believes in breastfeeding her baby. Arlene actually took it very seriously haha.. This kid is only less than 2 years old. As everyone laughed at her precociousness she got embarassed and buried her head in her mother's arms, but still continuing to breastfeed her child nonetheless. Go ahead and strike one for the women Arlene! She's a real cute little girl who's fiercely independent, even clearing my plate for me after dinner. Bear in mind that she's only about 2. Real cute.

I posted some pics of Arlene and me while watching Shark Tales above. Never watched it before, it's quite a nice cartoon. Catch it if you haven't.

By the way we had a real fantastic dinner, prepared by Renee and her husband Peter. It was South African cuisine, as they were from South Africa. My favourite was this dish called "boerekos" which is a potato dish, mashed and cooked with long beans and onions, smothered in a special gravy. Something like whipped potato and gravy, but it was real tasty. Yummy..

After dinner Peter secretively asked me and Wendi to come to a side while he produced a bottle of alcohol. He told us that it was a type of alcohol native to South Africa called "Mampoer". It had 55% alcohol content, which is considered strong but is not the strongest type of "Mampoer", the strongest having 85% alcohol content. We all had a shot of the "Mampoer", which was distilled from "Pynappel", or pineapple in english. It seems that there is a variety of "Mampoer", pineapple, potato, strawberry, or even mangos as some of the fruits that "Mampoer" can be made of. It tasted really strong and burning, and Wendi had to gurgle some water just to relieve the burning sensation. Good stuff.

Had a real fun time playing with their dog Coata (pronounced "Ko- ua- ta")as well. He's a Jack Russell, really obedient and very cute. He responds really fast whenever you call his name. Really nice dog. I wish I had one myself.